Do you have a rapport with your guide?

[CarolAnnC]

We purchased add on points from a guy there. He was friendly that day, but lied to us. We had brought some friends in with us who were interested. He looked and said someone else had them listed as a referral. He told them the name of the person referring them - neither of them knew anybody by that name. He assured us that he would change it to us as the referring members since we brought them in, and since our friends said the only reason they were considering it was because how much we have bragged it up. After all their paper work was completed, signed returned,etc I called to check on our referral "bonus". We were told we were not the referring party. I called him directly and asked him about his "assurance" that it would be changed and he said that once it's entered it can't be changed. (So why did he assure us he would change it??? Was it so we would buy an add-on too???) I wrote a letter somewhere - explained the whole situation and did wind up receiving $200 in gift card. Nowhere in the package that it came in did it say that was as a referral and we weren't given the option of selecting our referral gift, so I am assuming that had we had a 2nd referral that year that it would look like a first. But that soured me on that guide. And what's sad was that we had a great time with him. We went in to the presentation with our friends and "helped" him "sell" our friends on DVC. The guide even joked that he would have to share his commission with us.

I am glad that they were able to make it right and issue you a $200 gift card! I can understand you were frustrated, but I really don't think the Guide should be taking the full blame here. I found some issues with the Referral process myself, and correcting it took literally the better part of a year..

Just a note while we are talking referrals - IL does have limitations, and one can only have up to two per year before reaching the dollar maximum of $1,000 according to state law.

Bottom line is, you did receive a "bonus" so I would definitely be happy with that!

 

[n2mm]

I do with my guide. We bought in 5 years ago and we still get calls during EVERY trip (4-6 trips a year) welcoming us home. She always returns my phone calls promptly whenever I've had to contact her about a question or adding on. She's the best guide ever! We could not be any happier with her!

 

[quirty30]

We love our guide. He is at the Doorway to Dreams store. We stop by and talk when we are there. He always calls us when we are at Disney. We even get a Christmas card from him every year.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we have the same guide. I keep reading this thread and feel like I am very fortunate. Sure, guides are salespeople, but I feel like mine goes above and beyond...and he knows I have plenty of points and no need to add on anytime soon.

 

[n2mm]

I LOVE our guide. Although we have never met personally, we have had many a personal conversation, and she always calls us when we arrive "home" at WDW. She is very attentive when we are interested in add ons, and she will call us when a resort is close to being sold out. She's great!

I think we have the same guide. You described mine to a tee! She has the same initials as Mickey Mouse!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

I am glad that they were able to make it right and issue you a $200 gift card! I can understand you were frustrated, but I really don't think the Guide should be taking the full blame here. I found some issues with the Referral process myself, and correcting it took literally the better part of a year..

Just a note while we are talking referrals - IL does have limitations, and one can only have up to two per year before reaching the dollar maximum of $1,000 according to state law.

Bottom line is, you did receive a "bonus" so I would definitely be happy with that!

Oh I am very satisfied that it finally got worked out. I guess the reason I was so frustrated with the guide personally was because the day we were up there he was so friendly, and was so confident that he would be able to switch things to show us (instead of people our friends don't even know) as the referrers. Then once all the money had exchanged hands and the paperwork was all signed he wouldn't return calls, when I got him on the phone he said he'd look into it and we never heard from him. So I had to track him down again and he basically said that nothing could be done. Not even, "I'm sorry I mis-led you" or "I've tried everything, talked to everybody" just basically blew me off. I think I sent the letter to the mall office itself, and to somebody in Orlando (or wherever the main offices are). I never got a reply. One day I got a fed ex package. In it was a regular white business envelope with 10 $20 gift cards. There was no explanation, it didn't even say whaat the cards were I had to look them up online to see the amounts on them. That's the only referral we've had that has ever gone all the way through to a purchase so I wasn't too concerned about reaching a 2nd tier referral, but later I thought that it was probably never actually classified as one and they just sent us the cards to make it go away.

 

[zalansky]

OP here I would love an occasional call or Xmas card. Those are things I know I would do if I were a guide, at least thats what I envision. It would definitely make me more likely to go through him when i was thinking of adding on, which we have done twice now. I have been perusing the resales for over a year. I sometimes think I should call my guide and speak to him directly about current offers, but honestly I don't feel like he is interested so I don't bother.

 

[ericamcl]

Even though we're new members (less than a week old in fact) I just wanted to say that our guide is AWESOME.
I know it's about getting the sale, but we started looking into DVC almost 2 years ago - and every time for the last 2 years that I've had a question, or wanted more info, or anything like that he got back to me right away.
He did not pressure us to buy, and I really liked that about him.

Even today I had a question about the docs that need to be signed and as soon as I told him what I needed he told me who to call and what number to call to get what I needed. Very quick and efficient.

I'm hoping to do an add on next year and hope to use him for more add ons in the future.

 

[eva]

We have a great guide. She normally calls us and leaves a message on each trip. If she doesn't we usually find out that she is on one of the cruise ships. We have been members since 97 and this is our third guide. All have been great and have left us messages on our trips. We normally stop by every trip or two to say hi. But we may be the reason that we have good rapport with our guides. We do refer one or two people on average each year. We have done 7 add ons. And we often stop by to chat with our guide. I think that a guide can't read your mind. As some people have stated, they prefer to be left alone. So some guides may be waiting for you to make that first step. Or maybe they made one attempt in the past and you did not respond. Or we have just been lucky for the last 13 years.