Crummy Member Services Experience!

[punkin712]

Has the OP been able to speak to anyone regarding this matter?
Just checking in to see if there have been any updates.

Please keep us posted.

I haven't heard back from Carli yet. I'm going to try her again tomorrow - that will be the one week mark from when I left her a voicemail. I checked the DVC website and our reservation is in there with the 1-bedroom Boardwalk view, but we haven't received our new confirmation in the mail yet. In our original reservation, we requested a non-smoking room and an upper floor - I hope these requests are still on the reservation, but I'll probably have to call MS to get them back in. I'll probably get scolded for not mentioning this during the last call

I'll keep you posted if there are any new developments.

 

[lisaviolet]

I haven't heard back from Carli yet. I'm going to try her again tomorrow - that will be the one week mark from when I left her a voicemail. I checked the DVC website and our reservation is in there with the 1-bedroom Boardwalk view, but we haven't received our new confirmation in the mail yet. In our original reservation, we requested a non-smoking room and an upper floor - I hope these requests are still on the reservation, but I'll probably have to call MS to get them back in. I'll probably get scolded for not mentioning this during the last call

I'll keep you posted if there are any new developments.

Good luck with everything Punkin. I'm happy, as a DVC member and for you, that you are following through on everything. Good for you. And good for all of us.

Lisa

 

[J and R's mom]

So sorry you had to go through that. It puts a minor damper on things. Part of the fun of the trip is the planning/booking of it...at least for me.

I've had GREAT CMs and TESTY CMs, both. I've noticed (as other posters have mentioned) that if I call early in the morning (or around opening) the chances of getting a testy CM increase. I even had one CM tell me that if I call later in the afternoon it's not as "stressful and rushed" around there.

Bottom line is that I was hoping that MS would be better than the rest of corporate America call centers and would train their CMs to be cheery and patient and helpful NO MATTER THE TIME OF DAY.

I'm interested in hearing what Carli has to say.

And have a wonderful trip...regardless of its beginnings.

 

[punkin712]

I just received our new reservation confirmation in the mail - the dates are right...the room type and view are right...and both our requests are right!! YIPPEE!!

I told DH that I was going to check our vacation details on the DVC member website every week until we leave just to make sure we don't have anymore weird reservation changes.

I also left another voicemail for Carli this morning. If I don't hear from her, I'm not sure who else to contact. Any ideas? Normally, I would call our DVC Member Guide but in March we were told that our most recent guide (Robin Daniels) was no longer with the company and that we would be reassigned to a new person. Since then, all of our emails say "Your Vacation Guide is Disney Vacation Club Family" instead of a specific guide's name so I guess we were never reassigned.

Oh well...we really aren't high maintenance members (I swear!) but this time around it would have been nice to have someone specific to talk to.

 

[lisaviolet]

I just received our new reservation confirmation in the mail - the dates are right...the room type and view are right...and both our requests are right!! YIPPEE!!
Oh well...we really aren't high maintenance members (I swear!)

Don't swear!!!! They'll just bleep you out!!! Thanks again Punkin.

 

[punkin712]

I just got off the phone with Carli D'Agostino - she couldn't have been any nicer! She listened to my whole long story and said she would follow up with the manager I spoke with in Member Services who gave me such a hard time. I feel so much better now that I talked to her.

I mentioned to Carli that the MS manager told me all the calls were being recorded now so they could go back and find out who was telling the truth and she clarified how they are doing this. She said they only record a certain number of calls each day for each MS rep - not every call is recorded. So, it might not be as simple as asking MS to pull the tape of your call to confirm a conversation.

I also asked her if there was any way to put the waitlist information on the reservation confirmation letter. She said they looked into it, but the amount of information already on the letter in addition to the (sometimes multiple) wait list requests made it impossible to do.

When I told her that I was afraid I would have to go OCD and check the DVC member website every week to make sure our reservations didn't change again, she chuckled and confirmed that we absolutely were not waitlisted for anything else. It was a nice breezy moment that made me feel like she really was sympathetic to my situation.

Carli is definitely one of the good guys in Member Services. I wonder if they could clone her...

Thanks to all my DIS friends for listening!

 

[J and R's mom]

Thanks for reporting back to us on your conversation with Carli. I'm so glad to hear that she handled this so well.

 

[lisaviolet]

Good to hear.

 

[zalansky]

OP, glad you talked to Carli and are feeling better!

I called MS this past Monday to change a future ressie from a two bedroom to a one bedroom. We didn't need the extra space after all because my in-laws decided to not come that trip, thank goodness! I also needed to remove the dining plan from another existing ressie for another upcoming trip, in-laws changed their minds and don't want the dining plan after all. I could tell Miss Member Services was displeased with my two changes I needed to make and I tried to make light of it by saying sorry, you know how in-laws can be and they just don't know what goes into all this reservation stuff.

