Ramada Plaza Resorts OFV
Orlando/Ft. Lauderdale Vacations fraudulent postal letter, unsafe and unhealthy hotel accomodations, rude personnel, did not stand behind their word

On March 12 I received a postal letter concerning a promotion from Ramada Plaza Resort OFV. I responded within the allotted time using confirmation number 272469940. We were told that the Ramada Plaza Resort is offering a vacation promotion for a limited time. It was for three nights in Ft. Lauderdale, two nights on a Bahama cruise and two nights in Orlando for the price of $698 per person.

This sounded like a good trip to celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. I have stayed at Ramada Inns in years past and was pleased. However, the accommodations, the treatment by the welcome center personnel and time share representative proved otherwise. I sent in the remainder of the cost and dates I selected sixty days prior to leaving using my reservation number of PN031704-014XT. I had to call on several occasions to confirm the reservation and ask questions so I could book the airline tickets for 08/14 -08/21. The following are the problems that my husband and I faced upon this trip:

1.) The Alamo rental car that I upgraded prior to leaving for $134 was very small. My husband is a tall man and this made us spend another $70 to upgrade to another level.

2.) Ramada Plaza Resorts was located thirty minutes from the beaches and the center of Ft. Lauderdale. This hotel was not up to date nor very clean. The first room that we were given was very dirty - the bed looked like it had been slept in, the toilet was dirty, and it had not been vacuumed. The front desk did give us another room. However this room (room 437) had a tub that had been painted over and the paint was peeling up and the tub stopper was broken and sticking upside down this made for a severe safety and health hazard. Also, the room was not supplied with towels that took me four hours to get some (this happened every day). Also, the front desk listed us as checking out within two nights when the voucher clearly stated three nights (we had to correct this mishap).

3.) We attended the time share presentation in Ft. Lauderdale. We had to drive thirty minutes where we sat and waited another 45 minutes for a representative to speak with us. He was friendly until we said that we did not want to invest in a time share at this time. He then very quickly and rudely presented us to his manager who went through the speach again! She said that we had to listen to it in order to get our gift (what gift?). It turns out it was a voucher for the Bahamas cruise (I thought that I had paid for this already when registering).

4.) I received a call on Friday August 6 from Ramada confirming our reservations and letting me know that I would be attending a time share presentation the day after we arrive in Ft. Lauderdale. I asked if she knew what time it would be and she said no but that we could change it when I arrived. She never mentioned that we would have to attend one in Orlando. So, on Monday, August 9 I called customer service asking if I attended that presentation in Ft. Lauderdale how would I receive the two-day express tickets for two to Universal Studios or did I have to attend two in one week. She said no that one was already set up in Ft. Lauderdale that I would have to attend and then just bring the voucher I had for the tickets to the welcome center in Orlando to obtain the tickets. When I arrived at the welcome center and did what I had been told, I was met with a young, inexperienced manager named, Philip Bellanti who told me that I HAD to attend another presentation. I explained the situation to him several times and even asked him to call the customer service or even let me call and talk to them. He said that I could not use the phone even though it was located in front of me. I even suggested he dial the number and get someone that I could talk to, he would not do this. He stated that even if customer service was called they would have to pull the tapes that would take several hours and even days to get back with me. And the most Ramada probably would do would be send me a voucher for the Universal tickets (what would I do with them when I live in Michigan?). Upon urging from me, he called his manager and this person said the same thing. When I left the welcome center, I called the customer service and was met with a response as above and I asked to talk with a manager or a complaint center and was given just an address. This caused us to have to purchase two day express Universal tickets for two at a cost of $278.93.

5.) Lastly, the Amerihost hotel mixed up my invoice with another customer which resulted in me being locked out of my room on Friday, August 20. The front desk located the invoices and discovered that my name was on it with the hotel voucher and my credit card number, but that someone else's name was typed in small print on the top and crossed off, there also were two room numbers one on the second floor (where I was staying) and one on the fourth floor (where the computer stated I should be), she let us back into the our room on the second floor. The next morning upon check out, I received a bill for $110 and then had to speak with a manager who was very concerned about this mix up. She worked hard to resolve this problem and even apologized (the only employee during this vacation that was professional). I did pay the hotel tax of $24 in cash in case something showed up on my credit card bill from Amerihost.

This entire trip proved to me that the customer is not always first nor right with the Ramada Plaza Resorts company. This should be in their mission and goals for the future. Therefore, I would like a full reimbursement for the trip:

$698 X 2 = $1396 (reservation)
$ 134 (upgrade for cabin and rental car)
$204.38 (tickets) $74.55 (express it) = $278.93 (2 two day express Universal tickets)

Total of $1791.89.

Cindy
Lincoln Park, Michigan
U.S.A.

Company: Ramada Plaza Resorts OFV
Country: USA
State: Florida
City: Ft. Lauderdale
Address: 2419 E. Commercial Blvd
Phone: 9547357474

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