Tag rci problems

So yesterday I finalized the travel arrangements to NYC for the Ireland trip.  My first goal was to secure the discounted airline tickets via RCI.  You may recall I tried early yesterday and again ran into typical RCI website problems.  I went through the entire process 3 times only to run into a cryptic error at the last step.

I did what the customer service masters at RCI recommended, waited and tried later, yesterday afternoon to be exact.  Once again I went through the entire selection process and had the site blow up at the end.  I had enough.  I had no resort but to once again call my buddies at RCI.

I explained to the woman that answered the phone that I have tried several times online to secure the tickets and keep experiencing errors, despite RCI’s previous claim that nothing was wrong with the site.  I told the woman I would like for RCI to do what I mentioned in the blog, book the reservations on the phone but don’t charge the higher processing fees.

To my surprise she agreed to do that, probably sensing the pent up anger and frustration in my voice that was sitting on a hair trigger to dump all over her.  She transferred me to another guy to take the actual reservation.

The way we had to do it was sort of dumb, once again thanks to RCI’s apparently inflexible order system.  We had to process the tickets with the full boat phone fee and then I was transferred again to have someone credit back the difference.  Dumb but the final result was what I wanted.

Ok one done, now I needed to book the hotel.  I targeted the Hotel Manhattan that I found through my RCI search.  Even though it was not available to be booked with my RCI points they were quite happy to take a regular reservation.  The place looked nice and is in a great location to see a number of sights via foot.

So I hop on their web site, enter the dates of our travel and amount of people.  They have rooms available, no problem, imagine that.  The total of $430 with taxes for two nights was stiff but from what I could see in my research, a pretty normal price for that area of the city.  I enter my CC info and purchase the room, done.  It felt good to have the accommodations finished, until I got the confirmation email from the hotel which included the info below.

Rate plan: Getaway Partner Promo
*ELIGIBILITY -In order to be eligible for this offer, you must have a verifiable, minimum annual household income of $100,000. During your stay, you will enjoy a private 90-minute preview of The Manhattan Club, NYC’s premier vacation ownership property. The Manhattan Club is registered in NY, NJ, CT, PA, MA, MD, NC, VA, and DC. This offer is not available to residents of any state in which registration is not complete. Residents of other states please select an alternative rate package. For full details, please click here. (http://www.nypreview.com/restWin06/leg.htm). You must attend the presentation. If married, cohabiting or engaged both parties must attend the full presentation together to qualify for the reduced rate. Net non-commissionable and non-refundable. If this rate plan is modified you will be charged the new rate plan difference.

I was not pleased.  Evidently the default rate that they display on their site is the one that requires you sit through the 90 minute time share pitch.  That is annoying but ok I guess.  The part that concerned me in reading this was it almost seemed like if you lived in a state other than the ones listed you were not eligible.

I called up the place and talked to a woman.  I told her I had not realized that the rate posted was dependent on the timeshare pitch.  It certainly wasn’t emphasized enough on the site in my opinion.  I told her we already had a timeshare and there was zero chance we were buying another.  She said that I could rebook the room at the NORMAL rate if I didn’t want to bother with the presentation.

So I quickly loaded the site and looked at NORMAL rates.  I almost shit my pants when I saw they were practically double the price.  I told the woman I would just do the presentation, thank you very much.  I also asked about the state restriction.  She said it was a bit confusing, you can live in any state and be eligible for the promotion. Ok, great.  So it looks like our stay in NYC will include 90 minutes of yawning and watch looking while we endure a mandatory sales pitch.

Jeremy sent me some good info on NYC, including a sweet option for getting from JFK to the city.  I had dreaded the idea of getting bilked by a cabbie.  It turns out you can get a round trip bus from and to the airport for $22 a head, not bad at all.  Once we are at the hotel I think we will be relying pretty much exclusively on leg power.

Last night I was quite busy.  First I tackled repairing the running club time clock.  This was one of the clocks I replaced the battery on a few months ago.  I was told the LED charging light was working erratically.  The thought was maybe I knocked something loose when I had it apart the first time.

Once I had the clock apart I confirmed that all of the connections involving the LED were tight and undisturbed.  I plugged the clock in and pulled out my volt meter.  I took a few readings and was not getting anything coming in, even at the main transformer, weird.

I noticed as I was plugging and unplugging the clock I got the LED to flash on and off briefly.  After some more trial and error I determined an unlikely source, the main AC plug.  If I tapped or moved the plug area I would be able to kick the LED on and off.

Now the ideal way to repair something like this would be to replace the cord assembly with a replacement cord that has bare wires on one end.  I didn’t have that.  I decided to instead cut off the plug end of a spare PC power cord and solder it onto the cut off wire from the timing clock.

It was a pretty tedious process.  I insulated the repair with a combination of duct tape and shrink tubing.  If we are careful with the cord the repair should hold up, if we aren’t a total cord replacement will be necessary.  I let the box charge up overnight, the LED worked perfectly.

