Jim Lewis Fired from WDWCo

[Mickey'sApprentice]

I have some hope. Usually with a shake-up like this, the new guy (figurative term in the case of Ms. Bilby) wants to come in and put their stamp on things. Aside from her and Mr. Holz fixing this dues thing, the quickest way for her to put a positive spin on this thing with existing members is to do some quick-fix things at the resorts like cleanliness, better front-line cast members, timely check-ins, etc. It may take a while to achieve all the pie in the sky things our collective Disboards DVC fandom has thrown out there for her to consider, but the aforementioned items are easily achievable and should be right up there with fixing this dues issue.

Honestly, there's some damage control that needs to be done and aside from rectifying the dues issue, I think she needs to work expeditiously to earn some goodwill and grace from the members.

Also, Jim Lewis et al may have been fired over this dues flap, but my experience in situations like this tells me Mr. Holz and other Disney execs at his level will want everything that was under Mr. Lewis to be reviewed to make sure there are no other skeletons in the closet. They may see a pattern of practices that aren't Disney quality that the new regime will want to get right with members.

There are some that seem to think we are getting a better DVC leader in Ms. Bilby than JL ever was. Hopefully that translates into some of the things we've been clamoring for as DVCers recently...

It may be too soon...but DH may have fantastic customer service for our trip in late September!!

It might just be long enough away for the new procedures for housekeeping, and additional mousekeepers put in place, and the employees being on high alert, or just an overall new found happiness of the staff...but not so far away that things have gotten back to normal.

On the other hand...we could see people getting used to new procedures that may or may not work, overworked CMs, and newly hired people that don't know what they are doing...OR of course...Ms. Bilby could go the other way by firing housekeepers to improve the bottom line, etc.

Either way, I'm really excited about our upcoming trip!!!

 

[nytimez]

I have some hope. Usually with a shake-up like this, the new guy (figurative term in the case of Ms. Bilby) wants to come in and put their stamp on things. Aside from her and Mr. Holz fixing this dues thing, the quickest way for her to put a positive spin on this thing with existing members is to do some quick-fix things at the resorts like cleanliness, better front-line cast members, timely check-ins, etc. It may take a while to achieve all the pie in the sky things our collective Disboards DVC fandom has thrown out there for her to consider, but the aforementioned items are easily achievable and should be right up there with fixing this dues issue.

Honestly, there's some damage control that needs to be done and aside from rectifying the dues issue, I think she needs to work expeditiously to earn some goodwill and grace from the members.

Also, Jim Lewis et al may have been fired over this dues flap, but my experience in situations like this tells me Mr. Holz and other Disney execs at his level will want everything that was under Mr. Lewis to be reviewed to make sure there are no other skeletons in the closet. They may see a pattern of practices that aren't Disney quality that the new regime will want to get right with members.

There are some that seem to think we are getting a better DVC leader in Ms. Bilby than JL ever was. Hopefully that translates into some of the things we've been clamoring for as DVCers recently...

I tend to think the way people in Ms. Bilby's position put their stamp on things is by showing their bosses that they can make money.

 

[drusba]

Here is something no one has mentioned: remember last annual meeting that Lewis and Co. said they were going to roll out a tiered member benefit program potentially based at least partly on number of points owned? Not too long ago someone mentioned that it would be coming by end of the year. I wonder if that idea is still on the table with the Lewis' and others' departure.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

I tend to think the way people in Ms. Bilby's position put their stamp on things is by showing their bosses that they can make money.

Iger's first move was to buy Pixar. It was a bold move that was applauded for moving the company forward.

Yes, I know what you mean about making stockholders happy...but there are other moves.

I expect some other kind of bold move that will transform the DVC product for the better would be in the making.

What about some improvement in trades. I've heard Dean and some of the others talk about some sort of inside trading with Marriott or Hilton or the other exclusive timeshares. I've always thought that an acquisition of the Hyatt timeshares would be a wonderful companion to DVC.

I bet Ms. Bilby has or is in the process of doing a SWOT analysis on DVC as we speak. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

The housekeeping issue is a weakness, and finding better opportunities for members is well...and opportunity for the division.

 

[Sammie]

Here is something no one has mentioned: remember last annual meeting that Lewis and Co. said they were going to roll out a tiered member benefit program potentially based at least partly on number of points owned? Not too long ago someone mentioned that it would be coming by end of the year. I wonder if that idea is still on the table with the Lewis' and others' departure.

Probably for right now, just sorting through the mess with Aulani, possibly BLT, maybe even OKW and accessing personnel will keep that topic off the front burner for a while.

 

[DVCPAT]

If the reports are true, the firing had nothing to do with the direction/tone/approach/maintenance anything else -- just a big-time screwup that's costing the company money.

