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Report: #500464

Complaint Review: BACK TO THE CARIBBEAN - Tamarac Florida

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  • Reported By: lulu — meridian Mississippi USA
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  • BACK TO THE CARIBBEAN 7120 West McNab Road Tamarac, Florida United States of America

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We were contacted by phone May, 2008 about purchasing a package from Back To The Caribbean. It was offered as a 3 trip deal for $500.00. Weekend of September 4, 2009, Labor Day Weekend, we took the first of those three trips. Our reservation was in Daytona Beach, FL. We picked up our information at the Welcome Center in Daytona. There must be some affiliation with Back to the Caribbean and Welcome Center, not sure. Anyway we found our dump because that is exactly what it was. It was an old run down hotel they call as Resort, Perrys Ocean Resort. Yes it was on the beach but it was still old, rundown and nasty. Their parking was unbelievable. You could hardly have squeezed a bicycle in the spaces provided, what few spaces there were. It was so cramped and tight and if you didnt get in early you could forget it. Sometimes there wasnt any parking to be had. It was not in a good part of town, there were prostitutes all along there and many of the buildings were up for rent or lease or just empty.


There was always something stuck in our door whenever we came and went. Some solicitation from businesses. The towels were cheap and like sand-paper. We were hounded by the staff about taking care of the taxes of the room, which I guess we were responsible for. Even though they were given our credit card when we checked in to make a copy of, they still hounded us. Come to find out they didnt make a copy after all. They called and/or came by our room every day. It is a requirement that you attend a 90 minute presentation while you are in the area. Our appt time was in our pkg of info we picked up at the Welcome Center, along with the address of the location we were to go. When we went to the address listed it was an empty lot. We called the Welcome Center, were told they dont make appts for 12:30. We were sent to another resort, Plaza Resort and Spa, parked, went in, wasted time there. Dont know why we were sent there, they dont know.


All they did was give us directions of how to get to where we were supposed to go and the name of the place. Upon arrival, we were late of course by this time. We tried to check in at Florida Sports and Recreation. We were told we could not because we were late and had missed the presentation. We were treated so rudely from the moment we went in the door. The person telling us this said, Ive done all I can for you. She wouldnt help reschedule or anything. She said they were told we had rescheduled. We cant figure out who would have told them that. We only called Welcome Center and the other location we were sent to that person called someone while we were there. Dont know who or how he knew who to call, but it had to be one of the two of them. Anyway, we finally called Welcome Center, they rescheduled us for that same day. By this time most of our day there is gone. We went back at the appointed time, now that we knew where to go. We were treated so rudely. We filled out the required areas on the form, turned it in and were soon called in to the presentation.


Our rep came to our table, sat down, starting explaining things and another employee (Brian, and very rude), walked up and said very rudely, Who filled this form out? Its only 90% filled out? We told him we filled out the required areas. He was already angry about something when we came up because he was combative and argumentative, or maybe they are all trained to be that way all the time. When we answered him he asked, Is this how it is going to be? Did you want to go ahead and leave now? Our mouths were on the floor because we couldnt imagine why we was treating us like this or speaking to us like he did. Of course the rep at our table acted like nothing happened or nothing was wrong. Of all the questions on the form that werent required the only one he kept hounding us about was, Do you own a timeshare? He just kept on and on and on. Numerous times he tried to embarrass us and call us out in front of others. We had our cell phone on the table and he (Brian, and very rude), walked by and asked if we were filming the presentation? Another time he told us we needed to chill out.


We were just sitting there not doing anything, not saying anything, and he provoked the situation each time. I finally told him that we were just fine; we didnt need to chill out. And by the way, when they told us we were late and couldnt go in, we wouldnt have made anymore disturbance than all the people walking in and out and everywhere that supposedly worked there. It was a constant in and out of doors and slamming doors and a lot of distraction from them. We had presumed that everyone attending would receive a gift for coming, it was mentioned 3 times while were on their property. Only to find out, no gifts. The person doing the presentation (I think Barron) mentioned it during his speech. Anyway, when it was over our rep asked if we had any questions and we said no that we were not interested. I guess they are trained at the point to raise their hand and guess who came over again? Brian, he also asked if we had any questions and we told him we werent interested. He kept prying and asked if money was the problem? Again, we said we are not just interested. It really made him mad and he flew off and said, Get them out of here. There is no money to be made here. We were escorted out only for another employee at the door to try and get us to go next door.


