Club Med Reviews 

Like 1000s of other customers, club med is refusing to refund our family holiday and in unlawfully holding onto our money. I urge everyone not to book a future holiday with them, they are thieves profiting from the COVID 19 virus. They were very quick to lay off all of their resort Staff yet they have kept all paying customers money. I hope this company goes bankrupt, they deserve nothing more.

Zero stars if I could award nothing. Bunch of thieves earning interest off my money they refuse to refund. Supposedly offered a refund credit..ive had no offer, no response and no customer service/loyalty -dont believe they comprehend these words! I didn't pay for my expensive holiday with a credit note and I want my very hard earned, honest money back!

Club Med are a dishonest company. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Bad customer service; takes an unlawful stance on refunds even when that is against the LAW in the UK.

If you are going to keep the payable customers, please let us have a less noisy choice. Nice to have the youth going and we enjoy. But it is nessesary to have choice not to go to bed!!!!
Sorry, we are not returning.

Terrible company.
We stayed at the resort in Marrakesh last Easter , which we thoiroughly enjoyed.
We re booked for next year.
Due to family reasons we notified them.in September 2019 of our wish to cancel.
There response you can only cancel by paying 25% of the holiday cost of £6600.00
We will never book Club Med again

Have used Club Med many times but never again.
Staff indolence and ignorance of basic procedures led to an exacerbation of an injury sustained by my daughter. Complaint made to customer relations produced one reply of acknowledgement and nothing since. Phone number given goes straight to a voicemail to which they never respond.Dreadful attitude by staff in resort. For such an expensive holiday, post trip support is inexcusably bad.

Service is terrible - computer system doesn't work and hasn't for over a week, called and I was told they can't help and I'll need to email their IT department. My next call I spoke to someone who was much more empathetic and said they would speak to their IT team about the web not working but they couldn't help with resets and they didn't know when it would be fixed and it was up to me to follow-up again! This is before I've left, let's hope the service on holiday picks-up..!

With the chaos at Gatwick caused by drones and the possibility of problems associated with Brexit we decided to consider cancellation of our Club Med Holiday.

On 4th October 2018 we had placed a deposit of £335 on a holiday to take place in Turkey on 31st May 2019. The balance of £3540 is not due until 2nd March 2019.

If we cancelled at Christmas time Club Med demanded we forfeited both the deposit and paid the additional cost of a proportion of the cost of the holiday. The total would be £994.98 - almost on third of the holiday price.

The Competition and Markets Authority guidance on cancelling goods or services intimate that non-returnable deposits can be unfair and the business should be contacted to explain how they calculate the amount they are keeping or charging us for cancelling the contract.

We have made formal complaint to Club Med that Customer Services have failed to provide a response to the advice by the Competition and Markets Authority and merely refer to the written terms of contract sending us one of 4 pages and another of 23 pages. Both are in densely written small font.

This is not at all helpful in resolving the dispute as the contract itself could be regarded as unfair.

Club Med have not confirmed whether I ticked the box for reading the 4 page or the 23 page document when confirming our booking.

The length and wording of both would have been difficult to read on screen and we completed the booking in anticipation that the contract would be a fair one.

I am giving consent for Trust Pilot to let Club Med know about this review and to assist them the booking reference concerned is 195248607

Issues reported to both my Member of Parliament and the CMA

We await final responses before deciding whether or not we should seek resolution via ABTA or prefer County Court action.

The responses of Customer Service to the issues I have raised together with other reviews here add to the worries of drones and Brexit.

UPDATE March 27th - dispute lodged with my credit card company concerning the deposit paid. Even worse after cancellation Club Med took £3540 from our credit card account that we did not specifically authorise. This too has been challenged and is a disputed sum. Awaiting input from ABTA!

