# Mystarcentral problems



## Transit (Jun 24, 2007)

Is any one else having difficulty with Mystarcentral? When I log on I get a security certificate warning and when I get in I can't click on "our resorts" , "using you timeshare",resevation or "ownership FAQs.


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## Westin5Star (Jun 24, 2007)

Transit said:


> Is any one else having difficulty with Mystarcentral? When I log on I get a security certificate warning and when I get in I can't click on "our resorts" , "using you timeshare",resevation or "ownership FAQs.



I have been having the same problem since yesterday.  Starwood is promising technology upgrades; maybe this is a start?


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## Transit (Jun 24, 2007)

I  was begining to think it was just me. On the SVO website there is a preveiw for a completely revamped SPG but no mention of upgrades to stacentral .I hope it is being updated.


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## DavidnRobin (Jun 24, 2007)

I am not having any problems.  One thing - I am getting a warning (security certificate expiration) - you may have a setting that disallows access with an expired security certificate.


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## Catazog (Jun 25, 2007)

I'm still having the same problems. A few of the links on the left work, but others (like Using Your Ownership and Making a Reservation) just default back to the home page with that lame podcast photo.


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## nodge (Jun 26, 2007)

Catazog said:


> . . . the home page with that lame podcast photo.



Hmmm.  Starwood elected to put on the main page of its owners' web site a photo (copy attached) of its co-president Matt Avril sitting at a table in front of the pool at Vistana Resort with a glass of ice tea on a table in front of him.  Fair enough.  

However, the ice in his tea has entirely melted and the empty pool side lounge chairs behind him all have towels and personal junk on 'em as if someone is holding 'em for later use.  (Plus the towels are all uniquely custom patterned beach towels, instead of the regular hotel towels, suggesting that the folks holding this turf are also freeloaders who jumped the fence with their own towels.  I suspect that these are the same folks that apparently have to bring their outrageously hard football with them to every pool outing, and if you’re lucky will mumble a weak “sorry” after one of their misguided bullet throws in the pool  bounces off your small child’s face while he was minding his own business playing "I'm a little ducky, Yes-Sir-E", but I digress.)

If the co-president of the company can't get good service (fresh ice for his tea) and a pool-side lounge chair at an SVN resort, especially when they are filming a commercial, what hope do we owners have?

-nodge

Come on Starwood, I would much rather use my time to say nice things about you here on TUG.  Throw us owners a bone (instead of your misguided football) and bring back the elite upgrade benefit.


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## Transit (Jun 26, 2007)

Nodge ,Thats funny. I think I need a larger monitor or I should look at these pictures carefully.At least the site is working again.


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## formerhater (Jun 26, 2007)

Maybe he passed on the ice because he has sensitive teeth? 

In all seriousness, are podcasts really the direction they should be going with mystarcentral?  I'm relatively tech savvy and the younger end of starwood owners and I have absolutely zero interest in these.  Podcast seems like one of those buzzwords that an executive heard his 14 year old daughter talking about and thought it would make the company website cooler.  I heard Marriott is countering with their own myspace page.  Maybe we could all meet at the mall after cheerleading practice too.  

I'd much rather see a real time online reservation system, up to date construction photos for new properties, and use week calendars that go beyond 2008.


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## nodge (Jun 26, 2007)

formerhater said:


> Maybe he passed on the ice because he has sensitive teeth?



Given the poor decisions he and his management team have been making lately, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was Bourbon.  They apparently can't even agree on who is the president of the company, so they just have two co-presidents.

I did actually sit through his commercial (aka podcast), and was shocked to learn that there are now over 200,000 Starwood Owners (aka victims).  Now if most of us are in SVO and paying $99/year to SVO MANAGEMENT INC, and our home resorts are all also paying "management fees" to SVO MANAGEMENT INC beyond the other costs of actually maintaining each property (SDO alone paid SVN over $500,000 last year in "management fees,") I can't help but wonder what in God's green earth is SVO MANAGEMENT INC doing with all of that money?  Upgrading online access and reservation systems? – Nope.  Improving member services?  Nada. 

