Even as a Marriott Bonvoy loyalist you sometimes can't avoid staying at other hotels when the situation deems right. Now and then I would end up staying at a Novotel or Ibis just because it is a better choice price-wise or location compared to a Marriott hotel.
This year I wanted to explore Accor more since the Accor Plus program seems worthwhile and cheaper to achieve Platinum Elite status compared to Marriott. I availed of the Accor Plus membership and everything looked good until my last stay at the Mercure Bangkok Surawong.
I only booked the hotel because of an ongoing 4x reward points promotion for the newly opened hotels. Long story short I didn't receive my points and customer service replied through email that I wasn't eligible. I double-checked the T&C with the relevant booking and stay dates and I was eligible but it turns out that after my stay there was a new batch of new hotels with the same promotion, which is what the response email was referring to.
I tried to prove my case with clear screenshots from the past promotions and my booking but I've never gotten a response back ever since. I tried contacting them through everything from email, app, website, Instagram, Facebook, and even the Accor Plus WhatApp number, which was also hard to reach. Accor Plus told me they had no access to ALL points and I had to contact ALL customer service.
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A couple of months passed with no reply and I accepted it, but then I checked my account and noticed that I was deducted ALL points for "Account Regularization". Based on some online forums it's for points adjustment, but I was deducted points for the other promotion I had earned points from which was 20% bonus points for booking on the ALL app.
Again I've been trying to contact them through all means but to no avail. I felt like I lost a couple of days of my life from getting stressed and frustrated by trying to contact Accor's customer support and it just isn't worth it anymore.
Although I'm still at Gold status for Accor I didn't expect this blatant disregard for their customer's concerns and to think I'm an Accor Plus member.
Never encountered this kind of problem with Marriott even back then when I was just a Silver Elite member I would always get a prompt reply from the customer service team.
This might have become somewhat of a rant post but hopefully, my frustrations aren't felt by other members.
Moving forward it would be best not to expect any customer support from Accor when issues arise and better off booking Accor stays with ShopBack instead of their bonus points promotions.
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