Is this legal for DVC to do?

[tamu91]

This makes no sense to me either. Why does Disney ask for a CC during check-in if the bills is going to be applied straight to MS accounting?

Has anyone who rented points in the past ever got stuck with someone else's bill?

How can anybody allowed to check-out without paying their bills? I agree with JimMIA about the omission business of the DVC contract. The occupant in this case did not sneak out in the middle of the night or tried to mislead anybody about his bill. As far as I can tell, he followed the check-out procedure and it was the resort staff that failed to apply his bill correctly.
This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

If this is the proper procedure, I'm selling my membership and rent my points from now on

 

[JimMIA]

I really think ALL of us - myself included - are probably reading too much into this and making too many assumptions.

We all know we are ultimately responsible for anything a guest of ours does at DVC. The difference in this case, it seems to me, is that OP is being made - not the ultimately responsible person - but the default. Rather than research the transactions, rather than correct their own problems, WDW simply dumped the problem on DVC, which dumped the problem on the DVC owner without even contacting him to ask what the problem was!

The real problem in my colleague's case, Maria's case, and the OP's case, is that some CM who had responsibility for posting certain transactions to an individual room ledger made a mistake. Neither Maria's case nor my colleague's had anything to do with DVC, so it shows you that they have a system-wide accounting control problem.

Rather than face up to their mistake, which might very well have gotten them fired, the CMs shifted the responsibility - in Maria's case, to her credit card; in OP's case, to DVC.

In my colleague's case, the CM simply reversed the transactions, and Disney never did get the revenue they were entitled to, despite his best efforts. The CM had apparently trashed all backup for his mistake and Disney had nothing to bill to my buddy's credit card, even though he wanted to pay the bill.

I have NO PROBLEM at all with assuming the ultimate responsibility for anything that happens as a result of a reservation on my account. I DO have a problem with the DVC owner being the default - the person who gets the responsibility because nobody bothers to check what happened in the first place.

If DVC had requested appropriate documentation of OP's case, they would have quickly discovered where the problem lay. If they had bothered to contact the OP, the matter would have been resolved to everyone's satisfaction in a matter of minutes. Instead, they just dumped the problem on the OP -- keeping OP completely in the dark in the process. That's not right, and it is awful customer service.

 

[AFMom]

"What is the advantage to Disney by changing the policy? If WDW charges DVC/DVD for unpaid balances, how else should DVC handle it? I certainly wouldn't my dues going up because someone elses renter skip out, nor do I particularly think it is legal for DVC to increase dues to cover that.

Gosh, members taking responsibility for their actions/decisions to rent to non-members...what a concept! How dare we not blame Disney for the problem, even though we certainly were not forced to rent out the units, and most often make a profit in doing so. "
__________________

This thread certainly has me concerned about renting my points to strangers as well - I'll be following this to see what policy actualy is. We certainly always realized we would be responsible for damages to the units - but room charges?!!? But I had to make a comment about this post - just a heads up really.
First off - if Disney is allowing someone to leave a CC to charge to their room, and then fails to charge the card - I don't see how this is the owners responsibility and Disney should take responsibility for it - it was their error.

We're military - bought our points last year for quite a lot more than they used to be selling for, by the way. The only way we could buy DVC and be a military family is to know that renting our points was an option in years that we will not be able to get out to FL. We could never have committed to this purchase without that option.
As far as making a profit.... I can tell you that at the cost pp we bought at, and with maint fees added in, $10 pp will never net us a profit. We have no family able to afford to fly to FL and pay for park tickets (they're all in CA) to use our DVC for free.
I know it's easy to make assumptions about others DVC use and lifestyle based on our owns - but lets not be offensive about it.

 

[Deep-Thots]

Just an observation:

You're all getting worked up over a post made by someone that joined the DIS today and has only posted on this thread.

I stand by my original comments - this just doesn't add up.

John-NJ

The original post doesn't have the feel of a troll post. And we all had to join some time....

Regardless, the post does point out a significant risk in the points rental system that perhaps too many of us have forgotten of late. A substantial reminder isn't such a bad thing periodically.

 

[diesel]

just to clarify I am not new to this board I use to post under "JC" but haven't posted in over a year and couldn't remember my password. The e-mail associated with thei user name "jc" was for a company I use to work with so I couldn't have the password sent to me so I had to re-register.

Yes I've owned DVC since 1999 and this has been my only major problem/issue.

Thanks for everyones responses and replys. I will let you know what happens on monday when I call Accounting to discuss the issue.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I don't think it's a troll, I think it could happen. Disney billed us and heck we only made the PS, for all "it" knew, we weren't even the ones who were going to eat there.

Bobbi

 

[Chuck S]

"....$10 pp will never net us a profit.

I did NOT say it was a large profit, but if you rent out your points for $10, you are making a little profit. If we pay $5 for dues (and no ones dues are $5 yet) then there is $5 per point profit. Then,, take what you paid for your points. Even if you paid $100 per point and have 35 years left at and older DVC resort (and I would hope you did NOT pay $100 per point) that would be 2.85 per point. $10-$7.85 is $2.15 net. A lot better than bank interest is netting right now. So even if you rent out 100 points, that is $215 above your cost...not counting the time it takes you to rent it.

...First off - if Disney is allowing someone to leave a CC to charge to their room, and then fails to charge the card - I don't see how this is the owners responsibility and Disney should take responsibility for it - it was their error.

Because it is OUR reservation made with our points. The renter can not amend or change the ressie, only the DVC member....the DVC member controls all aspects of the ressie...including the ability to cancel it in the middle of a renters stay (it would be a stupid thing to do, but it is still the DVC members right to do so).

