Get Away Today CS going down? Update in OP

[KalamityJane]

Update:

I just wanted to come back and update that GAT's customer service manager has been in touch with me and has completely resolved the situation to my satisfaction. They really went above and beyond in price matching to their detriment, and reversed all fees.

This thread started with the question if the customer service that I received was par for the course for Get Away Today, and I can comfortably say now that it is not. I have used GAT before, and after this experience, I will continue to use them, as they do put their customers first.

And for what it is worth, I am not being paid by the company to say this! I am just very happy with the way that things were resolved.
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I called up yesterday to cancel the hotel portion of our trip since we will be staying onsite. I thought it was going to be a $40 cancellation fee, because that is what is plastered all over their site and paperwork. Instead, the girl charged me $75 for the package cancellation fee, even though I was still keeping the tickets portion of our trip. I went around with her on it, and finally just gave in, because there was no way she was giving in. She was arguing about what I was looking at on the paper in front of me, insinuated I did not read the TOS and was all around not very good at customer service.

I called up today to ask about why the character meal dining tickets are the same price buying them straight from Disney as from them, when their website says they will save me 10.00 on 2 adult premium vouchers. I got the same girl, and she argued with me about the site saying it was 10% and not 10.00 (I was looking right at the website) and then when I told her that saving .44 on both vouchers STILL does not equal 10% off, she still argued with me about that! She was going to charge me $15 to cancel and finally talked to her supervisor who authorized the refund without charge.

So. We booked last year with GAT and had great service, in fact, up until today and yesterday, I have had nothing but amazing service with them, but have I just been lucky? Am I the only one with these experiences or is this the new norm?

 

[shishigirl]

I TOTALLY AGREE that their customer service is going down as well. Though I find that calling in the evening is better, I seem to get the college kids (their physical location is near a university) and they tend to give better customer service than those older women (who I have always gotten) who work in the daytime. We booked as an entire extended family (4 individual families) on one plan and it has been nothing but awful about 80% of the time dealing with them! Though we have all bought from them before and never have a problem, I dont know if I would book again with them in the future because of their customer service when calling to take care of problems or finding out info on your package.

 

[abent]

I had bad luck right before the last ticket price increase, but i had horrible cs from costco travel as well. I am soooo not a complainer, and i was really ready to cancel our December trip. It is so important and expensive to me and my family, and so NOT important to anyone i have talked to. I have been given wrong info, wrong prices, and now i can't even upgrade our rooms to concierge after i was assured several times i could with no problems. I am trying to remain hopeful, as we have always experianced Disney "magic" on our other trips.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Interesting. I haven't used GAT for several years now but did have good customer service interactions the few times I actually did need to call and interact with someone. My brother used them sometime in the last year and reported being happy with them still, but I'm not sure if he ever needed to call their phone reps or if he just did everything online.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

odd i had grate service with gat the last three months ive called and changed things 5 times all 5 was fine and frree since i paid the peace of mind. Not sure who you got but you should call back and demand a diffrent person this girl sound rude and she deffinatly didnt know what she was talking about.
I wouldnt give in of course i never do

 

[KalamityJane]

odd i had grate service with gat the last three months ive called and changed things 5 times all 5 was fine and frree since i paid the peace of mind. Not sure who you got but you should call back and demand a diffrent person this girl sound rude and she deffinatly didnt know what she was talking about.
I wouldnt give in of course i never do

I am going to be calling back at a different time and trying to get someone else, I just gave in to her bc I wasn't getting anywhere.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

i even had problem I found out the free night wasnt added to my new resvation after switched it but when i asked about it they calle the hotel and got it taken care of and i got my free night. we go in 11days now and im so happy. I am sorry you had bad luck tho and wish you all the luck to get your 30 back.

 

[getawaytoday]

I called up yesterday to cancel the hotel portion of our trip since we will be staying onsite. I thought it was going to be a $40 cancellation fee, because that is what is plastered all over their site and paperwork. Instead, the girl charged me $75 for the package cancellation fee, even though I was still keeping the tickets portion of our trip. I went around with her on it, and finally just gave in, because there was no way she was giving in. She was arguing about what I was looking at on the paper in front of me, insinuated I did not read the TOS and was all around not very good at customer service.

