[2008] Letter to RCI about Something Big Promo

[pcgirl54]

I am a satisfied RCI member and have never written a letter of complaint. I did send one today regarding the promo bust. I encourage you to do the same.


Dear RCI,

I am a longtime member with RCI and have enjoyed many exchanges. I enjoy searching online rather than calling a RCI rep. I also belong to two BBS timeshare boards.

Today I and many BBS members are so very disappointed with the advertised hype about"Something Big is Coming". I cannot tell you how much the collective disappointment was in a 1 day 40% discount for extra vacations. I am just so disheartened that this was the "big" something. We were all expecting so much more.

It would make RCI members far happier if you upgraded the website to a search all destinations in a 2 year window. The cumbersome 5-10 week search and constant input of areas of interest is antequated in today's very busy world. Clients do not want to keep inputing destinations and dates repeatedly. Many times destinations are picked when viewed in a "search all feature" resulting in an exchange that you would have not considered. This is in place with another exchange company and results in visiting the website more frequently.

This revision to the online search engine would truely be "something big".

Many BBS Timeshare boards members feel extra vacations are just deposited week inventory used in Extra Vacation inventory to increase revenue. If so this surely takes away from existing members pool of desirable weeks. This is why some BBS members are not renewing with RCI and going to other exchange venues. I am not saying this is true but it is a perception by many.

Please forward this email to the CEO, Director of IT and marketing regarding the search engine and the "Something Big" promo.


Sincerely,
(name with held on BBS)

 

[geekette]

It's good you took the time to write with constructive criticism, but, they use a mainframe - you aren't likely to get 2 years for Everywhere - it's not feasible with their infrastructure.

Until/unless they create and maintain a parallel database to serve web requests, it's just not going to happen. Even if they do create that parallel, you would lose real-time booking, which people also would not like. Implementing real-time booking is not necessarily impossible (I don't know that much about their ops!) but, performance would not be good. People would complain about that.

There are always compromises when it comes to technology.

I hope you get a response that indicates SOMETHING BIG hasn't happened yet and that maybe it is actually something good. one can hope ...

 

[Carol C]

You've inspired me to write them a letter suggesting SOMETHING BIG: no more guest certificate fees for RCI members who want their friends and family to use their timeshares. Give dues-paying members the same "no guest fee" treatment that AFVC and GETravlop and others get.

So, which departments should I write to pitch this BIG idea?

 

[TUGBrian]

This was always the response madge gave when people asked for email to send feedback to:

please send an e-mail to feedback@rci.com with TUG in the subject line.

 

[pcgirl54]

geekette

I got South Seas Resort in Captiva 18 months out through RCI.

What technology does II use that allows a superior experience with the "search all feature" that RCI does not use?

 

[geekette]

My best guess is that they built for web use, but I honestly know nothing about II, while RCI is right here in town. I thought II was around well before the web became prevalent, but, I just don't know. I know RCI existed before them, while the DeHahns were married. II could have done some major infrastructure changes to facilitate web initiatives, while, sadly, RCI has not made that investment. They simply have a web presence that functions. Nothing more.

[true, it doesn't always work and I think their weekly maintenance is a terrible idea that adds more instability WEEKLY - quarterly releases would be a better idea and they could probably keep staff longer if they weren't required to give up every Saturday night]

It's a sticky wicket to pump data from a mainframe to the web. Not impossible, but if they have to pump many many thousands of records PER USER, SIMULTANEOUSLY, they could have some more serious problems than what they already have. Especially if they don't invest in serious horsepower with extreme redundancy.

I've done the middleware from mainframe to web before and I hated it and would not want to do it again (I do not come from mainframe experience which added to my distaste for it). The other problem I had, tho, was that mainframe programmers would change fields and such and not tell us. When the user has problems doing ordinary business online (which is 24/7), that's an emergency, and chasing something from the web user interface all the way thru the web code and back on down thru the middleware objects on to the mainframe is a PITA and time-consuming. And irritating, since a bit of communication could avoid my getting paged at 2 am for a problem that never should have been allowed to occur. sorry. personal history from a job I hated.

More records involved, more problems unless that middleware is super solid and both it and the web server can handle such volume.

 

[davidvel]

It's a sticky wicket to pump data from a mainframe to the web. Not impossible, but if they have to pump many many thousands of records PER USER, SIMULTANEOUSLY, they could have some more serious problems than what they already have. Especially if they don't invest in serious horsepower with extreme redundancy.

Are they using a COBOL application on the mainframe?

 

[lgreenspan]

Several months ago I wrote a letter to Geoffrey A. Ballotti CEO of RCI about my disappointment in vacation exchange availability with RCI. I recieved a phone call within a few days from one of his staff. I addressed the letter:

Geoffrey A. Ballotti CEO
Global Headquarters
7 Sylvan Way
Parsippany, NJ 07054

 

[geekette]

Are they using a COBOL application on the mainframe?

That, I don't know but can probably find out from their next job posting. Or, better yet, I'll ask some of my recruiter friends if they have job orders from RCI, and whether COBOL is in there.

 

[cclendinen]

New RCI Web comming???

I was on the phone the other day having a VC fix a problem I had online. During the discussion he mentioned that they were working on a replacement website.

He made it sound like it was a major replacement and not fixes to the current site.

While I love doing searches online with RCI, it is the most error-prone commercial website I have ever used.

 

[pcgirl54]

I hope that is true. It needs to be more user friendly.

 

[computereezz9999]

RCI is in the dark ages

Are they using a COBOL application on the mainframe?

Yes their system is a COBOL/CICS system from the 70's and the web interface is just a thin client. There is no way to make this real time. The QA dept is a joke. Most of the team outsourced to India. The rest of them that are in the USA are cheap Indian visa workers. They fire all the good workers. So that is why the service is so bad.

 

[DeniseM]

Please note that you are replying to a question that was asked in 2008...