At What Point Will You Stop Doing This?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I recently started this topic here or elsewhere, and today I have come really close to saying, "At this point."

First, with Lawren's help, I discovered that things with RCI are screwed worse than I ever thought they were screwed. Using the same deposit that usetasee exactly the same as hers, today mine saw 6 and hers saw 20. Hers saw stuff we need for 12/5/09 to go with our 12/12/09 exchange.

That's not unusual of itself except that one of the 12/5 resorts is the resort we have for 12/12, and the deposit I used to see our 12/12 exchange does not see that resort at all. Huh?!

On top of that, a lesser resort that we have gone to a bajillion times with the same deposited week (different years) is available 12/5 using Lawren's search, but not using mine. Very strangely, it is available 12/12 using mine and both 12/12 and 12/5 using hers. There is no reason why one would see only one of those . . . they are identical, nothing special about 12/5 over 12/12. HUH?!

The topper was the way RCI dealt with my questions. The first guy BSed me for 20 minutes, saying and doing exactly the opposite of what I was saying and doing. I was polite, but called him on it, made him go through the same searches I was, step for step, until he finally said, "Oh, I see. Let me check on something." He never came back but I found myself talking to someone at RCI Travel asking if I wanted to use a credit card or Points.

She gave me a customer service number which turned out to be for RCI Travel and not to report the Guide.

Getting too long.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I started all over . . . 1-800-338-7777. . . and asked for a Supervisor. I got one, and got her name.

She would not acknowledge any of this stuff that has actually happened.

She would not talk about what others can see that I usetasee that I can't now.

She would not talk about why I can't now see a resort I booked an exchange at, searching with the same deposit I used to search for that exchange.

She would not talk about about why I can see a 12/12 week, but not a 12/5 week, at a resort we have traded into a bajillion times.

She did not care that I have done these same searches almost every day since RCI.com began, 11 years ago.

Basically, she did not want to talk about any of these problems.

And she did not.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I would think 12/5 would be an easier grab from historical data.

Things are getting strange indeed, which is why I requested someone give me a WBurg 2BDRM summer to poke around with. NEVER in 10 or so years would I have expected a summer Billsburg to make ex-ops but they are there now if you want something of a 2 bdrm nature.

I am not really done yet but I did pull out for 2 years prior to this.

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

BUt, did you actually think they would talk about the problems?

We've all know this for years. There is not a rhyme nor reason other than it is RCIs ball and if we don't like the rules they will and can take their ball and go home leaving us without a game.

Joy

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

While that was going on I got an email from the couple that goes with us, telling us their plans for this coming January, so I went to Allegiant Air.

Last year air fare for the four of us was $883. This year it was coming out $863 for just two of us!!! They were charging for seat assignment, luggage, etc.

But, when I tried to pay, the site would not take it. I called Allegiant and they told me to start over, then call them when I got the hangup. This time through I played with the seat assignment page and found how to not have pay for seats. The site does not tell you how to do that. When I got to the payment page, and I had Allegiant on the phone, and the site would not work, they went ahead and booked it online.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

So, if the question is, "When Are You Going To Stop Doing All This?" after today my guess is not long from now.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Did I expect them to talk about the problems?

Yes.

And, do something. I know they can, you know they can, they know they can.

In the past I have found Customer Service to be very understanding and cooperative. They know there are problems with the computers, with searches, and they know that very few at RCI are privy to knowledge of that nature.

The people I have dealt with in Customer Service know that they have ways to handle to situation I have described, and they have in the past. They know I know they have ways. I could dig up some old emails basically saying give us a call if you need us to . . . you know what I mean (if you know I mean).

Sorta getting into an area that is best not further discussed on the Internet, but they can do stuff if they want.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

And would that be all that bad?

they will and can take their ball and go home leaving us without a game.

Joy

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

And would that all that bad?

Absolutely not bad at all. There are other companies that still have a regard for customer service. Tho I must say that I will not call during a weekend; weekends get your less experienced employees usually. I find the before noon Monday through Friday are my best times to get "real" service.

JMO,

Joy

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

My DS almost 14 and I like this song.

