Wyndham June 12 outage -is it back online yet?

[Mr. Phil]

You might try the trick that worked for me to see reservations
after the first six. (It's pretty laborious, sigh.)

- click My Account -> Points Summary
- under TRANSACTION HISTORY, click Current Use Year -> All Use Years
- scroll down till you see a Resort Reservation transaction for the correct number
of Points. This may involve a *lot* of scrolling if you have a lot of reservations.
- Click the downarrow (reverse caret?) on that transaction to expand to multi-line
- Click View Transaction Details
* Voila!! Your transaction with all the details, including buttons for
Modify Reservation and Cancel Reservation

Extra credit: I noticed that the URL at this point has redirected to one specific
for this reservation, that can be used later to access this one entry faster later.
It looks like this:

https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com/us/en/owner/account/vacations/reservation-details?reservationId=nnnnnnnn

Yes. Do see. What a debacle way.

 

[WManning]

Yes. Do see. What a debacle way.

Not sure this was really a upgrade. Every time the same failure by Wyndham IT.

 

[comicbookman]

It appears I can book using resale points - just not developer points. I don't receive the "something unexpected just happened" error on the last step when attempting to make a resale reservation in my FUY. I didn't actually commit the transaction - but best estimate the reported issue is scoped only to developer points reservations.

I got the error trying with both resale and dev points.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Every day this continues, I add another comment via the wyndham website. This is just unacceptable. What could they have possibily done in coding and not attempted to test first. Clearly developer points should be able to book Club Pass, but did they NOT test hybrid point owners for both Club pass and regular Club Wyndham type owners. Lot of companies have poor and incomplete testing rigor. They miss obvious scenarios, like Hybrid owners.

i've confirmed that I can book resale points, I just can't book developer points. Makes no sense.

 

[geist1223]

Why should anyone be surprised. Remember Voyager. Remember when they acquired RCI and released a new online Web Site.

 

[ilya]

But I am sure Wyndham has no problem booking reservations for all the sister sites.. Is anyone able to book online?

 

[Mr. Phil]

But I am sure Wyndham has no problem booking reservations for all the sister sites.. Is anyone able to book online?

Can not accomplish any online bookings. Yet no problem with WYNDHAMREWARDS / WYNDHAMHOTEL site. I sent an email to customer service two days ago- no responses. Pathetic

 

[paxsarah]

Yet no problem with WYNDHAMREWARDS / WYNDHAMHOTEL site.

Which is a completely different company. It’s like saying, yet no problem with the Hilton site.

 

[Mr. Phil]

Which is a completely different company. It’s like saying, yet no problem with the Hilton site.

Yes. Fully understand, yet they do share platforms.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Every day this continues, I add another comment via the wyndham website. This is just unacceptable. What could they have possibily done in coding and not attempted to test first. Clearly developer points should be able to book Club Pass, but did they NOT test hybrid point owners for both Club pass and regular Club Wyndham type owners. Lot of companies have poor and incomplete testing rigor. They miss obvious scenarios, like Hybrid owners.

i've confirmed that I can book resale points, I just can't book developer points. Makes no sense.

Since I am personally impacted by these issues given I am a hybrid VIP owner - it does hit home - however at the same time I'm well aware that the entirety of VIP hybrid ownership consists of less than 1% of the ownership base - so while we are an important bunch - perhaps some of Wyndham's best and most invested customers/owners - we are also a very small part of the overall ownership base - so testing for our use case scenario likely isn't part of their QA processes. QA testing typically targets the 80% majority - not the 20% minority, so I'm not shocked that our use cases are not included with any QA testing Wyndham may or may not undertake.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Yes. Fully understand, yet they do share platforms.

What do you mean by platforms? They share a brand name - and it stops there. They share exactly zero website platforms or any other technology platforms - given they are completely separate companies as of 5/31/2018 when the Wyndham Hotels company was spun off into a new company.

 

[Aftermath]

Since I am personally impacted by these issues given I am a hybrid VIP owner - it does hit home - however at the same time I'm well aware that the entirety of VIP hybrid ownership consists of less than 1% of the ownership base - so while we are an important bunch - perhaps some of Wyndham's best and most invested customers/owners - we are also a very small part of the overall ownership base - so testing for our use case scenario likely isn't part of their QA processes. QA testing typically targets the 80% majority - not the 20% minority, so I'm not shocked that our use cases are not included with any QA testing Wyndham may or may not undertake.

