May close up my Disney Vacation Account

[JohnDaleswife]

Dag gum it, Disney, get your vacation account website up and going! I need to deposit $600 in gift cards in it. But this is really making me think about not doing that and closing the thing up.

 

[IndianaRRT]

We are struggling with the same decision--IF we can ever catch the site when it's functional. We also had funds taken at the wrong time, but according to our online bank statement, those have been refunded. But the constant issues and now not being able to access our own money has me more than concerned. We opened this to save for our DD's dream graduation trip, and we've been pretty surprised at the Disney's carelessness in operating it. For a company with such a reputation for detail, this is rather disappointing. I hope they get their act together soon.

 

[Marionnette]

Dag gum it, Disney, get your vacation account website up and going! I need to deposit $600 in gift cards in it. But this is really making me think about not doing that and closing the thing up.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to add those GCs once the site comes back up. There was a post in the long DVA thread on the TPAS where someone tried to add a GC when the website was briefly up the other day. The card was zero'd out and the funds weren't added to their DVA.

At this point, I'm just going to spend down the last of the money in my account, request the bonus GCs (and hope they actually send them), and then I'll be done with the DVA. It was an interesting idea but Disney's track record with IT problems just proves that they shouldn't be in the "banking" business.

 

[davper]

See what happens when you layoff all your experienced IT staff and replace them cheaper labor that are still struggling with english.

 

[Dizlvr]

See what happens when you layoff all your experienced IT staff and replace them cheaper labor that are still struggling with english.

You say that as if Disney IT hasn't had any issues in the past. I don't remember a time when they didn't have issues!

 

[Marionnette]

You say that as if Disney IT hasn't had any issues in the past. I don't remember a time when they didn't have issues!

I don't remember a time when any of their websites have been down for over a week.

 

[supersnoop]

See what happens when you layoff all your experienced IT staff and replace them cheaper labor that are still struggling with english.

When did that happen?

 

[Turk February]

I'm in no rush since my trip isn't until December but if the $20 GC per $1000 spent isn't a big deal to you, might as well just pay the balance directly.

 

[Jing]

I am probably going to add my GCs up to the rounded-out thousand, pay it toward my vacation balance, request the bonus GCs, then wait and see howthings operate for the next 30-days or so before depositing anything else. I personally do not care what language the IT people speak as long as they are fluent in code, and they "ain't."

 

[eliza61]

You say that as if Disney IT hasn't had any issues in the past. I don't remember a time when they didn't have issues!

Which is absolutely mindboggling to me. To say Disney's IT sucks across the board is an understatement.

I have found in my life that rewards programs are a bit like exercising. I have the best success when it's easy and convenient, when either becomes hard to manage or get to then I don't do it.

there never really was much incentive for me to get a dva account 40 bucks tops and after reading about this major snafu, the 40 bucks definitely isn't worth it.

Good luck guys

 

[MyDizneyBoyz]

When did that happen?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/u...t-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html?_r=0

 

[supersnoop]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/u...t-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html?_r=0

1. Those were in the ABC division
2. They reversed that decision http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/in-turnabout-disney-cancels-tech-worker-layoffs.html

 

[Marionnette]

Ahem...http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-technology-restructuring-20141028-story.html

Restructuring of their global parks & rec IT division took place in Oct. 2014. At the time, they indicated a change in focus from IT maintenance to IT development with no net growth in the number of employees.

Seems to me that maybe they should have kept those maintenance employees on and just hired new staff for future IT development.

 

[supersnoop]

Ahem...http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-technology-restructuring-20141028-story.html

Restructuring of their global parks & rec IT division took place in Oct. 2014. At the time, they indicated a change in focus from IT maintenance to IT development with no net growth in the number of employees.

Seems to me that maybe they should have kept those maintenance employees on and just hired new staff for future IT development.

That article just says that they changed the focus of some employees; killed of there jobs but created new ones for a net neutral affect.

"Oursourcing is common" and "outsourcing additional IT jobs" doesn't seem to have a lot of validity. I can't tell if they actually added off-shore staff at that time, or if the comments were about the future, which has been reversed.

But, back to the original point, they didn't replace workers with "cheaper labor that are still struggling with [E]nglish," as the poster above insinuated.

 

[Marionnette]

That article just says that they changed the focus of some employees; killed of there jobs but created new ones for a net neutral affect.

"Oursourcing is common" and "outsourcing additional IT jobs" doesn't seem to have a lot of validity. I can't tell if they actually added off-shore staff at that time, or if the comments were about the future, which has been reversed.

But, back to the original point, they didn't replace workers with "cheaper labor that are still struggling with [E]nglish," as the poster above insinuated.

I'm not inferring that they outsourced or sent those jobs offshore. I'm saying that their net gain of zero employees means that jobs were eliminated from their maintenance division in order to open positions in their development division. Given the poor performance of their websites, perhaps they should not have eliminated those IT maintenance jobs.

 

[jaccceee]

Don't hold your breath waiting on a refund. Requested a $500 refund on June 10th. I didn't want to call and request a gift card because that would be too difficult for them and me. So I went w/ the online form refund.
This is from DVA refund page
Do you have the original Disney Gift Card(s) used to fund your Disney Vacation Account?
No. I do not have the original Disney Gift Card(s) used to fund my account.
No problem. If amounts will be credited to a Disney Gift Card, we will send you a new Disney Gift Card.
This is from a DVA email
We received your request for a partial refund of your Disney Vacation Account in the amount of $500. Please confirm that this is for your account ending in xxxx. Once we receive confirmation, we will refund $78.82 back to your credit card. The remaining amount of $421.28 will need to be refunded back to a Disney Gift Card. Please provide us with the first 12 digits of the Disney Gift Card onto which you'd like to receive these funds. If you do not still have any of your Disney Gift
Cards in your possession, we can issue a replacement card.
Thank you.
Disney Vacation Account Refund Team
This is what it should have said
We received your request for a partial refund of your Disney Vacation Account in the amount of $500. We would like you to confirm that this is you for no other reason than to add an unnecessary step. Please provide us with the first 12 digits of the Disney Gift Card onto which you'd like to receive these funds even though the first question that was asked when requesting refund was "do not still have any of your Disney Gift Cards in your possession" and the answer was no. The remaining amount of $421.28 will need to be refunded back to a Disney Gift Card but we're not going to tell you which one(s). It's going to be a surprise.
Thank you.
Disney Vacation Account Refund Team