An excerpt from the letter I wrote to the Regional VP of Coldwell Banker Vacations, who agreed that my stay was miserable and the place was disgusting, but only gave me a $200 discount for having to be "inconvenienced" when the weekly rent was almost $3k for this disgusting dump!! PS- If I could have given them a 0, I would have, but it was not an option. So unprofessional!!
Dear____:
I have been staying on the Eastern shore- from New Jersey to South Carolina-- for over 45 years in the summers during my family's summer vacation. We have stayed many times in Ocean City, which we love. I have used a variety of sources to obtain my rentals, from word of mouth to real estate management companies. The quality of the past rentals we had has varied some (mostly good to excellent), and what I have found over the years is that if you use a large, reputable company such as CBV (as opposed to other options) the quality of the unit is usually top-notch and worth the extra investment. This was the first time we had used CBV, by the way. I contacted CB Vacations in March or April of 2020 to plan our vacation in OC. This year, more than any other, I was extremely worried about cleanliness and sanitation, due to COVID!
Unfortunately, the experience we had at the Pyramid, through CB Vacations, was a terrible disappointment.
When we checked in to the unit and went to #10-E, I was frankly appalled at the state of the condo. It was so filthy, extremely dated, and run down-- burned out light bulbs; filthy flooring; nicked dirty walls; filthy, sticky, totally un-cleaned surfaces; terribly sad old appointments and decor; damaged blinds; sagging filthy couch; dirty bathrooms; etc, etc, so much so that I was afraid to take my shoes off inside the unit. Later, I did take my shoes off and walk on that disgusting floor, and was rewarded with blackened feet from the filth of the retched carpet and other flooring.
I have pictures of the dirty environment and sad, old decor which I have attached here for your enlightenment. Is this a property that CBV, a national company, is proud to represent?? Upon arrival, we called housekeeping to raise a concern about multiple issues, to include non-working appliances and lack of Internet (we did not have Internet until Thursday evening during our Saturday to Saturday rental stay-- even though it was advertised as being available, which was a huge problem for me-- instead, we were told that the only way to have Internet at all so that I could work while I was there was if we "pirated" the Internet from the next door unit, and we were provided with the UN and PW for that unit, having to share the Internet account with the other unrelated guests, which was terribly unsafe for the work I was doing for my company. Because we were distanced from the router, the service was also spotty and somewhat unusable throughout the week!!). Although they sent a maintenance man to address the issues of non-working lights and other issues, nothing more was done about the Internet lack or the filthy environment- and of course it is impossible to deal with how dated and distasteful the unit was-- frankly, that condo needs a total gut job and renovation immediately in order to be livable!
On Tuesday, I reached out in disgust to Bill R at the regional office about the condition of #10-E and my frustrations with the Internet, the filthy conditions and the old, ugly, dated unit; and he responded by sending a deep cleaning crew to clean the unit and the carpet, which I guess made it a bit better for the duration of the week. But I will not lie-- if it were not for my 16 year old daughter and her friend, who insisted on staying, I would have left and just gone home at the beginning of the week. To me, being forced to stay in that condo was more of a punishment than a vacation. It was awful.
Long and short, I wanted to report to you about my experiences as a first time renter through CBV. But I am also reaching out to you to see about getting an adjustment to my rental costs. I would appreciate your feedback and thoughts about this. After looking at the pictures, is this representative of the state of the typical CBV vacation home for rent for almost $3,000/week?? Would you want your family to have to endure this retchedness? I am hopeful that the answer is no.
I would attach the pictures to this YELP review, but some of you may have just eaten, so I'll hold off.
Just a thought-- stay away from the Pyramid and stay away from CB Vacations. I actually wish I had checked the Yelp reviews for CBV because there is not one review that is really positive. So, word to the wise!!! We will NEVER use CB Vacations again---EVER!!! read more