| Escape to Shape |
| Escape to Shape escapetoshape.com AWFUL -- Left me stranded!! San Francisco, Internet |
| 26th of May, 2011 by User852524 |
I had recently booked a trip with Escape to Shape to Morocco, and was supposed to be on the trip this week. However, when I got to the airport to fly to Marrakesh, my flight arrival time had changed, so I emailed Erica Gragg to let her know what time I would now be arriving so she could make sure the driver would be there to pick me up. I got a response from her -- luckily before I took off on the flight --that the trip had been canceled! And I had NOT been notified in advance of going to the airport and almost getting on the flight (had my arrival time not changed, I would have been stranded in Morocco alone)!!! Furthermore, she did not offer any compensation other than refunding the deposit I put on the trip. I am out the cost
of the flight, and she has refused to take any responsibility to offer me any compensation for the loss of my day off, travel, and the airline ticket. She must be running a business that is near bankruptcy if this is how she is treating clients. |
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While it is beyond unfortunate that Escape To Shape had to cancel their May 2011 Escapes in Marrakech due to a terrorist attack in the main square (Jemaa el Fna) it is also unfortunate that Linda Pratka has decided to air her personal grievances publicly. While I would prefer nothing more than to ignore her review I cannot remain silent in light of her accusations, so I will simple paste below the exact email that I sent you her May 21 so that everyone who reads this will have the complete story, rather than her flawed recounting of it. Additionally, I would like to point out that Linda was NOT stranded, had she actually even gone to the airport in Marrakech, let alone Paris, we would feel an additional sense of responsibility. And while we do feel very sorry that we did not follow up with her personally after she did not respond to our original email it never crossed our mind that someone would actually spend the time & money to fly into Marrakech for just one night...
Hello Linda. I hope you are enjoying your extra few nights in Paris.
To answer your question- you should expect to receive the check by the time you return back to the US, I imagine, if not a few days afterwards. I double-checked our bank records and the money was deducted, so it is just is a matter of the check making it from them to you. It was issued via my personal Bank Of America account since Escape To Shape is a foreign company and your original payment, on Sept 1, 2009 is too long ago for us to refund through the original payment method (credit card).
As I mentioned previously, we already extended a refund of $500, as it was our decision to cancel the Escape and put the safety of our guests above all else. We will not be able to refund you the additional monies you request, as they are not our responsibility. We had many other guests that also incurred non-refundable fair penalties due to the cancelation, but each and every one of them 100% understood and appreciated that we had put their safety above all else. Additionally, I have taken the time over the past 24 hours to review the details of your original registration, cancelation and credit. In reviewing them I also realize that we have indeed extended to you courtesies and credits that far exceed our responsibility, as follows….
Sept 1, 2009- you registered for Escape To Shape – Cartagena. As a courtesy we allowed you to pay a $500 non-refundable portion, when our company policy clearly states that a $1000 non-refundable is required in order to secure your space.
October 14, 2009- You sent an email to Jessica B (which you were unaware that we were copied on) to request that your payment for Cartagena be applied to an entirely different retreat, organized by an entirely different company, that Jessica was also teaching at in Jamaica around the same time of year. We immediately wrote you back to inform you that we were in no way relate to the retreat company that was hosting the Jamaica retreat so we were not able to accommodate your request.
October 18, 2009- you wrote to us to tell us that you had recently lost your job and would not be able to attend the Cartagena Escape as planned and that you would like a full refund.
On October 19, 2009 we sent you the following response-
Hello Linda.
Sorry to hear about your situation. As per our website our cancellation policy is as follows:
I understand that the full amount is required to secure the reservation, and I understand that $1000.00 per person of this payment is non-refundable. The balance, after the $1000.00 non-refundable portion of the payment, is fully refundable provided that I cancel at least two weeks prior to my arrival date. Cancellations less than two weeks prior to arrival are non refundable, but Escape to Shape will do its best to apply the balance of my payment, after the non-refundable deposit, towards future travel with Escape to Shape, provided that, among other things, it can find a replacement or substitute for me and/or my group.