UPDATE MAY 13th - Tesco Platinum Visa did not reject the unauthorised debit in full. They have refunded most of the unauthorised debit but considered they must deduct a quarter of the holiday cost in accordance with the unfair contract. The refund remains as a disputed sum with Club Med having right of appeal for 42 days. Sadly have needed to may complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

ABTA have finally provided a detailed reply in which they state:- "With regards to the issue of them taking the balance without your agreement this matter is being considered by our Legal Department who will take any action deemed necessary under the Code"

I know Club Med is not anymore the exclusive fun resort it used to be, and that their service and facilities are in a sharp decline compared to themselves and to competitors. However, within a very short notice, I could only find availability with them for one week stay from sunday Feb 11, 2018 for departure the next day, on Feb 12.

Instead of enjoying the lower cost of only buying their land portion, then arranging on my own a flight and return transfers from airport to the Club, I chose to simplify things and deal with only one commercial entity. I purchased the whole package in this quick last minute sale, to avoid occasional missing links in the Club's logistics (staff forgetting to pick me up at the airport as I have experienced in the past, as did many other clients) and to get all purchases under one chart.

The receipt promptly came attached in a confirmation email, with room and flight reservation numbers. I cannot write back to this email address since it does not take replies and not monitored.

I checked on the airline website; my ID, flight number, schedule were all correct, but I could not choose a seat, perhaps because the deal was agreed on the weekend, one day prior to flying out. All right, I can live without my favourite seat for a short flight.

The next morning, monday Feb 12, the schedule was:
- 4:30 am : wake up call. Taxi to the airport

- 6:30 am, at the airline counter the airport: the agent found my reservation number under my name, but could not issue my boarding passes. She smiled in the corner of her side look: "You cannot fly if you don't pay for your ticket !". She was convinced that I tried to fly for free. She refused to call her supervisor or airline customer service, did not want to have anything to do with me as I am not their customer. I am on my own, full of embarassment and ridicule, while the queue was long and heard it all.

I called the airline customer service mysel, and got a more polite explanation: Club Med has not paid the airline yet, so they cannot allow me to board. It was too late to buy a full fare ticket to board this flight as such transaction requires at least 4 h prior to boarding. The customer service agent suggested that I purchase a full fare ticket for the next flight (red eye flight leaving at 11:30 pm, arriving at sun rise, without arrangement for pick-up by the GO).

The Club Med only opens at 9:00 am. I don't want to run the risk of paying double for the flight and transfer without formal approval for other arrangements. No way we could fix the bug today or to save one day of vacation.

- 8:00 am: back home with the suitcase.

- 9:05 am: Club Med opens; an agent reacted very promptly that it was my error to have left the airport ("c'est une erreur de quitter l'aéroport"). She refused to explain why, what I should have done or not. The only explanation I got was "the agent who booked your flight has skipped an essential step in the airline booking procedure". She refused to listen and to answer my inquiries about alternative options: purchasing another ticket and get refund later; with the same airline or another; which email is valid for communication; who to turn to in case of such emergency; will I be submitted to any penalty; etc. Instead, she was very irritated and repeated again and again that this issue is very rare, never happened before and will never happen again, don't worry about what to do, etc.

Now, Club Med pressured me to purchase another trip immediately, on the spot. They proposed 3 options:
1) Fly out tomorrow, only rest for 6 day instead of the 7 day vacation, not clear how much they will refund me;
2) Pay the difference in cost for another club for what is left on my vacation days; or
3) Discard those options and 3244$ will still be blocked on my credit card for an undefined period of time before it will be considered for refund. I must write somewhere to request a refund for the return taxi trip to the airport.

There will be no courtesy discount in which ever option I may choose, no other attempt to repair my insults. Why would they care ?!

When I insisted to get further details on their conditions before I could take a decision, they got more impatient and pressured even more : "Do you want to travel tomorrow or not ? You have to tell us now". Otherwise what ? I will be penalized ? It is a cheap intimidation tactic. No idea if they want to get rid of me, to take advantage of my distress to get another sale, or to stop the airline from issuing my ticket and save their bucks.

I surprised myself for being so calm; perhaps because I was totally perplexed, under the shock of this non-sense, exhausted and lacking energy to get upset, to fight back or to negotiate. I was stunned by her aggressive and offensive manners which suggest high possibility of misrepresentation on my case, no honest approach or unfair resolution. She treated the situation exclusively from their advantage, with absolutely no consideration for my pain.

