Near the end of Feburary 2003 my sister and I received a phone call from a telephone solicitor working for a company called Vacations in Paradise.
We were both told that this is a type of discount vacation company and if we would agree to listen to a 90 minute presentation we could have a 279.00 3day 2 night weekend vacation pkg. for only 79.00. This mini vacation pkg. would also include continental breakfast each morning, and 30.00 in meal vouchers for dinners, and a hotel room that would normally rate $279.00 for 2 nights. The hotel room would include, an indoor pool, hot tub and sauna.
We thought it sounded like a really food deal and booked so we could go together with our husbands on this winter break, mini-vacation. We were required to pay 79.00 via credit card (over the phone) which we did.
A few days prior to our trip we received another call to confirm that we would indeed be arriving on March 14. We arrived at the VIP office on First St. in Collingwood around 6:30 pm on March 14, where we received directions to our Hotel in Wasaga Beach, (about a 10-15 min drive). We arrived at the Donato House on Mosley Rd. (this was to be our weekend accomodation)
As soon as we walked into the lobby the receptionist/owner, said "we are really booked I am going to have to put you across the road" I explained to her that we were with VIP and already had booked quite some time ago. She said I know but I am overbooked! She was quite rude! She said it was VIP's fault and that they had overbooked her.
At that moment a man came in with his wife and 3 children and proceeded to get a room in front of us!!! I approached the desk and said "excuse me but how can you give him a room and you just told us you could not give us a room? " She said "they have kids, the rooms here are larger, they need the extra space" By now we are wondering what the heck is going on!?! Now we can't have our room because we didn't bring kids???
I told the woman I wanted my 79.00 back and I would go find my own hotel room, she said she couldn't do that because it was VIP's doing not hers. Then she asked us to sign a paper that said if we DID NOT attend the seminar at 12:30 on March 15th/03 that we would be charged $200.00 to our credit card. Of course at this point we had no choice but to sign it, as we were told it was part of the Check IN procedure.
Nobody would answer our questions we were being given the run around, we didn't know the area, it was getting late in the evening, and we were tired. My sister approached the woman again and said, "does the hotel we are going to have an indoor pool, hot tub and sauna? " and she said "NO" but I own both hotels and it's just down the street, you can Walk over and use this pool! "
The owner/receptionist said she was only required to give us a room with **ACCESS** to a pool and that is what she was doing! (again very short and rude to us!) In reality, in order for us to come over to the pool we would have to drive as we had nowhere to change at the Donato house and it is winter, so we would be going out to the cold, wet. We threw our arms in the air, took the keys for rooms 14 & 15 for the Riverview Lodge across and down the road from the Donato house.
What we found there was a construction site!! There were boards and remenants from the rooms outside in piles in the snow. The outdoor steel stair case from the parking lot up to our 2nd level rooms were covered in ice and snow. The other stair well exit from the second level was blocked off with a chain and buried in snow. The majority of the rooms at this hotel were filled with "junk" or carpentry equipment, garbage was laying in our accessway to our room. Large amounts of HUGE icicles hung from all the eaves, and water dripped onto the ice covered cement where we had to walk.
The rooms had no phones, no phone books, no garbage container, the carpet was wet under foot..making us think it had just been steam cleaned for our arrival. Our room still had tools in it, and remnants of sawdust from work done. I was very upset about the whole thing. I used my sisters cell phone to call the VIP office and complained to one of the workers. This worker said that the overbooking was not VIP's fault but the Donato Houses fault. I explained to her that we were not put into a hotel room that would be considered 'comparible". Her reply to me was "if you read the very bottom of the letter it says" SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.!!!
The next day we went back to the Donato House and handed in our keys, the same owner/receptionist asked if we needed something, and I said "no" we are handing in our keys, because we are not staying in that dump for another night, we are going home! " She showed no concern, did not attempt to fix anything and said Oh well. I commented that she soon wouldn't have a business, the way she was treating people.
We left and went to the seminar in Collingwood, where we talked outside to a young VIP employe and told him our story. I said we would like to make sure that we are "signed-off" of this seminar because we are going home, since VIP did not live up to their bargain, we don't feel we have any obligation to stay. He left to go get help regarding the matter and Never came back! At this point we felt we better get to the seminar room or we could be charged on our credit cards for $200.00.
We went to the seiminar room, met a hostess, we told her our story, she said "don't get mad at me, I just greet people as they come in." Then a man standing off to the side said "please don't yell at my staff" (we were hardly yelling but very frustrated). So we told "frank" our story, he tried to say it wasn't VIP's fault or VIP's staffs fault.
I said "LISTEN! IT IS SOMEBODY'S FAULT, WE DIDn't CALL VIP, THEY CALLED US AND THEY BOOKED THIS! " At that point he said cooly "fine then blame me, i will take the blame" So between myself, my husband, my sister and my brother-in-law, we explained to him our problem. He acted as if he knew nothing of this, as if he didn't even KNOW the hotel we were booked into, (he was going to go look at it later!) He wanted us to still stay and listen to the 90minute seminar, but he said he was going to have to get someone to do it who could deal with "grumpy people" We did not find that comment amusing in the least.
At this point I had had Enough!!! I spoke up and said "NO" "we are NOT staying for a Seminar because we would NEVER buy something from a company that can't organize or come thru with something as simple as a hotel room!
He said "Oh I've heard that before" then he said well let me see what i can do and he left us standing in the lobby for quite some time. We all agreed that we felt that they were hoping we would get so tired of waiting that we would just leave, and then they could charge the 200.00 to our credit cards. I told the "hostess girl" that he had 5 minutes to come out and talk to us or we would be going to court!
She immediatley went to him, he came out of his office 5 min later, and handed me a pad of paper and a pen and said write down what happened. So I did, putting in as much detail as I could, dates etc. My party signed and dated it and we asked for his name which he said was "Frank" and we asked for a photocopy of the letter which we got. We were told by "Frank" that our credit cards WOULD NOT BE CHARGED. I am calling my credit card asap, to let them know to NOT accept charges from VIP, Vacations in Paradise, The Donato House OR Riverview Lodge.
We wrote in our letter that we felt that a Full Refund was in order as the accommodations given to us were not a comparible to what we had booked and paid for.
As an added note: While I was writing the letter of complaint, a man who had the room beside us at the Riverview Lodge came in to the building very upset and spoke to one of the employees about how dishonest they had been to him.
It got very heated between "Frank" and this man, and it ended up being very loud and taken "outside" the building! We felt badly for that man becuase he had young kids with him and they had nothing to do all night at the crappy hotel room they were given. I. We could understand his frustration with the whole thing.
I would be interested to know if his credit card gets charged the 200.00 fee, as he did not make a deal with "frank" as we did.
This string of events happened on March 14th and 15th (today!)I don't believe I will ever hear from this company or recieve any compensation for the waste of our gas, our time, our money and our frustration.
Not only did Vacations in Paradise ruin our weekend, they caused us much stress and grief that we did not need. Thank you for letting me share this story. I hope this makes it clear that VIP ripped us off! Thank you!
Karen
Kincardine, Ontario
Canada
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