Ongoing search modified without permission

[philsfan]

Hi Madge,
I have seen others with the same problem but I would like to add another log to the fire. I have a very specific ongoing search for 1 resort over a 3 week period. Twice in the last couple of weeks I have discovered that someone has added a regional search for the same date range, once it even placed a unit on hold at a resort I was not interested in.

Changes to my search make me mad. I have no assurance that the person who made the search change didn't end my search and start a new one causing me to go to the back of the line. I have no assurance that a unit at the resort I wanted didn't become available while the unwanted resort was on hold.

I do all possible transactions online, I don't have time to call every time I start a search to have a note added to my search saying it should not be changed. I shouldn't have to do that.

Regards,
Len

 

[Dottie]

Hi Madge

--looks like Phil said it best. I just discovered the same thing in my account with my search. I cancelled the hold RCI gave me and reinstated my orriginal search but I am afraid I have now lost my "place in line". I have been looking for a specific resort for a specific date to add another week to a resort week I had confirmed. That is the "only" thing I want to search. I know they are trying to be helpful, but it is not helping me. I also fear that if my desired resort and week are deposited by someone to RCI while my week is holding the week I do not want, I will miss my opportuntiy.

What do you suggest? Thank you.

Dottie

 

[Keitht]

Can I suggest the simple expedient of adding a 'Do not modify' button to the search page.

 

[jacknsara]

same thing happened to me about a week ago

Madge,
Just adding another "log." I have an ongoing search for a short list of specific resorts with no regions specified. Someone added two regional searches (that coincided with most of the resorts on my list) for the same date range of the specific resort list. I modified it back to its original configuration. It didn't occur to me until now to mention / complain about it.
No specific action requested from you or RCI other than to stop performing unrequested modifications to online searches. Other than that, please accept my thanks for the service you provide to our TUG community.
Jack

 

[Riggo]

Me Too!

When I spoke to the VC to do an ongoing search, I said I don't want a regional search. I just want to search for one resort. She kept asking me about the region and I kept saying I DON"T WANT A REGIONAL SEARCH. She said ok. When I checked online, she set up a regional search and a resort search which I had to modify to a specific resort search. It looks like RCI is trying to jam regional searches down our throats for the sake of making matches and them making fees. This is more than coincidental and appears to me as standard operating procedure at RCI (and I don't like it).

 

[Barbeque]

I agree that when you have a specific search RCI should not confirm you into anything else. I have an ongoing search for 3 resorts for next Thanksgiving that I am very picky on at this time. I check online almost daily and I was confirmed into a Hawaii resort that was not on my list about a week ago. It was not Gold Crown and was 2 miles away from a beach. I talked to a counselor that was out of RCI from Mexico City she said the computer made the match. I didnt want the match so she credited my balance and reinstated my original search. (I hope I didnt go to the back of the line). The vacation guide was very nice but she really tried to get me to renew my RCI membership and told me how the prices would be going up in the future. I know my search is difficult at this point but I can get more realistic as time nears and I expand my search occasionally to see what I can pull. Madge is this RCI's policy to try to get you to take less??

 

[SciTchr]

Modification of ongoing Searches

Hello Madge,
I, too, have had my 2 ongoing searches modifed without my permission to include a regional search. When checking my searches one day, I found that both had come up with matches. Of course, neither were acceptable since they were not my original choices for the search. It did not occur to me that I "lost my place in line".

Can you please check into that part and let us know if we lost out due to this problem. Will it be addressed so that this does not occur anymore? Thank you very much.

 

[Madge]

philsfan,

I recently responded to this issue here.

This is a practice that we started several months ago as a test and it has overall been very positive for our members. Tuggers are very precise with their searches and they tend to monitor them frequently online. This is not necessarily the case with all of our members. Less than 10% of our members do business with RCI online.

If you know that you do not want to be offered any vacations except for those among your resort choices, please ask the Guides to make a note if they call you with something that matched from a region search. They can indicate that you want to search resort choices only and our Specialists will honor that.

