anteater

William 🤙🏻

Kacee

Well they are almost certainly just toeing the company line. The role that William took on as internal customer advocate has pretty much been eliminated.

margarita girl

Bingo. William was an active participant on FT with 20-30 posts/day. He would answer questions right in the forum (none of this send us your name, handle and reservation number so we can look into this, and then never hear the outcome). His job was to be Starwood’s social media representative. If he wasn’t allowed to answer a question, he’d say “that’s confidential information”, but we’d always get a reply. He was so good at it, that he was one of the reasons I switched from Marriott to Starwood.

I’m glad Marriott kept the Lurkers, but they’re a shadow of what they used to be (in presence and participation).

DELee

I suspect the Lurkers have day jobs to monitor other social media sites and platforms besides FT....and FT isn't as impactful as it was given the larger social media microcosm now...

David

margarita girl

Based on the incorrect information coming out of Marriott’s Twitter account, I don’t know what to think anymore.

WasKnown

I joined this board because the Twitter team told me that bonus EQNs (credit cards, promos, etc) do not count toward elite choice benefits. The lurkers here not only gave me correct info, they also went out of their way to ask for more information regarding this Twitter error. I am impressed by the lurker team and also do not think it is entirely the same as the Twitter team. Perhaps a lurkers can also help with Twitter/Facebook work but normal Twitter/facebook support employees cannot help with FT?

kaizen7

Somehow I think current lurkers need someone higher up approve their posts before they can post something specific.

Thats why most of the time they just ask membership number and reservation details.

DELee

From the modus operandi that I've observed, they ask for a PM with that info and follow up directly with that FTer.

David

margarita girl

And unless the FTer posts the outcome, nothing is shared with the community.

(Again, I’m not blaming the Lurkers. I believe this is how Marriott mgmt wants things handled.)

DELee

TBH, that's been standard operating procedure for most of the corporate "lurkers/insiders/etc." who've tracked FT over the years when I've interacted via PMs after a public post and their request for PM followup.

Personally, I appreciate the Lurkers persistence as we've complained and likely their challenges on getting issues addressed through their processes and management chains.

David

supatight80

Yah like bhr#b1n's super exclusive Ambassador FB page.

anteater

That place is not a safe space. I was asked for my government issued ID at one time. I was also banned when I asked him publicly if he was shoehorning a Marriott rep into the group (against the group’s wishes) in exchange for Cobalt status.

🤞🏻

damon88

I try to avoid flame wars but when there are blatant untruths being spread I feel the need to step in.

Back when the Ambassador group was much smaller (around 500 members IIRC) bhrubin polled the members to gauge support (or not) to add the Ambassador executive-

There was overwhelming support (see screenshot). Please check your facts before spreading misinformation—

The group is over 3 times larger now. Bill discloses everything before someone chooses to join.1.6 Thousand members have had no problem proving their eligibility, without sacrificing any secure details. I believe an ID is only requested from people whose FB ID does not match the name on their Marriott account.

And the Cobalt thing is laughable. I guess if you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em (by making stuff up)

anteater

I can’t speak to what is in the group currently or what has occurred since I left, but there was significant (majority) of users expressing concern at adding a Marriott employee to the group. There have also been multiple people who have come out and expressed similar concerns that they were asked for unrelated personal and private information by BH.

It’s great that there’s a poll you can reference now, but that doesn’t make what I stayed any less true. That poll even if the user base was approximately 500 at the time represents 50% of the group. I did just ping a friend to look at the poll and it can still be modified by existing users, so it’s hardly a representation of the group’s opinion at that point in time as data can still be inputted.

As for my Cobalt posit and ban comment, feel free to believe it or not. Whether you do or not does not change that it happened.

But hey.. we live in a time of alternative truths. 🤞🏻

Personally, I am glad that FT has an Ambassador Elite thread because we can posit the same questions and concerns under a username and have at least a semblance of privacy from Marriott.

Cheers 🤙🏻.

damon88

The poll was in November 2019- back when the group was young.

I was one of the OGs here on FT- but after William and Bill left I found the FB group to be way more valuable. It turns out that people use anonymity to hide many things. Lol