posted 01-11-2003 19:53         

How can I find out what my username and password are? I have misplaced them and my e-mail sent to RCI last week has not been answered.

Thank you,

posted 01-12-2003 14:49            

IF RCI decides to have an exchange fee rollback, perhaps as a gesture of good faith, I would urge you to reimburse members for exchanges made between the implementation of the new website and the announcement of the rollbacks, if any.

I am still searching and confirming (now working on summer of 2004) and would hate to be penalized just because I can beat your website into submission!!

------------------
Bob G

posted 01-13-2003 05:11            

quote:

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Originally posted by EdB:
Brian, the "View Travel Plans" page works just fine here. When I can connect, that is.

---

I have the same problem viewing Travel Plans.

posted 01-13-2003 12:24         

From time to time there is a heated topic on TUG about RCI's special interests websites, whether they be the one for the military or the one for government employees (there are probably others I'm unaware of). Those websites give certain groups access to rental weeks for as low as $249 per week...without having to pay exchange fees, guest certificate fees, annual RCI dues or, of course, maintenance or purchase fees at the resorts. (Guests aren't even required to attend a timeshare sales pitch!)

Since all RCI members do have to pay annual dues, exchange fees, and guest certificate fees...and these costs keep rising astronomically...wouldn't you agree it would be fair and equitable to offer all dues-paying RCI members a special membership number that could be used to transact on RCI's special interest group rental websites? RCI might even make a lot more money by opening up access to that rental inventory to RCI dues-paying members...and it would likely be a public relations bonanza and perhaps even stem the tide of defections from RCI to Interval and other exchange companies.

I would very much appreciate an answer as to why RCI dues-paying members are not given access to these special rental inventories. Thank you in advance for your help on this.

posted 01-13-2003 15:33         

As promised, I'm responding to several of the issues you raised last week. I will not be able to cover all of them today, but I will continue to post answers as I am able. David Roe wanted me to let you know that his response regarding RCI rentals is also forthcoming this evening.

Points

Issue: Are there double subscription costs when you have both a Weeks account and a Points account?

Response: When you have both a Weeks account and a Points account, you will only be required to pay subscription fees for the Points account. Your associated Weeks account will remain active without requiring an additional renewal payment.

Issue: Does RCI want to become Points only in the future?

Response: Flexibility is one of the most important aspects of vacation ownership. RCI developed the RCI Points program to offer our members more flexibility and more vacation options. We also wanted to support our affiliates by leveling the playing field somewhat for those smaller, independent resorts that are not part of a large club that can offer points-based timesharing or vacation time at multiple properties and more flexibility in the lengths of vacations. This enables owners who purchase at smaller resorts the same level of flexibility as those who purchase from the big developers.

However, I can be very clear about the fact that RCI has no plans to eliminate the Weeks program. We know that many Members prefer RCI Weeks, and so not only do we do not plan to remove the Weeks option for resorts or members, we continue to enhance our traditional exchange program, with new resorts, new exchange features, and improved service. RCI's foundation was built on the one-for-one exchange -- we will continue to stand proudly on it.

Service

Issue: The responses I receive from RCI when I send an e-mail message are slow in coming and very generic. They often don't address my question at all.

Response: The current time is not a good example of RCI's typical service regarding e-mail correspondence. For 10-11 months of the year, RCI's Internet Team maintains a 24 to 48-hour response time for e-mail correspondence. They may face a mailbox containing up to 1,500 messages on any given day, and these are turned around quickly. Currently, due to the many problems we’re experiencing on the Weeks Web site, the Internet Team is facing a mailbox of over 8,000 messages, which has caused our response time to increase greatly, but this is a temporary situation. We have added staff to meet the volume and get our members' questions answered. It is very high on our priority list right now. All I can ask is your patience with this – we will get it under control.

However, I would like to address your concerns about generic or "canned" responses under normal circumstances. There are two kinds of responses I will discuss -- prepared responses and automated responses. Yes, we do use some responses that are prepared in advance to address questions we receive over and over again. Having to "reinvent the wheel" with each response would slow our response times dramatically and there would not be the consistency of information we strive for. For example, there are things like telephone numbers, web links, logon instructions, prices, etc., that are subject to change from time to time. In order to be sure that the updated information goes out to every member by every agent immediately, it is updated in our central e-mail management system where each agent will access the same information at the same location when issuing a response to a member inquiry. When these prepared responses are used, our agent has still personally read the message and determined that our prepared response will address the issues presented. He or she then sends that message using our e-mail system. It's very quick, and for the most part, very effective.

