Try To See It My Way

An Open Letter to the Marriott Hotel Chain:

Dear Marriott,

Just one month ago, I experienced your Desert Springs Resort and Spa in Palm Desert, California. Admittedly, it's a bit of a drive, as I live in Phoenix (home to many of its own fine resorts, including the Biltmore, just up the road from me) but I had the opportunity to spend a long weekend with my sister, who lives in New York, but was attending a conference there in mid-June. So I went.

I must say the resort there is quite beautiful, scenic and verdant. The golf courses also appeared to be splendid. The lobby was hip, exotic and ornate. These are the things I notice from the photographs I took while I was there, the things I could not actually see - in the moment as it were - because someone stole my glasses at the Oasis swimming pool within hours of my arrival on Saturday, June 13th.

I don't mean "sunglasses" or just plain "prescription glasses" that you get at the mall. These were prescription sunglasses, with Transitions lenses on rimless RayBan frames. Without those, I pretty much see things as shapes and colors unless I'm within about ten feet of what it is I'm trying to look at.

Further, I don't mean to say that the glasses came up missing or got misplaced or were lost or any other such thing. They got grabbed, along with a cooler-bag and a baseball cap (the tee-shirt and flip-flops apparently weren't so desirable). There were no other patrons around that end of the pool, only resort employees; several of them were running around scooping up towels and, apparently, my personal property.

The irony is that I was somewhat impressed, even irked, at the levels of security present at the pool, right down to the highlighter-yellow wristbands that guests were required to wear. In fact, a radio-wielding employee made me go back up to my room, on the 4th floor, to retrieve said wristband before I could get into the pool area. Stalwart.

Anyway, the front desk immediately assured me that nobody could do anything about my glasses. Noone was answering the phone at Lost and Found, so I would just have to check back in the morning - good night, now! Nobody had any information for me in the morning, so I went down to the front desk and asked for the police to be called.

Rather than going through the proper machinations of law enforcement, I was introduced to your Loss Prevention Supervisor, Ken. I was assured that a claim would be put in, and that Marriott's claims department was both "fair" - I'm quoting Ken here - and "giving". I then called my optometrist, Bruce Tager, and had him fax over the invoice for the new pair of glasses that I had to order.

So, needless to say, my golf clubs stayed in the trunk of the car and the money for greens fees stayed in my wallet. Pretty much, I either hung out in the room and listened to TV, or hung out by the Springs pool (although with a heightened sense of vigilance). I checked in with Lost and Found a couple more times to see if the glasses had turned up, as we all hoped they would, but to no avail.

On Tuesday, June 16th, I underwent the unhappy task of driving 280 miles back to Phoenix in a manner inconsistent with the requirements noted on my Arizona driver's license (i.e., blind). Now, at this time, it was still my belief that Marriott was one of the uppermost brands in the hospitality industry, and I was confident that this would all be taken care of in a forthright manner.

Now I am here, with substantial regret, to explain to you that such is not the case. After two weeks and two inquisitive e-mails to Ken, I got an e-mail response that only asked if I had "heard from Claims?" I summarily sent a more forceful e-mail indicating that this isn't exactly leading to a stellar online review from me. That prompted, finally, a phone call.

In that phone call, Ken kept saying that he wanted to make me happy, and went on to offer me "a bunch of points" or a free two-night stay at the resort (weekends excluded). I told him that those things would not make me happy, as I had to pay out of pocket to Tager Optical for replacement glasses, and that I was not likely to be out in Palm Desert again regardless.

Ken then told me that he would go ahead and submit the claim, which he should have done two weeks earlier, and that I should be patient because "the wheels move slowly". I withheld the obvious retort that this is the computer age already. I also wondered, not aloud, why he had earlier asked me if I had heard from Claims when he had not even contacted them yet.

I noticed that evening that Ken had also e-mailed his offer of "points" (which I know nothing about) or a complimentary stay at Marriott, a prospect which, frankly, dims more and more with each passing day. Another week or so went by before I would again hear from the J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa.

This time, it was Lorena on the phone, telling me that my claim had been authorized, but that it still had to be approved "by corporate". That sounded fine to me, three and a half weeks after the fact, and she said I should call her back if I didn't get a check within a few days... Which I didn't.

What I did get, however, was a W9 form along with a note from Marriott Business Services in Louisville, Tennessee, asking for my tax ID number, as they had "received your (my) request to add you to our vendor database for future payment of invoices". Further, the letter stated that I may be "subject to a $50 penalty imposed by the Internal Revenue Service under section 6723" if I don't provide them with my tax ID number.

That's nice.

It sounds like you want me to take you seriously. Well, I'd like you take me seriously, too. I know what a W9 is for. Seems to me that your guy Ken just doesn't want to present "corporate" with an invoice for property that was stolen on his watch, so maybe he's cooking this up to make it look like I did some sort of work for your hotel, and that I'm being paid for a good or service rendered, which is so very clearly wrong.

So I told myself this afternoon, it's been a whole month now, I don't care if there's a check sitting in the mailbox - I'm going viral on you people. I went to my computer keenly intent upon razing your reputation, and was kind of surprised to find that many of the online reviews of the J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa were quite complimentary...

Except for the one posted on TravelYahoo! on May 10, 2007 by someone whose glasses were swiped from her room there. Prescription sunglasses. With designer frames. Two instances of misappropriated glasses in a two-year time frame, that doesn't (necessarily) comprise a pattern, does it? Her complaint about the stubborn and unhelpful LP department, that doesn't (automatically) constitute a pathology. Does it?

But I'm not going to sandbag you on all those travel websites. Nor will I post my video, which I could call "A Den Of Thieves", on YouTube. Oh, you deserve it, but it's not my style, kind of beneath a person of my talents and resources. I'm more the type to take solace in the fact that the old wheel, she comes around regularly.

For instance, my sister that I mentioned, she was an event organizer for that convention she was attending that weekend. Of course that's not her profession; she's a rocket scientist just like the rest of the people who attended. (Hint: Not the yoga instructors.) She's just willing to put up with the process of fielding bids and whatnot for their conferences. They even gave her a little plaque for doing it. I don't know how much those conferences cost, but I do know that there is fierce competition to host them, or so she said.

My dear sister lived through my entire ordeal, even the part about sightlessly driving down I-10. She's already called me a couple of times, asking if I'd been reimbursed yet. (Nope.) Oh, the resort also tried to bill her $50 for valet parking, even though she didn't even have a car. And she was also late to a meeting when her wake-up call didn't happen. Minor annoyances, I say.

Well, I guess I've taken up enough of your time. No hard feelings, just bad ones. Good luck in the future, Marriott. I suggest you take a look at what goes on at your wonderful resort there in Palm Desert. The place has everything going for it... Or so I've heard.

(ADDENDUM: One month after posting this article, and fully two months after the incident, Marriott sent a check covering the full amount of the glasses. Much appreciated, albeit long overdue.)

pH 7.13.o9