• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

More Crappy customer service from Starwood Reservations

DeniseM

DeniseM

Moderator
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
59,107
Reaction score
11,210
Location
Northern, CA
Resorts Owned
WKORV, WKV, SDO, Hyatt High Sierra, Dolphin's Cove (Anaheim) NEW: 3 Lawa'i Beach Resort!
My renter just call Starwood Reservations, and was told by the Rep. that they could not confirm their reservation (which is already in the renter's name) because they weren't the owner. :doh:

The quality of service from Starwood reservations gets worse all the time. :mad:

Other examples:

Reps. who don't know how to verify the (deeded) view on a reservation.

Reps. who can't spell the guest's name right, even when you spell it out for them, and then verify it.

Reps. who pretend to take special requests, but never enter them in the reservation notes.

Reps. who do not know how to access and read the reservation notes.

Reps. who don't know you can request a building and high or low floor, even though it isn't guaranteed.

Reps. who don't know you can split a 2 bdm. lock-off into two confirmations.

Hello Starwood??? Your customer services STINKS!
 
Last edited:
Well said. Thank goodness they finally got the online reservation system working so I don't need to speak with them as much (or at all!).


Sent from my iPad
 
Ken555 said:
Well said. Thank goodness they finally got the online reservation system working so I don't need to speak with them as much (or at all!).
Click to expand...

But what about the hands-on personal customer service that you miss out on - esp if you are 5*/PFL? {as a salty fellow would once interject...}

[Sarcasm Alert!] :wave:
 
With what we pay them for their "personal customer services," it makes me absolutely furious!
 
DavidnRobin said:
But what about the hands-on personal customer service that you miss out on - esp if you are 5*/PFL? {as a salty fellow would once interject...}



[Sarcasm Alert!] :wave:
Click to expand...


Unlike the call center, the web customer service (ie. automated website) is so much more personable (and accurate), and available almost anytime! And I really like that I don't need to enter my phone number, then confirm my email address, and my name, prior to asking even the most basic question, nor spend a minute or two with a survey (or not), and not asking about the weather in Orlando...


Sent from my iPad
 
DeniseM - you can send a email to Suzanne Clarke (SVP of OS) - she or one of her reports will respond. It may not get anywhere (but I have had some success on certain issues - and received a bottle of wine and last chance to reserve a specific villa location at WKORV and WPORV), but will at least bring it to their attention. Of course, be critically constructive (I know you know this...) in any correspondence.
 
Yeah - who ever trained the Reps to try to make small talk with the customers has a screw loose! Especially when you are trying to make a timely reservation, and the Rep wants to have an inane conversation instead! :doh:
 
Dave - The powers that be read TUG faithfully. ;)
 
DeniseM said:
Dave - The powers that be read TUG faithfully. ;)
Click to expand...

I have had 3 contacts with SC over the years - all of these issues had been discussed on TUG. I even sent them a link to the posts (when appropriate).

But, I did find a personal and nicely written email to get response - 2 of which were handled (resulting in changes to the SVN OS process) - and one (the infamous renting of non-HomeResort SOs) got a response about their awareness of the issue (but, no action to date).

I even had two follow-up phone calls - one with SC and one with an SVO Marketing group (that resulted in the wine and location choices). SC is a very nice person as well as the people who work for her.
 
I agree - my contact with her has been very positive and professional.
 
OK - so I just called back and tried to confirm for the renter, and the Rep. could not verify the view - even though it's on the first page of the confirmation.

I said, "The confirmations says it's Ocean Front."

Her response - "Well it might not be, it depends on when the reservation was made"

REALLY??? Then why does the confirmation say OCEAN FRONT????

:doh::doh::doh:
 
Last edited:
Yeah, it's rather maddening.

But I can't completely blame the reps. Starwood has needlessly created a very confusing structure by muddying the water with rules like "view is only guaranteed if you book 8-12 months in advance." With Marriott, if you paid for an OF unit, you'll get an OF unit, as long as one is available.
 
One more time - my guest called back for the THIRD time, and finally got someone who knew what they were talking about.

Starwood - You should be embarrassed!
 
LisaRex said:
Yeah, it's rather maddening.

But I can't completely blame the reps. Starwood has needlessly created a very confusing structure by muddying the water with rules like "view is only guaranteed if you book 8-12 months in advance." With Marriott, if you paid for an OF unit, you'll get an OF unit, as long as one is available.
Click to expand...

