• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Marriott- ridiculous customer service

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
I rarely need to call Marriott customer service, and I don’t keep up with all the Marriott threads, so maybe my customer service experience is old hat on TUG. But does it feel to anyone else like Marriott has stopped trying?

First, I had a crazy time of if trying to pay my MF this year. I waited until about a week before they were due (as I did with my Hyatt and Disney MFs, no problemo getting those paid), went online to pay them and then got an error message that they couldn’t take payment from an Apple product. What? I found the time to call them the following day and wait times were over an hour. I was calling from a cell phone in a semi-public place (at work) and was reluctant to use the automated payment system. I selected the phone menu option to have Marriott call me, but it was two hours later when they called, and I was seeing an appointment and missed the call. Eventually after multiple attempts, I was able to log in and pay my MF but wow I had to work pretty hard to give them money. All of that was stupid and a waste of time, but whatever. Next year I’ll just mail my MF payment.

Then I decided to list my Barony week for rent on Redweek, and it rented super quickly. We are on a cross country road trip and I got notification by Redweek that the week had rented and now I needed to put the rental into my renter’s name. Not something MVCI website allows you to do (although I have since learned that I can go onto the Bonvoy site and change the name? Is this correct?). I called Marriott to make the change, wait times were over an hour and the call got dropped before Marriott even answered, as we lost cell reception in the middle of nowhere New Mexico.

No worries, I sent Marriott a request for the name change via chat 4 days ago. When I did so, I got a message that it would take up to six days. Really? Redweek gives me 5 days to get the name change done. I decide to wait and see. Maybe Marriott will exceed expectations.

No dice, so this morning I called Marriott at exactly 9am on the dot. After a 10 minute hold (yay!), I get a rep. Tell him I need the reservation name change and he takes all the information and then at the conclusion of the call, tells me it will be another 2-3 days for Marriott to make the change. I tell him I really need this today, and why. That I’ve called, and chatted, and already jumped through several Marriott hoops.

He just keeps giving me grief. My expectations are unrealistic, this is not how it works with Marriott. He can’t see my chat request (implying I guess that I never actually made one). No concern about excessive wait times- they have “500 calls” what did I expect? (Maybe make it easier to not have to call? But not really my problem to solve.) The need for multiple contact attempts to get a trivial matter taken care of (paying MF, changing a name on a reservation)- completely of zero concern to this rep. He really gave me the vibe that customers are the biggest annoyance in his life.

I wasn’t even particularly angry, just pretty firm that I needed a little more customer service than I was getting. Finally he relented and put me on hold to see if he could get the name change accomplished today. While I was on hold, I got an email confirmation of the reservation name change and when the rep came back on, I thanked him for getting this done and thought we might have a happy ending. Nope, he scolded me further and told me he wanted me to know that he was making a note in my record that I have been warned not to ask for such a thing in the future. Oh noes, now I have this blight on my permanent record! So close, Marriott. It was “almost good” customer service.

Jeez. I totally got the impression that they are not even trying anymore. I would love nothing more than take care of my own needs online- booking, cancelling, changing names on reservations, and paying my MF. Seems like four pretty straightforward functions that if flawlessly available via website would reduce Marriott’s “500 calls” by a good margin.

I have my issues with Hyatt and Disney, but I will say that they actually are always pleasant and helpful on the phone. Marriott- ugh.
 

Steve Fatula

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Messages
3,723
Reaction score
2,718
Points
349
Location
Calera, OK
They definitely have (and always have had?) IT issues, and yes, you can change the name on marriott.com. One less call at least!

Regarding phone calls, and please don't take this as being against what you said, just trying to understand how mine is so different. I'm going to make a wild guess, maybe 15 calls the last 5 years to Marriott (not MVCI). All 15 answered in <=5 mins. Most in < 1 minute, including a week or 2 ago. I am not disputing your problem. My point is this - I cannot for the life of me understand why I get through every time, and we see reports of others (not just you) with horrendous wait times. What is different! Did someone flag my account as top priority randomly? Of course, you are talking here about 2 different companies too. MVCI != Marriott. So, not sure which company you are speaking of for your call issue, suspect Marriott not MVCI I've had the same easy calls with MVCI also.

