Call Back from Complaint Letter

[bicker]

I have heard that housekeeping is no longer done by Disney employees. They outsourced that service to another company. I do not know if this is true or not

It isn't. Disney is beginning to outsource some other cleaning positions, and some of bell services, but not housekeeping, at least not yet. The bell services at the Grand Floridian, the best Disney resort, will be outsourced first. The company they're outsourcing to (BAGS) has a superior reputation and I believe will provide superior service.

 

[LauraLea]

It isn't. Disney is beginning to outsource some other cleaning positions, and some of bell services, but not housekeeping, at least not yet. The bell services at the Grand Floridian, the best Disney resort, will be outsourced first. The company they're outsourcing to (BAGS) has a superior reputation and I believe will provide superior service.

I knew valet service was being outsourced, but had not heard bell services was going to be too.

Laura

 

[dimoe]

Okay I will try to explain in writing but I am sure I will do it no justice at all to what happened. But here it goes okay so we ate at Crystal Palace the night of mvmcp . We were all done and only needed Piglets picture and autograph. The handler and Piglet came by us and said got to go to break. I asked nicely if we could do one pic first as we wanted to start mvmcp party. The handler said no we will be right back and we will start with you. Okay so we waited it didnt even take 5 minutes till Piglet came back right out wow . Okay so then Piglet walks over to the table right next to us, passed us and starts interacting with them. My daughter says they missed us mom. I said just wait and see maybe they will come this way. They didnt they continued on so we went up when Piglet was done with another table and asked for an autograph and picture. Piglet ignored us. So I went to the handler to explain our situation and he told Piglet . Well Piglet signed it and when we went to take a picture someone walked right infront of us. I asked Piglet for 1 more picture. Piglet was not happy and started shaking his head no and then motioning from himself to the next table in a very angerily way, kinda scary I was at a loss for words and totally taken back. My daughter was trying to explain but he was gesturing quite rudely and everyone around couldnt believe it. He started blocking his body so my daughter couldnt get close for a picture.He pushed right past my daughter on to the next table. I told my daughter we will go how rude.She was really disappointed. A lot of people couldnt believe that Piglet would act like that. I should have said something right there but was so totally shocked . We were not in a great mood for mvmcp that night.
Second was Minnie Mouse we were at the rope drop at toontown at opening and got to Minnie Mouse's house first so we were playing around with Minnie and taking pictures it was awesome. She had a hold of my daughter's hand and I thought how cool we will go through the house together awesome so magical. Well she was on her way walking with her into the house and two little girls smaller than my daughter came up and Minnie Mouse dropped my daughters hand and grabbed theirs ( how disheartenign to see just because she was older 8 and they were smaller) Okay so we continued through the house with Minnie and I took pics. She brought them out the back door over to Toontown Tent cool. Then Minnie Mouse motioned for them to walk up a certain path to go right in. There were only the two other girls and my daughter there. So the one little girl went in and my daughter went to go in and Minnie Mouse was shaking her head no and then put her hand there so my daughter couldnt go in at all. She started pointing for the girls parents to go through. There were 4 cms standing there and didnt do anything. My daughter was very upset because Minnie Mouse pushed her back to not go.
I was a little upset and again totally shocked.
I am not looking for anythign complaining I just wanted to let disney know of these rude behaviours and how a small interaction can ruin what could be a possibly once in a life time trip for some people. I do think that the pushing that both characters did should get in trouble too but that is for disney to decide.
Hopefully no one will flame me for this but I dont think these behaviours of characters are what walt disney would want people to see. On another note I want you all to know I wrote another note to disney raving about some other character interactions we had.

 

[MaeDaisy]

In response to the Minnie thing, if your daughter had already been "playing around with Minnie and taking pictures" maybe Minnie thought it was time to give someone else a turn. That makes more sense to me than "just because they were younger." Sure, it would be great if your daughter got to play around, get a ton of pictures, AND walk through the house with Minnie, but is that fair to the rest of the kids? Or if it were the other way, and the other little girls already had been having a ball with Minnie and getting pictures, wouldn't you be saying "can't she give someone else a chance?!"

