Back from AKV - where to address complaints to?

[Princess_Melanie]

We have a LOT of things we want to bring to the DVC attention as the stay we just had was disgraceful.

To be very brief:

- Arrived at 9pm or so after a 10 hour long haul flight, to a seriously disgusting gross villa studio - used toiletries both guest & disney, rancid takeaway in fridge, litter and food remains around the room, spare bedding strewn on the sofa-bed, opened bottle of cola on the kitchen side and ants crawling all over the kitchen area.

- DBF had to battle to get us another room - Animal Kingdom wanted us to wait outside the room while they cleaned it. Sorry - but it stank enough to make me heave, and there were ants all over the place. Not exactly DVC standards we're used to or romantic for our 1st stay at WDW/DVC on our own - no family with us!!

- We were eventually moved to another room which was a lodge room, and we were moaned at by the check-in manager person as this was worth much more than the points we were spending on the DVC accommodation (both were dedicated savannah views - the room was the same size as the studio - only we had 2 beds instead of 1 bed + 1 sofa bed and tables).

- Throughout this whole process both the front desk CMs and the houskeeping staff involved were so rude to both of us. Neither of us were rude, swore, shouted or demanded. Just stated the simple facts about the room and asked to be moved. There was no need for their rudeness - we were tired it was getting on for a 24 hour day for us and I was trying not to get upset.

- They refused to put DVC Member on our KTTW cards - this rendered any discounts we may have wanted to use possibly useless as you have to show this on your KTTW card along with your DVC member card according to the rules. Luckily this has never been requested of us whenever we used the discount but still....

- Free internet access for DVC members - again, DBF had to really battle to get this - it was eventually agreed and then they still billed us at the end - another battle to get the charges removed.

- We were told we would not be allowed to use the DVC laundry facilities - we planned on doing laundry but in the end made do - couldn't be fussed with ANOTHER session with front desk

- Birthday - well hmmmm.....I asked front desk about a turn down service the night of DBFs birthday (I asked about this on these boards a week or 2 ago) - the concierge was very rude to me - stated "well, there's no mention of a birthday on your reservation so I don't think we can do anything special". There most certainly was when we checked in as the girl wouldn't check us in until Aaron had put his birthday pin on and she'd wished him a happy birthday!! Somehow as if by magic when I mentioned this, the details were found and it would be arranged. The turn-down - well not exactly a turn down - just a proverb card left on the pillow.....

- Final straw - my personal towel from home (big bath sheet that we wanted to leave in the Owners Locker - I love my big towel after a shower) was taken away by Housekeeping the last full day while we were at the parks. It's easily not a hotel towel as it's got blue fish embroidered all over it. Ok, mistakes happen, but I woulf quite like it back! DBF spoke to concierge downstairs and they said (seriously) "it's not our department" and told him to fill in a lost form - it would go to housekeeping to then deal with and we would have to deal with them from the UK after checking out.

- At that point (despite trying to rest for the flight home and my chest not being in the greatest shape) I went downstairs and asked to speak to the manger. He was fantastic. He was disgusted at the treatment we'd received, from the room to the refusals and not happy about the towel/housekeeping incident and being told to deal with housekeeping direct - we should be dealing with the hotel. He was going to try and get the towel back for me and I can contact him (by email) to see how things are progressing over the next couple of weeks. He gave us $100 on account to have something nice on the hotel and incase the towel is lost, but he fully expected to get that back.

Other than that - the entire time we were out of the hotel we had a FANTASTIC time - every other birthday suprise I organised went perfectly!!

I do however want to send the details of the issues with our stay to DVC - we were treated badly as far as I'm concerned and we simply don't expect this with the DVC - maybe we've just been lucky with other stays - but we certainly won't stay at AKL again.

Who do I address the issues to and where do I send it - we're not out to get anything here - just let them know how 2 members were treated this past week.

 

[DVC Mike]

- At that point (despite trying to rest for the flight home and my chest not being in the greatest shape) I went downstairs and asked to speak to the manger. He was fantastic. He was disgusted at the treatment we'd received, from the room to the refusals and not happy about the towel/housekeeping incident and being told to deal with housekeeping direct - we should be dealing with the hotel. He was going to try and get the towel back from me and I can contact him (by email) to see how things are progressing over the next couple of weeks. He gave us $100 on account to have something nice on the hotel and incase the towel is lost, but he fully expected to get that back.