Even if she made verbal promises of what may possibly happen: "It is our mistake so you normally should not have to pay for anything", I must be careful as they are holding my money as hostage. I decided to cancel it all.

I waited and waited for an excuse from her, a show of empathy and consideration for my grievances, but she never did. I ended up concluding the very short call by inviting her to apologize: "How about saying 'I am sorry madam' ? Can you say those words ?" Niet. She never did.

Lessons learnt by me:
- A whole Club Med package does not protect clients more than a separate flight and land purchase; they don't care.
- Club Med has no clear policy for refunds. In case of dispute, expect poor manners from customer service agents.
- It is not just in decline; with such services, it may be agonizing !?

Lessons for Club Med to learn:
- Post clear policies on conditions for refund, for flight cancellation and the like, and stick to it.
- Lift your service above your competitors to stay afloat.
- Teach and retrain your agents to acquire some kind words, instead of favouring rude resolution skills. Clients would cooperate better and would not report on social media.
- Erase our impression that you can get away like a hit and run felony. Redeem your reputation, particularly to recurrent customers, with good will gestures to match what you want to be premium class of resort: a free weekend, a bottle of wine in their next vacation or an upgrade. Playing psychotherapy with sweet letters is more pathetic and still show that without endorsing some consequences, Club Med will not change.

Had a fantastic holiday kids club amazing everyone enjoyed it

I can forgive my room not being available until 18.30 on the day of my arrival , because the service and welcome is so warm , having enjoyed 13 vacations summer and winter with Club Med It feels as though im part of a family.
For the past 6 years I have travelled with club med for my ski holidays every year, meeting with friends from Russia, Italy and France, being able to ski in groups of the same standard is a absolute pleasure, coupled with great service and entertainment, I have stayed at Sestriere and Cervinia- Italy , and Les Arcs, Alp duHuez, Chamonix and Val Dlsere.
However what I was not prepared for on my last trip (10th-17th Jan 2016 ) was the disappearance of my luggage from the Village reception minutes before my departure, this was an exact repeat experience of my trip in Cervinia 2013, I could not believe it !! my transport arrived and I had to leave without my luggage Again.

Then what has followed can only be described as horrendous, not only the unbelievable repeat experience of a luggage loss but the inexcusable lack of compassion and service from the Uk Club Med "customer relations" a very loose term indeed. There is no phone number because they do not and will not accept telephone calls, you must write a letter or email any communication you wish to have with them.

This process has been arduous and after finally being put in touch with the Club Med loss adjuster, Marsh , I then went through what can only be describe as a court room battle to establish the contents of my luggage. I required a professional translator , a legal assistant and the intervention of ABTA to achieve anything like the Value of my luggage contents. I was the victim of the loss, as the Club Med Village accepted Full Responsibility for the misplacement/loss of my luggage, as a team we had to provide evidence from the airports, Grenoble and Geneva , written evidence and a file number from the Police recognising the loss, we then additionally provided photographic evidence of me on the vacation in my clothing identifying each item, invoices, bank/ credit card and PayPal statements, after all this information I was offered a 1/4 of the value of my items! For a loss of which was not my error or judgement!.
After over 50 emails I eventually settled for a sum which was below the luggage contents value, but I no longer had the fight in me nor was I prepared to continually invest my time and financial resources to continue the battle for the claim.

ABTA were brilliant, and none of this could have been achieved without the professional translator and my legal advisor.

What I have discovered is that front of house Club Med are amazing totally customer orientated, but at the core of the business customer service is an extreme inconvenience .

My repeat business and expenditure accounted for nothing , and my experience of dealing with Club Med Customer relations has left a very bitter taste indeed.

I would strongly urge any potential or existing clients of Club Med to ensure they do not leave their luggage unattended and pay close attention to the GOs handling of your luggage , clearly identify your luggage with bright ribbon or tape and ensure you have a clear record of your luggage contents.