Disney is totally heartless!!!

[DVC Sadie]

My thoughts and prayers are with you over the loss of your baby and encourage you to seek some grief counseling.

When someone loses a child it may be easier to deal with being angry instead of having to deal with the grief.

 

[Stitchfans]

Very sorry. Can't imagine what you are going through.

 

[bfeller]

I am very sorry for your loss. I hope that you can find peace in your heart soon. It does take time.

As for the insurance. That seems to be the norm on policies and that isn't Disney's fault. But I know that at a such a sad time in your life it just doesn't seem fair. As one poster suggested. Please use the money that you are willing to pay a lawyer for a grave marker for your child. It would be the best use of your money and a lovely remembrance for Ethan.

I am so very sorry for your loss and your hurt.

 

[It's A Happy Day]

1st I want to offer my condolences for your loss and sorry it is being made even harder with the financial hardship too. I cannot imagine the feelings associated with losing a child and would not wish it on my worst enemy.

Copied the original OP - commented in Red:
My husband works for Disney. We used to love Disney but they are soulless money grubbers that care about nothing more than money!!!

My baby was born 8 weeks premature and so my husband needed to use some FMLA time. They denied it stating he wasn't eligible even though we met all of the requirements. We had to threaten to call the labor board and file a complaint to get it approved. Then they cancelled it "accidentally" midway through. What do you mean they denied it? Did they deny the time off or paying your DH for his time off? FMLA is not leave with pay so if he did not have time accrued to take off they do not have to pay for his time off. They cannot however deny him taking it off unpaid. And what do you mean they "cancelled" it - did he have to return to work before the end of the FMLA period?

We lost our son on May 1st and had a life insurance policy in effect when Ethan was born for $5,000 through Disney. we paid every premium. Every cent of that money is owed to the funeral home. Funerals are expensive, even for babies. Alot of life insurance policies esp. for children are prorated as far as pay off dependent on the childs age. It is not until the child reaches a certain age that the policy is in full effect. This may be why you only received the $500. Check the details of your policy.

Disney paid us $500.00. They claim that they have a policy in effect that if your child is less than 6 months old they only have to pay that amount. It's not the life insurance company's policy, it's Disney's. I find it hard to believe that it is Disney's policy when insurance policies are issued through an insurance company and they set the terms, not the company that employs your husband. Disney is contracted with that insurance co. to supposedly get you a better rate because of the mass buying power but the contract is not with Disney but with XYZ insurance company.

So now, I cannot pay the funeral bill, or put up a marker because Disney decided that my baby doesn't deserve one. They make billions of dollars each year, they pay their employees peanuts. those cast members that give you such great service make $6.90/hr. Plus, their insurance costs are 60% of their paycheck if they have kids. Disney merely provides insurance, they pay no part of it.

I cannot believe that they can value a child's life at $500.00. They make more than that off of one family spending one day in the park. Unfortunately the benefits paid out were so small but I would think that the amount paid out was dictated in the policy. No company can afford to make exceptions to the terms set up in a policy because then there would always be some exception in eacy and every case. I don't think that Disney "feels" anybody is worth any $$$ amount but a contract may state an amount and it may be interpretted as such, esp. when going through such a trying time.

Please, take a breath, think things through and read through all of your paperwork. Give it a couple days of not dealing with paperwork, bills. If things are not clear then call the insurance company and rationally discuss the policy terms. Ask specific questions. Going to a lawyer in general - esp. in a case where the amount is not a huge amount (not that $5000 is small to me but...), most will end up in the lawyers pocket and you'll still end up with outstanding bills and being more frustrated.

 

[Keggy]

To the OP - Please go back and edit your posts. You have enough information here for Disney to know who your husband is. I realize that you are upset and dealing with a tremendous amount right now. I do not want your husband to be without work on top of everything else.

Also, I urge you to do as others have suggessted and contact VoluntEARS and also, contact a grief counselor. Counseling should be included in your medical coverage.

 

[undertheradar]

To the OP - Please go back and edit your posts. You have enough information here for Disney to know who your husband is. I realize that you are upset and dealing with a tremendous amount right now. I do not want your husband to be without work on top of everything else.

Also, I urge you to do as others have suggessted and contact VoluntEARS and also, contact a grief counselor. Counseling should be included in your medical coverage.

 

[mickeylove2]

OP- I'm so very sorry for your loss, I hope that you can work through your pain and not let it consume you.

I don't quite understand what everyone means when they say edit your posts becasue someone from Disney may read them, and her husband could be without work because of a message board?!?!?!? Do we now live in the Middle east or what?? I thought there was such a thing as freedom of speech in this country. If someone with enough authority read these posts and figured out who the op's DH was, what are they really going to do, fire him? I HIGHLY doubt it!!!

OP - vent away, if I were you, I would hope that someone from Disney would get a whiff of these posts, maybe then you will get an audience for your concerns!

 

[beachblanket]

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for most insurance policies to pay substantially less than face value for a child under the age of 6 months. I think you will find this is not a Disney thing.

