Is this waiter ripping off Disney??

[WDWCPAlumni]

OK. I have this situation to tell about and I want to know what you think.
We just got back 2 days ago from a week stay.
We were on the dining plan. For those of you who don't know they give you a few different bills. They have the bill with the prices on it that you sign for, and they have the bill with all $0 that you keep.
But then they also have the adult bills separate from the kids bills.
So mostly we would leave the table service restaurants with 2 bills. Ours around $60 and the kids around $30 but ours all read $0
I really wanted to pay attention to what we were spending on food to decide if I would use the dining plan in the future.
So at each restaurant we would write the price onto our copy and bring it back with us to the room and stick it with our stash of receipts to look at later.

Well, this one particular night, it was semi late for our family......the kids were READY for bed..........ok, past ready.
We got the 2 bills. The adults for $57 and the kids for $53..........WHAT $53???????
The kids meals were $7.49, which included the drink, appetizer, entrée and desert. We ordered my son an extra side salad too...........ok add on the tax and add on the tip...........it should not have been $53!!!!
This was the first time the bill was not itemized also!

I wanted to wait for our waiter and question the bill, but my husband pressed on me that the kids needed to go, and did it really matter? It was still the same price for us, we pre paid!!

My question is though, is this guy upping the bill because his tip is a % of the bill??!!!
I was blown away, I really think that is what is going on!
I think it is not everywhere, and not everyone........but some dishonest, smart people are taking advantage of the dining plan!!!

What do you think??
I didn't keep the reciepts........should I contact someone to take a look????

 

[JimMIA]

What do you think??
I didn't keep the reciepts........should I contact someone to take a look????

It could just be a computer glitch, but my favorite fraud quote is "Fraud looks a lot like stupid." If I were an auditor and I saw something like that, I'd sure question it. I assume from your screen name that you're a former accounting CM, and therefore know about "red flags."

I'd report what you observed to internal audit. With the date and time of the ADR and your DDP records, they should be able to locate the transaction easily. From there, it will be a simple matter for them to take a more detailed look at that server's transactions and see if there's a problem.

If it's a glitch, there won't be any more glitches. If the server's a thief, it will become obvious when they look at a bunch of transactions.

 

[WDWCPAlumni]

I am a former CM, but not in any area similar to that!
Who exactly should I ask to speak with, and who do I call to ask to speak with them or for the phone number??
I know the day and time.....and I have my room card still.

 

[pooch]

I think you should let it go. My guess is you have enough in your life, like everyone else, to stress over. Disney's a big boy. He can take care of himself!! JMHO

 

[suzannews]

Where I work at WDW, the computer does this all the time. The managers don't know why. It's a glitch or something. When a guest asks what the price would have been, we tell them to just add the 2 totals together and that is correct. When we close out the check for a meal plan table, we just swipe your card for the child credits and type in how many and then swipe your card for the adult credits and type in how many. The computer seperates the charges, we have nothing to do with that.

 

[JimMIA]

I thought I had a contact for you from an old seminar registration, but that person was in the Tax Department. I'll try to get someone for you and PM you.

Whether it's a problem or not, the auditors will be able to resolve it easily and quickly. It is either an issue or it's not, and they will be able to tell without anyone even being aware they're looking at anything.

 

[JimMIA]

Where I work at WDW, the computer does this all the time. The managers don't know why. It's a glitch or something.

This seems like a reasonable explanation, but still something that should be corrected.

If the actual bill should have been something like $75 and the computer glitch rang up $110, I assume Disney paid 18% of $110. At non-Disney restaurants it might not matter, but at Disney-owned restaurants the staff is paid the full 18% of the "sticker price" of the meal. Over hundreds (or thousands) of meals, "glitches" add up quickly.

Whether the server is trying to pull something or not, Disney is losing money due to the computer glitch and their auditors need to fix that. Pooch is right in saying that Disney is a "big boy" and take care of himself -- the problem is, the Mouse takes care of himself by passing those costs on to us!

 

[brymolmom]

As a computer programmer...I can tell you that the computer outputs exactly as it is told to do. Yes it could be a computer error - but there is no reason for no one to know why. Once reported a programmer should be able to look at the exact code producing those receipts and discover the exact reason why it was happening and, hopefully, correct it.

 

[pilferk]

This seems like a reasonable explanation, but still something that should be corrected.

