Sandals Resorts Honeymoons: Horrible Customer Service
Sandals Resorts honeymoons should be great. In fact, ours was…until the spa staff swiped a few hundred dollars from a locked locker my wife’s wallet was in and then Sandals Resorts customer service treated us horribly when we reported it.
I’ll save you the long, long version of the story, but basically, we know that it happened while my wife was showering at the Sandals Emerald Bay spa on the last day of our Sandals Resorts honeymoon. We had just changed some money at the front desk, so we knew how much she had in her wallet when she went to the spa. A Red Lane spa employee (that’s the name of the spa there) walked her into the changing room, directed her to a specific locker, and gave her a key. When she came back after showering, her things were out of order: some things piled on top of each other, other items she had placed on top of her bag in the locker for easy access but couldn’t find them after opening it, etc. Like many people would, she did not think much of it because the locker was locked.
At the airport, a couple from Dallas that had also stayed on our floor asked if we had had money stolen during our Sandals Resorts honeymoon.
They had just noticed they were missing $200, and their money had been locked in their room safe and then the spa locker the entire trip. Again, in the wife’s visit to the spa, a Sandals Emerald Bay employee had walked her into the changing room, shown her to a specific locker, and given her a key. In my and her husband’s experiences, we were neither escorted, nor given a specific locker or key.
We noticed the money was gone when we were in the taxi on the way home from the airport.
It goes without saying that my wife’s purse had not left our sight the entire trip from the spa to our place. I mean, what cautious person lets their bags leave their sight in a place where they constantly blare over the loudspeakers, “If you see any unattended bags, please report them to…”?
The next morning we called John Keating, the General Manager of Sandals Emerald Bay.
We had met John Keating briefly while at the resort, and in our 5 minute conversation, he seemed like a nice enough person. Plus, my wife and I met while working for a hotel, and my sister worked for several hotels over many years, so we are intimately familiar with whom to speak when your money has been stolen. He told us that another couple (likely that couple from Dallas, but we don’t know for certain) had reported the same thing and that he would look into it. Being Friday, we figured we would give Sandals Emerald Bay customer service the weekend to look into the case of thievery. When my wife called back on Monday (having not gotten a response call or email), she found out that John Keating was on vacation.
It’s a curious feeling when someone tells you they are looking into a case of your money being stolen while on your honeymoon, but does not tell you they are going on vacation just after they get off the phone.
By this time, it had been four days since our money was stolen while on our Sandals Resorts honeymoon. This started a series of calls and emails with Sandals Emerald Bay assistant general manager Florian Siefert, manager on duty Ms. Motherso (spelling?), and Sandals Resorts security manager Joe Cox. In all but one case where they promised to call us back, send us an email, and look into this, they did not follow through. My wife continued to have to call back.
Needless to say we felt like Sandals Emerald Bay customer service was giving us the run around.
During this time, nearly every call or email my wife received from Sandals Resorts customer service was unnecessarily passive aggressive. Several of the emails say things like, “I will look into what actually happened,” “We are researching the alleged incident,” etc, etc, etc. Sandals Emerald Bay customer service, here’s a free tip in customer service. Next time someone says that their money was stolen while on their Sandals Resorts honeymoon, use this type of response, “Again, let me express how sorry I am that this happened. I will look into this and get back to you personally by [set a time].” And, then follow through!
At this point, it has been over eleven days without anything, but unresponsive, passive aggressive, poor customer service from Sandals Emerald Bay.
Now, if you know me or read this blog, you’ll know that I’m much more satisfied to talk about positive experiences than situations where hundreds of dollars were stolen from me and the people responsible for fixing the problem are unresponsive and generally rude. But after jumping through hoops, having to submit an Incident Report, being talked down to, having to call back constantly because the Sandals Resorts customer service did not follow through on their promises, and dealing with passive aggressive responses to a situation where we were the victims, I’m a bit pissed off.
Businesses cannot control the actions of their employees, but they are responsible for them.
Having worked for hotels, we both know that it is not difficult to get a duplicate key for a locker. There are safeguards against that, but it is not hard to get around them. In this instance, it is likely that the Red Lane spa employee that escorted both my wife and the other woman into the changing room had a spare key and stole their money. Would I love the money back? Without a doubt. Do I expect to get it back? Not really. What I would like at this point is responsive customer service from Sandals Emerald Bay, a real apology, and some sort of compensation.
Sandals Resorts customer service, this is how you treat people, who just spent thousands of dollars for a Sandals Resorts honeymoon.
This is how our Sandals Resorts honeymoon ended. You let your employees steal our money. Then, you treat us like you have no interest nor obligation to help us when we bring it to your attention. Is that how you work? Once we leave, you’ve gotten everything from us that you wanted and you can ignore anything we say? Thanks a lot.