We didnt want to go next door. She asked what was wrong and we told her what had happened and asked if he treated everyone like that. Of course you know her answer was, No.! She finally took us back next door to get our appt card validated and he (Brian) was standing there and as we went out the door he said, They were just rude anyway. He also came out in the parking lot as we got in the car, I guess to make sure we left. We were just in disbelief and shock at the way they conducted their scam of a business. Of course, that helped ruin the trip. We took our appt card to the Welcome Center so they could see we went and wouldnt chg us again for our room, told them of our experience and they were in disbelief too. They had us fill out something stating what had happened and said they would let them know and wouldnt send anybody else there.


So we are not sure if the where your appt is Is left up to the Welcome Center or Back To The Caribbean. Florida Sports & Rec only shows to have about 4 or 5 employees that work there, I bet there were 35 + people in that room that day (that supposedly worked there). They also mentioned they had been in business 20+ years. I read on one of the websites associated with them they had only opened in 2004 or 2005. Were confused by the whole thing. We tried contacting Back To The Caribbean after this happened. Apparently they are not there on the weekends. We e-mailed them as well. They contacted us after we got back and we told them all that had happened. Of course they deny ever having any complaints about Daytona Beach, Perrys Ocean Resort, and they act like they dont even know who Florida Sports & Rec is. Holli is the person we have been dealing with through e-mail. We have requested a refund because first we dont wish to ever subject our selves to another presentation that this company would have set up, or go on any other trips through them. Second, they misrepresented themselves 100%, standard accommodations doesnt mean to me staying in a dump.


On their website they only show the positive experiences people have had through them, they dont show any of the complaints. However, I have read many complaints through websites, just by pulling up their name. So the cheaper the motel the more money they can save. Even though if you pull up one of their websites they list all these exotic place for you to stay. But they dont actually come through with those. They are trying to give us a trip to make up for an awful trip. I doubt any would be any better or different. I dont want their trip. They say they will upgrade us to a condo, etc. Why couldnt that be done to start with? In one of the e-mails from Holli, she said they never promised the Ritz Carlton. Well, I have never stayed in the Ritz Carlton so I wouldnt know. But I have never stayed in a dump like they put us in. We want to be done with these people. We want our money back and they dont have to worry about ever dealing with us again.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 09/25/2009 12:44 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/back-to-the-caribbean/tamarac-florida-33321/back-to-the-caribbean-bfk-marketing-do-not-do-business-with-back-to-the-caribbean-tamarac-500464. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
0Consumer
2Employee/Owner

#2 REBUTTAL Individual responds

Do The Right Thing

AUTHOR: lulu - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, October 25, 2010

This is in response to the co-owners of Back to the Caribbean.  I guess if none of this has happened to you then it seems frivolous.  Believe me it was all true.  This has been going on for over a year.  You seem to forget that when you sell something over the phone, sight unseen, all a customer has to go on is what you tell them.  So if you are going to tell us how wonderful and nice it is, then you need to deliver.  We certainly weren't expecting to spend our hard earned money for what we went through.  Remember we didn't call your company, they called us. There is nothing unfair about this report, what's unfair was the accommidations and how we were treated.  Don't promise what you can't deliver.  It doesn't matter if anyone has complained before about your company or the dump we stayed in, someone is complaining now.  That is what should be important to owners and co-owners.  But I certainly don't get that feeling. 

Perry's Ocean Resort, Daytona Beach, FL, is not a resort.  It may not be your hotel, but you are responsible where you send your customers.  It is an old run down hotel that they call a "resort," which by the way  is not in a good part of town.  There were old run down buildings all around with windows busted out or out of business.  We were in "prostitution alley." 

