Complain about a product or service

Sandals & Beaches Resorts

32 Ives Street, London, UK

Melissa of St. Peter Port, Guernsey (8/1/03):
We received a beautiful colour brochure from Sandals & Beaches, and in it there was a fantastic picture of the "supposed" Beach at Beaches Boscobel. It was gorgeous, white sand fringed with Palms for as far as the eye could see. Wow, what a beach! We were sold. We called Sandals and Beaches to book a holiday and were informed that Beaches Boscobel was a Brand New Resort - Great. We booked a Luxury Family Suite described as having an upstairs and a downstairs. We were told that there was waterskiing and, according to the Sandals Imprints Brochure the "suites" included an in-room bar. We could not wait!

After a full day of travelling we arrived at Beaches Boscobel and had the shock of our lives. The gorgeous beach was not gorgeous, it was not long and it was not fringed with palms. It was in reality about 100 yards long by 40 yards wide and had jettys at each end. Not at all like the brochure. The "upstairs and downstairs" describe to us was really two levels that were ONE step apart - hardly an upstairs and downstairs. There was no in-room bar, we were told that the Luxury Family Suites were not included in the "suites" that had in-room bars (although this was not mentioned in the advertising that we received). When we inquired about water skiing we were told that there was no water skiing.

My daughter had read about the juice bars in the advertising so we decided to go have a glass of freshly squeezed juice - guess what? Yep. No Juice bar, so my husband said that he'd take our daughter to the petting zoo - big mistake. She was totally distressed when they found the animals in poor condition and actually discovered two dead ones left in their cages.

Remember this was supposedly a Brand New resort - ha! It's an old Playboy Mansion (according to the bartender) that they have refurbished and boy does it look like it. Cracks in the walls, docks that are roped off with yellow crime scene tape, broken step lights, tatty sailing boats that have been repaired with gray electrical tape - hardly a brand new resort. Our Luxury Suite looked out over a deck with an "out of order" fountain that had all of the electrics exposed - charming. Two nights in a row we had no hot water for showers. Our hair dryer did not work, there was no key for the safe, our outdoor light had no bulb. All in all a total waste of $6,000.

We have tried to get a refund or replacement and have spent hours sending letters. Sandals and Beaches just push the blame off on their representatives or tour operators and the tour operators say that they are not responsible for Sandals and Beaches advertising. The resort manager says he can't do anything about the beach and that it's not his fault that the advertising is wrong. We have had 9 months of trying to get compensation so we have now decided that the least that we can do is warn other potential travelers to reconsider before they suffer the same type of dissappointment that we have.

They get your money then they have you and you are stuck! Too bad if you don't like it. They are experts at selling holidays then dodging the responsibility when things go wrong. Think twice before you book -once you've paid, no matter how unhappy you are, that money is gone - believe me, I learned a $6,000 lesson.

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