Member services frustration

[Sandisw]

Working fine for me.

Me too. But how frustrating that it is so inconsistent for different people.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

14 emails for me - 1 for each contract. The real problem isn’t (my opinion) first line CMs - it’s that there’s still only a very limited number of people who have the authority to do any of the tricky banking/borrowing/restoring point processes. Hiring more people should help with the simpler requests (merge reservations, room requests, etc) - but the more ‘involved’ stuff is still going to be a lot of waiting for next level resources...but at least you’ll be able to get someone to pickup...

“Front line” people (a relatively new deal btw) can’t even merge reservations. Used to be the person who answered the phone could do it all.

 

[taaren]

I've never seen the chat function available (never looked for it pre-pandemic). Had to call to merge a reservation yesterday and reallocated banked points and added some room requests at the same time. One of the things that annoyed me is that it told me my wait time would be 31 minutes when I called ... every 5-10 minutes, the voice would tell me my wait time was 31 minutes. Ended up being closer to 40, but I would have liked a countdown, eg. "Your estimated wait time is now 20 minutes." How hard would it be to implement that software?

 

[karen4546]

I've never seen the chat function available (never looked for it pre-pandemic). Had to call to merge a reservation yesterday and reallocated banked points and added some room requests at the same time. One of the things that annoyed me is that it told me my wait time would be 31 minutes when I called ... every 5-10 minutes, the voice would tell me my wait time was 31 minutes. Ended up being closer to 40, but I would have liked a countdown, eg. "Your estimated wait time is now 20 minutes." How hard would it be to implement that software?

Well they don't know exactly what questions each person has and the extent of all the conversations- no real way to gauge calls and the "estimate" is well, an estimate.

Also, the Chat people can really do little to nothing for you. I needed to merge reservations (CM put in a request), I wanted to reallocate points for a reservation that I canceled to one I had booked (had to call), I wanted to check availability for Member Bowling (CM said I needed to call) and so I called and my call lasted maybe 10 minutes but the hold time was 35/45 minutes.

The merge request was supposed to take 24 hrs, but I checked later on that day and it was done but they canceled a day at Riviera that I had booked for my daughter.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Well they don't know exactly what questions each person has and the extent of all the conversations- no real way to gauge calls and the "estimate" is well, an estimate.

Also, the Chat people can really do little to nothing for you. I needed to merge reservations (CM put in a request), I wanted to reallocate points for a reservation that I canceled to one I had booked (had to call), I wanted to check availability for Member Bowling (CM said I needed to call) and so I called and my call lasted maybe 10 minutes but the hold time was 35/45 minutes.

The merge request was supposed to take 24 hrs, but I checked later on that day and it was done but they canceled a day at Riviera that I had booked for my daughter.

Ugh
Hope you were able to get the riviera room back.

 

[TomorrowlandOfYesterday]

“Front line” people (a relatively new deal btw) can’t even merge reservations. Used to be the person who answered the phone could do it all.

If there was extra availability, it could be booked by the “front line” Advisers. If there was no availability you were placed on hold while they got in touch with inventory people who could merge them.

That’s what still happens, but the inventory people are what’s hard to get a hold of.

 

[ldo]

I gave up on hold and bought regular 4 day tickets online instead of the DVC 6 day (2 free days) tickets. I've been on hold for various reasons at least 45+ minutes 4X the past month. Some holds almost 1.5 hours. Never been like that in 10+ years.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

If there was extra availability, it could be booked by the “front line” Advisers. If there was no availability you were placed on hold while they got in touch with inventory people who could merge them.

That’s what still happens, but the inventory people are what’s hard to get a hold of.

Until Covid, I never had to wait for a second person to do anything. If there was availability I could have just rebooked the reservation myself as one reservation.

 

[heynowirv]

Does anyone know if you can room request through email to member services? If so, do they usually send an email to let you know the request was put on your reservation? I emailed MS and got the automatic reply but nothing since.

Yes I always email MS because most of the times what I want to request doesn't have a category or I want to be more specific. I generally get a reply within a week acknowledging my request.

 

[Boardwalk III]

With all of the frustration out there I just wanted to report a GREAT MS experience this morning. I dialed in exactly at 9 AM, had a knowledgeable CM answer within about 6 minutes, and she took care of the 5 issues I had within about 15 minutes. She was fast, accurate, and lovely. I obviously gave her good ratings on the phone survey, and understand there is an online survey I can follow up with. However is there a way to send a more personal email to management just mentioning this positive experience? I do have the CM’s “name”. Feel like I hit the lottery!

