Complaint number for Disney Diningcom

[lockedoutlogic]

Are we talking about Christmas here?

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

When they opened the new wishes dessert party there was a glitch. Every time I tried to confirm it crashed but still charged Amex. I had 2100 bucks pending. So did a bunch of people. We survived calmly until it was straightened out that day. It's Disney.

That's just the thing though, that kind of service is NOT Disney. WDW has always been about superlative service and experience, so much so that over the decades other businesses have model themselves after Disney! The constant problems with the website does not reflect the Disney ethos.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

My experience this am was so horrific that honestly, I almost canceled the trip. After having to figure out which days to visit which park to line up dining so it can be booked at 180 +10 and then not being able to do so....

1) And, you expected what?
2) With the Internet, there are THOUSANDS of people staying at WDW resorts and going for many of the same ADR's.
3) And, they all know about the 180+0.
4) So, you evidently were going for some of the same ressies as others.
5) Sorry, but next time, try for less popular spots or less popular times (that is what we tell our disappointed guests)

 

[TheRustyScupper]

WDW has always been about superlative service and experience

1) Until Ogre (I mean Iger took over).
2) Yet, you guys still patronize, and spend money like drunken sailors (no insult meant to Capt Jack).
3) You want changes, speak with your pocketbooks.
4) PERIOD.

 

[bumbershoot]

Are people on Amazon waiting at the stroke of 6 AM EST to log in and order the latest Kindle? Sure, sometimes, and sometimes they have an issue.

Actually, they don't have issues. I know of ONE outage that amazon has EVER had, and it was an actual attack and it was early early EARLY on.

Let's go back to that master site idea, where they put it all up and make sure it's working and don't click the "go live" button until it's DONE....

I wish we could blame this on Disney for making 250 WDW IT employees redundant (some transferred to other Disney jobs) last year in order to replace them with lower paid workers with special visas that Disney brought in from India. But the fact is, the Disney Dining web page has been having problems since long before then. The phone problems are troubling though.

You need to go read that article again and see what it ACTUALLY says.

"While families rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and searched for Nemo on clamobiles in the theme parks, these workers monitored computers in industrial buildings nearby, making sure millions of Walt Disney World ticket sales, store purchases and hotel reservations went through without a hitch."

That's not IT people. Monitoring computers? No.

And since I live up here and DH knows people and I know people, IT is up here. At least a lot of it.

(and frankly if the people making the website were from India, I'd expect the IT to be a LOT better...so maybe they SHOULD give the whole job to employees in Daksh or something...alas, the people telling them what to do are likely still in the US, so they'll still get it all wrong)

The article gets dates/timeframes wrong multiple times. The amount of time the person got before layoff is wrong, because they were informed in Oct and their last day was Jan 30. Therefore it's even more suspect.

It then goes into theory-land.

"But the layoffs at Disney and at other companies, including the Southern California Edison power utility, are raising new questions about how businesses and outsourcing companies are using the temporary visas, known as H-1B, to place immigrants in technology jobs in the United States."

Yes, it raises questions. Doesn't mean that's what is happening. Means someone had an agenda when writing that article and continuing to get it published month after month. It's weird, actually, how it keeps getting recycled. Don't you think?

And everyone talking is going against what they almost certainly agreed to in order to get their layoff compensation, and therefore they are not to be trusted IMO.

And frankly, if Disney deals with this EVERY DAY, its no longer an ebb and flow. It's a known quantity.

Absolutely.

 

[maxiesmom]

And we all know they are not working on the problem how??????????????

I work for a major retailer, and our computers have issues. They work on them all of the time, and they still have issues. Maybe a fix is not as easy as some of you seem to think.

 

[Lucius Best]

And we all know they are not working on the problem how??????????????

I work for a major retailer, and our computers have issues. They work on them all of the time, and they still have issues. Maybe a fix is not as easy as some of you seem to think.

Of course Disney is working on it. And who ever said computer issues were easy to fix?

 

[maxiesmom]

Of course Disney is working on it. And who ever said computer issues were easy to fix?

View attachment 101116

Now that is going to be the image in my head when we have computer problems at work!!!!!!!!

 

[lockedoutlogic]

And we all know they are not working on the problem how??????????????

I work for a major retailer, and our computers have issues. They work on them all of the time, and they still have issues. Maybe a fix is not as easy as some of you seem to think.