Even if you regularly ship all of your management team up to Nova Scotia for one of those corporate all expense paid boondoggle "team building" programs (See our Friend Suzzane Clark’s helpful quote on the left side of the second page), I would think SVO MANAGEMENT INC would still have a hard time burning through that much cash with so little to show for it.  

Better yet, how do I get a job at SVN MANAGEMENT INC?  It has got to be the only place on earth, beside certain prized and usually appointed government jobs (and of course the DMV), where millions of dollars are literally thrown at you each year and you don't have to do one darned thing.  Why you can even piss off your best customers at will with impunity.

Sign me up!

-nodge


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## TheUnitrep (Jun 27, 2007)

nodge said:


> ...It has got to be the only place on earth, beside a government job, where millions of dollars are literally thrown at you each year and you don't have to do one darned thing.



On behalf of all Air Traffic Controllers (federal government employees), thanks for recognizing our efforts to keep everyone safe in the skies.  It sure is nice getting a pay check and not having "to do one darned thing" for it. 

Jerry


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## nodge (Jun 27, 2007)

TheUnitrep said:


> On behalf of all Air Traffic Controllers (federal government employees), thanks for recognizing our efforts to keep everyone safe in the skies.  It sure is nice getting a pay check and not having "to do one darned thing" for it.
> 
> Jerry



Oops.  Forgot about you guys.  Nice work and thanks for that whole not crashing us thing.  I've updated my remarks (above) accordingly.  I know a few folks at the VA and the FAA too who seem to work pretty darned hard too.  Now you DMV folks and ambassadors, what's with all that attitude? 

-nodge


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## nodge (Jul 17, 2007)

Hi Gang,

I’ve searched mystarcentral.com, but I can’t find any of those video podcasts, not even the highly touted first one featuring Matt Avril’s continuing search for ice.  

I did find an audio podcast labeled “Episode 1 – Introducing the New Communication Technology” by Joel Pope.

The most remarkable thing from Joel’s speech, which incidentally offers absolutely no new information about SVN or just about anything else, is his posted title.  He is identified as, and I’m not making this up, the “Sr. Vice President of Customer Experience and Resort Operations.” 

With the two published podcasts (Matt Avril’s video podcast and Joel Pope’s audio podcast) and the promise of more from other big wigs at SVO Management Inc., we have learned one thing.  Namely, that SVO MANAGEMENT INC has at least the following executives on its payroll:

“Co-President and Managing Director of Operations” (Matt Avril)
“Vice President of Owner Services” (Suzanne Clark) and,
“Sr. Vice President of Customer Experience and Resort Operations.” (Joel Pope)

Their titles and recent antics raise some questions about what SVO MANAGEMENT INC thinks of us:
.
For example, does SVO MANAGEMENT INC consider its owners its customers?  If so, why differentiate between them at the executive management level?  If not, why does it feel compelled to manage us owners differently from its customers?  

In other words, how do “owner services” differ from “customer experiences?”   Do we really need to pay for two VP’s to manage this distinction?

I suspect SVO Management Inc. is really making the following distinction between “owners” and “customers.”

“Owners” = Folks who have already bought their SVO timeshare, so we can screw ‘em at will so long as we use words like “fresh” and “exciting” when we screw ‘em; and,

 “Customers” =  People who are thinking of buying an SVO timeshare, so we have to be nice to ‘em and make ‘em like us at least until they become owners, so it is important that their “experience” (aka tour, stay and purchase) is optimal.

I look forward to the podcast that explains what each of these dolts at SVN MANAGEMENT INC really do, but I suspect that one will never come.

-nodge


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## Transit (Jul 17, 2007)

that got me laughing


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## nodge (Jul 19, 2007)

Check out this job description for a job at SVO MANAGEMENT INC.  

Do you think all SVO Management Inc folks speak like this at home too?

