Annoyed with MS

[Iggipolka]

We are brand spanking new DVC members, just finished signing all of the contract paperwork today. However, we are already annoyed with MS!

We live on the West Coast, and MS is on East Coast time and are only open until 5:30pm EST most days of the week! That's 2:30pm PST! It would be so much more helpful for those of us on the West Coast for MS to be open until at least 5:30pm PST. It would be even better for them to be open until 9pm PST, so that we don't have to call from work or call them at 6am. The lack of weekend hours (partial on Saturday, not open at all on Sunday), really contribute to the problem.
Maybe this will change with a DVC property opening up at Disneyland, but right now, it's really inconvenient.

I've read the posts other's have made about wanting to be able to book online and I completely agree with that. If you can book online for other resort properties, I think that they could modify that for DVC members to be able to book online. That would solve a lot of problems.

Ok..griping over (for now). When we do actually get to talk to someone at MS, they have always been very helpful and super nice. I'd just like to be able to talk with them more often!

[grizbuzz]

I hear ya. DVC needs to do a little more for its West Coast members!

[tor]

Why stop at 9 pst what about the soon to be built Hawaii resort they have to call by 1130 am and what about all the members from England that have to wait until 2 pm before it opens. It needs to be open 24 hours

[Tinkerdreams]

I really do believe that as DVC expands to other locations, then MS will also expand in response to the new demands of its members. This will be a natural business re-alignment. ;)

[Dean]

The majority of members are on Eastern or Central time so I doubt this will change. Most people that have to work normal hours have trouble with calling period. Personally I'd prefer to be able to call at 6 am as I'm at work well before 9 and rarely home before 5:30 or 6 pm. Thus, IMO, most of those on the west coast are generally at an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

[Donald is #1]

The majority of members are on Eastern or Central time so I doubt this will change. Most people that have to work normal hours have trouble with calling period. Personally I'd prefer to be able to call at 6 am as I'm at work well before 9 and rarely home before 5:30 or 6 pm. Thus, IMO, most of those on the west coast are generally at an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

Dean, I have the same problem. I get in work at 7 AM and if I am lucky, I can get out about 6. (We work 9 hour days Monday - Thursday plus 8 hours every other Friday.) I always seem to be too busy to call from work. So I end up calling MS either Thursday nights, every other Friday, or Saturday afternoons.

So, I would love to have expanded hours.

To the OP: I just joined the DVC in May. When I tried to call the first time, I was very disappointed to find out what their hours were. For reservations between 11 and 7 months, I have been using the website and putting in a request. I figure if I put in a request on Sunday or Monday, I will still be a head since they process them within 2 days.

[Deb & Bill]

We usually call at lunch time.

[Iggipolka]

As soon as I posted, I thought about how America-centric my post was. I feel even worse for the people in Europe with the cruddy MS hours. I do hope that they expand their hours.

[shellybaxter]

I'm a west coast DVCer and I don't mind the MS hours at all. I like that I can call before leaving for work in the morning. That works great for me. I can also call on my lunch hour which also works for me.

Dean - How do you know that the majority of the members are from the East and Central time zones? I'm just curious

[KPeterso]

I agree and feel your pain about the hours as someone from the west coast. I usually call from work or at lunch, but it is still a pain to try to have everything set to call then and then get busy or to lunch too late to call. I wish the hours were a little more expanded or open Saturaday mornings. Sigh.

[robinb]

Look on the bright side. Your lunch hour is the slow time for member services.

[Longhairbear]

Someone at MS told me that the Sat hours were originally done for west coast members' convenience.

[Pootle]

As soon as I posted, I thought about how America-centric my post was. I feel even worse for the people in Europe with the cruddy MS hours. I do hope that they expand their hours.

I'm in the UK and like the hours :) It means I can call MS up to 10 pm most nights and even later on Thursdays. It does feel a bit strange though when they wish you a 'nice day' and you are ready for bed!

