How Can Marriott Do this to me????

[travelplanner70]

I reserved Thanksgiving week at BeachPlace Towers last November. Yesterday I called to ask to lock off and deposit the week in I.I. This week has always been a very strong trader for me. Now the shocking thing happened.

The Marriott Vacation Counselor kept me on hold for over 40 mins. - checking back with me every so often to say that there was a problem with the transaction. Every time he came back to tell me there was a problem, I expressed concern and surprise since I never had this trouble before. He then said that he would need more time to complete the transaction and that he would send me an email when it was completed so that I would not have to stay on hold any longer.

I never received the email confirmation. Once I went on line at 9:30 p.m. that night, I did not see my reservation any longer in my account on the Marriott web site, but I did see a week locked off and deposited in my I.I. account BUT Marriott changed it to the week of Dec. 7th - definitely not as strong as Thanksgiving Week. Since Marriott's office was closed by 9:30 p.m., I called the next morning to find out why they changed my week and then deposited a less desirable week into I.I.

Marriott's response was I have nothing to complain about since the Dec. 7 week is rated as highly as Thanksgiving Week. (They copied the I.I. chart from directory - which I hold little stock in.) They will not return the Thanksgiving Week to me - saying they no longer have it.
I am furious.

I then wrote to a "supervisor" - so he claimed. No help there. I said that I know Marriott has access to weeks through Destination Points. They can give me one of their weeks. No response from Marriott.

I feel they had no authority to change my reservation. I do not feel I should sacrifice anything for their mistake.

Any suggestions?

 

[Smooth Air]

You still have your Confirmation # for the November BP week you reserved.
Marriott has to give it to you.

I was just thinking about re-joining II. Not anymore. This is crazy. II is not what to used to be. Stories like yours confirm that. There was some major mixup here between Marriott & II.

Smooth Air

 

[Beefnot]

You still have your Confirmation # for the November BP week you reserved.
Marriott has to give it to you.

I was just thinking about re-joining II. Not anymore. This is crazy. II is not what to used to be. Stories like yours confirm that. There was some major mixup here between Marriott & II.

Smooth Air

Why was the OP's experience the fault of II?

 

[dioxide45]

Why was the OP's experience the fault of II?

I agree. MVCI basically canceled the OPs original reservation and selected a week for deposit. Not what the OP asked for. Hindsight, but it would have been wise to stay on the line or just say forget about it and call back another day and hope for someone with some sense.

 

[winger]

...

I was just thinking about re-joining II. Not anymore. This is crazy. II is not what to used to be. Stories like yours confirm that. There was some major mixup here between Marriott & II.

Smooth Air

First, this is Marriott's fault, nothing to do with II.
Second, II has never failed me in any exchange request in over 13 years. This is with both our Marriott and non-Marriott resorts. II is not perfect by any means, but in the exchange area, no real issues.

 

[travelplanner70]

I agree that this is the fault of MVCI, not I.I. I tried to get off the phone, but he took my charge card # and claimed he had completed most of the reservation. Also, I never before deposited my weeks through Marriott. I always called I.I. after I locked off with Marriott. I should have done that this time. Next time I will go back to my old system. Why did I trust Marriott?

Marriott acknowledges that they switched the weeks when depositing into I.I. They claim I should not care what week goes to I.I. I wonder if Marriott scooped up the week for their Destination program, and figured I would not care since I was depositing it anyway.

Marriott is not interested in solving a problem they created. They figure I should accept the December week. It is not ethical what they did.

 

[dmharris]

I would find the name of the guy who manages the entire MVC business and e-mail him. This is despicable. How would they like this if it happened to them?

 

[billymach4]

You must have some audit trail of the original reservation somewhere in you email inbox... I hope. Please search your inbox.

Print out a copy.

Write to MVCI and demand your original week back.

This may sound a little bit over the top, but if you feel that strongly about it, and it sounds like you do... File a claim in small claims court with the evidence of your original reservation.

If nothing else Marriott will have to appear in court to respond to your claim. If not you won a judgement by default!

Just my 2 pennies!

 

[Smooth Air]

Everytime I have dealt with II something got messed up. That is why I have attributed some of the blame for this mess to II. That is why I have not renewed my II membership.
Obviously, others have had more postive experiences w/ II.

 

[Ridewithme38]

Give it a little while, i'm sure Carolina will find a way to blame this on RCI

 

[Queen]

I am just curious, what do you do for exchanges if you don't have II.

Everytime I have dealt with II something got messed up. That is why I have attributed some of the blame for this mess to II. That is why I have not renewed my II membership.
Obviously, others have had more postive experiences w/ II.

 

[Smooth Air]

Queen, I stopped doing exchanges.

