I was staying in the Blue Bay Getaway, in Cancun. Although my vacation was not booked through Conquest, when I went to look for my Air Transat rep & she was not around. The Conquest Rep, Eduardo, assured him he could be of help with information, prices, etc., for car rentals and sidetrips. He seemed polite, knowledgable and spoke English quite well.
I booked a day trip to Xel Ha with him, which he told me was ALL INCLUSIVE. He assured me the only "extra" would be swimming with dolphins. It was only when I got on the tour bus the next day, that our guide told us nearly EVERYTHING was extra and the only things really "included" were meals, drinks, and a snorkel/ mask. All the exciting things we'd planned went "kaput" as we did not have the kind of money to pay for them.
I had also asked Eduardo about renting a car for a day. I had seen advertised prices for about $40USD but he told me he would get me a rental for slightly more money ($55USD) BUT I could have the car from Wed. at 6pm through to Friday, at noon. We were picked up by the car rental guy on Wed. at 6pm, (who spoke barely a word of English) and who drove us to his rental office, at the bottom of the hotel strip, some 15 - 20km from our hotel.
When we got there, he told us we would not get the car until Thurs. at 8am, and it had to be returned by Friday, at 8am. This was in NO WAY what I had agreed to with Eduardo and insisted I speak to him on the phone.
After much hemming and hawing, we finally reached Eduardo, who told me I "must be mistaken" or have "misunderstood" him, he would never tell me this kind of deal! Clearly I was "confused". The only thing that was "clear" was that we were being ripped off. I am a senior level businesswoman. I keep track of deals, negotiations, contracts and whatnot. I do NOT get "confused" over a car rental deal. His attitude was to "just take the car now. You're already there". Sorry buddy. This lady does not get "scammed" into anything.
We had the credit card receipts destroyed, the authorizations revoked and told them we wanted to leave. Did we get a return ride to our hotel? Not a chance. It was, by this time, fully dark. We were on part of the strip that was mostly under construction, had no street lights, I was dressed for hanging about a hotel, not walking down a city street. Quite frankly, the area was rather dangerous to have two innocent tourists wandering around. Not too mention, we had a day trip planned for the following day and now we had no rental car.
Is this how the Conquest Reps think they should treat foreign tourists? If so, I sure won't be using their services anymore and will be advising everyone I can what a disgrace their employees are. Putting us in danger, for whatever "commission" Eduardo thought he could get.
I know jobs are hard to come by in Mexico but this man deserves to be fired and I will be advising Conquest of that accordingly. I also warn anyone away from these Conquest Reps in general, as clearly they are not getting paid enough and think it's okay to rip off their customers.
Katherine
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
0 comments