Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island ANYTHING BUT PARADISE Paradise Island, Other

29th of Dec, 2011 by User398310

I am just going to include the letter here that I have sent to the hotel, it explains my whole situation. To Whomever it may concern, I am writing this letter to express my extreme disappointment in your hotel. My experience has been anything but paradise. This was supposed to be an enjoyable Christmas vacation but it was a nightmare from the start. I feel that it needs to be brought to your attention so that others do not have to experience the utter disgust and disappointment that I have. First let me say that this vacation was booked on October 7, 2011. The booking dates were from December 21st, to December 27th, 2011. I have visited Atlantis before and stayed at the comfort comfort suites. The deciding factor this vacation to stay at Atlantis hotel directly, was that you got a dolphin encounter included with your purchase. My family and I figured that would be a great experience to have on Christmas. At the time of the booking I had tried to have my daughter help me book the meal plan but it was very confusing. Nowhere on the website did it say anything about black out dates. I wanted to include the meal plan for all 4 of my family members. Every time we tried to book it, it was booking a whole new vacation. We were told that we could purchase the meal plan upon arrival. When we arrived at Atlantis to check in we spoke with a man at the front desk by the name of Troy Toote. Everything seemed to be smooth sailing until we asked him about the meal plan, he told us that the meal plan was blacked out for the holiday and that we could not purchase it. We told him about the difficulty of purchasing the meal plan online and he told us that it did not matter. He said and I quote "Anyone that did purchase the meal plan for the black out dates will be refused when they go to eat at the restaurant." I asked to speak to a manager. Troy Toote disappeared into the back room for a while and did not come out. When he finally came out he was accompanied by a manager by the name of Aaron Reckley. He basically told us the same thing that there was no way we were able to get on the meal plan due to the blackout dates and that it would not be honored by anyone who had previously purchased the meal plan prior to arrival. Since there was supposedly nothing that could be done, the next order of business was to ask about the included Dolphin Encounter, which was the whole reason we chose to stay at this hotel in the first place. We were told by the same individuals that we could not receive our included dolphin encounter which is called the "Atlantis Experience pass" on my receipt because that was also "blacked out". I have to reiterate that nowhere on the website or the commercial that is constantly played on TV did it say that there were blackout dates. Mr. Aaron Reckley's rude response to the whole thing was "well u didn't pay for this encounter, we were giving it to you for free." I explained to him that the whole incentive to stay at this hotel was that we got the dolphin encounter included. Mr Aaron Reckley then went on to tell me in a very nasty tone that I had booked the vacation on October 31st, and that was past the time that the Dolphin Encounter offer was available. This is NOT true. What had actually happened is that I booked 4 nights on October 7th, then since i figured we would have such a great time, I added on two more nights at Atlantis. I even have a receipt from atlantis.com (not booked through any other hotel website like Mr Aaron Reckely tried to tell us) that clearly states the vacation was booked on October 7th 2011. A copy of this receipt is attached. You can see that an amount of $1,048.00 was taken out on October 7th. The REMAINING balance of $415.66 was taken out on October 31st, 2011. It was not my choice when the money was deducted from my account, if it was up to me I would have been happy to pay the full amount the date that I booked it. Atlantis.com itself set up this payment plan which you can clearly see on my receipt, and chose when they were going to deduct the money. After a whole bunch of going back and fourth we were told that the incident would be "investigated" and they would call us on the phone within one hour and let us know their decision. We figured that this would all be resolved and that they would realize that there was a mistake on their part so we proceeded up to the room. When we arrived at the room to try to take a shower after hours of traveling, we discovered there was no running water. I then went back downstairs to a very long line of disgruntled customers. I met a man that was happy to tell me that there had been no water in that tower for two days. The problem I have with this is that they knowingly checked me into a room with no water after all of our disappointment. When I went back to the front desk I asked Aaron Reckley. "Is there water in my room?" His response was "is there water in your room?" while laughing, and rolling his eyes as if to make me sound like an idiot. I literally asked him 5 questions that he repeatedly danced around to get a response of NO that there was no running water in my