Lion Resorts Vacation Club review: Rip off 2

Our problem started in September 2009 with being hi jacked in car park in Paphos 2nd day of our holiday by a very likeable chap who invited us back to the Capital Coast Hotel as we had won a holiday from the scratch card he gave us. 4 hours later, after being given a very polished presentation we signed up to Lion Resorts/RCI Vacation Club. We were impressed by the standard of accomodation we were sold, we were advised that they would increase our initial 2 week 'free' holiday to 4 weeks with car hire for one week thrown in, we paid nearly £4000.00 on a credit card and were invited to dinner with the lady who had done the presenatation, all very nice.

Then we got home...initially we tried to cancel, this was within a week of getting home, we were abruptly advised via email that this was not possible. We decided to accept the inevitable. In January I tried to book the holiday we wanted in May. The location we wanted was not available and only Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt had vacancies for the time in May we had booked off work. I booked it. I also booked for 2 weeks in Cyprus for September at the Capital Coast Hotel, at no time in this telephone conversation was I advised that these bookings were only provisional and would not be confirmed until I confirmed flight details to them. At the beginning of April I recieved a call from Capital Coast requesting our flight details. I felt this was reasonable and as I had been checking flights on the internet for at least a couple of months I felt that I could book easily I confirmed our dates 8th May for 14 nights, Saturday to Saturday, when I confirmed these dates, that I had booked, the person I was talking to asked what we were doing for thenight of the 8th as this holiday runs Sunday to Sunday. To say I was shocked is putting it mildly. Capital Coast took no responsibility at all for this and in numerous emails back and forth I learnt all about their reservations systems and how it could never go wrong at their end. I asked if they could help me to book a hotel room in Sharm for the one night and as a gesture of goodwill from them for them to cover the cost of the room. This was declined in no uncertain terms. I have all the emails. So I booked from home.

We flew out to Sharm el Sheikh on the 8th May 2010. We were met at the airport by a taxi driver, not the limousine we were advised would collect us. He deposited us at the Mexicana Sharm Hotel where I had booked the room for the one night. Suzanne, Lion Resorts rep was there to meet us, which under the circumstances we thought was very good as this was a hotel booked for one night and not the resort we were booked into with Lion Resorts...or so we thought. We were taken to our room, which we had booked ourselves as no one at Capital Coast could manage that, Suzanne advised us that she would meet us at 3pm the next day to take us to our Lion Resorts 'suite'. We checked out of that room at 12 noon and transported ourselves and our luggage to reception and we left the cases there until we met Suzanne who took us to our ‘suite’. This was next door to our room of the previous night.
We had previously been advised by Michelle at Capital Coast, that Lion Resorts only had a block of apartments at the Mexicana Sharm and were of a better standard that the other apartments, what they must be like beggers belief !
The ‘suite’ was such a disappointment, considering that we had been promised 5* accommodation. The cooking facilities were 2 rings, we had to turn the toaster upside down to get the bread out and the kettle lid was warped so didn’t turn off. There was only a bright orange ‘put you up’ spare bed in the lounge to sit on, a broken standard lamp, a coffee table and a TV on a base, The bathroom on initial viewing appeared to be OK, until you started using it, the grouting was black around the shower and in the sink, there was a door stop on the floor just in front of the shower that I stepped on and nearly broke my foot. Where was the flat screen TV, the comfortable seating area with separate dining area, fully fitted kitchen and ‘top spec’ bathroom?
I have photographs of the accommodation, in no way was this 5* nearer a 3* and that is being generous.
We met with Suzanne the following day and we voiced our complaints. She advised, that she would sort the kettle and toaster out straight away for us, this took her a week for the toaster and the kettle was never changed.
We advised her that we felt that as the cooking facilities were so inadequate we wanted Lion Resorts to compensate us in some way, either by providing us with evening meals, (the resort catered for all inclusive) or allow us to barbecue on the balcony. The result of this was a free meal to the value of 350E£ at the Hard Rock Café, in the next town, transport not provided so we had to pay for a taxi there and back at a cost of 30E£. That was the total compensation that she was able to offer. She did intimate that her Manager, Tim, was looking into something else for us and we would meet with him the following week.
On the Tuesday of the following week, we met with Suzanne again and she did a pitch for Lion Resorts, we advised her that after everything that we had been through with Lion Resorts we are not interested really in pursuing anything further, she encouraged us to meet with her again on the Wednesday when she would take us to the Amraj which is the new resort and where we would meet with Tim. We agreed to go as we wanted to speak with him On our first week at Mexicana, we got talking to another couple who had insisted on being moved from the Amraj as it was a building site with no facilities.
On Wednesday we went to the Amraj, it was a building site, well the Lion Resorts part was, the swimming pool was closed due to the dust and muck from the building sites. The actual hotel area was beautiful but Lion Resorts guests were not allowed to use it. Suzanne showed us around one of the few suites that had been completed and it was lovely, exactly what we had been expecting.