This is what Met Life Says:

For Your Dependent Children*
Option 1:
Child under 6 months- $1,000
Child 6 months and over- $5,000
Option 2:
Child under 6 months- $2,000
Child 6 months and over- $10,000

This is what Valley Forge Life Insurance Says:
$250 if the covered child's death occurs after his or her 14th day of
age and before his or her age of 6 months

I am so sorry for your loss.

The above is well-intentioned but rather simplistic - it doesn't specify what type of policy is being referred to (Group universal? Variable? Term?) and that is crtical, since underwriting and benefit considerations vary significantly by type of contract and the specific deal the underwriters cut with a given employer.

My advice - have your husband ask Disney HR IN WRITING for a copy of the actual group insurance declaration, which as an employee he is entitled to by Florida Law and which will spell out the specific terms of benefits by age of insured. That will allow you to confirm the exact qualifications (if any) that may have impacted your case. To "insure" Disney gets of it's derriere and responds quickly, I'd copy the following party on the letter:

Commissioner Kevin M. McCarty
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation
200 East Gaines Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399

Good luck and bless you for alerting us all to the rather heartless treatment you're received. This does not reflect well on Disney at all, despite the weak attempts of the "they're a business'" apologists.

 

[Fizzgig]

I don't quite understand what everyone means when they say edit your posts becasue someone from Disney may read them, and her husband could be without work because of a message board?!?!?!? Do we now live in the Middle east or what?? I thought there was such a thing as freedom of speech in this country. If someone with enough authority read these posts and figured out who the op's DH was, what are they really going to do, fire him? I HIGHLY doubt it!!!
!

This is bad PR for Disney. If they'll fire someone made up to look like Johnny Depp kissing his girlfriend (who was made up to look like Ariel), or the same Johnny Depp face character standing with Goofy (who was a friend under the costume) being an issue big enough to fire the person playing Goofy... ummm, yeah, this post -might- be enough to get her DH fired. Disney has weird rules (to my way of seeing things) and seems to fire people for reasons only they get. Free speech doesn't come into this issue, because we're dealing with employer/employee interactions.

OP, I'm sorry for your loss. Everything I would say has already been said.

 

[It's A Happy Day]

Good luck and bless you for alerting us all to the rather heartless treatment you're received. This does not reflect well on Disney at all, despite the weak attempts of the "they're a business'" apologists.

Unless you are entwined personally in this situation you can not really claim they are being heartless. The OP is venting what I can only imagine to be grief, anger, and frustration and we are getting only her side of the story. I am sure given the chance the insurance company (or Disney) may have a completely different POV. Again it does not make the business named "heartless" and I do not think that it reflects negatively towards them at least IMO. While I do feel bad for the OP, it sounds like the policy paid out what the EOB said and she maybe did not understand the terms of that policy.

This is bad PR for Disney. If they'll fire someone made up to look like Johnny Depp kissing his girlfriend (who was made up to look like Ariel), or the same Johnny Depp face character standing with Goofy (who was a friend under the costume) being an issue big enough to fire the person playing Goofy... ummm, yeah, this post -might- be enough to get her DH fired. Disney has weird rules (to my way of seeing things) and seems to fire people for reasons only they get. Free speech doesn't come into this issue, because we're dealing with employer/employee interactions.

OP, I'm sorry for your loss. Everything I would say has already been said.

Unless everything she stated is 100% true it could be interpreted as slander and he could lose his job for bad mouthing his employer. I am not saying it is right but could see this angle being used.

 

[pepperw23]

I am very sorry for your loss. You and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[lilybrooke14]

I work for a large company, and in our paperwork it specifies that any negative information posted on internet message boards is grounds for termintation.

OP I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[Buckalew11]

OP- I'm so very sorry for your loss, I hope that you can work through your pain and not let it consume you.

I don't quite understand what everyone means when they say edit your posts becasue someone from Disney may read them, and her husband could be without work because of a message board?!?!?!? Do we now live in the Middle east or what?? I thought there was such a thing as freedom of speech in this country. If someone with enough authority read these posts and figured out who the op's DH was, what are they really going to do, fire him? I HIGHLY doubt it!!!

OP - vent away, if I were you, I would hope that someone from Disney would get a whiff of these posts, maybe then you will get an audience for your concerns!

I work for a large company, and in our paperwork it specifies that any negative information posted on internet message boards is grounds for termintation.

OP I am so sorry for your loss.

This is what I was talking about with my comment on page 2. I would not want this to bring any more heartache on the OP as she is really hurting now.

 

[beachblanket]

I am sure given the chance the insurance company (or Disney) may have a completely different POV.

Fine - and now that "one side of the story" is out here in the open, Disney and or their underwriters are welcome to come in and tell their version. Lack of that will be taken as classic corporate cowardice. Or put another way, the days when Fortune 500 companies could dictate the nature of all public discourse on them -- or simply ignore the variants they didn't like -- are long gone.

While I do feel bad for the OP, it sounds like the policy paid out what the EOB said and she maybe did not understand the terms of that policy.

Perhaps, but our subjective bulletin-board interpretation doesn't cut it. I recommended the OP use her legal rights to make Disney document it - and I hope she does.