Automated responses are something different. When you use our form from rci.com to contact us, you select a topic that best represents your issues or questions. For some common subjects such as Deposit, Renew, or Exchange, we may choose to send one message to everyone who selected that topic. These are identified at the top with a special paragraph that reads: "This is an automated response based on the subject of your message. If you have questions or issues that still need to be addressed, please send them to us and include your RCI ID number. The Internet Team will be pleased to assist you."

We do receive some replies from members who have additional questions; however, typically only around 10% of our automated responses result in replies requesting additional information. And whenever you reply to a response you received from us, your message is moved to the "head of the line." Even if you waited 2 or 3 days for the initial response, you will receive an almost immediate response to your reply -- usually within the same day or next day. So, for those times when you see an automated response and it did not answer your questions, please just reply and know that you'll receive a more personal response very quickly.

Website - Points

Issue: What is being done to allow Canadian Points members to search online?

Response: In order for our Points online system to handle Canadian currency, a major upgrade to real-time credit card authorization is necessary. That upgrade is scheduled for the second quarter 2003. In response to the request to be able to search online, even if you cannot confirm, I will only say that this too is fairly involved; however, we are working with our technical staff to see if this might be possible. I'll let you know.

Website - Weeks

Issue: How can I get my Login and Password to access the new site?

Response: If you pre-registered earlier and just need your User Name, send an e-mail to feedback@rci.com and put "Need User Name" in the subject line. Our Internet Team specifically searches for these to keep your wait shorter.

If you have not registered for the new rci.com, here are those instructions:

Go to www.rci.com and click on "RCI Weeks" in the Member Links or Vacation Planning section. To create your new account, click on Request a PIN. You can still access your account the "old" way by entering your RCI ID number and Password. This will automatically populate the required field for your PIN request. Each member will now need to create his/her own account.

You will receive an e-mail with your PIN number. The PIN is 15 digits, but you will only need it to create your new Login and Password. It is not a number you will need to remember.

Return to the RCI Weeks section of RCI.com and click on "Create an Account." Enter the Pin Number as it appears in the e-mail. You will also need to enter your Weeks ID number as it appears on RCI.com. You may want to write down your Login, Password and answer to your selected secret question because you will not receive an e-mail listing these.

Again, I'll be back with more within the next couple of days!

posted 01-13-2003 15:39         

We have a large Inventory Management department dedicated to monitoring our inventory trends and ensuring we satisfy the greatest number of members possible.

One of the reasons that many of RCI’s new programs are so complex is because we go to elaborate lengths to make sure we’re doing everything we can to ensure that we’re giving our Members the best possible opportunity to get the exchange they want. We have a large Inventory Management department dedicated to delivering this. I know that this sounds like spin so far (it’s not) so let me lay out the facts.

I can assure you that ALL of the weeks deposited by RCI Weeks members for exchange are available exclusively for exchange unless and until they fall within the “marketable inventory” category (at which point they are still available for exchange), which refers to weeks that members historically simply do not want or use. With one exception.

When I say “deposited for exchange,” that means that I am not including those weeks that RCI Weeks members exchange for cruises through RCI Cruise Exchange. Those weeks are transferred to I.C.E. Gallery, our cruise provider, which rents them to cover the costs of the cruise. In this situation, no week was deposited for exchange, and no week was taken away that another member had a right to. No RCI member has lost their opportunity for a fair and comparable exchange, but a Member has gotten the vacation they wanted, which is what we’re in business for.

This is the same way we provide the Points Partners program that allows RCI Points members to use their Points for airfare, rental cars, cruises, etc. They deposit a week, but do not take a week out of our inventory. Their points are used for something else, say an airline ticket, which RCI pays cash for; we then rent the week to cover our cost for the airline ticket. Again, no member has lost their opportunity for exchange, because this member chose to utilize the value of their timeshare in a different way, and again, that’s what we’re in business for.

Now, it would make everything nice and simple if I could tell you that the RCI Weeks member who exchanged his week for a cruise, let’s call him Joe Smith, that we took Joe Smith’s week out of our inventory, and that’s the week we rented to cover those costs. It would be easier for us, without question. But we’d be missing an opportunity.

Because sometimes, Joe Smith’s week, exchanged for a cruise, might be a week that’s in very short supply, one that other members want, perhaps at a small resort with few units, for example. At the same time, we may have weeks in our RCI Weeks system that are considered identical in quality to Joe’s, but are in more abundant supply, and we will take one that is more plentiful and rent it rather than one that is rare.