I called up today to ask about why the character meal dining tickets are the same price buying them straight from Disney as from them, when their website says they will save me 10.00 on 2 adult premium vouchers. I got the same girl, and she argued with me about the site saying it was 10% and not 10.00 (I was looking right at the website) and then when I told her that saving .44 on both vouchers STILL does not equal 10% off, she still argued with me about that! She was going to charge me $15 to cancel and finally talked to her supervisor who authorized the refund without charge.

So. We booked last year with GAT and had great service, in fact, up until today and yesterday, I have had nothing but amazing service with them, but have I just been lucky? Am I the only one with these experiences or is this the new norm?

At Get Away Today, we take customer service incredibly seriously and feel badly that you feel like our customer service is slipping. In reviewing your file, we show when you initially booked your vacation, your handling fee was waived using a promo code and online check discount that we offer. We also show that when you called last month to drop four nights of your original reservation, we waived the $40 fee to drop nights. As our documents state, there is a $40 fee to drop nights, change hotel check-in dates, and change hotels, unless you purchase the $30 Peace of Mind Plan, which allows as many changes you need up to 72 hours prior to your vacation. We have had countless guests use this option and they LOVE the flexibility it provides.

If you cancel your package (hotel and any tickets), or cancel your entire hotel (which also constitutes a package), there is a $75 cancellation fee. This is stated on our website and on all documents we send out. We always try to be as flexible and fair as possible, many times benefiting the customer at our own expense, as we did when we waived your drop night fee initially.

I noticed you said you were cancelling because you are staying on-site. We offer all of the Hotels at the Disneyland Resort at a discount. If you would be able to re-book your on-site reservation with us, we would be happy to waive any cancellation or change fees.

As for the Disney Character Dining tickets, the way Disney does their pricing, they change their pricing while ours stays the same. Because of that, most of the time, our pricing does reflect a 10% savings, which ends up being approximately a $5/ticket savings. However, at certain times in the year, our pricing does end up being the same price as Disney. When that is the case, we like to remind our guests that our tickets already include your tax and gratuity (which is also important to remember when pricing Character Dining) and that it is an incredibly easy way to pay for your Character Dining beforehand without any worries.

Again, we are very sorry that you felt that you weren't given good service by our agents. If you ever do have a conflict with an agent, please know that we always have a Customer Service Manager on duty that will be more than happy to explain things or help in any way possible. We would love to be your go-to agency for booking your Disney vacations and prove our customer service to you.

 

[getawaytoday]

I TOTALLY AGREE that their customer service is going down as well. Though I find that calling in the evening is better, I seem to get the college kids (we actually live near their physical location, also near a university) and they tend to give better customer service than those older women (who I have always gotten) who work in the daytime. We booked as an entire extended family (4 individual families) on one plan and it has been nothing but awful about 80% of the time dealing with them! Though we have all bought from them before and never have a problem, I dont know if I would book again with them in the future because of their customer service when calling to take care of problems or finding out info on your package.

Shishigirl, Thanks for your feedback. We apologize that you aren't receiving the same standard of service you should expect from Get Away Today on your extended family vacation. We are consistently striving to improve our customer service (during the day and night!) and would love some more information to see what we can do to improve your experience. If you want to leave an invoice number in a response in this forum, we will look into it and have someone personally contact you. Or, you can always just call and ask to talk to a Customer Service Manager. If you decide to call, ask for Christy and tell her it's in reference to your Disboards post - we'll make sure you're taken care of.

 

[laura&fam]

I called GAT yesterday and several times over the last couple of months and have always had great customer service. They explained everything well and I even got an email later yesterday explaining that the tickets we ordered were delivered FedEx not US mail like she said when I called. I didn't care but the customer service person went to the trouble of emailing me to tell me it was different than she had said.

Sorry the OP had such a hard time. Maybe it was a bad day for her or you just got unlucky, twice

 

[getawaytoday]

I had bad luck right before the last ticket price increase, but i had horrible cs from costco travel as well. I am soooo not a complainer, and i was really ready to cancel our December trip. It is so important and expensive to me and my family, and so NOT important to anyone i have talked to. I have been given wrong info, wrong prices, and now i can't even upgrade our rooms to concierge after i was assured several times i could with no problems. I am trying to remain hopeful, as we have always experianced Disney "magic" on our other trips.

