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A Happy Ending to the Hilton 10,000 Point Text Debacle

by on March 14, 2011 · 14 comments

in Hilton, Social Media

As many of you remember, a couple weeks ago we all had some fun taking advantage of a silly social media promotion that was sponsored by a Hampton Inn in Massachusetts.

Within a couple hours and after thousands of people texted in, the hotel ended up deleting their email account, shutting down their phone line, and sending out crazy emails from Yahoo accounts trying to get everything under control. This hotel grossly underestimated the power of social media and how quickly word spreads – especially within the points/frequent flyer community.

While the hotel immediately went into crisis mode and shut off communication, I knew that Hilton would make good for those who legitimately signed up for the promotion and received texts stating they’d get 10,000 points. It took a couple weeks and some emails with Hilton corporate customer service, but I am now officially 10,000 Hilton points richer and I know a bunch of TPG readers are as well. :-)

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  • Tao

    TPG, could you share your email with HHonors? I too sent them an email, but never got a response. Thanks.

  • The Points Guy

    [email protected]
    Hi HHonors-

    I recently signed up for the Facebook promotion that the Hampton Inn Raynham, which stated I would get 10,000 HHonors points for signing up for their text club. I signed up for the text club and I started receiving their promotions via text, but I received a message that they would not honor the promotion.

    Can you please look into this? I feel that they misled me to sign up for their text club and now they don’t want to honor the promotion.

    Thanks so much!

    The Points Guy
    Phone number xxxxxxx
    Hilton Silver: xxxxxxxx

  • The Points Guy

    Response several days later:
    Dear Mr. Kelly,

    We have received your comments regarding our hotel in Guest Assistance. Please allow us three business days to review and resolve this matter. It is Hilton’s policy to give our hotels the opportunity to get involved to resolve pending issues. We want you as our loyal guest and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Thank you for your patience.

    Sincerely,

    Jane Smith

  • The Points Guy

    Message from hotel manager Michael Buddemeyer
    There was confusion concerning this promotion. The actual intention of the promotion was to text to join our local loyalty club and was targeted to 150 of our current loyal guests and was not meant to be offered to everyone. Everyone else other than our current loyal guests were not qualified for the promotion and this promotion was not designed for them.

    The reply text instructed the texter to call a phone number to redeem the offer, it did not say that the texter would receive the points. Once the texter made the telephone call and was qualified as a loyal current guest of ours, we would have instructed them on how to redeem the point offer.

    I apologize for the confusion of this program and we will issue the points to your account.

    Thank you for your understanding

    Michael Buddemeyer
    Regional Director of Hotel Operations

  • Addison

    Issue hasnt been resolved for all your readers. Still waiting to hear back. Sent in my 3rd inquiry this morning.

  • The Points Guy

    @Addison- hang in there and be persistent. I’m pretty sure Hilton just wants this to go away and will probably just give you the bonus if you make enough of a racket :-)

  • http://bimmerinfo.com Ray

    My points were processed in the Mar 10th batch. I did have to fire off numerous emails to HHonors and a woman who replied back to my email stating the same 3 day waiting period. After 4-5 days I emailed her back and asked about my status. I did not hear anything back, so I emailed both HHonors and the lady back and funny as it may seem I was given the miles on that day and the lady responded back the same day. HHonors responded that same day or the next day. Needless to say I was not too happy about how they were slow rolling, but in the end I was given the points as it was so stated by the initial promotion. FYI, it was not the “Jane Smith” listed above, it was a another lady.

    The right thing was done, and I’m sure Hilton has sent out something to hotel managers about this type of issue for the future.

  • Tao

    Got an automated email back from HHonors. Then nothing. Good job Hilton!

  • Heather

    FYI, I received my 10,000 points in my account this week. :-)

  • Addison

    Still nothing for me. I just don’t understand the inconsistency in resolutions here. They’ve either decided to honor this promotion or not. I haven’t gotten anything other than an automated response from Hilton. I’ve called to file a complaint and sent numerous emails. Not even so much as an acknowledgement. This is really disappointing to be left out…

  • Heather

    Addison, I sent my email to Michael Buddemeyer containing my issues (saying everything that I had done) with my hilton hhonor’s number, etc. He replied very quickly and was very nice. See if that works for you.

  • Heather

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