A lesson learned from MS this morning

[mouseclick1]

I just got off the phone with MS to begin making my July 4th trip to HH (begin June 29). According to my records, I should have had 34 banked HH points and 5 banked BWV points. We have a 100 point HH contract. We planned on using all 134 points, plus almost all of our 2004 points to complete this reservation. I was told that I had no banked HH points, and 39 banked BWV points. I think this is what happened:

We recently completed a trip to BWV. There were several changes to that trip since we were traveling with family and had to accomodate different arrival times/days. At one point, I used HH points to add another night so I didn't have to borrow from next year BWV points. That room was eventually dropped from my ressie, but I think the points they returned into my account were BWV points, and not the HH points that were used for that room. The HH points were then used for a BWV stay even though I had enough BWV points in my account. Now I do not have enough HH points to complete the 2003 stay we were planning, even with borrowing. It's not a huge deal, I will just drop a day, but it is disappointing when you think you have things all worked out.

Lesson learned: Always be specific as to which points should be used, or NOT used. MS confirmed this and said we need to tell them exactly which contract should be used, and if we are cancelling a ressie, which contract the points should be returned to. It seems like common sense now, but this was my first time at shuffling points from two accounts and I made an incorrect assumption that points would be returned to the contract from which points were taken. I should have known better and I know this was my fault. I guess the bright side is that we plan on going to BWV for Christmas 2003, and now we have an extra 34 points to work with.

I just wanted to let others know how important it is to specify which points you are using when you have multiple contracts, so a mistake like this does not happen to you.

 

[CarolMN]

The next time someone asks about the difficulty of managing points from more than one resort, we'll have a specific example to share. It can be done, but it definitely requires more attention & more verification than a single contract at one resort. Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[PamOKW]

Good point Mouseclick. I always try to keep some record of whenever I make a reservation. Noting the person's name, date made, etc. When there's a tricky transaction like you made, maybe it would be a good idea for us to either make the reservation with an e-mail or follow-up what we did verbally with a confirming e-mail. Then we have a written record with MS.

 

[TheWho]

Another example that DVC needs an on-line, secure site for us to check our points, make reservations, etc.

 

[pwoodham]

Thank you for posting this!!
We just added on at BCV and have been juggling reservations ever since, borrowing points, waitlisting, etc. since we had a late addition to our party. We've been on 5 waitlists at a time trying to get a 1 bdrm instead of a 2 bdrm, BCV instead of BWV. To be honest, I've lost track of where points were coming from, how many we've borrowed, and how many have been returned to the account when a day in a 1 bdrm came thru. I'm calling MS this morning to make sure I know where we're at!! One of the CM's at MS told me they do always use borrowed points first.

 

[marley]

Try to call back and ask for Patricia.

This happened to me yesterday and she went and talked to a supervisor and had everything switched back for me.

This is what she said. Because no one asked me where I wanted my points taken from (and they are supposed to ask, I told her I have never been asked and ALWAYS have to specify which contract), then it was not my fault and therefore she put my points back in the right account so I still had my 11 month window for HH.

She also said they have a lot of new people who wouldn't know they can do something like this and to keep calling until you find someone that will.

Good Luck!

 

[CRobin]

I have learned a couple of things about how this process can lead to unintended mistakes when dealing with MS and multiple contracts...

When you give MS your member number, they can only "see" the contract associated with that number. If you want to use points from another contract, you need the member number that goes with the second contract. I believe that they can "see" both contracts with your SSN, but can only really work with one contract at a time.

Yes, important lesson learned. I have always followed Pam's advice above when dealing with "tricky" ressies, and I always get an e-mail confirmation of remaining points on each contract.

 

[GrammieMame]

You mean we have a different member number for each contract? I have three contracts, but thought I only had one member number.

 

[MikeScott8]

Originally posted by TheWho
Another example that DVC needs an on-line, secure site for us to check our points, make reservations, etc.

and also another point as to why it could be a complex system

it would need to be able to check all the boking deadlines and expiration of the different points from different use years and different contracts and banking and borrowing and then if you add points from another user YIKES!!

It could be done, don't get me wrong, (I would love the challenge personally) but it could/would be a complex ystem.

Mike

 

[marley]

no, you only have one member number but from what I was told yesterday, they can see your three contracts, but only work from one at a time so you have to be very specific where you want your points to come from.

 

[mouseclick1]

Thanks for your replies. I pulled out all my info and, while I do have the dates and names from my various calls, I don't have the complete info regarding how many points were used from what account. I decided not to call back, since I really don't have all the necessary info to back what happened. Shame on me, I really should know better! Instead, I'm just going to drop my last night, and spend it at a nearby hotel. I've already been looking around, and can stay at the Fairfield Inn (very close to Disney's HH) and save the 66 points that a Friday night would have cost me. This is probably the smarter thing to do anyway. No harm was really done, since I will still be able to use all of the banked BWV points anyway. I will certainly, however, be MUCH more careful in the future when booking my trips!

 

[Dean]

If your use year is the same, I believe the contract numbers will be the same WITH A QUALIFIER like 001, 002, etc. If the use years are different, there will be different use years altogether. This is why I like email where I can have a record.

 

[DVCajun]

This validates my decision to own points only at one resort (bet you can't guess which one that is). I think it could get confusing, not only to MS but to me. I have a hard enough time managing my points as it is.

That doesn't stop me from wanting another add-on, though!

 

[CRobin]

Originally posted by marley
no, you only have one member number but from what I was told yesterday, they can see your three contracts, but only work from one at a time so you have to be very specific where you want your points to come from.

Not always.

I have two of those blue cards, with different numbers, from two resale contracts purchased with different use years.

And I have always needed to provide MS with the member number corresponding with the contract where I'm drawing the points, regardless of where I will be staying.

I believe Dean is correct, contracts with the same use year are suffixed, but, if you have multiple use years, you will have multiple contracts / member numbers.

 

[Merilyn]

We made a trade reservation for next March. When all was said and done, I realized that I hadn't told her which points to use. I called back and they had used the wrong points. It really made no since how it was done, so the new CS changed them back the way I wanted and she was very nice. She then sent me a copy of all my reservation request for the whole time I have been a member. What a mess. Every add, even to the same place, is a different group. I couldn't even read it. What was really bad is that some of the reservations were added and taken away on the same day and they were not mine. In the end it was right and I was OK, but we really need to keep up with it. They can make mistakes, especially when there are add-ons and more than one home resort. It must be really hard with so many points and people to work with. I really think they do a great job. I will just pay more attention in the future.

 

[Richyams]

I had a very bad experience with MS mistakes.

Almost three years ago I begean to reserve a twelve night OKW GV stay. I finished it, I canceled it, I made another 12 night similar reservation, I canceled it....as I was re-making it for the third time, calling day by day, we got half way through and they told me I didn't have enough points. I just canceled the same vacation, whet do you mean that I don't have the points.

After a few days, ten hours on the phone, ten faxes back and fourth, the result(Which I knew was false) was that I had mistakingly been given too many points, tough, they are right, I am wrong.

I forgot about it completely.

A few month ago I was planning for a fall trip, thinking that I had zero points and no more coming till Setpember, I called about availability and as an aside asked how many points I had. I was told that I have 270 points that must be used or bankked within a couple days....that number brought it all back, 270 was the number of points in dispute.

Even keeping paper work, keeping records, keeping everything, they still did this.