 

[CarolMN]

Just send it to Member satisfaction.

 

[RoseGold]

Yes I always email MS because most of the times what I want to request doesn't have a category or I want to be more specific. I generally get a reply within a week acknowledging my request.

Wow, you got a response to an email? The only one I ever got a response to was my complaint about my 2.5 hour phone call because they don't answer emails.

 

[heynowirv]

Wow, you got a response to an email? The only one I ever got a response to was my complaint about my 2.5 hour phone call because they don't answer emails.

You should try it. I have now made room requests twice and have gotten responses both times, within a week from MS

 

[Sandisw]

You should try it. I have now made room requests twice and have gotten responses both times, within a week from MS

I always get responses as well but lately, longer than normal. My most recent one took almost 2 weeks and of course, they said they had noticed that I had already gotten another CM to take care of my issue...which I had been successful via chat!

 

[Boardwalk III]

I always get responses as well but lately, longer than normal. My most recent one took almost 2 weeks and of course, they said they had noticed that I had already gotten another CM to take care of my issue...which I had been successful via chat!

I emailed a couple of months ago about a merger and got a response within about two weeks.

 

[upbeatred]

Ironically - The same exact thing happened to me on Sunday too, but I was not on hold as long as you. I was just calling to put in a room request for an upcoming reservation. After the system hung up on me, I decided not to call back as I have a little time. It is one thing to have to wait an hour, a whole other thing to be hung up on and lose your place in line and have to go to the back of the line again. I agree, it is unacceptable!

Exact same thing happened to me as well. On hold for an hour and the CM came on and i was virtually yelling can you hear me? She just hung up, and had to go through the whole process again.

 

[ford91exploder]

It’s beyond unacceptable. Members have too much money vested into DVC to have below average service. They’ve had plenty of time to work out the kinks on the website and make it more member accessible to handle things on our own rather than call and waste hours on hold. Something needs to change.

How do we hold DVC leadership accountable without initiating a class action against Disney?, Remember in the past (pre-2015) specifically DVC management would give the canned presentation and then speak with the members directly for 2-3 hours, Now they show up give the canned preso and walk out the door refusing to talk with members.

 

[DisneyMomof4_86]

Hello everyone! I'm new here. Just bought 150 points direct at Riviera back in February of this year. I have a question.

We financed through Disney and put 10% down. We purchased back in February and our contract still isn't finalized. I'm guessing this isn't normal because how the agent was apologetic yesterday when he called us. Something happened and there was a "glitch" our sales agent said and we have to do the whole signing process all over again. Has this ever happened to anyone? We have a trip booked end of June (27th to July 3rd). We are worried it will cancel out our trip? The agent said he would look into it and whatever happened was an "Internal error" that caused a "glitch" in the computer system. I'm not really affected by this because we have our trip booked, paid all the money down, we simply just have to re-sign everything. Or is there more? Whats the big deal? We have our trip booked already and it isn't affecting us using our points.

It seems like the agent is making it seem like such a big deal that happened and is very apologetic and kept saying his supervisor is going to take care of this for such an inconvenience? What is the big inconvenience? Who cares if we have to sign forms again, I don's, as long as all the terms are the same and we have all the same benefits and savings we were offered. What are we missing, or is this just the way their customer service is? Also, what does he mean by take care of us? Wish this happened before I spent $3,000 on tickets and and a 10% down payment. I've read on other boards they often will give tickets when there is a very bad experience but to me this is minuscule. Will they mail us goodies? Thank you in advance!

 

[princesscinderella]

You may have your reservation canceled make sure you stress that you are fine resigning everything but it better not affect your upcoming trip. I had decided to add on a few points to my direct contract and they canceled all my reservations I had made when they added the extra points. They can put some kind of internal hold on the reservation and rebook it if necessary just make sure you have them do it. Otherwise I agree it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal and on the plus side I hope that means your dues won’t be as expensive since you were never probably asked to pay them if your contract wasn’t finalized, they can only prorated them as of when the contract is finalized.

 

[John C Parke]

Did battle with MS Sunday and yesterday, regarding tix. Waited around 1'45" Sunday before hanging up after MS transferred me to Tix Svc. Yesterday, MS transferred me to SSR front desk to resolve my tix issue, which involved SSR. After @15" waiting on hold MS person came back on and informed me that the particular SSR mgr was off until Wednesday, and that he'd call me back Wed to address the tix issue which involved him. Bet he doesn't callback. Bet, if he calls back, he doesn't fix the tix issue. Any takers?