| Name of Complainant | |
| Date of Complaint | February 7, 2021 |
| Name(s) of companies complained against | |
| Category of complaint | Tours & Travels |
| Permanent link of complaint | Right click to copy link |
| Share your complaint on social media for wider reach | |
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I am really disappointed and frustrated with the pathetic service from Pace. I bought a 10 year membership, which they explained terming as “ownership” after paying a part payment of inr 55000 at Ara branch on 21 Jan, 2020
The whole package sounded good with 7 days domestic/international holiday for couple and my son who was about to turn 18. We (I and my husband) were explained that the stay will cover free breakfast and other two meals on very economical (At least 40-50% discount) cost. We were also given a free holiday voucher for 2 nights and 3 days with complimentary breakfast. This was mainly for us to experience the great hospitality Pace provides and to decide if we want to continue with the membership. Pace also promised to provide transport for local sightseeing and pickup and drop on a government approved rates that they claimed will be again 40-50% less than the market price. We travel a lot as family and membership package deal as explained by the sales representative jeetu and his manager Varun sounded really good.
Our happiness turned into a nightmare when we decided to use the complimentary stay voucher. We had a family wedding in solan (Hp) on 21st june 2020 so we decided to club a family holiday along with it. We applied for the reservation on 4th of june, well advance of the prescribed 15 days timeline in order to make travel arrangements accordingly. There have been series of lapse and delay in responding to our queries from Pace due to which we could not take the holiday and returned to delhi after a day stay at solan attending the wedding. Due to this delay there was not enough time for us to look for booking a resort privately.
To start with we were told that we cannot use the voucher on saturday/sunday and have to change the dates. They then said that we cannot use the voucher in summer and this is only for off peak period. I tried to explain that at the time of purchasing membership, we were told that once we buy the membership, we will not have the limitation to use the voucher only in the off peak as we will be considered as members and not as guest. Pace completely ignored to acknowledge the fact and added that we will be required to pay the convenience charges of about inr 2500/. We were also asked to pay the extra bedding charge for our son disregarding the promise and commitment they made at the time of selling the membership.
They also refused us to give a stay at snow valley resort, which they talked so highly during the presentation and boasted showing feedback from one of their customer on whatsapp who had been to that resort. I don’t think now that the whatsapp profile was of a genuine customer and not of their colleague! We tried to be patient by putting repeated requests; by changing our dates from sat/sun to weekdays; by agreeing to the alternate hotel option provided; by explaining the whole story to a new guy every time we made a call to Pace customer care as they never bothered to record or read notes from our previous conversation to understand what we are looking for. We explained that we are running out of time and if they don’t resolve our queries quickly, we will not have enough time to make necessary travel arrangements.
During the entire process of booking i felt that they were not reading my mails properly as their answers were so different and outdated to what we have asked for. It was a perfect example o[censored]nprofessional service from Pace where they fail to address what we were complaining and slow to react on our queries. It appeared that Pace was working on a completely different frequency as they will conveniently ignore our questions and chose to answer a bit they would like to. Most of their responses were visibly cut and paste from different templates. There is nothing wrong to use the templates as long you are addressing the concerns, and at least change the font to make it look uniform. This raises a serious concern on Pace team’s ability to accurately understand the language. No wonder why they struggled to respond to simple/regular questions related to booking. Or maybe they are trained to avoid giving straightforward honest response.
Finally, i was not left with any other option but to cancel and refund my membership amount. This was the time when Pace team started to show their rude side. Until now they were simply unprofessional, incapable but atleast polite in their dealings. From here they started showing their aggressive and “we don’t care” attitude. I made several attempts to resolve this cooperatively with Pace and requested to escalate as was suggested in the terms and conditions but received no satisfactory response. On reaching out to customer care through phone and chat, i was assured to get a call back soon but as usual it turned out to be fake promise. Eventually, i received a call from rafiq, who claimed to be branch manager for Ara office. After speaking to rafiq that day i lost all hopes in Pace ability to successfully run a professional hospitality business. It was a rollercoaster ride. He started with a very casual approach without understanding the gravity of the situation – aur kya hal chal hai? Kya problem hogai… he never bothered to read my mails before giving me a call and wanted me to narrate the entire situation once again to bring him up to the speed! In order to get to a reasonable conclusion, i once again attempted to narrate the whole experience but he did not let me explain my concerns in full and kept interrupting me in order to counter and dismiss what i have to say. He blamed me that i don’t have any genuine intention to continue with the membership and want to take benefit of the situation and thus behaving difficult. He tried to intimidate me by telling that complaint anywhere (Consumer court/customer care/public forum) will not get me any help and i don’t have any option but to continue. Little later he mellowed down a bit when i told him that we will do rest of the discussion in his Ara office. He then offered me a completely free 2 night 3 day holiday in addition to the existing complimentary voucher without any convenience; extra bedding or extra charges for my son! He also suggested us to use the gift voucher and then lodge a complaint against the services we received at the hotel and promised that he’ll fight and support our refund request. This is another example of the work practice and ethos this company and his team follows.
