2 Bad Experiences w/ Member Services

[kjkelley]

I just got off the phone with Member Services and had a bad experience on two fronts:

1. I was trying to make a reservation for my parents to join us in a studio at SSR in May (i.e. get them their own studio). Unfortunately I am out of points and will need to try and rent 12 points from another member. Well in an effort to understand what kind of time pressure I am under, I asked how many studios they have left and they would not tell me. In the past I could get this information but now they will give you no clue. What gives here, I am just trying to understand what kind of time pressue I am under to get these 12 points.

2. I had a BCV WL for three different variations: a 1 bedroom for 4 consecutive nights, a studio for 4 consecutive nights and a studio for any of 4 nights. Well, the studio for 2 of the middle nights became available but we chose not to accept because this would force us to move 3 times. Because we did not respond, they decided to cancel out all of my WL without ever telling me. What kind of policy is this?

 

[Cruelladeville]

MS responded appropriately to your question about the number of studios left. Do you have any idea how many people call in an average day to ask that same question? And answering that question would encourage you and all those other people to call whenever they were curious about how full the resorts were, without any intention of making ressies. Then all of us who ARE serious about making ressies won't be able to get thru!

As for the waitlist, you learned a valuable lesson: never hang up until you find out what actions MS thought you wanted, and what the ramifications are for those actions. As has been mentioned here several times, you need to check on what MS heard vs. what you said, and your point total. You might try to get on the waitlist again, but you will only have a couple of days on the list, since it normally cancels at 31 days. Ouch!

 

[PamOKW]

I was wondering whether your waitlist might have cancelled because you are into the 31 day period? If not, I bet it was a misunderstanding in the way you turned down the waitlist that became available. Cruella's advice to talk through every transaction is a good one.

As to the studio question -- I don't know why people care so much about what's available on a day when they aren't making a reservation. If she told you this morning 4 studios were available, tomorrow there might 1. Or, she could tell you they were fully booked and next Monday they'll have 3 studios that were cancelled.

 

[Bugeye]

Pam is right. Status can change within minutes. We booked at VWL and got on the wait list for BCV. Before the confirmation could be sent for VWL, something opened up at BCV and that is what we got in the confirmation letter. They come and they go faster than a car on Test Track.

 

[jmminarik]

Asking how many are left is a valid question MS has answered for me on many occasions when trying to decide our planning of short notice (< 7 months) trips. Knowing that there are 'more than 10' rooms of the type I want during a slow DVC timeframe means I don't have to worry about making the ressie right then and there and thats important when you are borrowing points (or, in this case, renting). It gives me the time to finalize vacation scheduling at work, inform our guests (since we usually have them), and so on.

Why refuse to answer? They'd tell you what they had if you said 'I need to reserve 10 studios'.

-Joe

 

[dianeschlicht]

SO instead of asking "how many are available", just ask if it looks like there is plenty of availablility to allow you time to wait? That is what I do when I am booking a GV. I call on the first available day and ask if it is busy or if I can wait until the last checkout day to reserve. MS will usually tell me if they think I should call day by day for the time period I am looking for. For January ressies, they have usually told me to wait, but the time we wanted an October GV, they thought it purdent for me to call day by day.

 

[DrTomorrow]

Several good pieces of advice here. Although it "seems" innocent enough for MS to tell someone on the phone "we currently have 7 Studios available", I'm sure all it took was a few guests calling up a few hours - or days - later, being shut out of a Studio, then complaining "I was told there were 7 available" for MS to decide not to provide specific numbers.

They are very helpful when dealing in more general issues; when we decided to add a night at a Studio to the beginning of our trip, I asked which resorts had Studios available, and was told "all of them". Of course, I was actually making a reservation at the time.

Be well!

