Just back, I couldn't believe what I saw!

[madelinesmum]

In my 30 years of going to Disney World, don't even know how many times I went as a child.........I experienced something I've never seen before in my life. Now before I get started I will tell you that I am a HUGE Disney fan, always taking up for Disney when I hear people say negative things. I am hypersensative to anything negative so here I go.
This past Christmas, I saw ONE rude CM the entire time I was there. Outside of busdrivers, they don't count. That CM was rude to a Japanese family that had a severely handicapped child and they could not speak or understand one bit of English. It upset me greatly and I returned home and did something I had never done before, I sent an email to Disney complaining.....gave her name tag, location of the incident and attraction, etc.
This trip, I could not believe what I was seeing. I have too many incidents to complain. I feel if I complain, they'll think it's me because there were so many. What is going on? It breaks my heart and I'm only sharing this with you guys because I don't want outsiders, who don't know, understand and love Disney as much as we do, to ruin the spirit.
Let me share a brief list of severe rudeness by CM's. In all fairness, I will say there were far more nice ones than bad ones but the bad were so frequent and severe.
1)Hall of Presidents Counter Service-LaToya, the rudest CM I've ever seen! Story way too long to share.
2)Ohana waiter-What a shame, great food, great atmosphere. Never asked brought drink refills, cleared our table while we were rescuing DD5 from the end of the coconut races.
3)Flame tree bar b q rude cashier
4)Rude ride attendant at Soarin, was rude to my 73 year old MIL in a wheelchair.
The list goes on but they were mainly service related.
I also noticed bad smells on many of the rides and saw alot of young college aged kids (CM's) goofing off and very unprofessional.
I also noticed cleanliness issues in spots which I've never seen!
Anyone else have this type of experience?

 

[DizziDezi2]

theres bad apples in every bunch.

 

[HappyLawyer]

In my 30 years of going to Disney World, don't even know how many times I went as a child.........I experienced something I've never seen before in my life. Now before I get started I will tell you that I am a HUGE Disney fan, always taking up for Disney when I hear people say negative things. I am hypersensative to anything negative so here I go.
This past Christmas, I saw ONE rude CM the entire time I was there. Outside of busdrivers, they don't count. That CM was rude to a Japanese family that had a severely handicapped child and they could not speak or understand one bit of English. It upset me greatly and I returned home and did something I had never done before, I sent an email to Disney complaining.....gave her name tag, location of the incident and attraction, etc.
This trip, I could not believe what I was seeing. I have too many incidents to complain. I feel if I complain, they'll think it's me because there were so many. What is going on? It breaks my heart and I'm only sharing this with you guys because I don't want outsiders, who don't know, understand and love Disney as much as we do, to ruin the spirit.
Let me share a brief list of severe rudeness by CM's. In all fairness, I will say there were far more nice ones than bad ones but the bad were so frequent and severe.
1)Hall of Presidents Counter Service-LaToya, the rudest CM I've ever seen! Story way too long to share.
2)Ohana waiter-What a shame, great food, great atmosphere. Never asked brought drink refills, cleared our table while we were rescuing DD5 from the end of the coconut races.
3)Flame tree bar b q rude cashier
4)Rude ride attendant at Soarin, was rude to my 73 year old MIL in a wheelchair.
The list goes on but they were mainly service related.
I also noticed bad smells on many of the rides and saw alot of young college aged kids (CM's) goofing off and very unprofessional.
I also noticed cleanliness issues in spots which I've never seen!
Anyone else have this type of experience?

Did you get all their names or just the one, and you should also be careful about posting the name of an individual without their permission, calling her rude could be seen as slander or deffamation of character.

Imagine if this individual was on these boards and read this, yet has an outstanding employee record. It could be said that you are responsible for the ruin of her image, i would delete the name if i were you. Now of course if it were something positive and glowing people would not mind use of their name but when it is negative, be careful.

On a non legal note, i would agree on the level of great customer service is not the same as it used to be it seems to have diminished over the years.

 

[DisneyMama27]

You are not alone! We are also BIG Disney fans, and never a negative word, but we did experience several instances of rudeness this last time. Most were still wonderful, so I am thinking it is a case of a batch of new hires with unsufficient training, which will hopefully be corrected. We have always listed Disney's excellent customer service among our many reasons we love it there, so I hope that doesn't start to change!

