Disney Vacation Account?

[Samantha Gilbreath]

Has anybody else had trouble receiving their bonus gift card through their DVA? I requested mine back in the beginning of January, with no word yet. I've sent two emails and have not received a response either. That's $140 I was looking forward to putting into my onboard account!

 

[ladybugmommy84]

Oh wow that's crazy. I may cancel mine if it's not working correctly.

Sorry read that wrong. I thought that was the money to pay for cruise.

 

[anricat]

I've been getting mine automatically. Just last month I loaded up my onboard account with over $1000 and they automatically sent me a $20 card. Then a week later I bought Disney World tickets (which was over $1000) and they automatically sent another $20 card. Seems that it would have been less postage for them to wait for me to request $40 in one go. Yes, I know, they had no way of knowing I wasn't done spending, and automatically receiving them is easier, but it seems like they've changed things up.

If you haven't gotten your reward, it seems like a phone call may be in order. (407) 939-7734

 

[WIFamily]

Same problem here - I requested mine in late Jan (and I submitted a second request in mid Feb). I even called yesterday, the lady told me that she was going to submit a request to have the support team trace if my request is being processed. Since then I haven't received anything - not even an email. So I'm going to call tomorrow and escalate right there on the phone. My card should be $120 based on the amount spent.

I'm getting frustrated.

 

[WIFamily]

So I called today about 10AM Central time. Talked to a nice young man, he read off the notes from my account, saw that I had called and talked to Debbie on Wednesday, had the details of that. Tried to tell me that I should hear back from someone soon, at which point I gently requested to speak to someone directly and get details now while I was on the phone. I reminded him that the initial request was submitted in mid Jan, and since I had not received any feedback I submitted another request in early Feb. I added that neither of those initiated any response from the Disney side, that my cruise was in exactly 5 weeks, that we were talking about non-insignificant dollars @ $120. Finally I added that since I had waited 48 hours I wanted more detail while on the phone.

He escalated to a lady who stated she is a support lead for the website. I was on hold for 10 minutes, she came back on and apologized profusely, had a third gentleman on with her and they were reviewing things. She asked me some more details about when I opened the account, when I paid for the vacation, when I submitted the bonus request. I was put on hold for another 10 minutes. She came back on very apologetic again, took my contact information, and said she was "walking this over to the DVA tier 3 support team". She did say that they have been extremely busy with requests, but because my vacation was 5 weeks away that she would do whatever it took to get my request to the top of the list. She then said that if I don't receive a phone call within 24 hours to call back and escalate it further. She gave me her full name and her supervisors name, and said this has all been noted in my case notes.

Short story - the DVA is again having problems, they still have a note on the web page about issues they had with bonus request processing between Sept 20th and Oct 11th of last year. 2% is turning into a lot of hassle.

 

[WIFamily]

Darn it! DVA called me while I was out to dinner with family - so I didn't answer it. The voicemail basically says that "My trip date is April 17th according to my profile, so my bonus card is scheduled to be processed next week. Thank you and have a magical day". Ugh, their communication skills are terrible. An automated email acknowledging my online request and some details on processing would have been so very nice.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Darn it! DVA called me while I was out to dinner with family - so I didn't answer it. The voicemail basically says that "My trip date is April 17th according to my profile, so my bonus card is scheduled to be processed next week. Thank you and have a magical day". Ugh, their communication skills are terrible. An automated email acknowledging my online request and some details on processing would have been so very nice.

I know you've been through a lot and clearly a CM should have shared this info with you earlier. Based on your updated response this feels correct. It's been my experience that if you request your bonus cards way ahead of your travel date (that you put in when requesting the cards), you won't get them until their window says it's time which appears to be about 3-4 weeks out. I received my latest $80 in cards for our August cruise last week however the date I entered for the vacation when requesting the cards was 3/29. I did receive an email when the cards were shipped so I'm hopeful you will too.

Yes the DVA can be wacky but I think a lot of frustration could be eased if they truly had a dedicated team that understood how it worked and could really SEE the info in the account real time and didn't have to refer to the back team for a call back a few days later. So frustrating.

I haven't been able to enter cards for two days now and they acknowledge there is an issue so here we go again, lol.

I hope you get your cards soon!

Heather

 

[jtba]

I know you've been through a lot and clearly a CM should have shared this info with you earlier. Based on your updated response this feels correct. It's been my experience that if you request your bonus cards way ahead of your travel date (that you put in when requesting the cards), you won't get them until their window says it's time which appears to be about 3-4 weeks out. I received my latest $80 in cards for our August cruise last week however the date I entered for the vacation when requesting the cards was 3/29. I did receive an email when the cards were shipped so I'm hopeful you will too.

Yes the DVA can be wacky but I think a lot of frustration could be eased if they truly had a dedicated team that understood how it worked and could really SEE the info in the account real time and didn't have to refer to the back team for a call back a few days later. So frustrating.

