Marriott Marriott Rewards Took away benefits that are explicitly explained in an email Internet
Every year as a loyalty (that I pay for as part of our membership), we receive a one night complementary stay at a Marrtiott hotel level category one through five. On our last anniversary date, I received the email that states that is what we receive again. When I went to use the reward, I was unable to book the hotel but I wanted which was a level five.
It was explained to me that since I had received that email, Marriott had changed the program into a point based program, and now that reward was worth 25,000 points. A category five hotel was 35,000 points. That is always the level of hotel I want to book, and now even though the email states it in black-and-white, I am not allowed to book that. Marriott stole 10,000 points from my account.
I escalated this, because it seems obvious that they should make good on this reward. In the future, they can change their benefits, I get that. But they need to honor the email that was sent to me for this year‘s reward.
I sent an email on their website, I called their vice President of consumer affairs twice, I created a case number and contacted what is supposedly "Mr. Marriott's" office multiple times.
In no less than six weeks I received a call. This person was from the vice President's office of consumer affairs, and she was unaware of my situation. She was just calling me without any knowledge of the situation. I think that was disrespectful -that although everything had been documented and there was even a case number, this company couldn’t even bother to spend the time to review my case before contacting me. So I had to rehash everything with this woman. Her explanation was not that nothing changed. However, she used an analogy of comparing apples to artichokes. I said that in itself is suggesting there is a change - something is different. Nothing additional was offered, so I had wasted six weeks and multiple hours to just get the same result. The only thing our family can do now is no longer stay at Marriotts, and we are canceling our Marriott visa credit card.
It makes me so angry that I have so little power against a huge monster of a company.