do you think there is any point to writing to MS or BWV about... (long)

[disneyberry]

*sigh* i said mos ago that i was going to write a letter or two about my stay last Thanksgiving at BWV. but i put it off for quite some time because i thought about it and wasn't sure what the point was...

basically, we stayed in a room that had a fire ant infestation. it was not a huge infestation, but there were about 30 or so ants crawling in lines along the walls and corners of our 4th fl room. in the middle of the night, because the ants were on the wall behind the bed headboard, dbf and i got a few bites on our hands/arms that stung and itched like crazy!

we only found the ants after the 2nd night when we decided maybe we should see if we can find the bugs that are biting us. then when we let the front desk know, they immediately agreed to move us to a different room, and they also sent up someone from Maintenance to deal with the ants.

the thing is, they didn't attempt to put baits in the room or anything (to attack the nest/source). the guy just immediately started spraying the ants (while we were still in the room packing up, no less! i was annoyed and didn't really want to breathe the fumes. )

also, the front desk CM did say that they often spray the ants as soon as they are noticed, and the ants will leave that room, but then go into an adjacent room.

i don't see how they can ever get rid of the ants without interfering with the operation of the resort (shutting the whole resort down or something). plus it being Florida, many people say that ants are practically a sure thing.

i guess we were just lucky. in all our stays on Disney property, we never encountered an infestation like that until our last stay.

so, you see, i'm not even sure what the point of writing to anyone is. we are not looking for compensation of any kind. the front desk did apologize to us already. but somehow i wish that BWV could get rid of the problem, so that no family will ever have the bad luck of getting that one room that happens to have ants in it. but i don't have a solution, or a feasible suggestion for how they can do that.

i usually prefer to write "complaint" letters only if i have a reasonable suggestion for what they can do to fix the problem.

i don't know, what do you all think?
is there a point to writing still? what suggestions do you have?

thanks for letting me vent a bit, and i'm looking forward to your advice.

 

[Granny]

I think it's always worthwhile to write to DVC management about an experience, especially if it did not live up to expectations.

You did inform the CM's on duty, so it should be noted in their log. However, I'm not sure that kind of information always makes it to the places that matter!

I think it would be worth dropping them a note as long as all you want to do is let them know about the situation.

 

[CarolAnnC]

IMHO, you brought it to their attention, and you were moved to another room. From what you stated, they immediately starting addressing the problem with the ants.

Florida has ants. They are a fact of life. I would not want them in my room either, but I think to pursue this any further would be redundant.

Now alligators on the other hand...hehehe.

 

[bobbiwoz]

If I still were thinking about something of this nature that happened at Thanksgiving, I would write the letter and be done with it. There may be some measure that maintenance hasn't tried, just let them know that you were bothered by the ants, bothered about their response and weren't happy breathing the fumes as you were packing.

Even though you don't want or expect compensation, but want a solution to the problem of ants, and since a solution escapes you, I still think you could let your thoughts on the matter be known. You're a DVC owner, not necessarily the one with all of the answers, and this is a problem that you don't feel they are handling correctly.

Bobbi

 

[Dean]

If you don't like ants and roaches, don't come to FL, LOL. They are a fact of life in FL, espcially in places where there is food all the time. Someone complained last year because they baited the ants and didn't spray, which takes days to weeks to work. I think this was at BCV. I guess they can't win.

Should you complain there were ants, no, I think that would be unreasonable. Should you complain they sprayed instead of baiting, I'm sure they do both and again that seems unreasonable to me.

 

[CarolMN]

FWIW:

I'm not sure what the point of writing would be, either. I think too much time has passed anyway.

If it were me, I would not write to suggest a method of eliminating the ants as I doubt it would do any good. To me, it would seem like I wanted to tell the professionals (people who decided spraying was first line of defense) how to do their job. (Unless you work in the field, then maybe you could use your Company stationary to give you a little credability with the Disney folks. ) For all you know, there were other measures taken later to eliminate the problem.

I also don't think too much of the CM's comments - IMHO, he/she should not have said that to a guest (even if he/she thought it was true. Just not professional in my opinion).

