In-Laws are already signed up but are now being told NO

[lurkernj]

Sorry, this is long....

My in-laws signed up back in early Feb to volunteer their time in a local soup kitchen on April 11. They received confirmation and their on-line account says they are signed up. They already volunteer once a month at this same soup kitchen (and have been for many years), but just added an extra day in April to get the tickets. When they were at the soup kitchen this past Wednesday, they mentioned to the manager that they are friends with about coming back on April 11. The manager said she doesn't know anything about this, that they don't participate in this. Yesterday, I went to their house to check their documents, and it references the soup kitchen (Elijah's promise in New Brunswick, NJ) and then says to contact "Jersey Cares" and a man's name if you have any questions. Also, their account still says that they are signed up to volunteer.

I told her to contact him just to verify, even though it's all in the computer. When she called him this morning, he was very nasty and said he keeps getting all these calls and that they are not participating. This opportunity was posted for many dates from January until April.

She is very upset over this, as we are using these tickets for a trip this summer, and it will now cost her another $168 for their two tickets (they are in their 70's and retired). She would have signed up for another opportunity had she known this.

I guess I just wanted to vent, and also to see if anyone has had any issues like this and who did you contact.

 

[MHSweb79]

Sadly, I think they are out of luck. Unless the soup kitchen magically decides that they want to fulfil their promises after all (and it sounds like they were definitely signed up for the program originally, despite the nasty man's comments) they are stuck.

There must be many more people who are signed up that are going to be pretty surprised.

It's too bad because it's not what this program was supposed to be about. I think Disney was caught short at how quickly they reached a million volunteers, but if they had kept it running longer so people could pick a new service, we wouldn't be hearing all these stories.

 

[doconeill]

I would start by contacting Disney. If people are fully registered with an organization that is supposedly participating, but they are not actually verifying service, there are going to be a lot of problems.

If the place was part of a larger organization, they may have been included without them being notified...

 

[lurkernj]

Ok, somewhat of an update...

I typed in "Jersey Cares" into google and found a main number for them. I called and spoke with a nice gentleman. I explained the story, gave him their dates/time and location. He said that they should still be able to volunteer and receive a ticket since they are already registered. He also has never heard of the guy who's name was on their paper(that MIL spoke with earlier). He was going to look into it and call her back. I let her know he would be calling her, and haven't heard from her yet. I am hoping he is really looking into this and all works out for her.

If he doesn't contact her by Monday afternoon, I'll call him again, and if I still get nowhere, I'll contact Disney. I can't imagine some of these people showing up to volunteer thinking they were getting tickets and finding out that your opportunity was cancelled with no notice.

 

[lurkernj]

Ok, MIL called to let me know that the man from Jersey cares did call her back, and assured her that she is signed up and will get a ticket.

Now I have to wonder how many other people that rude guy spoke to that now won't show up for their service because he told them not to.

 

[everythingALICE]

That's so strange. So the man receiving the phone calls was not affiliated with that organization at all? Anyways, that's unfortunate that it was such a headache (and, like you mentioned, that others will likely miss out because of the miscommunication), but I'm glad that it worked out for your family!