Recently purchased Ebay week added to DC program for no additional charge

[iamnotshopgirl]

I just think it is so downright bizarre that they have not fixed this problem. This thread was started back on 1/24/2011. The Marriott Customer Advocate post implied that they knew about the problem before this thread began. Yet, here it is 10 days after the thread began and it sounds like they have yet to take any action. So, they are just going to continue to allow as many people enroll ineligible weeks as the system allows in and then kick them all out later after issuing confirmations? If so, what a completely irresponsible way to run a business. Incredible!

OK.....you sound like me so here's the question. Where is the MVCI Customer Advocate and how does he/she explain why the issue has not been resolved after all this time?:hysterical:

bob

 

[hotcoffee]

OK.....you sound like me so here's the question. Where is the MVCI Customer Advocate and how does he/she explain why the issue has not been resolved after all this time?:hysterical:

bob

I don't know, but if they intend to leave the loophole in place and just un-enroll those who slip through it, that shows that their irrational dislike of resales has clouded their judgment to the point that they no longer value their customers as important to their long term success.

 

[tschwa2]

I don't know, but if they intend to leave the loophole in place and just un-enroll those who slip through it, that shows that their irrational dislike of resales has clouded their judgment to the point that they no longer value their customers as important to their long term success.

...or even better if the un-enroll the weeks they don't like/need and let the late weeks that they think they want in the program to slip through. Because you know they reserve the right to enforce their rules with whoever they want to even if they don't enforce them for everone (at least for exchange rules) and if you ask them they will only point to the rule and say that's the rule and if we want to enforce it we will.

Waiver. No failure of Exchange Company to enforce any provision under these Exchange Procedures, exercise any power given under these Exchange Procedures, or to insist upon strict compliance with any obligation specified in these Exchange Procedures, and no custom or practice at variance with the terms of these Exchange Procedures, shall constitute a waiver of Exchange Company’s right to demand exact compliance with the terms and conditions of these Exchange Procedures.

 

[brianfox]

I just tried to enroll my weeks on the MVCI website - my developer weeks and my resale week that I bought in August -10. They all show to be eligible. I am so tempted to do it. My resale week is in Maui that gives me lots of points and I know I will not be going there every year. But then I am afraid to do it. On the terms that you need to agree to it says that I understandand post 06/20/2010 weeks are not eligible. I am afraid they would just take my money and not enroll my resale week after all.

There is absolutely NO WAY Marriott will refuse your weeks and keep your money. There would be a class F5 $h!tstorm. That only leaves 2 choices for them:
1) Allow your weeks to stay in the club
2) Unenroll your weeks and return your money

That Marriott has not closed this already is truly incredible. Every day they leave this gaping hole, they are exposing their shareholders to negative consequences.

I think it's going to take forcing their hand to find out if this is a bluff. That can be easily done by enrolling ineligible weeks, converting them to points, and then immediately spend some of those points on a quick trip.

Once your week has been converted and partially or wholly used, there's no longer any way of monetarily reversing things. You can't "un-take" a vacation. What are they going to do? Unenroll your weeks and take the cost of your trip out of the enrollment refund? It would be their fault for mistakenly enrolling you in the first place.

 

[KathyPet]

If Marriott knows that this loophole exists (which it would appear they do) and they took no action to prevent illegal weeks from enrolling after discovering the problem (which they haven't) I am telling you that they could encounter serious legal challenges to unenrolling weeks that they allowed to slip through.

 

[dioxide45]

If Marriott knows that this loophole exists (which it would appear they do) and they took no action to prevent illegal weeks from enrolling after discovering the problem (which they haven't) I am telling you that they could encounter serious legal challenges to unenrolling weeks that they allowed to slip through.

I agree. At first I was warning people not to enroll post 6/20 weeks; however, now I say enroll away.

 

[hotcoffee]

Marriott has already taken a beating in the public relations department by the shakey rollout of the DC program. This "bug" in their system actually gives them an opportunity to exercise some good will toward their customers. If they are truly attempting to fix this issue (and one has to wonder about this since they seem to have made no effort to stop the ineligible enrollments), the logical thing for them to do is to extent the resale enrollment deadline for everyone until after they finally have the problem completely fixed.

I hope the customer advocate is still keeping up with this thread. I also hope that Marriott would consider extending the resale enrollment deadline until June 2011. (Actually, I think it would be in the best interest of both the DC program and Marriott's customers for Marriott to come up with a way to not have a deadline at all.) By June 2011, if their IT contractor has not fixed the problem, they need to find another IT contractor.

 

[mjm1]

Has anyone who enrolled a post June 20 week received an email confirming that their enrollment has been accepted? I understand you should receive an email within a couple of days of enrolling, and you simply respond to the email to complete your enrollment.

