Marriott Charges Guest Wrong Amount, Locks Bonvoy Account

Sometimes you’re the baseball.
Sometimes you’re the bat.

I'm just going to throw this out there - you'd make a GREAT ombudsman! What a great "once a week" feauture on your blog. BEN TO THE RESCUE! Just a thought. Love your blog.

This is a great incentive to abandon Bonvoy. He used most or all of his points. Good riddance.

I did that with one airline 3 months ago. I do not dislike that airline but I burned all except 725 miles. If only I can burn 3 other airlines miles. Skymiles will be the hardest to burn unless I want to spend half a million for a one way flight.

ChatGPT is more competent in understanding the point than most customer service agents in the travel industry these days. If they ever decide to replace them with AI, it will be a good riddance. Bring it on.

Not surprised. Marriott is a criminal corporation. They regularly stick on extra fees and misquote add on fees knowing most people don't have the hours needed to try and address. Been there, done that.
Waiting for the next class action to get my money returned.

I think Marriott is in the wrong here seeing as it's quite clear that its their IT issue, and then they claim the points purchase is non-refundable. The blatant failure lies in Marriott's refusal to refund the transaction in question.

I'm sure there's something in the terms and conditions that would give Marriott the entitlement to cancel the reservation and reverse the transaction, and that, at the very least, is what should have been done in order to even things. But what should have happened, from a customer service standpoint, is to honour their mistake and fix the IT issue so it doesn't happen again.

Currently having the same issue with Virgin Atlantic for a seat purchase. They now charge for seat reservations. However, when selecting the seat it displayed as zero. Confirmed it for zero. Completed rest of ticket process. Still showed no charge for seat selection. Purchased the ticket and was then charged just under $55 for the seat. Complained to Virgin, they agreed it was all zero (they even escalated the issue to engineering to fix it). But they told me there was no way to provide a refund, as their system couldn't process a refund for seat purchases. Currently disputing it with Amex. Of note, what I and your other reader experienced is breach of contract. Specifically, when the airline/hotel agreed to the reader's offer of 400 JPY, that formed a contract. The hotel cannot go back and then change the price of that contract. The hotel can rescind the purchase calling it an error. And the correct price can then be made available. But if that purchase is completed, that's a new contract. If the hotel continues to refuse to provide a refund, and if the credit card company declines to refund it, the reader could go to small claims court and win on a breach of contract claim.

I had a terrible experience with Marriott Bonvoy in Zurich recently. Bought 70,000 points and booked two nights at the grand kameha Zurich for my parents in law. Next day, Marriott freeze my account due to possible fraudulent transactions - I email my passport over and it is unlocked, and I am assured that the booking remains. Come day of check in - at 2pm - I receive a cancellation email from the hotel, who state that they had been informed my Marriott bonvoy it was a fraudulent booking. Problem is Bruce Springsteen is in town - hotel is now sold out, as are all other hotels in Zurich (or charging over 1,000 eur a night). Marriott can do nothing to help apparently despite hours on the phone and, long story short, my parents in law have to stay on our sofa bed. I complain and receive an amazing 8,000 points in compensation….

It's possible to have the points transaction reversed, but whatever agent you talk to would need to know that it's an option and who to send the ticket to.

Reminds me hilton aspire glitches but at least amex and hilton honored it

Very on-par for Marriott, which is why I burned my points in 2022. I even gave them one more shot, but that was bust too, so now I actively avoid them.

Took me more than a dozen emails and a dozen phone calls to get an issue resolved a couple years back, and even the Customer Care line (basically at their corporate office) had difficulty in getting it resolved. Then they had the audacity to say that they have an outside consultant on hire that restricts how many points they can give for a specific issue.

They literally hired a company to make sure they don't have to compensate customers appropriately. If that isn't everything you need to know to steer clear, I don't know what is.

I was at that concert, and there were plenty of hotel rooms available at decent prices for Zurich, they just weren't near the stadium. Still unforgiveable for the Marriott to cancel on you the same day.

