BlissWorld

I've been calling them a few time in the last few days and they seem to be completely oblivious to the program.

Instead of the usual wonderful team of concierges in Lancaster, now I get to speak with untrained agents who greet me inventive lines such as "Thank you for being part of our Platinum team" huh?

Or, when calling at 7AM, they often (actually, that's the last 3 out of 3) end the call with "Have a good night"

I tried canceling a couple of awards and the points/free weekend nights did not return to my account and I had to call back 2-3 times to get it fixed. The clueless agent couldn't figure out how to do it and had to escalate to an supervisor to get a simple task done.

What is going on??? What happened to the lancaster team? Where are they sending us?

mikeef

I can't comment on most of the other stuff, but I did do telephone customer service for a while and can tell you that it throws off all sense of date, time, smell, etc.

Mike

jrothenb

Interesting. Now that you mention it, I've had a few recent encounters that stood out as not being quite up to normal standards. The Starwood Platinum concierge team has always stood out to me as the pinnacle of customer service. I suppose that when you set the bar so high it's easy to miss your jump every once in a while.

lovtofly3

I had a few rough moments this morning myself.

Called back a 2nd time and agent was able to fix my issue but it was a effort.


Definetley not up to par.

ashu

the email response is also delayed

freeupgrade

great (sarcastically) - i am at 23 stays ytd - and will hit Platinum next week for sure - I hope they get their act together.

itsaboutthejourney

I emailed a concierge asking for her to email be back with some info as I was in the middle of a series of meetings. What does she do.... she calls me.

jjgollum

I called yesterday and received a cool reception.. nothing like what I am used to when dealing with the Platinum folks.

Hope they didnt swap out the all-stars for the jv squad.

Starwood Lurker

My apologies if there appears to be some slippage at Platinum Concierge recently. The best way to address any individual concerns is to ask for their user id and to speak to the associate's supervisor.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

jrothenb

William, At least in my experience it's not that there's anything that would warrant a complaint to their supervisors. Something is just noticeably different and from the other posts this seems to be some sort of pattern. Not sure if there have been staffing changes or operational modifications. Since it would seem that many have noticed this trend, it probably should be at least be casually mentioned to the folks who run this call center. As I stated before, Starwood Platinum Concierge has always been the best in the biz IMHO so let's keep it that way. Thanks, Jeff

Starwood Lurker

You know...people get new jobs everyday...they also have a first day or two, sometimes three on those jobs...so yes, if it has happened that some new Platinum Concierge associates have been hired, that might explain this small sampling of discord.

However, it does absolutely no good for me to send a thread like this to the people running that department. They are going to want to know who is creating this discord and there is nothing here to identify them so they can be coached. So, the best thing you can do is report your experiences to their supervisor so that can be done. I'm sure they share the same desire as you...to keep the department the best in the biz...so please take the time to speak to a supervisor when this happens. The associates will be coached in their performance. I promise you we won't take them out back and put a bullet in their head. Being coached at Starwood is, after all, an attempt to keep and train a vaulable asset, not to punish or beat them about the face and shoulders for not understanding their job.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

tommy777

I just got off the phone with them and boy, was that uncomfortable.. I stayed a couple of nights with my brother at the Westin St. Francis and was wondering why the stay had only posted half way.

Well, it turned out that they had charged my brothers credit card for the entire stay and not for the incidentals which was the point when he swiped his card at check in (I was arriving later). So no stay, no points (not for him either because he's not an SPG member). The incidentals and the Plat amenity posted, mind you, but not the 400 bucks spent and the stay..

All the times I have stayed and paid with my wife's credit card, it always registers, but this time, no.

Platinum Concierge could't be more rude about it, "hey, you didn't pay, why should you give credit?". Tried to tell them the hotel made a mistake, but no dice.. Asked if they could use a little common sense, no dice...

So there goes my last free night in the Q2 offer and I have for the first time had a rude Plat Concierge experience.

Another thing making me turn my business more and towards Hyatt with their Diamond suite upgrade vouchers, free internet and breakfast and it doesn't matter whose credit card you charge your room to

BlissWorld

Well put! ^ That's exactly it. I've been a Platinum member for years, so I am pretty familiar with the folks at Platinum Concierge. Most of them worked out of the Lancaster office and I know many of their names and they had been working for SPG for as long as I have been a Platinum member.

So, I'm not sure why I'm no longer getting any of these agents I used to know, unless they all have lost their jobs. And, the fact that 3 agents told me to have a good night when it's bright day light in LA makes me think that I was routed to a call center at a location other than Lancaster, CA.

Btw, Lurker, I don't have the agents' IDs, but I do have one name to give. That would be the name of Bart's sister on the Simpsons

Starwood Lurker

In times of high call volume, you could be speaking to folks in Cork, Ireland.

Well, you've got me there. I've never watched a Simpson's episode all the way through, so I have no idea what Bart's sister's name is. If this person booked a reservation for you, however, I can identify her that way.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

peteropny

Ok - I'm butting in where I really don't know what's going on but perhaps Starwood has done what Hyatt did almost a year ago, basically disbanded the Diamond / Platinum CS service group and now the line is basically answered by "regular" CS people.

This irked the FT Hyatt people so much that the "Hyatt Lurker" offerred dedicated Private Line representatives to those people that request them - mine has been terrific. Perhaps Starwood is following that same model with the dedicated agents (I don't recall what they were called but there was a thread on the subject here in the forum a month or two ago).