A DVC (Disney) Rant

[tx2tn]

I have a bit of an rant that I want to share. Now in the grand scheme of things this issue is really miniscule but I feel like I need to share this.

So let me set this up. My wife and I go to WDW at least once per year. We have started buying annual passes and scheduling our trips so that we get two trips out of each Annual Pass. So when the discount came out for Premium Annual passes, we were sure to jump on them.

So I call Member Services up to purchase these tickets. The cast member on the phone was great. As we were discussing the transaction she asked if I just wanted to pick the tickets up at Will Call or did I want to spend $15 additional dollars to have our vouchers mailed to us. Actually I think there is a rant in the fact that Disney wants to charge $15 to mail paperwork to my house. But I will save that for another time. In answering her question, I said that the email confirmation of this transaction would suffice. It was then that she said that they do not send out email confirmations!!!!!

How can this be? I just spent over $800 and one of the largest corporations in America can't send out a confirmation????? This to me is inconceivable. I can buy $10 worth of anything from anyone online and get a confirmation via email. Why can't (or won't) Disney do this?

Yes, I know that I can go to my credit card company and get a verification of the transaction but that's not the point. This is really no different than if I go to WalMart, use my credit card to buy over $800 worth of stuff and the associate says "we don't issue receipts unless you pay extra for them". ReallY????

Ok I'm done. Thanks for listening.

 

[DebbieB]

I have a bit of an rant that I want to share. Now in the grand scheme of things this issue is really miniscule but I feel like I need to share this.

So let me set this up. My wife and I go to WDW at least once per year. We have started buying annual passes and scheduling our trips so that we get two trips out of each Annual Pass. So when the discount came out for Premium Annual passes, we were sure to jump on them.

So I call Member Services up to purchase these tickets. The cast member on the phone was great. As we were discussing the transaction she asked if I just wanted to pick the tickets up at Will Call or did I want to spend $15 additional dollars to have our vouchers mailed to us. Actually I think there is a rant in the fact that Disney wants to charge $15 to mail paperwork to my house. But I will save that for another time. In answering her question, I said that the email confirmation of this transaction would suffice. It was then that she said that they do not send out email confirmations!!!!!

How can this be? I just spent over $800 and one of the largest corporations in America can't send out a confirmation????? This to me is inconceivable. I can buy $10 worth of anything from anyone online and get a confirmation via email. Why can't (or won't) Disney do this?

Yes, I know that I can go to my credit card company and get a verification of the transaction but that's not the point. This is really no different than if I go to WalMart, use my credit card to buy over $800 worth of stuff and the associate says "we don't issue receipts unless you pay extra for them". ReallY????

Ok I'm done. Thanks for listening.

I thought it was $5 for mailing unless you need it faster than normal.

I too asked for an e-mail confirmation and they said no, the confirmation # was enough and it was attached to my membership in their system if I lost it. Disney's IT stinks.

 

[tx2tn]

I thought it was $5 for mailing unless you need it faster than normal.

I too asked for an e-mail confirmation and they said no, the confirmation # was enough and it was attached to my membership in their system if I lost it. Disney's IT stinks.

Nope. $15 and we didn't ask for it to be delivered fast. I cannot believe that they (Disney's IT Dept) don't have the ability to do this. This must be a deliberate decision NOT to send them out by Disney or at least DVC.

 

[marsh0013]

I bought mine yesterday directly through disney ticketing as recommended by the board to use all my gift cards. The man who helped me was wonderful. I not only got a conformation number from him over the phone, but he emailed it to me as well, so they definitely can do that. Sorry the person you got wouldn't do that. Just goes to show, talk to different people at disney, get different answers.

 

[myxdvz]

MS won't be able to send an email, but they will add a note to your profile with the confirmation#.


However, I called Ticketting to apply my GCs for same confirmation# and I got an email about the change. So it is a system limitation.

 

[cvjw]

Just purchased our annual passes for the 5th year from MS, and we have never received an email confirmation. All MS can give you is the confirmation number, which you just take to any guest services at the park to pick up your actual pass. It is very easy, and we have done it numerous times without incident. If you lose your confirmation number, MS has it linked to your account.

 

[disneynutz]

DVC is a middle man with limited capabilities. The longer that you are a owner, the more you will learn about how the system really works.

DVC MS Advisor's seem to have limited knowledge, it's well known that if you don't like the first response, call back and you will get a different answer. The non email issue may be a system limitation because DVC isn't a ticketing unit or it may be a training issue.

I try to do everything I can myself without using MS, less mistakes and my customer satisfaction has greatly improved.