 

[Disneyrsh]

Colorado Belle, you are one smart cookie. Thanks for explaining so succinctly. I feel better now...

 

[DebbieB]

I think if this was a regular occurrence there would be a big concern but it seems like an isolated incident. It's obvious that there were a quite a few mistakes. First, the front desk did not charge it properly. They also should have looked further into it when the BIL called begging to pay his bill! DVC should have notified the member that there was a problem and when a hold was put on their account. Seems like a chain of mistakes by the hotel & DVC.

 

[Dean]

I'm just wondering, can you not indicate on the reservation that there can be no charges to the room?

I know we could do that at the other Disney resorts. They scanned our card too allow for quick check-out, but I told them that I didn't want any room charging to be allowed.

You might be able to indicate it, but it would not affect the outcome. To give charging privileges, they must have either cash or a cc to start with. The only items that you'd be at risk for without a cc would be things like phone calls, extra housekeeping and the like.

I can tell you DVC interprets it the way Bicker does. Actually they're not forcing you to pay the bill, only holding your account as "not in good standing", I know it's a technicality, but it is the way they look at it.

As for wondering about the credibility of the OP, I can't verify that, but I can verify that DVC will hold the member liable for any charges not paid by the person in the room, whatever the reason.

 

[RobDoc]

...

I need a clarification here for my personal future reference. If I go to Disney as an owner....can I charge to my room WITHOUT providing a credit card? I didn't think I could....but I believe that ONLY if room charges can be charged without a credit card, could there be any way to hold OP for the charges.
...

Yes, charges may be applied to your room even if you do not provide a credit card. You could make a phone call and the cost will be charged to the room. You could order room service and the charge would be applied to your room. You could not purchase something in a park and have it charged to your room.

In this case, apparently there was some irregularity with the way the credit card information was recorded and the only recourse the resort had was to go back to the person responsible for the reservation- the member who "paid" for the villa. As indicated, the guest did provide a credit card that satisfied the ability to charge to the room and even asked about the charges when checking out, but whatever the irregularity actually was created a situation where the responsibility fell to the member.

With a cash reservation made thru CRO, Disney will have residence information and credit card (or checking account) information since that is required to make the reservation in the first place. With a DVC reservation thru MS, all of the details are made thru the member's account and thus, any irregularities will be handled in the same manner.

I'm confident that all details will be cleared up on Monday when the BIL resupplies a credit card for payment and the member's account is cleared of any financial responsibility.

Stay tuned!

 

[justcruisin]

So, if I want to trash the place, I should rent points and not pay cash? Why does disney want the name and address of the renter ... why not just send the bill to the owner?

Will make me think twice about renting points.

 

[mom23boys]

I am really confused about this. I feel bad for the OP but do not understand what exactly happened.

We gave my sister and Inlaws points to use with us in August. So if they charge merchandise on their room key, am I responsible?

 

[Tamar]

We made an extra trip to Disney last month and stayed at the Pop Century, and even though we did not want to charge anything to the room, they still asked for a CC. I think that is (or should be) SOP...if it's not at DVC because they know where to find us owners, that makes me nervous.

I'm with those who say if Disney swipes a CC specifically to allow room charges, that's the contract that should be enforced to collect, and involving the owner (if it's a guest) should be the last step, not the first.

Jim, you're absolutely right about the poor customer service!

 

[bz8bls]

I've never liked the system of tying charging privileges back to the villa. When we have other guests with us, and are asked do we want charging privileges, we say 'no' and that includes us as well.

If we need to charge, we just charge with a.x., visa or whatever. I don't feel that the charge back to room in an advantage. If I should lose my credit card, it's easier for me to call the credit card company. I feel protected in that sense. That is another reason that we never take our debit cards with us, doesn't give us any protection.

 

[JimFitz]

I will never rent my points again. I rented to two people last year and everything went fine, but this seems like too much of a risk to take.

I will bank or give them to family.

 

[huey duey & luey]

I want to know if anyone has had any luck with putting in a request for no charging to the room. If you do, does it show up on your written confirmation? Since renters cannot change anything on the reservation, I assume that with that and a written statement about it on the confirmation, it would at least give the owner some backup.

We don't plan to rent to anyone ever other than family occassionally, but it makes me sad if this would make it harder to do - we were very happy to be able to rent before we could purchase. I'd hate to see a few unscrupulous renters spook the market - I am in no way implying that the OP or her brother did anything wrong. It was obviously a mistake on the other end. I'm just trying to see how an owner could protect themselves since I do think there are people who would take advantage of such a loophole, although they'd be in the minority.

We went with my family a few years ago. We had a 2bd and a 1 bd at OKW. We were told that we could only put down 1 cc for the entire reservation, but could assign charging and non charging priveleges. It stated it on the room key, and we had no problems with it
Tara

 

[PamOKW]

There are two things happening in this thread. One is the question of how a credit card was not charged as it should have been and how one goes about getting that straightened out. Hopefully, that can be resolved fairly quickly.

The second is the members' responsibility when someone else uses your points. Yes, you are absolutely ultimately responsible for anything connected to the use of the villa including charges made to the room. I'm surprised so many people weren't aware of this before they rented points. Disney makes it very clear that they do not offer any accomodation to aid in the rental of units. The use of the villas is purely for the personal use by members. They treat every reservation as if you are personally using the unit.

 

[Sammie]

If this is confirmed as proper procedure, I'll probably never rent to a stranger again.

Which might be DVC's intent all along. I consider my DVC membership truly my "home away from home". I would never allow anyone to use my membership that I would not allow to use my own personal home. I do not want to be held responsible for some stranger.

 

[Dean]

Which might be DVC's purpose all along.

No, not at all. Their purpose is not to get stiffed for legitimate charges or damages.