We're sorry you had a bad experience with the ticket price increase. We certainly did our very best to accommodate everyone with the changes that we had never experienced before. You can read some more about how we handled it in the thread from 6/17/12 titled "Fantastic customer service from Get Away Today," if you're interested.

However, we want all of our customers to always be satisfied (it may be a lofty goal, but we do our very best!). Did you book your December trip through us or was it through Costco Travel? If it is through us, we'd like to see what we can do to get you concierge level. If so, call our office and ask for Christy. She is our Customer Service Manager and will take care of you.

 

[getawaytoday]

Thank you to longtimedisneylurker, JadeDarkstar, and Laura&Fam for sharing your good Get Away Today experiences - we hope you have many more positive experiences with us over the years! (or should we say ears?)

 

[glamgurl]

I called up yesterday to cancel the hotel portion of our trip since we will be staying onsite. I thought it was going to be a $40 cancellation fee, because that is what is plastered all over their site and paperwork. Instead, the girl charged me $75 for the package cancellation fee, even though I was still keeping the tickets portion of our trip. I went around with her on it, and finally just gave in, because there was no way she was giving in. She was arguing about what I was looking at on the paper in front of me, insinuated I did not read the TOS and was all around not very good at customer service.

I called up today to ask about why the character meal dining tickets are the same price buying them straight from Disney as from them, when their website says they will save me 10.00 on 2 adult premium vouchers. I got the same girl, and she argued with me about the site saying it was 10% and not 10.00 (I was looking right at the website) and then when I told her that saving .44 on both vouchers STILL does not equal 10% off, she still argued with me about that! She was going to charge me $15 to cancel and finally talked to her supervisor who authorized the refund without charge.

So. We booked last year with GAT and had great service, in fact, up until today and yesterday, I have had nothing but amazing service with them, but have I just been lucky? Am I the only one with these experiences or is this the new norm?

Wow KalamityJane that sucks! I have always had great service with GAT. They always give me the best information and I have never had a problem changing or canceling when I needed to. Did you have their peace of mind protection? I always add that. It's only $30 and then I can make as many changes as i need to or cancel and I don't have to pay anything. We are going in November and the hotel paper they sent me says very clearly, on the back, that if I need to cancel there is a $75 non-refundable fee or that I can change for $40. Luckily, I don't have to worry about any of that because I paid the $30 up front. I love it!

Also, we do character dining everytime we visit Disneyland and I have noticed that in the summertime, GAT's tickets are a better discount than in the winter or fall. Once I even got my receipt and it was less than I paid for my GAT tickets. I just called them and they refunded me the difference! They have always made sure that I get the best prices and best deals. Sometime the deals are better than others, but always the best prices around.

I also have to disagree with the gal that said the college kids at night are better than the older women during the day. I love the people that I talk to during the day! I love the peeps at night too, but I normally call in the day time and they are always super nice, give me THE BEST information and make sure that I know all the special tips and tricks, some that I didn't know before and I have been there dozens of times! I am super excited to see Carsland and they suggested that I stay in a Disneyland hotel so I get to get in early EVERY DAY! I've never gotten that kind of info from Costco the couple times I've booked with them. Costco is nice enough, they just don't seem to care as much as GAT does.

I am super sorry that you had a bad experience. It sounds like you just didn't understand their policies very well. I would highly suggest that anyone who wants to go to Disneyland and not overspend, to call GAT. They really do have the best prices and the best customer service.

 

[KalamityJane]

First off, I am incredibly creeped out by you finding my file at GAT through what was shared at this post. Why did you not email me directly to take care of this?

I made a mistake and ordered the wrong package out of several I had in my cart with different dates. I emailed as soon as I figured it out (within 20 min of purchase seeing as it was a Sunday afternoon and your offices were not open or I would have called). I then called first thing Monday morning to fix things. Considering that it had been less than 12 hours since I purchased, a $40 fee would have been a little rude seeing as there was no way you had even booked anything for me at that point.

