RCI Customer Service

Call to RCI vacation exchange program - August 29, 2013
Satisfaction level:  extremely dissatisfied

We are frustrated with not being able to find good exchanges for the points from one of our timeshares on RCI, so we are putting out timeshare up for sale.  To sell it, we need to understand how many points are available now, and when points are put into the system each year so we know what to tell a prospective buyer.  I also wanted to know how many points were expiring this month. The website is very confusing, listing 36,000 points from 2011 expiring on August 29, 2013, current use year 2012 points of 0, and 2013 use year points that we can borrow from of 45,800.  Then total available points shows as 55,680.  The numbers don't add up and I was concerned about the expiring points.  I also wanted to know when the next use year points would be put in.

I used the Chat Now feature on the website to ask some of my questions.  I was told incorrectly that "current use year" was the number of points available now (which would mean that I would have 0 points - I knew that was not right).  When I asked further questions, I was told that I would need to call the phone number to get any specific information about my points.

I called the number the chat rep gave me and was kept on hold for a very long time after typing in my phone number to identify my account.  Finally, a representative answered who could barely speak English.  She asked for my phone number (again) that I had already entered.  When I asked her why she needed it again, she had no answer.  She then wanted my account number.  I told her I didn't know my account number and could she look it up using my name and phone number.  She said no, that she needed the account number.  I finally found it.  She told me I had no points expiring.  I had 900 carried over from 2011, but they had been extended to 2014 for me.  This all took a very long time to figure out, since she couldn't understand me well and I had trouble understanding her.  After some frustration, she put me on a hold for another long time (almost 10 minutes), then she came back on and told me the above information.  I then asked her when the next points would be submitted and when the points were deposited to the account each year.  And I asked her why 2013 points were still listed as future points.  She was extremely confused and put me on hold for another very long period.  She came back on and told me that points were deposited in March.  When asked about 2013, she said those become active in September.  By now I was even more confused and asked to speak to her supervisor.  She tried to talk me out of this and kept trying to explain things that were not making sense.

She finally put me through to someone who I could understand and who could understand me who explained things to me in a way that made much more sense and that was totally different than what either the chat agent of the first phone agent told me.

RCI needs to make their website for customers much more clear with updated numbers that add up and clearly show you a current statement of what is expiring and what is currently available.  They need to have the capability to look up member accounts using name and phone number, and they need to hire customer service people who speak and understand English and train them how to accurately answer customer's questions.  They also need to train their chat agents to assist customers with details of their accounts.