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Destination Vacations International Reviews Top Five Travel Complaints
DVI Understands There Are No Shortage of Complaints when it Comes to Travel Concerns!
Complaints, Complaints, Complaints...Members Only Travel Club, Destination Vacations International tabulates the top five travel complaints.
1. The number one complaint among all air travelers is the unacceptable size of airline seats. Scientists and health officials report the increasing girth of US citizens yet most airlines continue to offer the same unacceptable seat. Travelers need not be obese to take issue with the size of an airline seat, even healthy weight individuals express dissatisfaction. “I’m petite, yet I can’t get comfortable in the space US airline carriers assign. I feel like I have to keep my arms tight against my body.”
2. Lost luggage landed in the second spot among Destination Vacations International members’ complaints. A vacation can be totally ruined by lost or delayed luggage. One traveler reported: “We were so excited to start our ski trip. We never dreamed of a ‘sick-out’ among baggage handlers would cause our luggage to be left behind in Philadelphia. The luggage was delayed for 2 days. I think the airline offered $100 per traveler, not nearly enough to get boots, hats, gloves and rent ski equipment. We lost two days of our vacation.”
3. Complaints about airport delays and cancelled flights ranked third. Complaints on this issue rated highly among Destination Vacations International members because they often feel helpless when faced with delayed and/or cancelled flights. In some cases travelers are at the mercy of Mother Nature as storms, ice or fog delay the start of their vacation plans. Frustration levels run high when air carriers cancel flights forcing hundreds to the understaffed customer service desk to make other plans.
4. Destination Vacations International members reported unanticipated seat assignment changes as their fourth biggest travel complaint. As airlines make equipment changes on routes, previously assigned seats can be automatically reassigned when a new class of aircraft is used. This affects vacationers traveling with small children the most as they are often no longer sitting together. Unfortunately, busy stewards/stewardesses distance themselves from the very problem they created. One angry customer explains: “I presented my confirmation which clearly showed my family seat assignments next to one another. The stewardess said there was nothing she could do but that I should try to trade seats with other passengers. I paid them for a product that included seats together. They don’t provide the product they sold me and I have to be the one to beg passengers to trade? It’s ridiculous and bordering on fraudulent.”
5. Customers really dislike being put in “prison on the tarmac”, which earned final spot on the DVI list of common travel complaints. The proposal of a traveler’s bill of rights was a hot topic after public outrage regarding numerous incidents of flyers being forced to remain on the tarmac in their seatbelts with no access to restrooms, water or food. Most incidents are not as egregious as this but even an extra hour taxing or waiting in line on the tarmac can be stressful. The department of transportation and the avation consumer protection division has developed a 58 page document entitled “Development of Contingency Plans for Lengthy Airline On-Board Ground Delays”. This document spells out for the airline industry the basic needs of passengers including food, hydration, clean environment, access to lavatory facilities, information and the ability to communicate.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
We dodged the bullet at Serenity. It did not feel good from the get go. Sales Director "Allen" is smooth and slimy and his pitch was attractive but he mixed program features. Only after we got into the private meeting with Beemer Babe "Marcie" did it become apparent that the "Anytime" program did not include many major features described in the presentation - those were available only with purchase of one of the several "Today" options. We were treated well and all questions were answered but that "dirty"/"slimy" feeling never went away. I read the contract and it was generally in plain English but clearly favored the seller and the no recission aspects were clearly stated. As in most of these kinds of "businesses" the "vocalized" features are quite detailed but the same level of detail is not translated into the contract - signing up is an "act of faith". Some program features are described on separate sheets of paper and somehow I doubt they would be honored since the contract does not explicitly incorporate them into the contract. I suppose too that if we were still hanging there as a potential buyer the "pot" would have been "sweetened" even more. I would love to know how they got our name so I could sever any relationship with the provider.
Why does Mr. Shuman own both the SALES OFFICE in delaware AND the VACATION CLUB DVI- Destination Vacations in NJ? Isn't it supposed to be a seperate entity altogether? With the same person owning both, Mr. Shuman gets to keep all the money. That's actually worse than what Mr. Turner did in NJ. At least he was actually selling a vacation club owned by someone else, distributed nationwide by other sales office owners, and servicing the nation. Also, at least Turner didnt make his employees post false comments and "testimonies" claiming that their company is just great. Way to deceive people even more. DVI has less than 8 employees. And the sales office claims that they service thousands of people. They hardly even book anything for clients EVER because the clients find better prices on their own or get upset with the lack of discount/customer service they were expecting. Basically the office deals with complaint after complaint and issue after issue. Mr. Shuman started out at the office Turner owned in Parsippany. They then BOTH started DVI together and hired one woman to book ALL the trips from her home! A few months into it they had a few more employees and an office. But in June when the AG filed the complaint against Turner, he backed out of DVI for whatever reason. Mr. Shuman became the sole owner while simultaneously opening its sole sales office. They then changed the name from Dream Vacations to Destination Vacations to get away from the bad press (Dream Vacations is listed as one of Mr. Turners affliate companies in the official complaint!). Mainly so when clients come home and look it up on here they dont find the real information theyre looking for...
