TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Club O Refunds?

Carol,

Just received an email stating they sent the check already and it is 575.00 US

I didn't think to ask about what kind of check they would send never having to go thru this,

I didn't even think about Foreign or otherwise.

Live and learn

I will post WHEN I actually receive it

Philly

Not sure how that amount computes, versus the Euro amount charged? But keep us apprised of status..

Right now $575 equates to 477 Euro

Many places on the island set their own exchange rate, it is not necessarily pegged to the published rate.

Correct but it WILL be pegged when they cash the check

Only if it is written in Euro.

Well it depends on how they wrote the check. It may have been written in Dollars. That seems to be what was said. Then it is a matter of what bank it is issued on. A lot do have banks in the US also.

Guess it depends on what the original deposit (in dollars) was. If it was 500 euro then $575 is pretty darn close and dependent on euro to USD at the time of deposit

575.00 was my initial deposit made by my credit card back in Aug,2017

Philly

OK thanks. Keep us updated when you can.

The sounds of silence from Club Orient is deafening, and somewhat telling....

Carol is right -- that doesn't wash because when Florence got back to me, she said the opposite. This is copied directly from her email to me. It contains the info she needed in order to do the wire transfer (even though it's not listed here, they also needed the bank's ABA # for wire transfer, which I sent her in a follow-up email):


>Dear Robin,
>We are now able to refund deposits.
>To speed up the process you can send me your wire transfer instructions as
>the credit card refunds will take much more time.

>Beneficiary:
>Bank:
>Bank Address:
>Bank Phone number:
>SWIFT Code:
>Kind regards,
>Florence

>Florence BERNARD
>Rooms Division Director
>Directrice de l'Hébergement

>CLUB ORIENT RESORT
>1 Baie Orientale, 97150 St. Martin, French West Indies
>www.cluborient.com

We received the wire transfer a couple of days later. It was 500 euros, which translated (at the time) into $584.95 USD. Our bank charged us $16 for the wire transfer. BTW, we paid our initial deposit via credit card.

If it was put on your credit card then they should have just credited your card. Nice and simple with out the wait for snail mail or bank transfer.

At this point, I think they are the only folks here on TTOL who have actually confirmed they have RECEIVED their refund, so they can count themselves lucky.

You are right, but for some reason, that wasn't offered as an option. According to Florence's email, that would have taken more time. ??

They probably no longer have the equipment from the Bank. No CC machine, etc. Or connection to a phone line/computer line. Their merchant account is perhaps no longer functional. Though...in a hurricane...depending upon who their processor was, they should be able to get new equipment. But, where does it go?

I received the same email from Forence early Dec, gave my bank info and the refund bank wire came a week later. Paid by CC.

I think that is great, they are at least trying to refund ASAP. Sounds right that they don't have their credit card machines working as the office was damaged or flooded, maybe even the booking records hard to get to etc. Its not that easy on a little island to just go to the Bank and get online with new equipment which they don't even have on hand. So they have to wire the money but still I would not doubt they are limited to the money they have. In theory these room deposits are not income until used but I would bet most small properties and even some larger ones live on them day to day. No one expected anything like Irma did. Its gonna take a long time to get back to anything close to normal but it will happen.

Hi. Welcome to the board! Glad you received your refund. Sounds like you definitely are one of the lucky ones!

Carol, Thanks for your guidance on the forum.
Maybe leavng some money on deposit helped or they may be processing alphabetically.. I'd be near the beginning of the list.

I am delighted that some people (2) have received their refunds. But we are still waiting for our $1,500 deposits for 3 reservations and we also contributed $500 to the employees GoFundMe account. Go figure: It leaves a bad taste in our mouth,

Doesn't sound like very good business practices to not refund deposits when asked for. If it was deposited via a credit card have the bank go after it by disputing the charges. Don't get caught with your pants down holding the bag. Oh wait. It's clothing optional Club O. HeHe

There are time limits for disputes. Varies by MasterCard, Visa, AMEX.

For example, this is MC

4855 - Goods or Services Not Provided The chargeback time limit is calculated based on one of the following:
120 calendar days after the Central Site Business Date when goods or services were provided
120 calendar days after the latest anticipated delivery date when the provision of goods or services was delayed
120 calendar days after the cardholder’s realization that interrupted services have ceased, but not to exceed 540 calendar days of the Central Site Business Date

Scubaman--I really don't think the situation is at all funny...