Thank God that the community has people like Ben with a direct access contact to Marriott. Because all of us out here are stuck and SOL when it votes to dealing with frontline employees at call centers in other countries. WE understand the terms better than they do 99% of the time.

Marriott is racist for doing this.

After almost 40 years of Membership and more than 2,500 nights, I have seen Marriott go down from the best to the worst.

It’s sad that major corporations are underinvesting in customer relations so badly that people are turning to blogs and social media to get obviously wrong situations resolved. I assume Marriott’s lost this customer for life.

They were never the best. Starwood was.

When you are a big enough company you can screw your customers and they’ll keep coming back. That’s why we need laws against monopolies and anticompetitive practices.

I became done with Marriott this year. I own a small business. Charge about 500k on my Amex Marriott card annually and stay enough nights to be Titanium but all that discontinued this year. Point redemption has become a joke and customer service from breakfasts to late checkout makes you feel like your begging for it. Switched to Hyatt and no regrets.

What does it say about marriott that they treat ppl like that.

Thing is, the behavior of the company seems to also reach down to how youre treated at the hotels too as presumably marriott dont really care how the companies payiing their management fees actually act.

IHG/Hilton generally seem to have good staff at the hotels with decent recognition. Marriott I think I only ever had status recognized about 10% of the time, the service seems to be universally poor barring the occasional good employee and it just wasnt worth putting yourself thru dealing with them when there were other options.

This is fraudulent and should at a minimum warrant punitive damages against Marriott and/or the responsible employees, if not a criminal referral.

Under the heading, two sides to every story, I find it interesting that the comments point the blame on the company; whereas from the description, it seems clear the customer knew the points deal was too good to be true, yet decided to take a flier and get these points at no "real" cost. And then when the company calls them on it, the customer cries foul. I am sure there is more to the story. Moral of the story, if a deal seems too good to be true, it most times is. Read the fine print before you say yes.

And mistakes work both ways.

If you made a mistake, you would think the company will not punish you?

Except the consumer did read the fine print. Your condescension should be directed at Marriott, who literally *wrote* the fine print and then went back on the contractual commitment that they designed for themselves therein, and retaliated against a consumer for trying to get Marriott to comply with basic contract law.

Before the never ending hate towards Bonvoy.

Let me remind all of you that other hotels, airlines, and car rentals does that to customer chargebacks too.

These program often close your account when you chargeback.

This is both disgusting and sadly typical of Marriott. No one in the organization is empowered to do the right thing.

Yes, Marriott is known to freeze or shut down Bonvoy accounts for any charge backs, justified or not. Happened to me and many others when Marriott had a glitch and charged my credit card for buying points without my knowledge or authorization, instead of applying a free night certificate, then refused to fix it saying points purchases are non-refundable. I then disputed with Amex, and Marriott froze my Bonvoy account and forfeited all points and future reservations. There is a long thread on Flyertalk about that.

Customer service is terrible with Marriott. I am platinum and I get to choose from a list for an extra free night and they keep giving me suite nights and I have been told several times that they can't change it. This happened two straight years. I am owed two free nights no hotel I go to honors suite nights

Agreed.

Marriott likely had the right to decline the transaction or cancel the reservation (much in the way airlines have cancelled error fares and refunded the ticket cost) but they can't go ahead and charge whatever it likes without informing the customer. The customer entered into an agreement when completing the transaction for the offer that was made, that is the 400JPY + 220k points. Put another way it's like saying, ok I'll sell you a room for $250 on the website but charge you $1000 and it's your responsibility to know that $250 for that hotel was the wrong amount!

Oh no, who will save the billion dollar companies. Richard, that's who.

Thanks for playing, d1ck.

I did it to Hyatt once. They charged me for a night I didn't spend at Park Hyatt Seoul. I attempted to resolve it with the property (who didn't reply), then I went to the credit card route. They agreed with the CC issuer, but retroactively removed the points I had earned on the other 10 nights of the stay. One call to Hyatt fixed that.

Now, Hyatt has slipped somewhat in the past year. However, I've found their corporate is generally supportive of customers. Can't say that with Marriott, if central is locking accounts...

