Is this legal for DVC to do?

[Dean]

Unfortunately, no matter how much we cry unfair, this is probably the real truth...the PITA factor will probably keep one from pursuing this issue legally.

Unless one were in the situation where there were charges that wouldn't be covered anyway and it was a substantial amount of money, it would be unreasonable to pursue it no matter the legal footing. If one had to pay and couldn't get reimbursed, the specifics could guide you. In this case with substantial charges and a CC not correctly charged, one could argue the charges weren't room specific and Disney had the opportunity to charge for it on the CC. One could also contact The state and file a complaint. I don't know what would happen and hope none of us ever find out.

 

[Dean]

Does anyone ever recall a Dis post about a member being charged or an account hold for anything realted to unit clean-up or damage? I don't recall any.

No, but I do know for certain that phone charges handled the same way if not taken care of by the guest.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we are gaining any new information in this thread, just people taking stances. Oh well....

And unless we get other first hand experiences, we won't either. This is one of those cases where even a phone call or email likely won't really help you to avoid any situations or even to accurately anticipate the risk.

 

[jana]

I prefer they hold individual members fully responsible for the actions of their "guests".

To a degree I would agree, however if it is a fault of the company that an error was made (as seems to be the case here) , guest, owner have done their best to correct the situation and people within Disney still refuse to acknowledge their own errors I do think there is more than a little room to argue the point. Just as owners are "responsible" for their guests, corporations are responsible for the actions of their staff.

You ask for individuals to accept their responsibilities, but ignore that corporations have their own responsibilities. In this case , someone within a company is resposible for not charging the guest correctly, someone (or more than one) else is responsible for not checking into the case when the guest brought the error to their attention,someone else in the company is responsible for not contacting the guest once the error had been realised and someone else in the company is responsible for not contacting the owner to bring this matter to their attention.

Obviously the easy solution is that the family member pays up the amount he knows that he owes and the problem goes away.
In different circumstances ( i.e. points had been rented to a 3rd party and those people were not prepared to pay up a sizable sum) I would give the company the option to "swallow" the costs that had been incurred by their mistakes before contacting a lawyer. IMHO the points being tied up for 2/3 years is a double edged sword for the company, it's a "threat" they can use against an owner, however if it goes to court and the company were to lose , it's possible that any loses incurred by the owner in getting the case heard would be added to lawyers costs etc. When added to the potential legal costs it seems to me there would be too much potential downside to make it a financially sensible case to argue about.

Big corporation who's staff have screwed up vs little guy who's done their best to tell that corporation that errors have been made and their attempts to correct the error have been ignored. The American legal system's history leads me to think that the balance of "justice" would be pretty heavily weighted in the favour of the little guy in a case like this.

 

[JohnNJ]

Did anyone receive an official clarification from DVC? Any word from OP on the outcome?

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

For anyone intrested, this is a reply I got from DVC today about their policy:

In response to your question regarding Member liability for guest folios (incidental charges to the room), the current policy is that a Member is not responsible for the payment of a folio that was incurred by the Member's guest(s) staying on Member's Vacation Points, unless the Member authorized himself/herself as the responsible party when signing the registration card upon check-in at the front desk. If we are unable to locate a guest of a Member who has outstanding charges, we may request the Member's assistance in contacting that guest in order to properly bill them.

If a Member, however, has an outstanding folio from his/her own stay (or the exception noted above), banking and borrowing privileges may be suspended until the outstanding balance is paid as stated in the Home Resort Rules and Regulations, Section II, paragraph 5.c(1).

I hope that this assists in clearing up the policy surrounding the payment of folio charges. Thank you for the opportunity to address your inquiry. If you have any further questions, I can be contacted at, 1-800-******** and touch option "1" for Member Accounting and ask for Donna Bennett or Karen Schattle. Thank you for your question.

 

[vascubaguy]

For anyone intrested, this is a reply I got from DVC today about their policy:

In response to your question regarding Member liability for guest folios (incidental charges to the room), the current policy is that a Member is not responsible for the payment of a folio that was incurred by the Member's guest(s) staying on Member's Vacation Points, unless the Member authorized himself/herself as the responsible party when signing the registration card upon check-in at the front desk. If we are unable to locate a guest of a Member who has outstanding charges, we may request the Member's assistance in contacting that guest in order to properly bill them.

If a Member, however, has an outstanding folio from his/her own stay (or the exception noted above), banking and borrowing privileges may be suspended until the outstanding balance is paid as stated in the Home Resort Rules and Regulations, Section II, paragraph 5.c(1).

I hope that this assists in clearing up the policy surrounding the payment of folio charges. Thank you for the opportunity to address your inquiry. If you have any further questions, I can be contacted at, 1-800-******** and touch option "1" for Member Accounting and ask for Donna Bennett or Karen Schattle. Thank you for your question.

That is DEFINATELY good information and I know many will be relieved and will take note. Hopefully that will relieve some of the stress of those who were concerned about renting.