So... I wouldn't expect anything to change on the surface for most of us.

One screw up usually won’t get you fired. It’s when you make multiple, consecutive screw-ups that get you terminated. Tom Staggs specifically assigned Karl Holz to “broaden Disney's reputation for delivering magical experiences to our guests, both inside and outside the berm."

 

[disneychic]

Probably for right now, just sorting through the mess with Aulani, possibly BLT, maybe even OKW and accessing personnel will keep that topic off the front burner for a while.

I hope you are right and this "tiered system nightmare" gets lost in the shuffle

 

[dianeschlicht]

Here is something no one has mentioned: remember last annual meeting that Lewis and Co. said they were going to roll out a tiered member benefit program potentially based at least partly on number of points owned? Not too long ago someone mentioned that it would be coming by end of the year. I wonder if that idea is still on the table with the Lewis' and others' departure.

I hope that idea is gone, but my guess is that it might still be in development. If that's the case, maybe calmer heads will prevail and think differently about it.

I think it will cause a pull out of sorts instead of encouraging people to buy more points.

 

[drakethib]

Wow.

I just heard a rumor that Jim Lewis was fired.

Any truth to that?

 

[nytimez]

One screw up usually won’t get you fired.

In Jim Lewis' case, I don't know the full story -- but I think even if this was the only screw up, it's more than enough to get him fired. This is massive.

 

[tjkraz]

In Jim Lewis' case, I don't know the full story -- but I think even if this was the only screw up, it's more than enough to get him fired. This is massive.

Agree.

Providing false information to state regulators.

Providing false information to customers and potential customers.

By all appearances, some element of covering it up / lying to superiors within TWDC.

Literally decades of compensation (subsidy) for early buyers which will total millions of dollars--perhaps tens of millions.

Damage to Disney's reputation.

Yeah, this was a doozie.

 

[izzy]

It will be interesting to see if anything fraudulent was going on with all of this. Mistakes are one thing - covering it up is something else.

Last week when the stock market was wonky and all over the place, I remember one day that the Disney stock lost significantly more percentage-wise than the market's average loss that day. I'm now beginning to wonder if some of these folks who were fired knew what was coming down the pike and dumped their stock on the market. I can't imagine that they would have had enough stock to make a signficant difference, but who knows.

 

[Oglet]

Many people are cautious of time shares in general. Disney had gone to great lengths to put an image out there to the general public that they are not like the others.

This could potentially damage the image of Disney in a way that will take quite some time to rehabilitate.

 

[BeccaG]

It will be interesting to see if anything fraudulent was going on with all of this. Mistakes are one thing - covering it up is something else.

Last week when the stock market was wonky and all over the place, I remember one day that the Disney stock lost significantly more percentage-wise than the market's average loss that day. I'm now beginning to wonder if some of these folks who were fired knew what was coming down the pike and dumped their stock on the market. I can't imagine that they would have had enough stock to make a signficant difference, but who knows.

I would think they would be smart enough not to add insider trading to their crimes and foibles but one never knows...

 

[hakepb]

Any trades by company officers will be reported to the S.E.C. So eventually any stock sales would be reported.

 

[TisBit]

Similar situation occurred with Vero beach and Disney has been subsidizing dues for over 15 years. In that case, Disney intended on building the resort much larger but later scaled back its plans due to lack of demand. The subsidy is representative of the reduction in scale from the original project plan communicated to early buyers. As of 2011, the Vero subsidy is at $1.47 per point.

As for the finances, Disney receives a fee for operating the DVC program. The fee is equal to 12% of most budgeted annual expenses. DVC can cover the subsidy out of their portion of those recurring revenues. There are only a few thousand people who will get the subsidy.

This situation is definitely a black mark on the entire DVC program but I don't view it as any impending signs of disaster for Aulani owners.

It think the key difference there is that the resort was changed, adversely affecting the owners. For all intense purposes this is merely a budget issue wiht a miscalculation of dues (which is bad and could bring lawsuits if it was done intentionally), but will not likely see a long term subsidy, because the scope of the project was not changed from the original POS, etc.

Iger's first move was to buy Pixar. It was a bold move that was applauded for moving the company forward.

Yes, I know what you mean about making stockholders happy...but there are other moves.

I expect some other kind of bold move that will transform the DVC product for the better would be in the making.

What about some improvement in trades. I've heard Dean and some of the others talk about some sort of inside trading with Marriott or Hilton or the other exclusive timeshares. I've always thought that an acquisition of the Hyatt timeshares would be a wonderful companion to DVC.

