DVC fails customer service again, be careful with how you use your points canceled due to COVID

[dismedvc]

If you can email them and that will force them to put in writing what actually is going to happen so it is easier to keep track of the conversation. I was emailing with them instead of sitting on a phone for hours. For our situation it worked out the best it could.

Posted this on another thread (see link below), and I am reposting the full text from that other thread below, since it seems appropriate here.

Sent an email to member satisfaction on June 2nd.

Sent an email to member satisfaction on June 2nd. Got an immediate auto reply my email had been received.
No reply as of June 17th, so I sent a reply to their auto reply asking when I should expect an answer to the questions I asked in my email. Received a reply from member satisfaction saying my correspondence had been sent to member services. Since I thought my email may have gotten lost in the transfer, I sent the same information and request for a response on June 17th using the "contact us" link on the member website. I thought that link went to MS. It has now been 30 days since my original email and I have not received an answer to the question I asked.

HORRIBLE customer service, or as @_auroraborealis_ pointed out, I should have said HORRIBLE Member Service to not reply to emails.

Does anyone know if there is a way I can send my email a 3rd time directly to member services without using the contact us link on the member website?

ETA: I feel the MS reps who answer the phones and staff the chat are doing the best they can given the situation. The problem seems to be there is an unpublished policy, that is constantly changing, and the MS reps take the blame when they have to tell a member they can not do what the member requests today, despite having told a different member they could accommodate that same request yesterday. (see below)

All of these people telling you to “try again” I just don’t get. These policies were handed down by DVC Executive leadership. You can call 100 times and speak to every supervisor in the building and are going to get the same answer. Even if these supervisors truly want to help they cannot. If you want change stop calling MS and start contacting the executives.

 

[DebbieB]

I've seen posts the last couple days on Facebook, there is going to be another waive of members cancelling, unfortunately their choice and I doubt DVC will make any concessions unless they close again. What is happening is members are cancelling due to the fact that their state is mandating to quarantine when they RETURN from Florida. For example, I saw one today for members from Kansas, they cannot quarantine for 2 weeks when they return home due to jobs. One is a school teacher and can't take the chance of ignoring the quarantine.

What a mess.

 

[kmorlock]

We had a similar thing happen with flights to Hawaii. Modified to August when we saw things going down, but now they don't qualify for a refund, just a credit that expires in January. Everyone else who booked in March gets another year to use the credits. It's frustrating and we'll probably be out several hundred dollars.

Edit: Well never mind! I just found out SW extended their dates for the extended points until September. So now we get until 2022 to use them! I still understand your initial frustration though. I felt helpless when I cancelled our August flights and were told 'too bad'.

Just in case anyone reads this, we had the same experience with SW. After must to do we found out that their system will auto populate the earlier expiration Date of one year since reservation was made.. Every night a filter catches reservations and changes the expiration to Sept 2022. This will continue until 9/7/20 for now.

 

[vnovabri]

UPDATE: So with the bad there is some good. We actually got a call back from the supervisor (not the "scheduled call back") we chewed out and she left a message indicating that there was some new executive policies that may help our situation. Unfortunately we missed the call and the number was the general call in number, so we had to spend another hour on hold this morning to talk to a CM. Long story short, the supervisor did leave a not in our file (I wonder what other notes are in there) indicating that they should make our points eligible for the extendable period.

Now for the caveat, as I think as @Sandisw indicated, we have to wait for our UY to end before we can use the points in the booking period. So basically we will have to wait until Sep 1 to see if there are any dates available for reservations between Sep-Nov available to book, They also indicated that RCI would be available until mid Nov if nothing was available. So I think this was a good result, because we definitely do not feel comfortable traveling (by air) to visit in July or Aug. Although, it will be a bit nerve wracking to basically let our points expire before we can use them. I will have to trust that this will work out as intended.

Thanks everyone who gave feedback! Hopefully people in a similar situation can also be helped by this new policy.

 

[Dean Marino]

If you are a DVC owner, with points being robbed? I've gotta suggest again: Put those points up for RENT.

You will accomplish two things:

1) Recover your cost, and perhaps a bit more.
2) Put a 3 inch SPIKE into WDW's ability to sell Rack Rate Rooms.

What I don't get.... right about now, WDW should be screaming to rent these points BACK. They need them, few people are being fooled by the "RCI transfer" line, Owners will rent them anyway, via third parties - cutting in to the standard room trade.

Is this a good scenario for WDW?

 

[dismedvc]

we have to wait for our UY to end before we can use the points in the booking period. So basically we will have to wait until Sep 1 to see if there are any dates available for reservations between Sep-Nov available to book, They also indicated that RCI would be available until mid Nov if nothing was available.