Tend to agree...unusually high rushes on IT systems always seem tricky no matter how well you think they will/should work.

Since we happened to be at the Lilly Pulitzer faxtory sale yesterday...I was thinking about the target debaucle in April...

They crashed the system on a surge for select items in a system that sells 100,000s of products...
You just never know.

 

[hsmamato2]

I get what you are saying. but it isn't the rules and policies she is complaining about. It's that the TECHNOLOGY DID NOT WORK! She did EVERYTHING she was "supposed to do" and the system failed her. WDW is definitely responsible for their pathetic IT and should get flooded with endless complaints about it.

Other giant companies manage to keep their complex IT systems running smoothly (Amazon, anyone?). It's an embarrassment to the Disney brand.

this.

 

[hsmamato2]

Lot of Disney apologists here.... comparing them to Amazon? sure, why not? Since Disney decided to invest in all this 'techno-garbage' and force us all along for the ride, basically ending a 'simple family vacation' and creating a new era of 'madhouse online planning' they MOST CERTAINLY should expect to get it RIGHT. We should expect that if we as a consumer are FORCED to use this 'techno-garbage' that they've set up,then we shouldn't have to deal with all this garbage,and all the excuses. I also spend a lot at Amazon,and in the rare instances when they get something wrong, they will fix the issue almost instantly, creating happy customers. That's the DIFFERENCE. There is no excuse for such horrendous customer service, not for a company that built itself on the customer experience. I say 'built' as a past tense purposely. The very thing that set Disney apart from any competitor is being lost through this kind of thing. Op's complaints are valid,and happen ALL THE TIME. The competitors are catching up FAST,and looking better and better to those of who remember a very different customer experience,and even saying that just makes me sad. (I will NOT say 'guest', b/c though they still use that word for us, it has long since stopped feeling that way)

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Disney has NEVER been good at computers...

Especially networking. They had the DOS based hotel system till 2004/2005 (stolen from Vegas circa 1986)... Just didnt feel like putting the money into a new system.

They are bad. I'll never apologize for that...not at those prices.

But...the Disney online dining system ( case in point that it came out 10 years after everyone else) is one small part of a huge media operation...

Comparison to amazon's core setup is probably apples to grapefruits.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

2) Yet, you guys still patronize, and spend money like drunken sailors (no insult meant to Capt Jack).

Patronize? Yes. Like a drunken sailor? Not me, Rusty. My parents are cast members. That means twice as much of every perk - Holiday coupons (though mom and dad used one 50% already. How dare they!), comps (for MK, which is blocked out), maingates, not to mention the nice little extras like the 50% off Hoop Dee Doo that's being offered to CMs right now. You know what I'm talking about. We're only paying full price for two meals. With all those perks and a free place to stay, WDW is cheaper than any other vacation I could take. (And don't say camping. That's a weekend activity where I live.)

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Sorry Bumber, but i wish i had a 'dislike' button for your post. You are stating that the NY Times got the article wrong? Based on what source?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/u...off-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html

The fact is Disney invested tons in their infrastructure and Magic Bands which will be adopted by plenty more companies. I get completely frustrated by the site too at times. No, it's not Amazon. It seems as though IT was always attempting to layer code on top of existing code instead of starting fresh.

Anyway, to say that a company with 10% increases in Net Income and Cash Flow should outsource more jobs is very distasteful to me:
(http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/sites/default/files/reports/q2-fy15-earnings.pdf)

Snipped from your entire quote below: "(and frankly if the people making the website were from India, I'd expect the IT to be a LOT better...so maybe they SHOULD give the whole job to employees in Daksh or something...alas, the people telling them what to do are likely still in the US, so they'll still get it all wrong)"

Disney should invest in staff to maintain their service levels - good service can't be accomplished or maintained, whether it is IT or Front-line, by overburdened employees.

Actually, they don't have issues. I know of ONE outage that amazon has EVER had, and it was an actual attack and it was early early EARLY on.

Let's go back to that master site idea, where they put it all up and make sure it's working and don't click the "go live" button until it's DONE....



You need to go read that article again and see what it ACTUALLY says.

"While families rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and searched for Nemo on clamobiles in the theme parks, these workers monitored computers in industrial buildings nearby, making sure millions of Walt Disney World ticket sales, store purchases and hotel reservations went through without a hitch."

That's not IT people. Monitoring computers? No.

And since I live up here and DH knows people and I know people, IT is up here. At least a lot of it.

