Be aware...be very aware...

[G8r4evr]

I was under the impression that they have definite quotas to make, and that it's a little insane. Given problems with finding employees and a high stress situation, it sounds like a very unnerving pattern is developing. Since it seems to be happening quite often, I wonder if this is just a tactic someone developed and shared with a few coworkers, or worse...an unofficial supervisor sanctioned tactic.

This was my first thought as well. Definitely makes you wonder...

 

[G8r4evr]

Just enforces my decision to stay off property. I spend enough money on Disney every year without he hassel of trying to get a non-existent discount. I just think it is sad that Disney is starting to treat their guests like any other business does, "If you don't like it there will be more to take your place". With the dollar being so weak and and the euro being so strong the international visitor is more appealing to Disney at the moment. But, like the wind, this too shall change. I love Disney and hate the idea that they are not concerned with customer service. Oh well, that is just my .02

I couldn't agree more. All of the above reasons are why we have decided to take an extended break from Disney.

 

[dreams4disney]

I was told by a cm a few days ago for that I could get 2 rooms (standard view) at pop 6 day park hopper for me, my husband, DS's 13,11,9.and 6. Plus the dining plan for all of us. $3524.00 That is considered 4 adults and 2 children. I told her I just wanted room only and she told me that This was a good deal because I was saving 40% off my food and dining.

I knew I wasn't because I had already priced it myself. I posted on another thread that I have a room only with AAA and tickets for about $2340. and I don't think we would spend the $1200. that we saved on food. She was really pushing the plan she wanted me to take. We also have never used the Planet Hollywood voucher and we never have used our mini golf vouchers.

 

[auntie]

You know, I've gotten this before about saving 40% on the dining. I wasn't booking just inquiring and honestly this woman was giving me a quote on the Wilderness Lodge Villas..not the WL..and I couldn't get that across to her..since I wasn't going to book it either way, I didn't want to get into it..and she wasn't friendly either. I mentioned the dining plan being $40.00..she told me that was incorrect it has never been $40.00 it is $37.99. I told her I was just "estimating"..the cost since I used it last year. She was kind of abrupt and told me that booking the dining you save 40%... I just wrote it off to her not knowing what the heck she was talking about. I then proceeded to book my campsite reservation for August..which is a room only. She insisted that I have to pay the one night fee at that time. I told her I've made room only before and knew I had two weeks to send the payment. I asked her if there was a change in policy. Then begrudgingly she tells me that it will cancel out on FEb 12th. "I'm aware..but not if I send my deposit"...she had no comment. "Have a magical day"..yeah right.
I wrote the whole thing off to an inexperienced reservationist in a bad mood...but after reading these posts, I'm sure she knew exactly what she was doing and was pushing the Villa reservation...when in fact I did not want that.

 

[notsosnowwhite]

Well, I sent in my e-mail to Disney today explaining this original situation. I have decided that I will wait to see what kind of reaction I get from the company before making any decisions about upcoming vacations. What do I expect? Not a discount - I know that's the luck of the draw. But I do expect an apology for my experience. We'll see....

 

[TnTWalter]

but I think the original CM did give me a great discount. Sadly I called and changed resorts and the 2nd CM assured me everything was fine with code, etc.

BUT I checked the math and it was 20% off .... I called back and 3rd CM told me the code I had been given was 20 % off.... the original code was 40%.

I canceled the trip. Sadly I was also pushed into the credit card so the charges will be there for this pay period probably....I knew better but I gave my credit card anyway...duh.

Moral of my story if you have done the math before and can tell you're getting a great deal, don't change anything later!!

Trish

 

[Mamu]

This is one reason I do not deal with Disney directly, I've heard too may stories like this. I've only deal with Dreams Unlimited since I've found this web site.

I know there are lots of people who deal with Disney directly and never have a problem. I'm sure I would be the one to have a problem.

I love Dreams Umlimited. I book through them and they do the leg work, they are just an e-mail away and I can look up my reservation any time and see what going on. They secure a room and when codes come out they secure a code. They also book all my meal plans. Any question you have just e-mail them and usually within 24 hours it answered.