 

[TracyK]

I would definitely write to Disney to tell them of your experience. I think it is the service at Disney that sets it apart from anywhere else. If they lose that high standard it will be very sad.

Tracy

 

[Micca]

I am sorry to hear of this. The CMs are a HUGE part of the experience. Either they have lowered the bar on hiring, or dropped the ball on training. Probably both.

 

[Lori in CNY]

I too am a tried and true Disney fan and come to their defense more times than I care to tell you.

Luckily, we did not encounter any rude CMs but we did notice many who just don't share the magic anymore.

The one complaint that I had (and will tell Disney since they just sent me a survey) was some of the untidy areas in the parks and I use that term to be nice! I've never encountered so many over-flowing trash cans and dirty restrooms in all my trips as I did this time and it is VERY disappointing. Their service is one of the major things that sets them apart and can allow them to continue to charge premium prices for-premium service.

Please Disney don't scrimp on the little things like cleanliness and CM training!!

 

[gabbyrosebud]

I had the same experience at Ohana. It seemed like they were in a rush to get us out of there. We requested a seat near the windows where all the activities are. We were seated way in the back when there was empty tables everywhere. We couldn't even see my daughter while she was getting her hula lesson. My Mother and I went up to see her and while we were gone they cleared our places! My poor son didn't know what to say to the waiter. My daughter left that place hungry. We're going to try it again our next trip because the food was so yummy.

 

[Pats Dragon]

One of the problems with cm's is that our country is getting to the point where working people are so much poorer than the stock market crowd that they don't try as hard because they know that they can't pay rent, buy a car etc with the 6 dollar an hour job. (my soap box) On the other hand I believe that if you take a job you should at least be polite and I think every rude cm who goes beyond merely a grouchy moment, should be reported.

 

[hirschberger]

The last fe times we noticed the same things that you all are talking about. I have heard from a number of CM that Disney is having a hard time filling the open spots for either a lack of good pay or other central Florida employers have better benefits. I hope that someone will pass the concerns to management and they will take steps to correct the concerns and change the bad attitude of the CM's.

 

[AJKMOM]

Hate to say it, but it isn't just at Disney anymore. There are rude and bad customer service people every where. Sad, really, that people don't care any more about doing a good job, or even being polite to others. It isn't even just the employees, it seems there are so many people who just aren't polite at all.

Not sure if this is why, but I read somewhere most of the CM's don't get paid much, and now they hire a lot of people who can't get jobs elsewhere because the pay is low.

 

[DJ Disney Kid]

Its never going to be like it was. NEVER!

When Walt opened Disneyland it was ONE theme park. You now have ALL of Disneyworld. 4 theme parks, two waterparks and a downtown area that all need to have employees. Theres no way your gonna find that many "overly happy, friendly" people. So you have to look at all the ones Disney was able to find and hire and be thankful for them.

 

[dana1003]

oh man this is soooo disappointing...we "picked" disney becuz of the feeling it gives you there-extreme politeness, cleanliness, happiness (and im from jersey so trust me i know the difference) we go in a couple of weeks and really hope it wont be a waste of my $

 

[dana1003]

Its never going to be like it was. NEVER!

When Walt opened Disneyland it was ONE theme park. You now have ALL of Disneyworld. 4 theme parks, two waterparks and a downtown area that all need to have employees. Theres no way your gonna find that many "overly happy, friendly" people. So you have to look at all the ones Disney was able to find and hire and be thankful for them.

ok ..let me put my heart back in my body..hold on.

 

[ogreenlee]

Customer service everywhere is on the decline, and not to mention that teenagers today are growing up with even more cynicism than I did. These are your CMs and pretty much your customer service providers... cynical, eye-rolling, too-good-to-work young people.

It's sad when you call customer service at any company, get greeted by a fella from India named Bob, and get treated better than you would with someone who might actually be your neighbor.

 

[cleo]

It is my opinion the problem lies more with guest expectation than it does with anything Disney is doing. Most complaints are about obscure references to rudeness, not getting something the guest thought they deserved that was above and beyond the general park experience, other guest rudeness, and my favorite, 'it smelled funny'.

Disney does not promise guests that other guests will treat them as if they are the only people in the park. Disney does not promise there will be only pleasant sensations, smells and sights. Life still goes on inside a theme park and some things are beyond any company's control. Disney also does not promise their employees will tolerate being used as whipping boys and girls all day, every day, and still have a Stepford Wife smile on their faces at the end of it all, just so someone won't feel 'offended'.

