Fellow Flyertalkers:

I'd like to share my recent experience at the Marriott Copley Place in Boston that marks a landmark on how a platnium member should be treated.

I had a 3 night stay and at the last night, my TV unit would turn on by itself on again a second later after I hit the power button on the remote. This happened multiple times continuously. Although this was disturbing, after a long day at work and considering it was 1am in the morning, after it finally shut off I went to sleep.

The following morning, I had packed and left early to attend a business meeting and decided that I would call the hotel later to check out and inform them of what happened.

The person who took my call (Joy) informed me that it was probably a
"scheduled timer" that was supposed to go off. I then questioned why would they schedule the TV to turn on at 1am in the morning. This was not an acceptable response. After a while, she agreed to give me some points for my complaint, but she would have to wait until the manager came into work to decide how many points.

I got a call later in the day from Joy saying that after speaking with the manager they determined that because I did not report the incident when it happened, they can not proceed with giving me the points. She insisted that the hotel would have sent an electrician to fix the problem and switch rooms for me. I reminded her that it was 1am in the morning, it was my last night, I was in my sleepwear and did not want a stranger in my room. She then responded by saying that I still should have called, they are available all day, and it would not have inconvenience *them*. Again, after reiterated that it was an inconvenience to *me* she rebutted and asked that I should have reported this when i checked out (which was my intent when I placed the call in the morning).

After being put on hold to consult with the manager, Joy returned and said, for this one time only, they are making an exception and will grant me 500 points which I was told is equivalent to $50. I laughed and asked how the amount was arrived at. Apparently, the manager (whose name is Cruz Nirmin) calculated that guests are award 10 points per $1 spent. Therefore, 500 pts is the equivalent of knocking $50 off the bill.

Hope you enjoyed the story and have better luck elsewhere.