6 days later, Interval has not matched my exchange with my deposit

[DannyTS]

On the 24th I booked an exchange (regular search). I did not have any deposits at the time so I went to the Vistana website, paid the 2021 MF for a week and deposited the week in Interval with the clear intention to use that week for the exchange. The week I deposited was identical with my search, 1 BR 2021 Lagunamar platinum.

The next day I got an email from Vistana that they deposited the week in Interval and when I went to Interval I could see the deposit in "my history". Six days later thought, the deposit is still showing unredeemed and the exchange is still "pending verification". When I called Interval a couple of days ago a very confused rep told me that the 2 underlying weeks (one used for the search and one actually deposited) are not identical since one expires December 24th 2023 and the other one (actually deposited) expires December 31st 2023. Of course both weeks should have been identical since I use a 1 BR platinum at Lagunamar and all my weeks are the same. The agent told me he could cancel the exchange and rebook with the actual deposit but that there is a small chance I will lose the exchange if somebody else is booking that week after he cancels it. What?

I had run into the same problem a couple of years ago, at the time I had to do a 3 way call with Vistana and Interval to resolve it. I naively thought that Interval had fixed this known problem by now.

 

[dioxide45]

I would contact Mark about this one instead of dealing with the regular phone reps.

 

[davidvel]

On the 24th I booked an exchange (regular search). I did not have any deposits at the time so I went to the Vistana website, paid the 2021 MF for a week and deposited the week in Interval with the clear intention to use that week for the exchange. The week I deposited was identical with my search, 1 BR 2021 Lagunamar platinum.

The next day I got an email from Vistana that they deposited the week in Interval and when I went to Interval I could see the deposit in "my history". Six days later thought, the deposit is still showing unredeemed and the exchange is still "pending verification". When I called Interval a couple of days ago a very confused rep told me that the 2 underlying weeks (one used for the search and one actually deposited) are not identical since one expires December 24th 2023 and the other one (actually deposited) expires December 31st 2023. Of course both weeks should have been identical since I use a 1 BR platinum at Lagunamar and all my weeks are the same. The agent told me he could cancel the exchange and rebook with the actual deposit but that there is a small chance I will lose the exchange if somebody else is booking that week after he cancels it. What?

I had run into the same problem a couple of years ago, at the time I had to do a 3 way call with Vistana and Interval to resolve it. I naively thought that Interval had fixed this known problem by now.

Some more info would be helpful. How did you search if you had no weeks? Did you use a dummy reservation #? If so how did you "deposit" the actual week after that week was used up in your exchange?

 

[tschwa2]

Some more info would be helpful. How did you search if you had no weeks? Did you use a dummy reservation #? If so how did you "deposit" the actual week after that week was used up in your exchange?

Vistana doesn't make you use a reservation number. You have a generic blended deposit that you can search with and deposit.

 

[tschwa2]

I recently made an exchange with II with a week that I had a reservation. I cancelled the reservation and made the deposit. I don't know if it was because the holiday week plus weekends but it took several days to get it verified. In fact after doing everything through interval and it not showing as verified, I went back into Vistana and did a deposit through them. It took another 2 days before showing verified through II and another day before I got an email from Visatana confirming the deposit.

 

[djyamyam]

It sounds like you were doing a search first (searching with a dummy reservation on an undeposited week), found something you liked and confirmed the reservation and then went to the Vistana website to then deposit right away so II would confirm it against the new deposit. That wont' work. What will happen is exactly what you've described. The confirmation will not happen against that new deposit. I've tried this in the past and always run into the same issue. You might be able to get it resolved by having an II supervisor isolate the unit when it is released so it can be rebooked with the new deposit - but it's a PIA and it's definitely not standard operating procedure. They might do it once but don't expect it again in the future

 

[DannyTS]

I recently made an exchange with II with a week that I had a reservation. I cancelled the reservation and made the deposit. I don't know if it was because the holiday week plus weekends but it took several days to get it verified. In fact after doing everything through interval and it not showing as verified, I went back into Vistana and did a deposit through them. It took another 2 days before showing verified through II and another day before I got an email from Visatana confirming the deposit.

You are describing correctly what is happening. Where I disagree with you is that it is not standard operating procedure. This is the way one does a search when you do not have a deposit yet. The issue to me seems that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. They have a deposit and they have an exchange. How complicated is for the system to match the 2?

 

[tschwa2]

You are describing correctly what is happening. Where I disagree with you is that it is not standard operating procedure. This is the way one does a search when you do not have a deposit yet. The issue to me seems that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. They have a deposit and they have an exchange. How complicated is for the system to match the 2?

I don't think it is or should be normal operating procedure. I was surprised at how long it took.

In my case I ultimately wanted to exchange into a non Vistana/marriott exchange but wanted the cheaper exchange fee and addition of eplus. Although I could pay immediately for eplus, it wouldn't actually let me do an eplus until the exchange was verified. I ended up cancelling twice within the 24 hr grace period waiting 2 days and then going back into Vistana incase the hold up was with interval not contacting Vistana right away and did the exchange again and then it took right around another 24 hrs.

So still not clear to me whether the hold up was on interval side to reach out for the verification or on Vistana for doing the verification.

 

[DannyTS]

In the end I called Interval again. They cancelled the exchange and rebooked it using the deposit I had made for this purpose and that had been verified and was siting in my account for 5 days. A waste of time on both sides IMO.

I think the issue arises from another problem for those that own more than one identical Vistana week. All our Vistana weeks have unique numbers in the Vistana system. When I book a week on the Vistana site I know exactly the contract I am using. On the Interval site however, "my units" do not have corresponding numbers or any numbers whatsoever. When I search using weeks that have not been deposited yet, I will most likely use a week that does not correspond with the Vistana week I may have available and intend to deposit. I suspect this is why the deposit and the exchange do not match automatically even if the underlying deposits have identical features.