DVC left us without a room

[CHunterK]

We made reservations over a week ago for Grand California Hotel through the DVC website. Everything was confirmed for a trip in August, around the 7 months mark. I booked plane tickets from Charleston, SC to Los Angeles, booked a rental car, etc. Then today I received a phone call from DVC (over week later from the booking), stating they had to cancel our reservation. The reason provided was that they had a "system malfunction" and over booked the studios for the nights I reserved. I figured they were going move us to the hotel side. To my surprise there was nothing else offered, they just told us that the reservation was cancelled and the points would be refunded. They did put a waitlist in for me which I don't have high hopes for if the rooms are already over sold. I even offered to take a different room at any of the three hotels on side. I told the lady (who was nice and just carry out orders), that I already spent money on plane tickets however nothing I said was going to help. She said the reservation was cancelled and that was all she could do. I've never heard of Disney, especially DVC treating their customers like that. They have always tried to make it right by moving the customer to another hotel, room, etc. So now I'm stuck with plane tickets to LA, kids that are expecting to go and no hotel. I could book at the regular price because those dates are available for paying customers. I know it's a first world problems but I've never heard something like this by Disney. The phone call ended with me nicely telling her I'm showing up for those dates and expecting a room. What an obvious shift away from the customer experience by management and (from what i'm told) another IT failure. How in the world does a company like Disney have such bad IT. Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience incase anybody wanted to know what current DVC members are dealing with.

 

[Sandisw]

I am sorry it happened to you and I would Email membership satisfaction about the issue. They should find a way to support owners for glitches on the website.

 

[Spivey378]

You can always stay at the old Parkvue Inn.

https://www.parkvueinn.com/

 

[drusba]

Were you part of the Jan 11 reservers at VGC? Huge amounts of availability for rooms at 7 and fewer months out appeared on the website despite that the rooms were previously shown as full. When it discovered the problem, DVC shut down the VGC part of the website so no one could reserve anything at VGC and that lasted several days. If that is the case, you are one of hundreds who are being informed you have no reservation. The sheer numbers likely prevent any movement to the hotel side -- if DVC allowed one, all others would demand the same. DVC probably should come up with something better than your room is canceled and points refunded -- period -- but unknown if it will even try.

 

[RivShore]

Yet another disastrous IT failure...I would make a lot of noise-even email the CEO, they should assign it to someone with some pull to resolve.

 

[Jasmine9828]

How are they not at least offering multiple free park tickets to you as an apology? Offering absolutely nothing for this miss on their end is terrible. And, seems out of alignment with what one of the “pillars” of the Disney strategy that the CEO recently shared.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

They actually don't always "make it right". Sorry that you were caught up in the IT mess. This is the second time it's happened and last time around they did offer hotel rooms to a lot of people but from reports it wasn't all.

One plus is that airlines have at least removed the change fees so while it's not what you'd want to do you could hopefully use the funds for a different trip or else still go but book an offsite hotel at DL.

 

[sarah4770]

You could waitlist , but still book a nearby hotel as a backup. There are many hotels that are in walking distance.
I stayed at the Grand Californian on cash a couple years ago, and if I had to do it again, I would pick a less expensive hotel. It was nice, that’s for sure, but not THAT nice.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I'm still stunned at the whole mess, and the number of people who jumped on the glitch like they were giving away Figment popcorn buckets.

Now certainly there were some number of people (and I'll assume the OP is one of them) who simply went to the web page, did a search for the dates and room types they wanted, and were super excited to see availability at VGC.

BUT...

The forum is littered with posts by people who are fully aware that VGC is the smallest, most expensive (points cost-wise) and most difficult resort to book, even for owners with the 11-month advantage. Add in that the glitch affected the month of August, so smack dab in the middle of the peak season for So Cal tourism. I just can't fathom all of the subsequent posts along the lines of "I really hope I don't get a cancellation email." or "I've already cancelled my other reservation, I hope I get to keep this one." or the best one: "I know it's too good to be true, but fingers crossed I get to keep it". If you are already anticipating a cancellation, you knew it was shady to begin with.

And, by the way, keep it with what? Those 25 extra rooms they're building next week? I mean, for crying out loud, there are a TOTAL of 50 villas. In the whole place. The resort was sold out (as it almost always is with a rare single day popping up here and there), and there were literally a good half dozen or more separate posts last week by members saying the same thing about their "good luck and fingers crossed". And that's just the number who posted on here.

Now, I'm absolutely NOT saying that Disney IT didn't start the whole mess, or that Disney shouldn't make EVERY effort to make things right, but given the number of bookings by people who absolutely knew it was a glitch and that those rooms didn't exist, but tried it anyway, who knows how many emails they eventually had to send out, or how much worse the SNAFU was made by people making reservations for rooms they knew full-well didn't exist. That behavior just makes what is an already huge mess created by Disney that much worse, for no reason. Instead of a handful of overbookings that could be moved to the other hotels, there could be dozens or even one hundred or more, and how do they distinguish between honest mistakes and opportunism?

 

[New Mouse]

Yet another disastrous IT failure...I would make a lot of noise-even email the CEO, they should assign it to someone with some pull to resolve.

The CEO is the problem.... welcome to the new Disney. Money matters most.

 

[New Mouse]

how do they distinguish between honest mistakes and opportunism?

Fix the system, that's how. At this point it's literally negligence. Disney would lose every case taken to court with the amount of failures they experience.

A large amount of Inventory was released across wdw a few months back and I picked up a tough reservation that wound up being real. How can I distinguish what is real or not when the DVC reservation cast can't?

The bigger issue here is that they knew there was a problem and didn't contact everyone on day 1 to tell them their reservation was under review. Had they done that they would have avoided most people booking flights, etc.