We did permit you to just put down a $500 deposit, rather than a $1000 deposit, and therefore that $500 is non-refundable. As a courtesy, you are welcome to apply it to a future stay with us though.
As Jessica informed you we are not related to the other retreat organization so we cannot offer you to apply your deposit to their Jamaica trip.
Let us know if you would like to cancel and we will hold on to your deposit until you rebook with us.
Best,
Erica
Our willingness to 1) allow you to just put down a $500 non-refundable deposit instead of a $1000 non-refundable deposit and 2) to allow you to apply the $500 non-refundable deposit to a future trip with us were both complete courtesies, things that we were in no way obligated to do.
You then decided to take advantage of your $500 credit by flying into Marrakech for 1 or 2 nights, one of which you would be staying with us. We sent you an email on April 29, 2011 to inform you of the situation in Marrakech. We have record of the sent email, as we forwarded it on to you just yesterday. I cannot speak as to what happened to it between the moments we sent it to you and today. You say you did not receive it, and we believe you, but we sent it and have record of it being sent, so we can only attribute it to bad cyberspace luck. It happens to us all from time to time, without explanation.
The way my business partners and I see it is as follows… you had horrible luck yesterday in that you got into a car accident on the way to the airport. I imagine that was incredibly stressful, but thankfully you were not hurt, and it forced you to email us and we were able to catch you before you got on the flight to Marrakech. It is unfortunate that you had already chosen to purchase another ticket, (especially since even if you arrived at 3:40 pm as per your newly scheduled flight you would have missed the evening workouts and being that May 21 would have been a transition day between groups had we been able to offer the Escapes as planned, you only would have been able to participate in 1 class with us, at 10:00 am on Saturday, May 21 (this was made very clear to you in an email dated April 11, 2011). We would not have been able to have you join us for the activities on May 22, as we would have been out all day with the group at a lunch and tour- and since we were already at maximum capacity (this point was relayed to you in an email dated April 10, 2011) we would not have been able to accommodate you at the last minute, even for the activities, even though we would have wanted to have you join us, it just would not have been possible due to the number of guests we already had. Therefore, it was quite surprising that you would choose to spend the money to purchase another flight just so you could come for one night to a place where you would not even be able to participate in any of the activities. But regardless of that, it was your choice). Even had you received the email (which again, is unfortunate but not something that we can control as each and ever other person did receive the email) your airfare still would not have been refundable on Royal Air Morac and thus would not have been our responsibility.
We would love nothing more to be able to leave this whole experience on a positive note, and in permitting you to just pay $500 as a non-refundable deposit and then allowing that same non-refundable deposit to be applied to a future trip and then refunding you the $500 we have done what is right and acted with integrity, as is how we like to operate. You are asking for more money, which it is no way our responsibility to give you. From where we are standing you should have paid a $1000 non-refundable deposit to begin with and you never did, so in essence you have cost us almost the exact amount of money you are asking for - $500 + $470= $970 and you should have paid us $1000 so we are taking a loss of $30.00. We really do not see how your flights, etc are our responsibility but if you want to look at it like that then we are all even and you owe us $30.00…which of course we have no intention of collecting.
Feel free to do what you have to do and write a review on Trip Advisor. We have plenty of loyal clients and a solid reputation, as well as solid facts to back up our position. Additionally, we have never encountered a situation such as this in the past and do not have one unhappy client to think of in our 5 years of history.
Again, you can expect the check any day now. Please let us know if you have not received it by the end of the week. We would love nothing more than to be able to host you in the future and give you a special rate and/or special upgrades as a courtesy for any inconvenience this has caused you and so that you can have a positive experience with us, but that is the limit of what we can offer you. It has been a stressful time for us all and it is time to move on….
Best,
Erica |
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