YouTube - Fall out boy-Sugar we're going down swinging (with lyrics!)

We're going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

I've said this elsewhere, but it bears repeating. The rules are subtle, hard to learn, and constantly changing. Sometimes, that's fun. Other times, not so much. But, the one thing I do know, for sure, is that when it comes to exchange companies---any of them---what worked yesterday eventually will stop working come tomorrow.

It's interesting. My Wynfield points are kind of like a high-grade bond fund. They can't get me huge deals (they truly stink in RCI), but they are reliable for booking internally. I know what I can get, I know when I can get it, and I know what it will take to do the getting. Nice. External exchange is kind of like the stock market. Some days I win. Other days I lose. High beta, if you will.

I can imagine holding on to the Wynfield stuff a lot longer than the other stuff I own, even though that "other stuff" is doing okay for me today. Because, eventually, that tomorrow will come.

[Laurie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Laurie]

On top of that, a lesser resort that we have gone to a bajillion times with the same deposited week (different years) is available 12/5 using Lawren's search, but not using mine. Very strangely, it is available 12/12 using mine and both 12/12 and 12/5 using hers. There is no reason why one would see only one of those . . . they are identical, nothing special about 12/5 over 12/12. HUH?!

It's probably a difference in inventory that RCI has at the moment, as well as trade power decline of your week. The stronger-trading week sees broader and deeper inventory, while your now-weaker trader sees only where there is "surplus" or more than one deposit - probably for same week at same resort, tho I suppose it could even be same week, same area.

That doesn't explain why your usedtabe equal trader isn't now - I've had trade power degradations for which there's no reasonable explanation - but this is what I've seen in my own account, with same weeks, different years.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Having been through the mill & then through the mill & then through the mill . . . I understand, and even accept trading power declines. I even accept them for our resort, which, BTW, still trades better than a 2-bedroom Gold Crown we recently acquired.

My present angst is stuff that has never happened before--what appears to be trading power decline of a deposited week, while deposited, the same deposit no longer seeing stuff it useto, and the extremely wierd situation where I am seeing some weeks at a resort, but not others, when the ones I am not seeing are less desireable than the ones I am.

I have already adjusted our travel dates to account for our declining trading power, and I got half our trip booked doing that. Now this abboration is screwing up doing a second week.

I do around 2000 searches a year, and have for many years, and I have never gotten results this strange, results that make no sense at all.

[Laurie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Laurie]

Hmmm - that *is* weird, for it to have changed after the deposit, it does sound like something's up.

Of course, our views of what is desirable don't always hold up to their algorithms, which seem to be based in part on how many they have "in stock" at the moment, as opposed to nicer or less nice resorts, or better or worse weeks. That doesn't explain why its trade power would change mid-stream.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Laurie:

I've been thinking about your deep theory, which I assume to mean that resorts/weeks with just one deposit may not show up when resorts/weeks with multiple deposits will.

The particular resort un question, where I can see 12/12 but not 12/5, only has 26 units, 24 one bedroom units and 2 penthouse 2 bedroom units. We are very familiar with this resort, so familiar that when it comes to Week 53, we are treated as owners if we want to rent it (which we have).

First, the two penthouse 2-bedroom units are never available, both because an owner has collected a lot of them, and they never get deposited.

Next, because of the layout of that resort, that only a handful of the 24 are truly desireable units, every time I have seen one in timeframe, I have called RCI to see what unit(s) are available. In the 15 or so times we have exchanged there, and I did that, there has never been more than one available.

On top of that, the last time we were there, the unit and week we normal exchange for was being offered for sale. We offered to buy it the first day we could (the day after New Years Day), and were told it was already sold. So, there goes one deposit that was always there that likely never will be again.

I suspect if Lawren called RCI on both the 12/12 and 12/5 deposits, there would likely only be one each week, maybe, at the most, a couple.

Finally, at that resort, the truly desireable weeks start after Christmas, Week 1. I have contacted owners selling and renting on the Internet, and anything in December is much less than Weeks 1-15 or so. As Lawren said, 12/5 (Week 49) is less desireable than 12/12 (Week 50), although in my book at that resort, they are the same.