Yes, but Lisa - the View is listed right ON the confirmation - a well-trained Rep. should certainly be able to look that up. Even after she looked it up, she couldn't verify it, and continued to argue with me! :mad:
 
Lisa, if you book less than 8 months in advance, the confirmation says floating view. If yo book more than 8 months in advance, the reservation lists the view reserved. They keep track of the units reserved, and if they run out of say ocean front units, you are advised that they don't have any of those, but you can reserve a different view. There is no confusion about this.
 
I use the online reservation system for the most part (and prefer it), but must say that I have never had an issue when dealing with phone Reps (other than the annoying process that is not their fault). This includes multiple reservations for my renters, and they have never had an issue in confirming on their own (or at least that I heard of). I say this as a balance because it is common only to hear about problems, and not about positive/neutral interactions (e.g. Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc).

I do hope that SVN reads this.
 
Sheraton Broadway Plantation reservation disappointment......

I hope they read my thread as well because Starwood reps denied me use of week 27's, which is my deeded/ float week, and the rules state we can reserve the actual deeded week up to 2 years in advance with paid MF's. I was told they were "out of" week 27's when I called a week before everyone else.

Something's amiss, especially when I call back a few days later and find out there are still week 27's left. Is Starwood blocking me from my rightful reservations?

I think the stupid rep was looking at 2014 dates (of course they are gone by then) and not 2015 dates for week 27. Maybe the rep didn't know. Back to training!!!!
 
Last edited:
Cindy - It may be simple incompetence....
 
I tried to understand what had happened w SBP in the other thread.
You mention something about 2 years, but are talking about a reservation less than a year away - so it was hard to follow not knowing how SBP is deeded.
I own 2 fixed weeks/villa at WSJ (incl checkin day) - deeded - and they get reserved ~16 months ahead, and need to confirm by 10 months out.

Are your SBP week 27s deeded for week, or deeded for both villa and week? What about checkin?
Based on what I could glean - you have deeded week 27 - and are being told that they are not available - sounds weird, but you need to check what the CCRs say specifically. It doesn't sound as if you waited to long to reserve. I would write a very succinct (courteous) email to Owner Services for an explanation - and see if it poor training of the Associate - or misunderstanding of the CCRs.

I really think if people are having issues with the Associates - then they should let SVO/SVN know directly. IMO - and what I do.
 
Last edited:
emuyshondt said:
They keep track of the units reserved, and if they run out of say ocean front units, you are advised that they don't have any of those, but you can reserve a different view.
Click to expand...

That is new then. Because I was told in the past when I tried to reserve a specific week, that if I owned OF, I could only book OF. I couldn't downgrade my view, even I wanted to.
 
DavidnRobin said:
I tried to understand what had happened w SBP in the other thread.
You mention something about 2 years, but are talking about a reservation less than a year away - so it was hard to follow not knowing how SBP is deeded.
.
Click to expand...


The original phase of SBP has an unusual provision where you can reserve your deeded week between 24 and 12 months out, before it becomes open to all float owners in the season.

She tried to reserve all of her deeded week 27 units at 12 months + about 1 week out, and was told they didn't have enough available for all of the weeks she owned. According to the declarations, that should be impossible (barring a unit being uninhabitable), since she is the only one allowed to reserve them that far out. At that point any week 27 owner that wants them should be able to get one.

It would seem Starwood dumped some to RCI or their own website rentals that they weren't entitled to, and then didn't have enough available for the actual deeded owners.
 
Last edited:
Denise, you really do seem to be having a string of bad luck with SVN customer service reps. You run a good rental business, so I'm curious how often you deal with them? Do you think the sheer number of problems you have are due simply to the volume of your transactions? We own six weeks (all lockoffs, so we often book more than six weeks), and fortunately, we've always had competent reps when we've called in. Our renters have been able to verify reservations/view without any problems. I'm sorry that you're having such a difficult time getting simple tasks done.

And to emuyshondt, the same as what Lisa said - if all the oceanfronts (my deeded view) are booked, I can't book an ocean view or island view until 8 months. View is totally luck of the draw then.
 
Hi Pam - I do have more contact with reservations than most people, but it's the percentage of errors I'm concerned about.

For instance - 4 calls were made today trying to confirm the same reservation, and 3 out of 4 times, the Reps made serious errors. That is waaaaay too many.
 
Where is the call center located?

Does Starwood offshore their call center outside of North America?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top