 

[KathyPet]

The procedure differs depending upon how you enroll. If you enroll over the phone then you do receive a E Mail that your must "accept" and send back to ZMarriott. If you enroll on line as I did then you have clicked the button accepting the terms as part of the on line enrollment and there is no further action required. I enrolled on line 1/25. I received a E Mail a few days later saying my Plus points were credited. I spoke to a Marriott customer service rep and was told that my enrollment was complete. I do now that I would be able to trade my resale week for Marriott Reward Points right now if I want to.

 

[enma]

I was going to try to enroll my post 06/20/10 resale week into the DC program along with my developer weeks. All the weeks showed to be eligible as of Monday like they have the past few weeks. Today when I looked my MVCI account the resale week was now listed ineligible! So disappointed! Looks like Marriott has fixed the loophole.

 

[DCBoy]

Just checked my account as well and you can tell that Marriott has made several changes to their website. I also no longer have the option of enrolling my post 6/20/10 week in DC even if I wanted to.

 

[hotcoffee]

My opinion of Marriott has gone down somewhat because of this issue (it was not particularly high to start with). A better response on their part after having taken so much time to fix the bug would have been to extend the grace period for resales for a reasonable period of time (e.g., one year, or perhaps until March 1, 2011). Doing that would have shown a lot of good will toward their customers, and it would have probably captured some more good inventory into the DC program. But, Marriott's position is to play a little hardball. And why not, they have a captive customer base. Resale prices are way down. Very few of us will even attempt to sell our timeshares. So, they can do pretty much whatever they want, and the only thing their customers can do is complain on forums like this. As long as they don't break the law, there is no particular reason why they should not play continue to play hardball.

 

[VacationPro]

My opinion of Marriott has gone down somewhat because of this issue (it was not particularly high to start with). A better response on their part after having taken so much time to fix the bug would have been to extend the grace period for resales for a reasonable period of time (e.g., one year, or perhaps until March 1, 2011). Doing that would have shown a lot of good will toward their customers, and it would have probably captured some more good inventory into the DC program. But, Marriott's position is to play a little hardball. And why not, they have a captive customer base. Resale prices are way down. Very few of us will even attempt to sell our timeshares. So, they can do pretty much whatever they want, and the only thing their customers can do is complain on forums like this. As long as they don't break the law, there is no particular reason why they should not play continue to play hardball.

I agree. Marriott missed an opportunity to demonstrate some good will toward the customer base with this and chose not to. This could have been a win/win (Marriott gets more weeks in the program and maybe incremental dollars, owners get the enrolled weeks).

Disappointing, but not surprising.

 

[larryallen]

My opinion of Marriott has gone down somewhat because of this issue (it was not particularly high to start with). A better response on their part after having taken so much time to fix the bug would have been to extend the grace period for resales for a reasonable period of time (e.g., one year, or perhaps until March 1, 2011). Doing that would have shown a lot of good will toward their customers, and it would have probably captured some more good inventory into the DC program. But, Marriott's position is to play a little hardball. And why not, they have a captive customer base. Resale prices are way down. Very few of us will even attempt to sell our timeshares. So, they can do pretty much whatever they want, and the only thing their customers can do is complain on forums like this. As long as they don't break the law, there is no particular reason why they should not play continue to play hardball.

I don't see that they have played hardball. If they tried to unwind transactions made during the bug then that would he hardball. Just fixing the bug doesn't seem to be very hardball-esque to me. It's a minor issue affection very few people and, of course, everybody knew about the June 20th deadline. I just don't see this as a big deal.

 

[DeniseM]

OK.....you sound like me so here's the question. Where is the MVCI Customer Advocate and how does he/she explain why the issue has not been resolved after all this time?:hysterical:

bob

This user has not been back to TUG since posting.

 

[hotcoffee]

I don't see that they have played hardball. If they tried to unwind transactions made during the bug then that would he hardball. Just fixing the bug doesn't seem to be very hardball-esque to me. It's a minor issue affection very few people and, of course, everybody knew about the June 20th deadline. I just don't see this as a big deal.

I agree that if they do not un-enroll anyone then you could say they are not playing hardball. However, the Customer Advocate has clearly stated that they will un-enroll anyone who enrolls an inelibible week. That would be playing hardball.

Additionally, in spite of whether a person knows the rules or not, if the rule enforcer fails to enforce the rules, then the person taking advantage of the broken rules should not be held accountable. If you know that the price of a product should be a certain amount based upon your own research, and you happen to see the product priced unusually cheap in a particular store, and you buy the product at the sticker price at that store, were you the guilty party in the transaction? If the store calls you and requests you to return the product because they sold it too cheaply, is that appropriate on their part? Nearly every store making such a mistake will correct the mistake for future purchasers, but will not attempt to recover money from those who already have purchased the product at the wrong price. However, if Marriott follows through with their threat, they can do so because they technically still possess the product (unlike the consumer who takes it home with him). Having the product in one's possession and a valid receipt for its purchase is powerful. Marriott's customers in this instance have a confirmation, but Marriott still technically possesses the product (i.e., the week). So the purchaser (i.e., the person who paid the money to have it enrolled and received the confirmation) is at a disadvantage.