Any idea when we will be able to book?

 

[HitchHiker71]

Any idea when we will be able to book?

No ETA given as yet.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Since I am personally impacted by these issues given I am a hybrid VIP owner - it does hit home - however at the same time I'm well aware that the entirety of VIP hybrid ownership consists of less than 1% of the ownership base - so while we are an important bunch - perhaps some of Wyndham's best and most invested customers/owners - we are also a very small part of the overall ownership base - so testing for our use case scenario likely isn't part of their QA processes. QA testing typically targets the 80% majority - not the 20% minority, so I'm not shocked that our use cases are not included with any QA testing Wyndham may or may not undertake.

Yes but given there are limited types of ownership that is not that far of a stretch to include. AAMOF, excluding one ownership type from testing is BAD practice period.

What do we have, and yes we have types within the VIP spectrum. But still. I understand if you are doing manual testing you can't cover 100% of the scenarios, but you should included 100% of your using classes.

All Resale
All Developer Non - VIP
All Developer VIP
Hybrid Non- VIP
Hybrid VIP

 

[Eric B]

Since I am personally impacted by these issues given I am a hybrid VIP owner - it does hit home - however at the same time I'm well aware that the entirety of VIP hybrid ownership consists of less than 1% of the ownership base - so while we are an important bunch - perhaps some of Wyndham's best and most invested customers/owners - we are also a very small part of the overall ownership base - so testing for our use case scenario likely isn't part of their QA processes. QA testing typically targets the 80% majority - not the 20% minority, so I'm not shocked that our use cases are not included with any QA testing Wyndham may or may not undertake.

I completely understand the principle of not letting perfection be the enemy of good enough when it comes to testing. Where we may part ways is in believing that what they are doing is good enough, particularly when what is being done isn’t really adding much in the way of functionality for owners. Fortunately, I do most of my planning way in advance and was able to call in and make a reservation when the system was supposed to be available (but wasn’t really) and the window had opened.

IMHO a QA system that doesn’t validate the quality of a service change for one in five owners and risks upsetting them is probably underspending on QA. If one in five owner-customers is upset and becomes vocal, it can’t be good for your business.

 

[paxsarah]

Yes but given there are limited types of ownership that is not that far of a stretch to include. AAMOF, excluding one ownership type from testing is BAD practice period.

Especially since the last huge website update 2 years ago specifically addressed this ownership type. It’s not like they’ve been flying under Wyndham’s radar. They were important enough to restructure their entire booking process, with webinars explaining the change specifically for that subset of owners, but two years later it’s not even worth testing their use case. Okay.

 

[Sloane S]

but two years later it’s not even worth testing their use case.

But it's likely a whole new IT team since then, with different priorities.

 

[Aftermath]

I am a hybrid owner. And unable to book. When I called into Wyndham the booking agent had a struggle getting the upgrade. But was able to do so after a few minutes. She was very understanding of my plight and my frustrations. She shares them.

I am a hybrid owner also. Can you book yet? Can Wyndham book for you?

 

[Sandy VDH]

I am a hybrid owner also. Can you book yet? Can Wyndham book for you?

I can't book online, but wyndham over the phone did manage to book for me. However that is not an answer I am happy with, as I much prefer to do my bookings online myself.

Added my daily feedback to Wynd that my developer points don't allow me to book online. Unfortunately for me I own 4 developer weeks and 1 resale week. Talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water. I have a million points that I can't use online, but I have 189000 that I can. woopee!!

 

[tschwa2]

I had glitches when booking last night but was able to do it. What I couldn't do online today was cancel the reservation. I tried multiple times on different browsers and devices. Each time the Something Unexpected Happened notice appeared. I was on hold for about an hour and 10 minutes and tried several more times while waiting. Agent had no trouble cancelling.

 

[jhoug]

I can't book online, but wyndham over the phone did manage to book for me. However that is not an answer I am happy with, as I much prefer to do my bookings online myself.

Added my daily feedback to Wynd that my developer points don't allow me to book online. Unfortunately for me I own 4 developer weeks and 1 resale week. Talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water. I have a million points that I can't use online, but I have 189000 that I can. woopee!!

Totally agree. Same boat. Hybrid owner, mostly developer. Can't book my developer points online!! Have 10 times more in developer points.
This is maddening.
Good to know I can call, but don't want to be dependent on them and their schedule!

