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Charged $437 For Purchasing 35K Points When Trying to Use a 35K Cert On the Website

Charged $437 For Purchasing 35K Points When Trying to Use a 35K Cert On the Website

Old May 20, 2022, 2:02 pm
  #31  
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IT IS THE IDENTICAL SCREEN I HAD SEEN as explained several times in multiple threads. It gave you an impression the cert was attached, while it DID NOT. If your account has enough points to cover the booking, the site takes the points. If you dont, it either errored out or made unauthorized point purchase as so many have now found out.

I did not keep the screen shot as it was irrelevant for me because I Xed the booking after realizing the site still took points even though I thought it correctly displayed a cert was attached, and continued with the booking. Points returned to the account promptly. So the screen shot served me no purpose other than telling me IT CANNOT BE TRUSTED. I NEED TO SOMEHOW ACTIVATE THE CERT BUBBLE TO BECOME CLICKABLE! In other words, a Manual intervention is needed to actually ATTACH THE CERT.

When I discovered 35K pts were taken versus using the cert, REGARDLESS what the screen shot showed, I realized that the Grayed Out option was NOT right because points still being taken. On rebooking, I used the previous workaround method when people changing between Cert and Points or Advance Point option, by changing the payment method thru the bubbles. Once I clicked the Point bubble the screen showed 35K pts cost, BUT more importantly, and that was what I wanted - the Grayed out bubble no longer grayed out - it became a clickable bubble! I then clicked the cert bubble and the payment method switched to Cert. When I clicked OPEN the DETAILS of the Point Summary, it showed 35000 with a CROSS over it, then the 2nd line item was Zero, and the Total was Zero. Seeing this, I proceeded to finish the booking - this time the cert was correctly attached, no points deducted from my account.

This discovery was well over a month ago, and I even posted the work around in some Cert booking issues thread(s) when people said their certs were not attached or something errored out.

Since that discovery Every Single Cert Booking I went thru the work around to make sure I CAN CLICK THE CERT BUTTON to ensure the cert is attached. I just wanted to make the booking and had NO interest to contact Marriott on the issues of their funky site nor deal with their incompetent CSRs. Since the workaround work, I stick with it. The day I found this thread, I had made 3 Cert Bookings just the day before from an account had only 8K pts. Of course since I use the workaround to book, all my cert bookings went thru correctly, no drama except the last one took forever and still not showed confirmation. I thought it was errored out with the ever turning circle so I clicked the BonVoy logo - that actually brought up the confirmation message, or it just finally showed up. Cert was correctly attached. No authorization on the AMEX card, and of course no points posted either - the account remains at the previous 8K balance.
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Last edited by Happy; May 20, 2022 at 2:10 pm
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Old May 21, 2022, 12:15 pm
  #32  
 
Join Date: May 2018
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Tried to attach certificate and was charged $357 for 29k points

Originally Posted by charlesonmission
I know that many people have had issues with Marriott IT, including the recent cert topups (I had to call in for all of them), but this one is a total new issue for me and potentially quite bad. Has anyone else seen/heard anything like this?
  1. My Wife was trying to use a 35K cert on a point advance booking. The reservation failed to confirm and we ended up on a screen that said points purchased failed.
  2. She also tried to book a straight reservation with the 35K cert and ended up on the same screen that a points purchase reservation failed.
After this happened, we saw that she had fraud alerts from Amex, email, text and later a call.
  1. We called in the Marriott asking what is going on. The agent wasn't concerned about the Amex fraud warnings, but she did sort out getting the cert on the reservation after some time (by creating a new reservation and cancelling the point advance booking). I asked the agent that the Marriott team should create a case for the tech team as this is a big deal. We than called Amex and they cancelled the card after Amex asked us if we had done this purchase, which we didn't.
  2. Next day, the 35,000 points posted to my wife's account. I was floored and we called Marriott to ask what was going on. This agent said that there were 3 point purchase rejections and 1 went through (so 4 attempts in total, which surprised me, maybe it tried twice each time?). I guess Marriott let 1 go through. The agent said point purchases were non-refundable. After some back and forth where I explained that she didn't purchase the points and it is a rather large Marriott IT error, she agreed to upon some sort of special case. Note that the point purchase was never actually associated with a reservation and she never got any email about. it.
  3. Following day, the $437.50 Marriott post clears on the Amex Business Bonvoy card, we call Amex and ask what is going on. Amex says it is already under review. Then, the next following day, there is a credit back dated for $437.50 on her Amex account (this credit is a fraud return credit from Amex, not Marriott).
  4. As of today, the points are still in the account. All of this started March 5th.
I'm just a bit floored as I've never seen or heard anything like this. Marriott isn't really known for great IT, but this seems to be a huge IT failure. Going forward, we are going to screen record all reservations. We are also going to lock any card for reservations and then unlock the card the next day.