 

[mickeysgal]

You know, I have to chime in here. Let me first say that Member Services has overall, been outstanding to us. However, I have noticed lately that there are some reps that seem to go the extra mile while others don't seem to know how to look in the right spots or plain don't want to try hard enough? Case in point, I called yesterday to modify our reservation. It was a very long shot...trying to add a day to an arrival within the next week. I knew the chances weren't good. I needed a one bedroom. Rep #1 said that all she had was a two bedroom. I then asked if I took the two bedroom, can it be linked such that we could just move to the one bedroom side after that first night. She immediately said no, since it was a dedicated two bedroom. She didn't say that this was the only two bedroom available, and I didn't think to ask. Do the reps "see" at the time of inquiry the type of unit...dedicated vs. lock-off? How can this be given the room assignment process that they have in place? Anyway, I got off the phone and called back an hour later. The lady, was simply wonderful. I asked the same question...needed a one bedroom added to the front of my reservation. She put me on hold for just a bit, and came back on with the one bedroom - which thrilled us to no end! Go figure. I used to have this type of problem calling WDW general reservations...you could get different answers depending on who you got on the phone. Obviously this can be a training issue - these reps just don't know all the places to look. It seems to be especially an issue when the arrival date is so close and inventory may be handled differently this close to check in?

A similar situation happened to us last summer when we booked a Vero trip. I called to book...was told that they had the unit available, literally called back within 5 minutes (after talking to DH), and the rep (different one) had no clue about the units that I was told were available. Called back a few more times over the course of the next couple of days, and got exactly what we needed.

Has anyone else experienced conflicting information with MS?

 

[jmminarik]

SO instead of asking "how many are available", just ask if it looks like there is plenty of availablility to allow you time to wait?.

Actually, I think this is what I tend to do. Works out the same because usually that gets me a 'yea, there's X number available'. Same result, different phrasing.
That said, I know the rooms can go right quick, but for me it's not a big of an issue..we usually get 2Br's at OKW, the last of the room types to "sell out" most of the time.

-Joe

 

[FreeTime]

I have always had pleasant experiences with MS. Although sometimes it seems like the correct information may not be being given. I have called several times within a few weeks of arrival and been told they don't have anything available but if I am willing to hold AND I want to make the ressie right now, they will see what they can do. After holding they have always come back with a room. I think that they must be getting it from Disney inventory. Always ask if they are sure they can't meet your request or ask what other options are available. You might want a 1BR at BWV and they won't tell you that there is one available across the water at BCV, wouldn't you want to take it if you desperatly wanted to stay in the Epcot area?

 

[tjkraz]

I then asked if I took the two bedroom, can it be linked such that we could just move to the one bedroom side after that first night. She immediately said no, since it was a dedicated two bedroom. She didn't say that this was the only two bedroom available, and I didn't think to ask. Do the reps "see" at the time of inquiry the type of unit...dedicated vs. lock-off? How can this be given the room assignment process that they have in place?

Yes, inventory of lockoff vs. dedicated 2-bedroom units is tracked separately. It has to happen that way. If they didn't, they run the risk of renting out two many lockoffs separately as Studio / 1B.

 

[tjkraz]

2. I had a BCV WL for three different variations: a 1 bedroom for 4 consecutive nights, a studio for 4 consecutive nights and a studio for any of 4 nights. Well, the studio for 2 of the middle nights became available but we chose not to accept because this would force us to move 3 times. Because we did not respond, they decided to cancel out all of my WL without ever telling me. What kind of policy is this?

OK, based upon your "becasue we did not respond" comment, I'm assuming that you had asked DVC to call you if any of your waitlist requests came through, and you would confirm whether you want the room or not. The way I read this, it sounds like they called, left a message that "we have XXX available, call us in 24 hours if you want it." You didn't want it, so you simply didn't call.

At risk of sounding like a DVC apologist, I really think you should have called, declined the offered rooms, and restated your desire to stay on the waitlist. Even you have to admit that you have a pretty complicated set of instructions there. And, even when part of your request came through, your non-response indicated you didn't want the rooms. To me, it would have been worth a phone call to help insure that the remaining requests stayed in effect.

If I'm off-base here and you did actually speak to MS to decline the rooms, then I'm in total agreement that there was no reason for deleting the other waitlist requests.

