Appalled by incredibly rude customer service and how it ruined my last night of vacation in Cancun. The way guests are treated at this place puts its best act to shame.
My friend and I arrived at 9:45 pm to Coco Bongo and we were promptly taken through the entrance. Even though we were regular ticket holders, the staff insisted that we stand in the VIP section (turns out because we were considered "beautiful", which I personally find quite sexist and demeaning). So my friend and I were having an incredible time for two hours. The show itself was amazing and of course unbeknownst to us for the reason of having VIP seats, we had an amazing view of the show. Now, we paid $85 for an ALL-INCLUSIVE alcohol night. We paid a hefty tip for our waiter to bring us our alcohol, but our waiter came by ONLY TWICE the entire night and one round of drinks were shots of coffee liquor. Completely ludicrous. If VIP seats were this bad then I wonder how much worse off we would have been had we been in regular seats. Anyway, my friend and I were drinking, dancing, and enjoying the show and we saw a row of pina colada in mason jars lined up right behind us. Since this is an all inclusive ticket, we of course took a mason jar and started drinking because it seemed that our waiter had completely forgotten about us and our tip. After a while, the actual VIP guests showed up and we were asked to leave. Since I wasn't finished with my pina colada, I took the jar with me to the regular seats and out of no where a security guard snatched my jar and told me to follow him because I didn't pay for the drink. Next thing I know I'm being lead out the door and the security guard, RICARDO, takes my wristband and violently rips it from me. Me, being completely flabbergasted and confused, attempted to politely reason with him as to why I should stay, but Ricardo was being extremely stubborn and refused to listen to what I had to say.
We then went back downstairs to the entrance to speak to customer service and explain our situation. The staff, whom I regretfully cannot recall the name of, heard our side of the story and called Ricardo outside to straighten out the situation. When Ricardo came outside, they both spoke in rapid Spanish, despite being able to speak English quite fluently. So we asked the staff what Ricardo was saying and it turns out Ricardo was accusing me of theft, hence why he kicked my group out of the club. I was getting even more upset because not only was my last night of vacation cut short, but now I was being accused of THEFT which I don't ever recall doing. Ricardo said that as a non-VIP ticket holder, I was drinking a VIP drink (the pina colada in a plastic mason jar). The staff, who claimed to be a co-manager with Ricardo, said it was ultimately Ricardo's decision whether or not we would be allowed to enter the club. I found this completely ridiculous because Ricardo, as explained before, was not willing to listen to my side of the story and was accusing me of theft so there was no way that he would let us back in the club. As for the staff himself who claimed to be a co-manager, I found his management skills to be severely lacking to give the ultimatum to Ricardo. The argument with the staff and Ricardo was getting no where so we requested Ricardo's manager to come and see us.
Finally, Jorge came down to talk to us and he was the only one out of the entire night of chaos to respectfully listen to my side of the story and understand my point of view. I told him that I was being treated unfairly because I was put into the VIP section by Coco Bongo's own staff. And for taking a VIP drink that I mistakenly thought was all-inclusive, I was accused of theft and violently lead out the doors. Jorge apologized on behalf of Ricardo saying that there was a mistake and that he would make a report on Ricardo but I wanted an apology from Ricardo himself. So Jorge took us directly to Ricardo and I received a tepid apology from Ricardo. He gave me a new wristband but after going through such a hassle, I was so off-put by the staff at Coco Bongo that I did not want to go back in.
If you want to have fun at Coco Bongo, make sure to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get VIP tickets for good seats and your mason jar of pina colada. If you go for regular seats, cross your fingers that the staff finds you beautiful enough to take you to VIP seats. As Jorge suggested, ASK before you drink because clearly at Coco Bongo, all-inclusive doesn't mean anything and you might be accused of theft by grabbing a drink that you thought was rightfully yours.
Management at Coco Bongo is pitiful at most and shows zero respect to its customers. First rule of business, customers should be treated like kings not thieves. It's a pity that such an amazing show is tarnished by the lacking and incompetent management of Coco Bongo read more