 

[Mecha Figment]

allow me to elaborate on what happend with the skipping of yoru table without ruining to much magic. Crystal Palace is aranged terribly for a character meal. the tables are so closley packed and it is very very hard for a character to manage their way around in. each table looks identical and as a result the characters can easily forget which talbe they ended at. You see all of the Pooh characters are very very near sighted and have a hard time seeing where they are going. especially in a low light situation. When it comes to characters greeting each table. they have a set time to see each table. And sometimes they get in trouble if they don't see all the tables on one side before they get a honey break. now grant it one more picture probably wouldn't hurt. But honestly how long did he stay at your table. the characters can only really stay about 3 minutes at each table in order to give each family a fair chance to see each character.

 

[tinaluis]

I feel bad for those who had not-so-magical stays. As much as we all love Disney and feel the need to defend it against any naysayers, to trash others for retelling their experience is, IMO, wrong. Not one of you were in their shoes at the time. I wasn't there either. But I do know that there have been little things that over time become HUGE things and I know other times there have been huge things that have diminished to little things with time passing. We all do it!

I agree. We had a not so magical stay at POR this past August. It wasn't any one major thing, but several little things that finally brought us to the front desk to complain. When I got back, I replied to a post started by another DISer who also had a bad experience there, and it really brought out the meanness in some people. They tried to suggest that my expectations of a clean room stocked with all of the supplies that were there when we checked in was unreasonable. Disney is a big place, after all. What did I expect them to do now that I was home? I DID complain while I was there and, while the problem was finally resolved, the whole experience bothered me. This was our first onsite visit and I wasn't impressed and I wanted them to know. It wasn't enough to RUIN our vacation, but it definitely put a damper on it.

To their credit, someone from WDW contacted me to talk about my concerns and even offered me a refund of the tip that I left for the housekeeper once the issues were finally resolved. I thanked them and refused their offer of a refund, telling them that I was just happy to have someone hear my concerns.

As far as the other poster being refused another room at POP, if a manager tells you there are no other rooms available, do you call him/her a "liar" and ask to speak to someone else. Sometimes you try to let things go, to not ruin your vacation completely but as time goes by you get angry that you were treated that way and want to write to someone so that your experience is documented. Don't be so quick to dismiss someone else's experience just because yours was perfect.

 

[MAGICX2]

We all have "not-so-magical" little distractions even on the best of trips. STUFF HAPPENS and maybe its not anything that can be (or even needs to be) fixed.

But this "dirty room" thing goes WAY outside the margins of what we expect "on-property."

I'm responding because it is PREPOSTEROUS that:

1. Someone would be treated this way (and allow it to continue) at a place with the best customer service in the business.

2. A place where there are hundreds of people in the chain of command that can fix a problem IF THEY KNOW about it.

3. If it was NOT a BIG DEAL, then why report it here?

4. If it WAS a BIG DEAL, why was it not handled in the course of EIGHT DAYS?

5. This from someone who has stayed at WDW many times before and KNOWS what to expect.

6. Could anyone on this board explain how Mousekeeping
DID NOT SHOW UP to make-up or clean-up this room over 5 days at a Disney resort?
I did state they came in one day and threw the covers up on the bed and left a bag of linens by our front door. NOT that they made a bed with puke in it. I never mentioned someone throwing up. That was another poster.

7. And they PAID for this room.The package was completely paid for 2 months before our trip even started.

8. Now they want to "write a letter."If I had a phone number I would call it.

9. Dates of stay: Jan12-19 (8 days/7 nights) but poster also says "5 day stay" so don't know which it is.I apologize. Our stay was Jan. 15-19. I had the 12th on my mind because I am trying to organize something at home for FEB 12. My mistake. We arrived on Mon Jan 15.

Not an attack.
I'm just using LOGIC (that's why I've laid it out.)
This COMBINATION of incongruous situations does not make much SENSE.

I'm sorry for anyone that this happens to... I just don't see how it COULD GO ON for the duration of a week at WDW.

Wow, Robo, I don't think I've ever seen this kind of reaction from you before!
FWIW, I agree with you. It just seems odd that someone would stay in those conditions. While Pop may have been fully booked, not every single resort on property would have been...and they can easily transfer you to another resort (even comparable ones like the All Stars). People have easily moved to other resorts if they have been unhappy with the current one.
The poster says there was mold ALL over the bathroom walls, tile, shower curtain, "etc" (not sure what "etc" refers to). If that were true, it doesn't seem likely that Disney would ignore something that serious as certain type of mold are lethal. Not to mention Disney can and has been able to offer credits in ways other than cash (they have gift cards they can apply credits to). This just doesn't add up right.
If it's true...then wow, I'd be doing a lot more than just now deciding to "write a letter" two weeks after the return home....

