LB
Lesley B
Active since Feb 2024
2
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2 reviews11 months ago
Apalling service and follow up
Its a long story! My daughter and 6 girl friends were looking for accommodation for 1 night only, close to a wedding venue where they would be attending a wedding on 20 March 2025. As we were in the area, my husband and I checked out Valverde Eco Hotel on 2 Feb. The first impression of the 2 staff members at reception was that they were poorly trained and could have looked neater and less like 2 teenagers "left to hold the fort" while the real receptionist was away. However, they were friendly and happy for us to have a look at one of the rooms that could accommodate 4 guests. As we felt that the rooms would be fine, I booked 2 rooms (one for 4 guests and 1 for 3 guests). The quoted prices (B and B) were R1390 for 4 guests and R1190 for 3 guests, were obtained from an online booking platform that the receptionists used to give me the quoted prices. They would be confirmed on payment and they confirmed that an invoice would be sent to my daughter that day. This was done and paid the following day. Closer to the date, my daughter contacted the hotel and advised that they needed accommodation for 2 additional guests. It was agreed that there would be an additional bed an an additional mattress added to 1 of the rooms. The cost would be R300 x 2. This was paid. They also paid R200 for some of the guests to have early check in to shower and dress for the wedding as they had traveled from KZN that morning. On arrival, there was no spare mattress and the receptionist on duty indicated that she was unable to confirm this arrangement with any other staff member. This lead to 3 girls having to share 1 double bed!! There was no hot water (apparently this was an Eskom issue) and only 6 towels were provided for 9 guests and despite the guests complaining, no other towels materialised. The following morning, despite Eskom power being restored around 03h00, there was still no hot water. My daughter and a few of her friends went to reception prior to their departure to air their unhappiness about their appalling stay and spoke to Brenda the GM. She apologised and was grateful that they had approached her and not gone to social media to vent their frustrations. They were offered vouchers to use at the hotel, which based on their experience, they would never use. On hearing about this disaster I made contact with Valverde Eco Hotel via email on 25 March. I was also now aware that the prices quoted to me and what was on the invoice were different( R125 more per guest). I was contacted telephonically by Brenda, who was most apologetic and verbalised that they should be refunded R300 for the mattress that never appeared, as well as the difference between the quoted price and the invoiced price (rate disparity). I advised that the vouchers offered to the guests would definitely not be used.I was grateful that this seemed to be sorted out and followed up with an email. I was advised that the refund may take a bit of time as signatures would be required and interviews regarding the matter for internal disciplinary actions needed to take place (which really should not cause the client to have to wait to be refunded). To cut a long story short, to date my daughter received a refund of R425 ( R300 for mattress and a refund of R125 to refund the rate disparity )on 14 April. I have sent numerous emails to Brenda enquiring when the other 6 guests would be refunded the R125 that they each paid over the quoted amount. My emails have gone unanswered. This is just plain appalling. Social media needs to know that shoddiness, poor training and a complete disdain for paying guests pervades this establishment and should be avoided at all costs.
0 replies
26 months ago
Standard Bank Home Loan insurance
Unfortunately I am forced to give a 1 star review whereas I would prefer it to be a 0 star rating! We took out insurance with Standard Bank 19 years ago when we obtained a home loan through them. Our home loan is 100% paid off (as of a few months ago) but we have not closed our access facility. We were surprised to discover that the replacement value (which our insurance is based on)for our house is about R1 000000 more than another insurance company has valued our home at. So basically for almost 20 years Standard Bank has over charged us on a monthly basis for our insurance. Dealing with anyone in the insurance department is akin to banging your head against a brick wall. We have provided them with the assessors valuation but essentially Standard Bank have said that we cannot discontinue our insurance with them. The only way to do this would be to shut down the entire (paid up)account including the access facility. The arrogance is unmatched. Not only will we be closing down the home loan / insurance account but my husband will move his current and credit card accounts to another bank. Clearly Standard Bank does not care about losing clients.
116 replies
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