I don't feel like they have stopped trying I guess, I do think they are in over their heads IT wise. So, yeah, some things should be much much easier and it would definitely save you (us) AND them time. And yes, there are a lot of bugs!

Sounds like you got a bad rep though when you did get through. But at least you were able to fight your way to get the change done. Did you use the priority line and call from the phone number on file? Maybe that makes a difference.

I have to say, all the reps I have talked to, except maybe 1, have been very good. I thought I heard they had hired a bunch of new ones at Marriott?

When MVCI asks me during an "owners update" why I don't want more points, I tell them I won't buy any more until they fix their website issues. :D
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
@Steve Fatula, sorry to be unclear, I was calling MVCI since it was about a Barony week that I own.

What Priority line? I call the number I have stored in my cell phone, but I don’t know where I got that number. I don’t know if they have my cell phone on record, which is what I called from of necessity since we‘re on a cross country trip.

But really, think about it for a moment- should we need to know the secret handshake, what phone to use, what special phone number to call? I had these same kind of replies from Disneyland when I spent 15 hours in a virtual queue to buy annual passes, only to have the website freeze when I had the passes in my cart because (I ultimately learned) I was using the wrong browser (or maybe it was an Apple product), then they sold out of the APs while I was stuck in my 45 min error loop. Disneyland customer service’s answer to me was that “everybody” knows you shouldn’t use Safari (or an IOS product) to purchase tickets from Disneyland. Really?! That’s the answer. The customer should go,out and get a PhD in buying theme park tickets? No, Disney IT should make its product purchasable in all common browsers and operating systems. The problem is not the customer, nor should this be the customer’s responsibility.

Same with MVCI. Any of us should be able to go to the website, do what we need to do, and then if there’s a problem call whatever phone number MVCI publishes and get a reasonable solution in an efficient manner. We shouldn’t excuse MVCI because the customer doesn’t know the magic number to call at the magic time of day.

However @Steve Fatula PM me your cell number. Next time I have an issue I will pay you a reasonable fee to resolve it for me. Win-win.
 

Mroze

TUG Member
Joined
May 8, 2016
Messages
697
Reaction score
540
Points
203
Location
Seattle, WA
Resorts Owned
MKO,MRD,MCV,DCP
WKV,WNA
HYS,HYN,HYB
They definitely have (and always have had?) IT issues, and yes, you can change the name on marriott.com. One less call at least!

Regarding phone calls, and please don't take this as being against what you said, just trying to understand how mine is so different. I'm going to make a wild guess, maybe 15 calls the last 5 years to Marriott (not MVCI). All 15 answered in <=5 mins. Most in < 1 minute, including a week or 2 ago. I am not disputing your problem. My point is this - I cannot for the life of me understand why I get through every time, and we see reports of others (not just you) with horrendous wait times. What is different! Did someone flag my account as top priority randomly? Of course, you are talking here about 2 different companies too. MVCI != Marriott. So, not sure which company you are speaking of for your call issue, suspect Marriott not MVCI I've had the same easy calls with MVCI also.

I don't feel like they have stopped trying I guess, I do think they are in over their heads IT wise. So, yeah, some things should be much much easier and it would definitely save you (us) AND them time. And yes, there are a lot of bugs!

Sounds like you got a bad rep though when you did get through. But at least you were able to fight your way to get the change done. Did you use the priority line and call from the phone number on file? Maybe that makes a difference.

I have to say, all the reps I have talked to, except maybe 1, have been very good. I thought I heard they had hired a bunch of new ones at Marriott?

When MVCI asks me during an "owners update" why I don't want more points, I tell them I won't buy any more until they fix their website issues. :D
My experience has been exactly as Steve's.
Owners with Marriott for almost 20 years.

Calls answered within 3-5 minutes. Marriott-#: 1-855-MVC-4VIP (682-4847)
Request resolved on the phone [sometimes can take 10-15 minutes while on hold].
Treated with courtesy and respect.
Experience has been consistent both pre and post Abound.

