DVC Member Services - is there any COMPETENCE left???

[disneynutz]

Ha!Ha! Love this thread!

Over the past two years, I have noticed a significant lack of understanding from the MS personnel. I am having difficulty understanding the poor English, and they can not understand me. I find myself spelling Way too many words.

I also have been getting conflicting information when I call and have to end up asking for a manager over issues that are pretty common.

I don't waste my time anymore. When I call up if I can't understand the first sentence I hear, I hang up until I get a better speaking cast member. If they seem unsure about how to process a request, I get a manger right away.

I would like to know your secret. In the past, if I had a big problem I would request a Team Lead/Manager and I would be transfered. Now I am told that the Advisors aren't allowed to transfer to a Manager so I am put on hold for 20 minutes at a time while the Advisor checks with the Manager. Last week after MS screwed my points up again, I played the hold game again for over 2 hours.

Bill

 

[Connears]

I have made several reservations over the last 12 months and consistently it has taken on average AT LEAST 3 phone calls to get these reservations completed correctly...

There is no reason when I book a reservation for a guest of mine that a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 children should have only one last name spelled correctly even when I have SPELLED it out AND it's SIMPLE name...

How about a child listed as the primary guest...

How about calling 3x and they still can't send email confirmation to the guest...

The only thing they seem to get right is the room selection after that they seem to turn off their brains...

For the 1000 point club - the only perk I would like is to be able to speak with someone with a brain or be allowed to enter my reservations online.
In the last 5 years the quality of customer service has dropped off a cliff while at the same time the price per point continues to rise...at least someone's happy somewhere...

Sorry but I have been a member since 1994 with too many reservations to count and I have never experienced what you have stated. I have never had any issues with names on reservation or how points were allocated even when I have switched resorts at 7 months. I have always had a great CM who was efficient and helpful. I know that there are people in every workplace that are not the best, but I truly would not have continued my membership for 17 years if the service you described is the norm. sorry but its just not something I'm willing to see generalized as you have.

Connears

 

[LisaS]

I've had a few problems over the years. The first time I waitlisted for something I later found out it was set up for the wrong booking category so it was a good thing it never came through! One time an MS CM insisted that I had called too soon for a reservation 11 months out. I was booking day-by-day and was calling to add another night. When I pointed out that I had already booked 2 nights of my stay she not only insisted I couldn't book any more nights but told me she was going to cancel the nights I had already booked. I persuaded her to try to book it and when it worked she decided that since the system accepted it, it must be OK.

My two most recent reservations I asked for email confirmations and never got them. I called back to ask for them to be resent but still no luck. After making my most recent reservation the MS CM told me how many points I had remaining and the number was too high. Turns out she had booked me into a studio instead of a 1BR.

Overall I've had more good CMs than bad ones but I've learned to double check everything that they do when I call.

 

[Sammie]

3-5 reservations per year every year for the past 8 years. No problems. Just called the other day and spoke with Joy - what a sweetheart. She recognized my name, and I recognized her voice. What a pleasant experience with a very competent woman.

She used to be in Member Satisfaction and she is greatly missed there.

 

[MtMinnie2]

Hi, I am new to dvc and just made my first reservation for a Jan. trip. I noticed that several of the names in the reservation are mispelled. Is it important to get this corrected... I will be making dining reservation and thought I would make the correction then . Should I call them sooner to get this straightened out?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Hi, I am new to dvc and just made my first reservation for a Jan. trip. I noticed that several of the names in the reservation are mispelled. Is it important to get this corrected... I will be making dining reservation and thought I would make the correction then . Should I call them sooner to get this straightened out?

I've sent an e-mail to MS when a name has been spelled incorrectly. That's worked for me.
Bobbbi

 

[jcf]

It's not "generalizing"...I am not saying they are not friendly...but why would it take 4 phone calls to get an email confirmation or why would a child's name be listed as primary guest. Just some of the problems I encountered recently besides the countless spelling errors...not brain surgery.

 

[pilferk]

I spell out all names as simple as Smith now!

How can they get the last name right once and then wrong on the rest of the reservation?

If people only make 1 or 2 reservations per year they might not encounter any problems...while the greater the sampling size the more validity the results and from my little case study there is only one conclusion that can be drawn about the quality of people DVC is hiring...

We must get the same CS people.

They misspell our last name (which, FYI, isn't all that difficult to SPELL!) on at least 2 of us (and sometimes more) every time we make a ressie (5 so far, as DVC members). They typically get my wife (who most of the time is the one calling to make the ressie) right...and mess up at least 2 (out of 4) of the rest of us....and yes, we all have the same last name, and yes, the membership is under that name (spelled correctly).

We can't figure it out either....

OTHER than that, we've always found them to be very helpful.

 

[Chuck S]

I think a lot of the mispellings may have to do with the way collect customer data. For instance, I've had APs for many years. Sometimes I renew, sometimes I let them expire and buy a new pass, depending upon our travel plans. I generally hand the CM my drivers license, and they type the name and address info off of that into the system. One year, the CM typed in my middle name instead of my first name. Every time since then that I've called for a cash room reservation, the CM asks if "Robert" will be traveling with us. So I'll bet there is an autofill feature on the reservation screen that pull up any former info. Once something is typed in wrong, it stays wrong in cyberspace forever.