If I want to go somewhere other than my home resort, I rent my week(s) out & I rent from another Marriott Owner. Works beautifully.

I use Redweek & TUG classifieds to post my ads & to connect w/ other Marriot Owners wanting to rent their week(s).

Smooth Air

 

[sjuhawk_jd]

I reserved Thanksgiving week at BeachPlace Towers last November. Yesterday I called to ask to lock off and deposit the week in I.I. This week has always been a very strong trader for me. Now the shocking thing happened.

The Marriott Vacation Counselor kept me on hold for over 40 mins. - checking back with me every so often to say that there was a problem with the transaction. Every time he came back to tell me there was a problem, I expressed concern and surprise since I never had this trouble before. He then said that he would need more time to complete the transaction and that he would send me an email when it was completed so that I would not have to stay on hold any longer.

I never received the email confirmation. Once I went on line at 9:30 p.m. that night, I did not see my reservation any longer in my account on the Marriott web site, but I did see a week locked off and deposited in my I.I. account BUT Marriott changed it to the week of Dec. 7th - definitely not as strong as Thanksgiving Week. Since Marriott's office was closed by 9:30 p.m., I called the next morning to find out why they changed my week and then deposited a less desirable week into I.I.

Marriott's response was I have nothing to complain about since the Dec. 7 week is rated as highly as Thanksgiving Week. (They copied the I.I. chart from directory - which I hold little stock in.) They will not return the Thanksgiving Week to me - saying they no longer have it.
I am furious.

I then wrote to a "supervisor" - so he claimed. No help there. I said that I know Marriott has access to weeks through Destination Points. They can give me one of their weeks. No response from Marriott.

I feel they had no authority to change my reservation. I do not feel I should sacrifice anything for their mistake.

Any suggestions?

Conserve your energy, Marriott is telling the truth for a change. Thanksgiving week and week of Dec 7th etc. are all same for trading purposes with II. Now if you were to rent out your reserved week by yourself, than that is a different story. Do not worry, whatever you can get with thanksgiving week, you can get with Week 49 or 50 whatever Dec 7th is.

 

[Quilter]

Conserve your energy, Marriott is telling the truth for a change. Thanksgiving week and week of Dec 7th etc. are all same for trading purposes with II. Now if you were to rent out your reserved week by yourself, than that is a different story. Do not worry, whatever you can get with thanksgiving week, you can get with Week 49 or 50 whatever Dec 7th is.

How do you know this? This information would be helpful if someone was targeting a particular reservation date to use specifically for an II deposit but missed getting it when calling Marriott. It would be nice to know a reasonable Plan B date that wouldn't be so difficult to get 12mos. in advance.

 

[jhac007]

How do you know this? This information would be helpful if someone was targeting a particular reservation date to use specifically for an II deposit but missed getting it when calling Marriott. It would be nice to know a reasonable Plan B date that wouldn't be so difficult to get 12mos. in advance.

I would agree with sjuhawk! The Interval International travel index shows that week 47 is less demand than early Dec. (weeks 48-49). As stated before, one must consider we are on talking II trading as opposed to someone wanting to rent a Thanksgiving week!

Jim

 

[dougp26364]

How do you know this? This information would be helpful if someone was targeting a particular reservation date to use specifically for an II deposit but missed getting it when calling Marriott. It would be nice to know a reasonable Plan B date that wouldn't be so difficult to get 12mos. in advance.

I've used early Dec. weeks for exchanging in the past and, I've used Nov. weeks and I've used May weeks. In my experience, there has been virtually no difference.

I agree, save your energy. You haven't been damaged. There are times when Holdiay weeks being stronger trade weeks are only a preception but not a reality.

 

[Beefnot]

Practically speaking, you guys are probably right. But that has to be disconcerting that Marriott chose to deposit a different week than what was agreed. That would irk me.

 

[rsackett]

Practically speaking, you guys are probably right. But that has to be disconcerting that Marriott chose to deposit a different week than what was agreed. That would irk me.

It would irk me too. I have never asked Marriott to deposit a week for me.. In he future I would have them lock-off the unit and deposit it myself with what ever trading company I wanted to use.

Ray

 

[caroln]

I assume you did not convert your week to the DC program and were depositing into a straight Interval Account. I have both Starwoods and Marriotts and it looks like Marriott is taking a page out of the Starwood book and deciding which week to deposit. I really don't think this will impact your trading power but it is a huge impact on the weeks available for trade. For example I never try to get a Starwood trade over Christmas/New Years as I know the chances are very slim. On the other hand in the past I have been successful with Marriott trades because people reserve the "best" weeks to deposit into II.