 

[HitchHiker71]

I completely understand the principle of not letting perfection be the enemy of good enough when it comes to testing. Where we may part ways is in believing that what they are doing is good enough, particularly when what is being done isn’t really adding much in the way of functionality for owners. Fortunately, I do most of my planning way in advance and was able to call in and make a reservation when the system was supposed to be available (but wasn’t really) and the window had opened.

IMHO a QA system that doesn’t validate the quality of a service change for one in five owners and risks upsetting them is probably underspending on QA. If one in five owner-customers is upset and becomes vocal, it can’t be good for your business.

I don't believe I've ever indicated that what Wyndham is doing is good enough, nor do I agree that what Wyndham is doing is good enough, far from it in most respects. I simply know that I'm beating a dead horse in this respect and understand that I need to strike a balance and simply accept it as "it is what it is" and do my level best to contribute meaningfully using my contacts to the extent possible.

Bigger picture, too often when companies embrace Agile development best practices, the reality is that QA testing all but disappears, or is put on the developers directly to essentially QA their own code (which is what my current company does for the most part - and we are a billion plus dollar software firm). So, I'm not at all surprised when a non-IT sofware/services firm, such as Wyndham, does the same given their IT budget is a small fraction in comparison. I think many here on TUG that used to work in IT in times past are applying dated waterfall based software shrink wrap based development methodologies that are no longer being practiced in the cloud/SaaS world - which is almost entirely agile based in comparison, by design. There are firms like Microsoft, Amazon, etc., that do a far better job of implementing and practicing Agile with full iterative QA integration functions - and it shows - but IME these are not the norm unfortunately. Unfortunately for Wyndham, the benefits of Agile without formal QA aren't being leveraged either from what I can see. If you're going to implement MVP features and then largely forgo QA and instead simply start taking active feedback to fix problems on the fly, which is what many agile software companies do instead of spending the dollars on QA, then you need to fix those problems quickly when feature enhancements break existing functions that users count on day to day. While frustrating, if the problems are fixed within a few business days, usually most folks can cope. This unfortunately is not at all what we've seen from Wyndham, as we've seen quite a few major feature implementations that have also broken other existing functions, and these broken functions have dragged on for 6-9 months with no remediation. What we're really seeing here is a problem that most agile development companies struggle with - striking a balance between bug fixes and feature enhancements. My firm manages this balance via weekly release management windows (every Tuesday during normal business hours) which basically bounce back and forth between a bug fix release and a feature release. So on average we get two bug fix releases per month, and two feature releases per month. Other companies do a monthly or biweekly cadence. This allows the developers enough time per sprint to finish off feature releases properly (within reason), before changing focus to bug fixes for the next sprint release. We also have a backup release management window every Thursday, that can be used for unplanned releases (primarily regression bugs due to new feature releases on Tuesday of the same week).

Lastly, it's really 1 in 100 owners when it comes to hybrid VIP owners - so that's a really small ratio - i.e. it's not anywhere close to 1 out of 5 or 20%. Again, this directly affects me, and like you, I tent to plan pretty far in advance, so it doesn't impact me right away, at least not materially. I have most of our vacations already booked for all of 2023, except for perhaps a couple weekends in the Oct/Nov/Dec time windows that I typically book within the discount window. So for me, as long as this issue is remediated by early August timeframe, I won't be materially impacted, and worst case I've got access to the VIP hotline to make a reservation on my behalf, which typically doesn't have a long wait, unlike the non-VIP hotlines these days. If these issues drag one, it'll start materially impacting me come mid-August timeframe as that's when the 10 month window for our next major early summer 2024 vacation comes up for booking - which is also our 30th wedding anniversary - so I cannot screw this one up!

 

[Jan M.]

I'm very, very surprised by that 1% number for VIP hybrid owners. Most of the people I know or know of are VIP hybrid owners.

Are hybrid owners who aren't VIP having the same issue?

 

[HitchHiker71]

I'm very, very surprised by that 1% number for VIP hybrid owners. Most of the people I know or know of are VIP hybrid owners.

Are hybrid owners who aren't VIP having the same issue?

I don't believe we've had any non-VIP hybrid owners report having any issues making reservations.

 

[ilya]

I don't believe we've had any non-VIP hybrid owners report having any issues making reservations.

Does this mean they are selectively targeting one group of owners?