Waiting for the RCI bomb to drop???

[michelle]

This is just ridiculous!

This morning I received an email from RCI titled "Urgent Info about your Vacation Week."

My knees went weak! Just last week I had booked flights and extra nights on Priceline for an upcoming t/s vacation in May, and I was sure this was a msg from RCI telling me that my week was cancelled!!!

Well, it was just RCI telling me that I still haven't banked one of my weeks (which I am planning on using myself anyway). And based on some of the threads here, I probably should have known that RCI wouldn't actually contact me, even if they did cancel my week. (But that is another story!)

But still, my head went there immediately.

Anyone else just waiting for a bomb to drop??

 

[Anne S]

Rest assured that RCI will never, ever e-mail you if they cancel your exchange. The way you find out is by logging onto RCI and discovering that they have refunded your exhange fee. Then, when you call RCI and tell them that they cancelled your exchange, the VG or VC or whatever they call themselves these days will be totally clueless about it. Some will even accuse you of lying, even if you tell them that you are holding the confirmation in your hand. This was my experience. Others have reported that the VG claims that they, or some member of their family, have cancelled the exchange. And trust me, RCI will take their sweet time in informing you of the cancellation, and it won't be via e-mail.

 

[quiltergal]

I log into my RCI account EVERY day to make sure my two confirmations are still there. I think I'm getting paranoid with all this last minute cancellation business going on.

 

[JLB]

Just today I emailed someone from here, someone who has also had a cancellation problem, and mused, "Is there suddenly a lot more of these, or is there just more awareness of TUG, and more reporting of them?"

 

[marsha77]

Rci

This is already on my mind (that RCI will drop the bomb) and I have over 1 year & 10 months to wait. I do not like this feeling at all!

 

[Babs from UK]

Rci

Having to log on everyday just to check that a holiday you have booked well in advance still exists is ridiculous - and highly stressful! Would one do that with a reputable Travel Agent??!!

I don't understand RCI's reluctance to inform their customers if an exchange has been cancelled by them (for whatever reason)

I am so glad that I pulled out of RCI. When I want to exchange it will probably be through SFX or privately. In the meantime we are still very happy with our resort, even though we did pay developer prices!

 

[CaliDave]

Madge said that only 10% of theier members book online.
So can you imagine how many cancellations are not even known about until RCI decides to call a couple weeks prior?

 

[JLB]

Madge said that only 10% of theier members book online.
So can you imagine how many cancellations are not even known about until RCI decides to call a couple weeks prior?

Speaking of on-line, we have never had a cancellation or any type of misunderstanding since we started searching and booking on-line. Sure, Inside Guy, and others, insist thatwe are missing good stuff because we do not use ongoing searches, but I have no proof of that. People I know with top-trading weeks are not getting anything for the same area either.

We have had problems when a Guide was involved, or, more accurately because a Guide was involved.

I won't even go into the problems we had when we used Guides and ongoing searches exclusively.

Now it's just little things.

Not long ago I called to get Vacation Insurance, and that Guide was not forthright, to say the least.

Just this morning I had occasion to call a Guide, to check on a unit number for something I saw online. She would not let me go, virtually insisting that she knew much more about what I am doing than I do. I hate to be rude, but how do you politely tell them you are not interested in what is coming out of their mouth?

Why are they like that? Is it to try to make a buck, push something on you you do not want?

Or to be sincere and helpful?

Beats me.

 

[CaliDave]

They are paid commision.
Some are truley helpful and care.. others are like car salesmen or even worse timeshare salesmen.

 

[boyblue]

Why be anxious. The occurrence is pretty rare, there is nothing you can do to prevent it & generally speaking, life is good.

I know you might be thinking he wouldn't have that attitude if it happened to him but I promise you, I would.

I have found that stress is self induced and in most cases counterproductive.

 

[PA-]

Why be anxious. The occurrence is pretty rare, there is nothing you can do to prevent it & generally speaking, life is good.

....

Wow! Words of wisdom from the islandboy. That's the 2nd time in 2 days you've impressed me.

I still love your attitude, man!

 

[bigfrank]

Rest assured that RCI will never, ever e-mail you if they cancel your exchange. The way you find out is by logging onto RCI and discovering that they have refunded your exhange fee. Then, when you call RCI and tell them that they cancelled your exchange, the VG or VC or whatever they call themselves these days will be totally clueless about it. Some will even accuse you of lying, even if you tell them that you are holding the confirmation in your hand. This was my experience. Others have reported that the VG claims that they, or some member of their family, have cancelled the exchange. And trust me, RCI will take their sweet time in informing you of the cancellation, and it won't be via e-mail.

Would you like to make a wager about them not canceling by email? Would you like a copy of an email I have.

I will discuss the further after I return from my Vacation.

 

[JLB]

Is there any way we can save this thread, get Boyblue's credit card number, and charge all the non-refundable, prepaid expenses of everyone's cancelled vacations to him, or the increased cost of alternate accomodations, plus compensation for vacation time taken from work (not that I work)?

Mon. (Casual island flair )

 

[Walt]

How Rare Is It To Have 2 Cancellations Within 6 Months?

Why be anxious. The occurrence is pretty rare, there is nothing you can do to prevent it & generally speaking, life is good.