 

[Madge]

Hello Madge,
It did not occur to me that I "lost my place in line".

Can you please check into that part and let us know if we lost out due to this problem.

scitchr,

Your search does not lose any priority when you decline a match. Even if a Specialist confirms something without contacting you (this is only done from resort choices, never a region search), if you cancel it and restart your original search, it retains its priority. You may also check the Ask RCI FAQ's.

 

[Madge]

Madge is this RCI's policy to try to get you to take less??

Barbeque,

It is our goal to get you on vacation. However, we are also committed to providing our members with World Class Service. We will offer you as many vacation possibilities as we can find; however, you should never be made to feel that you're being pushed into confirming something you don't want. I'm sorry to hear that this has been your experience.

 

[Amy]

This is a practice that we started several months ago as a test and it has overall been very positive for our members. Tuggers are very precise with their searches and they tend to monitor them frequently online. This is not necessarily the case with all of our members. Less than 10% of our members do business with RCI online.

Dear Madge,

Please pass on to whomever is in charge of monitering the popularity of this new practice -- it drives me nuts! I've had two ongoing searches changed the past few months, the latest one today. I should not have to make a phone call to talk to someone to ask a guide to honor my wishes when I never wanted the modification in the first place. The reason I enjoy doing my transactions online is because I trust doing searches on my own and quite enjoy not having to call guides for my planning. If I have specific resorts listed, it means I want the specific resorts; I don't understand how that could be construed to "please modify my request for me without checking with me first so I would match resorts I have no interest in"?? Please explain how this practice could be justified? Particularly when I'm searching well in advance, this time for summer 2007 -- I have plenty of time and am in no danger of not getting an exchange.

And I'm sorry the first time I post on Ask RCI is this post. I really do appreciate your presence here on TUG.

 

[Madge]

Amy,

If you need to have your search modified or corrected by a member of our staff and would prefer not to contact a Guide by phone, please send an e-mail to feedback@rci.com. The Communications Team will be glad to take care of it for you.

 

[CaliDave]

Can tuggers all apply for new account numbers. Special "Tug #'s"
We could downgrade our VEP, and specifiy not to let guides mess with our accounts.
ohh the great things we could do.

I understand that 90% of the members, basically have no idea what they are doing, so RCI needs to hold theirs hands. However, it'd be nice for those of us that take the time to learn how to get the most out of our ownership.

I am amazed in this internet age, that so many people still call in. I do everything possible to not be on the phone. Nothing against the VC's.. I just hate to waste my time on hold.. especially when I have to put in my account # 3 times, then say it over again for the guide.

 

[Amy]

Thanks for the response, Madge. But I think you misunderstood my post. I prefer not to contact guides to do anything and I resent possibly having to contact them to undo unauthorized modifications made by the guides themselves. It just happed that I caught both of the recent unauthorized modifications to my ongoing searches when I checked online (and found resorts "on hold" for me) and was able to correct them myself online.

 

[CaliDave]

Amy,

If you need to have your search modified or corrected by a member of our staff and would prefer not to contact a Guide by phone, please send an e-mail to feedback@rci.com. The Communications Team will be glad to take care of it for you.

ahhh.. this is great news. I only thought they took care of problems.

RCI should look into getting a real time customer service chat program for the website.

 

[CaliDave]

Thanks for the response, Madge. But I think you misunderstood my post. I prefer not to contact guides to do anything and I resent possibly having to contact them to undo unauthorized modifications made by the guides themselves. It just happed that I caught both of the recent unauthorized modifications to my ongoing searches when I checked online (and found resorts "on hold" for me) and was able to correct them myself online.

Something that would help with this circumstance. If RCI would email us if we matched. Then we'd know instantly to check our account.

 

[Madge]

Amy,

I wanted to wait a bit until I had something solid to report on this. We're going to make some adjustments to our practice of adding regions to ongoing searches in an effort to avoid situations like those you've reported here.

