VXforever

Did Marriott fire them all en masse and replace them with minimum wage workers? The folks who answer Platinum calls are beyond clueless.

jaejaez

Got myself a new Marriott credit card, for which the issuing bank made a mistake in creating a BRAND NEW Bonvoy account for me instead of linking it to my existing one. Called the bank, who profoundly apologized, and suggested that instead of re-creating and re-sending me a new credit card (which they can do), I could call Bonvoy customer service and ask them to simply "merge" the newly created account with my existing account - that it should be a quick and easy job for them to do. This way, I can go ahead and use the card they issued without having to wait for a new one.

I agreed to what I thought made sense, and what sounded like a easy enough thing to do.

And then the fun began. Call got routed to Ireland to a lady with a thick Russian-like accent who had trouble understanding what I was saying. She then scolded me for not enunciating my words properly saying that's why she cannot understand me. Finally get the message through to her about what I need done, to which she simply repeats that it's the bank's fault so I need to deal with them. Debate, argue, convince, explain for what felt like eternity. She finally says she'll go check with the supervisor. Five mins later she returns to say that she will merge the account for me "this time" but that next time I shouldn't ask for Bonvoy to fix problems that banks have created.........

As a finale to all this fun, instead of merging the accounts like she said she would, she simply got me to write down a web address that I could log into to do it myself. I insisted on her doing it for me to which she said her system wouldn't allow her. So hung up, tried logging onto the site, but the link was broken (she had given me a wrong address). Proceed to googling the site myself based on what she had said to find the correct address, and got the job done.

So yes, a happy ending after all, but sheesh what an unheard-of nightmare of a 'customer service'!

bgriff

It's a real mystery.

Occasionally you are connected to someone you can tell was an SPG phone agent ... just a totally different tone and approach to problem solving. But they're rare. I guess it could still be worth an ambitious HUCA effort since it's so easy to tell so quickly which ones they are.

I was very rarely a Marriott customer before the merger so i can't say for sure but I know lots of people loved Marriott, so i can't imagine they offered the incompetent and sometimes abusive customer service that is currently the standard. But then, Marriott's program also didn't offer much, so maybe there just wasn't often any need for anyone to call MR customer service, so the loyal customers didn't know how bad it was? (Arguably the type of customer who was attracted to old MR was also less likely to be the kind of person who obsessively monitors their account for missing points, expects program rules to be followed in great detail, etc., and also thus less likely to chase customer service on such things, unlike a good number of SPG loyalists.)

UKTraveller4Fun

My understanding is a lot decided they did not wish to work for Marriott and those who could find work elsewhere saw what was coming and left!

This combined with the fact that the ones on the Marriott side saw the train wreck coming and also decided to leave before having to deal with the fallout. That and the workload became so great due to the number of complaints it was simply such a miserable place to work they looked for employment elsewhere!

ryw

The MR phone line used to have great caring agents that were knowledgeable about the program and helpful! Phone service started going downhill around 6 months before the SPG integration in 2018. (There's some threads here from then with folks experiencing 4 hour waits, even on the plat line). I'm not even sure the platinum line currently goes to a dedicated plat center (versus just getting ahead in the queue). Not sure if it was people leaving, or Marriott changing their call centers, or what. In my experience, the Marriott CS phone agent experience is certainly not what it used to be.

tfong007

exploreaswego

With my post-merger experiences calling in, generally when you call within business hours Mon - Fri, 10-5, agents have been more pleasant and competent. After office hours and weekends tend to have the really bad stand ins. I once held the line for 3 hours just trying to get my 7 night cert attached to a reservation on a weekend, the line was disconnected when I was placed on hold. No follow ups whatsoever. Other occasions calling in during business hours, I have reps that are very swift and smart, converted all my OC to NC certs within 10 minutes on calling, and she attached the reservation for the 7 nights as well.

hotturnip

There was another thread quite recently commenting on something posted elsewhere by a supposed former Marriott CS employee who said that staff have been leaving like crazy because of newly insufferable conditions, and that new people are not being trained properly. Basically just what everyone here suspected.

Kacee

Yup. They got Bonvoyed too.

jaejaez

The strength of MR has always been its footprint/number of rooms,particularly in the US. Level of courtesy/empathy rendered by its customer service associates were never its forte.

Kacee

I had great experiences with MR customer service before it was gutted last year.

tfong007

Had the worst experience ever calling the customer service number yesterday. I have avoided calling them these past few months. Called in because my account said it was under audit and was totally locked up. After 20 minutes of waiting on hold I received an agent that told me that it was locked due to an unauthorized account entry. Talking with the agent I was shocked that he did not know that millions of customer records were lost and that it was a major security issue. The agents response was that he doesnt follow the news. I mean come on.

I was then transferred to another agent and she asked me if I had a pin. I told her I didnt know and that the system should tell her if I had one or not. She responded with a "so thats how its gonna be". She then literally did not let me get a word in and hung up. This has truly been the worst phone experience I have had in recent memory.

This is just the beginning. The worst is yet to come.

PresRDC

I don't know why this has become so hard. All I need is help with arranging an airport pick-up for the St. Regis Mumbai next week. In the old days, a simple phone call to the Starwood Concierge and it was done. Now, after waiting forever to get through to someone (after navigating an annoying menu that never previously existed), the phone people seem unable to contact the hotel by either phone or message. Rather they just try to transfer the call to the hotel where it gets promptly disconnected. If the phone support is going to be so useless, how about actually posting an e-mail address for each hotel so you can contact them that way.

I now have to bother our local office to set it up for me because the phone support is so useless.

RogerD408

Marriott has decided to push using faxes for whatever reason, and they are easy enough to send via several services, both premium and free services mostly via an email connection. My guess is they are trying to limit the requests to keep the work load down. I am hoping that once you make contact the property will reach out with more current means.

troyhouse

Is there an elite customer service number that I can use. Have persistent issues and not getting any help.