Ipico BNC repair

Next up was repairing one of the timing mats.  The BNC connector for one of the mats had broken on Monday.  I had received some direction from an Ipico rep regarding how to fix it myself instead of dropping a chunk of change to ship it to them for repair.  He recommended a solderless right angle BNC connector available from Radio Shack.

This connector is nice not only because it doesn’t require me to utilize my poor soldering skills, it’s right angle design provides strain relief and should be more durable than the original connector.

Replacing the connector wasn’t very difficult at all.  After applying the shrink tube it looked good as new.  I attached the mat to the timing box to verify all was functioning properly which it was.

Since I had the equipment out already I decided to do some additional experimentation that was on my mind.  Our timing software has the ability to display a real time scoreboard as runners finish the race.  I had briefly messed with this function before and determined in order for this to work I would need a complete second set of timing hardware which is a considerable $5-6k expense so it wasn’t real feasible.

I had gotten a suggestion from the software author about a possible way to do this with only one set of timing hardware but it didn’t work.  I decided to try something else.

Instead of plugging the timing box directly into the laptop’s ethernet port I plugged it into a port on my 4 port switch.  I then fired up two of my laptops and plugged each of them into the same switch.

Ipico Lite Box

I copied all of the data from my test race from one laptop to the other laptop and then brought up the other laptop as it’s own race instead of being networked to the other laptop.  Once I did this I fired up the chip finish utility on one laptop and the real time scoreboard on the other laptop, pointing them both to the timing box as their source of data.   I was able to stream the data to both laptops without a problem, sweet.

The real time scoreboard also has the ability to send text messages of the finisher results as they cross the mats which would be a pretty neat feature as well.  That however would require the club getting a portable wi-fi hot spot that I could use at races.

This Sunday I am participating in the Naples Fitness Challenge, my first time participating in this local triathlon. Ali did the event last year as a team, doing the running and bike portion of the event.  This event is an oddball because they do the events in reverse order.  You run a 5K, then bike 15k, then swim a 400.

I mentioned to Ali that transition-wise this should be great for me since I will be basically just stripping down instead of putting stuff on which should be MUCH faster. The short bike distance should also considerably shorten my finish time compared to the FGCU tri.  Should be fun.

Last night after work I felt so tired despite getting 8 plus hours of sleep the night before.  Despite my lethargy I HAD to get in one more Bender attempt in since it was the last day of the month.  My goal was to hit double digits.  I was surprised that despite my lack of energy I was able to pull it off and in retrospect might have been able to get an 11th rep if I hung on the bar a bit longer.

My new $100 sonic bark inhibitor arrived yesterday. I didn’t feel like mounting it up last night despite being greeted by the customary shrill sounds of the chihuahuas barking when I got home.  This new device boasts it can detect barking from up to 75 feet away and send out a silent deterrent over a range of 300 feet!

I won’t be relying much on the device picking up the high pitched chihuahua screech though, that is what the remote control is for.  The remote can fire off the device from as far as 500 feet away.  I may have the remote surgically attached to my body.

I ordered the optional outdoor AC hookup so I never have to worry about low battery power delivering a less then full blast correction.  There is only one negative that I see.  For outdoor use they include a clear vinyl “rain jacket” for the device that has some small holes over the speaker and microphone areas.  I am worried in the extreme Florida conditions that the jacket may not hold up very well. I hope to have the device hooked up tonight after work.

I have a couple other small projects that need to get done.  I once again have one of the running club time clocks in my garage.  This is one of them that I replaced the batteries on.  Evidently the charging light has been flaky since the replacement, possibly I knocked something loose.

I have a second running club related repair as well.  One of the BNC connectors on a timing mat fell apart in my hand when I took the system apart after the race Monday.  After contacting Ipico they indicated they could repair it but there would be some considerable expense with freight both ways and time and materials  for what is a relatively simple repair for someone with basic skills.  I told them I had basic skills so they directed to me what I would need to fix the connector.  I hope to grab the parts today at Radio Shack.

Last night I went out with Ali on her tri bike so she could practice some more.  She made some good progress, successfully navigating relatively small radius 180 degree turns after initially being unable to do so.  She said she felt more comfortable on the bike which is great.  She will be using it for the triathlon we are doing this Sunday in Naples.

If you search my blog you will find some pretty extensive rants about RCI, the company that we are forced to use if we want to broker our timeshare points.  They have pissed me off many times with their ridiculous nickel & dime charges, horrible customer service and terrible web site.

Well you haven’t heard me rant about them in a few years because we haven’t used their service at all.  Since we discovered we really enjoy long road trip vacations with the dogs the past few years our RCI account has been collecting cob webs.  That timeshare purchase we made years ago has turned out to be a big waste of money in the big picture.

Well I figured I may try to get some use out of this pig for our upcoming trip to Ireland.  We need to fly up to New York to meet up with the rest of the family for the flight over the pond to the “homeland”.  I had suggested to Ali that maybe we could go up to New York a couple days early just to sight see a bit.  I was last in New York close to 25 years ago and Ali hasn’t been there since her school field trip days.

