Please restore membership, Club Mahindra Holidays
Iavailed of an exclusive Club Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Limited membership in the name of Mohammed Shamsuddin way back in June 2002.
I opted for their highest and privileged — Purple (Apartment Type Studio) — membership that was available for a whopping
`2,47,450, a very high amount at that time, which, in accordance with their rules, was to be paid in installments.
I was duly issued a certificate of membership confirming my enrolment in the club. The main details were: Season Classification — Purple (Studio); Membership Number: A20224050025; Issued on 06.03.2002; Validity 06/2002 to 05/2027. However, once I became a member, to my utter shock, the sweet sales talk almost ceased. In no time, the premium Purple membership was changed to Red membership. Neither did I get any communication nor were there messages sent to that effect.
I only received a revised certificate of membership which specified the season classification as red (Studio); Membership Number: A20324050060; issued on: 28.03.2003; Validity: 06/2003 to
05/2028. Though bewildered, after my first payment of `20,200 on February 21, 2002, and another for `15,150, I issued cheques towards the instalment amounts, the last of which was cleared on February 28,
2003.
However, gradually having become occupied with my business and professional engagements, the Club Mahindra membership was out of my mind.
In fact, I have never taken any benefit of their facilities that were assured at the time of enrolment.
Recently, around six to eight months back, I found the certificates they had issued in 2002/03. It was then that I remembered about the membership. I called up the office, which has since moved to a new building.
That is when I received another shock. Despite my telling the memberships numbers, both Purple and Red, they outright denied my having any membership.
I visited the local office to meet one of the sales representatives, one Mr Sumanth Reddy. Neither was he there, nor were there any replies to my email communications either from Mr Reddy or any of his colleagues. I called up the head office and sought reinstatement of my membership, failing which I threatened to go to the media and also courts for justice. A reply to my last communication on October 25, 2019, which elicited a regular message from one Ms Lavina Baretto, Member Experience Management, which famously reads: “We wish to inform you that we are unable to fetch your membership details as we have received your email from unregistered email id.”
I was just trying to imagine the maturity value I would have received if I had put `2,47,450 in Fixed Deposit (FD) 17 years ago. I hope once the media takes up this issue and I am sure that there are many victims like me, who are silently bearing the financial loss, the company will put in a transparent system and stop deceiving gullible people like me. Accountability is terribly absent.
Mohammed Shamshuddin 8-2-293/82/J/B-62, Hyderabad