Spouse:  “So Honey, how was your day at work?”

SVO MANAGEMENT INC employee:  “Well, this morning I ensured that project deliverables met marketing business objectives through metrics and ROI analysis, and then I managed client expectations so that I could successfully craft the most appropriate online experiences for guests, which I’m hopeful will successfully meet or exceed customer acquisition goals and objectives. . . . “

Spouse:  “Does any of what you just said explain why you and your company like to screw your best customers for no apparent reason?  I mean I still don’t think it was right for you to promise room upgrades to all of those existing owners if they bought new units and then arbitrarily and without any notice or even a phase out period just cancel that benefit at the drop of a hat only months and even in some cases days after folks bought those additional units in reliance on your promises.”

SVO MANAGEMENT INC employee:  “Um.  No, but I’ll update the metric.”

-nodge


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## nodge (Aug 7, 2007)

nodge said:


> I can't help but wonder what in God's green earth is SVO MANAGEMENT INC doing with all of that money?  Upgrading online access and reservation systems? – Nope.  Improving member services?  Nada.



I think I found where at least $4 million/year goes of the nearly $20 million SVO is collecting from us each year in SVN fees. 

This reference reveals that SVO's telemarketing/reservation system has 192 stations.  This reference reveals that SVO pays its telemarketers $10.50/hour “part-time” (aka “no benefits”—of course).  If all 192 stations are used on average 50 weeks a year for 8 hours a day of a 5 day work week, paying each telemarketer $10.50/hour . . . .that totals a little over $4,000,000/year just in salaries.  I would venture to guess that “employee incentives” and marketing long distance phone charges and the like also eat up a fair chunk of change.

This all reveals that it is very expensive for a developer to sell timeshares, which isn’t surprising in-and-of itself.

What is surprising, at least to me, is that SVO appears to be funding a major portion of its marketing expenses with funds that aren’t drawn from new sales proceeds.  Rather, by using its telemarketing agents to book owner villa reservations between marketing calls SVO is essentially using owners’ annual dues and fees (which we are all paying with the hope they will be used to promote our common goals of staying in nicely maintained properties that are easy to book) to fund its marketing machine.

At a minimum, it would be nice if SVO at least occasionally acknowledged existing owners’ past and continuing financial contributions to the success of their system, instead of its current strategy of just taking our money and screwing us at every opportunity (including but not limited to, selling our personal information to third party telemarketers, trying to sell us overpriced trips and other junk simply because we bought a timeshare from them, imbedding "screw-you" clauses in its promotions, without notice making voluntary the newest phases of formerly all mandatory resorts, and (my personal favorite) canceling the elite upgrade benefit at will after inducing sales with its promise.

At any rate, I’ve been able to figure out where about $4M of the nearly $20M in SVN fees collected from us owners goes each year.  I’m guessing that II charges SVO a heavily discounted flat-rate for all of us to be members in the SVN II account (maybe $5M/year?)  Does anyone else have any ideas as to what SVO is doing with the other $11M+ each year?

How much do leather luggage tags cost anyway?

-nodge


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## myip (Aug 7, 2007)

Don't they only get $99 for SVO fees per member.  Shouldn't the rest of the money should be for the maintenance fees of the resort?


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## nodge (Aug 7, 2007)

myip said:


> Don't they only get $99 for SVO fees per member.  Shouldn't the rest of the money should be for the maintenance fees of the resort?



Please check my math:

200,000 SVN members times $99/each = $19,800,000.00/year in SVN fees generated.

Each SVN resort is also charged a "management fee" by SVO.  SDO's "management fee" was over $500,000 last year.  I've assumed that the "management fee" is used to actually manage our home properties.

I'm just trying to figure out what we are getting for that nearly $20M SVN fee money.  Apparently, we get pride in knowing that a portion of it is going to pay telemarketers to annoy potential new customers, and none of it is going to actually improve SVN's reservations or other systems.

-nodge


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