Have always been able to Pay-MF and Change Guest-Names [Marriott.com] online.
Agree that I wish Marriott will let me "Cancel" my reservations online and hope the online experience is more stable, consistent and reliable.
 

chapjim

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
6,161
Reaction score
3,804
Points
499
Location
Fairfax County, Virginia
Resorts Owned
Wyndham VIPF & PresRes, HVC/DRI (Gold), Quarter House (4), Resort on Cocoa Beach (2), HGVC Tuscany Village, HGVC South Beach-McAlpin, HGVC Parc Soleil
I rarely need to call Marriott customer service, and I don’t keep up with all the Marriott threads, so maybe my customer service experience is old hat on TUG. But does it feel to anyone else like Marriott has stopped trying?

First, I had a crazy time of if trying to pay my MF this year. I waited until about a week before they were due (as I did with my Hyatt and Disney MFs, no problemo getting those paid), went online to pay them and then got an error message that they couldn’t take payment from an Apple product. What? I found the time to call them the following day and wait times were over an hour. I was calling from a cell phone in a semi-public place (at work) and was reluctant to use the automated payment system. I selected the phone menu option to have Marriott call me, but it was two hours later when they called, and I was seeing an appointment and missed the call. Eventually after multiple attempts, I was able to log in and pay my MF but wow I had to work pretty hard to give them money. All of that was stupid and a waste of time, but whatever. Next year I’ll just mail my MF payment.

Then I decided to list my Barony week for rent on Redweek, and it rented super quickly. We are on a cross country road trip and I got notification by Redweek that the week had rented and now I needed to put the rental into my renter’s name. Not something MVCI website allows you to do (although I have since learned that I can go onto the Bonvoy site and change the name? Is this correct?). I called Marriott to make the change, wait times were over an hour and the call got dropped before Marriott even answered, as we lost cell reception in the middle of nowhere New Mexico.

No worries, I sent Marriott a request for the name change via chat 4 days ago. When I did so, I got a message that it would take up to six days. Really? Redweek gives me 5 days to get the name change done. I decide to wait and see. Maybe Marriott will exceed expectations.

No dice, so this morning I called Marriott at exactly 9am on the dot. After a 10 minute hold (yay!), I get a rep. Tell him I need the reservation name change and he takes all the information and then at the conclusion of the call, tells me it will be another 2-3 days for Marriott to make the change. I tell him I really need this today, and why. That I’ve called, and chatted, and already jumped through several Marriott hoops.

He just keeps giving me grief. My expectations are unrealistic, this is not how it works with Marriott. He can’t see my chat request (implying I guess that I never actually made one). No concern about excessive wait times- they have “500 calls” what did I expect? (Maybe make it easier to not have to call? But not really my problem to solve.) The need for multiple contact attempts to get a trivial matter taken care of (paying MF, changing a name on a reservation)- completely of zero concern to this rep. He really gave me the vibe that customers are the biggest annoyance in his life.

I wasn’t even particularly angry, just pretty firm that I needed a little more customer service than I was getting. Finally he relented and put me on hold to see if he could get the name change accomplished today. While I was on hold, I got an email confirmation of the reservation name change and when the rep came back on, I thanked him for getting this done and thought we might have a happy ending. Nope, he scolded me further and told me he wanted me to know that he was making a note in my record that I have been warned not to ask for such a thing in the future. Oh noes, now I have this blight on my permanent record! So close, Marriott. It was “almost good” customer service.

Jeez. I totally got the impression that they are not even trying anymore. I would love nothing more than take care of my own needs online- booking, cancelling, changing names on reservations, and paying my MF. Seems like four pretty straightforward functions that if flawlessly available via website would reduce Marriott’s “500 calls” by a good margin.

I have my issues with Hyatt and Disney, but I will say that they actually are always pleasant and helpful on the phone. Marriott- ugh.

Sounds like a normal day with Wyndham.
 

LEMONLEE

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2021
Messages
102
Reaction score
52
Points
88
Just so that Heathpack doesn't feel all alone, I have to say that my experience has been the same. We are relatively new owners - bought a resale week in 2021 and had no issues getting through to MVC back then. But this January, I tried to call Marriott to get the name changed on a reservation. Tried on a Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Kept getting messages that their call volume was very high and to call back at a later date. Never even got a chance to wait on hold, just hung up on me. Maybe that was an aberration, but I did try multiple times on various different days before giving up.
 