 

[Granny]

Once something is typed in wrong, it stays wrong in cyberspace forever.

Good point. And in fact, any increase in CM issues may be driven by Disney's puzzling inability to fund/find good IT management. I'm sure it has been a nightmare blending all the reservation systems and the new wrinkles of dining plans, etc into the reservations system (on top of DVC specific challenges). My guess is that the CM's are doing the best they can. As for all the misspellings...we just fix them at check-in. Seems to happen about one out of every three trips or so.

 

[pilferk]

I think a lot of the mispellings may have to do with the way collect customer data. For instance, I've had APs for many years. Sometimes I renew, sometimes I let them expire and buy a new pass, depending upon our travel plans. I generally hand the CM my drivers license, and they type the name and address info off of that into the system. One year, the CM typed in my middle name instead of my first name. Every time since then that I've called for a cash room reservation, the CM asks if "Robert" will be traveling with us. So I'll bet there is an autofill feature on the reservation screen that pull up any former info. Once something is typed in wrong, it stays wrong in cyberspace forever.

I'd buy it...except they don't misspell our last name the same way each time. Twice it was missing an "r" (our first trip and 4th ressie)...twice a "y" (our second and most recent ressies)....once a "w" (our third ressie). FYI: There's only 6 letters in our last name!

My wife (who has called for 4 of the 5 ressies) always has had her name right. They had it right for me 3 of the 5. The kids have been all over the place....they're the most likely "victims" of the misspellings. As an aside: Why do I read the above and think it sounds like a "logic puzzle"??

It's not a huge deal....it's quickly fixed by a short phone call. And like I said in my last post.....they've been awesome with everything else.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Sorry, lets just call it what it is. It's not IT, it's not the keyboard, its the PEOPLE. They don't know English, they don't know grammar or spelling. It is a reflection of the type of people they are hiring. Let's up the pay scale some, we might see some CM's that can spell, speak, and understand DVC.

 

[sleepydog25]

One should be careful when casting stones regarding grammar and spelling.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

One should be careful when casting stones regarding grammar and spelling.

Ha! Ha! Noted and corrected!

 

[sleepydog25]

Ha! Ha! Noted and corrected!

I'm sorry! I. . .couldn't. . .helpmyself. . .Bones. . .

 

[Louisebshp]

I've read this thread with interest - phoning from the UK I kind of expect my address to be entered oddly (but its way different to a US address) but otherwise | have always found the CMs to be helpful and polite.

I've only had mispellings due to American English v English English if you know what I mean. Maybe I've just been lucky?

 

[dismedvc]

I will agree that some MS CM's are better than others, but I have never had one I would view as incompetent.

It is human nature to comment most often on customer service when there is a problem, and not to comment when things go well, since that is what we expect, so I thought I would add the following.

Usually we plan well in advance, to take advantage of the 11 month home resort booking window, but recently we have been trying to piece together a last minute trip (45 days from first call to arrival date)

We still have not been able to get exactly what we want, but we do at least have a place to stay each night, with a few nights on cash.

Since members can have only two waitlists, I have been calling quite frequently to check on other permutations, and I have found the MS CM's to generally be very competent.

Even though they were not able to confirm what we were requesting, I would say two in particular were especially knowledgeable and competent.

Giesell (probably spelled wrong) and Roy were both fabulous.

 

[Connears]

It's not "generalizing"...I am not saying they are not friendly...but why would it take 4 phone calls to get an email confirmation or why would a child's name be listed as primary guest. Just some of the problems I encountered recently besides the countless spelling errors...not brain surgery.

I think I will disagree again, you are generalizing, just look at the title of your thread. It clearly implies that there is only minimal competence at MS and if so, then I guess I have been luck enough to get the only competent CMs when I have made my 2-3 reservations a year since 1994. If not I would not have continued my membership for so long with such wonderful vacations. I am not saying that you should not be upset if there is an error on your reservation, I just think the jump to incompetence is extreme and unfair.

Connears

 

[dianeschlicht]

You know, reading this thread I would assume I am living under a lucky star. In 14 years of membership, I have never had anything but happy and helpful Cast members when I have called MS for any reason. Granted, some are a little less knowledgeable than others and some are hard to understand, but if I was bothered by either, I would just leave that information in the after call survey and then call back again if I was worried about any details.

I suspect part of the issues are the people themselves who call in to make reservations in a confusing way. Imagine all the "stuff" a new MS cast member has to "know" to cover all the confusing issues people might have when they call in to make a reservation. I think perhaps those of us who have little to no problems know more than the cast members do in many cases. The majority of the members calling in don't have the advantage of all the information at their fingertips like those of us on the DIS boards do.

 

[jcf]

I don't know how to do one of those polls...but a poll with how many times people had to call back to get reservation info correct:
0x
1-2x
3-4x
5 or more

would be interesting...