By now i have realized that Pace is not a company with whom i would like to have a long or short term relation. So i politely refused the offer and requested him to process the refund. I have the entire conversation recorded with me and can prove what i have stated above.
I am also annoyed that despite my repeated reports of Ara branch giving false commitment with the customer care team, no action was taken. They conveniently ignored this bit even when this is not difficult at all for them to verify. They can listen to the recording of the call that was made to us to invite to receive the free gift voucher. That would be enough evidence to show the unethical/unfair trade practices followed by sales team. Maybe they are already aware and don’t want to take any action against it. Otherwise, how come despite so many complaints they are still not able to manage this better?
I also tried to get Pace customer care team’s attention towards my concerns via national consumer helpline but that didn’t changed their attitude. Simply ignoring all my concerns and instead of acknowledging their mistake and take strict action against the culprits, they simply said that they have not denied any services and request me to avail them…!
I have spoken to west zone consumer forum and there is free legal assistance/consultation service available for women. They also help you with the lawyer. I am also speaking to local market association to make them aware of this nexus and to not let Pace representatives distribute these lucky draw tokens in their area. This also includes the various departmental stores and shopping mall in Ara. I’ll also approach local mla for the support. I have worked with a diplomatic mission for over 20 years and am very well aware and capable o[censored]sing available resources and contacts for the general public. So far my request was just to refund my money and i want out of this. If Pace is going to make me run around to get a desired solution, i’ll definitely demand for compensation for all the harassment and inconvenience. If required, i’ll take help of social media to educate and warn others of the unfair practices adopted by the Pace. All i need to provide the link of this site to prospect customers for them to make an informed decision.
Pace is a company who does not regard and respect customers, and consumer act set to protect indian consumer’s rights.
Pace is denying to give us refund referring to the clause in the terms and condition that “the membership charges is non-refundable under any circumstance”. Below are the reasons in support of our refund request:
Unfair trade practice/ right to be informed –
1. Reference to https://consumerhelpline.gov.in/ConsumerCourt.pdf – using “no refund under any circumstances” amounts to unfair trade practice and does not carry any legal weight.
We did raised this with the sales representative (Varun) before signing the agreement but then he referred us to the refund clause given on their website, which says that we can claim refund within the 7 days o[censored]sing first holiday. Please note that we have not taken any holiday as yet.
https://www.countryholidaysinnsuites.com/refund-policy
Refund policy
In case of any valid point of dissatisfaction, the member can cancel their membership within 7 days of availing their first holiday by writing to us at help@countryholidaysinnsuites.com. Refund will be processed after deducting administration charges, asf and gst. This refund policy will not be applicable for premium business membership.
What is valid point of dissatisfaction? Is it not enough that the refund policy mentioned on the website is different than on the contract? This is one of the many examples how Pace tries to fool customers.
The terms and conditions of vacations agreement is one sided and covers mainly what customer is liable to and does not speak about the commitment Pace is accountable for. Please note that Pace did not gave me any response of my email asking to clarify the term “service” that Pace follow for its customers. I also asked them about the slas (Service level agreement) on dealing with customers queries, which too they didn’t clarify.
Please note the point number 17 under the terms and condition that states: “second party understands that this agreement (In the printed form only) supercedes any communication whether written or oral or any variation or hand written remarks rewriting the printed agreement made by the agents and/or representatives of Pace or second party to this agreement and/or any other written communication issued by Pace representatives (Including on company stamp paper). Further, second party understands that the benefits and terms of the vacations as set out in this agreement are final and binding on Pace and second party.”
In simple words above means that whatever you have been explained in an hour presentations, and all the queries sales team has answered (Even in written form) does not hold any value! Why do we then go through this process? The entire contract talks about second party only. It does not talk about the responsibility of company to provide accurate information to prospect customers/members and take strict actions against the culprits.
Please note the point number 24 under the terms and condition that states: “second party acknowledges that second party has been treated pleasantly and courteously………
So basically, this is limited until the contract is signed and there is no consideration given on how customers are treated after that! At least that is how it appears to me in absence of any published service standards.
Point number 23 talks about providing only one unit as per eligibility. This is not what was sold to us by the sales representatives. They specifically said that we can bring other family and friends along even to the international holiday as we are not buying just a membership but the ownership and that entitle us to use it the way we wanted.
We were also told that Pace will provide us travel (Flight and train) tickets on discount at least 20-30% at the time of presentation by sales team. Now we note that this is not reflected on the contract, which means that this is also not valid!