taxare

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2005
Messages
168
Reaction score
43
Points
388
Location
Southwest FL
Steve, I have been Chairman's Club for a long time, and until a few weeks ago had similar excellent experiences that you have. I called and they said there was a long wait time and they could call me back. I did this and got a call back in about 15 minutes. The "advisor" was worthless. He must have been brand new with no training. He had trouble doing a cancellation and then a name change on a reservation. He kept saying he had to talk to his supervisor and kept putting me on hold. The next day I called back, got right through, spoke to one of the experienced advisors and she apologized for the bad experience from the previous day and corrected his errors. So......it happens and I hope my one bad experience is not going to be a new normal.
 

hcarman

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2010
Messages
742
Reaction score
148
Points
253
Location
Tamarac, FL
We too used to have good experiences - we are Presidential and have been with the club for quite some time. However, we have had several really bad experiences of late and as several posters mentioned, some of these reps are clueless. We called last fall to modify our reservation by two days - instead of a week we were going to stay for just 5 nights so were modifying as such. However, it took three different agents and 2 hours to accomplish this pretty simple task. The worst part was the last agent cancelled the whole reservation and then couldn't get it back. This was over Thanksgiving and we had plans already in place - basically I was told to be patient and someone would get back to me with my options. There was no follow up - I had to keep contacting them and finally after two weeks and a call to corporate my reservation was reinstated - no apology. It would be better if we could modify ourselves online. I had a similar thing happen the year prior where they mistakenly deposited the one bedroom side of my two bedroom unit - again, they almost didn't get it straightened out in time for my stay. That time a manager did contact me and was apologetic. And now today I have been dealing with a maintenance fee payment that has gone missing and took them two weeks to locate - despite it being paid online with a credit card. So I really have lost a lot of faith as you don't know who you are going to get.
 

Steve Fatula

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Messages
3,723
Reaction score
2,718
Points
349
Location
Calera, OK
@Steve Fatula, sorry to be unclear, I was calling MVCI since it was about a Barony week that I own.

What Priority line? I call the number I have stored in my cell phone, but I don’t know where I got that number. I don’t know if they have my cell phone on record, which is what I called from of necessity since we‘re on a cross country trip.

But really, think about it for a moment- should we need to know the secret handshake, what phone to use, what special phone number to call? I had these same kind of replies from Disneyland when I spent 15 hours in a virtual queue to buy annual passes, only to have the website freeze when I had the passes in my cart because (I ultimately learned) I was using the wrong browser (or maybe it was an Apple product), then they sold out of the APs while I was stuck in my 45 min error loop. Disneyland customer service’s answer to me was that “everybody” knows you shouldn’t use Safari (or an IOS product) to purchase tickets from Disneyland. Really?! That’s the answer. The customer should go,out and get a PhD in buying theme park tickets? No, Disney IT should make its product purchasable in all common browsers and operating systems. The problem is not the customer, nor should this be the customer’s responsibility.

Same with MVCI. Any of us should be able to go to the website, do what we need to do, and then if there’s a problem call whatever phone number MVCI publishes and get a reasonable solution in an efficient manner. We shouldn’t excuse MVCI because the customer doesn’t know the magic number to call at the magic time of day.

However @Steve Fatula PM me your cell number. Next time I have an issue I will pay you a reasonable fee to resolve it for me. Win-win.
The phone # was posted by Microze. It's not a secret handshake, it's on the owner levels chart and is valid for presedential and above. It's a priority line so higher ownerships levels presumably get better service. i.e., they are more important. Whether or not that in fact has any actual benefit, don't know. Not sure if anyone has tested it. The number also shows once logged in to mvci.com under "have a question" on top. I was also guessing that maybe if you call from the number on your MVCI account, that you also get priority line even if you call the regular number but not sure. But there has to be a reason some always get through, and some do not. My question remains, what exactly is that reason!

To change the name on the reservation, you called mvci? You should really call Marriott (hotel side) for that.

I am sorry you had the bad experience, really am, it shouldn't be that way. No one is doubting you.
 

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
47,374
Reaction score
18,932
Points
1,299
Location
NE Florida
Resorts Owned
Marriott Grande Vista
Marriott Harbour Lake
Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
To change the name on the reservation, you called mvci? You should really call Marriott (hotel side) for that.
I don't think this is the correct process. Some people have/can change the guest name on a timeshare reservation on Marriott.com, but Marriott Hotel Reservations won't/shouldn't do that. Guest name changes on timeshare reservation should be made by calling MVC Owner Services.
 

