Join complaints against Starwood

[GrayFal]

I am late posting but I am in as well. George, I have sent you an email.

 

[mlsmn]

My blog post about - Starwood Screws Owners!

Does Starwood Corporate in White Plains NY know what’s going on?…

A battle between their Starwood Vacation Network (SVN)(Westin and Sheraton Timeshares) and owners is brewing…

I’m one of these owners and have tried to get a written statement from SVN Cusomer Service head but to no avail…

She only wants to talk on the phone - I wonder why? (no notice has gone out about the change either)…

It’s a shame that Starwood’s great reputation as a hotel company is being soiled by another division… (see details below)…

If your interested in joining the complaints please send an email to Gcmarine@aol.com
——
From my my email (still waiting for a answer) sent to Starwood Vacation Network’s Customer Service manager
Dear Ms. _ _ _ _ _ ,

Two times last week I wasted 45 minutes of my time talking to ”Specialists” in customer service who went over the new rules and why its better.
I have no desire to do this again. The new rules are not better.

I had specific questions in my original email that I would like answers to- not a conversation about how wonderful these changes are. They are not.

Here are the questions that need answers by email-

1- Why are my ownership rights being superseded by new rules? Who gave Starwood the right to change things that are in a contract?

2-How is this better when under the new plan I can’t have my deeded week 20 get a platinum March week but will now get gold plus trade power?

3-Why don’t my future years deposits show so I can search with them?

4-How is this better with no request first?

5-How is it better - no holding a reservation to put in a search?

6-You are rewriting an existing contract aren’t you? making owners choice floating weeks 1-52 into a joke.

7-Does Starwood Corporate in White Plains NY know what’s going on?

8-also what happened to the 3 day preference in Interval.?????
I follow SVN resorts 1-2 times a day and compare it to my non SVN and both see the same things with few exceptions. many others on TUG and TS4MS do the same and have come to the same conclusion-Starwood doesn’t seem to be using the 3 day preference in the last 3-4 weeks. (you may not see these sightings unless you qualify - they are not available to everyone)

I’ve already had 4 (now 11) emails from my readers of www.pointswizard.com asking if I knew about the problem.

Besides my interest in this as a publisher of a travel blog -I am an owner whose has been affected by these new policies which take away the rights of the 1-52 weeks owners.

It seems to me that the only answer is to put everything back to the way it was - the sooner the better
————–
The problems are spelled out in this post from Timeshare Users Group (TUGBBS.com) member GMarine,
“Join complaints against Starwood

I’ve gotten a ton of emails from people unhappy with the Starwood changes that have been made. For those who havent followed the threads, basically Starwood has decided that they have the right to tell non-SVN owners what week at their resort that they can deposit with Interval. Non-SVN owners have deeded property rights. Once we make a reservation, we are free to do as we wish with that week. Starwood doesnt get to control our deeded weeks.

I’ve spoken to Starwood multiple times by phone and it seems Starwood management believes they have the right to do this since it only affects deposits with II.

Imagine Starwood telling you that you cant rent week 52, but instead they will give you week 50. Its essentially the same thing. If you make a reservation and then deposit that week with II you are giving the usage of that week to II. Starwood has no right to interfere. Allow them to do this with no fight and who knows whar could be next.

That being said, I think its time to move on and up. Myself and some other Tuggers I have spoken with are going to start gathering Starwood owners for the purpose of fighting this.

Among the actions are going to be complaints to the Real Estate Commissions and Attorney General’s of any state where an affected resort is located. One TUG member is going to post on his travel blog. I’m also going to contact law firms that have previously handled timeshare cases to look into a lawsuit against Starwood.
Details of Starwood screwing owners will be put up on every and any timeshare/travel message board that we can find.
Complaints to Interval will be sent as well.

At the very least we are going to get it out there that Starwood isnt owner friendly.

If your interested in joining the complaints please send me an email ” Gcmarine@aol.com

———

Poll from TUG(Timeshare OwnersGroup)

Poll Results: How would you rate Starwood’s timeshare management?
Starwood has the best management team in the business, & they have my complete confidence. 0%
Starwood is doing the best they can in a bad economy, & is committed to the best interest of owners. 6.58%
Starwood’s management team is average - no better or worse than anyone else. 30.26%
Starwood has not treated timeshare owners ethically, and they’ve lost my trust. 50.00%
I wish we could fire Starwood management TODAY! 13.16%

 

[jerseygirl]

MLSMN --

Very well done.

All --

I also believe communication with "corporate" is in order. Do we know if anyone has done this yet? I'm happy to start that ball running, but need something other than the "general" email address. If anyone has one, please share. If not, I guess I could always use regular mail.

The only thing I would add to your list of complaints is the complete travesty of not permitting fixed week owners to deposit their fixed weeks. Does anyone know for certain that this is in fact the policy?

