TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin St. Martin Reservation Centre/Owner Direct Rental

If you dispute a charge with a credit card company, they will generally credit your account for the amount in dispute, then give the vendor a chance to respond, and finally issue a determination as to whether the charge is valid or not. If they rule in your favor, the credit stands. If they rule in the vendor's favor, they will reinstate the charge. If they have indeed made a final determination, then congratulations are in order. If not, this might not yet be over. Good luck!

That can take up to 120 days .

Sorry, just read this string and my response may be late. Yes, I was the original poster reporting the issue with Sprimbarth. To the poster above seeking a refund as promised, I can say based on my experience you will have a challenge. The 'managing director' during my stay was Jean-Paul Clerc and he did not respond to any of my emails over a 5 month period. None. And we had a robbery of a safe in our unit which was opened with a master key, and the key should have been under the control of Sprimbarth. So one would expect a reply based on the severity of the event. We received virtually no help and only by factually reporting the incident on this board and others did we receive compensation for the unused days of our stay, as we moved to a more secure hotel the night of the robbery. We asked for a refund of the days we did not stay at the unit, as of course we had to pre-pay. And we did not receive any refund of the $500 stolen from our safe. And the refund of the unused days came from the owner of the unit, not Sprimbarth (as per Sprimbarth’s email to me). So this ‘company’ takes no responsibility for anything since they pushed the responsibility to repay our unused days on the owner. I wish you good luck and all the best with your claim, but based on my experience they will ignore you. So keep up the posting. Others need to understand the business practices of this company.

To NJHarry.....this entire incident has nothing to do with Sprimbarth whatsoever.....they were in fact very helpful with everything.

We have finally recovered health wise enough to join in this conversation. JMSH was indeed our client for a modest rental unit in Orient Bay for 4 persons. Unfortunately, the policy regarding use of beach chairs offered by la Playa and other restaurants on Orient beach changed several times during 2016. The policy was not updated on our site and included an offer by the restaurant La Playa for free chairs. The new management of La Playa changed the policy, no longer offering free beach chairs.

The problem is that the chairs belong to the restaurants and not the OB condo owners...the chairs are not now, nor have they ever been part of the condo rental fees. Rather as a rental agent to the guest we do our best to communicate whatever the current offer is from the restaurants to the guests. We state in our vacation rental agreement that these policies are subject to change without notice and are not part of the rental.

To make this more clear, we have now amended the written policy for the budget units in Orient beach on our web site as follows:

"PLEASE NOTE: That neither beach chairs nor umbrellas are included with this rental, however, as a courtesy to vacation rental guests, Bikini Beach Restaurant & Bar will charge for them, and then deduct the rental cost of these items from your tab (food and drink) at the end of the day. Also, a limited amount of paper products and soaps (toilet paper, Kleenex, hand soap, dish soap, etc) will be provided for your arrival, but will not be replenished during your stay, therefore, it is up to the guest to supply these products for themselves after they run out. If the unit does not have a land line or VOIP telephone, a cell phone with rechargeable SIM card may be provided upon request. And lastly, WiFi is free but not guaranteed. Again, these amenities and inclusions are provided as a courtesy and are not part of the rental fee. All are subject to change without notice."

When the final confirmation was sent to the guest, it did not include free beach chairs. When the guests arrived they were met by the current Sprimbarth staff, which had changed 3 times during 2016 and they were not familiar with the prior changes for beach chair policy. The staff informed the guest of the current restaurant policy for free chairs with the purchase of lunch at Bikini Beach. By the way this is the policy of most of the major restaurants on orient beach. The guest did use this policy.

Even though our principal was in the hospital and in recovery and our company was going through a difficult time due to this health crisis, the guest was told on their first call that we would get back to them shortly.

We responded immediately to the complaint about beach chairs and received a response requesting a $200 credit on Jan 16, two days after their departure form the island. Five business days later we responded with an offer to reimburse up to $200 with documentation that these funds were actually spent. This offer was refused under the reason that they should not be expected to provide receipts, even though they were planing to request reimbursement before they decided to not use the free chair option available with the new policy. By way of note, receipts are offered upon request at all of the restaurants. We then offered a $150 credit on a future stay, without any documentation. This too was refused.