I just bought 3 PAPs and had the vouchers mailed for a $5 fee. I don't use gift cards, (more chance for errors), even though I just bought $1800 worth at a 16% discount, (we will use them at WDW).

The next day I learned that Disney has lowered the shopping discount for PAPs from 20% to 10% for next year.

Bill

 

[CRobin]

I have a bit of an rant that I want to share. Now in the grand scheme of things this issue is really miniscule but I feel like I need to share this.

So let me set this up. My wife and I go to WDW at least once per year. We have started buying annual passes and scheduling our trips so that we get two trips out of each Annual Pass. So when the discount came out for Premium Annual passes, we were sure to jump on them.

So I call Member Services up to purchase these tickets. The cast member on the phone was great. As we were discussing the transaction she asked if I just wanted to pick the tickets up at Will Call or did I want to spend $15 additional dollars to have our vouchers mailed to us. Actually I think there is a rant in the fact that Disney wants to charge $15 to mail paperwork to my house. But I will save that for another time. In answering her question, I said that the email confirmation of this transaction would suffice. It was then that she said that they do not send out email confirmations!!!!!

How can this be? I just spent over $800 and one of the largest corporations in America can't send out a confirmation????? This to me is inconceivable. I can buy $10 worth of anything from anyone online and get a confirmation via email. Why can't (or won't) Disney do this?

Yes, I know that I can go to my credit card company and get a verification of the transaction but that's not the point. This is really no different than if I go to WalMart, use my credit card to buy over $800 worth of stuff and the associate says "we don't issue receipts unless you pay extra for them". ReallY????

Ok I'm done. Thanks for listening.

We bought the PAPs online, paid with a credit card, and were charged $5.00 for the vouchers to be mailed. We got a receipt online, but I'm not sure if it was emailed or just printed at the end of the transaction.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Deb & Bill]

When I bought three APs on line in June, I got an e-mail confirmation that I am keeping until I need to get these. These were DVC APs.

 

[lilpooh108]

DVC MS Advisor's seem to have limited knowledge, it's well known that if you don't like the first response, call back and you will get a different answer.

Sad, but true.

 

[n2mm]

I always buy mine online and always get a cc receipt of purchase and I also get the will call certificate. I save the will call certificate in case I need it again. I like being able to print it and put it with my vacation papers. There's no cost for doing it this way.

 

[drusba]

We went to the on-line site for which there is a link on the DVC site and ordered tickets "will call" and received an email confirmation and paid no extra fee for anything. You can also just print out the last page when ordering on-line which confirms the purchase and provides the order number.

Note that the receipt is unnecessary. When you go to get tickets at WDW all you need is ID and DVC member card; they will have you in the system. Nevertheless, it does seem ridiculous that they cannot send you a free confirmation of some sort when ordering via phone either mail or email. And even to charge for sending it by mail seems wrong. This kind of thing is becoming more common these days and seems to have started with banks coming up with ridiculous fees to charge you for providing no services at all. You wonder if things like this are taught in MBA schools or whether the "suits" were sitting around in a room and one of them says, "Hey, you want squeeze a few more dollars from our hapless customers, let's charge a $5 fee for mailing them anything," and someone higher, who also has the customer service mentality of a leach, says that is a great idea that assures a bonus at the end of the year.

 

[bwang123]

We went to the on-line site for which there is a link on the DVC site and ordered tickets "will call" and received an email confirmation and paid no extra fee for anything. You can also just print out the last page when ordering on-line which confirms the purchase and provides the order number.

Note that the receipt is unnecessary. When you go to get tickets at WDW all you need is ID and DVC member card; they will have you in the system. Nevertheless, it does seem ridiculous that they cannot send you a free confirmation of some sort when ordering via phone either mail or email. And even to charge for sending it by mail seems wrong. This kind of thing is becoming more common these days and seems to have started with banks coming up with ridiculous fees to charge you for providing no services at all. You wonder if things like this are taught in MBA schools or whether the "suits" were sitting around in a room and one of them says, "Hey, you want squeeze a few more dollars from our hapless customers, let's charge a $5 fee for mailing them anything," and someone higher, who also has the customer service mentality of a leach, says that is a great idea that assures a bonus at the end of the year.

a lot of companies charge for a mailing when will call is available. why eat that cost of mailing? They offer a free method which is just as good as mailing a voucher, I dont see a problem.

