Pandemonium at MVC Owner Services

[WBP]

My patience with these MVC buffoons is exhausted. After 40 years, one would think that these Marriott Imposters (MVC employees disguised as Marriott Associates) would have figured out how to do something as simple as answering their phone, or providing a Chat Agent who is useful. I am so tired of these MVC amateurs exploiting the Marriott name and providing sub-standard customer service.

How many people remember the sales pitch, "We're the Marriott you've come to trust and love" ?

I've attempted to reach MVC Owner Services, by phone, close to 15 times, today, and I'm told, "hold on, I'll connect you," and my call is abruptly disconnected. The Chat Agent is an embaressment to Marriott, grossly incompetent, and care-less.

Has anyone else found themself unable to get through to MVC Owner Services, today, by phone? The MVC Chat Agent tells me "Operators are standing by, waiting to receive your call." Of course, in reply to my request to have someone from Owner Services call me, I'm told, "sorry, we don't do that." That's service!

 

[DanCali]

I've found some customer service agents in general very untrained and hard to communicate with.

Case in point (just one example) - it's been very frustrating a few weeks ago to have a date penciled in for many months to call in at 9am and try to make a weeks reservation 12 months in advance (call connected with zero hold time) and then it took the agent 6 minutes to locate the week in my account - we all know what that results in. Fortunately, I also had the desired week booked at 13 months out with points as a backup, but obviously I'd rather use the deeded week, and it's unfortunate that I even considered the backup plan option knowing who I'm dealing with...

 

[WBP]

I've found some customer service agents in general very untrained and hard to communicate with.

Case in point (just one example) - it's been very frustrating a few weeks ago to have a date penciled in for many months to call in at 9am and try to make a weeks reservation 12 months in advance (call connected with zero hold time) and then it took the agent 6 minutes to locate the week in my account - we all know what that results in. Fortunately, I also had the desired week booked at 13 months out with points as a backup, but obviously I'd rather use the deeded week, and it's unfortunate that I even considered the backup plan option knowing who I'm dealing with...

I get the agent variability, the low-performers are unacceptable to me (but, there lies the demise of customer service in America). For me, my issue, for years, has been the MVC Owner Services infrastructure (and web/app/phone/technology infrastructure), which I have long felt was a disaster, and not in keeping with "Marriott (fortunately, we continue to have a fabulous experience with "Marriott Lodging (at Marriott hotels))." I thought there might be some improvement at MVC Owner Services once the longtime Vice President of Owner Services, Ron Essig, retired, but that has not been the case.

 

[gpj555]

My understanding is they are almost 100 percent working from home. You could get a Eagle that soars and finds helpful things or you could connect with a Duck that can not fly and may do you harm. My advice at first sign you have a less than confident worker hang up and call back. Be nice about it.

 

[WBP]

My understanding is they are almost 100 percent working from home. You could get a Eagle that soars and finds helpful things or you could connect with a Duck that can not fly and may do you harm. My advice at first sign you have a less than confident worker hang up and call back. Be nice about it.

15 or more calls to Owner Services, and every call of mine, aborted, without ever being connected to a human. I went so far as to call one of the MVC resorts that we own at, and the Manager on Duty attempted to call Owner Services, and got the same response that I did.

I wonder, if there were no calls coming into Owner Services, how the agents who were supposed to be receiving calls, did not come to notify the MVC Chat agents that their phone lines were down.

Actually, I just remembered that President's Week is a very busy travel, MVC reservation week, and I wonder if the MVC phone lines were over-taxed, today, by Owners attempting to make reservations for next year.

For this "service" we Owners pay MVC a premium price.

 

[dioxide45]

It is quite possible that all their available lines and queue was full and couldn't handle any more people on hold?

It isn't like these issues are new. They seem to happen every year starting in January. People trying to book 13/12 months out and also those people figuring out what to do about summer vacation. We could probably find similar threads going back a decade.

 

[WBP]

MVC Owner Services is abysmal. In my opinion, MVC Owner Services has been awful for more than 20 years; the interface between MVC Owners and MVC Owner Services (e.g. telephone, website, App), is entirely unnaceptable. I view MVC’s Owner Services as unacceptable for a company who has been in the business for 40 years (MVC would like to impress you with their 40 year legacy, but, when it comes to providing customer support/Owner Services, MVC’s 40 year legacy is meaningless, as MVC can't even answer their phones, or provide a viable technology interface between MVC and their owners). Actually. I know companies who are 5 or fewer years old, whose performance is substantially superior to Marriott Vacation Club. Further, for what we pay, between the purchase price of our MVC timeshare(s), and annual maintenance fees (which include an “Owner Services” line item), I believe that we, owners, are entitled to some semblance of customer service, never mind, Marriott customer service.

Today, after Saturday’s saga of being unable to reach MVC Owner Services, over more than 20 attempts, throughout the day, I called MVC Owner Services. Today’s surprise, despite close to 40 years of MVC ownership, the MVC Owner Services VRU (Voice Response Unit), today, tells me that it does not recognize my phone number, as that of an MVC Owner. I wonder, when does the pandemonium stop?