I wanted to follow up on my original post above to post my experience with the refund. I replied to Florence and confirmed the address she had listed for me was accurate, and on Thursday, January 4th I received an email from her saying she had mailed a refund check in the amount of the deposit owed back to the address that I had confirmed. Today, I went to the mailbox and the check was there. That was pretty quick, considering it was over the weekend. basically. The check apparently was mailed from their US office and is from a US bank with an address in the state next to mine. I am depositing it into my bank account tomorrow, so I am completely satisfied with the results, even though it did take some time for this to get resolved. I just wanted to report this, and hope all the others waiting on a refund have the same success that I have had.

Thanks for posting!! Glad it has worked out for you.

I believe (but don't quote me on this) I was told that Club O has a Florida office; I think it might have been Jim Ruos who told me that, but again, not sure where I heard it from. So it shouldn't have been that difficult to get to the records. I know that initially Florida was impacted by Irma also, but they've been up and running for awhile down there. I'm not knocking Club O, as we love it there; but seriously 4 months was a bit much to have to wait for a refund. We could afford to wait some; not everyone can do that, especially with trying to substitute other vacation plans in place of Club O. And it's weird how some of us (a few) have gotten refunds already and others haven't heard anything at all. Can't be alphabetical because our last name starts with 'U'. In any event, I hope everyone gets what they're waiting for very soon. I'm sure this is a trying time for everyone.

ok , received my refund for entire amount in the form of a check yesterday.

Glad that's over!

Like above poster it was mailed from a US bank.
Philly

Great! Thanks for posting..

I e mailed Club orient yesterday and this is the response i received regarding my refund.

Thank you for contacting Club Orient. We are temporarily closed due to the effects of Hurricane Irma and Maria. There is currently no phone service available. Please visit our website ClubOrient.com or our Facebook page for current information. Everyone's email will be responded to, but we have limited staff and internet. Thank you for your patience and understanding during a very difficult time.

CLUB ORIENT RESORT
1 Baie Orientale, 97150 St. Martin, French West Indies www.cluborient.com <http://www.cluborient.com/>

<https://www.facebook.com/ClubOrient>

<https://twitter.com/ClubOrientResor>
<https://www.instagram.com/cluborient/>

Sounds like more BS to me.

I don't want to throw salt on the wounds but considering the generosity or people to the resort and staff and the acceptance of such generosity, Club Orient's excuses and conflicting responses sound just as you stated.

Definitely time for Club O to cancel this auto-reply message.

My wife received an email from Florence yesterday, asking to verify our address and saying that a check will be mailed to that address. She responded, sending a nice thank you to Florence. I'll let you know. But if "the check is in the mail" is accurate, considering the total devastation, 4 months isn't all that unreasonable. The worst part is not knowing during that period what our status was.

Hang in there, Cathy! We received that standard auto response during each of our contacts with Club O, but it was followed within a few days by a 'real' response from Florence.

I think they could have eliminated a huge amount of bad vibes by actually responding to inquiries...rather than an auto-response. I think many would have accepted a delay in receiving their deposits if it was handled on a personal basis....

Update

We got an email today saying we would receive a refund.

Good, thanks for posting! I still think they need to eliminate their auto response, or at least modify it to say the email was received and will be responded to within (x) amount of time, something to that effect. The current auto response is inappropriate.

Don't know if I am allowed to post this way - if not, please delete - this is from Club O's Facebook page, today, less than 1 hour ago:

Message from Florence:
We apologize to those of you who have not yet received answers to your questions, comments or refund requests.
From your feedback we find we did not receive all the emails sent to us.If you did not receive an answer, please forward your message to reservations@cluborient.com
Feel free to write to this same address if you have questions, need immediate attention, etc.…
We have started to process the deposit refunds for those who requested it.
Doing this is a long process ,as some guests have not only asked for a refund, but also requested a charge back to their bank.This creates a number of issues and takes a lot of time, as each request must be verified.

We are still unable to make credit card refunds because of technical issues, but we are working very hard on it.
I understand it is frustrating, but we continue to work under difficult circumstances.
I would like to thank all our friends for sending nice notes and support messages. It means a lot to us and brightens our days with positive vibes.
Thank you for your patience. We'll get there as quickly as we can thanks to all of you help and support.

No problem with the post. Glad they are finally being more responsive.