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To Whom It May Concern:
Hello, my name is Dennis and I've been trying to reach out to several locations to put in a complaint about the Secrets Resort: Saint James in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I hope this email will reach the correct person who can amend these problems.
My wife and I have always chosen Secrets Resorts for vacations in the summers and winters. We have been to several in Mexico and the Dominican Republic and by far, this location was an absolute nightmare.
Just some background information:
This was our first time going to an all-inclusive resort with our entire family. It was me, my wife, and five other family members that decided to come and our dates were December 24th through December 29th, so we were there for Christmas and in room 3503 I believe. The fact that we have waited more than two weeks to see if we were overly dramatic about our experience, and now that I am still choosing to write this, I truly hope you understand how bad it truly was for us.
Right from the beginning, whenever we pulled up to the front entrance, we had to decide on our own where to park our car, and with all seven of us inside with large suitcases, we were ignored by the staff that was standing outside. We had to take out our luggage by ourselves, without a cart, and drag all of our things towards the lobby. Now in Mexico and Dominican Republic resorts, the service is so great that you don't get out of the car without at least two or three people rushing to open your doors for you, put a mimosa or champagne in your hands, and right away open the truck and take out your luggage. That is the service that we were expecting at this resort and we can honestly say that never happened! In Mexico and Dominican, they don't dare let you even touch your luggage and they direct you to check-in right away. They also take care of your bags and whenever you get your room, they carry it up for you as well. Right from the start, in St. James, we had to do all of that on our own, worrying about our luggage, and on top of that, standing in a line for over 30 minutes when there was literally only two people in front of us.
One problem that we kept repeating and calling housekeeping, was the fact that our room was constantly not being cleaned thoroughly. For the first three days, there was a sand all around the sliding doors inside the room, and we called and asked many times until finally they decided to clean after 3 days and still there was some left over, so we just gave up complaining. This is not what we were expecting, especially after the large sum of money we paid for our rooms. Also, you could see that the floor had traces of dirty water from where you can see that the rags to clean the floors were dirty too. Honestly, we never had a housekeeping issues at our other resorts, and their service was much more inviting and helpful. Our rooms are supposed to be a place where we go to relax and it's impossible when inconveniences you constantly report is being ignored, and that is not what you expect from a 5 STAR Secrets Resort. Also, there was another issue that we called in about housekeeping. There was bug killer sprayed over our mirror, with several dead flies near the sinks and the small shelf that sits next to the mirror. All of that mess was near our toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and facial towels. There was no possible way that that killer did not go into our things. Also, we ordered room service only two times and apparently the orders were not put in somehow. So, we sat there two different nights, for over 2 hours, to bring up a plate of fruits, juice, and champagne, only to have to walk out to the World Cafe to get something for me and my wife.
Now the service in the restaurants or even around the resort was probably the biggest reason we did not have a good time. At the restaurants, every single time we ate dinner, we spent at least TWO hours at the table. I do understand that sometimes it may have been busy, but when you see groups of servers huddled together, not working, and only getting your drink refilled after 45 minutes of waiting and then the food coming out 1.5 hours or even 2 hours after you sat down, it brings the mood of the entire trip down. And if this only happened once or twice, we understand, but the fact is that this was a constant occurrence, at every restaurant we went to, and we tried every place except the Hibachi grill, the one where you needed a reservation. The servers would disappear for minimum of 45 minutes, the drinks only got refilled once during our two-hour waits, service was slow, servers' attitudes were horrible and stuck up. They acted like we were asking for big favors whenever we wanted something more to drink, on top of that, they never asked us if we wanted anything while we waited. At the other Secrets resorts, there would be at least two people watching over every table, our cups never got less than half full. The servers would come by every 5-10 minutes to ask if we wanted any other drinks, or bread to eat while waiting. And I will say, we never spent more than an hour inside of the restaurants, and the places were just as packed as they were here. The food came out faster and the waiters were actually friendly and helpful, but here with the attitudes and stuck-up behavior we received, honestly ruined the only time of year we could come together as a family to go on vacation. After the second day, we were all starting to count down the days of when we could leave. I will say that the food was good in the restaurant, the oceans and sand were beautiful. But having to spend the amount of money we did, we certainly expected to be pampered and relax in the Caribbean's, just as we had before in Mexico and Dominican Republic. The overall service, or lack of, at the restaurants, housekeeping, and even the pool, made us all regret coming here. We would love to give Jamaica another shot, because the food and views were exceptional, but the fact we would have to spend so much money, knowingly going to a place where we know how truly upsetting it was the first time, we would rather go to another location to try to relax and enjoy our vacation.
I hope this complaint actually reaches the correct people; most likely you may have had no idea how much this resort has fallen when compared to the others. Secrets is an amazing chain, and that is why we felt so upset with how our first trip as a family, on Christmas, turned out to be this disappointing. I hope you will try to fix these problems for your future guests. This is not everything that I have wanted to say, but it is turning out to be much longer than I expected, so I will end it here. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Have a great day.