 

[bighoo93]

Note that the receipt is unnecessary. When you go to get tickets at WDW all you need is ID and DVC member card; they will have you in the system. Nevertheless, it does seem ridiculous that they cannot send you a free confirmation of some sort when ordering via phone either mail or email. And even to charge for sending it by mail seems wrong. This kind of thing is becoming more common these days and seems to have started with banks coming up with ridiculous fees to charge you for providing no services at all. You wonder if things like this are taught in MBA schools or whether the "suits" were sitting around in a room and one of them says, "Hey, you want squeeze a few more dollars from our hapless customers, let's charge a $5 fee for mailing them anything," and someone higher, who also has the customer service mentality of a leach, says that is a great idea that assures a bonus at the end of the year.

For most companies, and I would guess this is the case for Disney, it is an unnecessary document and they don't want to provide it, so they charge such a fee that they don't expect anyone will ask for it. I understand old habits die hard for consumers, and many of us are used to receiving confirmations and documentation for major transactions, but increasingly there are more efficient ways of doing this and the old ways aren't needed. Businesses are doing away with those processes. Younger consumers don't care, older consumers have to adjust. But I don't think it is really an attempt at gouging.

Banks are a special case. On regular occasion, the economic geniuses elected to Congress and other political offices, in their infinite wisdom, decide what banks can charge and how much, for certain things like ATM fees and credit card transactions. They congratulate themselves for their brilliance and for caring about the common man, but all it does is shift costs. Banks aren't going to sit around and provide the same services at lower cost (or for free) just because a politician says they know what the price ought to be. Either services are dropped, or other prices are raised. In the case of banks, you probably noticed that they started charging for things that were previously free, or increased fees, or dropped benefits.

 

[DebbieB]

a lot of companies charge for a mailing when will call is available. why eat that cost of mailing? They offer a free method which is just as good as mailing a voucher, I dont see a problem.

I agree, $5 for regular mail is reasonable. I bet $15 was for overnight.

 

[dis-happy]

When I bought three APs on line in June, I got an e-mail confirmation that I am keeping until I need to get these. These were DVC APs.

My dh just confirmed that we got an email confirmation. Bought our special AP's last week or so.

 

[RobDoc]

I ordered our PAP's online thru the DVC Member site. I was able to print out a receipt online and also received a confirmation email a few minutes later. The confirmation came from ticket.inquiries@disneyworld.com - not from DVC.

It sounds like an email receipt for purchases thru MS phone calls is not part of the automated system. The online purchases go thru disney ticketing directly which is set up with email confirmation.

DVC is definitely pushing to minimize the need for phone reps in all areas - MS phone calls vs. online, online check-in, and now ordering DVC ticket media online vs a call to MS.

 

[WILDERNESS FAN 55]

I ordered our PAP's online thru the DVC Member site. I was able to print out a receipt online and also received a confirmation email a few minutes later. The confirmation came from ticket.inquiries@disneyworld.com - not from DVC.

It sounds like an email receipt for purchases thru MS phone calls is not part of the automated system. The online purchases go thru disney ticketing directly which is set up with email confirmation.

DVC is definitely pushing to minimize the need for phone reps in all areas - MS phone calls vs. online, online check-in, and now ordering DVC ticket media online vs a call to MS.

This was the same for me a while back. I was beginning to worry with all the different stories here .

 

[LisaS]

I ordered our PAP's online thru the DVC Member site. I was able to print out a receipt online and also received a confirmation email a few minutes later. The confirmation came from ticket.inquiries@disneyworld.com - not from DVC.

Same here. I ordered a couple of PAPs online a few days ago. I received a confirmation email with a link to view and print my Will Call Certificate.

 

[tx2tn]

I am quite sure the cast member on the phone said that it would cost $15 to mail my vouchers. I am not as equally sure if she was talking about expedited delivery. If I had an email receipt I could find out......Just sayin. I really don't have a problem with paying for ticket delivery. Every time I buy concert tickets online I pay a surcharge of around $4 to have them delivered and I am OK with that. I should mention that I ALWAYS get a email receipt for that purchase.

I was not aware that I could have bought these tickets online. I looked on Member Services this morning but did not see anything. I would prefer to do it that way and will do so in the future.

I still have a problem with an email receipt being the exception and not the rule. The fact that MS sends them out "sometimes" and "sometimes" they don't further agravates me. This is NOT the norm in other businesses. I cannot defend Disney or DVC's failure to implement this basic functionality. I also cannot buy into the theory that if they (DVC) was to do this, it would just raise prices for all DVC Members. If you've seen some of their mailings you know what I mean. Cut back on those fancy Schmancy Brochures and send us email recepits!! Just Sayin...

Since the ability is obviously in place to email these receipts, I'm sure that all is needed is a new procedure.

Thank you and have a good Christmas!!