Yesterday, I published the blog “Not All Vacations Can Be Winners: Sandals 2016“.
Apparently Sandals took notice. Today, I received a fairly worthless offer to shut me up. Suddenly, the lack of negative Sandals reviews online is making a lot more sense – they’re literally bribing people to take them down.
Today, I received an email back from Sandals saying this:
We truly regret that you feel the way you do based on your feedback. Nevertheless, we wish to express that our conciliatory gesture still stands, and it is our sincere pleasure to extend to you our goodwill gesture of one (1) credit night; a voucher will be sent to you under separate cover (restrictions apply). If you wish to accept, we ask that all parties to the booking sign where indicated, and all signatures must be witnessed by an independent individual, not related to you.
So let’s just examine all that’s wrong with that response, ok?
- “We regret that YOU feel that way.” Ummm…that’s not an apology. It’s actually putting more guilt on the other party. For example, I regret that your service sucked and ruined my vacation. See how that wasn’t an apology, either?
- Offering only a one night voucher essentially requires us to spend more on something that has proven to be a worthless product, in order to take advantage of it. Unless I want to fly to the Caribbean (which requires about 6 hours of total travel time from my home) and fly back the VERY NEXT DAY, I am forced to shell out additional funds in order to use it. If you actually cared, you would have refunded some of the $3,000+ you already took from us.
- The voucher offer? It’s conditional on me taking down this blog and any other social comments, never saying another bad word about Sandals again, and agreeing not to sue them over how horrible their service was. Specifically:
Release: We, WHITNEY and CARL M*******, accept the offer noted above as final settlement of all claims, suits and actions which we have or may have against Grand Pineapple resorts, Sandals Resorts International, its associates, employees, officers, agents and insurers arising from an incident occurring in February 2016. In consideration of said compensation; we unconditionally release Grand Pineapple resorts, Sandals Resorts International, its associates, employees, officers, agents and insurers from any and all liability now and in the future in respect of this incident.
Confidentiality: We, WHITNEY and CARL M******* agree not to disclose any information regarding the existence, substance or terms of this Agreement to any third party, without the prior written consent of Sandals Resorts International Limited. We, WHITNEY and CARL M*******, agree that violation of any obligation contained in this Paragraph, is a material breach of this Agreement and shall entitle Sandals Resorts International Limited to all available remedies, including but not limited to termination and/or withdrawal of any consideration given, the right of injunctive relief, reasonable attorney’s fees, costs and expenses in obtaining relief, to be determined by the Court.
Social Media/Online Comments. Within five (5) days of this Agreement, We, WHITNEY and CARL M*******, hereby agree to remove, or cause to be removed, any blog posts, social media publications, or other online comments or content that may be damaging to the reputation or brand of Sandals Resorts International Limited, and/or Unique Travel Corp., and/or any of its officers, agents, servants, employees, directors, successors, assigns, associates, affiliates, insurers, sister corporations, parent corporation, subsidiaries and any other person or entity connected to Sandals Resorts International Limited or Unique Travel Corp. of any nature whatsoever and that we, WHITNEY and CARL M******* posted, or caused to be posted, prior to signing this Agreement.
So….No. We’re not signing that. In fact, we’re more insulted now than we were before your “apology” arrived.
Thanks for giving me some more blog fodder though. My views have already been through the roof today!