Steve Fatula

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Messages
3,723
Reaction score
2,718
Points
349
Location
Calera, OK
I don't think this is the correct process. Some people have/can change the guest name on a timeshare reservation on Marriott.com, but Marriott Hotel Reservations won't/shouldn't do that. Guest name changes on timeshare reservation should be made by calling MVC Owner Services.
Never had a problem calling Marriott, the reservation is in their system, and I guess I am in the "some" as I always make the change online (now) on Marriott.com. I do recall one time early on calling MVCI, and they told me to call Marriott. Maybe that was wrong.

How would you change it for an exchange then? If MVCI really going to change the name in that case?
 

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
47,374
Reaction score
18,932
Points
1,299
Location
NE Florida
Resorts Owned
Marriott Grande Vista
Marriott Harbour Lake
Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
Never had a problem calling Marriott, the reservation is in their system, and I guess I am in the "some" as I always make the change online (now) on Marriott.com. I do recall one time early on calling MVCI, and they told me to call Marriott. Maybe that was wrong.

How would you change it for an exchange then? If MVCI really going to change the name in that case?
Are you referring to an II exchange or point based exchange. Any point or home week reservation guest name change should be made by contacting MVCI. If you call MVCI and ask "can I just change it on Marriott.com", I am pretty sure their answer would be no. They have a process in place to update the reservation with the guest name and other information as well as wipe out the bonvoy number. As for II exchanges, you buy a guest certificate from II and they change the name with Marriott.
 

Steve Fatula

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Messages
3,723
Reaction score
2,718
Points
349
Location
Calera, OK
Well, I guess if I ever get a no from marriott, I will remember to call mvci instead. But it's moot now anyway as online is always easier for me. I've let family use my reservations before and it was no issue changing the name on marriott.com (and it's been done for me as the renter). You're of course correct about II, wasn't thinking.

Given the OPs trouble with changing the name, little doubt it would have been vastly easier for him to have changed it himself. That was the main point. Presuming it works for him. Does it excuse the poor service? Of course not. But it does avoid that possibility too.
 
Last edited:

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
47,374
Reaction score
18,932
Points
1,299
Location
NE Florida
Resorts Owned
Marriott Grande Vista
Marriott Harbour Lake
Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
Well, I guess if I ever get a no from marriott, I will remember to call mvci instead. But it's moot now anyway as online is always easier for me. I've let family use my reservations before and it was no issue changing the name on marriott.com (and it's been done for me as the renter). You're of course correct about II, wasn't thinking.

Given the OPs trouble with changing the name, little doubt it would have been vastly easier for him to have changed it himself. That was the main point. Presuming it works for him. Does it excuse the poor service? Of course not. But it does avoid that possibility too.
I suspect the ability to change the name on Marriott.com is an unintended loophole and wasn't really intended to be there to allow timeshare owners to change guest names. I say this because you don't even need to be logged in to change the guest name. Anyone with the confirmation number, current guest name and checkin date can make a change. The ability to modify reservations has existed on and off over the years and some reservations it doesn't work.
 

DanCali

TUG Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
4,492
Reaction score
1,790
Points
398
Resorts Owned
Vistana, Marriott, DVC
Never had a problem calling Marriott, the reservation is in their system, and I guess I am in the "some" as I always make the change online (now) on Marriott.com. I do recall one time early on calling MVCI, and they told me to call Marriott. Maybe that was wrong.

How would you change it for an exchange then? If MVCI really going to change the name in that case?

The reason it should not be allowed on the hotel site is because all you need to change the name on any reservation (doesn't have to be connected to you in any way) is the reservation number, checkin date and current primary guest. That's a recipe for disaster... You could rent and week and it could be sublet 3 times afterwards without your knowledge. You have no idea who your tenant is. I wouldn't be ok with that if I rented a condo and, to me, this is no different.

Even if you go the Redweek "verified and protected" route, their contract has a no subleasing clause. But it is often violated by "brokers" who rent the cheap units and re-rent them at much higher prices. These so-called brokers just change the name in the manner you describe. The owner doesn't really know about it at that point (unless they bother to pull up the reservation and see it's in a different name), and Redweek probably doesn't really care because they get multiple listing fees and multiple escrow fees.
 