I don't know why anyone would use Marriot for ANY reason. I don't know why One Mile at a Time even bothers to follow this corrupt bunch. OMAAT, STOP following this company. Ignore them !! They're as bad if not worse than Hertz sending their customers to jail saying their cars are stolen when they're actually rented to a customer. Both Marriot and Hertz are LOSER companies. Just totally drop both of them from your website !! Never mention them again.

What are you talking about? Platinum doesn't get an FNA.

Sorry, but that's garbage. One party to a transaction can't change the price of that transaction after the price has been agreed, and give the other party no option except to pay. That's just not a thing. It's breach of contract.

Marriott customer service is severely lacking.

What an utterly imbecilic comment.

Dick must be the kind of person who frequently makes mistake but doesn’t want to take responsibility for them.

I just don't get Bonvoy - 30 nights to get gold OR just sign up for an Amex Platinum and get it automatically. That demonstrates to me how much they actually value their customers and their points.

Ha, ha! You are funny! Edgy, too! Insightful!

For all the people complaining, I wonder how many will actually not stay at a Marriott this year? Marriott will continue to be the largest hotel company and people will still book with them. Do what makes you feel good, but next month people will again be complaining about a Marriott on this site and nothing will change. Make peace with the fact that customer service is not a priority for this company.

Actually, the most recent story about a stolen rental car involved Avis (reported by the New York Times).

Actually there is another way around it. If she has the receipt of the third party processing the points transaction she should have contacted them. It may have been with beyond Marriott's knowledge or control. The other comments are interesting as they do not take into account that other companies are just as bad as Marriott. The service and other aspects really depend on the property.

50 nights (platinum) does not offer an FNA. That is not offered until 75 nights (titanium).

I hope that he will sue Marriott. This is unacceptable.
You pay for what it is displayed.
When it happens with an airline, it cancels and refunds the ticket. It does not charge the passenger full price

Nice thought, but when you agreed to the Bonvoy terms and conditions that was also a contract. As with all loyalty miles and points programs, it probably included a clause where it stated that you agree all points are ultimately property of the Marriott and it can unilaterally take away the points or close down your account, in their discretion for whatever reason. So yes they can very well honor the 400 JPY rate and award you the points. They can then also immediately take those points away at their discretion as per the program T&Cs.

You don't get a free night award as a platinum choice benefits, that's only for titanium level

I would first try the BBB. Then, send a demand letter to their legal department with a short synopsis of the situation and attempted remedies to date and request that they immediately remove the charges or you will file a lawsuit.

This shakes my confidence in gathering Marriott points for future use, and my view of Marriott as a mega company has certainly changed after reading this article. I think the Marriott response is devoid of integrity, and downright fraudulent by not having a process in place to immediately cancel the points transaction. There is simply no excuse to this corporate bullying by freezing the points account in response to a justified credit card dispute. Going forward, I would walk away from a Marriott booking at the hint of a suspicion, and book a different brand altogether.

Are you insane? Have you seen the screenshot of the transaction? According to you, a company can decide the correct amount to charge post displayed transaction amount and declare it nonrefundable?

You sound like an internet junkie to blame everyone for your miserable existence. That is my side of the story for you.

If she were to file a lawsuit, what’s the chance of winning? I assume it’s 100% given she made a video and Marriott admitted error. She should just go ahead.

BBB is yelp for old people. They have no power to do anything.

I've had exponentially more issues with Marriott than any other chain so this is unsurprising to me. I go out of my way to avoid them but since they have such a large footprint I do occasionally stay at a Marriott. However I will always book with an OTA as I'm not going to collect points from a brand I despise

I transferred over 600,000 Marriott points to airlines last year, leaving ~200 points in my account.

I’ve been done with Marriott for awhile.

This post only reinforces my decision.

All she has to do is dispute it with her credit card. They will easily refund her. I dispute stuff all the time, it is really surprising how many major corporations in America don't even even bother responded to credit card disputes!

Honestly, I've been a long time 6 year platinum and several years of gold level spg member. Marriott is just the worse program I've been in second to United Airlines. After finishing the last of my points, I will leave Marriott for good.