I haven't been able to enter cards for two days now and they acknowledge there is an issue so here we go again, lol.

I hope you get your cards soon!

Heather

hey heather, i just entered one card and it worked. perhaps they were able to fix it in the past few hours. good luck!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

hey heather, i just entered one card and it worked. perhaps they were able to fix it in the past few hours. good luck!

I guess I missed an open window last night as I just tried and I'm getting the same message:

• An error occurred during payment processing. Please try again later.

So this makes day three but luckily the ones I"m entering are for 4/2017 so I have plenty of time but just irritating of course. I'll keep trying this weekend and hopefully can get them entered and move on.

Thanks for sharing with me
Heather

 

[jtba]

I guess I missed an open window last night as I just tried and I'm getting the same message:

• An error occurred during payment processing. Please try again later.

So this makes day three but luckily the ones I"m entering are for 4/2017 so I have plenty of time but just irritating of course. I'll keep trying this weekend and hopefully can get them entered and move on.

Thanks for sharing with me
Heather

gah, how frustrating! :/

 

[Krissy22222]

When you receive the bonus cards, can you put them right back into your DVA, or must they be spent on the vacation, be it a cruise, at wdw, etc? Are they regular gift cards? Can you just spend them in a Disney store or at Disney store online?

 

[jtba]

When you receive the bonus cards, can you put them right back into your DVA, or must they be spent on the vacation, be it a cruise, at wdw, etc? Are they regular gift cards? Can you just spend them in a Disney store or at Disney store online?

yes, it's just a regular ol' Disney gift card, though it usually has its value imprinted on the back. however, you can also add in additional money, transfer the balance into another Disney gift card, etc.

you can indeed put it right back into your DVA, on a Disney property, or in any manner that a Disney gift card is usually spent.

 

[Samantha Gilbreath]

Thanks for your responses, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one, and maybe they will be sent closer to my sail date (5/21). If I had known this, I would have put in an earlier sale date because I like to have things finalized well ahead of schedule! A simple email communicating confirmation of my gift card request and anticipated ship date would have been REALLY helpful. Ugh.

 

[lilclerk]

I just got both of ours this week (two separate accounts) for our trip on 4/25.

 

[WIFamily]

I just got both of ours this week (two separate accounts) for our trip on 4/25.

Did you have 4/25 in as your trip date? I had 4/17 in as mine, and submitted my request in January - I was just told (after two separate phone calls) that because my trips was 4/17 that my request would be processed this coming week. If your date was set - then this is really an indication of the problems they are having on the back end of this system.

 

[WIFamily]

Thanks for your responses, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one, and maybe they will be sent closer to my sail date (5/21). If I had known this, I would have put in an earlier sale date because I like to have things finalized well ahead of schedule! A simple email communicating confirmation of my gift card request and anticipated ship date would have been REALLY helpful. Ugh.

Exactly my thoughts. You can bet that by Thursday of this week if I haven't received an email stating that my cards have been processed that I will be calling and sitting on hold until I get a status. I get that they want to hold onto any money we put into the accounts until the very last minute in an attempt to earn as much interest as possible - but the lack of details and lack of communication is unacceptable to me.

 

[WIFamily]

I know you've been through a lot and clearly a CM should have shared this info with you earlier. Based on your updated response this feels correct. It's been my experience that if you request your bonus cards way ahead of your travel date (that you put in when requesting the cards), you won't get them until their window says it's time which appears to be about 3-4 weeks out. I received my latest $80 in cards for our August cruise last week however the date I entered for the vacation when requesting the cards was 3/29. I did receive an email when the cards were shipped so I'm hopeful you will too.

Yes the DVA can be wacky but I think a lot of frustration could be eased if they truly had a dedicated team that understood how it worked and could really SEE the info in the account real time and didn't have to refer to the back team for a call back a few days later. So frustrating.

I haven't been able to enter cards for two days now and they acknowledge there is an issue so here we go again, lol.

I hope you get your cards soon!

Heather

Thanks for the details and good wishes. Hopefully things work out for both of us in the coming days!

 

[Susiesark]

I requested my $80 bonus about 6 times, from about 2 months before my vacation, then when I got to WDW I called , then from the cruise ship, and even when I got home. I emailed, spoke with people. and I still never got my bonus.

 

[lilclerk]

Did you have 4/25 in as your trip date? I had 4/17 in as mine, and submitted my request in January - I was just told (after two separate phone calls) that because my trips was 4/17 that my request would be processed this coming week. If your date was set - then this is really an indication of the problems they are having on the back end of this system.

I am positive I put 4/25 on one of them. The other may have had a late-March date, but I'm pretty sure it was 4/25 too. But they still both came last week, within a few days of each other.

I did pay off the trip and requested refunds from both accounts at the same time though, maybe that's what triggered the bonus payout?

 

[VanessainWonderland]

What is this and how does it work? Just got off the Disney magic today and put a deposit down for the next cruise. How does this DVA work? Thanks in advance