 

[gregb]

Emails are used by many to communicate. But if you want to lodge a formal complaint, I suggest you take the time to compose a real letter. Sign it and send it to the president of the corporation and the vice presidents of the divisions that are affected. In the letter, mention that you are sending copies to the State Attorneys General of the States where they do business, also the Better Business Bureau's of the cities that are affected. If the State has a timeshare bureau, send copies to them as well. With a formal letter, they cannot claim not to have received it. It may get a response.

Greg

 

[Fredm]

MLSMN --

Very well done.

All --

I also believe communication with "corporate" is in order. Do we know if anyone has done this yet? I'm happy to start that ball running, but need something other than the "general" email address. If anyone has one, please share. If not, I guess I could always use regular mail.

The only thing I would add to your list of complaints is the complete travesty of not permitting fixed week owners to deposit their fixed weeks. Does anyone know for certain that this is in fact the policy?

I posted an "open letter" to Starwood regarding the double talk used in their written explanation.

Don't know if you want to borrow any of it, but feel free.

 

[DeniseM]

The only thing I would add to your list of complaints is the complete travesty of not permitting fixed week owners to deposit their fixed weeks. Does anyone know for certain that this is in fact the policy?

I have already deposited my 2009 and 2010 fixed weeks, but my 2011 fixed week is listed as "floating," in my II Acct. now, so I am not sure what that means. I don't think I am going to deposit it, so I haven't tried it.

 

[jerseygirl]

Greg -- good point. I'll go the "written letter" route if no one else speaks up about already doing so.

Fred -- thanks -- I'll definitely "borrow" from it if that's okay with you.

Denise -- Thanks. None of my units show up anymore. It really ticks me off since I paid to add them. I own a couple of fixed weeks but haven't tried depositing since this situation has me so mad that I'm seriously considering just getting out of all Starwood units except for HRA and WSJ, neither of which will ever be used for SO or II trades (hopefully I'll always be able to use, but if not, I'd rent before I'd give them up at their deflated SO values).

 

[mlnuwer]

Starwood Owner

I own a deeded week at Vistana. I do not understand what negative implications there are from your message. I have noticed that the listing at II under Vistana does show I now have a floating week instead of week 31 as it used to show but other than that is there some other problem? Does it change our trading power?

I agree with who is in control. For my week I want that I am in control so I am in if there is a problem that I am unaware of.

mlnuwer@cox.net

 

[DeniseM]

I own a deeded week at Vistana. I do not understand what negative implications there are from your message. I have noticed that the listing at II under Vistana does show I now have a floating week instead of week 31 as it used to show but other than that is there some other problem? Does it change our trading power?

I agree with who is in control. For my week I want that I am in control so I am in if there is a problem that I am unaware of.

mlnuwer@cox.net

In a nut shell, if you own a floating week, you can no longer reserve and deposit a high season week of your choice. Instead, you will be assigned a generic trade value by Starwood, which probably will not have the trade value of a high season week that you choose yourself. This may indeed hurt your trade power. There are several different threads on this topic that you can read for more information.

Secondly - if you do a "request first" with II, you can no longer hold a Resv. at your home resort, until your exchange comes through.

If you own a fixed week, it appears that you can still deposit the week you own. An SVR fixed week owner was able to deposit her high season fixed week online last week, and in her online Acct. it looks like they deposited the actual fixed week.

 

[amanven]

And here I thought Starwood had gone this route in an attempt to make buying a unit on the resale market less desirable. Now it appears only those who bought resale FLOAT weeks have to suffer the consequences of Starwoods new "understanding" with II. It seems the playing field between the owners of resale units just got a little bit unlevel.

 

[James1975NY]

And here I thought Starwood had gone this route in an attempt to make buying a unit on the resale market less desirable. Now it appears only those who bought resale FLOAT weeks have to suffer the consequences of Starwoods new "understanding" with II. It seems the playing field between the owners of resale units just got a little bit unlevel.

Does not really have anything to do with resale or not. Specifically, it is the non-SVN owner base that use II for an exchange that have been affected...for better or worse.

 

[Joshadelic]

And here I thought Starwood had gone this route in an attempt to make buying a unit on the resale market less desirable. Now it appears only those who bought resale FLOAT weeks have to suffer the consequences of Starwoods new "understanding" with II. It seems the playing field between the owners of resale units just got a little bit unlevel.

I'm assuming the value of fixed weeks on the resale market will be going up a little. As long as it's a prime week on the deed.

 

[DeniseM]

And here I thought Starwood had gone this route in an attempt to make buying a unit on the resale market less desirable. Now it appears only those who bought resale FLOAT weeks have to suffer the consequences of Starwoods new "understanding" with II. It seems the playing field between the owners of resale units just got a little bit unlevel.