We've all heard horror stories about all the big hotel chains, but -- someone correct me if I'm wrong -- Marriott seems to be both the most common and worst offender. Given their reputation I'm not sure why anyone would be loyal to them.

Yes, occasionally a Marriott property is what makes sense for me. But when that happens, I'm earning airline miles on the stay, not Bonvoy points.

I agree with your first sentence, James. But I'm glad that OMAAT continues to cover Marriott's dirty tricks, because -- as can be seen in some comments on this page -- there are people who don't know how bad Marriott can be.

Late last year, after years of becoming progressively more disillusioned with Titanium status with Marriott I made the decision to finally ween myself off of Marriott. So far this year I have stayed at Marriott properties about 10% of what I have in previous years; the few times I did have been to use up remaining Bonvoy points / certificates. In 'playing the field' this year I've learned overall that Hyatt, Hilton, and even IHG hotel associates treat their everyday customers with more courtesy and respect that I've come to expect from Marriott. I'm not yet sure which brand(s) I'll be focusing more on in the future but I do know it certainly won't be Marriott.

They're also the biggest NA chain, so it's not surprising that we hear more stories. I'm not sure that Hilton is any better.

I'll be honest though, I've also had a few serious issues at Marriott, where I stay the most.

One time a 3 night booking turned into a 2 night one randomly (while still using 3 Suite Night Award) and I noticed the day before my flight.

Another time, a property tacked on a random expensive dinner charge (we had not dined at their restaurant) and it took multiple calls to get it resolved (front desk refused to do anything without a manager present who was strangely absent all morning at this property near YYZ).

Yet another time, I got a random charge from a property where I stayed over a month before. I called the front desk and they had no idea what it was and said the manager would call me back. Never got a call but found their email and emailed them a couple days later. A few days later, I check my account and the charge just got reversed (saw the refund go pending) and I then get an email from the manager that they had no idea what the charge I was seeing was and to contact them again it I still have the issue.

I probably forget a few more. I'm only loyal because I've also had fantastic experiences and because I've collected so many points over the years of churning in Canada. But these experiences tarnish my experience with them.

Hold on a second. There was no contract for the points, hence no fraud, punitive damages, attorneys fees, no criminality, etc. As I understand contract law, the posting of the price in YEN is basically a solicitation for an offer. A contract is formed only when Marriott accepts the offer, and clearly it did not accept. I won't get into the issue of mistake, because the filming of the video essentially shows the buyer was not mistaken.

There is an issue of whether Marriott had the right to amend the terms of the offer unilaterally (I am not so sure they have the right) BUT more to the point is how should Marriott deal with an obvious schemer - someone who is going to create negative publicity for the hotel while seeking to have her negative activity ignored.

Wouldn't local small claims court be the avenue of legal redress for this type of issue? Claim is less that $2K and it would bind Marriott to send someone to represent it in local court. I'm not an attorney, but this may be a course of action.

Tried to recreate the same scenario at the same hotel. Looks like the error has been corrected by quoting the amount to purchase points in USD. The rate for the stay is still in JPY.

Marriott is all about money. Every hotel chain they buy they immediately ruin. Their service is based upon a philosophy of do the minimum with minimum staff, minimum maintenance, minimum quality, if anyone pushed back during their stay bribe them with cookies. Marriott should be forced to divest it's hotel monopoly. İt's bad for the hotel business.

They should contact their bank first sine Marriott admitted the error they should get their money back.

As posted on a comment regarding Delta Airlines changes, Marriott is now run by "Bean Counters" who don't have a clue about the value of Marketing Loyalty programs.
I have lifetime Titanium because of my years of loyalty to Sheraton.

Because of the extreme devaluation fo Marriott points and poor service and lack of any enforcement fo Marriott Elite brands at franchisee hotels, I am pretty much abandoning the Marriott brand...Staying in Bangkok at Waldorf Astoria and Contrad vs St Regis and Plaza Athenee. So sad... Hope the managers at Marriott Luxury Hotels see this post.

Was there a confirmation email right after the purchase of points? The confirmation email itself is the acceptance at which point the contract was formed.

