RCI Problems at Check-in

Another thread is discussing someone who got an unacceptable unit for an RCI exchange. The resort did not respond well. Someone asked if they had contacted the RCI desk, since the resort had one on site.

That reminded me of a question I asked RCI a couple years ago. What should you do if you have a problem checking into a resort on an exchange? Here is their answer:

"Situations such as you described are rare.

When they arise, Exchange Specialists generally make contact with the
member family within an hour of the time they call us. Since members
are contacted in the order the requests are received, it would not be
fair to put one family ahead of another. Anyone who asks for help from
RCI at the time of check-in is experiencing something they perceive as a
crisis.

Only about 1.5 percent of RCI exchange vacations result in members
reporting some kind of problem at the time of check-in. RCI has a team
specifically empowered to help these members, and we are proud of the
job they do."

So, follow me.

You need to have a cell phone. You call RCI (and the wait that that sometimes entails), give them your information, and then sit and wait until someone calls you back.

Since most exchanges check in on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, figure how many problem exchanges 1.5% is. That is a signifcant number and the crunch of calls would be around the same time.

Parts of the RCI statement are open to interpretation.

"Only about 1.5 percent of RCI exchange vacations result in members reporting some kind of problem at the time of check-in"

1.5% of members reporting problems at check-in could mean any of the following.

• 1.5% of members actually telephone RCI whilst they are checking in to report problems.
• 1.5% of members report check-in problems on the report card which is returned to RCI after the holiday.
• 1.5% of members report problems which occur at the check-in time which may or may not be related to accommodation issues.

Although a cell (mobile) phone might be advantageous, it is not a necessity as most resorts would make a phone available to guests with problems.
Any system which has peak times is likely to have bottlenecks at those times. When you contact any 'customer support' desk they will require time to investigate the problem and hopefully a solution before getting back to you. This is obviously not an instant process.
The problem is not unique to RCI or timeshare. I have experienced problems with holiday home rental, hotel bookings, car hire etc over the years.

If 500, or 1000 are checking in, do those who have problems all use the same resort phone?

This is not about waiting for RCI to look into it and get back to them, it is waiting for RCI to call them to begin looking into it. Not that I know because I have never had a problem at check-in that I couldn't handle myself, but I assume that once you do talk to the Exchange Specialist, then you would have to wait for them to look into it and call you back.

I do know that some that had check-in problems at a resort we stayed at a year ago were having to wait overnight to get their problem solved, which was finding another resort in that area to stay at, since the first one was overbooked.

Overbooking can happen when you are not exchanging for specific units.

Keitht said:

Although a cell (mobile) phone might be advantageous, it is not a necessity as most resorts would make a phone available to guests with problems.

When you contact any 'customer support' desk they will require time to investigate the problem and hopefully a solution before getting back to you.

Click to expand...

I once had a problem right after check-in, with an unacceptable unit. The resort had no other units to put us in, so we asked RCI to relocate us. I can't recall whether we were offered a resort office phone to call RCI, we may have been, but where ever we made our initial call from, there was no way to get someone at the moment. This was in Europe, and pre-cell phone for us. We went to the town to look for a hotel or motel but could find nothing, so we had to return to that unit.

What I recall was sitting in our unit between 11 pm and midnight, using a phone inside the unit with my calling card, on our dime (or actually, dollars- many of them- this call cost us about as much as a night's accommodations would have cost) - on hold for almost an hour, listening to the RCI music, waiting for the RCI person to come back on the line and continue the conversation.

RCI couldn't solve it that night of course, so we just spent the night and decided to move on the next day, to a hotel elsewhere. They asked for our phone # to call us back, but we had no idea where we were heading. So I was instructed to call RCI back late the next day, and did (on our dimes again).

Just to say: it took them close to 24 hours to tell us they couldn't help us. They never could find alternative accommodations, tho they did attempt to.

Had the problem been overbooking, not sure what we would have done, it was too late for us to drive far, we had been on the road for 12 hours already.

I do gather that specialists have to deal with true crises - overbookings or cancelled confirmations day of check-in - perhaps more often than we would think.

Sorry I mentioned overbooking.

Obviously that is not common when true exchanges are being made, when you are getting a specific unit someone deposited.

I can't think of any instance when a timeshare resort can get overbooked except when they are assigning the units instead of the exchange company.

The occasion I encountered was when the exchange company was trying to replace exchanges lost to hurricanes and they did that by putting them into a resort that assigns their own units and one where they thought there would be plenty of excess inventory, but there wasn't.

JLB said:

So, follow me.

You need to have a cell phone. You call RCI (and the wait that that sometimes entails), give them your information, and then sit and wait until someone calls you back.

Click to expand...

A handfull of resorts have RCI offices onsite. The individuals only need to walk into that office, the specialist is sitting across the desk from them. It wouldn't take 5 minutes to investigate. Unless the RCI office was closed for the nite.

What prompted me to ask RCI how they handle check-in problems was specifically for a resort with an on-site rep, the resort you are most familiar with.

What I posted above is the instructions RCI gave me for check-in problems at that resort.

timetraveler said:

A handfull of resorts have RCI offices onsite. The individuals only need to walk into that office, the specialist is sitting across the desk from them. It wouldn't take 5 minutes to investigate. Unless the RCI office was closed for the nite.

Click to expand...

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