I did identify the MVC Leaders who own this mess. If your experience is similar to mine, and you want to share your experience with MVC Leadership, for whatever that may be worth, here is the contact information for a few MVC/MVW Leaders:

John E. Geller, Jr, President and Chief Executive Officer
john.geller@vacationclub.com

Brian Miller, President, Vacation Ownership
brian.miller@vacationclub.com

Michael Singley, Vice President, Owner Services
michael.singley@mvwc.com

William Shaw, Chairman of the Board, Marriott Vacations Worldwide
william.shaw@marriott.com

https://ir.marriottvacationsworldwide.com/board-directors/william-shaw

Of all of the leaders named above, I’d say the one worthy of attention is Bill Shaw, a career Marriott International leader, and consummate professional.

 

[jp10558]

I get the agent variability, the low-performers are unacceptable to me (but, there lies the demise of customer service in America).

This is "fine" for budget services, but for more premium products it really does piss me off. I remember back in the late 90s, calling IBM for home computer support both actually worked and was good. But we paid quite the premium at Radio Shack in 1995 for the computer and warranty etc. Today I really don't get the "send you to call a person" as a first option. If you want to limit calls, make the IT infrastructure work so that you don't need a seemingly completely separate parallel system that works when the front end consumer system is down, but in the horrible mediated by a person over the phone way. IMO even Chat is better because specific but hard to do "over the phone" things like dates, names, specific units or whatever, payment info is all easier in chat. The amount of "How do you spell your name", "Read the card number slower, faster, again, just the last 4", "I can't find the thing you're reading off of the App with what you would think is the 'official name'" etc...

 

[mountainboy]

MVC Owner Services is abysmal. In my opinion, MVC Owner Services has been awful for more than 20 years; the interface between MVC Owners and MVC Owner Services (e.g. telephone, website, App), is entirely unnaceptable. I view MVC’s Owner Services as unacceptable for a company who has been in the business for 40 years (MVC would like to impress you with their 40 year legacy, but, when it comes to providing customer support/Owner Services, MVC’s 40 year legacy is meaningless, as MVC can't even answer their phones, or provide a viable technology interface between MVC and their owners). Actually. I know companies who are 5 or fewer years old, whose performance is substantially superior to Marriott Vacation Club. Further, for what we pay, between the purchase price of our MVC timeshare(s), and annual maintenance fees (which include an “Owner Services” line item), I believe that we, owners, are entitled to some semblance of customer service, never mind, Marriott customer service.

Today, after Saturday’s saga of being unable to reach MVC Owner Services, over more than 20 attempts, throughout the day, I called MVC Owner Services. Today’s surprise, despite close to 40 years of MVC ownership, the MVC Owner Services VRU (Voice Response Unit), today, tells me that it does not recognize my phone number, as that of an MVC Owner. I wonder, when does the pandemonium stop?

I did identify the MVC Leaders who own this mess. If your experience is similar to mine, and you want to share your experience with MVC Leadership, for whatever that may be worth, here is the contact information for a few MVC/MVW Leaders:

John E. Geller, Jr, President and Chief Executive Officer
john.geller@vacationclub.com

Brian Miller, President, Vacation Ownership
brian.miller@vacationclub.com

Michael Singley, Vice President, Owner Services
michael.singley@mvwc.com

William Shaw, Chairman of the Board, Marriott Vacations Worldwide
william.shaw@marriott.com

https://ir.marriottvacationsworldwide.com/board-directors/william-shaw

Of all of the leaders named above, I’d say the one worthy of attention is Bill Shaw, a career Marriott International leader, and consummate professional.

This is "fine" for budget services, but for more premium products it really does piss me off. I remember back in the late 90s, calling IBM for home computer support both actually worked and was good. But we paid quite the premium at Radio Shack in 1995 for the computer and warranty etc. Today I really don't get the "send you to call a person" as a first option. If you want to limit calls, make the IT infrastructure work so that you don't need a seemingly completely separate parallel system that works when the front end consumer system is down, but in the horrible mediated by a person over the phone way. IMO even Chat is better because specific but hard to do "over the phone" things like dates, names, specific units or whatever, payment info is all easier in chat. The amount of "How do you spell your name", "Read the card number slower, faster, again, just the last 4", "I can't find the thing you're reading off of the App with what you would think is the 'official name'" etc...

Not a Marriott Owner but Agree, it is not nice to see them charging premium $ & providing terrible svc.
(I can understand WynDumb being terrible with WorldMark, as WynDumb is WynDumb) but expect more from Marriott (esp with high initial purchases & even junk $ for adding ReSale & then top $ MFs every year).

 

[emeryjre]

Gotta keep the costs down and the stock price up
The costs don't stay low by themselves
The revenue doesn't stay high by itself
The profit drops are damaging to the exec's bonuses and stock options

 

[rcdcowner557]

Not a Marriott Owner but Agree, it is not nice to see them charging premium $ & providing terrible svc.
(I can understand WynDumb being terrible with WorldMark, as WynDumb is WynDumb) but expect more from Marriott (esp with high initial purchases & even junk $ for adding ReSale & then top $ MFs every year).

