In Reply to: Part 2 - Canggu -Hell hole Villa posted by Colleen on Friday, 23. April 2010 at 09:05 Bali Time:
And so the list goes on.It was bad enough that so many big things were a problem but the little things mounted up as well.If it was just a few little things wrong we would have easily handled it & overlooked them but it was one thing after another.
The hook for the outdoor shower was broken.The head cushion on 1 of the pool loungers had broken off.It was promised to be repaired it wasn't.The full kitchen was kettle,blender,2 gas hot plates & a badly stained toaster oven for lack of better words.I think it came off Noah's ark.It warmed bread but didn't toast it.There were plenty of cooking pots & utensils though.We were happy to have a full size fridge that worked well.The 2 small light globes in the upstairs area didn't light up the room much more than 2 candles would have & as I said before made it dangerous getting up & down the stairs because of this.I can handle the usual creepy crawlies in Bali & even enjoy seeing gecko's but having ants crawling over the bath all the time is not pleasant - ant baits or powder was needed.Eventually on day 4 or 5 most of the light globes that were broken or missing were replaced with the exception of one & the lightglobes upstairs were never replaced with stronger ones in spite of the fact that we were promised that they would be.It took a full 5 days to get a lightglobe installed for the outdoor pool area.The pool lilo that was supposed to be available was missing.We had our own phones to use but a hand phone/mobile phone was supposed to be available for us to use (guests buy their own sim card) but are supposed to have use of this non existant phone.Basically it was supposed to be a loan phone & guests pay to replace it if it is lost.
Internal & external mats in photos were missing as well as much of the furniture - supposedly all taken by the owners manager who we were told did a runner on her.Well it should be simple,change the darn photos if they don't reflect the actual situation.The shiny tiles on the veranda were dangerous & slippery when wet because the mats were missing.One afternoon I even slipped over in the dining area entrance- just near the veranda door & I was lucky to be caught before I hit the floor by the pembantu & 2 friends we had visiting at the time.Security were supposed to be at the house every night when it got dark.One night we got home from dinner at 9.45pm & he wasn't there.Many other nights he showed up late & when he was actually there spent a lot of his time in the cafe next door talking to the staff.We could always tell if or when he was around or not because his motorbike was parked in our driveway.He seemed to be too busy socialising to do the work he was paid to.The main sliding entry door to the house was very hard to open,the promised WD40 or similar never arrived.
The excuse for no one being at the villa to greet us or let is in was - the pembantu had a sick child & had gone home.The owner knew we were coming & we arrived 5 minutes before our designated time we had stated.I know things go wrong at times but surely the owner should have organised to be there herself if her staff had problems.Later on the day we arrived a man we later on found out was the head of the local Banjar came to the villa.We thought he was the manager the way he was acting & looking around the house & talking to us & listening to our concerns.He agreed that it was not good for the house to be full of flies & said he would come back with spray to get rid of them.He came back with an aerosol can of lemon scented room freshener <LOL>
When the owner eventually came to see us on the afternoon of Day 4 she acted insulted & chastised us for calling him her manager & said he was the village Prince.I always try to be respectful of local culture & customs but how were we to know who he was ?
I have already mentioned the promised cable TV being a problem when we arrived & the fact that we could only get 1 normal TV channel.My husband is very good with IT stuff & wanted to see what the problem was & try & fix it but it was way too dark to see in the room with 2 candle strength lightglobes.The next morning he tried to tune the TV in he discovered that cables at the back had been unplugged.Even after sorting this out we could only get local channels.The TV set didn't have proper connections & what there was were corroded.There were not enough points to plug into so even if Cable TV had been working when we arrived you would have to unplug the DVD unit from the back of the TV which would be hard to do at night in a darkened room.The owner promised to get an adaptor or dual connection but this never arrived.
The owner would have surely known she had not paid her cable TV bill so how did she expect us to be able to use the promised cable TV service that we had paid for as part of our accomodation- when the service had been cut off ? The whole situation was ridiculous & reminded me of Basil & Sybil Fawlty - wewere surrounded by total incompetance.She supposedly tried to pay the bill on the Monday,day 4 of our stay but said she couldn't get everything sorted out because she didn't have some number.Why didn't she ring the staff to get it off the machine ? It was then discovered that the cable TV box was not working,not just because of the unpaid bill but because it was broken & needed to be replaced.The cable TV man came on the afternoon of Day 5 & showed us his computerised worksheet print out that the problem was only reported to his office late the day before & not several days earlier as had been told - lies & more lies.Even after the cable TV was working we still had to fiddle around with unplugging & changing over cables at the back of the TV if we wanted to watch DVD - because the double connector never arrived.We had also discovered that batteries were missing from the TV remote control,these were eventually purchased though.
When I queried about the advertised carport /undercover parking I got told the small flimsy structure of wood & alsynite was the advertised carport! I sure would have liked to have seen someone fit a whole car under it or figure out how any car or motorbike would be protected from the elements under it.My husband & I both got to the stage with all the problems that we had to make jokes to each other about everything that was wrong.We felt as if we needed to stay at the house a lot of the time & we were encouraged to because of people who were supposed to arrive to fix things,replace light globes etc.A lot of the time people just didn't show up at the desinated time let alone the day they were supposed to come.
Half The household manual was a disaster,ripped,torn pages,falling apart.Mostly incorrect & outdated information including glowing references,details & phone numbers of staff who has supposedly done a runner & stolen things from the house.Anytime we asked about things in the book we were told,"That's old information,no longer applies".Well throw the book in the bin & type up new current info!
The owners excuse for not coming earlier than Day 4 was she did not the have Internet at home & had not received any of my 9 emails that detailed each of the problems as we discovered them.I thought it was better put everything in writing rather than having any confusion or misunderstanding that could happen in a phone call.
This was a rubbish excuse about not receiving emails or knowing of the situation.Surely if guests complain to the pembantu the info should be passed on.The pembantu even told us that she had spoken a number of times to the owner & said we were very unhappy.Also one would think she would get in touch with guests after they arrive to see that everything is in order & they are happy,especially considering the way things were when we arrived & no one being at the house to let us in.
Next - The green swimming pool,that needs a post on it's own.