Look, I'm not saying DK or whoever doesnt want their clients to be happy, of course they do! Its just the fact that they are initially misleading and lying to them that is causing the problems. Another difference between Turner and Shuman is this: Turner started his company fresh, no bad press, no Attorney General breathing down his neck, no complaints board, etc. Shuman has to try and keep as much underwraps as possible if he hopes to hold onto the MILLIONS he has made in the last year alone. One of the ways that a owner like Shuman will do this is to blame all the unhappy clients on the salespeople or customer service reps that work for them, this is straight bull! Trust me when I say that the salespeople that lie the most get the furthest in the company and make the most money, and the customer service people are left with hundreds of upset customers. Too many to even help. Not to mention the customer service people are asked to lie to clients on a regular basis. Horrible Horrible Horrible. And whats worse is that Mr. Shuman and his employees really think that they are not doing anything wrong! And if they have a clue, they dont have a care. OHHH sidenote: anyone who got the AWAY WE GO gifts for coming in to the presentation, Mr. Turner OWNS that company! Anyone who thinks I'm lashing out or making things up.. I would SWEAR to this in a court of law, every single word. And what's sad is that I probably will have to one day!
Also... If you took a trip with DVI and were originally pleased with the price, accommodations, etc. PLEASE BE ADVISED: a portion of your initial sign-up fee was used to reduce the trip cost for you! Most likely, the trip was booked on Orbitz or Travelocity and a portion of the price was taken off and quoted to you (amount depends on the amount your deal was of course) when the trip was booked, Mr. Shuman's credit card was used and you were charged in the office. UNDERSTAND: this is only for 1st time trips! This is why new members are directed to a special and specific place for booking. The way they see it is this. If you pay $5000 for a membership and they take $800 off of your first trip, they still make $4200 and you think that their services are great and legitimate. By the time trip #2 comes around, they dont care about saving you money. In FACT, employees were actually encouraged by and forced by Mr. Shuman to add a commission to the cost of the trip! So, you would ultimately be spending more money then booking on your own. So what did you spend your $4200 for? Some would say for the condo weeks. Thats a flimsy argument in and of itself. The condo weeks are a good deal if youre willing to be flexible in dates, times, location. And you want to travel off season. But even those have a commission added to them!
*I can copy and paste too serenity travel* At least what i say is true :-P
Also i have heard the attorney general is investigating the recission issue. The no recission was used by the companies being sued in jersey. The letter looks almost the same with the same logos. Even the folder the give looks the same. I think they are trying to pull a fast one. I am sure there are satisfied customers but it seems there are more who are not. Personally from what i am reading i am thinking they are going to cut an run after about a year a reopen someplace else. If you bought and are not happy you need to try to get your money back now. They claim its a delaware rule that they cant offer a recission period but that is not the case.
delaware does nto list information about complaints against them on the site, but some advocates will inform you of several complaints
I appreciate the compliment. I hope I always deserve such. (quibble: I'm not attempting to advance my career with Serenity--I'm an out-of-work tech writer who found a part-time gig, trying to keep food on the table. It's certainly an interesting experience being there.)
Since you made a verifiable statement about the AG office, I looked over their site and couldn't find anything about specific complaints, so I left a phone message and wrote them an email asking what they could tell me. If I learn anything interesting, I'll post it for the edification of other interested readers. Perhaps you could share how you got this info; then anyone, not just me, could check up on what's going on.
Not sure what to say Rogers George. Your emails express a sense of integrity, however I don't understand how you think Serenity Travel will forward your career. The complaints filed with the Attorney Generals Office are growingregarding Serenity Travel, 875 AAA Blvd. Newark, Delaware Phone: 302.709.2206 .
(Hmm. Well. Apparently this site doesn't let people post more than about twice. It wouldn't let me reply, and it deleted what I had written when I looked for a way to sign in or something. I think a complaint site should allow free expression to both sides of an issue. Maybe it's a glitch, or they really really want to prevent spam, or something. I'm going to try another email address, see if that lets me in. --Now to try to remember what I wrote the first time!)