2. Sales representatives with the sole intention of selling the membership promised and assured services that were not part of original deal. As per consumer protection law this also amounts to unfair trade practice. For example –
A) instead of two kids under the age of 6 as written in the contract, we were promised that will be allowed to take our son who was about to turn 18 with us on holidays without any additional charges.
B) we will be allowed to use our free gift voucher during the peak season after my son’s exams are over without any additional charges as we have purchased the membership and thus will be treated like members and will have no restriction o[censored]sing the free gift voucher during the peak season.
C) the free gift voucher is provided to us to experience the services and in case we have any concern, we can cancel the membership without any question.
D) the property that we requested more than 15 days in advance to our holiday, we were informed is sold out. The strange thing is that when we checked it on trivago website, it was showing available! (This and delay in responding to our queries related to reservation made us feel that Pace don’t intend to stay committed to offer a completely free holiday gift voucher.)
3. Deficiency in service – i don’t believe that minimum required level of service is been provided to me by Pace at different levels. It appears that ‘service” for Pace is only limited to the experience customer have at the resort and nothing to do with the experience customer have with the sales/voucher/reservation team to book the holiday.
Customer care, reservation team and voucher team repeatedly failed to deal with my queries in timely and accurate manner. I had to chase them several times in vain to get answers to my queries, reservation and package. For example – received no response on:
A) what arrangement is there for accompanying driver
B) what is the government approved concessional rates for taxis that Pace promised to provide at the time of selling the membership.
C) what will be the cost of discounted meal package at the resort
D) i agreed to change my dates from weekends to weekday as Pace had written in their mail that booking cannot be provided on weekends. However, they did not respond to the e mail and then when we had cancelled the office leaves due to no confirmation from Pace, just a day before our travel date informed us that they are holding a booking for us.
E) queries on convenience charges, extra bedding etc.
Pace team conveniently and unprofessionally kept ignoring my queries and answered to only a part what they felt like to.
4. I don’t believe that “right to be heard” is adhered here. Ignoring my questions; incomplete responses; unprofessionally ignoring and answering only what Pace felt convenient; rude behaviour of mr rafiq (Ara branch manager) on the phone demonstrate that i have not given a proper hearing. He did not let me explain my concern in full and kept interrupting me in order to counter and dismiss what i have to say. He blamed me that i don’t have any genuine intention to continue with the membership and thus behaving difficult. He tried to intimidate me by telling that complaint will not get me any help and i don’t have any option but to continue.
I quote below some examples of Pace’s fake commitments mentioned on their websites.in light of the above examples it is pretty obvious that below mentioned commitments are just statements to trap innocent people into the contract and Pace don’t have any intention to deliver these.
https://www.countryholidaysinnsuites.com/product-and-services
Because of its sophisticated culture and generosity, Pace has become the talk of the town. Our only motto is “arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached” and we will leave no stones unturned until we accomplish our mission. We feel extremely delighted to offer our customers everything they desire because we understand their vacation is important to them. Ours is a team of professionals who are committed to their work and have high morale.
Country holidays inn & suites is amongst the top hotel service providing companies. Spread across 103 countries, country holiday inn & suites provides you with a wide range of destination hotels to choose from. Over 6500+ resorts are present all over the globe. The unique infrastructure, the lightning fast services and tech-savvy rooms are what pleases our customers the most. Since, we consider our customers are of paramount importance to us, we ensure they are offered every facility.
https://www.countryholidaysinnsuites.com/membership
Highlights of Pace travel membership plan
• 5-30 years’ premium holidays membership available
• 6n/7d at 500+ destinations (Domestic & international)
• diverse indoor and outdoor activities.
• rs10000+ discounts on international flights
• free movie tickets, flight assistance, attractive holiday packages and other such vouchers for our members.
• smooth pickup & drop facilities with nominal charges.
• mouth-watering cuisine
Please note that the above information about the highlights of the membership on the website is vague and misleading. There are only 187 properties given on the website under (74 Pace associated; 112 Pace internal exchange and 1 Pace kabeela resort) against over 6500+ resorts at 500+ destinations present all over the globe mentioned above! Please note the difference between destination and properties carefully. Here the number of destinations (500+) is more than actual properties available (187) to members to book! We were also told that Pace keep adding more resorts/hotels every now and then!
Smooth pickup & drop facilities with nominal charges. What are these nominal charges? Why this is not part of the contract terms and conditions? Commitment on the website like this holds no value as per the point 17 of contract that supersedes all the benefits promised if they are not mentioned on the terms and condition document that you were made to sign using deception.
Please help me to get full refund as Pace is not able to deliver what they promised and my dealing with them so far has only given stress to me.
