More Starwood/II aggravation

[DeniseM]

I've been on the phone for about an hour!

A year or more ago, I used my fixed SVR week for a "request first" - I did not get the exchange so I canceled the request first, but did not do a full deposit.

I called II and they confirmed that the week is not deposited.

Now I've rented the week, and I called Starwood to put the reservation in my guest's name and Starwood is telling me that it is deposited with II - they are saying you can't do a "request first" and cancel it.

DUH! Do they even know their own rules??????

 

[ocdb8r]

DUH! Do they even know their own rules??????

Of course they do...sounds like the same rules they have always followed:

Make it up as you go along.

Did they resolve it for you?!?!?

 

[DeniseM]

I'm STILL on the phone!

But they've called II and confirmed that the week isn't deposited - but now I am on hold while they talk to Resolution Services.... :annoyed:

 

[DeniseM]

Now they told me thay can't resolve it today - I told them that isn't acceptable, that the week is rented and if I can't get a confirmation today, I'm going to lose the rental... I'm on hold again...

 

[DeniseM]

Now they are saying it will take 72 hours and they would not let me talk to a Mgr. I am TICKED OFF!

Anyone have a contact for me?

 

[ocdb8r]

I always considered you the queen of contacts for SVO...I have no idea what kind of basket case is supposedly "in charge" of II exchanges.

Typical of SVO to refuse to rectify anything promptly. I'm curious what the story is as to why this is an issue?!?!

 

[DeniseM]

They seemed surprised that a "request first" week can be canceled and returned to my Starwood Acct.

"Their people" have to talk to the "II people" and there are "processes" they must go through, and it will take several days, and a manager can't call me back for 72 hours, and yada, yada, yada....

I'm going to offer my renter his deposit back pending the receipt of confirmation and see if he is OK with that.

Sigh.....

 

[ocdb8r]

They seemed surprised that a "request first" week can be canceled and returned to my Starwood Acct.

"Their people" have to talk to the "II people" and there are "processes" they must go through, and it will take several days, and a manager can't call me back for 72 hours, and yada, yada, yada....

I'm going to offer my renter his depoist back pending the receipt of confirmation and see if he is OK with that.

Sigh.....

This seems to have been a problem from day 1 with SVO. For all their insistence on lording over how things work with II, they seem to have a horrible relationship with II and total lack of organization.

I seriously think they have never considered the request first process. That's why it was a loophole during the times when SVO refused to deposit your reserved week. Keep us posted on how it pans out...sorry you've encountered yet another SVO hiccup.

 

[DeniseM]

They just sent me the confirmation - so I guess the squeeky wheel DOES get greased!

Now all I have to do is have it put in the renter's name.

 

[KevinWells18]

Good for you Denise!

 

[DeniseM]

So - the lesson to be learned in this is if you cancel a "request first," call Starwood Owner Services and ask them to verify that it's been canceled - otherwise, they show it as "deposited."

 

[GrayFal]

You're the best....SVN is not.

 

[Ken555]

Good to hear it's resolved, Denise. What a pain!

Frankly, I think this is primarily due to lack of consistent training and support for II/SVN staff. There are very few individuals, as we've posted before, at those organizations who seem to know what to do - all others simply "push paper" around pretending to work...

 

[Denise L]

They just sent me the confirmation - so I guess the squeeky wheel DOES get greased!

Now all I have to do is have it put in the renter's name.

Wow, sounds aggravating, but so glad it is resolved and you can complete your rental! You can be my squeaky wheel!

So if I have two "request firsts," they are considered deposits as far as Starwood is concerned?

 

[l2trade]

So - the lesson to be learned in this is if you cancel a "request first," call Starwood Owner Services and ask them to verify that it's been canceled - otherwise, they show it as "deposited."

This is an important lesson for ALL Starwood owners. Starwood assigning a week to II is not the same as matching that assignment to an II request number. If you cancel a pending request, it DOES NOT automatically reverse the usage assignment from II. Instead, it remains assigned and turns into a deposit at the end of the usage year. This methodology is a pain for floating week owners because they cannot hold a home resort reservation until AFTER they cancel an II pending request and reverse the II assignment. By that point, the remaining home resort availability might not be worth it.

Denise, in your situation, with a FIXED week, this can be an even greater problem. While you are lucky that your fixed week is your fixed week, the broken process makes confusion more likely. Now that you know, I'm sure you will always call. Can you imagine what would have happened if you flew cross country to SVR and just showed up at check-in instead? What a mess for the average owner, unbelievable!!!

To make matters worse, just because one assigns a week, doesn't mean that Starwood matches that assignment to the correct II request number. As you already know, this is a big problem for multiple week owners. An owner may assign one week, then Starwood auto-assigns and matches against another week, leaving the original assignment hanging out there until the owner calls Starwood to discover the error.

Until Starwood provides the ability to view usage history online, unfortunately owners must CALL STARWOOD AFTER EVERY TRANSACTION to help catch these errors.

 

[NJDave]

So - the lesson to be learned in this is if you cancel a "request first," call Starwood Owner Services and ask them to verify that it's been canceled - otherwise, they show it as "deposited."

I had the same issue with Marriott. Marriott told me that I deposited the unit. However, I had cancelled the request first. The only difference is that Marriott was able to resolve the issue within a few minutes.

 

[pedro47]

They just sent me the confirmation - so I guess the squeeky wheel DOES get greased!

Now all I have to do is have it put in the renter's name.

DeniseM, I think Starwood is monitoring this web site.

Your end results is "Outstanding."

 

[DeniseM]

DeniseM, I think Starwood is monitoring this web site.

Your end results is "Outstanding."

Thanks - although it was irritating, I'm sure glad I found out about the problem for future reference!

Starwood really handled it poorly - if they had told me "we will do our best to resolve this today," I would have been satisfied. But to tell me it would take 72 hours, and I couldn't speak to a manager, was asinine - especially since they did fix it in far less than 72 hours - it's obviously possible!

 

[stevens397]

Makes me wonder when Starwood will follow Marriott's lead and spin off their timeshare division. They can't be making money on this anymore and their service shows it. Sad.

Sorry for your infuriating experience, Denise and glad it was resolved before you went to bed!