Also, Marriott has played hardball against resales for a long time. Okay, so they have the right to provide benefits to retail purchasers. Not a problem. But, with the DC program they are potentially damaging the value of any week purchased resale. This is a deliberate attempt to squash resales to the extent that they can. This is also playing hardball. They made their inflated money once on the original purchase of the week. Now, they do not want the competition caused by a completely reasonable decision of an owner to sell his week. So, they make a rule with the purpose of damaging our ability to sell our timeshares. I suggest that this is an example of playing hardball.

 

[Latravel]

Additionally, in spite of whether a person knows the rules or not, if the rule enforcer fails to enforce the rules, then the person taking advantage of the broken rules should not be held accountable...

What???!!!???

It's one thing to find a loophole in the system and gratefully use it to our advantage but it's an entirely different thing to feel entitled to it and upset if Marriott enforces the rule. If it works for you, great, but don't be surprised if it's taken away. It was never yours in the first place!

 

[hotcoffee]

What???!!!???

It's one thing to find a loophole in the system and gratefully use it to our advantage but it's an entirely different thing to feel entitled to it and upset if Marriott enforces the rule. If it works for you, great, but don't be surprised if it's taken away. It was never yours in the first place!

I assume you just forgot that Marriott reps have actually told people over the phone that there week(s) are eligible. Remember also that this loophole was left in place by Marriott apparently for several weeks even though it was known, and they was sending out enrollment confirmations during that time.

I also will repeat my analogy. You walk into a store that has a big sign announcing the sale price of an item. You walk back to look at the item and the sticker price is a lot lower on some of the items in the display than the sign at the front of the store. So, you probably don't buy the mismarked items because the store obviously made a mistake. But, I probably do take one of the cheaper ones up to the cashier to see what price it scans for. If it scans at the price on the sticker, I don't feel the least bit guilty. I did nothing wrong. It was the store's mistake.

 

[JanT]

I am interested to know if Marriott has un-enrolled any post 6/20 weeks that were enrolled. Up until yesterday my post 6/20 week showed as eligible but the loophole has been fixed. I'm still surprised that it took so long. It's obvious that their IT people did not do their job correctly but now have fixed the problem. It will be very interesting to see if they un-enroll weeks and I believe they will. If people enrolled those weeks and used DC points to make trades already, I think Marriott will let those trades stand but the week will be un-enrolled for future use in the weeks program. I could be wrong though.

For those of you who enrolled your post 6/20 weeks please let us know what happens!!

 

[BarbS]

My ineligible week has not been unenrolled yet. It will surprise me if they actually do unenroll it.

 

[JanT]

Barb,

I don't see how they can not un-enroll those weeks without a major problem on their hands. Even if they say, "Oops this was our error." I have to think they are either going to un-enroll those weeks or choose another date beyond 6/20/2010 to be the "cut off" date.

Regardless, I hope everything works out for you!

My ineligible week has not been unenrolled yet. It will surprise me if they actually do unenroll it.

 

[BarbS]

Barb,

I don't see how they can not un-enroll those weeks without a major problem on their hands. Even if they say, "Oops this was our error." I have to think they are either going to un-enroll those weeks or choose another date beyond 6/20/2010 to be the "cut off" date.

Regardless, I hope everything works out for you!

Thank you. I'm just patiently waiting to see what happens. I won't be upset if they unenroll it but I hope they don't.

 

[OutAndAbout]

The fact that you squeaked in is great, and I applaud you for that. However don't be surprised if Marriott does an audit and them removes your week from the DC system.

I don't think every DC owner is aware of all of the rules.

Marriott Customer service has their issues, but even if this was "mistakenly" added, I would be surprised they'd remove the week after it's already been added.

..besides Marriott wants more weeks in DC, who's to say they didn't intentionally allowing the "loophole" until it became "public"?

 

[KathyPet]

As of today my ineligible week is still enrolled. However I really do not expect to hear from Marriott in the near future if in fact they decide to unenroll me. I would not be surprised if it takes them up to 6 months to figure out who enrolled ineligible weeks. If i do hear from them I will post here and after 6 months I will post a update and let everyone know if they have contacted me.

 

[MauiGolf]

Marriott plugged the software hole

I think Marriott plugged the software hole. After I click on "Start Enrolling Now", there is now a large flag which states "Ineligible Inventories" - At least one property is ineligible and cannot be converted to points.....View the List. My unit is specifically on this list.

I have an externally purchased week after 6/20/2010 and already decided the ROI did not make sense for me. However, I was considering purchasing more resale and the ROI would have made more sense for points. Oh well, the decision has been made for me and will be happy as a weeks owner.

I hope those who have slipped in via the software hole will not be unenrolled by MVCI or whatever the new company name will be.