 

[dougp26364]

It would irk me as well, which is why I don't call Marriott reps to do my work for me. I make my reservations, lock-off requests and deposits onine without calling some rep who can muck it up for me. Since 1998 I've only had a couple of issues and that's been with another company that would intercept my request and either deny my request or would try to change the reserved week, then tell me it didn't matter. But it wasn't I.I., it was the developer.

If Marroitt suddenly thinks it has the right to decide what week is deposited for me despite the week I reserve and request deposited, then we'll have a problem. I don't believe they can contractually show me that they have that right to change my reseved week, just because they would prefer to deposit something different. The DC might give them control over what's deposited but, if an owner doesn't elect DC points, they don't have the right to make changes.

Back to doing it myself vs a Marriott rep. Was this the reps fault or has this become a Marriott policy? For now I'd say it's a mistake made by the rep. on the phone. If I start to see more posts like this, then I'd say it's a new Marriott policy that owners are going to need to put a stop too.

 

[jpc763]

When booking online with Marriott, you have the option of choosing the week to deposit and letting Marriott choose the week.

So.... my theory is that the phone call was treated as letting Marriott choose the week since the OP did not clearly state exactly in detail precisely what they wanted to do.

What the OP did was make a full villa reservation back in November and then 4 months later *cancel* that week and rebook only the 1BR part. Marriott allowed them to do that and since the OP most likely (I wouldn't have) did not give specific instructions on what week they wanted deposited in II. So Marriott kept the Thanksgiving week and gave II a different week.

I am not saying its right, but I am saying that they have the options set up so this can happen. It is not about ethics, it is about cancelling a reservation and rebooking. Just my 2 cents.

 

[josh1231]

I agree with most other posters. I would be mad strictly out of principle, but in reality this is probably not going to affect your trading ability at all. I think its hard to nail down one week versus another and say definitively that you would have gotten this, if that was your week.

But like I said, out of principle, I'd be mad as heck as well, though not mad enough to create a thread with such a dramatic headline :hysterical: .

 

[dougp26364]

When booking online with Marriott, you have the option of choosing the week to deposit and letting Marriott choose the week.

So.... my theory is that the phone call was treated as letting Marriott choose the week since the OP did not clearly state exactly in detail precisely what they wanted to do.

What the OP did was make a full villa reservation back in November and then 4 months later *cancel* that week and rebook only the 1BR part. Marriott allowed them to do that and since the OP most likely (I wouldn't have) did not give specific instructions on what week they wanted deposited in II. So Marriott kept the Thanksgiving week and gave II a different week.

I am not saying its right, but I am saying that they have the options set up so this can happen. It is not about ethics, it is about cancelling a reservation and rebooking. Just my 2 cents.

If that's the case, then the best thing may have been to make two calls. The initial call would be to keep the week reserved but ask that it be locked off and, to make certain they could do that without losing the orignal reservation. Then call back (or do it yourself online) and request one portion be deposited.

It could be a situation where there system must cancel the original reservation and create a new reservation when calling back to lock-off a unit. If so, that's a defeciency in the system as I can see situations where a owner might be planning on guests being with them, only to have the guests cancel on them (we've had that happen). That could change a owners need and they might was to lock-off and trade on portion but use the other portion. I'd be ticked if that was my plan but i lost my reservation due to a glitch or, due to the rep not knowing how to manage a lock-off without canceling or losing the original reservation date.

Like I've said many times, I don't trust Marrriott phone reps to get the job done as I want it. It's to easy for me to not say things so specifically that the rep understands what I want. Just to much room for error, leaving owners dissastisfied and angry.

 

[Smooth Air]

The thing I do not understand about this : Why was Marriott doing the deposit? Whenever I have tried to do an exchange w/ II , I have always called II. I have only done "Request First" with II. If I get what I want, I take it. If not, I keep my home resort week(s). The Marriott rep has never been involved when I have tried to do an exchange. I reserve my week(s) w/ the Marriott rep. Then, having made the reservations(s), I call II & tell them I want to do "request first" for the week(s) that I have reserved at my home resort.

With your fact situation, I would have called Marriott to lock off the Beach Place Thanksgiving week. Then call II and "deposit" if that is what you wanted. (But as I have said, I have only done "Request First")
So, I am confused as to why Marriott was involved.

In any event, it seems moot b/c, according to Tuggers above, the week that you "lost" & the week that you now have at Beach Place seem to have equal trading power. BTW, where do you want to go in exchange for Beach Place? Is it difficult to get?

Hope it all works out for you.

Smooth Air

 

[KathyPet]

SmoothAir, I agree with you. Only once did I let MVCI get involved in my exchange request. I reserved on line once and clicked the button that said I was going to exchange my week. THat was when I realized that Marriott selects a week for you if you say you are going to exchange. Never again. I book my week on line indicating that I am going to occupy. I get my E Mail with my reservation # and then I call II and deposit using a reserve first option.