Kulu Bay, Fiji - What a SCAM!
Nov 10th, 2006, 01:36 PM
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Kulu Bay, Fiji - What a SCAM!
I just posted this on lonely planet, but I don't want anyone to get sucked into staying at this dump of a place, so I'm posting here as well.
Just wanted to drop a warning on here about this "5 star resort" and give you the truth on how this dump of a place is run. You can tell that it once was a great place, but the owners have let the place go to pot, and really don't care about anything but making a buck off selling this scam as a great place.
We were supposed to be picked up at the Nadi airport - no one showed up. So we hired a cab and made it down to the boat. They got it together and paid for the cab, but once on the boat to take us to Beqa Island, it really got bad. There are no life jackets or radios on any boat, and this boat was broken on top of that. My father in law fixes boats for a living, so he was able to get the boat running to at leastget us to the island.
Once there we were greeted with song, and then shown into the deserted main bure. After drinking canned SunQuick juice, we were showen our rooms. We immediatly had to stuff toilet paper into the cracks of the roofline to try and keep out as many bugs as possible. It helped, but it should have been like that to being with. These were fist size holes!
It was Saturday night, and I asked about the promised free activities that were to happen - mat weaving. She said they'd do it later in the week and left it at that. Dinner of our "gormet, fresh" food consisted of fatty beef potroast on a bed of boxed noodles. Ah, what happened to the fresh local food? (I've been home for a week now and I'm still waiting for that to appear!)
Sunday was no better. A visit to the local village church was supposed to be free as stated on their website and their in-room activities book, yet we were charged $15US for the 5 minute boat ride. We were also reminded several times that we needed to make a large donation to the church for allowing us to visit.
Sunday night for dinner was this frozen gray fish they tried to pass of as fresh marlin. Ah sure. Like people can't tell the difference between fresh and frozen. And when asked about it, the staff did admit that it was frozen. My steak still had scales attached. Ewww. At this point in the stay, we're eating the horrible food not because we like it, but because we're tired of being hungery and are running out of granola bars that we'd brought. Activity for that night was supposed to be the story of Beqa. Still waiting to hear that story as the staff didn't do it, and then headed home to their village before we even made it back to our rooms. The pathway lights were off before we made it halfway.
Monday didn't get any better. The staff was rude to us, we had the same frozen grey fish for dinner, only this time it was swordfish. We were given the same dirty looks, and one of the staff even told me they talked about me in the kitchen while I wasn't around. Ok, thanks. This place was really going from bad to aweful, and we still had 5 days left.
Diving was not any better. They didn't have proper dive equipment, no oxygen tanks on the boats for safety, and again, my father in law had to fix the boat because it was broken.
Monday even was it though. Our bure roof started leaking right over the master bed, and enough was enough. We would have gone to tell someone at the front desk, but oh yea, they left early that night. The lights on the pathways were off, so even if there was someone to tell, we wouldn't have been able to find them. We just said this is too much, and made the decision to leave the next morning when the other guest was leaving for the mainland.
So Tuesday we get up, pack, and tell them we need to leave. They ended up delaying the boat leaving by over 2 hours, demanded we tip them a lot, and made us feel bad that they might lose their jobs for the poor service we were given. I asked for a refund at that time for the 4 nights that we would not be staying with them, and was told I'd have to wait till I got back to the States and speak with the company then. Not a problem.
Flash forward to today, where I have been dealing with trying to get a refund from this company for almost a week now. They took my first call, listed as I calmly explained all the issues, and said that I wanted a refund for the 4 nights of service not provided, and the 1 night of roof leaking. She said she'd call back Tuesday. Its now Friday and I finally had to call on a different phone line because she ignores my home phone number. Melissa, the reservation agent who is the daughter of the owners, claims that she can't refund me because its the policy of the resort not to issue refunds. Is it also then the resorts policy have unhappy customers leave because the service sold on the website turned out to be a scam, and was not delivered in the slightest? Is the thier policy to serve frozen and canned food, have rude staff, run down buildings, and lie about the kind of service one would get on their website? She made it clear that they are out to protect their name as a great resort, yet when I bring that up, she says its not fair of me to bring out my frustrations on her when she is the representitive of the company? She said she'd need to bring up my complaints with management (her parents) and write a letter of my formal complaints. Why would you need to write a letter to your parents?
Overall folks, stay away from this dump of a place. You'll get nothing but bad food, service, and disappointment by even thinking of stepping foot off the boat when you land, that is if you happen to get one a working boat and don't get lost at sea! These people certianly know how to ruin the vacation of a lifetime, and then make it even more horrible once you get back trying to recover the money they scammed you out of! They should change their motto from The Ultimate Escape to The Ultimate Scam!
Just wanted to drop a warning on here about this "5 star resort" and give you the truth on how this dump of a place is run. You can tell that it once was a great place, but the owners have let the place go to pot, and really don't care about anything but making a buck off selling this scam as a great place.
We were supposed to be picked up at the Nadi airport - no one showed up. So we hired a cab and made it down to the boat. They got it together and paid for the cab, but once on the boat to take us to Beqa Island, it really got bad. There are no life jackets or radios on any boat, and this boat was broken on top of that. My father in law fixes boats for a living, so he was able to get the boat running to at leastget us to the island.
Once there we were greeted with song, and then shown into the deserted main bure. After drinking canned SunQuick juice, we were showen our rooms. We immediatly had to stuff toilet paper into the cracks of the roofline to try and keep out as many bugs as possible. It helped, but it should have been like that to being with. These were fist size holes!
