Fun with Reservation Changes

[honeymo78]

I'm happy and cranky all at the same time. After seeing the Feb hours and EMH days DH told me to go ahead and add another day to the start of our Feb vacation to take advantage of evening EMH at MK. After telling him how much it was for the extra night he said why not add another day at the end too. Yippee!! I knew there was a reason I married this man.

So I'm making sure the reservation is correct and I find out that we don't have the disney dining added to our package. I was sure I had booked this when I made the initial reservation. I talked about it with the CM and said we wanted to do it. Then she gave me the quote and I put down a deposit. Well she evidently hadn't added it on for us. Our pin code discount isn't as great as we thought it was. The difference in cost is now as much as adding one extra night. So I have the new CM add it on (hopefully for all 6 nights - I have to double check that now) and extend our vacation so it's now 6 nights.

I call DH to tell him and he is super upset. He's not really upset that the vacation costs more now (we could always get rid of what we just added) it's that the CM I originally spoke to didn't add on the package but let us think we added it. I don't know what would have happened if we had never called. I would have been really upset to get there and not have the dining package and think I had paid for it. So now the pin code has only saved us $400 over 6 nights and the whole reason we had upgraded to CR (and a MK Tower view to boot) has disappeared. Well at least the savings covers our airfare. So much for the quick, relatively cheap Valentine's getaway. I really can't complain though since I'm still going back to disney and staying in a room I've always dreamed of.

Well DH is one to complain. He called reservations to ask how something like this could have happened. And to check that our original 5 day park hoppers have been extended to 7 day hoppers (they weren't but supposedly that has been fixed). He wasn't asking for a refund or anything for free, just to make sure they were aware of what happened and perhaps to provide more/better training so it doesn't happen to others. He spoke to a supervisor who wouldn't even apologize for the misunderstanding. He never raised his voice or swore (he may have said crap though) and the woman said she wasn't giving him the dining for free or she'd have to do that for everyone and then said she couldn't talk to him anymore - any further complaints need to be directed to the legal department. Not sure why the legal department is involved other than b/c DH said we have to rely on what we are told by a CM when we book since they have the screen in front of them and the supervisor told him that they won't enforce an oral contract. Who said there was an oral contract?? DH's point was that the original CM messed up and booked our vacation improperly and would like an apology since the original CM and other CMs we spoke to kept saying we were on the dining package. He wasn't happy that she refused to talk to him anymore - does that mean he can't call back to make changes or confirm info? I don't know.

It's just very frustrating that some CMs don't know what they are doing and I'm glad we caught it before it became a real problem. I'm calling tonight (hopefully they'll talk to me, not sure if there is a "block" or something on our reservation) to reconfirm everything to make sure we have dining, 7 day passes, 6 nights in the right room and that the notes/requests have been carried over.

Thanks for letting me vent. I feel much better.

 

[petchie]

Did you recieve a confirmation in the mail? How long ago did you book the package (in case it is still in the mail)?

 

[honeymo78]

We got two confirmations in the mail, one was incomplete (like missing a page) and the other confirmed the deposit - the info online also was missing stuff like ticket info.
So I called about it and was told there was no problem and all my info was still there and from what I understood, the dining package was there too.

I guess I should have priced the "advertised" vacation on the website to see how much of a discount that was before I called so I could have an idea of what to expect. I should have known that my "discount" was too good to be true.

 

[srfrgrl07]

With the dining package, it will appear somewhere on the reservation as "MYW plus dining" and then the tickets will appear as "7DMYW plus PH" or something to that effect. it should all appear on the same line, so hopefully that is not the page you were missing. I'm not sure what discount you have, but as far as I know the PIN offer that went out for 2006 is rack rate room and dining and park hopping and water park fun and more at no extra cost, a value of $80 per person.

I'm sorry that you did not receive an apology; it's unfortunate that because some people get irate and angry with CM that those that are really just trying to express concern so that training is more thorough are received with a defensive response. Please don't let it "cloud" your vacation (not that I think you have.)

 

[honeymo78]

srfr - that was what was missing. The only thing we had was the room on the conf. But they had our original 5 day passes in the system (I guess b/c it was a package they couldn't have left that out). We're saving more than $80/person so I'm not sure exactly what the discount was on (saving about $400 total). I just confirmed everything with disney and it all is squared away properly. I did have to give them my notes/requests again (king bed, renovated room, DH birthday) but that was no big deal.

Now I just have to decide on dining for those extra days

 

[Cinderella]

This seems totally ridiculous. I don't know why they said they couldn't talk to you and u would have to speak to their legal department. I read one of the Disney training books, and it was my understanding that they prefer their staff to deal with problems quickly - to stop them becoming bigger problems. Maybe that has changed.

I am a little confused as to what happened with your deal. Are you not getting the deal you should have been getting, or are you just not getting the deal you thought you were getting? Was it supposed to be free dining, or just dining as part of a package?

Either way, when you booked, you asked for dining to be included, so the CM should have put that on your booking. You called to complain and they didn't even apologise, so you should write to their HO to complain. I did have the address but have mislaid it. Perhaps someone on this board can help out with the address?

 

[honeymo78]

Cinderalla - we are getting the deal we were supposed to, it's just not as good as what we thought it was going to be. We thought the price we were given had included the dining add on but the CM didn't add it and we didn't know that.

It's costing us more than we had expected (based on the other quotes we got) but we're still getting some kind of discount which is fine with me. I can't wait to call and make the ADRs for the days we just added.

 

[shellybaxter]

I'm sorry that your arrangements have caused you stress. What I'm confused about is that I thought dinning couldn't be added to discounted rooms, except with AAA discounted packages? Did you get some kind of a discounted package??

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I had a similar experience last year. There was a package offered for Canadians, where Canadian dollars would be accepted "at par." (I am Canadian.) I called to book, and was given a price by the CM. I asked "is this price in US dollars or in Canadian dollars?" I asked specifically because I've booked these plans before and usually you are given the discounted price in US dollars (for example, if the price is $100, and the Canadian dollar is at .75, then the price they'll give you is $75 - but it means $75 US, which is $100 Canadian. I know, it's complicated and easily confusing.) She assured me that the price I was being given was in Canadian dollars. I asked her to please check, because I knew that it didn't always work that way. She got a bit huffy and said, like I was not too bright, "that's what it means - Canadian dollars at par, this is the Canadian dollar price." I went ahead and booked it.

Of course when my credit card bill came in, it wasn't right. It was still a reasonably good deal, but I was annoyed to have been given incorrect information despite asking the questions. I felt that someone should be aware that more training was needed for these CM's, so I called.

I was very disappointed in the response I got, which was basically NO apology and no acknowledgement that there was a problem.

It is difficult because we have to rely on the CM's to give us the prices and other information, and when they are wrong we have little or no recourse.

Teresa

 

[honeymo78]

Shelly - you generally can add the dining on to a discounted MYW package offered by disney (room and tickets), but not just a discounted room rate. We booked a MYW package using a pin code.

Teresa - I'm sorry you had a problem too. It sounds like we both were looking for the same thing in terms of a response and both were disappointed.