[WebmasterDoc]

How do you know that the majority of the members are from the East and Central time zones? I'm just curious

In the past, DVC has published the number of members by state and country. While I don't recall a recent listing of members, there have always been far more members east of the Mississippi than west. I would expect it would be similar demographics to guests visiting WDW - more from the East than the West. I also would expect that the demographics for GCV and probably Ko Olina will be just as dramatic with far more owners from the West than the East.

Dean may remember some of the actual numbers, but the totals were definitely heavier for eastern states. CA did have a good number of members, but FL, NY, NJ and IL all had very large contingencies as well as the UK.

[juliebrooks35]

I live in the UK but I'm not so keen on MS opening hours. I will usually be hoping to reserve peak holiday times and want to do AKL concierge at least once. For that reason I would really like to be able to phone as soon as MS open at the 11 month booking window in order to maximise my chances. Unfortunately, I'll be at work then and as the phones at my work don't allow international calling, I won't be able to call until I get home some 4 hours later. Maybe I'm worried about nothing and will still manage to get what I'm looking for but I can't help but feel that I might miss out:sad1:

I do appreciate that even those in the East Coast may start work before 9am and can't make that call either though so the current system will not suit everyone.

Someone suggested 24 hour opening and I do think that would work well for everyone,wherever they live in the world, but I don't think it will be an option anytime soon. :)

[crisi]

I live in the UK but I'm not so keen on MS opening hours. I will usually be hoping to reserve peak holiday times and want to do AKL concierge at least once. For that reason I would really like to be able to phone as soon as MS open at the 11 month booking window in order to maximise my chances. Unfortunately, I'll be at work then and as the phones at my work don't allow international calling, I won't be able to call until I get home some 4 hours later. Maybe I'm worried about nothing and will still manage to get what I'm looking for but I can't help but feel that I might miss out:sad1:

I do appreciate that even those in the East Coast may start work before 9am and can't make that call either though so the current system will not suit everyone.

Someone suggested 24 hour opening and I do think that would work well for everyone,wherever they live in the world, but I don't think it will be an option anytime soon. :)

Course being open 24 hours doesn't solve the "have to call when they open" problem - just changes it to "have to call when the rooms are released into the system." If the rooms become available at midnight Eastern time in the U.S., that means that me in central time simply calls in at 11:pm - and that in the UK you are calling at - 5am? Maybe they can release rooms so you'd have to live in the middle of the Atlantic to get up in the middle of the night.

(I work on worldwide IT teams - membership comes from Europe, Asia and the U.S. - there is NO time that you can get all members on the phone without it being the middle of someone's night - with a DVC Hawaii going in, I'd expect Asian membership to go up.)

[DVCsince02]

Just because the majority of members are on the East, doesn't mean the call center has to be fully staffed. I used to work at a call center and to accomodate callers in other time zones we were open 24 hours but only fully staffed during the peak hours. Just a few people were there "late".
Disney claims to be so people friendly, but this needs some improvement.

[shellybaxter]

In the past, DVC has published the number of members by state and country. While I don't recall a recent listing of members, there have always been far more members east of the Mississippi than west. I would expect it would be similar demographics to guests visiting WDW - more from the East than the West. I also would expect that the demographics for GCV and probably Ko Olina will be just as dramatic with far more owners from the West than the East.

Dean may remember some of the actual numbers, but the totals were definitely heavier for eastern states. CA did have a good number of members, but FL, NY, NJ and IL all had very large contingencies as well as the UK.


Cool - thank for the information

[mark&sue]

I agree with Moira as I love being able to call MS here in England late into the evening. When I want to book something really special like BCV last October for food and wine at 7 month window I arranged to go home in my lunch hour a bit later and I got what I wanted.

All other bookings have not been a problem.


Susan

[jennz]

Course being open 24 hours doesn't solve the "have to call when they open" problem - just changes it to "have to call when the rooms are released into the system." If the rooms become available at midnight Eastern time in the U.S., that means that me in central time simply calls in at 11:pm - and that in the UK you are calling at - 5am? Maybe they can release rooms so you'd have to live in the middle of the Atlantic to get up in the middle of the night.