The guest then placed a dispute with their credit card company. Once this happens, we must remove all offers to settle this complaint. While the guest has received a temporary credit of $200, at this point we have to wait for the dispute to come to our bank at which point we will have the opportunity to tell our side of the situation and it will be up to the bank to make a decision about the credit.

For our clients who may be reading this feed, please understand that we have offered St Martin accommodations since 1991 to many thousands of guests at St Martin hotels, condos and villas. We process millions of dollars in transactions each year. In these thousands of transactions over the past 25 years, we have had few complaints. When there is a complaint or misunderstanding, we work hard to find a solution satisfactory to all parties.

Most customers are reasonable when attempting to negotiate any misunderstanding. This guest was not understanding when speaking with our staff. The reimbursement would not come from the booking fees but rather as principal owner of this company, I would have personally reimbursed the guest.

We work hard to maintain a high level of customer service to our guests...in this case the guest was very impatient even after explanation by phone of the health hardship we were experiencing, along with an explanation that he would be contacted in a few days.

We appreciate those of you in this feed who are in our industry and stood by SMRC. Someone in the feed suggested, that if the guest had been more reasonable in their request the matter could have been resolved quickly. That is absolutely correct, the staff felt the guest was taking advantage of the situation when they refused to provide documentation. We will update you when we get final resolution from the bank.

I hope your health continues to improve.

Just curious, you mention the terms "modest" and "budget". What exactly does that mean and does that come into play with what is included?

You also state:

Is the customer responsible for your site not being updated or the policy changing?

With regards to chairs, you stated:

That kind of tells me you can change the rules any time you want and regardless of what is written, it means little or nothing?

I had exactly the same reaction and the same questions as just articulated by Ruralcarrier. Furthermore, although I don't think you meant it this way, the use of the terms "modest" and "budget" sounds a little condescending, like those renters don't deserve the same consideration as high-end renters. Just sayin'.
But this seems to boil down to what appears to be a classic case of two parties having unfulfilled expectations of reasonableness and/or understanding, and escalating the situation by refusing to engage the other party's point of contention (kind of like Republicans and Democrats in DC right now).
So if you handle millions of dollars of transactions each year, that means you earn hundreds of thousand of dollars in revenue each year. I see more upside in just reimbursing the $200 (with or without receipts - by the way, who ever asks for a receipt for a beach chair?) and being done with it. I don't see any upside in continuing the fight, just more negative press for SMRC.

You were almost reading my mind and between the lines like I did.

While there may be different levels of accommodations, and each level may or may not included different amenities. What is "modest" and "budget" to one may be "high-end", "luxury" or "upscale" to another.

I absolutely agree with VitaMan. No upside to SMRC with continuing the fight. They should have just paid the $200 and avoided the negative press.

And updated their website for content and clarity.

W.

In my mind I felt we were more than reasonable...keep in mind this is what the offer of $150 was...

As a good faith gesture we will provide you with a $150 grocery credit (voucher) for your next SXM rental with reservation made through St Martin Reservation Center. This rental must occur by Jan 31, 2018 and be for a minimum of seven nights after which the offer expires. This voucher has no cash value. Issuance of this voucher is also contingent on updating of negative comments on Travel Talk to reflect that you have been compensated by St Martin Reservation Center for your inconvenience. We make this offer to you to resolve your complaint without accepting responsibility for the change in policy by the restaurant...

Here is my biggest issue...one of the resaons that we booked this location is the free beach chairs; this offer was advertised when we booked, this inclusion of the beach chairs was spelled out on our confirmation in July 2016, it was not spelled out on our final confirmation in October 2016 (keep in mind that it is clearly spelled out that all funds are non-refundable); HOWEVER, and this is the biggest most concerning point, if the conditions had changed, the agency knew about it and did not say anything to us or point that out in October 2016 I think that is deceitful.

Once again I will leave it to the readers to make their own decisions about who is right and wrong.

My apologies for any confusion. Best of luck to you.

A final resolution has been given to this case through VISA (they have completed their investigation)...they have agreed with my position and have credited back my account the requested funds of $200. Seems like all of this could have been avoided with a simple "woops sorry, we will take care of this"....anyway it is what it is. Thanks for the support

And thanks to you for coming back with the final resolution. I guess it pays to be persistent.