Thanks for sharing that info!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Good information, but a little disheartening that they still put a hold on the account, which is not what that statement says will happen.

 

[bobbiwoz]

That's good news. Who's going to post a new "will you rent" poll?

Bobbi

 

[Disneyrsh]

Phew! That's a relief! Thanks Duckfan In Chicago for finding that out for us!

 

[Muushka]

This matter still concerns me. Why do they say one thing and do another?

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

This matter still concerns me. Why do they say one thing and do another?

Well, I don't know if they do or don't do this. The only proof that they did this is a poster that has 5 posts-all of which were on this thread. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but if it did, the OP could prob. get their account status fixed without paying the bill by calling the people in the e-mail I got. I didn't know if I should believe that person or not, but enough people took the side that DVC had the right to do it that I wanted to know their policy. I feel better now that I know exactly what their policy is.

 

[Muushka]

Well, I don't know if they do or don't do this. The only proof that they did this is a poster that has 5 posts-all of which were on this thread. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but if it did, the OP could prob. get their account status fixed without paying the bill by calling the people in the e-mail I got. I didn't know if I should believe that person or not, but enough people took the side that DVC had the right to do it that I wanted to know their policy. I feel better now that I know exactly what their policy is.

Good point Duckfan. I wish the OP would follow up with this, if not, I will choose to believe that we are not going to be held responsible for any charges that they have a hard time collecting!

 

[tamu91]

For anyone intrested, this is a reply I got from DVC today about their policy:

In response to your question regarding Member liability for guest folios (incidental charges to the room), the current policy is that a Member is not responsible for the payment of a folio that was incurred by the Member's guest(s) staying on Member's Vacation Points, unless the Member authorized himself/herself as the responsible party when signing the registration card upon check-in at the front desk.

I also believe this is the correct policy but as Muushka pointed out, if this is the official DVC policy, why wasn't this the case with OP's situation? Any word from Diesel

 

[Dean]

For anyone intrested, this is a reply I got from DVC today about their policy:

In response to your question regarding Member liability for guest folios (incidental charges to the room), the current policy is that a Member is not responsible for the payment of a folio that was incurred by the Member's guest(s) staying on Member's Vacation Points, unless the Member authorized himself/herself as the responsible party when signing the registration card upon check-in at the front desk. If we are unable to locate a guest of a Member who has outstanding charges, we may request the Member's assistance in contacting that guest in order to properly bill them.

If a Member, however, has an outstanding folio from his/her own stay (or the exception noted above), banking and borrowing privileges may be suspended until the outstanding balance is paid as stated in the Home Resort Rules and Regulations, Section II, paragraph 5.c(1).

I hope that this assists in clearing up the policy surrounding the payment of folio charges. Thank you for the opportunity to address your inquiry. If you have any further questions, I can be contacted at, 1-800-******** and touch option "1" for Member Accounting and ask for Donna Bennett or Karen Schattle. Thank you for your question.

Given that I know of it happening for certain two times, I would not hang my hat on this email. Actions speak louder than words IMO. You might get them to back off in the situations noted but you never know.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

The e-mail is reassuring and indicates the fair (and likely legal) policy. The guest signs a contract that they will be responsible party for room charges, not the member. As with most Disney polices there are (and will be) inconsistencies, especially with rare situations. I'm glad MS did not give you a form letter with a vague Mickey response.

The black and white "didn't you read your contract before signing" crowd may now be seeing shades of grey.

 

[crisi]

I agree with Dean. The word current in the email also would concern me. i.e. "as I'm typing this we don't intend for this to happen, but we might change our minds tomorrow." So, by the way, does the word policy - which implies they feel the contract is open to changes in policy. If this were forbidden in the contract, they would have cited it. After all, they cited the part where they can suspend your account if you didn't pay the bills.

 

[diesel]

Thank you, thank you Duckfan-in-chicago for this email reply. I was able to call up member accounting to discuss this matter with Karen. She agreed to take my account off hold.

The reason I have not written back is my BIL is still having problems with member accounting. It took them over a week to call him back even though he left them 3 different phone numbers. When he finally talked to them he told them he would like a copy of the bill to check it over for any mistakes since this issue is so screwed up. It's been a week and a half since and he has still not received the bill. And in the mean time I want to make reservations for next year but couldn't. Every time I called I got the same answer that I was responsible for the bill and my account was on hold until paid.

But with this email I was able to get a contact name to call and was able to speak with Karen and she agreed to take our account off hold but only after I had read her the e-mail. She then transfered me to reservations and I was able to book my vacation.

Thanks again Duckfan-In-Chicago.

 

[Good Ol Gal]

That's great diesel! glad to hear you are "off the hook" with this problem.

 

[AFMom]

I believe I'll be copying that e-mail to my DVC files! I'm pro-renting, and have had great experiences renting on the rent/trade board, and have every intention of continuing - and though I highly doubt any of the wonderful people I rent to would ever leave me needing to use it - it'll be nice to know I have it somewhere!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Good news! I guess quoting their own policy is what's needed when MS doesn't follow them.