WATCH OUT PREMIER MEMBERS

Well written "fireonwindcsr"...
I would encourage anyone looking at a program here or anywhere to read thoroughly through the contract before signing and make sure you understand everything. It's a contract and big decision to make for anyone - especially that quickly and with that much money. I certainly would only spend $25-40k only after making sure I fully understood what I was buying.

As far as misrepresentation, anyone in sales caught misrepresenting the program will be terminated. Our verified legal signing at the end assures that the member understands the specfics of the program and no one from the sales team are present.

Comments about the airfare are true as well - RCI has been forced to make adjustments to the points partners program over the past year to accomodate for volatility in the airline industry. It's a case of rising fuel costs and airfare. RCI or Premier certainly isnt trying to rip anyone off.

In February, Premier stopped selling nights converted to accelerated points and switched to weeks at the resort with All Inclusive and a small allotment of points. Since that time, we've seen higher return visits for Premier Members, and a 67% conversion rate for Premier Members to the new program from the accelerated points program. For us, it made sense - giving AI weeks at the hotel put the product within our complete control - not at the mercy of any outside vendors.

With regards to the numbers dwinding and "bad PR"- I'm happy to report that most of our returning members are switching and many are upgrading. Since the program change in late February - we've seen an overall 30% increase in sales...and speaking for the hotel and for Premier, we see the value in the new product simply based on it's lack of volatility. With the new program and AI included, AI fees become less relevant and there's less room for variations or fluctuations. It truly is a great product for repeaters.

Obviously - with our old program - we've had a few issues thats been everyones concern. Later this week we finalize our agreement in principal with RCI that lifts the 60k point restriction that RCI put in place on June 11th. RCI Web site access was limited due to some technical unrelated issues within RCI...and that will be restored in the coming few weeks. I've read speculation and heresay that we asked to be put into a "special group" and that RCI staff were telling members we were asking points to be restricted.

Our program has ALWAYS been in a special group category and required special handling...we were one of only a very very small handful of RCI's 4million members to offer accelerated points. And Michelle (Normskid), the difficulties we've previously faced were because we were different...its not that anyone is to blame. Again, keep in mind most of RCI's 4 million members get 40-60k points per year...so policies such as 60k point caps for points partners dont effect them.

RCI managment has now provided the call centers with memos detailing the situation between RCI and Premier by Original Resorts... Feel free to call it since "the story" seemed to be an issue. RCI has 1300 call center representitives answering US calls alone...so when things are happening in the background - apparently sometimes it takes a while to make trickle down.

I hope this answers everyones concerns. If not, again - my email is premierpr@originalresorts.com. I travel quite a bit, and I'm out on the property quite a bit - but I will try to answer any correspondence or inquiries. Things with the points should be back to normal by next week or so and website access to follow.

Regards,
Chris

Chris Oldroyd
Director of Marketing and Operations
Premier by Original Resorts

 

Chris,
Please inform us WHEN the lifiting of the 60K point restriction and restoration of the RCI access occurs. Personally I have ceased paying the balance of my contract until I know I am going to get what I paid for. I will reusme that is the correction is accomplished.
I also would like to know if the change in rental agency that was mentioned is available to all of us (refund of our $299 and a list of rental agencies that work on commission). I was one of those who paid the fee this January and have not heard a thing from them in terms of renting any of my weeks and yes I have sent them emails with no reply!

 

This is good news . Hopefully we can get our points up and running again so that we can go in Sept. if not I guess it's the backstroke...

 

WATCH OUT PREMIER MEMBERS or Just ask Chris

Thank you Chris for the update and education. Some companies would choose not to respond to criticism or questions - but you chose to put out the fires. Good Job!
Its pretty clear that the Premier Team has a well defined strategy to deal with the fluctuating markets. I can tell you its a great relief to see that Premier and RCI are working towards a resolution of issues. I along with another group of people purchased days in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
Can you give some examples of what conversion rates for us would be today?
What I am essentially asking is: are the days we purchased 6 years ago less valuable than the weeks people purchase today? A U.S. dollar was wortha dollar in 2001. However, today a U.S. dollar may be worth 55 cents ( on a good day ). Again, thank you Chris. And thank you Cancun Steve for creating this forum. Regards, Sid

 

How is this possible when the contract that we signed has changed w/out any notice to members. Doesn't this void the contract?

Is this why you serve booze to the point that some people have difficulty walking . We weren't asked if we understood anything . They didn't care if we understood as long as we signed. We were upstairs in May to ask questions and to see if my brother and his wife could get a deal . When they wouldn't sign the man through his pen on the table told them they were making a grave mistake and walked away . We're glad to say they didn't let that spoil their trip .

Why couldn't you send out letters informing people that the program was going to change so that they would know what was going on . Give the members a heads up !!

Isn't the time between Feb. and July when most of the repeaters show up.We weren't even asked to upgrade , they were so interested in getting my brother to sign that they didn't inform us that the rules had changed .

Technical difficulties that only pertained to "Premier Members" and w/the blink of an eye as soon as the dispute is over the computer fixes itself.RCI blames Premier , Premier blames RCI . The "Members" are left in the dark .

 

Hi Roy - so you're saying you didnt sit with a Verified Legal Officer who went through each page of the contract, had you intial your understanding of each item? I find that hard to believe...how else was your contract signed? The verified legal officer isn't paid or incentivized on if you sign the contract or not...so they could really care less. Their job is to make sure you understand it. Cancellations within the first five days are more costly to us than no sale at all - so your understanding before signing is imperitive.