Going forward, our system will exclude accounts that show confirmations via our website within the past year. This is very logical since those 10% or so who do business online probably have a better idea of the available space and like handling their searches themselves.

There were a couple of other changes that made sense once we started looking this issue. As usual, I have Tuggers to thank for bringing something important to my attention!

Thanks to everyone for your feedback.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

…
Going forward, our system will exclude accounts that show confirmations via our website within the past year. This is very logical since those 10% or so who do business online probably have a better idea of the available space and like handling their searches themselves.…

As suggested by CaliDave above, why not also reconsider the notion of VEP filtering for these "savvy" users.

 

[sfwilshire]

As suggested by CaliDave above, why not also reconsider the notion of VEP filtering for these "savvy" users.

That would be WONDERFUL!!!!! Please add by vote for what it's worth.

I'd be more than happy to sign some sort of release promising never to complain about a resort I got that had a low VEP. I think, just like with the searches, people who obviously are making an exchange with their eyes open shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get a preferred resort with a low VEP.

My favorite resort has a terribly low VEP and trying to get in there has been a source of frustration and discontent for me every since I joined RCI in the mid 90s. It wasn't until I discovered TUG and started asking the right questions that I even understood what was happening.

Sheila

 

[NJDave]

This has happened to me several times. In order to verify that your place in line has not changed, call RCI and request what date your search was initiated. If the date is recent, explain the situation and ask to have the date retroactively reinstated. RCI has reinstated my searches back to the original dates several times in the past. However, as I understand RCI can only reinstate the search for up to one year from the date of reinstatement. For instance, if you started your search 15 months ago, the best they could do is reinstate it to one year ago.

 

[jacknsara]

... Going forward, our system will exclude accounts that show confirmations via our website within the past year. This is very logical since those 10% or so who do business online probably have a better idea of the available space and like handling their searches themselves.
....

Madge,
Thanks for making that change. If its not too much trouble, perhaps they could expand the 12 months to something between 18 and 24 months. Some of us only deposit one timeshare, and given statistical fluctuations in spacing, half of our confirmations will be more than 12 months apart and half will be less than twelve months apart (approximately).
Thanks very very much
Jack

 

[Madge]

As suggested by CaliDave above, why not also reconsider the notion of VEP filtering for these "savvy" users.

T_R_Oglodyte,

This has been a hotly debated topic since I arrived here and I'm sure long before that. RCI does not currently have a way to waive VEP for just one member account -- it is attached to resorts, not to members. We are also unlikely to ever abandon VEP as a guide to value-for-value exchanges.

We can make an exception and search manually for specific resort choices if you ask when you call or e-mail us. However, our ongoing search feature cannot be programmed to circumvent VEP guidelines automatically. In the vast majority of cases where RCI makes an exception to VEP it causes problems later for the members and RCI - we strongly discourage this to members and Guides.

 

[Madge]

Madge,
Thanks for making that change. If its not too much trouble, perhaps they could expand the 12 months to something between 18 and 24 months. Some of us only deposit one timeshare, and given statistical fluctuations in spacing, half of our confirmations will be more than 12 months apart and half will be less than twelve months apart (approximately).
Thanks very very much
Jack

Jack,

Perhaps if we find that 12 months is not effectively excluding the intended audience, we will broaden it. However, this is where the adjustment has been set for now.

 

[Amy]

Madge,

I just read you response from last week. Thank you very much for looking into this and taking our input into consideration. Your time and effort is much appreciated.

Amy

Amy,

I wanted to wait a bit until I had something solid to report on this. We're going to make some adjustments to our practice of adding regions to ongoing searches in an effort to avoid situations like those you've reported here.

Going forward, our system will exclude accounts that show confirmations via our website within the past year. This is very logical since those 10% or so who do business online probably have a better idea of the available space and like handling their searches themselves.

There were a couple of other changes that made sense once we started looking this issue. As usual, I have Tuggers to thank for bringing something important to my attention!

Thanks to everyone for your feedback.