jeanie

In my experience, often times the call center the rep is in can be loud. Or perhaps, the location the OP was calling from could have been loud. Or maybe there was a bad connection. If you read the transcript above again, it could also be consistent with the agent not hearing the conversation very well.

Another possibility is that this was a new agent that isn't familiar with every city where Marriott has a hotel. Ontario is the most populated province in Canada. If a person needs to guess where a Canadian city is located, Ontario or Quebec would probably be the best guesses.

On my hierarchy of complaints, being asked to repeat myself would be low on the list. It is weird that a thread was started to complain about it.

nachosdelux

I know it's frustrating, but a little patience goes a long way.

I have found that geography is not a strong suit for most customer service reps (hotel, airline, rental car, etc)

RCyyz

That's true but it's also reasonable to have basic expectations. When you work in an industry that has a significant geographic component to it (such as hotels, airlines and car rentals) I think as a customer one can reasonably expect company representatives to have a basic grasp of geography.

On the topic of having a little patience, I have to say that I'm trying hard to be patient with Marriott but my faith in their ability to track my stays is decreasing rapidly. For the past few weeks, when I surf in to spg.com I get this message quite frequently:




Why is there an issue displaying my reservations?

I've now taken to printing (to pdf) my reservations so that I have a record of what SPG once did a brilliant job at tracking for me. Since the August merger though, Marriott has, IMHO, dropped the IT ball. I now no longer expect that the local property will have a record of my reservation, even if it's a traditional SPG property vs a Marriott one.

On the airline side, a few years ago I made a slow but deliberate migration away from Air Canada. The migration process took me a couple of years, but I did it and the majority of my travel is no longer on AC metal. I'm now thinking I'll have to do another slow but deliberate migration away from SPG / Marriott and that's a real shame.

Marriott customer service is what it is but they need to remember that customers have a choice.

twa777

I'd been seeing a message like this on the Marriott side since around the big conversion in August, but as far as I could tell all my reservations were showing up properly.

Then a couple weeks ago, just a day before I had a points stay at a Sheraton in Germany (and when I was already in the middle of my trip to Europe), I received an email from Marriott that I had insufficient points for my upcoming stay. I was rather concerned as it was true I didn't have many points left in my account, but the points for this stay had already been taken out.

I spent a considerable amount of time with a Marriott agent as she tried to figure out what was going on, made more challenging as there still seem to be different internal reservation numbers between the Marriott and Starwood reservations systems, and numbers I had didn't always match up to ones she could see.

Fortunately she eventually transferred me over to a Starwood agent, and I suddenly realized why longtime SPG members haven't been happy with the merger. The Starwood agent pretty quickly figured out what was up (that somehow a duplicate reservation ended up in the system, and only one of them had had points applied. Moreover, he called the hotel in Germany directly to be sure my reservation was properly resolved (off-line, so I didn't have to wait) and then gave me a call back a short while later to let me know everything was resolved and set for my stay.

In the end, that was the best telephone customer service experience I can recall ever having. Based on that, I'd want to consider switching my allegiance from Marriott to Starwood for that better quality of care... if only that were still possible.

flymo

The geographic location of the CSR also seems to be a problem. When I get a US based CSR my issues get taken care of quickly. When they are located elsewhere, I have had problems. Seems to be a training issue which is not fair to the customer or CSR if they are inadequately trained.

Southstreet

So, was a lifetime SPG Platinum and now a Lifetime Premier Platinum Elite for Marriott.

Both web and Platinum phone service for SPG was superb - treated top customers like top customers. Loved them for years.

Marriott today: Tried to book holiday getaway - hotel's "view availability" on website just returns to the same screen, so you are forced into trial and error dates. Takes forever.

I phone SPG Platinum/Marriott line: Takes 10 minutes to explain what I want, then I am asked to be put on hold to "talk to the manager." While I am on hold, the call is somehow rerouted to a new Client Service person who asks me to explain again what I want.

Marriott - fix this! Many of us who book 75+ nights a year don't want to be treated like this.

Hilton and Fairmont are looking really good right now...

kizlo

SPG customer service went from being one of the best in the business (imo) to complete garbage after the merger. Is it just me? I've seen others post issues in various threads, but i'm not sure how widespread it is.

I'm a lifetime gold (and soon to be platinum member) - I used to get things resolved so easily and quickly via the online chat. Now, I send multiple mails within a span of 3-4 months that never get returned. Calling them on the phone results in a much longer wait time, and whenever I get through the agents are not helpful - or worse, they tell you what you want to hear, but don't actually do anything about it. For example - I had a cheque SPG was supposed to send me, and after speaking with 3 agents (who all confirmed it had been approved, and my cheque is on the way), the 4th agent tells me the cheque is actually stuck in 'pending' mode and he needed to manually move it to the next stage for accounting to approve. It took 3 months to get the cheque, and they didn't even send the right amount.

Every time I ran into issues previously, they were so easily resolved either by mail, or online chat. Now if anything happens, I grudgingly have to call them, waste >30 minutes, and most often need to call back 3-4 times before something actually gets fixed.

