Anyone else having problems w/407-WDISNEY??

[TiggerAlli]

I am just curious if anyone else is noticing problems w/the people at Disney? This is what happened to us:

I called & made reservations for 2 rooms with the AAA discount. One reservation was in my name, the other was in our friend's name.

Yesterday my friend called to make the downpayment & to enquire about changing the last 2 days of the reservation to a deluxe resort. When she was unable to find any deluxes available for those 2 days he said that he would just keep the original reservation. When she went back to do the downpayment she told him it wasn't there & then told him that 'when you modify a reservation someone else can take it'. As that's just stupid & a very obvious lie we figured that she must have cancelled the original reservation.

The problem is that she could not get him another room at the same resort for the 8 nights that he needed. Right now, in fact, he is resort-less for the last 2 days of his vacation because he did not want to have to move to another moderate when we are trying to travel together. Additionally he is now booked at PoR & we are at PoFQ which doesn't work any better since we are supposed to be staying at the same resort.

The issue I had is less troublesome but still annoying. I called to request that the downpayment be delayed until Friday (we are getting an AP & want to research those options before we make the downpayment). After his problem I called back to make sure that my reservation still existed. The woman that answered could not find my reservation & after putting me on hold for about 5 mins. came back & told me that I had the last 2 numbers of the reservation wrong. Since I had called 4 other times on this reservation for various reasons I knew that I didn't have the number wrong but as long as something was still there I was okay with it. This morning I called back & was told they couldn't find the reservation but after searching she was able to find another reservation that matched the dates, etc. but the last 4 numbers were different. So again they must have cancelled my first reservation & re-booked it.

Right now my friend is waiting to hear from a supervisor to see if they can get us both rooms at PoR for the entire time so it's not like we're not being taken care of (well hopefully we will be) but this is just ridiculous. We have NEVER had problems like this before but lately every time I call it seems like the people there don't know what they are talking about or how to use the computer systems or whatever.

I am sorry for how long this is but I'm really curious if anyone is having more problems lately or did we just run into the newest/most incompetent CM's at the same time??

Has anyone had a similar problem lately? Or maybe we've just been lucky all these years?

 

[agnes!]

Disney now has call centers all over the country(not just Orlando & Tampa) and that might be the problem...the CMs you're now getting aren't perhaps as experienced as they used to be (more new hires, don't have on-site experiences, whatever else might make sense) Plus, I understand that a fairly new system of keeping track of how many guests/customers a call-center operator gets through is in place. The CM-operators are under a lot of pressure to move calls through their station to keep their numbers up (& stay employed).
Good luck with getting everything straightened out.

agnes!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Also, on our last trip, I was calling to apply an AP rate to our reservation as well as my sister's, and the cm did hers with no problem, then came back and said that nothing was available for me, even though we had the same dates...Well, as soon as she said it, she said "No, hold on! Something just popped up here on my screen." When I asked her about it, she said people call and ask about a certain resort, the cm "holds" it in the system while they have that person on the phone. If they ask about another, or change resorts, the original one is put back into the system, thus "popping up" on her screen. That may be what she meant when she told you that modifying meant that anyone could take it.

 

[airjoe]

Rooms are booked in a live system. Availability can change minute to minute.

 

[chamonix]

Yes, but the OPs attempt to find availability for the last two days should not have had anything to do with her previous reservation--meaning there was no reason for the CM to "release" two days that were already booked just so she could look for availability at a deluxe for those dates for the caller. Clearly s/he screwed up. The CM should have simply looked for availability without jeopardizing the original ressie. I agree it must have been a new(er) or one with less experience. Warning to those who try to modify ressies--make sure they don't mess with your original reservation until you have the modification nights solidly booked.
Hope it works out for you. Good luck!

 

[DisnyMama]

I had the same problem. I made my reservation for room only a month and a half ago. I have called twice since and they can never find me either by ressie number or by address. Also, when they eventually do find my reservation, it shows my old address and not the address change that I have now given them twice.

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

I had the same problem. I made my reservation for room only a month and a half ago. I have called twice since and they can never find me either by ressie number or by address. Also, when they eventually do find my reservation, it shows my old address and not the address change that I have now given them twice.

I have a suggestion for this. If you know they have it under your old address, why not give that one first. Of course, you could always have them make sure that the NEW address is listed as the primary address, which could be the problem. It also could be that the CM's have updated your address but the computer has not accepted the change. God knows the computers are screwy at times.

And as for not tampering with a ressie to see if the other dates are available, that is how an agent must do it. They have to go into the current reservation, make the changes the guest wants and either accept it or back out of it. They can't just go and look for the dates as Chamonix would suggest. That would be considered a fireable offense for tampering with someone elses reservation... checking new dates, placing new reservation, and canceling the previous res. Unfortunately it is another system limitation. *shrug*

 

[Martha7]

I've never had any luck getting them to update my address. We used to live in South Florida, and now we're in the Ann Arbor area. Now I just tell them we have two homes and are snowbirds. I gave up!

 

[chamonix]

ursula, I think one of us (not sure which one) misunderstood the OP. She says

I called & made reservations for 2 rooms with the AAA discount. One reservation was in my name, the other was in our friend's name.

So, if the friend called to modify the original ressie in any way, was it modifying "her" ressie, or the friend's ressie? (which breaks the rules, according to you--which makes sense, of course, that she couldn't modify someone else's ressie--but it sounded to me like she was trying to modify her OWN ressie)
Also, I see no problem with a person calling up to simply check on availability for two nights at a certain hotel regardless if they have any prior reservation in the system--and in this case, I wasn't clear who's "original" reservation was being modified. As I said, of course you can't call and modify someone else's reservation. But you can certainly call up and check availability without calling up your prior reservation and releasing the nights you already have on hold.

I just called to add a room to our ressie (just needed more rooms since more friends are joining us) and to do so did not in any way jeaopardize our original ressie. In fact, we talked about that as she was checking, and she explicitly said she wasn't "touching" my orginial reservation at all while she checked for the availability of the third room. Maybe she got fired for that, but I can't imagine why.
Obviously different CMs at different call centers handle things differently. But as a caller, I know what I need them to do so I don't risk losing my rooms, and I wouldn't have let that happen since I have heard for years about that happening to people. I was just trying to warn people to beware of that when they call, and to make your plans/handle your call accordingly.

 

[Goobergal99]

Just a hint, you can get pretty much the same thing by calling there free number

1800-828-0228
and it doesnt cost a thing!