There is no trust there.  Why would someone think that anything else you offered me would be any different than what we already experienced.  We have already been burned once, we certainly don't intend to be burned again.  The 90 minute presentation that we were required to go to was one of the worse things that has happened to us.  We were given the wrong address to go to, then we were sent to the wrong place, when we finally did get there of course we were late.  We were treated so rudely, and told so many different things.  Which I'm sure is a tactic to make you miss the presentation that you are required to go to.  Then you would be charged again for your room that you already paid for in the beginning.  We were treated worse than animals as Florida Sports and Recreation, which according to the Attorney General's Office of Florida, is not a reputable company.   Someone is responsible for sending us there whether it be you or the Welcome Center.  We complained heavily to the Welcome Center, they took a report in detail and we were told they would not send anyone else there.  It was awful! 

It's funny to me how Back to the Caribbean would know what we did or did not do with out credit card company.  That's private information.  So don't make false remarks. 

This is a beach where you would be so afraid to let your kids run and have fun.  It was like a freeway! I have never been to a beach where cars were allowed to drive up and down the beach.  I witnessed parents not being used to it either, because they would grab their kids by the arms because the cars certainly weren't going to slow down. 

Nothing about this is frivolous, it is exactly as it happened.  So if you don't want people reporting on your company on this or any other website, then do the right thing.  If you do the right thing all you will see me post is that you did do "the right thing!"

 

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#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Frivolous, unfair complaint that has already been vetted by the state and credit card companies

AUTHOR: RossF - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, May 12, 2010

My name is Ross Fischer.  My wife, Jackeline Fischer and I, are co-owners of Back to the Caribbean.  Our official name is RBF Marketing Inc. dba Back to the Caribbean.


We are writing to respond to this unfair and inflammatory complaint.  We are very familiar with this customer because although we sell 6,000 packages a year, we have never had anyone go to the extreme this customer is going to, in the attempt to "strong arm" us into giving a refund. 


Our company name is Back to the Caribbean, and our website is www.backtofun.com.(Our site used to use backtothecaribbean.com, however  many potential clients would mispell caribbean and say they we weren't there, so we made it simple with backtofun.com)


This customer used part of the package in Daytona, and still had 2 other destinations to use.  She paid approximately $500 for 2 weeks of travel, and we have honored our agreement.  the terms clearly state there are no refunds on unused portions of the package.


This customer contacted us because they  weren't happy with the resort they stayed at, and they wanted their money back.  We had never had any other complaints about this or any other property we use in Daytona, and based on her statements of the quality of the towels and the size of the parking spaces we felt that it was not a fair complaint.  We have no relation to the sales organization there.  We have a relationship with the Welcome Center in Daytona Beach.  They too have no complaints on this resort.  When you google this resort, no complaints come up, and it has a rating of 4 out of 5 stars based on customer reviews.  I am not a fan of the star system, but at the least it shows this resort is not a "dump" as they are claiming.


However, in order to make her happy, we were willing to give her extra nights on her next stay.  Also, we were going to give her free or almost free upgrade for her all-inclusive in the Caribbean.  We offered other extras but told her we would not give a refund.  It is not our resort.  We held up our end of the bargain, and were willing to give her many valuable considerations on her next trip.  Anyone can go our website themselves and the view the names and the sites of the resorts we use.


When this customer was told by us that we would not give the $249 half back, she told us she was going to do "whatever she had to do" to get her money back.  We re-explained our position that we want to make it up to her by giving her a great trip to make up for her dissatisfaction.  She felt like why travel again if she didnt like the resort?   We understand her position but we are not putting her back in the same property, we explained we understand her needs and will make sure she is more than happy with the quality, but we will not be strong-armed into giving money back because of threats.


This customer tried to go to her credit card company for a refund; they sided with us and refused to give her money back.  She has complained to the state of Florida to try to get her money back.  The state told her we didnt have to give her money back.  She complained to the county of Broward--which replied to her they had nothing to do with it. 


So, the only thing she has left is to complain on websites about our company.  Complaints should be vetted before they are allowed on the sites.  Then it would not be so easy to write a frivolous complaint if they know it will be checked for accuracy.  Our company has not done anything wrong.  Again, we have put hundreds of customers in this resort, and have not had 1 complaint.  Anyone has the right to complain, and anyone can find a cockroach at a 4 star resort and try to push the manager for a refund.  Again, we offered her many other considerations to help her on her next trip.


It is a dangerous precedent to give someone their money back after they have traveled, especially someone who complains about the quality of the towels, or the size of the parking spaces.


Thank you for the ability to respond.


Ross Fischer


 

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