[Resolved]  Zest Mahindra Holidays — Login of application without consent and fraudulent incurrence of charges on my credit card

This is with reference to the fraudulent behavior from the members of sales team of Zest Mahindra holidays(Bangalore). Two guys inlcuding Ravi visited my office during February 2009 to sell the membership of Zest Mahindra holidays to me. I did not find the offering worth considering and rejected the offer.

I was cajoled with a free test stay in their resort in Pondicherry to test the Resort to stay and then decide if the offer was worthwhile. They insisted me to take the test stay and decide on the matter while also aloingside offering me the membership at a discounted rate if satisfied which is getting over on the same day and hence with the intention to tentatively block the offer in my name they insisted that they will need to fill the form with my card details and personal information.

Ravi promised me that they will not log in the applications until i confirm my interest in becoming a member post the Test Stay. (I would like to bring to your notice that they took my credit card and entered its details in the form on the pretext of administrative procedure to log an application- again they assured me that it was only to tentatively block the membership and they will not login the application without my acceptance of the offer).

After my test stay I conveyed to the concerned that I do not want the membership since it restricted stay to one weekend in the year and was expensive. I was suprised to see a agreement and membership card delivered to my residence for the lowest level of membership of some "Pep" membership, sometime in March but actually received by me in end March since I was travelling in that period and not available at Bangalore.

When I checked My account I was shocked to see a transaction in my credit card statement dated 18/2/2009 for an amount of Rs 7, 000 Charges claimed by Mahindra Holidays and i raised a dispute against it since I was not informed on the same.

Ravi again met me promising upgrade of membership to the next level from "Pep" to "Buzz" at the same cost. He also promised to provide extra free nights, food coupons and cash to compensate for the wrong charges charged as detailed earlier and get a confirmation of more than one wekend stay on record in writing from his authorised signatory. He asked me to sign some forms for the upgrade and agreed to get back to me within two days. For the next one week he kept postponing meetings once again till I went out of town on 3rd April to return on 13th April. When I called him to enquire again he conveyed that he is medically unfit and will not be able to meet for a week and will come a meet me. Subsequently he avaoided calls till I went on a vacation on 24th April to return only on 9th May.

While making payment of my card in early May to my shock I found that my card has been debited twice again on 13/04/2009 and 2/05/2009 for an amount of Rs.2427. My card was never swiped nor i had signed on the merchant copy. I called Ravi who reported sick and put me on to his manager Gunashekhar who came and met me promising to revert and refund the money in two days and stopped responding after 3-4 days. I called him several times to realise that all of them are playing fraud with me till today.

Looking at the scenario and the repute of Mahindra holidays, i am requesting the Company to refund the monies charged wrongfully to me end the dispute. Looking into the fraudulent sales behavior it is important that the company of Club Mahindra Repute takes effective measures and saves its repute tarnished by such fraudsters working in their sales teams.

The only alternative I have is to question the credentials of such manipulations and that of the company supporting it in the Consumer forums and media.

I was surprised to see many other similar complaints loged by several people where the same fraud has been done with them.

I request you to take a strict action agains Mr. Ravi and Guna Shekar and to advice your sales team not to resort to such fraudulent methods to full fill their sales targets.

Thanking you
Ashwini Kumar
[protected]
V.P (Sales Process and productivity)
ING Life Insurance Ltd.