Sorry to hear about your problem - hope your next trip (and all the ones after it) goes much, much better!

Best wishes -

P.S. We occasionally have ant problems in our home here in Minnesota. I hate it! My DH uses bait, but RAID spray actually works better in getting rid of them quick! Can't use it in the winter time due to fumes, though, so I have to suffer through the bait process. YCK!

 

[Disney Enthusiast]

I don't know whether you should or shouldn't write a letter. If you are still thinking about the ant problem, it might get it off your chest to write. We just stayed at BWV 2 wks ago and I am sure glad we didn't get an ant infested room.

So sorry you had to deal w/ that type of problem. That would make the trip disappointing. My hands itch just thinking about it.

 

[brandip22]

I'm sorry, but I don't see how it's unreasonable to expect your room at Disney to be without a lot of ants. I would understand if they left food out in their room a little bit more. We don't think it's OK to have ants running around at restaurants, do we? I live in Louisiana and we have lots of ants, roaches, water bugs, etc, but they are not in my house. I make sure we clean and get the house/yard sprayed as much as I need to in order to keep the pests out. Why should we just expect to have bugs in our rooms? That's ridiculous. Maybe I have high expectations, but if I'm paying this much for my "home," I expect it to be treated as my home and kept up. Will you see an ant now and then? Of course, but they should never start spraying with you there (some people are allergic to both ants and the spray- what of you would've had a reaction?) and should certainly put bait out and do whatever is necessary to correct the problem. They make things for this problem. I don't think it's unreasonable to complain. I am a manager at a bank and I want all complaints, even if they do seem unreasonable. Why? Because w/out customers, we'd have no jobs- none of us. And I want to know what bothers the customers even if I can't do anything about it or if I don't agree. That's what customer service is all about.

 

[lenshanem]

I think it is reasonable to write a letter, but i think you really have missed your time period.

I have written a couple times before, one for a terrible experience at a character meal (the ordeal even got mentioned on WDWIG), the other to mention the state of the bathrooms in one particular location. The first time they called me several times trying to get hold of me, finally they did and sent my girls lovely 8x10s of the princesses personally autographed.
Second time I never heard a response.

 

[Disney Enthusiast]

Now that I think of it.......

I was in the hotel, restaurant industry and the statistics were that very few people will complain, they'll just never return. And they will tell 10 of their friends, and those 10 friends will tell 10 of theirs, and so on. So we were told to be thankful for letters and comments, because at least those people cared enough to let us know about the problem, have it fixed and try again. Most people just take their business somewhere else.

Now you being a DVC member who has guaranteed Disney of your business, your situation may be different. But I would think the upper mgmt would want to know. You've notified the resort mgmt already, but maybe you need to still write to the upper levels to drive in your point? I don't know.... just a thought.

 

[disneyberry]

thanks, everyone, for your comments.

i do feel a little better about my initial decision to not write a letter at all. i guess i started to second guess myself and think that maybe i made the wrong decision, maybe there was a point, and i should've written to them so they can "fix the problem" (that seems to be impossible to fix in FL).

it's funny. it is valid point, that just the fact that i'm still thinking about this, obviously i was really bothered by that last BWV stay.

i mean, it was really unpleasant!
our room seemed clean. we didn't leave any food out. when we finally found the ants, we didn't see them foraging or carrying any food or crumbs or anything. i don't know what the heck the ants were doing in our room anyway!

maybe i just have some kind of subconscious phobia from when i was a kid and my family had an ant infestation that we had to hire an exterminator to deal with it. dbf hates bugs period, though i don't know where he gets it from.

anyway, i know from a practical standpoint, i should just tell myself: whatever, no big deal... it could've been worse. you love BWV. the BWV mgmt is probably well aware of the ant problem, otherwise it would be MUCH worse than one or two rooms. go back and stay there again on your next trip, and just hope you're lucky enough to get a non-infested room in the state of FL.
but there's a little emotional roadblock that i can't get over (hence the still thinking about this months later). so, like i was saying in another post, maybe we'll try a different resort on our next trip, just to take a break from BWV, and let some more time pass until we're really missing our home resort again. heh.