I have reread your TOS and the paperwork you have sent and nowhere does it say that only a hotel stay constitutes a "package". The wording is very vague, and because it is so, I could only go by the widely accepted definition in the travel industry, which is a hotel + tickets, or airfare + a rental car. Regardless, your agent was short with me and was rude for arguing about what I was looking at on your paperwork that I had right in front of me, and that I read out loud for her.

Now for the Character Dining. You said that most of the time, you have a savings of around 5.00 over Disney. This is actually not true, because Disney's Peak pricing this year at least, was from 3/16/12-8/19/12. This is 5 months and 3 days, leaving your price to be the same as Disney after tip and tax are added in for 3 days less than 7 months. I do not consider this MOST of the time, and I believe everyone would agree on that. 5 months out of a 12 month year is not most of the time.

At any rate, again, your agent was rude and argued with me about what was on your website that I had pulled up in front of me. Your site states a $10 savings for 2 adults. Even at 10% of $45 (as you state that there is a $5 savings on each premium voucher and your vouchers are $40), that is still $4.50 and not $5 savings. This is false advertising.

There was a CSM supervising that call and the supervisor was not going to allow the cancellation of the vouchers without the $15 fee until I pointed out that the website was wrong. All in all, it was a very stressful experience, and not the good service that I have come to expect from Get Away Today. I booked last year with you and have had no issues up until I talked to your agent the last 2 times. I am hoping it is just an issue with her, as I really do appreciate your business, but I cannot continue to support a business that treats its customers like they are idiots.

As far as staying onsite, thank you for the offer, but I don't believe you will be able to match the prices I have currently, as they are convention rates. If you would like to talk about this further, you obviously have my phone number and email address.

 

[traveldiva13]

I love Get Away Today! I have booked with them several times. The first time I booked I had to cancel the hotel because I ended up staying at a friends house for free and I did not purchase the peace of mind plan. I still wanted the tickets though because I know they are the best price. I was aware they would charge $75 to cancel the hotel room. After that I always get the insurance because it gives great flexibility! I have also always had great customer service with them I have a reservation currently and call in with changes and questions all the time and they are awesome!

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

As for the Disney Character Dining tickets, the way Disney does their pricing, they change their pricing while ours stays the same. Because of that, most of the time, our pricing does reflect a 10% savings, which ends up being approximately a $5/ticket savings. However, at certain times in the year, our pricing does end up being the same price as Disney. When that is the case, we like to remind our guests that our tickets already include your tax and gratuity (which is also important to remember when pricing Character Dining) and that it is an incredibly easy way to pay for your Character Dining beforehand without any worries.

I think you can clear up some of the character meal pricing confusion if you review your own website: http://www.getawaytoday.com/tickets

Please note that your website claims that your character meal vouchers represent a $10 savings, not the 10% savings you say you actually offer. Also, since Disney does have seasonal pricing for these meals and also does not price each venue the same, you would do best to represent your vouchers as an up to 10% savings and continue to emphasize that this includes tax and tip. It is then the consumer's responsibility from there to research what paying at the resort would cost and compare the price to your vouchers and determine for himself whether to purchase the vouchers.

 

[dadzgirl70]

I adore GAT! They've been amazing with every change, question or concern I have ever had. I have used them for my last six trips and wouldn't dream of using anyone else because their service with me has been top notch. Bummer that you've experienced some issues. I can imagine that it may happen once in awhile. Hopefully they can resolve all your issues. Have a wonderful trip!

 

[KalamityJane]

glamgurl -
The back of the hotel paper states

"Package and attraction vouchers are valid for the year purchased. If used after, they are subject to price increases and restrictions. Vacation packages are transferable to other persons. A refund for the vacation package may be requested in writing. There is a $75 non-refundable fee per package. All handling fees are non-refundable. All original documents, vouchers/tickets must be returned to Get Away Today in order to obtain a refund."

The TOS on their site reads "Packages are refundable with $75 fee per hotel package."

Nowhere does it state what entails a package. A package is generally known as 2 or more items in the travel industry, not simply the hotel stay.

As far as the Character Dining goes, I would have been perfectly happy with the refund of the difference. However, that was never offered to me, and I was made to feel like I was stupid for noticing that their website differed from the actual cost.