 

[Fizzgig]

Fine - and now that "one side of the story" is out here in the open, Disney and or their underwriters are welcome to come in and tell their version. Lack of that will be taken as classic corporate cowardice. Or put another way, the days when Fortune 500 companies could dictate the nature of all public discourse on them -- or simply ignore the variants they didn't like -- are long gone.

Perhaps, but our subjective bulletin-board interpretation doesn't cut it. I recommended the OP use her legal rights to make Disney document it - and I hope she does.

beachblanket, what do you like about Disney? You are very biased against them on the DCL boards, and now you are trying to publicly take them to task over a post on a message board here. You seem to believe the worst about them, and aren't shy about stating how WRONG they ALWAYS are.

You know what I like about Disney the most? Despite not having to, they offer benefits to same sex partners of their employees. Doesn't matter that it doesn't apply to me, the very fact that they do that WITHOUT having to got my attention a long time ago. They don't crow about that, they just do it, and have done so for several years.

I am not blind to their faults, and I certainly don't apologize for them. I just don't CROW about their faults each chance anything bad comes up. What exactly, are you hoping to accomplish by railing against Disney on these boards so frequently? Maybe I'm just not getting the merit of your argument because you express it so aggressively, versus assertively.

Please lemme know what you think.

 

[Amlee]

I'm so sad to hear about your loss.

But wouldn't it make sense to put the money you would spend on a lawyer toward the funeral for you child?

 

[Amlee]

OP- I'm so very sorry for your loss, I hope that you can work through your pain and not let it consume you.

I don't quite understand what everyone means when they say edit your posts becasue someone from Disney may read them, and her husband could be without work because of a message board?!?!?!? Do we now live in the Middle east or what?? I thought there was such a thing as freedom of speech in this country. If someone with enough authority read these posts and figured out who the op's DH was, what are they really going to do, fire him? I HIGHLY doubt it!!!

OP - vent away, if I were you, I would hope that someone from Disney would get a whiff of these posts, maybe then you will get an audience for your concerns!

Many and I mean MANY people have lost their jobs, because of what they have written or posted on Myspace, Facebooks and the such.

Many companies pay people to monitar message boards such as these, just to see what is being posted by their employees. Many have clauses in their employee handbooks preventing employees and family members from posting such on websites.

Also Freedom of Speech does not extend to the web, as of yet. That is why each message board, forum and such have their own CG.

 

[DebbieB]

OP- I'm so very sorry for your loss, I hope that you can work through your pain and not let it consume you.

I don't quite understand what everyone means when they say edit your posts becasue someone from Disney may read them, and her husband could be without work because of a message board?!?!?!? Do we now live in the Middle east or what?? I thought there was such a thing as freedom of speech in this country. If someone with enough authority read these posts and figured out who the op's DH was, what are they really going to do, fire him? I HIGHLY doubt it!!!

OP - vent away, if I were you, I would hope that someone from Disney would get a whiff of these posts, maybe then you will get an audience for your concerns!

Many companies have confidentiality clauses that you sign when you start work. If you don't want to agree to it, then you don't have to sign and you don't work for them. You can be fired for violating any agreements you signed.

 

[beachblanket]

Also Freedom of Speech does not extend to the web, as of yet. That is why each message board, forum and such have their own CG.

Another generalization that starts to look a wee bit shaky if one googles "ACLU" and "freedom of online speech." Many constitutional experts assumed our first amendment only extended to public employees, but that line is getting more and more blury - litigation has already succeeded against private universities and private sector employers who terminated staff/employees for speaking out on subjects like politics. And I won't even get into what happened to Time Warner when their AOL sub tried to censor certain board discussions!!

Also, I'm not implying private sector employers have no right to try and control employee discussions about them. Rather, I'm pointing out that in day and age when a board like this exists, it dramatically changes the dynamic - the horse can get out of the barn much faster and in front of a much larger audience in the past, and the media dynamics are much different -- or put another way, if anyone here thinks Central Florida media wouldn't just love a front page story about Disney firing a husband who just lost an infant, they have a lot to learn about the press!

 

[diznygirl]

Another generalization that starts to look a wee bit shaky if one googles "ACLU" and "freedom of online speech." Many constitutional experts assumed our first amendment only extended to public employees, but that line is getting more and more blury - litigation has already succeeded against private universities and private sector employers who terminated staff/employees for speaking out on subjects like politics. And I won't even get into what happened to Time Warner when their AOL sub tried to censor certain board discussions!!

Also, I'm not implying private sector employers have no right to try and control employee discussions about them. Rather, I'm pointing out that in day and age when a board like this exists, it dramatically changes the dynamic - the horse can get out of the barn much faster and in front of a much larger audience in the past, and the media dynamics are much different -- or put another way, if anyone here thinks Central Florida media wouldn't just love a front page story about Disney firing a husband who just lost an infant, they have a lot to learn about the press!

Although certainly very interesting, I think you can agree that this is neither the time nor place to have such a debate.



OP - you have been offered a lot of advice - I hope it has helped somewhat to know that there are people that care about your situation.