Yes, there was mold all over the bathroom. I never said that it was so thick it could have been a layer of insulation. It was in the grout, on the shower curtain and the "etc" refers to the wallpaper around the bathroom door. My DH and I did use the shower but we were careful not to touch the walls. I would not bathe my children there because they have severe allergies and I didn't feel comfortable doing it.
It's not that I just decided "to write a letter two weeks later". I have made calls to the rewards program we are in to see about stopping payment. They said that since it was paid for two months ago there is nothing they can do. I called WDW Travel and they said I would need to contact the resort directly. Since i didn't get any help while I was there, I decided to find the appropriate place to send a written complaint to that I can send with a signature confirmation. I have had other very pressing issues to tend to since we returned home. I did not intend this to turn into a debate about whether or not there was actually mold in my room. I simply asked the OP which address she used.

Sure... soon as someone explains how mousekeeping makes up a bed with puke in the middle of it!

I did state they came in one day and threw the covers up on the bed and left a bag of linens by our front door. NOT that they made a bed with puke in it. I never mentioned someone throwing up. That was another poster.[/

I agree. We had a not so magical stay at POR this past August. It wasn't any one major thing, but several little things that finally brought us to the front desk to complain. When I got back, I replied to a post started by another DISer who also had a bad experience there, and it really brought out the meanness in some people. They tried to suggest that my expectations of a clean room stocked with all of the supplies that were there when we checked in was unreasonable. Disney is a big place, after all. What did I expect them to do now that I was home? I DID complain while I was there and, while the problem was finally resolved, the whole experience bothered me. This was our first onsite visit and I wasn't impressed and I wanted them to know. It wasn't enough to RUIN our vacation, but it definitely put a damper on it.

To their credit, someone from WDW contacted me to talk about my concerns and even offered me a refund of the tip that I left for the housekeeper once the issues were finally resolved. I thanked them and refused their offer of a refund, telling them that I was just happy to have someone hear my concerns.

As far as the other poster being refused another room at POP, if a manager tells you there are no other rooms available, do you call him/her a "liar" and ask to speak to someone else. Sometimes you try to let things go, to not ruin your vacation completely but as time goes by you get angry that you were treated that way and want to write to someone so that your experience is documented. Don't be so quick to dismiss someone else's experience just because yours was perfect.

Thank you. I spoke with the person who said they were the manager. I already posted the response I got from them. I spent alot of time on the phone and at the desk. I even was on the phone while in the line for rides with my children. After three days, my DH said to let it go and we would deal with it at home. I wasn't getting anywhere with the avenues I knew to take. I choose to deal with it when we returned home.
Yes, some molds are lethal. Yes, mold is disgusting. Yes, I did not want to stay there. If I would have had the funds we would have left the POP and paid for a room somewhere else. This trip was paid for with reward dollars, we had a certain amount of $ we took with us, and we do not have credit cards. I did not have the means available to me to rectify the situation on my own. I did the best I could given the circumstance. I just asked for the address to send my complaint to. Please, if anyone has the address or phone number I would appreciate it.

 

[bicker]

Walt Disney World Guest Communications
PO Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

 

[karibritt01]

MAGICX2... I was the one who mentioned puke being made up in the bed. That happened to me at CSR last June. Just want you to know wasn't attacking you! I agree that mousekeeping has issues, and am sorry that your room was so bad. I hope you are able to get something worked out with Disney. As for your Rewards program... while it is too late to stop payment, they can reverse the charges if they choose. It takes some work on your part, and generally a lot of calling and letter writing, but I have done this before. (Different card and company, but it can be done.) Good luck!

 

[kaytieeldr]

now grant it one more picture probably wouldn't hurt. But honestly how long did he stay at your table.

Ah, but it sounds like Piglet spent NO time at that poster's table. Piglet took a break before getting to dimoe's table, and, on reentering the restaurant, skipped that table and went on to the next one.

 

[Pats Dragon]

Disney is a special place so some people become so enamored that they refuse to believe there can be pretty bad experiences. Lately, there have been more bad experiences than ever before. Don't know why.