I bet Ms. Bilby has or is in the process of doing a SWOT analysis on DVC as we speak. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

The housekeeping issue is a weakness, and finding better opportunities for members is well...and opportunity for the division.

This is a blow to the DVC reputation, especially with it being the first off site "mini resort". The leaders of DVC will need to work hard to rebuild a reputation with DVC and the last thing they will want is a disgruntled owner base due to housekeeping/maintenance issues. So, I suspect in the next year you will see many DVC CM's getting extra pressure to improve customer service and satisfaction. This might ultimately end up in some dues increases if they add positions, etc to accomplish this, but I wouldn't think they would want to look bad by going on a sudden spending spree either.

Agree.

Providing false information to state regulators.

Providing false information to customers and potential customers.

By all appearances, some element of covering it up / lying to superiors within TWDC.

Literally decades of compensation (subsidy) for early buyers which will total millions of dollars--perhaps tens of millions.

Damage to Disney's reputation.

Yeah, this was a doozie.

Definitely damage to reputation and possibly covering up the budget problems there.

Providing false information is very difficult to prove. Even if you file paperwork with overly generous numbers, that is not necessarily "false" information and especially when you get into accounting, it is near impossible to improve that is was done maliciously.

Decades of subsidies is more than jumping the gun. The cost difference in dues is not even known and how much this difference is will be a big factor. It is obviousl that JL and company all did some fuzzy math in determining costs and most of it probably comes down to how they split the operating costs between the cash/DVC portions of the resort. Purchasers of Aulani will be given their credit this year and will gradually be brought back up to a "normal" dues costs over the next year or two in accordance with the contract. If they subsidized the early members and never brought them in line with the other members, this could be quite complicated. It is not as straight forward as Vero Beach when the developer failed to develop part of the resort, resulting in increased operating costs to the membership.

 

[tjkraz]

Decades of subsidies is more than jumping the gun.

http://www.kitv.com/news/28888158/detail.html

The Disney spokeswoman said anyone who already purchased time share units at Aulani for the lower rate will not see a dues increase over the life of the 50-year contract that expires in 2062.

"It's the right thing to do," said Langley.

Sure sounds like they plan on subsidizing over the life of the contract.

 

[Chuck S]

http://www.kitv.com/news/28888158/detail.html

The Disney spokeswoman said anyone who already purchased time share units at Aulani for the lower rate will not see a dues increase over the life of the 50-year contract that expires in 2062.

"It's the right thing to do," said Langley.

Sure sounds like they plan on subsidizing over the life of the contract.

It may also avoid lawsuits from those owners. It sounds as if this will be a subsidy without the maximum increases, unlike Vero, where the resort was never fully built out.

 

[drusba]

http://www.kitv.com/news/28888158/detail.html

The Disney spokeswoman said anyone who already purchased time share units at Aulani for the lower rate will not see a dues increase over the life of the 50-year contract that expires in 2062.

"It's the right thing to do," said Langley.

Sure sounds like they plan on subsidizing over the life of the contract.

So under the new management if Jim Lewis screwed up your dues, your dues are frozen forever. I sure hope they find out he screwed up at one of the resorts I own.

 

[wdrl]

http://www.kitv.com/news/28888158/detail.html

The Disney spokeswoman said anyone who already purchased time share units at Aulani for the lower rate will not see a dues increase over the life of the 50-year contract that expires in 2062.

"It's the right thing to do," said Langley.

Sure sounds like they plan on subsidizing over the life of the contract.

I certainly hope that Langley, the Disney spokesperson, misstated the situation when she said those who already bought Aulani "will not see a dues increase over the life of the 50-year contract that expires in 2062." As operating expenses increase over the years, why would the early Aulani buyers be exempt from paying for normal cost of living expenses? If normal cost of living expenses increase 3% in a year, then all Aulani owners should absorb the cost.

I fully understand that the early Aulani owners should be protected because they bought thinking Aulani's starting MF would be $4.31. But even those buyers knew, or should have known, that the MF would increase year by year. Its simply ludicrous for Langley to imply that the early Aulani buyers will still be paying $4.31 per point in 2062.

Another item that should be remembered is that Hawaii's Transient Accommodations Tax is based, in part, on the yearly maintenance fees. The State of Hawaii uses one-half of a timeshare's annual maintenance fee in computing the tax. But the law allows the State to use a different amount if it knows that the annual maintenance fee is not representative of a timeshare's true operating expenses. The Honolulu Star Advertiser article states that Hawaii would let Disney charge the lower MF amount to some owners. However, I wonder if Hawaii will use the higher, more accurate MF amount in computing the TAT on Aulani stays. Which then begs the question, Will Disney subsidize the TAT for the early Aulani owners who are grandfathered in with the $4.31 rate?