(and frankly if the people making the website were from India, I'd expect the IT to be a LOT better...so maybe they SHOULD give the whole job to employees in Daksh or something...alas, the people telling them what to do are likely still in the US, so they'll still get it all wrong)

The article gets dates/timeframes wrong multiple times. The amount of time the person got before layoff is wrong, because they were informed in Oct and their last day was Jan 30. Therefore it's even more suspect.

It then goes into theory-land.

"But the layoffs at Disney and at other companies, including the Southern California Edison power utility, are raising new questions about how businesses and outsourcing companies are using the temporary visas, known as H-1B, to place immigrants in technology jobs in the United States."

Yes, it raises questions. Doesn't mean that's what is happening. Means someone had an agenda when writing that article and continuing to get it published month after month. It's weird, actually, how it keeps getting recycled. Don't you think?

And everyone talking is going against what they almost certainly agreed to in order to get their layoff compensation, and therefore they are not to be trusted IMO.




Absolutely.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Patronize? Yes. Like a drunken sailor? Not me, Rusty. My parents are cast members. That means twice as much of every perk - Holiday coupons (though mom and dad used one 50% already. How dare they!), comps (for MK, which is blocked out), maingates, not to mention the nice little extras like the 50% off Hoop Dee Doo that's being offered to CMs right now. You know what I'm talking about. We're only paying full price for two meals. With all those perks and a free place to stay, WDW is cheaper than any other vacation I could take. (And don't say camping. That's a weekend activity where I live.)

But now that I've brought up that off topic info, it brings to mind conversations with my father about how he has to trick the system into doing what it's supposed to do. He works FP+ (among other things) and to get the system to perform correctly he has a bag of tricks, so to speak, to force the system into doing what it should already be doing. As we all know, these tech problems are rampant at WDW, not just for Dining. If Disney isn't very good with computers, as PP mentioned, then why did they create an entire system that traps the guest into using their faulty tech? Yes, I know...Iger. Though one would think that with the billions of dollars sunk into MDE and FP+ that they should have gotten it right.

 

[Jennafoo]

Actually, they don't have issues. I know of ONE outage that amazon has EVER had, and it was an actual attack and it was early early EARLY on.

Let's go back to that master site idea, where they put it all up and make sure it's working and don't click the "go live" button until it's DONE....

Not to pile on Bumber, but the above isn't accurate. I have actually worked in User Experience/development for major websites for years and years. I have worked at some of the biggest names in the e-commerce and financial industries, and have some experience with Amazon.

Amazon has "issues" all the time, sorry, just like we all do. Things don't work out like you plan. Bugs appear that you never anticipated. To say that Amazon has had only one issue since their inception is optimistic at best.

As for the "master site", there is actually a "master site". We call it a "QA environment"; the entire site exists in this environment before rollout, and is extensively tested. But anytime a site is not live, not being hit by thousands of users at once, you don't exactly know how code will react when it actually rolls. Believe me, everyone QAs the dickens out of every new code rollout, and things still happen. I sat in two bug triage meetings yesterday for a major release that we tested for NINE MONTHS, and we're still having issues. It's the nature of the beast.

Code also by its nature rolls out in stages which always causes weirdness when it's happening; hitting a button and having an entire site go live at once would indeed be magical. But alas, we're not there.

Disney does test. Sometimes it's harder than you'd think to isolate a problem. Sometimes, it's on the user's end and you can't replicate it. Sometimes, people think it's a bug, but it's working as designed or it's something else entirely.

If you want my considered opinion, I think what you're looking at in this case is a traffic problem. Anecdotally, a lot of people have complaints when they try and get ADRs on their first morning...when presumably a lot of other people are doing the same thing. Again in the evening it seems to happen. The fact that I can get that error message and refresh immediately and NOT get it (or get it, but still have the restaurants for, say, HS show up and nothing else), is indicative of traffic that - for whatever reason can't get through or gets hung up. That is a tricky situation, because your code may be fine, and you may not have control over how people are getting in. Isolating a problem like that is notoriously hard. But again, don't work for Disney, so I don't know for sure what's going on.

 

[Aerinha]

CM number two told me they know about the adr site cycling back to today's date. Awareness is good, but a fix is better. In this day and age ongoing web issues are an embarrassment. A site crashing due to a product rollout is one thing, but a corporation who knows it has consistant high traffic not getting it right ever is just bad business. But then they keep building tiny restaurants like they don't know they will fill in half an hour. It is like
Disney consistantly fails to realize it is popular and has volume.