Steve Fatula

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Messages
3,723
Reaction score
2,718
Points
349
Location
Calera, OK
The reason it should not be allowed on the hotel site is because all you need to change the name on any reservation (doesn't have to be connected to you in any way) is the reservation number, checkin date and current primary guest. That's a recipe for disaster... You could rent and week and it could be sublet 3 times afterwards without your knowledge. You have no idea who your tenant is. I wouldn't be ok with that if I rented a condo and, to me, this is no different.

Even if you go the Redweek "verified and protected" route, their contract has a no subleasing clause. But it is often violated by "brokers" who rent the cheap units and re-rent them at much higher prices. These so-called brokers just change the name in the manner you describe. The owner doesn't really know about it at that point (unless they bother to pull up the reservation and see it's in a different name), and Redweek probably doesn't really care because they get multiple listing fees and multiple escrow fees.
I never said it should be allowed or even it should work with the insecure way it does. Not the point. I agree with that part actually. Just that I can change it and it saves me time. Even if I didn't use the method that you are saying shouldn't work, someone else could still change it as you pointed out so no more or less risk.
 

DanCali

TUG Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
4,492
Reaction score
1,790
Points
398
Resorts Owned
Vistana, Marriott, DVC
I never said it should be allowed or even it should work with the insecure way it does. Not the point. I agree with that part actually. Just that I can change it and it saves me time. Even if I didn't use the method that you are saying shouldn't work, someone else could still change it as you pointed out so no more or less risk.

That's definitely true. If you did the process described by dioxide45, the main difference would be that they would remove your Bonvoy number from the reservation (it drops out of "my trips" on the hotel website).

Otherwise, anyone accessing that reservation through the hotel website would have both your address (which they leave on the reservation) and your Bonvoy number along with the number of points you have, which is on any email confirmation they email to themselves. I'm not sure how much of a security risk that is nowadays since any reservation made with points in other people's names needs to have you as the primary guest and you'd get an email about it, which seems relatively secure (but also probably means that there have been shenanigans in the past, before that was instituted)
 

Venter

TUG Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2009
Messages
745
Reaction score
247
Points
254
Location
Denver
Resorts Owned
Marriott's Club Son Antem, Marriott's Lakeshore Reserve, Marriott Vacation Club @ Los Suenos, MVC points, Sheraton Lakeside Terrace, Sheraton Flex, Westin Flex, Aventuras
I normally use the chat option on the owners page. I have even been able to do it over weekends using this feature. Do know that the couple of times I got hold of someone on chat over weekends was probably a fluke as I don't think customer service is supposed to be open over weekends.
 

dsmrp

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2014
Messages
2,527
Reaction score
1,847
Points
398
Location
MI Washington
Resorts Owned
Sheraton Vistana, Waikoloa Bay Club, Hyatt Pinon Pt
I just finished a call in to Marriott CS, and didn't have to wait long. I used the call back option, and was surprised to have them call within 10 minutes. Both agents I talked to were pleasant. I was transferred to a "multi team" agent who was trained in MVC, Vistana and Bonvoy systems. AFAIK, my issues were resolved, but can't check yet for a couple of days on the remaining one.
 
Last edited:

rickandcindy23

TUG Review Crew: Elite
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
31,901
Reaction score
9,003
Points
1,049
Location
The Centennial State
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Founder; Disney OKW & SSR; Marriott's Willow Ridge,Shadow Ridge,Grand Chateau;Val Chatelle; Hono Koa OF (3); SBR(LOTS), SDO a few; Grand Palms; WKORV-OF (2),Westin Desert Willow.
OMG, it's now on your permanent record that you would like better service? How can I get that on my permanent record? :D
 

Mroze

TUG Member
Joined
May 8, 2016
Messages
697
Reaction score
540
Points
203
Location
Seattle, WA
Resorts Owned
MKO,MRD,MCV,DCP
WKV,WNA
HYS,HYN,HYB
Oh well, I guess I am beginning to experience some pain.
This time its my Vistana contracts.

After paying all MF for all 8-Contracts in Dec/Jan well before the Due-Date, I received a notice in the mail today.
The notice states that on one of my contracts "My account is past due $295. To avoid any additional charges, remit payment immediately. Partial payment will not stop the collection process".