Employees get to the point where they've had enough of it. People cut in front, stop in front, bump, burp, yell and stare. Millions of bodys congregating in any given area are bound to make smells, as is water that's been running around an attraction for 6 or 8 months at a time.

I can rip Disney up with the best of them, but most of what I see posted on the boards is stuff that could EASILY be forgiven and forgotten if people really want to enjoy their stay more than they want to complain when they return.

Just my opinion. Your milage may vary.

 

[Disney-For-Life]

Yes, I agree, it seems they are giving jobs to anyone these days. Lots of hiring but too much of it at minimum wage. A lot of the new staff do not have the "Disney spirit" we come to expect. Sometimes, I can bearly make out what the CM's are saying.

And don't even get me started on the desk staff at the resorts - we have been to AKL twice now, and every time I am appalled at how rude their desk crew are. They don't even smile at you, they forget to tell you information, and they just make you feel like your taking up too much of their time - just by checking in! I'm hoping that the new DVC at AKL check-in will have better training than those folks.

 

[ogreenlee]

Now granted, I haven't been to DisneyWorld in about 5-6 years, but no way could it ever come close to how you get treated at Six Flags Over Georgia.

I'll take WDW any day.

I just think folks have a hard time getting treated poorly when many of them have saved up every last penny they could scrape up just so they could take their children to see part of the magic. It's unfortunate that many people just flat out can't take their kids to WDW because it costs so darn much.

But then you have the folks who think that since they scraped up every last penny to go, that they get to treat CMs and fellow parkgoers like slaves. Like they were the only ones who paid thousands of dollars to be there.

 

[nyfinfan]

It is my opinion the problem lies more with guest expectation than it does with anything Disney is doing. Most complaints are about obscure references to rudeness, not getting something the guest thought they deserved that was above and beyond the general park experience, other guest rudeness, and my favorite, 'it smelled funny'.

Disney does not promise guests that other guests will treat them as if they are the only people in the park. Disney does not promise there will be only pleasant sensations, smells and sights. Life still goes on inside a theme park and some things are beyond any company's control. Disney also does not promise their employees will tolerate being used as whipping boys and girls all day, every day, and still have a Stepford Wife smile on their faces at the end of it all, just so someone won't feel 'offended'.

Employees get to the point where they've had enough of it. People cut in front, stop in front, bump, burp, yell and stare. Millions of bodys congregating in any given area are bound to make smells, as is water that's been running around an attraction for 6 or 8 months at a time.

I can rip Disney up with the best of them, but most of what I see posted on the boards is stuff that could EASILY be forgiven and forgotten if people really want to enjoy their stay more than they want to complain when they return.

Just my opinion. Your milage may vary.

+ 1

While reading this thread, this is what I would have written. There are way more threads on here about rude Patrons than CM's. Maybe the CM's are just giving back what they get. It's not right but it should not be unexpected.

 

[maxiesmom]

I have only been back a week, and we didn't have any rude CMs. Part of that could be that as someone who works in the service industry, I am hyper nice to everyone I run in to when on vacation. Big smile, always say please and thank you. However I also know when I am treated badly. And if I am, I will not hesitate to ask to speak with a supervisor. Disney vacations are not cheap, and I expect to get good service. But as I said, we had no problems at all last week.

I also want to say as, someone who does work in the service industy, that my job gets harder and harder every year. I'm not sure if it is the economy, lack of manners, or just a general feeling of superiority. But people seem to think if they are paying for a service that they are entitled to behave like pigs and treat the employees like slaves. Throw trash on the ground instead of walking 2 feet to a trash can. Make a huge mess in the bathroom, and think nothing of it. Drop something on the ground, and not pick it up. Step on it on the way by. Use the fitting rooms for a toilet. Let their kids run wild thru the store as long as they are not bugging the parent. All because they are paying for something they want in that store, and the employees are being paid to clean up after them. And we here that comment constantly. It never ceases to amaze me the way people will behave.

At the store I work at we have a customer who actually wants someone to come out to her van, help her into her ECV, and take her into the store. Walk around help her shop. HELP HER IN THE BATHROOM (I swear I am not kidding!), and call our sister stores to tell them she needs the same help from them. She actually went up to a associate, asked them to open a bag for her, and when they did proceeded to puke in the bag. And the left the bag with the poor girl.

I truly think that if we treated each other with more respect that allot of the other problems would disappear.