Some random thoughts on using this as a way to contact Marriott. If Marriott is considering this as an option for a permanent lurker on this board, my advice to them is DON”T waste your time.

I emailed a request for missing points and an issue about a billing problem with a specific property using this email address yesterday and about 24 hours later I got response taking care of the missing points request and totally ignoring the request for help on the other problem other than to suggest that I contact the hotel directly. Part of my request was for a contact name and email address for this property, It was not provided.

Now the random thoughts…….

1. When one emails the Starwood lurker, my experience has been that I get a response within 10 minutes or so if sent during working hours. While not unacceptable, if you are going to take 24 hours to respond in the future, I’m not going to bother emailing, I’m going to pick up the phone and call. I wonder which cost Marriott more money.

2. In reviewing the *wood site it appears that their lurker handles all sorts of issues and problems for their guests. The last line of the Marriott email sent to me today says “We are always happy to assist you with your Marriott Rewards account.” The type of service that we are requesting Marriott provide on this forum would involve a great deal more than issues with our rewards account. Quite frankly a call to the PLT Desk would have been quicker and easier to have used and could have more than likely solved the request for the missing points and the information needed to contact the property. (Once contacted by email, the property responded with 30 minutes. Kudos to the management at this property for providing great customer service.)

3. A second email was sent yesterday asking for a straight forward official corporate response to the upgrade question that has been going on in this forum in several threads for quite some time now. If there is an official position on this benefit why has it been 24 hours and no response to the email sent to the flyer talk address? It is my understanding from my conversations with Marriott and reading this forum that these emails go to a special customer service desk and are given priority over other requests for information. Much confusion and frustration from some of your better customers could have been avoided with an official presence on this board. I don’t think an email address would work in this case.

The rant is now over……..



[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited 08-27-2003).]

Not a rant to me, just very valid issues.

William is a shining example of what good customer service can be like and sadly others miss the boat when setting up their own feedback links. But my advice to HH, MR and others is not to try and reinvent the wheel, just get into the same game by swallowing your pride and copying the system that works so well for SPG members. Why not make someone like Socrates and official MR Lurker?

My thread about MR hitting the mainstream media with a fall PR blitz touting the ability of MR members to get rewards faster than other hotel loyalty programs was gratifying to read as I'm still a big MR fan. I'm all for MR promoting their loyalty program because I still beleive it's one of the best. But to admit MR communication links couldn't be better would be folly.

My apologizes to Marriott for the above two comments. I just received a very nice email from guest realtions indicating they had contacted the hotel on my behalf and resolved the issue for me. I guess my assumptions were wrong in regards to them handling more than rewards account problems through the email address.

Now if we can get an answer on the upgrades

As you can see, the three posts above are several months old, but based upon some recent conversations, I thought I would bump it up and update folks on the on-going conversations with Marriott concerning the subject of an official lurker.

Marriott continues to analyze how to best respond to the needs and desires of the FT community, but to date has not decided on the best course of action in our quest for an official lurker. I do believe that they want to provide excellent customer service to all the of the MR members whether they are FT’ers or not, and the question becomes one of who would assume this task, where they would be based, how would they respond, how they would interact with all the departments that the many request would involve, etc. The logics seem to be as much a problem as anything else. The ongoing email conversations and the occasional phone call from management on this subject have convinced me that the subject is still under serious consideration.

The statement that is continually re-occurring in the conversations with Marriott is their desire to provide, personal, one on one solutions to our problems and request. They have set up the email address [email protected] to individually address the questions and concerns that we have. They have given this email address a high priority on the MR desk and are trying to respond within 12 hours. It is my understanding that they are actually responding much quicker than that. As you can see from the last post above, they have in the past resolved issues for me that went above and beyond the typical “my points did not post.” Trust me on this one, many members of the Marriott management team lurk here daily, they do read the post here and are concerned about how to improve the customer service that Marriott is known for.


My suggestion is that we give it a try and see how well they are doing. Posting here or in a new thread would give us all and idea if this is an avenue that is working for the community as a whole. Given that I truly believe they are making an effort in this area, I’m sure a post that suggests improvements or criticisms of the current process would also be welcome.


[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited Mar 13, 2004).]

Deleted


[This message has been edited by socrates (edited Mar 23, 2004).]

Well I thought I would see if the folks at Marriott were really serious about answering the e-mails sent to [email protected] and how long it would take them to respond. Well the results of the first two emails are in…..

I e-mailed them today (Saturday) about a PLT arrival gift of 500 points not posting from last week. In less than three hours I received and e-mail back which said the points had been added to my account and would show on line in a couple of days. Folks, this is very good response time and even more impressive since it is a Saturday afternoon.

I also e-mailed them one night this past week about not receiving e-mail confirmations when booking on the web (or for that matter on the phone) and sure enough I got an e-mail back first thing the next morning indicating they had forwarded the e-mail to the appropriate people. A second e-mail was received the next day from the TPF department (from a Marriott lurker) and they are looking into and trying to resolve the issue. To say the least, I’m impressed. While it is not the same as having an “official lurker” on the board, so far I would have to say the results are the very close.

If you have not tried the e-mail to resolve a problem, I would suggest you do so as they are responding very quickly. Nice job Marriott!!!


[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited Mar 20, 2004).]

I have experienced only very fast and competent replies from Marriott - I didn't use this FlyerTalk-email-address, but the one available on Marriott's homepage (Reward program) regarding one missing and one wrongly credited VISA-double-points stay last nov-/dec and both issues werre answered and solved in less than 24 hours.

I emailed [email protected] regarding a status match.

I received a very prompt reply advising me that nothing like this exists and that I needed to stay first.

I have no problem with this reply, if in fact it were true. I think we all know that they have or have had challenges. From another ongoing thread it is obvious that they also do match status without the challenge.

So my take is that one cannot count on the replies from whatever staff they have answering the mail are correct or in good faith.

TW

Edited for spelling

[This message has been edited by Tolarian Wind (edited Mar 21, 2004).]