Is there anything else we should do? Any advice? Anyone ever heard of anything like this? Does Marriott monitor this thread? This seems like such a huge issue, I was thinking of reaching out to some Marriott tech people on LinkedIn since I live in the DC area and work on the Salesforce platform which I know Marriott uses, but wasn't really sure if that was a huge breach in protocol or not.
Just tried to use Chase 35k Free night for 29,000 room in Colorado. I clicked "add certificate to reservation" and got an error message "technical difficulties are preventing this action." Try again later. Five minutes later I got an alert from Chase that my Marriott card had been charged $357.00 to purchase 29,000 points! I called Marriott and they suggested I should file a claim with Chase in order to get a refund of my "purchase" ... Wow ... how can a Company be so incompetent and have no controls over their programs.
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Old May 21, 2022, 1:19 pm
  #33  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Has anyone actually got a refund?
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Old May 21, 2022, 2:29 pm
  #34  
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Yes, my wife was refunded. I'm sure Marriott HQ is aware of this issue at a macro level by now. I'm guessing they can't easily fix the error and refund everyone that was hit with this. They'll probably have to refund one by one.

Originally Posted by echino
Has anyone actually got a refund?
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Old May 21, 2022, 4:14 pm
  #35  
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Join Date: May 2022
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Charged me $501CAD for 30,000 points when I tried to use free night certificate

Marriott charged me $501CAD for 30,000 points when I tried to use free night certificate. I contacted Bonvoy through Facebook messenger and e-mail. They responded. They didn't give me a refund yet.
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Old May 21, 2022, 6:07 pm
  #36  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Even if Marriott refunds in full, those of us who have Canadian Amex, will still be out 2.5% fx fee and any additional fx rate changes.
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Old May 21, 2022, 6:21 pm
  #37  
 
Join Date: May 2022
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My case is still pending and expected turnaround time is 2 weeks. Taking awhile to get this refund, and it really sucks cause I'm concurrently on vacation too. Oh well, more waiting game.
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Old May 24, 2022, 1:03 pm
  #38  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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No resolution for me, I called Marriott Bonvoy to follow up and they are refusing to refund this unauthorized charge. They are telling me points purchases are non-refundable.
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Old May 24, 2022, 1:09 pm
  #39  
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Join Date: Dec 2015
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Email Marriott from here:

Abbey L
Specialist, Social Media
Marriott International

[email protected]

This is a known issue at Marriott. The Marriott team here should be able to help.

Originally Posted by echino
No resolution for me, I called Marriott Bonvoy to follow up and they are refusing to refund this unauthorized charge. They are telling me points purchases are non-refundable.
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Old May 31, 2022, 6:55 am
  #40  
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Join Date: Dec 2015
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[
Wife went to check in for tomorrow's reservation, but couldn't login. Message says account is under audit. This was the scenario I was hoping to avoid. Does anyone know if you can check in in person if the account is under audit. We are already in Virginia Beach staying the first two nights at a holiday inn express.

QUOTE=Moh20;34250732]I am pretty sure that they can do whatever they want. "The Company may cancel a Members accumulated Points, suspend Loyalty Program benefits, suspend Elite Membership Status, suspend Lifetime Elite Membership Status (which will subsequently also remove protection against the forfeiture of Points should the member become inactive as described in Section 1.5.d. or cancel a Members Account at any time with immediate effect and without written notice, for any reason and in the Company's sole discretion".

Marriott won't explain why they shut down an account in most cases.[/QUOTE]
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Old May 31, 2022, 1:27 pm
  #41  
 
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Same here, no response from Marriott, account locked under audit.
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Old Jun 2, 2022, 11:31 am
  #42  
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Called in, rep said you can still check-in with an account under audit. Took about 30 minutes, but the rep worked with the tech team to remove the audit. Wife was then able to login.


Originally Posted by echino
Same here, no response from Marriott, account locked under audit.
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Old Jun 3, 2022, 2:53 am
  #43  
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Shocker - bad Marriott IT basically turns into fraudulent activities by the company, which in turns basically blames it on its customers
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Old Jun 3, 2022, 5:39 pm
  #44  
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Wife's account is now under audit for the second time, just a couple days after it was unlocked. After a 50 minute call, agent had her email her driver's license to get the account unlocked. Unclear how long this takes. Agent couldn't apply a cert to her point advance booking in 15 days.

How long is this frustration going to go on?


Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Shocker - bad Marriott IT basically turns into fraudulent activities by the company, which in turns basically blames it on its customers
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Old Jun 6, 2022, 2:39 pm
  #45  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Bonvoy account locked, says to call them to unlock. I call Bonvoy, they tell me the account locked because I initiated a charge back on Amex. Remember Bonvoy told me to initiate the charge back.

Bonvoy also told me my case is closed, refund is denied. They reopened the case, but told me my account will stay locked.
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