The new rules are the same for resale and developer buyers. The resale buyers have lost more than the developer buyers, but they took their hit too - developer buyers can't do a bona fide "request first" exchange any more, either.

 

[Joshadelic]

I haven't said so yet, but of course you know I'm in!! I don't have any money right now to contribute to a legal fund, but I'm willing to put in some time in whatever way I can be of help.

 

[DeniseM]

Josh - Love your quote!

 

[Joshadelic]

Josh - Love your quote!

I borrowed the idea from a very cool TUG Member.

 

[LisaRex]

I have no dog in this fight, but am willing to lend my voice to the cause.

 

[DeniseM]

I have no dog in this fight, but am willing to lend my voice to the cause.

Lisa - if you still own at WKORV, you DO have a "dog in this fight." You can no longer hold an active reservation at your home resort, and do a II request-first search. For someone who owns an expensive week like you do, that is a very important right.

 

[amanven]

"Starwood is hired to administer reservations, clean the toilets, and take out the trash. They are not paid to interfere with owners' usage. They're acting as if they own the place." -Pit

Well the letter recently sent out by Starwood advising of the cut in services would indicate they are no longer interested in cleaning the toilets or taking out the trash. They are acting very much as if they DON'T own the place (at least when it comes to maintenance).
Owners paid dearly for the refurbishment. Now Starwood doesn't want to maintain those either. Starwood had the nerve to ask owners not to complain about the changes because it would lower the trading power of the resort. Their collusion with II seems to have ensured more lowering of the trading power than any complaints from owners could ever do.

Sorry! A little off topic for this thread!

I am beginning to wonder though when action against Starwood is going to amount to more than and a discussion on the this board and become something Starwood has no choice but to take notice of.

 

[ginja]

Would love to expose Starwood SVO for the fraud that it is

Count me in as a name to add to an list of complaints. I think that everything that Starwood sold to me was a pack of lies, it is bait and switch and probably fraud too. I'm not even talking about depositing weeks, I'm talking about the SVO network itself. I tried to book a trade within the SVO network only to be told by the reservations agent, "oh, your chances of getting into St. John on a trade through the SVO network are less then 10%, I'm always surprised when I see any days available it hardly ever is." So basically a few very lucky persons are able to get a trade into St. John by sheer luck, but the tens of thousands of others are just stuck with the short end of the stick.

 

[pharmgirl]

Count me in as a name to add to an list of complaints. I think that everything that Starwood sold to me was a pack of lies, it is bait and switch and probably fraud too. I'm not even talking about depositing weeks, I'm talking about the SVO network itself. I tried to book a trade within the SVO network only to be told by the reservations agent, "oh, your chances of getting into St. John on a trade through the SVO network are less then 10%, I'm always surprised when I see any days available it hardly ever is." So basically a few very lucky persons are able to get a trade into St. John by sheer luck, but the tens of thousands of others are just stuck with the short end of the stick.

EXACTLY We bought a TIMESHARE in a name brand network so that we could trade into other desirable properties as well as enjoy our home property. Otherwise why buy not rent

 

[heathpack]

I'm also contacting the NY Times writer who did an article featuring TUG members back a few months ago. Myself and Cindy were interviewed for the article. I'm going to ask her to consider an article on one of the pitfalls of timesharing, specifically developers trying to take advantage of owners. I think it would make a great story.

Sorry, I know this does not have anything to do with Starwood, but there is also trouble in paradise for Hyatt owners, if your NY Times writer is interested but wants a bigger story.

I do sympthasize with ya'll however because the Starwood situation is much worse. If I were a SVO owner, I promise I'd write a letter!

H

 

[Garnet]

Starwood Complaint-would like info

Thank you for all your efforts in exposing Starwood and the recent change in policies. Earlier this year, I purchased a WMH plat week for either use or exchange ONLY using request first with II. I would like information on complaining to both Starwood and II, and any letters or information on how to best make my complaint heard. mlsmn-I have also sent you an email.

Garnet

 

[DeniseM]

Thank you for all your efforts in exposing Starwood and the recent change in policies. Earlier this year, I purchased a WMH plat week for either use or exchange ONLY using request first with II. I would like information on complaining to both Starwood and II, and any letters or information on how to best make my complaint heard. mlsmn-I have also sent you an email.

Garnet

gmarine (George) is the point man on this effort - please click on his name and send him and email.

 

[Phillydan]

I'm in on this. A class-action lawsuit may be the best way to get their attention. My son is a city attorney for Philadelphia and I spoke with him the other day about the SVO situation and the MF increases, based on the information I provided him, he thought there are definitely grounds for a owner's lawsuit against SVO.

We own a week in Westin Kaanapali and Sheraton Vistiana EOY.