I know you might be thinking he wouldn't have that attitude if it happened to him but I promise you, I would.

I have found that stress is self induced and in most cases counterproductive.

How rare is it to have 2 Cancellations within 6 months?

Everything is true about how RCI handles the problem. The VC have no clue about what happen. They then say, I or someone from my family cancelled. When I tell them that is not true. They say, "How do we know you didn't cancel?" In other words, they are telling me I'm lying.

When I ask to have the unit back, they tell me it is gone! I told them to get it back from the person who has it, They said, RCI can not do that because the person with MY WEEK would be upset if RCI asked for it back. Never mine, what is only fair if RCI makes a mistake!

Then they check with someone, and come back with there is a problem because of the Resort is closed (not True) and The 2 bedroom units are not available because of a major repair on them (not True). So who is lying now?

I ask for a supervisor. The Supervisor doesn't seem to have anymore information about what happen then the VC. They then would tell me a Specialist will call me. The Specialist called after a week or two later. It took 5 months to replace the Walton Hall week. The Specialist would tell me she would get back to me in three week but it was usually 6 weeks or more or I would have to call.

The Supervisor and the VC could have and should have fixed the cancellation of Worldmark Windsor with my first call to them. The problem, so they say, was the person from the Worldmark Windsor made a mistake of using Friday instead of Saturday as the start day. Instead of getting a phone call from RCI to ask me if there was a problem with changing from Friday to a Saturday, RCI cancelled my week and put in a seach for the wrong area of California. Why RCI would rather handle it in such a round about way just does not make any sense!!!

I found out about both weeks being cancelled when I went online. Windsor was gone and a hold was placed for a resort in Southern California. This was done because when the Windsor was taken back by RCI, they put a search on for Southern California. Like Napa/Sonoma is in Southern California!!!!

The same thing happen with the Walton Hall search. They were not even searching in the same area as Walton Hall.

Walt

 

[Avery]

This is just ridiculous!



Anyone else just waiting for a bomb to drop??

I have been checking my account almost daily since the numerous Manhattan Club cancellations over the summer (possibly September). Aside from concerns about my own vacations, I have given some time to friends and it would be really awful if their trips got SNAFU'd. (and if anyone is curious about the origin of SNAFU, it is a slang military acronym originated in WWII standing for Situation Normal, All F'd Up, certainly fitting here...)

 

[michelle]

Why be anxious. The occurrence is pretty rare, there is nothing you can do to prevent it & generally speaking, life is good.

I know you might be thinking he wouldn't have that attitude if it happened to him but I promise you, I would.

I have found that stress is self induced and in most cases counterproductive.

Actually, I agree with this. I read the threads, felt sympathy for the posters, felt annoyance with RCI and the resorts, and briefly considered how such a thing would affect me. But I tried to see it in perspective, i.e. it doesnt happen that often (even though I think it is happening more and more lately!). I didnt stress out much, hugely because it has never happened to me. Or maybe I was just trying to convince myself that all will be okay.

But then I got that email, and I immediately thought I was in trouble.

 

[boyblue]

Is there any way we can save this thread, get Boyblue's credit card number, and charge all the non-refundable, prepaid expenses of everyone's cancelled vacations to him, or the increased cost of alternate accomodations, plus compensation for vacation time taken from work (not that I work)?

Mon. (Casual island flair )

LoL!

Here is my card number"

1234 5678 9101 1121 exp 3/14/15

 

[boyblue]

Thanks PA

Oh btw just to borrow this thread for a moment, Thanks again PA. Yours is a debt I can never repay.

 

[Anne S]

Would you like to make a wager about them not canceling by email? Would you like a copy of an email I have.

I will discuss the further after I return from my Vacation.

Sorry, Frank, I'm not a gambling woman! My post was based on my own experience of having RCI cancelling my exchange and learning about it when logging onto my account. What would it cost RCI to generate an e-mail advising you of the cancellation, and telling you that someone will will call you to get you a replacement? When I called RCI about my exchanges being cancelled, the clueless VG all but accused me of lying. (The exchange went as follows: Me: "But I have the confirmation in my hand!" She (with major attitude) "Oh yeah? What does it say?" If RCI does not have the courtesy to inform their members that their exchanges have been pulled from under them, would it hurt for them to inform their VGs of this, so that we won't be accused of lying?

 

[Tia]

Just makes a person glad they didn't renew their RCI membership after 19 years. It seems to get worse every time I read what is happening to some.

 

[Babs from UK]

RCI exchange story

Well imagine our situation when our resort calls us the day before our holiday to say that RCI have booked someone into our villa and we are about to embark on an 8 hour flight to go to the resort! Fortunately the resort had the sense to check with us first (we always confirm our weeks in writing with them even though it is not compulsory).

RCI had "accidentally" put our weeks villa into the points system 2 years before and someone had grabbed our week when it apparently became available. We were very annoyed and fortunately could prove that RCI had no right to our week. However, imagine how that person felt when, having assumed they were coming out to Windjammer for the last two years they find out their holiday is not valid. They were eventually moved to Marigot Bay. RCI told the holidaymakers we had "changed our minds and decided to come out after all!!" and therefore it was not RCI's fault. This was blatantly untrue.

We resigned from RCI shortly after that.