Happy for you. Two comments/suggestions:

If you have 2020 points available, you can book something now for Mid-Sept, Oct or Nov, using 2020 points, and then when your extended points become available in early Sept, MS can swap your extended 2018 banked points for your 2020 points you used to make that reservation.

Also, when MS told you that RCI would be available until Mid Nov, if you wait that long, the points deposited into RCI would be severely restricted. The RCI deposit deadline I think you should focus on is 45 days before the points expire to avoid restrictions. Since your extended points expire on Nov 30, that means your 45 day RCI deadline is Oct 16th.

ETA: The RCI rules may have changed. See thread below

Has anyone confirmed the current deadlines for when expiring points now need to be deposited into RCI?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

One of the rental agencies has over 1000 confirmed reservations listed for rent. Renting is going to be rough for a while. Especially this year until people can buy 2020 tickets.

 

[vnovabri]

Happy for you. Two comments/suggestions:

If you have 2020 points available, you can book something now for Mid-Sept, Oct or Nov, using 2020 points, and then when your extended points become available in early Sept, MS can swap your extended 2018 banked points for your 2020 points you used to make that reservation.

Also, when MS told you that RCI would be available until Mid Nov, if you wait that long, the points deposited into RCI would be severely restricted. The RCI deposit deadline I think you should focus on is 45 days before the points expire to avoid restrictions. Since your extended points expire on Nov 30, that means your 45 day RCI deadline is Oct 16th.

ETA: The RCI rules may have changed. See thread below

Thanks, I think this will be our plan. I may have mis remembered the RCI date but that's really a last resort and would likelly roll them in September if we can't use the points

 

[dismedvc]

Update: Received an email today in reply to what I previously said was the June 17th email I sent to MS using the contact us link on the member website (In the reply from MS I see I actually sent it on June 18th.) The reply I received today answered my questions.
Need to apologize for my early post. In these unique times, while MS taking 15 days to reply is rather long, I think it is acceptable.

ETA: Never did get a response to the June 2nd email I sent to member satisfaction that they stated had been sent to MS, but I can understand that one getting lost in the transfer.

Sent an email to member satisfaction on June 2nd. Got an immediate auto reply my email had been received.
No reply as of June 17th, so I sent a reply to their auto reply asking when I should expect an answer to the questions I asked in my email. Received a reply from member satisfaction saying my correspondence had been sent to member services. Since I thought my email may have gotten lost in the transfer, I sent the same information and request for a response on June 17th using the "contact us" link on the member website. I thought that link went to MS. It has now been 30 days since my original email and I have not received an answer to the question I asked.
HORRIBLE customer service, or as @_auroraborealis_ pointed out, I should have said HORRIBLE Member Service to not reply to emails.

 

[ThomFoolery]

This is good news! I am in the exact same boat. May trip cancelled, Sept UY, banked 2018 points, booked last week in August to use the points, was told b/c of that they are not eligible to be extended. Added to that we are coming from NJ and DeSantis just extended the 14-day quarantine to Sept. So hopefully, based on your outcome, I might have a chance of actually using these points.

UPDATE: So with the bad there is some good. We actually got a call back from the supervisor (not the "scheduled call back") we chewed out and she left a message indicating that there was some new executive policies that may help our situation. Unfortunately we missed the call and the number was the general call in number, so we had to spend another hour on hold this morning to talk to a CM. Long story short, the supervisor did leave a not in our file (I wonder what other notes are in there) indicating that they should make our points eligible for the extendable period.

Now for the caveat, as I think as @Sandisw indicated, we have to wait for our UY to end before we can use the points in the booking period. So basically we will have to wait until Sep 1 to see if there are any dates available for reservations between Sep-Nov available to book, They also indicated that RCI would be available until mid Nov if nothing was available. So I think this was a good result, because we definitely do not feel comfortable traveling (by air) to visit in July or Aug. Although, it will be a bit nerve wracking to basically let our points expire before we can use them. I will have to trust that this will work out as intended.

Thanks everyone who gave feedback! Hopefully people in a similar situation can also be helped by this new policy.

 

[SpaceMountain77]

I had the same experience and posted about it a few weeks ago.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...ervices-interpretation.3803209/#post-61948922
If you make a new reservation, then it is no longer affected.

 

[SpaceMountain77]

Long story short, the supervisor did leave a not in our file (I wonder what other notes are in there) indicating that they should make our points eligible for the extendable period.

We had the same experience, with a supervisor two levels up placing a note in our file. Given my frustration during the initial call, I can only imagine what my notes indicate.

 

[Dean Marino]

Seriously - if you have banked points (2019 to 2020), then cancelled 2020? RENT your points out. Disney will not help you.

2018 points? Even worse . RENT em out, while they have any value in the open market .