Obnoxious Marriott Vacations solicitation
 

I received a call from Marriott Vacations this morning -- they've tried me the last two days and I ignored them but I finally picked up. It went something like this:

I haven't stayed with Marriott much this year -- due to a job change it's been mostly Hilton. I know that Marriott Vacations != any particular hotel, but this less-than-stellar phone conversation certainly doesn't give me a good impression.

I've never gotten a call from Marriott timeshares, even when entering Marriott timeshare sweepstakes over the years. I did get a call from Wyndham this week after entering one of theirs. A simple I'm not interested, so please take me off your list was sufficient.

Given the timeshare company is a separate company from Marriott hotels, you're correct not to equate the two. Any hardcore selling seems to be typical of timeshare sales reps in general & not specific to any hotel chain.

Cheers.

I've gotten a couple of robo calls from Marriott Vacations Timeshare on my cell phone this month. The number shows up with 804-area code for me, appearing to be local. I hung up after hearing the automated message. Annoying as hell. I blocked the number.

Even though Marriott Vacations Worldwide (the timeshare company) has different shareholders than Marriott International, it uses Marriott's name, logo, hard-earned reputation, customer goodwill, and Rewards program. The timeshare company pays Marriott International a licensing fee for the branding and pays to be part of Marriott Rewards.

It's really not much different than Marriott-affiliated hotels, which in almost every case are owned by a hotel company or REIT, not by Marriott International.

If a Marriott timeshare phone agent is sarcastic or rude to someone he or she called, then shame on that agent and shame on Marriott Vacations Worldwide for not doing a better job training and monitoring agents.

And Marriott International is not off the hook.

One more thing to add, though...

I've received calls claiming to be from Marriott (or from Disney, Interval International, or RCI), which are not really from those companies.

In such cases, it's fraudulent use of a brand. And I can't hold the brand responsible.

In this case the caller ID reflected 14079036100 (MARRIOTT VACATI) and the caller knew my first name and that I am a MR gold member. The number called is not listed in the phone book but is indeed the one on my MR profile.

The caller's phone number has been calling people since at least 2007 so you'd think Marriott would have clamped down in the last 9 years if it was fraudulent use of the brand.

I submitted a comment via the Marriott website and we'll see what they say. I have also blocked the number.

Within the last month or so, I've gotten some of these calls that seem to be offering me something from Marriott but the caller gets very rude when I insist on knowing whether they work for Marriott, Marriott Vacations, or some other employer. They've apparently gotten some data about me from Marriott, which I find disturbing since I've always have my "privacy settings" set that no one is to share my contact information or other details with third parties, including partners. My phone is also registered for the "do not call" list.

Since MVCI switched to points, there sales tactics are much more aggressive. The product is much less attractive and has to be pushed much harder. We happily own two MVCI weeks and have hated every interaction regarding points.

Thankfully, I haven't landed on any Marriott calling lists yet. About once every six months, I'll go through a week or so where HGVC is war-dialing me.

I know never to answer the phone for anything in the 407 area code. That's always a timeshare hawker. I don't know anyone or have any other business with anyone or anything in that area code.

I totally agree that the master brand (Marriott) needs to own responsibility for any customer interaction that happens under their name, whether a contractor or not. If there are outright scams out there happening under their name, it's also in their interest to actively try to prevent them, however reasonably possible.

My experiences with MVCI in person over the years have been positive. I generally like the brand and have stayed in quite a few of them just booking them as nightly stays. I generally think of them as a more tasteful, classy operation than the average timeshare outfit. If Marriott wants to preserve this image, they need to have better control over their telemarketers. In fact, it'd be better if they simply didn't use the invasive type of telemarketing...I immediately associate unsolicited phone calls with scammy operations.

I'm not surprised by more aggressive tactics. Here is a short history of the price per point for a Marriott timeshare (MVCI) purchase, borrowed from a thread on TUG:

06/20/2010 - $9.20
$9.60
$9.85
$10.22
11/06/2011 - $10.94
$11.20
09/??/2012 - $11.64
03/??/2013 - $11.88
09/??/2013 - $11.96
??/??/2014 - $12.02
06/20/2014 - $12.12
09/11/2014 - $12.24
03/26/2015 - $12.48
06/18/2015 - $12.66
09/10/2015 - $12.92
03/24/2016 - $13.04

FROM: http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229958

So that is a $3.84 cents per point increase in just under 6 years since the inception of the points program in 2010, which is a 41.7% increase. In those same years, the US economy has been slowly "recovering," and the government has been telling us that the general inflation rate is low. 41.7% does not strike me as low. So at some point, if MVCI continues raising the price of points, they are bound to run into resistance from buyers, and then sales tactics get more aggressive. Perhaps they are reaching that point now?

Well what happens is they also start getting more and more people who realize that to actually travel to a destination and time period they want to go, its going to be needing 3000+ points easy, which means 40-50k as a start plus a couple grand/yr in maint fees... and I'm not even talking about peak holiday weeks, just general high seasons. The whole total cost of ownership sales tactic is falling apart because the initial cost is too high now.

I haven't paid attention to this closely enough to care that much, nor do I pay attention to TUG, but how does the points system work in the secondary market? If someone wants out of their timeshare, do they sell their points? Or did this kill off the secondary market?

I briefly thought about buying a timeshare during the U.S. recession in 2009 when people were dumping them and banks weren't financing them. But then I realized that the maintenance fees made it not-really-worth-it to me, even if the underlying timeshare was close to free.

However, the points system could be more interesting...if it meant I wasn't really tied to one single property.

I have been getting calls also from Marriott spoofing local numbers to me...annoying and slimy as hell.

As a Plat, they just took a serious credibility dive as a company with me.

Not as bad but I used to stay at the Orlando World Center at least annually and wouldn't be in the room 5 minutes before the phone would ring with live solicitations...

Ditto, on both counts.