You read my mind!! It's always something isn't it? ;)

[salmoneous]

The problem isn't MS, but the whole concept of time zones. We are one country in the US, we should have one time zone. Not only will this solve the MS operating hours problem, but it will solve more important issues such as scheduling baseball playoff games. No more starting games at 9:00 EST so that 9-5 West Coasters can get home to see the start of the game. You West Coasters may have a few issues reaching MS, but at least you get to see the end of Monday Night Football.

Now, I realize mandating AST (American Standard Time) won't help folks overseas. I'll leave that problem to other, smarter folk than me.

[rinkwide]

The majority of members are on Eastern or Central time so I doubt this will change...I disagree. When GCV and Hawaii come online MS hours will definitely be extended.

[Dean]

I disagree. When GCV and Hawaii come online MS hours will definitely be extended.I doubt it as most of the members will still be in the Eastern and Central Time zones, even for those that own in HI. We might see a minor extension like Thursday till 9 pm easter instead but certainly not wholesale changes.

[spiceycat]

have hope - maybe they will allow internet access finally to reserve reservations - online.

now if you want banking - then that is still done only through MS on the phone - they won't allow email to do that.

in your case might send an email - do it a couple of days before you would call - they require 48 hours to do emails.

[mlayton14]

We are brand spanking new DVC members, just finished signing all of the contract paperwork today. However, we are already annoyed with MS!

We live on the West Coast, and MS is on East Coast time and are only open until 5:30pm EST most days of the week! That's 2:30pm PST! It would be so much more helpful for those of us on the West Coast for MS to be open until at least 5:30pm PST. It would be even better for them to be open until 9pm PST, so that we don't have to call from work or call them at 6am. The lack of weekend hours (partial on Saturday, not open at all on Sunday), really contribute to the problem.
Maybe this will change with a DVC property opening up at Disneyland, but right now, it's really inconvenient.

I've read the posts other's have made about wanting to be able to book online and I completely agree with that. If you can book online for other resort properties, I think that they could modify that for DVC members to be able to book online. That would solve a lot of problems.

Ok..griping over (for now). When we do actually get to talk to someone at MS, they have always been very helpful and super nice. I'd just like to be able to talk with them more often!

Yet ANOTHER reason to put reservations and availability on the web ... its just preposterous to be living in the old days .. this is 2007 for heavens sake.

[Kurby]

i can't understand why they wouldn't allow online reservations, banking, transferring, or availability look up

if you can book other hotels (not Disney), flights, apply for unemployment, birth certificates and much more why can't Disney figure out how to open up those mentioned to online capabilities?

if one of those travel sites can tell you how many rooms are available at the price you want and you book it and see that number drop by one surly with all the technology and money Disney has they could do the same.

with paypal i can request payments, make payments and transfer money to my account online myself through my account info.

they need to update their system.

[mamatojon]

now if you want banking - then that is still done only through MS on the phone - they won't allow email to do that.


I banked my points online earlier this year, did they stop that recently? I just checked on the member website and don't see the option anymore, but then again I don't have any points to bank now so I don't know if that is the reason I don't see it.

[Island Mouse]

The problem isn't MS, but the whole concept of time zones. We are one country in the US, we should have one time zone. Not only will this solve the MS operating hours problem, but it will solve more important issues such as scheduling baseball playoff games. No more starting games at 9:00 EST so that 9-5 West Coasters can get home to see the start of the game. You West Coasters may have a few issues reaching MS, but at least you get to see the end of Monday Night Football.

Now, I realize mandating AST (American Standard Time) won't help folks overseas. I'll leave that problem to other, smarter folk than me.

Yeah those 9-5 west coasters are lucky to get home to see the start of the games. If I get home at 5:30 usually the game is ending. And I have to get up at 7am on Sundays if I want to see the early football game. And don't get me started about calling MS when they open. 3am is usually too late to stay up at night and too early to wake up in the morning. Just go ahead and change to an online reservation system already!!!
I was thinking about the single timezone for the US and if we went by the Eastern time for the basis, that would mean my daylight hours in Hawaii would be between 1pm and midnight. By the time the sun rises in Hawaii it is the afternoon on the East Coast.