It was Saturday night, and I asked about the promised free activities that were to happen - mat weaving. She said they'd do it later in the week and left it at that. Dinner of our "gormet, fresh" food consisted of fatty beef potroast on a bed of boxed noodles. Ah, what happened to the fresh local food? (I've been home for a week now and I'm still waiting for that to appear!)
Sunday was no better. A visit to the local village church was supposed to be free as stated on their website and their in-room activities book, yet we were charged $15US for the 5 minute boat ride. We were also reminded several times that we needed to make a large donation to the church for allowing us to visit.
Sunday night for dinner was this frozen gray fish they tried to pass of as fresh marlin. Ah sure. Like people can't tell the difference between fresh and frozen. And when asked about it, the staff did admit that it was frozen. My steak still had scales attached. Ewww. At this point in the stay, we're eating the horrible food not because we like it, but because we're tired of being hungery and are running out of granola bars that we'd brought. Activity for that night was supposed to be the story of Beqa. Still waiting to hear that story as the staff didn't do it, and then headed home to their village before we even made it back to our rooms. The pathway lights were off before we made it halfway.
Monday didn't get any better. The staff was rude to us, we had the same frozen grey fish for dinner, only this time it was swordfish. We were given the same dirty looks, and one of the staff even told me they talked about me in the kitchen while I wasn't around. Ok, thanks. This place was really going from bad to aweful, and we still had 5 days left.
Diving was not any better. They didn't have proper dive equipment, no oxygen tanks on the boats for safety, and again, my father in law had to fix the boat because it was broken.
Monday even was it though. Our bure roof started leaking right over the master bed, and enough was enough. We would have gone to tell someone at the front desk, but oh yea, they left early that night. The lights on the pathways were off, so even if there was someone to tell, we wouldn't have been able to find them. We just said this is too much, and made the decision to leave the next morning when the other guest was leaving for the mainland.
So Tuesday we get up, pack, and tell them we need to leave. They ended up delaying the boat leaving by over 2 hours, demanded we tip them a lot, and made us feel bad that they might lose their jobs for the poor service we were given. I asked for a refund at that time for the 4 nights that we would not be staying with them, and was told I'd have to wait till I got back to the States and speak with the company then. Not a problem.
Flash forward to today, where I have been dealing with trying to get a refund from this company for almost a week now. They took my first call, listed as I calmly explained all the issues, and said that I wanted a refund for the 4 nights of service not provided, and the 1 night of roof leaking. She said she'd call back Tuesday. Its now Friday and I finally had to call on a different phone line because she ignores my home phone number. Melissa, the reservation agent who is the daughter of the owners, claims that she can't refund me because its the policy of the resort not to issue refunds. Is it also then the resorts policy have unhappy customers leave because the service sold on the website turned out to be a scam, and was not delivered in the slightest? Is the thier policy to serve frozen and canned food, have rude staff, run down buildings, and lie about the kind of service one would get on their website? She made it clear that they are out to protect their name as a great resort, yet when I bring that up, she says its not fair of me to bring out my frustrations on her when she is the representitive of the company? She said she'd need to bring up my complaints with management (her parents) and write a letter of my formal complaints. Why would you need to write a letter to your parents?
Overall folks, stay away from this dump of a place. You'll get nothing but bad food, service, and disappointment by even thinking of stepping foot off the boat when you land, that is if you happen to get one a working boat and don't get lost at sea! These people certianly know how to ruin the vacation of a lifetime, and then make it even more horrible once you get back trying to recover the money they scammed you out of! They should change their motto from The Ultimate Escape to The Ultimate Scam!
Nov 11th, 2006, 06:17 AM
#3
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It amazes me that people go so far for sun, sea and sand when you can get better much nearer home. People when faced with such a dump usually head home early but that was not even an option. Who did you buy the holiday off of? There must be someone you can complain to? In Britain, such companies must be bonded (to ABTA and/or IATA) and you can complain to those companies. Send a complaint on this site:
http://www.bulafiji.com/index.cfm?go=main.contact
The Fiji islands rely heavily on tourism and act quickly when they get negative publicity.
http://www.bulafiji.com/index.cfm?go=main.contact
The Fiji islands rely heavily on tourism and act quickly when they get negative publicity.
Nov 13th, 2006, 10:56 AM
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Just wanted to post an update to this.
I'm still dealing with the greedy thieves that run this place. They say its their policy not to issue refunds, and that even if they were staying there, they wouldn't get a refund. I guess they needed to be reminded that they own the place, and don't have to pay.
With that kind of policy, I also reminded them that I guess their policy is to also let 4 uphappy guests leave and not do a thing about it. They would rather have me tell everyone what kind of 'resort' (and I used that word so loosely!) they run than to come back, say it had a few promlems, but they wanted to make it right, etc. Instead they'd rather be horrible about everything.
I did go ahead and file a complaint with the Fiji Tourism board, and since they are out of California, I'll try the better business bureau to see if they can help me out.
These people are really running a scam though, and I feel bad for all the others out there that got taken by the fake website they have set up - makes it look like paradise till you walk in the door.
I'm still dealing with the greedy thieves that run this place. They say its their policy not to issue refunds, and that even if they were staying there, they wouldn't get a refund. I guess they needed to be reminded that they own the place, and don't have to pay.
With that kind of policy, I also reminded them that I guess their policy is to also let 4 uphappy guests leave and not do a thing about it. They would rather have me tell everyone what kind of 'resort' (and I used that word so loosely!) they run than to come back, say it had a few promlems, but they wanted to make it right, etc. Instead they'd rather be horrible about everything.
I did go ahead and file a complaint with the Fiji Tourism board, and since they are out of California, I'll try the better business bureau to see if they can help me out.
These people are really running a scam though, and I feel bad for all the others out there that got taken by the fake website they have set up - makes it look like paradise till you walk in the door.