When we do this, one member gets an exchange that represents a great vacation, but another might look at the RCI Holiday Network Web site and see a week for rent that they requested for exchange, but is up for rental. Again, we see that as Joe’s week, which he utilized not for exchange but for another vacation option, and so it’s not a week that belongs to the entire membership, as would normally be the case. Remember, there can be no assumption that Joe would have deposited his week for exchange were we not to offer any other use for it. He might have rented it out himself, and used the money for his cruise. But we all know how difficult it can be for individual resorts and HOA’s to rent out weeks, and so our program guarantees that Joe can gain the value of his vacation ownership.

These programs, our RCI Points Partners and our RCI Cruise Exchange, have proven to be enormously popular. Almost a fifth of all our Points transactions go to Points Partners, and our Cruise business has skyrocketed through the added service and offerings of ICE Gallery, our cruise provider. Even though we have rolled out these new programs it is true to say that there has been growth in our inventory supply for exchange.

There is another, similar situation in our new rental business which is likewise an example of RCI going the extra mile for members, but which can very reasonably appear to be something we’re doing at members’ expense. This is in the area of weeks supplied to RCI by our developers.

The RCI Holiday Network was designed to help our developers better utilize their excess or available inventory, to supplement their marketing efforts and increase occupancy (which, by the way, contributes to the trading power of other owners at those resorts!). 100% of the weeks in our rental pool come from four sources: from developers for the above reasons, from RCI’s Resort Management group, which represents individual owners like you who might want to rent their week out rather than use it or exchange it; from the Points Partners and Cruise Exchange programs to cover the cash costs; and from our traditional marketable inventory, which are the weeks that year in and year out go unwanted and unused.

All of these weeks in RCI’s rental inventory are first made available to RCI members for rental, by virtue of your ability to make a pending request. If you have a pending request for a week, and you don’t have trading power for it, or there’s nothing in the inventory when you make your request, and then that week gets deposited at a later date, or goes unrequested by those members who do have the trading power, it is claimed from the system before it is placed in the rental pool.

And, all of the weeks in RCI’s rental inventory are offered to members at a significant discount off the price charged to the general public. With respect to those weeks provided by developers, this represents a substantial member benefit, as members are being given access to highly desirable vacation weeks that may not have been available via exchange through lack of member deposits. These are weeks that many members may lack sufficient trading power to access via exchange; these are also quality weeks that members can enjoy in addition to those which they obtain through exchange, and at prices that represent another benefit of vacation ownership. For many members, who own weeks with very low trading power, this may be the primary benefit of their vacation ownership, and that’s what we’re in business for, to unlock the value of your timeshare.

And it’s been a big success. In the first six months following the launch of the RCI Holiday Network, more than three-fourths of the rental weeks provided to RCI by developers were rented by RCI members, members who were able to get the vacations they wanted.

Unfortunately, there is presently no way for our members to know that the week they rent is one provided by developers specifically for rental, so it is understandable that in some situations some members have gone onto the RCI Holiday Network site or even the Bonus Weeks site, and seen a week they may have requested, and erroneously assumed these weeks were taken from RCI’s one-for-one exchange inventory. That is never the case.

Finally we also source inventory for rental programs from the weeks or timeshare interests owned by consumers at resorts managed by RCI Resort Management, which acts as a rental agent for owners looking to rent out their units, rather than participate in an exchange program.

posted 01-13-2003 16:15         

Thank you very much for your explanation. I, for one, am a very happy points member.

posted 01-13-2003 16:25            

Please clarify something about the Points program for me. When a member "deposits" their week into the Points system, RCI does not know how their points will be utilized, whether for airfare or another vacation week, until the member so chooses. How are the deposited weeks handled? If RCI immediately puts them into the rental pool and the member chooses a traditional exchange, won't the system will be short a week?

I remember discussions here on TUG shortly after the introduction of the Points program that Points members get priority over Weeks members for the selection of their exchange weeks (please help me out people!) Is this true?

posted 01-13-2003 16:34            

As I understand, it takes about 42000 points per year for a 2 bedroom red week, on average. Furthermore, I was told that it was up to the resort whether or not whoever I sold the week to would get points.

Can this be correct?

Will RCI take control of the process at some point so that everyone pays the same price for conversion, and this gouging of your customers is discontinued?

Is this the way the program was intended to roll out, or are your clients (resorts) taking advantage of the situation?

posted 01-13-2003 16:44            

quote:

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Originally posted by PA:
I have a timeshare week, and called RCI about converting it to points. They explained that all resorts have their own pricing for points. So I called my resort, and was told that the cost was $2500, and that I would receive 16000 per year. This is for a week that has a current value of about $1500 on the resale market.

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Recently I attended my HOA meeting where Points conversion was discussed. The board discussed the cost issue and conveyed what RCI had documented in a letter, namely that the RCI charges a flat $199 for the conversion process. Anything above that is the administrative cost to process the conversion plus PROFIT!

posted 01-13-2003 19:50            

I posted a message under the ‘RCI Internet Service Issues’ topic that David Roe initiated on Wednesday 8th January, but as yet have received no comment or reply from David.