 

[GeorgiaTiggerGirl]

Bugeye:

I had the same thing happen to me. Booked at VWL and waitlisted for BCV for May. Received confirmation in the mail for BCV before VWL. Just goes to show how fast things can open up with some luck!

 

[llrain]

we have had 2 interactions with MS and havent closed on DVC yet.
The sales people are great then we started calling MS for a trip and what a difference, Mind u I am a customer service professional who has worked in call centers for quite some time so dont say i dont know what I am talking about. But these 2 interactions were of a what i call now humerous nature.

Do they even have a clue there or what....They had almost no information correct on our member profiles when it came time to "verify who we are before we can do anything with our accounts" ...This a nautral...they need to know who they are talking to which is the way of life for all call centers....But they had numerous items of informaiton incorrect on our account, even to a point of a phone number that I had never even heard of...

Interaction number 2, I forget her name but she was just plain rude
as in "you're lucky i am even telling you this information" type of nature...


what is going on with these guys...they need some heavy quality assurance done on them..

 

[eva]

First, I will say that until last week we have always had fantastic service at MS. However, last week I called to book 4 nights at the GCH in DL. When I called the person that I talked to put me on hold for nearly 15 minutes. Then when she got back on the line she said that there were absolutely no rooms available on points for the nights that we needed. I tried for about 5 minutes to explain that I was on the DL site and they had rooms in every view open for cash. Then she went into a very rude lecture about that it didn't matter what was available on cash. No matter how much I tried to explain that this was not a DVC property and that if there were rooms available I could book them, she still said I was "out of luck." So I hung up and called back right away. The 2nd person was very helpful and said there were plenty of rooms available in all views. The first person must have been new. The one thing that I learned is don't try to explain things like this to a CM at MS. Just hang up and call again.

 

[Alexander]

As it has been said several times sometimes you get a CM who knows what is going on and sometimes you get someone who is likely new. This happens in every aspect of life. It takes experience to learn your job. The first person eva spoke to may have never booked anything other than WDW DVC resorts and really didn't now how.

Personally, all of my experiences with CM's at DVC have been wonderful. MS has been great for us and able to get us villas that were reportedly unavailable. I think it's all in who you talk to. Hang up and call back is the best thing. Just like calling CRO.

 

[athenna]

we have had 2 interactions with MS and havent closed on DVC yet.
The sales people are great then we started calling MS for a trip and what a difference, Mind u I am a customer service professional who has worked in call centers for quite some time so dont say i dont know what I am talking about. But these 2 interactions were of a what i call now humerous nature.

Do they even have a clue there or what....They had almost no information correct on our member profiles when it came time to "verify who we are before we can do anything with our accounts" ...This a nautral...they need to know who they are talking to which is the way of life for all call centers....But they had numerous items of informaiton incorrect on our account, even to a point of a phone number that I had never even heard of...

Interaction number 2, I forget her name but she was just plain rude
as in "you're lucky i am even telling you this information" type of nature...


what is going on with these guys...they need some heavy quality assurance done on them..

They should hire me then . That's what I do for a living -quality assurance at a call center. They could use me And just think of the discounts I might get!!

 

[llrain]

They should hire me then . That's what I do for a living -quality assurance at a call center. They could use me And just think of the discounts I might get!!

ya see thats what I do too..so maybe they will hire me first..hehe

 

[llrain]

athenna...for what call center...I see u are in Mass. as well as I

 

[pentex]

I think they should tell you about the status of studios left. I have asked this sort of question numerous times and have always received an appropriate answer. For example, I'm hoping to book a 2 BR for Christmas at BWV but can't do so until seven months out; I called on Thursday and asked them if there were this type of rooms left and was told that there are a "decent amount of 2 bedrooms left" but that "that could definitely change between now and then". That's the type of answer they always give me....one time I was told there were "very few" left and that I should make up my mind and call quickly or they may be gone. There is no promise there; just a bit of information so one knows their constraints.