The writing is on the wall (actually this blog shows it), Marriott strong arms guests.
They did it to us a few times and by reading thru the comments they have done it to many (too many times).
Its only a matter of time when it catches up to Marriott, ie; yr ending numbers to Wall St conference calls.
They believe they are the Big Bad Marriott BBM and you are the peon traveller, just do as they say.
We take photos of reservations in case of problems, that person took video for proof. Didn't matter, right? We do so because we've been there, and the photo is the proof. Your word? what?

Take them to court? No. BBM will lock your account, kick you out, lose all your points.
Not worth it, its draconian against you.

Only in time, they will once again replace those executives at the top.
Its a real shame that Mr Bill Marriott is no longer involved. There was INTEGRITY at Marriott when he was.

That does not make any sense...

In this case Marriott made the offer to buy points at this price. The deal came to an agreement when Marriott accepted the money paid in the amount they actually ask for. How can this be a scheme by the buyer.

There are a lot of problems in the Marriott IT, so you do not have to plan something wrong if you make a proof screen shot of the booking. I always keep the email for cancelled stays because in the last years it happened a couple of times that booking that were cancelled months ago suddenly reaper on the day of the stay and then you need proof that you cancelled it correctly. It happened to me with the St. Regis in NY when they suddenly deducted 100k points from my account. I got them returned but just sending them the cancellation email was not enough. I had to ask the Ambassador service for help. Sometimes other thing happen, so it is important to keep the documentation.

Well, I do agree that Marriott IT is really bad and it is annoying that most chains in the program have different official rules about elite benefits so you have to make sure you know the rules. It might be easier to switch to another chain if you live in the US but it's not the same everywhere. I am based in Germany and use SPG/Bonvoy for many years. I have the ambassador status since a couple of years and I could not get to the highest loyalty tier in any other chain because they do not offer the same hotel range so I can always decide if I stay in a nice hotel or if I am finde with a Moxy or a Courtyard if I just stay the night. Also the benefits are much better in mainland Europe then in the US or the Caribbean's. Over here you they do oner the status and hand out really nice suites every time they are available. So I accept the glitches...

Similar thing happened to me. Bought points (~$650) to get enough to book a room for a week. Looking at my credit card bill, they charged me twice. Tried to go through Marriott to get the second charge removed and after a couple rounds of email, they said purchased points are non-refundable. Put a dispute in with the CC company and Marriott locked my account. Had to call them to unlock my account. They took the purchased points away (of the second charge). But this left a sour taste in my mouth.

I won’t book with Marriott until they correct that situation. Thanks for alerting us. Just awful—it will be hard to win back my trust.

Marriott is committing fraud. You can't charge someone's credit card whatever you feel like. The cardholder most consent. I hope the victim will press charges.

It just happens to me now. I am communicating with resolution Team specialist, and wait her reply. But just now, Marriott lock account. Help please!

Can you share Ambassadors email address?

I happens to have similar situation. Customer services seem not comprehend wholly. Hotel sent my complaint to M.Services. Even though I attached screenshots.

If they do not want to honor the deal with showing local currency. Marriott should just cancel deal , take away points and refund charges all.
Right?

“one of those situations where customer service just fails” - Sadly, these situations are increasingly common at Marriott hotels. You should vote with your wallet and simply boycott the chain.

I was just charged 5 seperate times on my credit card, the hotel manager emailed me 1 sentence - thanks for breaking the TV in the room you stayed in - 4 days AFTER I checked out . I didn't use the TV I was on my laptop working - I have a private live stream- never turned the TV on . I have contacted the hotel, swnt email to the owner, to the customer service email, the accounting department I want this investigated so I can get refunded for the 5 different seperate transactions they charged. I keep getting the same email reply- sorry we're gonna forward this to the managemnt team of the hotel- THEY ARE THE INES THAT CHARGED MY CARD!! WTF!!! I have gotten no where i NEED some advice where to go to next I already emailed my bank about this matter also.. I just want my money back, and an apology for falsely accusing me of property damage. 4 days AFTER i checked out. Come on! ANY ADVICE IS APPRECIATED!!!