If the actual bill should have been something like $75 and the computer glitch rang up $110, I assume Disney paid 18% of $110. At non-Disney restaurants it might not matter, but at Disney-owned restaurants the staff is paid the full 18% of the "sticker price" of the meal. Over hundreds (or thousands) of meals, "glitches" add up quickly.

Whether the server is trying to pull something or not, Disney is losing money due to the computer glitch and their auditors need to fix that. Pooch is right in saying that Disney is a "big boy" and take care of himself -- the problem is, the Mouse takes care of himself by passing those costs on to us!

Not to mention, if the the rumored DDP changes are true (no tip included), guests are going to start complaining if they're not getting the correct total on their checks.....

 

[spaceacewannabe]

This sounds a lot like an experience we had at Spoodles...

 

[just another guy]

Many servers have been fired for this, and many will continue to get fired for this.

 

[M2DD's]

Just a side not. Last yr late september we had the DDP and were only given the recipte that said 0 on it. We never recieved an itemized list like we do at other restraunts around our town. I would have like to know how much we saved.
Also I always check over the bill before we leave and make sure that the right number of credits have been deducted and we do not add charging on our KTTK card so that they can't charge us by "mistake" instead of using our dinning credits.

 

[GreatLakes5]

It sounded a lot as if the kids ran through as adult meals? Your total meals in the end worked out though? (that is, you didn't find you were short two adult meals at the end?)

 

[GEB@okw]

Another item to consider in that you did not tell us which restaurant you ate at, but some of the restaurants are not owned by Disney and they may be ripping Disney off. Report it, because we all pay for theft in the end.

 

[rluey29]

I agree may help us out in the long run.

 

[scrapperjill]

IMO...you should just drop it. But heck who am I to say that. Yes it may be a computer glitch or just how things ring through...but really you paid the DDP price and not the price that rang up so no matter how much it added up to be you shouldn't worry your self over it. But then again that's JMO.

Another thing to add is....is depending on where you were dinning may make a diffrence on your prices. I know the kids dinning plan has chanced ALOT (and not for the better)...but last time we were at WDW and had the DDP NONE of our adult TS meals were under $50 EACH. I really can't see what TS places you were eating at that you adult meals only came up to around $30 each

Another thought is I know from looking over the new kids menus at many resturants they have a set kids meal that includes everything at a price around $7.50...BUT some also have items on the menu that you can get ala cart so to speak....maybe what ever you ordered for your kids that night was all seperate...I know at some places you can have more options on what the kids can get as well as increase the total bill.

IMO I really don't see anything wrong with a CM trying to help guests make the most of their DDP meals. I know we came across this in the past and I've heard of it happening many times on the Dis... For example milkshakes...some people have reported being able to get refillable milkshakes for their beverage as some places around WDW even though they were not listed on the DDP....where other people go to the same place and are told no. Same as 'Add-ons' like shrimp...some CM let people add them on where others don't. Of course the CM's want to get the total bill as high as they can to increase their tip...but heck...it's benifiting us as well. After all if CM's do that we get more for the DDP price. Where in turn...I truly believe we'll end up spending that 'saved' money from getting the DDP on other things around Disney....so even though some may think my thoughts are 'cheating' Disney or taking advantage of the system...I really don't think that's the case. If guests are happy and they feel like they're totally getting their moneys worth meal wise they're more likely to spend more money other places and on things that Disney in turn will make more of a profit off (like admission tickets or resorts stays).

Anyways....I vote to just drop it and start planning your next vacation to the world.

 

[jultomzach]

I was at Disney last week and all 5 of our table service waiters or waitresses told us that they receive a flat fee per person on the DDP, not a % of the total bill.

 

[tarheel618]

My only concern is when next year the tip is not apart of the DDP. I wonder if they will have it fixed by then.

 

[bicker]

I was at Disney last week and all 5 of our table service waiters or waitresses told us that they receive a flat fee per person on the DDP, not a % of the total bill.

That's true in a very small number of the restaurants, and none of them are Disney-owned.

 

[tinkamom]

When we dined at Raglan Road in May, the bill was about $27 for 1 kids meal! I asked the waitress about it and she said that it was the flat fee they were reimbursed per person and that it evens out in the end. (Offsets the higher price entrees being ordered)

This I understood but.....not when I was charged $99.00 at WCC . I'm still womdering what to do about that one.