Wouldn't book any other way.

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Who knows what's going on? All I know is that there's some mayor scr*wing up going on. Unbelievable to read multiple peoples story about being lied to by a CM about having 'a discounted price'.

I'm aware allright! So aware that I doubt I'll have totall peace of mind until we're checked in. Last night I added some nights to our ressie with the AAA-rate. No prob. everything was done. Then I recieved 4 confirmations. There are 3 of us adults and with me needing a roll in shower, for which they tried to charge us $4200,- instead of the $1900,- it is.

The first room was now cheaper, because one adult was missing. It took a real long time -most of which spent on hold- to get it sorted out. And still, I'm anxiously awaiting the confirmation mails. Eventhough I kept stressing it's needed to add the third adult to the original ressie, I doubt it they did. The CM quoted me a total for the 2 rooms of that 1700-and-some. The 2 adults price, not 3. The CM had better added adult 3 on there and it better show up on the confirmation, or I'll be complaining.

 

[stepdisney]

Whew, I thought it was just me. Got a pin code....Finally, called to book and knew the price right away was way more than it should have been for 40%. I asked the CM to cancel yet I got an email with the reservations and a prompt that said to continue booking press here?? I did ask her to cancel the reservations, why would they send a copy of the reservations when I said "no thank you?" There seems to be a hard press sell going on. I love all things Disney but always liked that there didn't seem to be the "used care salesman" push. This seems to be the direct opposite of what I'm use to. .

 

[raven69david]

If you get a claim of a discount, make sure you book whatever offer they tell you that you're getting and put it on hold. You do not have to put any money down at this time. You can then check it out to see if it's a good deal. If it turns out to be hoax initiated by the CM to try and get you to purchase a room, report it to a supervisor.

 

[G8r4evr]

Whew, I thought it was just me. Got a pin code....Finally, called to book and knew the price right away was way more than it should have been for 40%. I asked the CM to cancel yet I got an email with the reservations and a prompt that said to continue booking press here?? I did ask her to cancel the reservations, why would they send a copy of the reservations when I said "no thank you?" There seems to be a hard press sell going on. I love all things Disney but always liked that there didn't seem to be the "used care salesman" push. This seems to be the direct opposite of what I'm use to. .

I called several months back to check on Fl Res rates at AKL. She gave me the rates, I told her I wasnt interested and my cell died. A few days later I received a confirmation letter via snail mail. Definitely seems there is a push to meet quotas by the CMs and some may be using dishonest measures to meet theirs.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

If it turns out to be hoax initiated by the CM to try and get you to purchase a room, report it to a supervisor.

I did ask to talk to a supervisor and was treated worse by him than the original CM. I told him that I was going to report how poorly I had been treated by him and he said - okay.

 

[branv]

This is one of those times I'm almost sorry that they separate topics from the main board. I'd hate to see this happen to other people who never think to come over to the Codes board and go merrily on their way thinking they got a good deal.

 

[mom2my3kids]

Didn't they switch to a different company that is handling the reservations? I know last year the confirmation papers I got in the mail were different then the years before.

 

[mickeymedic]

This is one reason I do not deal with Disney directly, I've heard too may stories like this. I've only deal with Dreams Unlimited since I've found this web site.

I know there are lots of people who deal with Disney directly and never have a problem. I'm sure I would be the one to have a problem.

I love Dreams Umlimited. I book through them and they do the leg work, they are just an e-mail away and I can look up my reservation any time and see what going on. They secure a room and when codes come out they secure a code. They also book all my meal plans. Any question you have just e-mail them and usually within 24 hours it answered.

Wouldn't book any other way.

I totally agree. Dreams Unlimited is amazing. Let them do the leg work. They will not lead you astry.

 

[OhMari]

Didn't they switch to a different company that is handling the reservations? I know last year the confirmation papers I got in the mail were different then the years before.

Do you know what is really wierd? I never received confirmation papers. Only e-mails. I can check my ressie on the WDW web site and I also have the confirmation e-mails saved. I think I am going to make my hard copies today. When we went in April 07, I had confirmation papers sent to me every time I made a payment.