As far as serving booze to the point some people have difficulty walking...it's no different than any of the other bars in the resort...You're at an all inclusive resort...if you order a drink you'll get one. Self control, man. No one forced your mouth open and poured a drink down your throat. We normally cut people off at three drinks anyway...but if guests insist...we will occassionally serve to five drinks. Since our presentation is normally following breakfast - many of our guests drink virgin drinks or have water, etc.

We have a consistent repeater base. There's no "one" repeater season.
It's the first time I've ever heard anyone complain about not being taken on tour...but I'm sure you were given the option to go and opted not to.
Keep in mind the program didnt change until the last two days of February - and we didnt know until three days prior RCI had authorized the changeover. Your program didnt change so there was no need to let you know. However, as always, we like to tour Members when they arrive for possible upgrades and to show them the new program if they're interested.

As far as your conspiracy theory with RCI and Premier - I like it. If hadn't been hiding our weapons of mass destruction and playing golf with Elvis on the weekends I might have come up with it myself. C'mon Roy. There's no grassy knoll...we're not "The Man"... I'm on the forums whenever I can be and with 153 members of the 4500 who tried to book airfare and have had difficulties since the 11th, we're letting know things are fixed. We're also launching the new Premier website with forums later in the month and a quarterly newsletter sign up. We have sent two emails to members already this year - but many of our email addresses in the database are outdated or incorrect. I'm also looking at an outbound calling campaign to update info. If you did not receive anything, you may want to confirm your email address with Customer Service.

Speaking of Customer Service - Reservations for Premier Members will be handled by the hotel and not Premier Customer Service as of next week. This means that the days of waiting for confirmations, etc. are gone. You will get your confirmation at the time of booking. THIS IS AN INTERNAL CHANGE....in other words, you'll still dial the same numbers as before - only you'll be transferred to hotel reservations.

12531 - you won't hear anything on this years rental program until October. Previously, it wasnt a very good program...the organization was terrible and revamping it has pretty much meant starting over. If you (or any rental program member) would like the one time $299 fee they paid back, it's not a problem, just email me and I'll get the credit issued.

fireonwindcsr, I'm afraid I don't understand your conversion question...shoot me an email and I'll try and answer it...

Thanks for your patience everyone.

Regards
Chris

 

Chris,
I will be emailing you re: the rental fee. As for "We have sent two emails to members already this year - but many of our email addresses in the database are outdated or incorrect. " I have to dispute that. I Know premier has my email address as i have been in a back and forth dialog with collections. I have not recieved and of the general emails to members you mentioned. I have not changed my email address since Oct. when I purchased the membership. If it were not for this forum and my communication with RCI I would not have known about any of the goings on!

 

Are you talking about the lady that came and said sign here,here,here and here Then yea I remember her. That I never disputed what I dispute is the contract has changed the one that the verified legal officer had me sign.

Your saying that a person intoxicated can understand a contract !!

I had a drink I was not drunk .Although I did see couples that said no more and they brought more drinks hoping they would drink more. You talk of legalities that of which I have no clue only observations.

I never said anything 'bout not taking a tour in fact we enjoyed it again. We were there in May w/your people for two hours . The program they spoke of said nothing about A.I. fees being included , we are interested in this as long as your tone remains calm . If the amount of points you are allowed to use in one year change then yes our program has changed. As far as the rest of your comments I will not belittle myself to your level of arrogance..

 

They've had mine for about eight years now and I've recieved one email at the start because there bank routing number was wrong on there contract. Funny when they want money they have no problem getting an email out. :roll:

I find it utterly irresponsible the lack of communication between the resort and its members (I know Chris is working on this). But this is something that should've been in place from day one before the first contract was ever signed. The only way I've found out anything about Premier and changes within the program have been from this forum. That right there sends a sign that the resort has never had there crap together from day one. They ask for thousands of dollars to get into there program, raise AI fees almost yearly, change the program, change perks, etc. etc.. And in return they basically have shrugged there shoulders in the past. Chris seems to be working for us hard and getting things turned around, I thank him for that. But I must admit the whole RCI/Oringal Resorts dispute seems very fishy. The blame game is such a cop out answer to what really happened. It's like two kids fighting. Things like html,scripts, etc. for websites just don't change on there own one day. Someone was ordered to change those things based on some decession made by the two parties involved. The lamp just doesn't fall off the table by itself.


If RCI is really the problem here then why doesn't Oringal Resorts just say Adios RCI and move on. I'm sure there contract they signed could be voided based on changes within RCI. Why not do an in house Orginal Resort Membership?? They got like 7 to 9 resorts now. The RCI appeal of going to all these different resort throught out the world is almost a farse. Anyone actually try using it, you have to plan like two years ahead to ever use it. Then what you thought would cost like $50 turns into a $500 ordeal. It really is almost a joke. On the surface it seems great but in reality its a pain in the ass to even use. Free airfare or low cost airfare HAHAHAHAHAHA I don't even need to get into that.

Hope things get worked out in the end. Maybe they should stop selling there timeshare for a few months and get everything worked out and in place before they ever ask for another dime from guest. Instead of what seems to be dumping the eight years of crap on Chris's lap.

Nick and Renee