room. The man standing behind me was so appalled at this customer service he yelled out THATS THE CORRECT ANSWER. It turns out he also had no water for two days. I was told that they were assigning rooms for people to go take a shower in, and then I was to be sent back to a room with no running water. For a hotel at this kind of price, this is just not acceptable. This is not a cheap hotel to stay at, my family has saved up all year to go on vacation. There is absolutely no reason for this to be an issue. I feel that because we complained about the water, we were changed from a beautiful water view room (with no running water) to a room overlooking the parking lot and the top of a cement building. I have to also say the whole time that we were asking about the Dolphin Encounter, the meal plan, and the running water, your front desk employees were happy to smile, roll their eyes and laugh in our face while telling us no theres no running water, and no u may not have your dolphin encounter or meal plan. I am being 100% serious when I tell you they were smiling at us, and basically laughing in our face. They way they spoke to us was rude and appalling. Just the way I was told "well you didn't pay for that" was disgusting. You would think that you want people to have a good time at your hotel so that they can recommend it to friends, and maybe come back again, but not in this case. I never heard anything about the dolphin encounter investigation like we were told we would. That by this time seemed to be the least of our worries, we were just happy to take a shower in a room with running water after hours of traveling. The next day we went back to the front desk to ask about the Dolphin Encounter labeled on my receipt as the "Atlantis experience pass". We basically were told the same ordeal about the black out dates. When I asked why they weren't posted when I booked the vacation and why it said "Atlantis experience pass" on my receipt, the question just kept getting danced around with an attitude. I was repeatedly told in a rude demeanor that I booked the vacation on Oct 31st which is not true. We feel as if our hands were tied and that nothing could be done. I felt as if they baited us with the dolphin encounter to get us to the hotel and then switched the offer on us. Never in my life have I felt so taken advantage of. At one point I even asked if we could cancel our reservation and go to Comfort suites or the Best western. I was told no that it would have to be investigated and we may not be reimbursed. After the result of the dolphin encounter investigation I figured it was best not to take our chances because there was a good chance we would not get our money back. As if all of this was not enough, while staying in the room that overlooked the parking lot for 2 nights we came to discover that the TV remote was broken, the lamp in the middle of the two beds was broken, the refrigerator door didn't close, the blow dryer did not blow hot air, and the toilet did not flush properly. They did fix the remote, lamp, and refrigerator but when they sent a "plumber" up to fix the toilet that wouldn't flush, he said I don't know whats wrong with it and walked away and we never saw him again. After this we went back down to the front desk again and explained our situation and begged that we please be moved back to the room we paid for with running water. They did honor our request which I am very grateful for. After that the vacation went smoother, we decided to pay for our dolphin encounter ourselves through blue lagoon island and had a wonderful Christmas over at that island. We later learned several people we met were on the meal plan and were not refused at the restaurant like we were told they would be by Aaron Reckley. I even asked the hostess and our waiter at Atlas bar and he was happy to tell me that the meal plan was in full effect and we could sign up at the front desk. I just wanted to write this letter to bring to your attention the horrible customer service me and my family have experienced. I have never been on a vacation like this in my life, and I have been on many. I have never received a hotel service like this ever in my life. I have never been so angry, frustrated and disappointed all at the same time. I am so disappointed at the way I was spoken to by your front desk representatives. To see my family literally crying at the front desk and being laughed at was horrendous. I have worked in retail for years and if the customer had ever had any kind of problem we always did our best to accommodate them with a friendly attitude. These people were very mean spirited and it seemed as if they were happy to put us down and tell us "no" to everything. Your front desk representatives need to learn how to assist their customers properly without a rude, horrible attitude. I will never vacation in the Bahamas again let alone stay at Atlantis due to this experience. I will never recommend this hotel to my friends or anyone I come across that is thinking about staying there. Like I said, I felt that this needed to be brought to your attention so that hopefully in the future others do not need to experience the horrible trip I have.

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