Miss MS snippily tells me that really, I should have called any other day than Monday because that is when they are busiest! I felt very small at that moment and got off the phone confused. Didn't I just spend quite a bit of money on this vacation club and the service that comes with it??? I guess stupid me for expecting service with a smile?

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

The whole "Monday is our busiest day" scenario is the same thing the CM pulled on me during my call to see if my new points had shown up yet. They really need to stop harping on that issue as we have a right to call any day we want and of course Monday is going to be busy when they are closed over the weekend...what do they expect?

 

[DrChuck23]

I'm new to the board and don't mean to flame so early on here, but those of you who have discussed the multiple reservations issue have got to see that there's a difference in reserving 2 rooms with the intent to use both versus making 2 reservations with the intent to cancel one.
You may very well be ALLOWED to do this (heck, I'll probably have to do this too at some point in the future) but it is definitely not cool for everybody else trying to make reservations during the time period that your "backup place" is reserved while you're waiting on a wait-list somewhere else. At the same time, if both remain booked until relatively close to the vacation date, then DVC risks having unused rooms, and again, another member who might have wanted to book the "backup" site earlier, has lost out.
In some respects, I actually have to admire the MS rep who had the guts to point out this "greedy" tactic. Let's not kid ourselves- this is a selfish move, none of us are beneath doing it and we all view it as "necessary" to make sure we get what we want, but there are others who may suffer from it so don't act like it's no big deal; and don't be shocked when someone calls you out on it.

flame suit on

 

[castleri]

Knowing that Monday is very busy I try to only call then if it is to book a holiday period reservation that I am doing day by day. I find that by calling other days and/or later in the day I have never had a discourteous MS rep. I try to put myself in their shoes and think about how it would feel to have the clock ticking showing multiple calls behind the one I am currently on and have someone calling to ask questions that are clearly answered in their member handbooks, making ADRs or calling to change requests etc. They have more time and less stress to deal with these type of calls once the early morning 11 month and 7 month ressies are somewhat out of the way. They should always try to be pleasant and courteous but there may be times they can be more relaxed, spend more time helping you out and in turn seem less curt. It also pays to have them repeat the reservation info before you hang up if they did not do it on their own.
If I remember correctly they usually say something like " I have you checking in on _____ into a 2BR (etc) at (name of resort) and checking out on ________. This will use____points which leaves_____points in your _______use year. If that isn't said I would ask to have my information repeated back to me.
Hope this is your one and only mishap with MS and that you have many pleasant years of DVC ahead.

 

[zalansky]

I was a claims adjuster for many years with a very large insurance company that was closed on weekends. Naturally, Mondays would come around and we would be insanely busy due to being closed over the weekend. If I had used the tone with my customers that the Miss MS took with me and then had the nerve to try and say - well, its Monday and we are extra busy because we are closed on the weekends - HA! I would have been shown the door. Since when should we as customers, take someones possible workload into consideration, especially when I want to make sure I get what I would like as far as room sizes and dates when I am paying for it??? Of course I am going to call first thing Monday morning just as anyone else would who wants to try and get the room they want.

By the way Castleri - CONGRATS to you on the arrival of your new grandson!

 

[shantay1008]

I was a claims adjuster for many years with a very large insurance company that was closed on weekends. Naturally, Mondays would come around and we would be insanely busy due to being closed over the weekend. If I had used the tone with my customers that the Miss MS took with me and then had the nerve to try and say - well, its Monday and we are extra busy because we are closed on the weekends - HA! I would have been shown the door. Since when should we as customers, take someones possible workload into consideration, especially when I want to make sure I get what I would like as far as room sizes and dates when I am paying for it??? Of course I am going to call first thing Monday morning just as anyone else would who wants to try and get the room they want.

By the way Castleri - CONGRATS to you on the arrival of your new grandson!

I'm with you, zalansky. It seems to me that MS gets paid no matter what and we're not responsible for monitoring their workload. If it truly is a problem, then that's up to management to decide if they need to include weekend hours, or add more people on Monday or whatever. It's awful to have to feel apologetic when you're paying for a service!
Shannon

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

They should be even more pleasant to us when we call on Mondays because we help their day go by much faster!

(yes...I'm making a joke: notice the "big grin" smilie!)

 

[manning]

Some answering machines have the ability to record conversations. If you have one the next time you make a reservation turn on the feature and announce that for quality control this conversation is being recorded.

 

[punkin712]

Some answering machines have the ability to record conversations. If you have one the next time you make a reservation turn on the feature and announce that for quality control this conversation is being recorded.

Great idea!