Here is an email I sent to the GC folks. The names have been removed per FT policy.

I want to express my extreme disappointment with my recent gift card experience and with the way it was handled by Marriott. As a Marriott Rewards Platinum Premier member I have extensive experience with the Marriott brand and have generally had good service in the past. That is what keeps me coming back. The past week has been what I hope is an exception rather than the new rule.

I ordered $3000 worth of gift cards on April 8th. I had planned to use them starting with the week of April 18th and since they came with a handling charge of $8.50, I assumed they would be delivered promptly as in the past. I did not receive them in time for my stay in Buffalo, NY and was forced to use my Visa card which had already been charged for the gift cards. I emailed Marriott to follow up and they sent them out on April 18th - 10 days after I had ordered and paid for express delivery.

My next stay was at the Residence Inn - Salinas, CA. I attempted to use the first of the $1000 gift cards to pay for my stay that ended April 30th. After several phone calls and about 20 minutes of processing I was handed a folio that showed a balance due of $1601 and no payments for my $800.50 bill and was told all was well. They said the gift card had been charged. I returned home to find over $3500 in pending charges on my Visa bill and was unable to check the balance of any of the gift cards I received.

I spent about an hour communicating with the hotel and with the gift card group of Marriott on Monday May 2. A representative from the gift card group took the card numbers and my name and number and promised to get back to me. I did not hear back from them. I spoke with XXX at the Residence Inn and was told that his GM (YYY) would contact me. I received a voice mail from YYY telling me she would be in all day. I returned the voice mail before lunch time in CA. and was told the she was not in. I left a voice mail but never heard back from YYY. This morning, I still did not have a resolution and $800 of charges had posted to my Visa with $1791 still pending. I am now told that the gift card may be fixed by the end of the week - a full month after I ordered it.

I have spent well over an hour and a half of my time following up on various facets of this disappointing experience and as far as I can tell I will be left with a Visa bill for this month that will include $2708 in charges for gift cards as well as over $1400 in charges that were meant to paid with the gift cards. There is a possibility that an additional $1791 in charges will be posted simply due to processing errors in trying to use the gift cards. This is an unacceptable financial burden for me. I do not have the time or the money to keep this run around going.

Please respond with a plan for resolving this situation this week.

I have been told they will fix it by the end of the week but I will believe it when I see it. I will follow up to tell you what the resolution is.