The basis of my question is that as an RCI European Points member, together with several thousand of others in the same situation, I am unable to conduct any type of online searches despite being told that the facility is ‘coming soon’ on numerous occasions. This has been promised on a regular basis since the Autumn of 2000 and in June 2002 we were told by Fiona Downing (Kettering) at the RCI Points AGM held in the UK, that it would be available in the Autumn of 2002. This date has once again been revised and we are now being told the end of the second quarter in 2003 at the earliest.

RCI must have spent a quite considerable amount of money worldwide advertising their points system, yet has failed to provide the online facilities to go with it. I understand that US points members have some searching facilities, but in Europe we have NONE! In fact those points members who still own weeks are even excluded from using those to search with! We were told that it was a complex piece of programming and I appreciate that, but we are now over two years further on and still have nothing to show for it. We seem to be being ‘side-stepped’ for want of a better phrase! We set up a users group called MORPS and this is the single most wanted facility by our members.

I also have a week’s account, quite separate from our joint points account and would be happy to beta-test on both systems, but I do wonder how seriously RCI is taking the predicament of European Points members.

I await your reply with interest.

posted 01-13-2003 19:54         

LOL! Can you just see it now?

posted 01-14-2003 03:24            

quote:

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Originally posted by Lisa P:
[b]Why doesn't RCI post the VEP scores in the resort directory or online, which is more dynamic, and let its members determine what is acceptable?

LOL! Can you just see it now?

"Hello, RCI? 8 months ago, I accepted a trade down from my VEP 4.9 unit into a VEP 4.1 unit and I'm supposed to travel in 4 months. But now, my destination's VEP has dropped to 3.4 and I won't get a fair exchange!!! So, what are YOU going to do about it?!?!" Just a thought.[/B]

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Doesn't the same thing happen today? Does RCI pick up the phone and offer to upgrade the exchange to a higher rated resort? We also get frustrated when we read a decent review about a resort in a low supply area that RCI's blocked us from exchanging into. With the information at their disposal, the member can decide and at least prepare for what might await! There are problems in either scenario but I think it's always better to have as much information as possible.

posted 01-14-2003 06:20            

Can you provide more details on how the 1-in-4 rule works? Specifically, is the restriction applied to the member's account or to the person who checks in? If I make an exchange to a 1-in-4 resort and give a guest certificate to my parents, can I exchange into that resort the following year and use it myself or give a guest certificate to a different person? Or is my account completely restricted from exchanging into that resort for four years?

Ed

posted 01-14-2003 06:45            

Because sometimes, Joe Smith’s week, exchanged for a cruise, might be a week that’s in very short supply, one that other members want, perhaps at a small resort with few units, for example. At the same time, we may have weeks in our RCI Weeks system that are considered identical in quality to Joe’s, but are in more abundant supply, and we will take one that is more plentiful and rent it rather than one that is rare….

Dave,

With all due respect, I’m not impressed by the use of auditors to determine if your weeks rental program falls within stated company policy. This is because the above two statements combined tell me is that RCI’s “stated policy” is sufficiently flexible as to allow RCI to determine which weeks can be pulled from inventory without raising any audit flags.

Furthermore Deloite stands to loose substantial fees in Audit work if it doesn’t lean toward the assumption that RCI is following its “Stated Policies” on weeks rental. In the eyes of an Audit Partner, it is imperative that such a “minor” issue be resolved in favor of the client, and since that policy is flexible, it becomes a no-brainer for the auditors.

A little narrative on my skepticism:
Last year, when I was still at KPMG (as stated in another thread) I was asked to assist on an audit. The client, by “stated policy,” had valued their portfolio internally. They didn’t like the values that THEY came up with, so they threw out the most relevant approach to value and relied upon some asinine assumptions to come up with values. That’s where I came in. The audit partner saw the red flags and asked me to review their assumptions and submit requirements to remedy the problem.

In essence, my response was that they needed to rely upon the approach that they threw-out and rely upon market indicators for their assumptions.

So, in response, the client came up with “evidence of those market indicators,” and plugged them into the thrown-out methodology. Low and behold the values remained unchanged. The audit partner signed off on the audit and was a happy camper cashing the check.

As for the values… They were at least 25 percent lower than the values stated in their annual report.

All that being said, I have two questions. 1) What is RCI’s “stated policy” with regards to weeks going into the rental program? Could you please provide the EXACT language of the policy that they are auditing against?

I assume that since there is ”stated policy,” it is something that can be readily posted without research into the issue!

Regards,

Jim