So if a person is not forced to buy something, they can't complain about it. That doesn't make sense.

Can the Marriott Insider read some of the posts on the Marriott forum's Travel Package thread, such as the following

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30112663-post6108.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30112395-post6102.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30112153-post6092.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30112102-post6090.html

and more posts the past 24 hours, on how Marriott Reward dept seems have NO KNOWLEDGE on what is being said in the First Post by the company representative - just how this could happen, when you are telling customers to do certain things, while your own employees are completely in the dark and the system is not capable at all to do what you describe?

Brilliant line of logic. I hope you have never complained about any purchase in your entire life, as no one forced you to buy anything.

Total Drive-By from Marriott Rewards Insider.
Post and then disappear. How professional.

What's the over/under on when you might be able to use these on a former SPG hotel?

of course I complain, on a regular basis )))
but I tend to find this drama kind of too much.

you should blame the bloggers like TPG for sharing informations (=propaganda) and encouraging such buys instead of Marriott.

But at the end, greedy people gambled. When you gamble you can loose or win ;)

Why wouldn't Marriott use some formal communication channels to notify the customers about all these? Emails, mail, facebook and twitter? Posting things that weren't echoed by the customer services in the call center, instead, by somebody who self claimed as "company representative" in public forums. That is such a bad practice.

I can't imagine that after 2,3 years of preparation, the whole final merge is still a big mess. Misleading communication, chaotic call centers, crappy apps/websites, frustrated customers. This whole merger will be a lessons learnt to other big M&A, worst than that, it will be (or already be) a big joke to general public.

It used to be Lurkers I,II and III would make a annoucement and they stick around to answer our questions and address our concerns. Most of us, certainly appreciated the fact that SPG had a team of Lurkers that were most helpful in many ways. Now with the 'Merger", we do very much hope it is continued.

Lurker IV, please do reply to our questions after getting the confirmation from Marriott executives.

Lurker IV, please do post update even you don't have the answer. At least showing you are monitoring the thread you posted.

Whoops!

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to Marriott Customer Care in regards to your travel package.

We know that our guests were advised that the blackout period for travel packages is over and to send in their requests for downgrade. Unfortunately, we have encountered some further systems issues that are not allowing us to currently process the requests to downgrade a travel package certificate. Your patience as we work to correct the systems issues is greatly appreciated.

At this time, we do not have a time frame for when we expect to be able to process the requests. We are asking guests to allow 5 to 10 business days, and to resubmit their requests at a later date. Should you have an upcoming stay in the next 4 to 8 weeks that you had hoped to attach the certificate to, or for further help and inquiry, please reach out to our Loyalty Specialists by phone at 800-450-4442. Please be aware, we are experiencing a large volume of calls due to the loyalty merge, and has created some longer than normal hold times. Some of the systems issues are also impacting our ability to view and update guest accounts. We apologize for any inconvenience this may create.

Once again, we appreciate your patience as we continue to work to bring you the service that you deserve. We thank you for your loyalty to Marriott and SPG.

We look forward to hosting you soon!

Safe travels,

'Please be aware, we are experiencing a large volume of calls due to the loyalty merge, and has created some longer than normal hold times.'

AKA they don't have enough staff....

True. Or likely, the call centers are fielding very complicated requests and the time to resolve (or not resolved) takes a lot of time.
Still, patience is your friend whenever call centers are involved.

It doesn't make sense for them to staff up for the changeover but for more steady state, hiring more temps would just make the situation worse judging from how they communicate these every-changing updates.

Where's my new travel package cert?
 

Still seeing old travel package certs online.... I thought the shill bloggers said Marriott IT outperform expectations and new certs are now there? Is it just me?