This is not good customer service, and I have not had this experience before with GAT, which is why the title of this thread specifically is asking if this is the new normal or an anomaly. It sounds like an anomaly.

 

[KalamityJane]

Also, there seems to be a high amount of 1 post posters...

 

[getawaytoday]

First off, I am incredibly creeped out by you finding my file at GAT through what was shared at this post. Why did you not email me directly to take care of this?

I made a mistake and ordered the wrong package out of several I had in my cart with different dates. I emailed as soon as I figured it out (within 20 min of purchase seeing as it was a Sunday afternoon and your offices were not open or I would have called). I then called first thing Monday morning to fix things. Considering that it had been less than 12 hours since I purchased, a $40 fee would have been a little rude seeing as there was no way you had even booked anything for me at that point.

I have reread your TOS and the paperwork you have sent and nowhere does it say that only a hotel stay constitutes a "package". The wording is very vague, and because it is so, I could only go by the widely accepted definition in the travel industry, which is a hotel + tickets, or airfare + a rental car. Regardless, your agent was short with me and was rude for arguing about what I was looking at on your paperwork that I had right in front of me, and that I read out loud for her.

Now for the Character Dining. You said that most of the time, you have a savings of around 5.00 over Disney. This is actually not true, because Disney's Peak pricing this year at least, was from 3/16/12-8/19/12. This is 5 months and 3 days, leaving your price to be the same as Disney after tip and tax are added in for 3 days less than 7 months. I do not consider this MOST of the time, and I believe everyone would agree on that. 5 months out of a 12 month year is not most of the time.

At any rate, again, your agent was rude and argued with me about what was on your website that I had pulled up in front of me. Your site states a $10 savings for 2 adults. Even at 10% of $45 (as you state that there is a $5 savings on each premium voucher and your vouchers are $40), that is still $4.50 and not $5 savings. This is false advertising.

There was a CSM supervising that call and the supervisor was not going to allow the cancellation of the vouchers without the $15 fee until I pointed out that the website was wrong. All in all, it was a very stressful experience, and not the good service that I have come to expect from Get Away Today. I booked last year with you and have had no issues up until I talked to your agent the last 2 times. I am hoping it is just an issue with her, as I really do appreciate your business, but I cannot continue to support a business that treats its customers like they are idiots.

As far as staying onsite, thank you for the offer, but I don't believe you will be able to match the prices I have currently, as they are convention rates. If you would like to talk about this further, you obviously have my phone number and email address.

I’m sorry you felt creeped out, as that was not our intention. We always like to respond proactively in the forum that the issue was posted. If you had emailed us directly, we would have emailed you directly. If you posted it on Facebook, we would have replied via Facebook. Since this was on DisBoards, we felt it appropriate to respond here. As for finding your file, it was quite easy to go through the refund log from yesterday, since it was so recent and there were very few cancellations.

Yes, we agree that not waiving the $40 drop night fee would not have been good customer service, which was exactly why we did it, even though there was nothing requiring us to correct user error.

We’re also sorry that there was any misunderstanding on our cancellation policy. Our documents read that the $40 fees only applied to changing dates, changing hotels, and/or dropping nights and the only fee ever associated with the word “cancellation” is $75. However, we do appreciate the feedback and see where it could be confusing. Because of that, we will happily make an exception and reduce the cancellation fee from $75 to the $40 hotel change fee. We will also take your suggestions as to how we can make our policy more clear for our future guests.

As for Disney’s peak season for Character Dining, the dates you mentioned are only a portion of the Peak Season dates. Disney continually changes their menu pricing according to crowds. Many times you’ll pay peak season Character Dining rates during holiday travel times (Thanksgiving, Christmas, President’s Day, etc.) and during large conventions or school breaks (NAMM, UEA, etc). While the March – August dates are general, they are certainly not all encompassing. Again, we appreciate the feedback on this, and will be looking into making this more clear for our guests as well.

We’ll have our Customer Service Manager contact you directly to see what we can do about your dates/rates at the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort. Hopefully we'll be able to show you that we take our customer service seriously and we love our guests! Either way, we hope you have a fabulous time in Disneyland!