Update - As of 9/2009, Starwood and RCI no longer permit owners to select the week that is deposited, unless it is a true fixed week (a week that cannot float AT ALL.)
Instead, you will use the TPU (Trading Power Units) that have been assigned to your resort/unit/season. I highly recommend that you check the TPU using the RCI calculator, and then confirm it with an RCI Rep., before you make your deposit. One way to get the Rep. to put it in writing is to use the online chat function on the RCI webpage, and then copy and paste the conversation to a text file, for documentation. DeniseM
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so let's see if i got this right....
if i have a 1-52 floating week at SDO and reserve a particular week(say a week 13) at SDO and then turn around and deposit it with II the week 13 is the actual week that II receives? BUT...
if i instead deposit the week 13 with RCI it becomes a mystery week???
IS THIS CORRECT?
What is supposed to happen and what actually happens tend to differ with SVO. I've color-coded the various paths to help with understanding.
Here is what is supposed to happen:
If your SVO property is in SVN:
You book your resort for the week you want to deposit;
If you want to deposit it into II, you are screwed. SVO is legally entitled to pick the week and resort to deposit for you. (This is an express term on the SVN membership form that you signed when you joined SVN.); and,
Despite that agreement, if you want to deposit it into RCI, SFX or any other exchange company, SVO is legally required to deposit that booked week for you.
If your SVO property is NOT in SVN:
You book your resort for the week you want to deposit; and,
SVO is legally required to deposit that booked week for you into any authorized exchange company for your resort, II, RCI, SFX, whatever. (Since you are not given the benefits of SVN membership, you are not obligated to honor its unique add-on terms of your ownership, including the term that gives SVO the right to pick the resort/week to deposit into your II account.)
Here is what actually happens:
You book your resort for the week you want to deposit;
You call SVO and ask that your booked resort/week be deposited into an authorized exchange company of your choice (assuming you aren’t in SVN and don’t want to deposit into II). (Your resort must trade through RCI for you to deposit into RCI, though. Similarly, the resort/week must be one that SFX takes, if you want to deposit into SFX, etc.);
The SVO agent tells you a) that they get to pick the resort and week; or b) tells you they did as you requested and deposited the week and resort that you had booked;
Eventually, a mystery week and resort show up in your RCI/II/ or whatever exchange service account your requested;
99.9% of the owners stop at this step (and SVO knows it);
If you elect to proceed, you call back SVO to complain that your booked resort/week didn’t get deposited, and a weak trader was deposited instead. (Plan to spend about 3 hours of your time listening to an AM EX ad while on hold with SVO during this phase of the deposit process);
In between AM EX ads, you periodically get the run-around through various SVO agents and managers that all tell you “tough, we can do what we want with all deposits into all exchange companies.” They will ramble something about “space banks” and allocated deposits, blah, blah, blah. They may offer you a different week in the “space bank” to shut you up;
You keep asking to speak with that person’s supervisor;
Eventually, someone within SVO will not want you escalating things anymore and tell you that they are making an “exception” in your case only, and they will put your originally booked resort/week in your account. This is the same resort/week that no less than 4 previous SVO agents and managers all said was “impossible” to deposit; and,
You will find yourself “thanking” that person for “helping” you complete the deposit of your originally booked villa/week.
Make sense?
-nodge
People seeking the
"purple path" (above) have found they can avoid the
"brown path" (above), at least with respect to II exchanges, by working exclusively with II, preferably on-line, to deposit their already booked SVO week. Near as I can tell, no such on-line SVO hassle avoidance is available for making deposits into RCI for either
"purple path" or
"green path" seeking owners. . . they all get to trudge through the "
brown path."