Customer service is not as hard as Disney wants everyone to think it is even when it was just a glitch.

 

[mac_tlc]

Was searching for a Beach Club reservation at the seven month mark last week and after a couple of days being unable to grab anything, suddenly everything was available— Beach Club, all rooms, BWV standard view all days, etc. Figured it couldn’t be true and booked nothing. Next day it went back to “normal”.

mac_tlc

 

[RivShore]

I'm still stunned at the whole mess, and the number of people who jumped on the glitch like they were giving away Figment popcorn buckets.

Now certainly there were some number of people (and I'll assume the OP is one of them) who simply went to the web page, did a search for the dates and room types they wanted, and were super excited to see availability at VGC. BUT...

The forum is littered with posts by people who are fully aware that VGC is the smallest, most expensive (points cost-wise) and most difficult resort to book, even for owners with the 11-month advantage. Add in that the glitch affected the month of August, so smack dab in the middle of the peak season for So Cal tourism. I just can't fathom all of the subsequent posts along the lines of "I really hope I don't get a cancellation email." or "I've already cancelled my other reservation, I hope I get to keep this one." or the best one: "I know it's too good to be true, but fingers crossed I get to keep it". If you are already anticipating a cancellation, you knew it was shady to begin with.

And, by the way, keep it with what? Those 25 extra rooms they're building next week? I mean, for crying out loud, there are a TOTAL of 50 villas. In the whole place. The resort was sold out (as it almost always is with a rare single day popping up here and there), and there were literally a good half dozen or more separate posts last week by members saying the same thing about their "good luck and fingers crossed". And that's just the number who posted on here.

Now, I'm absolutely NOT saying that Disney IT didn't start the whole mess, or that Disney shouldn't make EVERY effort to make things right, but given the number of bookings by people who absolutely knew it was a glitch and that those rooms didn't exist, but tried it anyway, who knows how many emails they eventually had to send out, or how much worse the SNAFU was made by people making reservations for rooms they knew full-well didn't exist. That behavior just makes what is an already huge mess created by Disney that much worse, for no reason. Instead of a handful of overbookings that could be moved to the other hotels, there could be dozens or even one hundred or more, and how do they distinguish between honest mistakes and opportunism?

Thanks for the "other side" of the story. I have not been on the boards much lately so did not notice those threads but am not surprised word spread and it was jumped on by many. Now I see the challenge from a customer service perspective - how to make it right for the "true" bookers but not the opportunists.

ETA: And of course that CS challenge would not exist if Disney IT did not SUCK.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Fix the system, that's how. At this point it's literally negligence. Disney would lose every case taken to court with the amount of failures they experience.

A large amount of Inventory was released across wdw a few months back and I picked up a tough reservation that wound up being real. How can I distinguish what is real or not when the DVC reservation cast can't?

The bigger issue here is that they knew there was a problem and didn't contact everyone on day 1 to tell them their reservation was under review. Had they done that they would have avoided most people booking flights, etc.

Customer service is not as hard as Disney wants everyone to think it is even when it was just a glitch.

I don’t disagree with anything you said at all. I was simply pointing out that, especially in light of all of the known issues Disney has with their IT that you lay out and that most on these boards know better than the general or casual member, it’s amazing how many people still jump on the opportunity to try to game the system when it does fail.

 

[Brian Noble]

One plus is that airlines have at least removed the change fees so while it's not what you'd want to do you could hopefully use the funds for a different trip or else still go but book an offsite hotel at DL.

I was thinking this too. It should be pretty easy to use the full value of those tickets on some other trip(s). There are a few airlines that still have change fees on their very cheapest tickets, but most fares are fully changeable.

 

[Pooh12863]

The CEO is the problem.... welcome to the new Disney. Money matters most.

I'm no fan of Bob Chapek, but Disney IT was substandard long before he showed up.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Thanks for the "other side" of the story. I have not been on the boards much lately so did not notice those threads but am not surprised word spread and it was jumped on by many. Now I see the challenge from a customer service perspective - how to make it right for the "true" bookers but not the opportunists.

ETA: And of course that CS challenge would not exist if Disney IT did not SUCK.
ETA: And of course that CS challenge would not exist if Disney IT did not SUCK.

Yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s the “other side” because the whole mess wouldn’t exist without Disney’s beyond pathetic IT. As I said above I’m just in awe of how many people reacted to the situation with “Hey, there’s a glitch, I’m gonna book me some rooms that I absolutely know don’t exist at a sold out resort, and hope they somehow let me keep them”. Disney IT sucks and everyone hates it, until an opportunity to game the system arises.

 

[Brian Noble]

Hey, there’s a glitch, I’m gonna [do a thing I know I'm not supposed to be able to do...]

At this point, I'm not sure how anyone is surprised by this. How many DIS DVCers are resale-only members, and know exactly what that means, but happy to take advantage of discounts they know they are not supposed to be getting? How many of those then complain when it's "not consistent" or, worse, when the loophole is finally closed?

 

[Pooh12863]

Was searching for a Beach Club reservation at the seven month mark last week and after a couple of days being unable to grab anything, suddenly everything was available— Beach Club, all rooms, BWV standard view all days, etc. Figured it couldn’t be true and booked nothing. Next day it went back to “normal”.

mac_tlc

That glitch fortunately resulted in an error if you tried to book, I was trying to add a day to my August trip. That would have been a colossal mess had it not resulted in errors.

 

[jo-jo]

Anyone remember the IT glitch years ago, disney had rooms for a super low price. At that time, if you booked 5 days, disney would only let you keep the first night at that rate. But I read a few people got in late and were going one night BC, one night BW, one night Poly and they were able to keep those one night stays.