Happy

Well., not every property that gave upgrades would go in to change the room type. In 2019 about 80% of my stays received upgrades to suites, ONLY ONE property actually went in to change the room type. All other properties who put us in suites kept the same standard room booked in the reservation. The former would cause repricing in current IT mess, while the latter would most likely not do any harm. Not sure why the hotel needs to go in to change the room type to actual assigned one, but it seems this is not a requirement to give upgrades.

GrizShel

Thank you for this additional helpful information Happy, much appreciated.

This really seems like a crisis and I can't for the life of me understand why Marriott has not yet initiated an all out effort to fix these problems.

UA-NYC

Marriott is an ologopolist doing decently well in a never ending bull market...not surprised that they can't be bothered to address the noise around the edges...I mean, some publication out there actually declared him 2019 CEO of the year, believe it or not

Often1

It's despicable that they are perfectly adept at providing customer service through their lurkers on social media. But, that is only for people who make trouble via social media.

The rest get nothing.

Why people post here with lengthy rants about how many hours they have spent on the phone when it boils down to sending a note is beyond me. That may burden the lurkers, but it may also push Marriott to do a bit better.

rbAA

They possibly outsourced their IT to IHG. Been living with these types of issues forever with them.

Keyser

similar thing happened to me as well a couple of months ago....i had an 35k award stay where i had used a your 24 late check-out time....i was checking in at 11pm on day one & checking out at 11pm on day two....

at check-in, the agent commented that my stay was for 2 nights but i corrected her that it was only 1 & i had used your 24 for a late check-out....she seemed a little confused but went ahead with the check-in & gave me my keys....in the middle of the night 35k points were deducted from my account (in addition to the 35k points that were deducted at the time i made the reservation)....i saw the alert for the extra points when i woke up in the morning so i reached out to my ambassador who immediately refunded the points & sent a query to the hotel to ask why the extra points had been taken....she received a reply the following day stating that i initially had a 1 night reservation but during check-in i extended it by another night....seems like the agent checking me in had no clue what your24 was & added another night to the reservation since i was checking out post 4pm....

MD/DC Flyer

I had a similar (but different) experience.

Way back then before category changes and dynamic pricing I’ve secured a room with 50K points. When my 50K certificate posted I’ve called to switch the certificate on the reservation. In the mean time the hotel switched to 60K and dynamic pricing in effect to 70K. I got some song and dance about the new pricing but as the reservation had already been funded by points the agent made the switch. Certificate was deducted and 50K was returned.

Fast forward to a week before the stay. The dreaded you don’t have enough points message on the reservation appears. Calling in I was basically scolded that I need more points. It took a little time but in the end it was fixed by returning the certificate, nulling it and providing points instead of it, adding 20K good will points and securing the reservation as a “one time exception”. I was not going to point out that it was their own mistake.

cfischer

there are many reports like this now: Marriott took more points after original booking

doesn't look like Marriott cares a damn to fix this. I am taking screenshots of my account these days on a regular basis. Very sad state of Marriott these days.

WestCoastPDX

Never had any issue on the phone with Marriott over the years. I’m not platinum anymore, but, I don’t understand all the ‘frustration’ directed here.

Suggestions:
1) Don’t be frantic, and don’t make this sound so ‘emotional’
The desire for a CS person to help you goes down proportionally to how ‘upset’ you are.
(I own a company that has a CS department that talks to our customers, FYI)

When you are frantic/manic/upset/beside yourself.... they just roll their eyes.

If you are clear, direct, and ask for ONE thing, you are very likely to get it.
’I canceled a reservation and my points were not credited... can you look into this with me?’

This is so much better than a rambling, incoherent list of events.

2) Companies give away things to encourage you to stay.
They devalue those things over time either directly, or via expending less time/energy/money on maintaining them.
Then there is a new shiny object for everyone to get excited about.

This is not unique to Marriott, and I don’t understand the hate at all.
(Personally, I don’t stay at Marriotts, but I am retired, travel the world for fun, and just don’t have the issues that I see argued about at length on FT all the time).

