Warning about Palace Resorts!

[ekcmexico]

 

While I had a wonderful wedding at the Playacar palace over labor day weekend, I also have to warn everyone about some problems with billing and reimbursement that others may experience if they use the "vacation dollars" and/or fulfill the wedding contracts and are due money back for the cost of rooms.

 

We are due over $3000 back from the Palace resorts, and no one has responded to our inquires about this for 2 weeks now.  We are at the point where we have to send them a certified letter tomorrow because this has gotten ridiculous.  They double charged us for the wedding package when we were actually supposed to just pay half and use our vacation dollars for the other half. And they have never given us a refund on our rooms (we are supposed to get 7 nights for free at the resort because we filled over 75 room nights in our wedding contract).

 

Please be very careful with them, they may be doing something unethical and unprofessional here, as it has gotten past the point of just a delay in email response.  2 weeks, no response from the business office, and we are due a substantial amount of money.  We need this money for our honeymoon.  I am very disappointed in the Palace Resorts right now, as the least they can do is respond to us.  I feel robbed.

 

 

 

[skadow]

Have you tried to call them?

[Ellabaja1983]

Did you book with a TA?  Couldn't a TA help with this?

[ekcmexico]

Yes, my wedding coordinator/agent has been trying for the past couple of weeks. She is the one that is sending the certified letter to them. I really hope this turns out ok. 

[LanaM]

Wow, this is horrible. I hope everything will turn out fine in the end!

Thank you for the warning.

[ekcmexico]

Hi Everyone,

 

Just an update.  We are now on week 3 after our wedding and have had to deliver a certified letter. Still no response AT ALL from Palace Resorts.  I will be getting a lawyer involved shortly.

 

Any money that you may save in the wedding package at Palace Resorts, you will possibly lose in other ways, as we are learning.  Seriously, there are a million nice resorts in Mexico.  At this point I would definitely recommend another one.  I had a wedding guest stay at the Iberostar Lindo instead of at the Palace for my wedding, and they loved it so much they didn't want to leave to come to ours. Maybe Iberostar is a little bit more ethical and responsible as a business than Palace Resorts

[Cindy*]

Did you pay using a credit card? If so, you should start a dispute with your credit card company about this.

[katrina305]

I am having my wedding at Cancun Palace and I have already gotten (2) seperate refunds ..one for the civil ceremony that I decided not to have (symbolic instead)..and the second for the room nights I booked initally to hold the room block but later decided to buy from a member so got a few nights back...pm me if you would like the name of my contact in Miami, she is great!

[Jodster123]

Wow, I'm so sorry this has happened to you! It must be so stressful... just awful. Thank you posting about this though! I know it's probably a super hard time right now, but others can definitely benefit from this. Please keep us updated on what happens... I think I am re-thinking my plans to have my wedding there in 2012!

[ekcmexico]

Hi Everyone,

 

Here is a clip from the complaint letter my wedding coordinator sent to the sales director yesterday, it gives you a bit more information so you can see what types of problems you might get with Palace:

 

My clients, Mr. and Mrs. Coker, and I are awaiting assistance to problematic oversight which occurred at the Palace Playacar.  The couple brought a group of about 40 family and friend to celebrate their wedding at this property.  Problems began upon arrival when there was a "mix-up" with the couple's Resort Dollars, which were supposed to go to their wedding, and instead the coupled incurred costs against that balance which ultimately had them paying for a portion of their wedding out of pocket.  Albeit they were quite amenable to the process of paying the difference of what was left over, I still found it troublesome that money was supposed to have been allocated and sufficed as the balance of their wedding bill prior to their arrival, as this was the agreement that we had with their Wedding Sales coordinator in Miami, Lauren Negrin as well as the on-site coordinator, Dulce Hernandez. 

Additionally, my clients were gracious to pre-pay for some nights for specific guests in their party.  Unfortunately, some CC forms for the group were never filed to pay off the balance of the room for one guest, which in turn caused the guest to pay for this out of pocket. Instead of being able to credit the guest and bill the client as was the initial agreement, we were told to just pay them out of pocket. 

While these things are tedious, timestaking and granted, frustrating, the ultimate offense has occurred with my clients being billed erroneously and in some occasions repeatedly, as well as a severe lack in customer service.  It is impossible to get a finite answer from anyone in the Miami office-- I have been repeatedly emailing and calling.  Finally I got a hold of the Sales Coordinator, Lauren Negrin and she says that she has sent it to her supervisor who is now in touch with someone at the resort-- we have never received a personal call or email; it is always me that has to follow up about this substantial amount of money for my clients.  While in Riviera Maya, we were told that all of these things could quickly be handled and a refunds would be credited from the Miami office.

Herein is where the problem lies:

On April 5, 2010, my clients paid for 6 nights up front for their stay.  However, my clients had fulfilled their obligation for their 75+ Room Nights and are due a refund of $2232, instead of this being applied to the room nights (2232)

The clients paid for half of the wedding up front on March 8th, 2010; the agreement prior to the clients' arrival was that their remaining vacation dollars were to pay for the remainder of the wedding. However, as mentioned before, this was never done, so other things that the clients were going to bill to their room or to their credit card caused said items to be neglected from their vacation dollar balance. As also stated, the clients, while inconvenienced, worked around and paid the remainder of the balance for the wedding.  However, they were charged for the full wedding package instead of the balance that was owed.  (1187.50)
This gives a total refund of 3419.50 that is owed to my clients. 

These are careless oversights, endless finger-pointing over who indeed is in charge of what and along with the lack of communication from practically any one at Palace Resorts, this makes the experience almost offensive. My clients are set to go on their honeymoon, and now have to suffer from this lack of attention to detail as their funds are depleted and after their wedding, they continually have to fight their way to get someone to even acknowledge their communication, let alone help them fix the error.