MVW licenses the Marriott name from Marriott International. I do believe there is tension between the two companies regarding what MVW business tactics might be doing to the "Marriott" brand. Nevertheless, the license will continue as long as Marriott International deems the revenue it receives from the arrangement in excess of any revenue it might be losing through potential brand degradation. The latter is impossible to quantify, while the former is tangible, so I don't imagine the Marriott name disappearing from the third party product any time soon.

 

[pedro47]

This is why I called one minute prior to starting time.

 

[davidvel]

Even if you reach a competent rep, calling in is almost always slower than reserving online.

 

[TolmiePeak]

I would be happy if I never had to call anyone at Marriott. I mean you are calling someone on a phone so they can type some stuff into a computer for you. Why can't you just type that stuff into the computer yourself and cut out the middle man?

 

[Superchief]

Even if you reach a competent rep, calling in is almost always slower than reserving online.

Assuming the website is working, which is often not the case during peak demand times,

 

[Superchief]

If I was king of the world and had my own 'DOGE' type department, my first two assignments in the travel world would be MVC and Amtrak (primarily executive management and Chicago operations). I would tell most of the greedy executives who only care about bonuses 'You're fired!'

 

[WBP]

MVW licenses the Marriott name from Marriott International. I do believe there is tension between the two companies regarding what MVW business tactics might be doing to the "Marriott" brand. Nevertheless, the license will continue as long as Marriott International deems the revenue it receives from the arrangement in excess of any revenue it might be losing through potential brand degradation. The latter is impossible to quantify, while the former is tangible, so I don't imagine the Marriott name disappearing from the third party product any time soon.

In my opinion Marriott International waffles when it comes to MVC/MVW. No matter how much I believe the true lodging and hospitality professionals and leaders at Marriott International look down on the Leadership/buffoons at Marriott Vacation Club, and know them for what they are, it seems to me that not only does Marriott International make a fortune on the licensing fees that MVC/MVW pays Marriott International, no matter how frightening MVC/MVW is, Marriott International continues to allow MVC/MVW to data-mine (and market to) their Marriott Bonvoy member base, and, with calls to Marriott (International/Lodging) reservations, we are frequently offered “the opportunity" to purchase a MVC preview package.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Assuming the website is working, which is often not the case during peak demand times,

Isn't the person you are calling on the phone using the same website you are using booking it direct?

 

[davidvel]

Isn't the person you are calling on the phone using the same website you are using booking it direct?

No. They would have their own internal network or VPN into it. Generally the website issues are due to the webservers not being able to handle all of the external traffic to the website. The internal systems also likely have controls to block out excessive load to allow the agents to do their jobs. Many have reported that they get through on phone when website is down, though obviously everyone would then be doing that. The only time I couldn't reserve via web my phone call took so long for them to answer there was no availability. Magically some units popped up a few days later.

 

[VacationForever]

I would be happy if I never had to call anyone at Marriott. I mean you are calling someone on a phone so they can type some stuff into a computer for you. Why can't you just type that stuff into the computer yourself and cut out the middle man?

You cannot book 13 months out for consecutive / concurrent week reservations on your own. Only their agents can do so.

 

[VacationForever]

Today’s surprise, despite close to 40 years of MVC ownership, the MVC Owner Services VRU (Voice Response Unit), today, tells me that it does not recognize my phone number, as that of an MVC Owner.

The same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago when I called to reserve weeks that are 13 months out. In other words, the call did not go to the desk for Chairman's Club / Presidential reps because it could not recognize my number. My guess is that morning they did not staff any folks to answer the phone number that is dedicated for Chairman's Club / Presidential, and turned off the phone number recognition feature so that all calls got routed to the main line. The person who answered the phone then addressed me right away, and I asked if he could see all of my information based on the phone number and he said he did.

 

[TolmiePeak]

You cannot book 13 months out for consecutive / concurrent week reservations on your own. Only their agents can do so.

But why? Why can't you just do it online. That is crazy they are wasting resources forcing you to call a live person.

 

[TolmiePeak]

No. They would have their own internal network or VPN into it. Generally the website issues are due to the webservers not being able to handle all of the external traffic to the website. The internal systems also likely have controls to block out excessive load to allow the agents to do their jobs. Many have reported that they get through on phone when website is down, though obviously everyone would then be doing that. The only time I couldn't reserve via web my phone call took so long for them to answer there was no availability. Magically some units popped up a few days later.

Marriott is a huge corporation. Why aren't they just contracting out webservers to Amazon who could handle the traffic. Wouldn't that be far cheaper than paying humans to answer phone calls?

 

[VacationForever]

But why? Why can't you just do it online. That is crazy they are wasting resources forcing you to call a live person.

They don't have the feature on the website because it is too difficult for their programmers to write software program for it. The agents manually verify eligibility and book one by one when you call them.

 

[TolmiePeak]

They don't have the feature on the website because it is too difficult to write software program for it.

LOL Sure. Just contract out the software to professionals.