I sent an email complaint. In 2015 there is really no excuse for a poor website for such a large company.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Trust me, not a Disney apologist. I agree with you, Jennafoo.

I would also add that most companies aren't under the 'fan' microscope the way WDW is.
Millions of people are hitting their sites, especially dining, thanks to fan boards. (What other company has a 5 page thread devoted to cheese sauce on a fan board?) Check out your confirmation numbers when making reservations minutes apart. The numbers increase by the thousands in the matter of a minute.

Plus now there are a bunch of sites out there trolling for reservations - I'm sure these bots cause a ton of overhead on the site too.

Thousands are getting hotel and dining reservations successfully, thousands are getting FP+ successfully, and millions are using MBs successfully. Could it be better? Yes, definitely, but as Jennafoo says, it isn't always that easy.

(BTW, this isn't a new event. I remember years ago you could pay for someone to call for reservations at CRT, which was impossible to get into at that time. There were folks that would scoop up all the ADRs and in essence sell them to the highest bidder. Back then folks complained about the planning involved and the telephone system )

 

[JJZMgailey]

(What other company has a 5 page thread devoted to cheese sauce on a fan board?)

This is exactly why I LOVE it here!!!

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

While I understand and sympathize with the issues people have had with trying to schedule ADRs, I have to ask what your expectation is? Do you really understand what is happening with the Reservation system?

If controls weren't put into place to prevent over booking, then your complaint wouldn't be that you couldn't get your ADR, it would be that once you got to the ADR, that you had to wait 2 hours to get in because it was over booked.

SO the controls and rules they put in place are an attempt to minimize these problems, however other folks are exploiting the rules in other ways. How? They make reservations for times they don't really want hoping that later on a better slot will open up. When it does, they cancel the last one and make the new one. Perhaps the one they held was the one you wanted, so when they canceled theirs you can then get it (unless someone else beat you to it).

Then there are the folks who aren't sure if they are going to MK or AK so they make reservations at Crystal palace and Tusker house. They have up to 24 hours in advance to cancel, so they have 2 reservations at the same time that they cannot possibly be at. Only at the 24-48 hour mark do they decide to go to one over the other. Perhaps one of those reservations were the one you wanted.

With the vast number of people going to WDW, if you think about the logistics and scheduling involved, it's quite phenomenal that they do as well as they do.

I am not saying that WDW is not without some fault and that some CM's couldn't spare to do with a little sensitivity training, but you have understand that You or I are not their ONLY customer. It's also very likely that if we (as individuals) take our business elsewhere, that it won't even phase WDW and the bottom line, because as a whole WDW seems to make the majority of the people happy.

So before you draft the scathing letter to the WDW Executives telling them how terrible it is to use their system, have a bit of an understanding of what it does. It might even help to have a potential solution to the problem. Nothing worse then someone who complains about how broke something is, but when you ask for suggestions how to fix it you hear crickets.

Just for the record, I am sorry you did have a difficult time getting what you wanted and I hope your trip (assuming you are still going) ends up being magical despite the issues. Also for the record I do not work for WDW but I do work in "Corporate America" and I understand how these larger systems work and can get so large that they break themselves with rules/polices.

As I was reading your comments, I truly thought you were joking at first. How Disboards like that you would turn this into the fault of the guest. Disney Apologetics at its best. LOL

Nothing you said jives with her complaint. She is not complaining about rules or processes. She is frustrated because Disney has the worst IT on the planet. I am not sure if you read much on the Restaurants forum, but the system constantly returns an error for most people. Some of us have been fortunate enough to get in and successfully book reservations, but that is not the case for most. Additionally, she was on the phone and basically hung-up on. Being hung-up on is not a process or to keep her from overbooking. We do not know if that was the CM or a problem in the phone line, but it is frustrating regardless. Her "expectation" is reasonable. If Disney can collect thousands of vacation dollars from their guest, why can't they produce a system that functions properly? There is nothing unreasonable about that. Surely they can afford additional servers and resources to get it functioning properly.

Additionally, the "limitations" on the Disney reservation system you speak of do not exist. The only limitations that exist are the ones that prevent double-booking during the same window. There are no limits on the number of reservations a person can successfully make for a trip. Disney's system is a piece of junk; it is that simple.