Be nice, be clear, be direct, be patient and ask for one thing.
I’ve just never had any issues dealing with overseas CS teams, corporate IT problems or anything.
Just, yeah, never had it. 60+ countries, 100k miles a year, god knows how many hotel nights.

UA-NYC

Hypothetically speaking...those who haven't dealt with this iteration of Marriott over the past 18 months, probably aren't the best to give advice on how to deal with an organization that has given up on customer service...just saying.

SHLTP

Not to be rude (and your advice is good in any normal situation) but the new Marriott is not a normal situation. They do not care a out guests. Full stop.

Over Christmas as an example I booked 2 rooms through Marriott CS. One room 2 adults and 1 child in a king bed for 6 nights, one with 2 adults.

When we arrived, hotel would not let my kid in (under 12) even though I had booked 2 adults and 1 kid. I made sure out it because of a similar situation earlier in year in Africa. The check in agent suggested I buy a standard room selling over $1000 USD a night. I pushed back and they finally said kid could share bed with us but it was only a queen. Duty manager wouldn't let us take small room and small bed and move to larger one of it opened later on stay. He said we don't move people once we check in.

We called Marriott CS. She said her computer showed the room was a king. She argued with me that I was wrong about bed size and that I hadn't booked my kid because yeah Marriott IT glitches never happen.

The duty manager told the CS it was only a queen. The two discussed for 5 minutes.

CS solution? Cancel my reservation at 10pm at night Christmas week. Left us stranded. No compensation. Nothing. I was upset to say least. Duty manager was useless. I contacted GM who I've known for almost decade. I had almost bought the hotel where he was a GM 10years ago. They found a solution. At 1am in the morning after I had arrived at 8pm. I stood at front desk for 5 hours.

What would have happened if I were not a lifetime titanium? What would have happened if I hadn't known GM?

Marriott CS is awful and doesn't care. They don't admit their IT could be at fault. They just dont care

GrizShel

This is customer care's response!!!

Thank you for contacting Marriott Bonvoy™ regarding possible fraudulent activity on your account.

For security reasons, I am unable to assist you by e-mail as e-mail exchanges are not a secure method to transmit account information that could be used without the approval of the account holder. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Please contact Bonvoy™ Customer Care by telephone and speak to a representative regarding your account. You may locate the contact information and hours of the office nearest to you at this link:

https://www.marriott.com/help/default.mi

You will be connected to the next available Marriott Bonvoy representative for assistance.

If you have additional questions, I will be happy to assist you further.

In closing, xxx I would like to thank you again for being our guest and a valued Titanium elite member of

‐----
For the record I didn't say anything about fraud. I'm almost certain this is system problems coupled with inadequately trained reps.

Often1

Don't try to parse the details. That message comes from a bot which scans your language and matches to a response which politely tells you to call in.

Why bother?

You've seen that this will wind up with a lurker 6 weeks from now. Better to send it off right now and be done with it.

GrizShel

As noted above somewhere I did send the information to the Marriott Lurker on here. I'm waiting to hear back from then.

ReinaDeLaSelva

I do not waste any more valuable time or mind energy or especially dinero on Marriott. Their "customer service" is now the worst in history it is worse than DL or AV or even BA. For many years BA is unchallenged as the basement of CS. But now the astonishing waste of time involved in any interaction with the Marriott CS-bots will not be reimbursed. It is sad and unnecessary but I do not throw my life away on companies with such awful "product." We all know it was not like this even two years ago and their company is destroying itself with their wilful failure to deliver service. Look at the defections to Hilton HHonors. It is because Hilton maintains basic but professional delivery of benefits for Diamante and I use them all the time now.

I am still Marriott Platinum from many stays in previous years but I will not spend money on this chain another day. Enough. Their CEO and his IT nightmare are paying the price and this will destroy them. It is right they are removed for this disaster but it will be too late for the once-proud Marriott brand whose mattresses and rooms we used to love.