Hannibal Lecter

When did this quiz/promo appear for the first time?

Points Surfer

Until they get it sorted out its changed my buying habits short term. The "all you can eat" points buffet served up by IHG IT was to much temptation for some points addicts and hackers.

docklander

My account was deactivated ,reactivated(after a 10 minute wait on the phone) and,touch wood,48 hrs later still is fine.Perhaps they don't want to p*ss off (non referred) RAs too much.

Raffles

I doubt being Plat will get you any slack, since all of the major abusers will have made themselves into Plat's through this loophole

rrgg

A call didn't unfreeze my account. Not an RA. Did 9 quizzes (1 per country/language). Rep mentioned that audits end after 72 hours, but later said 3 business days. I'm not sure of either.

21H21J

Another call to the US service center reveals the random audit. All future bookings (all revenue) are okay, and I will earn points as usual. The only thing I cannot do is use points.

Nothing else to do but wait it out.

pmaddock

Just relaying what the rep said - more on that later in this post.

Before I get to that point I do want to address the moral point in here as there seems to be a few posts that are taking a bit of a high road on this issue.

I absolutely agree that those of us who did more than one quiz punch have done a wrong here. The thought hit me when I did a few of the links which is why I stopped at 7 of them but that was really too late. I rather doubt that there are many people reading this thread who haven't at least thought about doing something similar and there are certainly very few here who haven't at least signed up for a promo that they weren't exactly supposed to be signed up for. Its a very big part of the PC forum - I think a good thing probably got taken too far in this case (in some individual cases way too far).

That said I think that IHG is not exactly in the clear either and it forms the basis of why someone would be 'fickle' as an earlier poster implied. This mess has its genesis in a mistake at IHG and I think that their subsequent handling of it is lacking.

Why lacking - they aren't handling their response very well. I know when my company has system issues and we start suspending accounts customer communication is a mandatory part of a policy decision. We certainly don't leave our CSRs blind when customers are calling in asking what happened to their accounts. To my knowledge at this point there has been no message to any suspend target, the website doesn't tell you why your account is suspended, and no CSR seems to know what's going on. As a result there is a communication void and that void is filled with CSRs reactivating accounts with at least some being turned back off, 'goodwill' statements like I got, and probable worst case assumptions by us.

Those assumptions in the blind are why some of us are thinking in terms of 'fickle' actions like changing over our business. We don't know where this is going to go. Therefore the worst case assumption is the 'death penalty' - our accounts and their entire balances forfeit. That scenario pretty much ends the relationship and taking action on that basis isn't being 'fickle' - its moving on.

Now I can't say for sure its going to be a 'death penalty' and I would hope that they are at least somewhat pragmatic about it. Last time I looked we don't execute a kid for taking an extra cookie out of the cookie jar. Of course in this case the magnitude is going to vary with the individual. If someone racked up 100K points or something then the issue is far more serious and a greater reaction would seem justified. In my own case of 700 points I'd be entirely happy and have asked to forfeit the 700 points which was refused by a CSR. I'd be entirely happy if they took the 700 back and even a few thousand more points as some sort of punishment and then be able to continue this business relationship on known terms. Instead what I have now is a 'goodwill' message from a potentially uninformed CSR and with what I'm reading on this board I also have the uncertainty that the very stay I'm on right now may not earn any points.

So, given all these facts on the table - is it really unreasonable or fickle to have to be thinking about taking business elsewhere?

If IHG would just tells us we did bad (and we did) and take whatever penalty they want (and they are certainly entitled to take a penalty ) I think it would probably all be OK. However, this lack of information and apparently leaving the CSRs in the dark seems like a bad place right now.

Oh - at least for now my account is still accessible after the resurrection by the rep yesterday.

pmaddock

I understand that they had to contain the bleeding but I think that IHG could be handling this better. It appears that they haven't told their CSRs anything. So when you call in the CSRs are giving 'I don't know - it may be an audit' responses and they are even manually reactivating accounts (and some apparently being suspended again shortly thereafter). When I called in I got reactivated I actually went ahead and offered up that I had 700 points off this survey thing and should probably have them taken away. She reactivated my account and told me to keep the 700 as 'goodwill'.

benraph

Again guys,

I don't think you have anything to worry about. This is an IT problem, where they had to freeze all the accounts that did more than 1 quiz. I would say that anyone who made less than 5000 points from it, you can relax.

Those however that wrote a script and made points in the hundreds of thousands, should beware. That will be seen as a breech of their security, and the reason all accounts have been investigated to work out what went on. I suggest whoever did less than 5000 points should call PC and explain first that under the data protection act, you just want to inform them that you are recording the conversation so there will not be any mix up later, that you happily completed the quiz in all the languages as it let you and it was fun trying to guess the answers in other languages, explain that you voted for Priority Club in the Freddy awards and that you find it very distruptive not having access to your account. Say " as i voted you as having the best customer service, i'm sure you can agree how disruptive this is to my reservations. What can you do for me now to make this easier for me and to make me feel like a valued customer again." Use the CS rep's name as you say it.

I did not check here for a few days, otherwise i would be in the same boat as all of you. But those that have done less than 20, do not feel you have done anything wrong, i would be expecting compensation for freezing my account, it would cause me undue distress and worry. And dont worry about the T & C's, they are on every contract. They do not want to lose you.

benraph

Oh, and for those that did make in the hundreds of thousand, maybe Hilton will start a promotion called "the biggest loser" Who lost the most legitamate points by having their account closed.

soitgoes

Uhhh...okay.
The only possible "compensation" I could foresee is IHG not removing the ca. 1K points or so added via this quiz.

fsfsfsfs

Sorry for this OT post, but can someone please PM me the PC Platinum phone number? I only recently started staying at ICH after a status match from Starwood, and have never called into ICH/PC before. Figured calling into Plat might increase my chances of getting account unlocked?

Thanks!

freeflyin

It would be good for PC to stop calling this a "random audit" since there is obviously nothing random about it-why not simply call it an audit.

I am wondering how the points from the PC Visa will be posted to an account that is not recognized.

Has anyone here been able to add their PC number to a current stay at the property and have it stick?

jimthehorsegod

And that would stop the fraudsters who had already redeemed their points for something non-reclaimable?

soitgoes

Gee--I hope that wasn't the "reason" the OP in that post wanted the info. I hadn't even thought about that.