Over the last few months, I have called multiple times to inform Vistana that I have made all payments but cannot pay the $295 as I already paid the Chairmans-CLub-Dues to MVCI.
Was asked to disregard the $295 and simply pay the balance on the contract which I did.
Was also assured that in 3-5 business days the account would be updated which never happened.
Just got off the phone [spent 30 minutes between waiting in queue + manager-hold].
Ended with the assurance that this has been Double-Escalated and should be addressed within 3-5 business days.

Didn't bother about the online status showing $295 owed as I was asked to ignore it.
The word "collection" troubles me as I don't want to have to deal with fixing my credit-report.
 

Dean

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2005
Messages
9,909
Reaction score
3,583
Points
648
Oh well, I guess I am beginning to experience some pain.
This time its my Vistana contracts.

After paying all MF for all 8-Contracts in Dec/Jan well before the Due-Date, I received a notice in the mail today.
The notice states that on one of my contracts "My account is past due $295. To avoid any additional charges, remit payment immediately. Partial payment will not stop the collection process".

Over the last few months, I have called multiple times to inform Vistana that I have made all payments but cannot pay the $295 as I already paid the Chairmans-CLub-Dues to MVCI.
Was asked to disregard the $295 and simply pay the balance on the contract which I did.
Was also assured that in 3-5 business days the account would be updated which never happened.
Just got off the phone [spent 30 minutes between waiting in queue + manager-hold].
Ended with the assurance that this has been Double-Escalated and should be addressed within 3-5 business days.

Didn't bother about the online status showing $295 owed as I was asked to ignore it.
The word "collection" troubles me as I don't want to have to deal with fixing my credit-report.
I was under the impression you had to pay it separately for Vistana and MVC, is this the issue?
 

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
47,374
Reaction score
18,932
Points
1,299
Location
NE Florida
Resorts Owned
Marriott Grande Vista
Marriott Harbour Lake
Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
I was under the impression you had to pay it separately for Vistana and MVC, is this the issue?
It shouldn't be, it is only one membership in Abound for owners that own both Vistana and Marriott. It could be a deeding issue where the different ownerships deeded differently (names, middle name, order of names, etc). As a Vistana and Marriott owner, the Club Dues was not billed to us in our Marriott Vacation Club account but rather billed as part of our Vistana VSN mandatory ownership. Owners who own only Mandatory VSN pay the Club Fee as part of their Vistana maintenance fees. Owners with just Voluntary VSN ownership pay their Club Dues directly to Marriott Vacation Club. Someone with both Vistana VSN mandatory and Vistana VSN and/or Marriott would always pay their Club Dues to Vistana as part of their mandatory maintenance fees. Since @MICROZE owns a mandatory VSN VOI (Westin Kierland Villas [WKV]), the Club Dues would have been billed with the WKV maintenance fee and they should never have received a separate Club Dues bill from MVC.
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Well, I guess if I ever get a no from marriott, I will remember to call mvci instead. But it's moot now anyway as online is always easier for me. I've let family use my reservations before and it was no issue changing the name on marriott.com (and it's been done for me as the renter). You're of course correct about II, wasn't thinking.

Given the OPs trouble with changing the name, little doubt it would have been vastly easier for him to have changed it himself. That was the main point. Presuming it works for him. Does it excuse the poor service? Of course not. But it does avoid that possibility too.

Be careful- if you call Marriott and ask them to change the name on a MVCI reservation, that might wind up on your permanent record!
 

VacationForever

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
16,199
Reaction score
10,611
Points
1,048
Location
Somewhere Out There
Be careful- if you call Marriott and ask them to change the name on a MVCI reservation, that might wind up on your permanent record!
So true! I have only done it once, about 5 years ago, by calling MVC and the agent suggested to remove my Bonvoy number from the reservation as well. Up to this day, I have email, welcome letter on my bed and phone calls addressing me as my guest from 5 years ago. Most recently, at Marriott's Desert Springs, I called front desk, and I was address as Ms XXX, which is the name of my guest from 5 years before. I insisted that they update their records, but who knows if my guest name will continue to show up. Marriott is scary. I have since only change names on marriott.com.
 
Top