I do however want to send the details of the issues with our stay to DVC

DVC always wants complaints to be addressed at the time they occur, when they have the power to do something to try to make things right. I'm glad you spoke to the Manager in person and he did something to try to make it right ($100 credit).

Contacting DVC Member Satisfaction will make them aware of what happened, but you did the right thing by escalating the issue while you were still onsite.

 

[Disneypirate85]

WOW....Seems someone does not want to keep there job!
You did right by speaking to the Manager, however do a follow up with DVC Members satisfaction team find the link on our members page, they respond pretty quick, at least for us was 24 hours and that was for a pat on the back for a GREAT CM.

 

[Princess_Melanie]

Thanks Mike - we just feel like the whole stay in the Animal Kingdom Lodge was a big hassle - we loved being in Disney and had and awesome time....and then dreaded going back to the room - not exactly what we ever think with DVC!!

I would hate for anyone else to be treated like we were....

 

[Princess_Melanie]

WOW....Seems someone does not want to keep there job!
You did right by speaking to the Manager, however do a follow up with DVC Members satisfaction team find the link on our members page, they respond pretty quick, at least for us was 24 hours and that was for a pat on the back for a GREAT CM.

That is where I am headed next - good to know they take these things seriously!

 

[starbox]

It sounds like you got accidently assigned a room that had not been cleaned at all. This has happened to us - we've actually been assigned an occupied room before.

It's always taken a little longer to get into the room when this happens - but at 9pm, I am glad the manager ended up addressing your concerns and giving you a credit!

FWIW - the birthday treatment at AKV is just a card - no balloons allowed in the lodge beause of the animals.

 

[jennypenny]

We had *issues* with the way we were treated by the front desk staff at WLV and BCV--both not long after the DVC units opened. Treatment at those resorts has improved dramatically since. I think there is a steep learning curve for front desk CMs once a DVC unit comes on board. I suspect that is what happened at AKL.

I'm not excusing it--I finally went downright balistic at the BCV when, after waiting 1 1/2 hours for them to fix a mistake they made with our tickets and meal plan, they implied that I had no right to complain because we were getting the room for FREE because we used our points. Ugh.

So I feel your pain, and make sure you let EVERYONE know what happened. After two trips in one year with multiple mistakes by front desk staff, complaining at the time, compaining afterward to DVC, etc, I feel like the BCV has greatly improved it's service at the front desk.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

We had several of the same things happen to us when we were there right after Christmas. They would not put DVC member on our KTWC and even tried to charge us for the stay. I finally went and got the lady at the DVC info desk to come and help or we may have never even gotten a room. This is one of our home resorts and we will never stay there again. Call member services and let them know what happened. They need to know that there are many problems with this resort.

Lissa

 

[twinklebug]

I've been told at the front desk that the Villas are in a completely separate room pool than the standard hotel rooms and are assigned further in advance than the hotel rooms. Shuffling DVC folk about is not as simple as it is in on hotel side (not that that's simple either) .

This is also part of the reason it was difficult to get "DVC Member" put on your card. You didn't say if they did manage to get the text on there. The software simply is not set up that way, and because you were being switched to the hotel category it refused to acknowledge you as DVC (my bet - they put you in as cash and comped you for the nights) This would also make it hard to remove the internet charges (Off topic, but I'd like to see that internet welcome screen have a way of communicating with the room to see if it's occupied on points and give us a great big "Welcome Home" instead of a note of the cost involved.)

As for the uncleaned room... big goof on the front desk / housekeeping's part. It sounds to me that this was the only room that was "open" so the choices were slim. Ants would creep me out too...

I'm sorry you didn't have a good stay - it does sound like the front desk did what they could, but were learning and didn't want to share with you what they had to deal with on the computer end, trying to keep it as painless for you as possible. I'm a person who needs to know what's going on - sounds like you are too.

 

[Princess_Melanie]

I'd like to think that it was just a few mis-haps that we encountered Twinklebug, but even if it was - it's no excuse for the blatant rudeness we got from the CMs - on the first problem with the room, moving us, sorting out our DVC privaleges, the towel incident. On general all the CMs in the hotel were lovely unless they worked on the front desk.

I never approach a problem with a "I'm mad and you're going to sort it out" attitude, I always look at it with a "we have a problem, let's figure it out" - if they want to be rude to me, then that's a different matter.

Oh and the KTTW Cards - never got DVC put on them - they simply refused to do it saying we were not DVC guests but Lodge guests. That's not why we stayed there!!