We met with Tim. He apologised for the Mexicana Sharm Resort and stated that it was not 5* and he was unhappy that Lion Resorts guests were being put in there. I voiced all our complaints to him and he advised us that he had in fact, sacked several people from Capital Coast due to complaints about bad customer service, whether this was true or not I do not know.
Tim then started the ‘pitch’ and he proceeded to tell us what he could do for us to compensate us for the poor service we had received from Capital Coast, together with discounts and special prices to enable us to get the full Lion Experience. This went as follows:
To experience the full Lion Experience would mean upgrading at a cost of just over £17, 000, with the following discounts :
The amount back that we had spent initially + an extra amount to cover the plane tickets, this amounted to just over £4, 000.00 this would cover not only the initial payment but our flights out to Sharm el Sheik, to this were we offered £775.00 as an apology for staying at the Mexicana Sharm as it was not 5* and Tim also apologised again for the Mexicana and stated that he did not like the Mexicana as it let down the standard of accommodation that was being sold to customers. He also offered us back the 2 week holiday so that we would in effect, have another 2 weeks 'free' to holiday where we wanted.
All this at a cost to us of just under £13000.00 !
We advised them that we wanted to sleep on it, next day we met again with Suzanne and advised her that we were not interested, she then offered us 50% discount if we took the offer that Tim spoke with us about but that it would be a bi-annual membership. We turned her down.
Nothing else was offered to us as an apology or as a gesture of goodwill, we either accepted the offer and pay £13, 000.00 to get the discounts and compensation or get nothing. Considering all the upset we had been caused in our relationship with Lion Resorts and Capital Coast and the apologies and admissions regarding the state of the Mexicana Sharm, I would have thought that there would have been an offer of some kind of compensation, bearing in mind that part of the deal offered, £775.00, was referred to by Tim as the 'Mexicana Sharm discount'
To cap it all, the transfer from the hotel to the airport duly arrived and transported us to the airport. He dropped us at the wrong terminal and charged us 10.00E£ for the entrance cost for his taxi to go into the airport car park to drop us off.
All in all a pretty disastrous state of affairs considering how big the company is and the industry that they are in, namely, providing a dream holiday experience.
I will be sending an email copy of this complaint to Capital Coast in Cyprus once they supply me of a Director / Manager's name, I have already requested this information twice from Capital Coast but the requests have been ignored.
We are booked to stay at Capital Coast this September, as we had 'been given 4 weeks free holidays' plus free car hire for a week, trying to get that reserved was a nightmare as well, down to the high handed attitude of Carol Gallagher. She advised me on the 22nd April at 14.30 that she was giving me 48 hrs to confirm our flight details or she would cancel. I subsequently called to confirm flight details over the weekend only to be told that she had cancelled the reservation on Friday 23rd. I know that there is a time difference between Cyprus and the UK but there really is no excuses for her action.

Luckily we could move the flight to accommodate her and have booked for the 21/9/2010. Should be an eventful experience!

I have sent a copy of this by letter form, registered post to the Registered Head Office in Preston. It was refused and returned to me, I have also emailed a copy of this letter to lion resorts, it was ignored, perhaps now they will contact me ?