Many of those complaints have been from me. The Marriott system is the worst for keeping a customer from actually talking to a human. My preference is to use the website. If I'm calling, it's because I know it's something the automated system cannot do. I try to only call from my mobile phone, which is usually recognized, but sometimes calling from another phone cannot be helped. You have to feel bad for the reservation agents because so many people must be frustrated and irked by the time the agents talk to them.

FWIW, I'm LTP with a couple thousand Marriott stays and I couldn't tell you my MR#. It starts with a 9 and ends with a 0, but I need to pull out my Marriott CC for the other digits. The website remembers it, which puts it on reservations, so why would I need to know it?