I think you're exaggerating a bit. At least our experience was less "pressurey" than you describe. When we went to the presentation, during that "private" session, we read several pages of documentation (the whole contract) and the guy did not pressure us to skip anything, and he answered our questions frankly. (We joined. It was after that that they learned I do web stuff and they hired me to develop a couple sites for them, and that has given me an inside track to see what is going on.)
I have sat in on several one-on-one sessions, and if the salesman doesn't believe the people have the finances, they don't try to pressure a sale. If they think there's a sale there, they have several financing options, and they offer them. It's a fact of life that someone who leaves a sales presentation without buying never comes back, so I don't blame them for trying to make the sale.
The company deals with several (three, I think) marketing companies who generate the leads and provide the freebies. As it happens, we were drawn in by the Away-We-Go promo. I get the impression that the marketing company hopes you decide that it's too much bother to redeem the tickets, but we have a trip in mind, and I jumped through the hoops. In due course we got the promised form. I haven't sent in the form yet, but we're planning a trip to San Diego next year to do research for a web site that my wife and I want to develop. We'll send it in when we figure out our schedule. Even if we hadn't joined, we felt that the ticket voucher was a fair trade for the evening we invested.
(ahem, shameless plug:) Check their blog (which I set up. Call me if you want a site of your own) for a description of how at least one of their staff treats people who don't buy. The url is http://serenitytravelnewark.com
Rogers George rethink before you endorse. We attended and did not buy, those you saw leaving with a grateful goodby is part of the sales pitch, intended to impress you as you sit there trying to decide whether to write a check or not. The high pressure sales pitch was obvious and we were expected to commit @ 10 PM without having the benefit of reviewing any agreements, contracts or any written material.
Just try and collect on the "free" airline tickets from their partners Away We Go Promotions.
Sorry for calling you by the wrong name Rogers George - you seem like a good guy. I just hope you have your facts straight before you sing the praises of Serenity Travel. Have you attended one of their sales pitches or seen their paper work? It has Dreams Vacation International all over it. How can they distance themselves and still use Dream Vacations International logo? Check this out http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/shame/090611_Vacation_Club_Lawsuit.
Well, for one thing, it's Rogers George. (Don't feel bad--most people get it backwards, even though I'm not likely to get my own name wrong.) Thank you for not saying outright that I'm a liar, whoever you are. I'm a technical writer by trade, and telling the truth is a pretty important part of my job, not to mention my personal ethics. I prefer not to be anonymous, by the way. In fact, if you'd like to get to know me better, check out my blog. Google: Mushrooms to Motorcycles.
Here's some more news about the place—you'll have to decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing. They (Serenity) are having trouble with a travel agent (employed by DVI) who is better at starting things than finishing them, and some customers are having to wait too long for things like their confirmations. So, it's bad that there's someone who's bad at closure, or good that they want to fix it. You decide.
I asked about Dream Vacations--they distance themselves as much as they can from that operation. I think Destination Vacations is an unfortunate coincidence of initials.
You people are a joke. The only reason Serenity Travel (Dream Vacations International) moved to Newark, Delaware is because there is no rescission law and Dreams Vacation International is being sued by the state of New Jersey. To George Rogers who has nothing but good to say about Serenity Travel, karma is a crazy thing may your Serenity Travel experience take you far in life.
First, a note about who I am. I was recently hired by Serenity Travel to do some web stuff for them. (go to http://serenitytravelnewark.com to see what there is so far). I got to see a recent customer service issue as an outsider from inside the organization.
The complaint created quite a stir--these folks really wanted to make this customer happy. They showed me the complaint and it was a reasonable one, IMO. I can't find it here now, and I think the originator removed it--I also saw that person's email to Serenity Travel, saying the issue had been satisfactorily resolved.
The essay above that starts out talking about "no shortage of complaints" is the public response of their customer service manager to that issue. He's not a web geek, and he filed his response under Complaint instead of Response, so here it sits in all its glory, addressing an issue that's water under the bridge.
Personally, I'm impressed with the desire of these folks to give good service. They sell a pricey product, but I see people leaving their sales presentations as friends whether they buy or not.
Not sure I understand your "complaint". Serenity travel is a subsidiary of Dream Vacations International (DVI) who has a class action lawsuit filed against them in the state of New Jersey. It appears as though you are trying to lead people away from the real (DVI) complaints . To naive consumers, PLEASE do your homework when dealing with this company.