Needless to say, I doubt we will be going back to Sandals Resorts for anything.
If this is how we can expect to be treated, how could we recommend Sandals Emerald Bay honeymoons or any Sandals Resort honeymoons or other types of stays to anyone? Go somewhere, where they treat you just as well after you leave as they do while you’re there.
Have you had a bad experience with Sandals Resorts or Sandals Emerald Bay? Tell us about it.
Wow that’s so terrible! I’m sorry you guys had to go through that. I’ll think twice about ever taking one of their cruises.
I had a similar incident with a hair salon recently, that made me feel that I was trying to scam them after I asked for a refund for a hair cut that completely wrecked my hair. I just wanted an apology or some sort of compensation, but they made me feel as if I was lying to them to rip them off, when it was the other way around.
It sounds like Sandals is doing the same thing by saying “what actually happened” and the “alleged incident” Definitely NOT a good way to keep your customers happy. So sorry that had to happen the last day of your honeymoon!
I hope you get your money back!
Thank you very much. I agree that your situation was very similar. I would love to get the money back, but even more, I would appreciate a genuine apology, them changing their approach to situations like this, and some restitution. The way this has been handled has been horrendous and the way they’ve treated us has been not much better. It’s sad when a company can motivate you so much to share your negative thoughts about them.
Sorry Pratum, quite the ‘How Not to Handle a Customer Situation’ example by Sandals. Alas, some companies just don’t get it….
Notwithstanding, hope the rest of the time spent was more memorable and lasting
Unless Sandals continues to get bad reviews I am still going in November, but thanks to your blog I will be bring travelers checks. I am pretty strict with money though and would had noticed immediately or at least been suspicious and checked right there if my stuff had been shuffled around! I guess I am not so trusting of people, especially in this economy I find myself watchful of everyone. Yeah you would think Sandals would be classier, but we are talking about an employee incident who are probably people on the lower end of the spectrum financially. Just because the CEO of Sandals might care about his properties, doesn’t mean the people on the low end of the totem pole do. I hate to say it, but you can’t trust strangers anymore.
Thanks, Marcus. Much appreciated. Yes, our stay there was enjoyable. Too bad they couldn’t treat us as well after we left as they did while we were there…well, except for that last day, but that goes without saying.
I have now seen your story all over any travel web site with reviews, any You Tube video you can get a hold of, and FB. I’m sure I have missed some sites or some of your posts. Its sad that you lost, or had money stolen – looks like a rough time.
That being said, never leave money unattended in any place especially in a foreign country. I expect resort employees to bring me a beer, food or towel when needed. Not look out for my things or trust that they won’t try to take advantage of fun going vacationers.
Your story seems as fishy as the dolphin in the bay. Your wife noticed things messed up in her locker after her shower, but didn’t notice money missing until alllll the way home to Atlanta? Also over the hundreds of reviews I have read, funny how the theives never hit anybody else?
I understand your motive of blasting your story all over anything to do with this resort, in hopes to somehow get them back, but it wont keep me from visiting in a few months. I will as always, be the only person able to have access to any of my money. A spa locker is a public locker, and a room safe is only safe to you and the staff while you are on the beach and they come in your room to clean or leave surprises.
I admire your dedication to spread the word of the poor service you have recieved, with that same effort a call to the corporate office might have been better. I’ll help-1-800-327-1991.
Signed,
Wallet in Hand
Thank you for commenting, and by all means, please do as you feel best, but in response to your criticisms and questions, I guess that I’ll put it like this… Read the 2nd paragraph and, for that matter, all of my post above. We know of at least one other couple that had money stolen in the same way. They asked us if we had had money stolen while at the spa. As well, we called first. We were in phone and email contact with Sandals Resorts & Sandals Emerald Bay almost every day. I gave them 11 days to rectify this or at least demonstrate they cared before I went public. At no time did any Sandals employee say anything like or follow through with, “I’m sorry. I can’t promise anything, but I will get back to you tomorrow with an update.” A simple “I’m sorry” and then them following through with their promises would have gone a long way.
Very welcome, and I hope that everything goes well on your trip. Regardless of whether someone is well off or not financially, the corporate staff and the managers of Sandals Emerald Bay have an obligation to customer service that they clearly do not follow through on. They cannot control employee actions, but they do have the power to look into problems like this and assure their patrons that they care. Unfortunately in this situation, they did not.
I work for an insurance company for travel claims. This happens all the time. Next time lock you valuables in the safe in the room.
Thinks like this are printed everywhere, in parking garages etc.