I hope SPG / Marriott reps are taking all of our feedback into consideration. It's such a shame how SPG went from exceptional customer service to now being horrendous.

H3A3H3

I entirely agree with you, your experience is my experience, as well: many Starwood departments, most notably reservations, and customer service, and the back of the house/once Starwood infrastructure, have totally deteriorated, never mind the profound deterioration of the SPG program (orchestrated by, none other, than a former architect of the SPG program (it's amazing what people will do, when you bait them with money)).

My gut sense is that things will eventually normalize, but it will take much longer than Marriott ever anticipated, and if Marriott has more people like their brand loyalty leader, Mr. Flueck, there will be plenty of people to attempt to put a positive spin on garbage, and attempt to pull the wool over the heads of Marriott and Starwood's, once, most loyal guests. I don't doubt that there are significant strengths at Marriott International, but if M.I. continues to turn a blind eye to the once institutional and organizational strengths of Starwood, Marriott will end up with garbage.

Seriously, instant oatmeal? So goes McMarriott's homogenous, illogical, adverse (negative) agenda.

My confidence in Marriott is at the lowest that it's been in 50 years. That is a very strong statement., as I was a (Marriott) believe for 50 years.

CJKatl

While many vintage SPG members seem to think the decline in customer service is because Marriott must have been worse than SPG, you need to realize Marriott CS used to also be excellent and has also gone terribly downhill. There is obviously something going on, but it's they took two very good CS organizations, threw them both out and replaced them with something that isn't good. The prolonged automated voice inquiries were part of the old Marriott phone CS, but other than that Marriott CS was quite good, not the crusterfluck it is now.

Or should that be clusterFlueck?

Kacee

Completely agree. The new Marriott is not the same as the old Marriott. This in my view is the biggest disappointment of the merger, that the combined program provides much worse cs than either of the pre-merger programs.

MSPeconomist

chitraveler1975

Hello - I am a long time lurker, first time poster. I am a legacy SPG platinum elite and lifetime platinum premier with Marriott Rewards. I just had a shockingly bad customer service experience with Marriott Rewards. I am staying at the Cove Atlantis, an Autograph Collection hotel. According to the published Platinum Elite benefits, I am entitled to daily breakfast, given that the hotel is flagged Autograph Collection and a resort in the Caribbean - the matrix could not be clearer. Upon checkin, I was informed that the hotel does not fully participate in Marriott Rewards and I was not entitled to breakfast. There is ZERO reference to this on the elite benefits chart; so I challenged the check-in agent. He put Marriott customer service on the phone.

For the first time, I spoke to a Marriott Rewards customer service agent, rather than an SPG agent, and I have never been so horribly treated by hotel customer service staff.
- I was told that I was not due breakfast because resorts in the Carribean do not need to provide lounge access.
- When I pointed out that breakfast is a welcome amenity for Autograph resorts in the Carribean, she told me that because the hotel offered me 1000 points they fulfilled their obligation - I was NOT due the published benefits, and CHOICE was up to the hotel, not me (her words, not mine).
- When I said that is clearly not the brand standard and would like to escalate, she told meThe Atlantis staff were so disgusted by the treatment I received that they comped me breakfast, whether it is in their policy or not.

I am absolutely disgusted by this lack of service from Marriott and grateful for the response from the Atlantis. The service from Marriott is certainly not the service I have received from Starwood over the years. This poor treatment, combined with the inability to get points to post in legacy Starwood hotels without reaching out to SPG assist on twitter, is seriously making me consider reaching out to Hyatt for a status match. I can't imagine service is worse, and the quality of properties is comparable.

So, a few questions for the group:
- is this the new norm of customer service, and if so should I walk?
- what is the reality about the Cove Atlantis and SPG platinum benefits?
- would Hyatt be a viable alternative?

Thanks!

UA-NYC

1. The go-forward Marriott CS experience will never be as good as it was w/SPG. And is really only tolerable now w/ a good Ambassador.
2. This property is unfortunately exempt from most benefits (like the Cosmopolitan)
3. If you can make the Hyatt footprint work, you will probably enjoy much better experiences there than Marriott

CPRich

That's a big "if" and very true.

ryw

Correct; I think of the Cosmopolitan and Atlantis properties like Design Hotels, you can book and earn points for those stays via Marriott/SPG, but don't get full benefits. For a list of other exempt properties to help you plan future travels, they're listed here in section 1.2 - https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi#join

(Also, if the breakfast benefit is very important to OP, note that while most properties with a lounge have to provide a restaurant breakfast benefit if the lounge is closed, there are a couple of legacy Marriott properties that are not required to do so, and are only obligated to give you points instead. Listed here at 4.3.c.iv https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/terms/default.mi#elite)

I think many properties with exceptions are pretty well-known discussed and documented on FT among the legacy MR community, but I can see it being a rather unpleasant surprise for someone who hasn't been immersed in those conversations and showing up at the property. I do think that all this information could be more clearly stated in a consumer-friendly way in the Marriott website (such as a clearer link from the benefits table page to properties that have exceptions on certain benefits).