I've had some CM's that were very adament about how I used my 40% off. It happened 2 times to me. I wanted to add 1 day on to my existing ressie. They would not let me. When I called back the 3rd time-suddenly the AKL wasn't all booked and I could add one more day onto my Standard View Room.

 

[G8r4evr]

Do you know what is really wierd? I never received confirmation papers. Only e-mails. I can check my ressie on the WDW web site and I also have the confirmation e-mails saved. I think I am going to make my hard copies today. When we went in April 07, I had confirmation papers sent to me every time I made a payment.

I've had some CM's that were very adament about how I used my 40% off. It happened 2 times to me. I wanted to add 1 day on to my existing ressie. They would not let me. When I called back the 3rd time-suddenly the AKL wasn't all booked and I could add one more day onto my Standard View Room.

Inconsistency seems to be the key amongs the CM's behind the reservation line.

 

[auntie]

Whew, I thought it was just me. Got a pin code....Finally, called to book and knew the price right away was way more than it should have been for 40%. I asked the CM to cancel yet I got an email with the reservations and a prompt that said to continue booking press here?? I did ask her to cancel the reservations, why would they send a copy of the reservations when I said "no thank you?" There seems to be a hard press sell going on. I love all things Disney but always liked that there didn't seem to be the "used care salesman" push. This seems to be the direct opposite of what I'm use to. .

This is EXACTLY what happened to me...and it was from the inquiry I made about the WL..and the cast member quoted me the Villas. I chalked it up to her not being well informed..but as I stated, she was also pushy and not very "magical". I received a e-mail confirmation..with the same prompt to continue to book. I e-mailed them indicating I was not booking a reservation, and that the castmember quoted me for the wrong resort to begin with. I wanted to make sure there wasn't a discrepancy of some sort. I indicated I was inquiring about a code or discounted rate..not making a reservation, and wrote that I thought the reservationist was confused as to where I wanted to stay and what I wanted. I inquired in the e-mail as to any "codes" or discounts. I did receive a generic response, that indicated there are many discounts periodically released, but they have no advance knowledge of them. Blah..blah. blah. I didn't think too much of any of this..until coming across this thread, and it's all starting to fall in place. Too many coincidences..I do think that reservationists are trying to book rooms to people who think they are getting a deal when in fact they are rack rates. They are also presurring people into making reservations they aren't sure about..and in my case...wanting that deposit on the "room only" right then. I knew the policy, and knew I had two weeks.

 

[jrmo]

I did get a code in the mail for 30% that we applied to AKL, but before we booked that, I had called several times to get quotes and info. We were looking at villas and I told the CM that I needed to get with the others in our group to discuss it before we could book it. He said he could put it on a 2 hour "hold", all we had to do was call back to make the reservation. We decided against it and received a confirmation letter asking for a deposit a few days later. Dishonesty seems to be running amuck...

 

[auntie]

I did get a code in the mail for 30% that we applied to AKL, but before we booked that, I had called several times to get quotes and info. We were looking at villas and I told the CM that I needed to get with the others in our group to discuss it before we could book it. He said he could put it on a 2 hour "hold", all we had to do was call back to make the reservation. We decided against it and received a confirmation letter asking for a deposit a few days later. Dishonesty seems to be running amuck...

I've been calling Disney since 1991..our first visit as a family...and I am pretty familiar with the resorts, and because of these boards the rates, and what to expect. Room onlies..vs. packages..and even AAA packages that sort of thing. I have noticed a REAL difference in the reservationists of late. They are not as "magical".. as they used to be. They may not be outright rude..but they are certainly way more aggressive than I ever recall their being. I'm not sure if their training has changed or if there are new policies in place, but either way..it's very Un-Disney like.
I would rather go on-line and check, but ..when I called to inquire about a rate at the WL(not villas..that she kept giving the price for) she told me that she could see that I had been looking at that week on line??? Kind of creeped me out. They already knew I had been putting in a search on their site for that week. Creepy huh?