 

[DisWiz]

If I would have had the funds we would have left the POP and paid for a room somewhere else. This trip was paid for with reward dollars, we had a certain amount of $ we took with us, and we do not have credit cards. I did not have the means available to me to rectify the situation on my own. I did the best I could given the circumstance. I just asked for the address to send my complaint to. Please, if anyone has the address or phone number I would appreciate it.[/COLOR]

No one said you should PAY EXTRA to stay at another resort.
You could have ASKED to be SENT by Disney to another resort because
of the unsatisfactory room you had at a too-full Pop.

You said you decided to stop trying.
That means that you did not go to anyone in authority
who could actually FIX your problem ON-THE-SPOT.

The soup is cold,
the salad has a bug in it,
you charged us the full price instead of the sale price on the shelf,
I gave you a $50 not a $20,
these people are in our tickets' seats,
there is mold in our room,
housekeeping did not make up our room.

In all of the above situations you MUST
speak up AT THE TIME, or give up... and live with your decision.

Its too bad that you would have to say something at all, but
since you decided not to pursue it any further at the time,
I don't know how you'll get satisfaction after-the-fact.
Its too late to make the trip better.

 

[lorimc]

DisWiz, I think you are being unnecessarily harsh. No flame intended by this post, I just think that you can't compare insect soup to moldy bathroom walls.

As for the requesting to be moved, even if they did not think or know how to request a move, it should have been OFFERED to them by the POP personnel. And with the rewards points/dollars used, I wold think that it would be a littler trickier to try to go somewhere else than it would if they had paid in cash or with plastic. And what I get from reading the posts is that the family was under the impression that mousekeeping would clean the room at some point.

Disney's reputation precedes itself and sometimes to its detriment because we go in with a high expectations and are baffled when incidents like this occur.

 

[mking624]

Disney is a special place so some people become so enamored that they refuse to believe there can be pretty bad experiences.

I don't think anyone here ever said that bad experiences can't occur. But you also cannot deny that there are times that people will attempt exaggerate or lie about what's going on in order to receive some sort of "compensation." Note, I'm not saying anyone here is doing that, but unfortunately it does happen...to Disney and every other company out there in the world....which is why so many people have stressed countless times on this board throughout the past the importance of persistence in that you continue to pursue a resolution while you are still there because unfortunately by the time you get home, there's not a whole lot left you can do about it.

Magicx2 - did you happen to get any photos of the room...particularly where the mold was? I hope so...that way when you send in your letter, send in copies of the photos! (and keep the originals with you). They'd be hard pressed to deny anything with photographic evidence.

 

[mking624]

No one said you should PAY EXTRA to stay at another resort.
You could have ASKED to be SENT by Disney to another resort because
of the unsatisfactory room you had at a too-full Pop.

You said you decided to stop trying.
That means that you did not go to anyone in authority
who could actually FIX your problem ON-THE-SPOT.

The soup is cold,
the salad has a bug in it,
you charged us the full price instead of the sale price on the shelf,
I gave you a $50 not a $20,
these people are in our tickets' seats,
there is mold in our room,
housekeeping did not make up our room.

In all of the above situations you MUST
speak up AT THE TIME, or give up... and live with your decision.

Its too bad that you would have to say something at all, but
since you decided not to pursue it any further at the time,
I don't know how you'll get satisfaction after-the-fact.
Its too late to make the trip better.

DizWiz, I think the time has come to just let it go. We questioned it, she's answered...perhaps not to your satisfaction, but it's not our situation to deal with. I think the person has been very gracious in her responses in spite of the fact she keeps being questioned on the situation. Yes, I questioned it too...and I'm truly surprised (and grateful) that she did not respond in the same ways I've seen being posted to her.

 

[kribit]

My daughter was trying to explain but he was gesturing quite rudely and everyone around couldnt believe it.

I'm not being sarcastic but how was Piglet gesturing rudely? I'm curious.

 

[lorimc]

DizWiz, I think the time has come to just let it go. We questioned it, she's answered...perhaps not to your satisfaction, but it's not our situation to deal with. I think the person has been very gracious in her responses in spite of the fact she keeps being questioned on the situation. Yes, I questioned it too...and I'm truly surprised (and grateful) that she did not respond in the same ways I've seen being posted to her.

Well said, mking624

 

[Pedler]

No one said you should PAY EXTRA to stay at another resort.
You could have ASKED to be SENT by Disney to another resort because
of the unsatisfactory room you had at a too-full Pop.

