II is a mess

[DeniseM]

My 2011 WKORV-N 2 bdrm lockoff shows up in II even though I neither asked that it be deposited nor have it available to be deposited (since I exhausted the SOs associated with it back in 2010).

This is the thing - A place holder for the weeks you have registered with the account will ALWAYS show in the account, whether you request a deposit or not. That just shows you that they are registered - not that they are deposited. To deposit, you must call Starwood every time.

You will never see what's actually deposited - I know that's stupid, but when Starwood decided to change the rules in 2009, that's what they did. No matter what you do or do not have deposited, the only thing you will see in your account is a place holder with the current year's date on it, so it's critical for you to keep track of your deposits and trades yourself.

 

[Politico]

Yes - floating 2012 weeks could have been deposited as early as Jan. 1, 2011. EVERY time you want to "designate your timeshare for exchange," you must call Starwood to do it.



Since the II/Starwood rules changes in 2009, Starwood does not actually deposit a week, so you will never see the actual week that you "designate for exchange." You will only see a place holder with the current year's date. It's really stupid, but that's how they do it. In other words, you can't look at your account and see what you have deposited. Whether you make a deposit or not, the current year's place holder will show. I recommend that you save all the emails you receive when you make your deposits to document the deposits. That's why I like to use mystarcentral.com to deposit, because it automatically generates a detailed receipt.



ALL Starwood requests are "request first" now - unless you own a TRUE fixed week. Remember that under the current system your week is only, "designated for exchange," not actually deposited, so you don't lose your week until an exchange is made. That means that you can get your week back, if an exchange is not made.

Denise, thank you. very helpful. when are you going to start charging for your information?

 

[DeniseM]

Denise, thank you. very helpful. when are you going to start charging for your information?

Please send me your Paypal email address and I'd be glad to send you an invoice.

 

[LisaRex]

I spoke with II and got the issue resolved. They canceled the August 2012 confirmation to WPORV and restored my Request First for 2013. The C/S agent was very helpful and not only restored my request, but fixed the dates so that arrival was only on a Sat or Sun.

The agent said that when you enter a date online the system will automatically back up the date to a Thursday. I was trying to force Saturday check-ins by only listing Saturday date ranges. Next time I'll just enter a range of dates, then call an agent to fix them afterward. That'll save me a bunch of time and effort!

I think my learning in all of this is to pay the $20 and talk to a live person instead of trying to do it online.

 

[DeniseM]

Hi Lisa - Yes, with II, your request automatically defaults to Thursday.

But it is not necessary to pay the $20 - put your request in online, and then call and have the Rep change the check-in date to Sat. or Sun. and they will not charge you. Note that the change will not show up in your online Acct.

 

[Ken555]

Isn't it amazing that the current consensus is that we should use both the web site to initially place the request and then the phone to call and talk to a rep? I really hope someone from II reads these threads on their performance.

I am very pleased with the trades I've made, but dealing with the II website truly sucks. There's really nothing worse than saying to your members to use the website for reservations only to have it constantly fail at saving us time (which ultimately is the major reason we want to use the web for this type of task). In this matter alone, SVN is ahead...they don't even claim we can do anything re reservations online (beyond an email form, which is so 1995).

 

[LisaRex]

There's really nothing worse than saying to your members to use the website for reservations only to have it constantly fail at saving us time (which ultimately is the major reason we want to use the web for this type of task).

And from the company's POV, it's much more cost effective to have an online system because you don't have to pay for as many CSRs. Most companies' single biggest expense is salaries/benefits. By its crappy design, II forces us to do both! Why don't they modify their reservation request to allow us to check which check-in days we want?

 

[jerseygirl]

Ah ... but we pay for registration services (plus a percentage for managing the reservation services), not Starwood!