Living Down to Their Reputation

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

Earlier today I said, "We have done more than 100 exchanges, had our share of situations, and in the final analysis I have concluded that we were assisted and improved by people at RCI far more than the opposite."

Well, it did not take long to show that was a fool's statement. I have been on the phone with three Guides today, more than two hours, and each one, so far, has screwed things up. Hopefully the one I am on with now will straighten things out.

I also found out that that something feedback just told me is not true.

I also found out that there is no way for a Guide to do little favors for you any more.

Sometime when I feel more like it, if anyone cares, I will share what all they have screwed ip.

For now I will just go back to my old advice . . . never, never, never ever call a Guide or trust anything they do.

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

,,,,,
For now I will just go back to my old advice . . . never, never, never ever call a Guide or trust anything they do.

But really, JLB, say you didn't! You know better! And you called on a weekend too!

[bevvy5 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close bevvy5]

I hear you. I cringe if I have to call in for something. I always feel I should be charging them for educating their guides on their T & Cs, or for wasting my time.

But you must share the details.

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

But you must share the details.

If you insist . . . they wore me out so much yesterday I slept in passed 8, and through a thunder/windstorm.

One Day In The Life of An RCI Member

8:00 AM

Yesterday morning I saw Weeks 1 & 2 for 2011 at the lesser SW FL resort we have been settling for with our high-dollar better trader. I called a Guide to see what unit(s), and they were both the same unit we have grown accustomed to, and something I have been searching for every day for the last 5 months.

Obviously both from one of the few remaining Snowbird Season owners still depositing with RCI.

I had a good, friendly, seasoned Guide so I said what the heck and asked her to do her magic . . . nothing to lose. She made a comment that she needed to do that for a second week for Jan, 2010, too . . . she knew her stuff.

She tried and failed. She was astonished, saying it was the first time that did not work!!!

She asked if I wanted one of the weeks & I told her I would have to wait and talk to the boss, that that was the first day they have appeared, at least one of them will still be there later, so let it go.


7:00 PM:

The boss said we need to grab one of them, and we'll just have to wait for the 45-day window, or go somewhere we don't wanna for the other week(s).

I went online and guess what, my good trader was no longer there!!!!! I searched my account and sure enough there it was, holding the Week I was talking to the Guide about in the morning. I had told her to toss it back, but there it was on Hold.

Even when you believe a Guide is trying to do good, and they believe they are trying to do good, it appears the odds are they will not.

So I had to call a Guide again, and this time got an obviously inexperienced one, wrestling with English as a spoken language. That was after a considerable wait, during which the sand on the inside of my soft-boiled egg timer wore a hole through the glass.

I made the mistake of asking her the same as the AM Guide, at which time she said she had to get a Supervisor and was gone for 10-15 minutes.

She said No.

I said I wanted to take the week on Hold, then, and I had a credit of $175 to use, and Feedback recently said I could, if I called a Guide to take something I saw online. Of course, she needed $189, saying a Guide had put that on Hold. She said she would release it and I could put it on Hold, then she could take $164.

I said, no, don't touch it, I'll take care of it, you just sit there and watch, tell me what you see.

When I released the Hold, it did not release the week and my deposit said it was tied up in an ongoing search. The Guide could not see the week. We wrestled with that for a few minutes; then she said she saw it; then she said it was gone; gone to an ongoing search.

Turns out it was my ongoing search, something the AM Guide had set to do if I released the Hold.

So, I had it on Hold online, right? No, it was still the Guide's ongoing search, so I had to release it again, I think . . . I'm getting lost.

All I know is that when I did all that needed to be done, she said she still needed $189, not $164. So I asked her to grab that Supervisor again to override the fee.

After a considerable period of music, I got disconnected.


9:00 PM

I was still sitting there on RCI.com, with the week on Hold, so I called again, waited again, and got another good Guide, one I sensed sincerely wanted to make things work for me.

So what the heck, I had him try the first thing first again, cuz I really wanted to waste 15 minutes, and that's what we did.

Then we got down to business, how to pay him $164 with our $175 credit balance when his end said he needed $189. He was gone and gone and gone and gone, during which time I sent a message to Feedback, copy and pasting from the site what they told me works does not.

He got his end to the point where it said he need $14, the $175 credit balance plus $14 to make it $189. He said he would credit me $25 back, and that would do it. Gone and gone and gone again.

Then he said he had done it, I now had a $25 coupon and a $14 charge on my credit card.

So, I asked, what happens when I want to use that $25 coupon, won't I have to do this all again? Why, yes, he hadn't though of that. So he went to work again, supposedly putting a $25 credit on my credit card, instead of the coupon.


10:00 PM

I reported to the boss that we got that week, Week 1, 2011, now we had nothing worth searching with, and we would have to pay another $570 to our resort and borrow forward. And yes, it did take that long just go confirm an exchange and pay for it with an existing credit . . . 3 hours.
- - - - - -

I just ran over to check, and nothing has hit our credit card yet.