You said you decided to stop trying.
That means that you did not go to anyone in authority
who could actually FIX your problem ON-THE-SPOT.

The soup is cold,
the salad has a bug in it,
you charged us the full price instead of the sale price on the shelf,
I gave you a $50 not a $20,
these people are in our tickets' seats,
there is mold in our room,
housekeeping did not make up our room.

In all of the above situations you MUST
speak up AT THE TIME, or give up... and live with your decision.

Its too bad that you would have to say something at all, but
since you decided not to pursue it any further at the time,
I don't know how you'll get satisfaction after-the-fact.
Its too late to make the trip better.

Two points.

First has it occurred to you that there is the possibility that on MLK weekend there were not other rooms at WDW or that the staff there may be trained to only offer rooms at the resort that they are at but not other resorts?

Second most people have a limit as to how hard they will push on these things. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge once and had a room facing MK. Unfortunately the room next door had people there that were part of a larger group and thought that having a party on the balcony was a good idea, a party that lasted until after 1:00 AM. We have two kids who couldn't get to sleep. The chronology here is a bit fuzzy as it was a few years ago but the basic sequence of events was I asked the room to be quiet, they didn't for long. Not wanting to start any type of altercation I figured I would have the hotel deal with it so I called the front desk. They said sure they would. Nothing happened. I called again. They said they would call. Nothing happened. I went down to the front desk. I was told only the manager could contact the room and that he would be free to do so shortly but was not available right now. Nothing happened. I went down to the front desk, this time around 1:00 AM and I was told the manager was still busy. At this point in time I could have gone ballistic, jumped up and down, made a scene etc. I had asked for the highest authority there and I couldn't get the manager or the problem solved. Instead I decided to wait a bit longer. Fortunately the party then stopped. In the morning I did complain to the front desk. I wasn't asking or looking for anything. They apologized in the robotic way that front line employees do for things that aren't their fault and that was it.

My point is that there are limits that people will push and that there isn't always a magic sequence of events that always gets results. In my case I am generally pretty forceful about these type of things but I am also pragmatic. Yelling at the front desk at 1:00 AM wouldn't have solved the problem.

What I took from the the post was that the resort that week was having a pretty bad service level in mousekeeping for the poster. I don't doubt the story. WDW isn't immune to labor shortages and issues any more than any other hotel is. She didn't say that mouskeeping wasn't there for 5 days. It was that they didn't show for a some and when they were there the job was pretty poor. Who knows, they could have had the miss fortune of having a mousekeeper that was on the way out of a job. It happens. You haven't lived until you have had a waiter or waitress that is getting ready to quit. Who knows what the situation was.

What I don't understand is the hosility towards a post about having a pretty bad customer service experience at a Disney Resort. It can happen anywhere including Disney.

 

[loriandmatt]

potential magic spoiler here, so don't read the rest of this if you don't want some of the fantasy to be stripped away......





the last handler and piglet that left (the ones who were going on a break and who knew you were skipped the last time) probably didn't convey that info to the new piglet that came out to make the new rounds. that piglet and their handler (probably a different one that was out with piglet #1) had no idea what you were talking about. yes, they should have handled that better. no question. i have seen it over and over though, were kids "rush" the characters instead of waiting their turn for the charcter to get to their table. the handlers try to redirect the rude/anxious kids as best as possible and try to explain that they have to wait their turn. I am sorry for your daughters experience. she was doing the right thing. communication failed somewhere and piglet was very unprofessional.

i have always tried to keep the "this piglet might not be the same one i just talked to" idea in mind at character meals. if we are missing a "drive by" from a particular character, i generally tell our server or the manager of the character meal. (the are usually easy to spot. tie for men, business professional dressy for women, usually wearing a head set/ear plug) They have always rounded up the character and handler as they are returning to the dinning room and relayed the info. most stop by to make sure we were taken care of.

 

[mking624]

First has it occurred to you that there is the possibility that on MLK weekend there were not other rooms at WDW or that the staff there may be trained to only offer rooms at the resort that they are at but not other resorts?

Just going to comment on this part because it's not necessarily related only to this particular occurance.
1. I've never heard of WDW booking ALL their resorts to capacity at the same time. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but I've yet to hear about it.
2. People have had success moving to other resorts if they've been unhappy at the current one. I've seen it discussed here several times.

Anyway, I just wanted to bring that up since the comments don't have to be specific to any one situation, but could be applied to anyone at any time.