Coconut Palms Beach Resort II room 1014 broke me.
Five days of cooking in a bathroom because our kitchen sink was broken, waking up to dumpster loaders instead of ocean breezes, spotting parked cars and leftover motorcycles from bike week instead of sunrises dotted with pelicans, fighting for pool chairs with 388 people around a pool meant for 19, and having two kids in our bed every night watching “the big tv” broke me.
That’s the only explanation for what happened Wednesday night, as I came in from the pool to make Deal Girl’s macaroni and cheese. I forgetfully tried to fill a pot with water from the kitchen sink, it grunted and gasped, and I broke.
My intention had been to leave a voice mail for the hospitality manager who I had been corresponding with at Diamond Resorts, but it took me 20 minutes to log on to the horrible internet connection at the hotel to find her number. During those 20 minutes I also walked to the front desk to find it vacant and both guest computers broken.
Needless to say, when I finally did retrieve her number, I was not only broken, but shattered. From my patio, while traffic roared by, I left a ranting, tear-filled message demanding an apology for ruining my vacation.
Deciding that was not enough (and I am NOT proud of this), I decided to follow up with an email. I took a shot at what the CEO’s email address might be and summarized my plight, CCing him. I wasn’t trying to insult him, but the language I used surely didn’t come across as friendly! I was actually trying to show him how bad it was here and beg for some help…like some crazed captive in a hostage video.
To Stephen Cloobeck’s credit, he reads and responds to his own email promptly. His one line response, while not friendly to me (as he thought I was insulting him!), did get results. We came back from Kennedy Space Center yesterday to a brand new kitchen sink. No note, phone call, or any other correspondence from the hotel at all, but clearly our pleas had been heard.
Is there a lesson in this (besides NEVER stay at Coconut Palms Beach Resort II)? I don’t know. I would rather not have come across as a lunatic, but I am grateful to have a functional sink to make coffee in this morning.
(However, I did not have a functioning dishwasher. Turns out when the maintenance staff fixed one, they broke the other!)
Glad you got some resolution and now have a working sink. 🙂 Maybe Mr. Cloobeck can resolve the poor trade issue as well?
You go girl!
I would have forwarded pictures of everything wrong with the unit. Including the view. To have a complex in that kind of shape at the height of spring break is not a good business practice. I learned a long time ago that pictures get your point accross quicker than words.
You should watch Steve Cloobeck’s episode of Undercover Boss sometime. It is included in Amazon Prime if you are a member or you can google a different source:
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Resorts/dp/B00BFXQZTQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364663007&sr=8-1&keywords=undercover+boss+diamond+resorts
and read the “excellent” press he has received such as:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/tv/undercover-boss-star-finds-appearance-brings-unwanted-attention
You know what….EVEN IF HE FELT INSULTED PERSONALLY that CEO should have responded kindly to you. You should have received a lot more than a fixed sink!!! Since he has appeared on Undercover Boss and I signed up for their “drawing/contest” they have called me so many times about time share stays, that I had to ask/demand to be put on the “do not call list”. Hoping he will read your blog and they will figure some of this out!!!! Happy Easter!