Manoj from PACE called couple of days back after reading my complaint on the portal. Despite my mail explaining concerns in detail, I was asked to explain those once again. I honestly don’t understand this complacent attitude. Why can’t they simply answer my concerns point by point from my complaint on the portal to clarify the situation? If my concerns are not true and inaccurate, PACE has this wonderful opportunity to educate me and others using this podium. Or else they should apologies and swiftly refund the membership amount I have paid. I expect PACE to give me a timeline to respond to my concerns and not just leave it in a limbo and continue using delay tactic to frustrate customers.
Below is the response I have received post my above update. Please note that this is in response to my about 3000 words long complaint asking clarification on various issues I have experienced and noted. I appreciate Manoj acknowledging inconvenience caused to us and putting us under VVIP status though it wasn’t explained what this status mean! This is like that old english song.. “words…words all I have to take your heart away”.
More I am interacting with PACE, my belief of PACE is a bad investment is becoming stronger and stronger. I hope that my VVIP status might help me to get the answers to the discrepancies I have raised. The best would be to refund my money and honor the promise that I will be allowed to cancel my membership if not satisfied with the services.
Below is the mail from PACE (Manoj) dated 22nd Aug.
“As per the discussion with you..we really want to apologise for any inconvenience caused to you so far as you have requested to utilise your vouchers for Shimla location you have been advised by our vouchers team that utility charges and extra bedding would be taken off and as a matter of fact as per agreement the extra bedding applies for 3rd adult as mail has also being sent to you by our customer care team for the same.
I assure you that your services would be at par as per the agreement and as I am putting you under VVIP status so you would be considered as our premium member.
Request you to kindly do not keep any apprehension in this and we strive to provide you best of all services and amenities under your membership.”
Manoj (PACE), The mail you are referring to is already pasted in my update comments of 23rd August above. But the issue is that your response does not answer the number of concerns I have raised in my initial complaint on the portal. The matter o[censored]sing your services comes only once you clarify the concerns I have raised in my complaint. You keep mentioning about the agreement but completely ignore and choose to stay silent about the misrepresentation of terms and condition by your sales team. The condition about no refund under any circumstances itself is unethical as mentioned by the government consumer forum advice. There are many other such discrepancies I have raised in the complaint, which you are not addressing. If I don’t get the refund and you continue ignoring my concerns, I’ll start educating your prospect customers coming to your centers for the presentation about the hardship I and many other consumers are going through. I hope that will get my message to you with much more clarity, or at least would be able to alert other innocent prospects.
PACE continue to ignore my mail and avoiding to provide a satisfactory response to my complaint and refund the membership fee. I have gone ahead and taken some legal advice from couple of my friends. They are happy to help. If any of the other members like to unite, just drop me a line. I am also looking to organize a peaceful protest outside the Ara office to educate visitors visiting to attend and receive the voucher.
Mr Manoj (PACE) called yesterday to ask me to withdraw my complaint from the portal. I politely refused to do so as I am still waiting for a response of all the concerns I have raised in my original complaint. I have once again demanded the refund of full amount I have paid for the membership and cancel the membership.
In the meanwhile for the benefit of all (consumer and PACE) please visit the link to make yourself aware of The Consumer Protection Act 2019. For the ease, I have mentioned some key points from the published report below:
Analyzing Product Liability Under The Consumer Protection Act 2019
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (“2019Act”), which recently received the Presidential assent on the 9th August 2019 and was published in the Official Gazette for general information, aspires to safeguard the interests of the consumer by introducing provisions which aim at addressing consumer concerns in a timely and effective manner. In the words of Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the new legislation would ease the overall process of consumer grievance redressal.
1. The 2019 Act also aims to deal with unfair contracts in a comprehensive manner. It provides that a contract between a manufacturer or a seller or a trader and a consumer will come under the purview of an unfair contract if it will, in any manner, undermine the rights of the consumer. It lists down grounds on the basis of which the faireness of a contract can be ascertained. This comes as a notable amendment as it endeavours to base a statutory recognition to the practice the judiciary of striking out unfair terms of a contract in the interest of consumers.
(Please note…. Reference to https://consumerhelpline.gov.in/ConsumerCourt.pdf – Using “No refund under any circumstances” amounts to Unfair Trade Practice and does not carry any legal weight.
2. The Supreme Court in a case held that, “the courts will not enforce and will, when called upon to do so strike down an unfair and unreasonable clause in a contract, entered into between parties who are not equal in bargaining power.”
Please note the point number 17 under the terms and condition of the contract (PACE) given below is an example where consumers are not at a state of holding equal bargaining power –
The T&C of contract point number 17 states: “SECOND PARTY understands that this Agreement (in the printed form ONLY) SUPERCEDES any communication whether written or oral or any variation or hand written remarks rewriting the printed Agreement made by the Agents and/or representatives of PACE or SECOND PARTY to this Agreement and/or any other written communication issued by PACE representatives (including on Company STAMP PAPER). Further, SECOND PARTY understands that the benefits and terms of the vacations as set out in this Agreement are final and binding on PACE and SECOND PARTY.”
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