My thought was RCI could be used in one of two ways, to get a discount on our flight to New York or for accommodations in the city for a couple days.

So I log onto their website yesterday and am immediately greeted by frustration.  I keep getting stuck in authentication loops while trying to investigate my options.  I would try to look at available options, get prompted to log in, which I would and then be returned to the exact same page that would prompt me to log in again.

Eventually I got sick of trying and decided to just call them instead.  So I call the 800 number, follow the system prompts and get greeted a busy signal.  I tried three different times and had the same result.  I was amazed that after 3 years that RCI still sucked just as much as I recalled. I couldn’t believe both their web site AND phone system would be f’d up.  At least they consistently are a mess.

So I decided to call again today.  I found our old resort guide and found a RCI affiliated place in New York called the Manhattan Club.  It’s location would be just about perfect.  I didn’t bother trying to F with the web site again and instead hoped their phone system was actually functional.

After close to a 15 minute wait on hold, I was greeted by Janet.  Janet utilized an overly polite voice that crossed the line from friendly to phony.  I told Janet I was looking for information regarding availability of locations in New York in August.

Janet said she would be happy to help me, all we had to do was settle an outstanding $26 charge on the account before we could proceed.  She said it was the point rollover charge.  I have ranted about this charge before.

The way it works is RCI allots you a certain amount of points per year.  If you don’t get the opportunity to use your points during a certain year they will roll the points over to the next year.  How nice huh?  Well they will do this but it will cost you $26.  This $26 is in addition to the yearly fee that we pay to be a member of RCI.  This idea of paying for something that costs RCI NOTHING is like pouring battery acid on a brush burn for me.

When Janet told me about the charge I kept my cool and politely asked for a further explanation.  She told me that my 2011 usage year expired yesterday (ironically) so if I didn’t pay the $26 I would only be able to use my points for 2012.

I repeated this back to her, hoping she understood why this was so stupid.  I said “So Janet, you are telling me that even though it is June 1st, 2011, I can no longer use my 2011 points unless I pay RCI an additional $26 even though I my account is paid in full through May of 2012?”  “Yes, that is correct” Janet robotically replied, her voice obviously losing patience with my refusal to simply comply with the small fee.

I maintained my cool and tried to reason with Janet further.  I explained that there is no point in my paying the additional $26 if there are no available accommodations in New York City for the dates I need.  Janet insisted that unless I paid the additional $26 she was unable to do the search.  She then tried to blow me off, saying that I could call back if I changed my mind about the fee.

Well that removed any veils of politeness on my part.  I confirmed Janet’s name and asked to speak to her supervisor.  She chuckled under her breath as she said she would transfer me, just to be a bitch. F U Janet.

So after another 5 or 6 minute hold a gentleman picks up whom says he is a supervisor. I asked him if Janet explained my problem and he said she did.  I repeated my issue anyway, explaining that I was trying to see if I could even use my points at all and to be asked to pay $26 on top of what we already pay yearly to simply do a search was outrageous.

The supervisor understood my gripe.  He said that the way the RCI reservation system works for the call center it literally will not allow the reps to continue in the system unless that fee is addressed which sounded like pure and utter bullshit to me.  Magically, the supervisor did not have this restriction and he was able to perform the search for me.  He said the Manhattan Club had no open slots for the rest of 2011.  He said that typically high demand locations like this require booking 9-12 months in advance which was not news to me.

I thanked him for searching and inadvertently proving my point that I would have just wasted $26 to find out they couldn’t help me anyway.  I asked the supervisor if he had any info on how I could use my points towards discounted airfares.  He only knew some outlines of the plan so he transferred me to the department that handles that type of transaction.

After another 5 minute hold I am picked up on by another woman.  Even though I already provided full confirmation of my personal information to the previous clerk I was asked for it again.  I asked how the points for airfare deal worked.

The woman told me that I could use up to 25,000 of my points for a discount on the airfare.  The points translate into a cash discount on the price of the ticket, 25,000 points equals a $235 discount.  But of course as always with RCI, there is a catch.

If you book the flight online they charge you $25 to do so, there goes more than 10% of your “savings”.  If you have the audacity to expect a human being to help you book the flight they charge you $50, lol. What a joke.

I am sure the rates that you get booking a flight through RCI are padded already beyond what you would see if you went directly to the airlines, evaporating more of your make believe “discount”. I thanked the woman for the information, confirming that RCI is a waste of time all the way around.  She was sure to mention to me before I hung up that I had a $26 charge on my account if I wanted to roll over my points. She would be happy to process that for me. I told her thanks but no thanks.

I hung up with a renewed disgust for RCI.  I am annoyed that if I want to get any use out of my timeshare dollars at all I have to deal with these incompetent scam artists.  RCI sucks plain and simple, avoid them like the plague.

I guess if we want to extend our NYC stay we will be paying full boat to do so.