My Very Bad Experience With Member Services

[mbhoxsie]

I'd stab a guess at CM's who were 1) worried their own houses were going to get trashed, 2) were worried about their safety, 3) would rather be at home preparing their home or family for the up coming disaster 4) Ill informed over the situation

I would tend to agree...

I am a supervisor for a call center... And while there is absolutely no excuse for the CM to take her frustration out on a customer, we also have to realize that she was more than likely under stress at that time.... I'm sure being on the phone at MS was the last place she wanted to be at that time... And in her situation, who can blame her?

If it does concern you, then report it and let her supervisor make the judgement call...

My family was in WDW two days after Charley hit... My DW and I took time to talk with several CM's about their individual situations... Many had severe structural problems with their homes and yards, were looking at being without power for at least a week, and had absolutely no refridgeration to keep their food and medicene cold. On top of that, many of them had family either in the hospital, or just recovering...

IMO, this was the type of situation that no one can adequately plan for until they experience it. Even Disney.... All we can hope is that they have learned by experience now, and that they will take steps to minimize these issues in the future.

 

[buzz5985]

I was at BWV during Charlie. I was to leave the Sunday after and did not want to drive out of FL and follow the hurricane up the coast. So we tried to extend our trip by several days. We had a tough time until we asked to speak to the manager of BWV. She was able to get us a 1 BR villa - which we paid cash for at the DVC discounted rate. She explained to us, which the other CM's didn't know was that when the hurricane was coming all the reservations systems were shut down. Nobody was able to make any reservations at the call centers. Just the front desks in the individual hotels. This was to accomodate the Floridians who were evacuated from the coastal areas.

 

[jweiss]

We were booked to be at BCV 8/28 thru 9/3. Due to Frances, we were unable to get out and back home to California until late on tuesday 9/7. I had a HORRIBLE experience. It is now Friday nite, I am still too exhausted to unpack, etc. I still feel as if I NEVER wnat to stay on Disney property. There was no escuse AT ALL for the way we were treated by some CM's. NO excuse at all. I did an add-on of 130 points on 9/2 and am seriously considering cancelling my contract......I still have a few days to do so. I feel like a fool to have ever beleived in true Disney quality......

 

[A Mickeyfan]

With the hurricanes not normally striking the Orlando area, WDW was more than likely not ready for this. You need to remember that many of the CM's had to report to work, or maybe face reprimand. Trust me, I worked for them & they aren't very forgiving for a call out or no show of a CM. They were trying to deal with what was happening to them, their family & their homes. They may have looked at guests complaining about no where to stay until they can get home nothing compared to possibly not having a home to go to after work. I wish the posters on the Resorts board & Theme Park board would read some of your complaints. Some of them feel it is perfectly OK to arrive in the state for vacation while the state is in a "State of Emergency" due to an approaching hurricane. They are not aware that they can be stuck here with no place to go, no way to rent a car, no where to get a room or gas. Our Governor is on as I post this speaking about the concerns he has for Ivan & not just for the coastal communites, but inland as well. There are still something like 25 counties that are still not fully restored with power & phones. Some people just are clueless to what is really happening in this State. They (not saying anyone in particular so please don't think I am jumping on tourists) are hearing the nice litte pre-recorded message that Disney is giving when you call there, they are looking at some of the visitor sites that aren't showing what is really happening here. Mary Warings site gives a reality check on the situations that we are dealing with here. People are in denial claiming her site is based on opinion & not fact. Her site states the cold facts you need to deal with if you intend on coming here knowing that we have a hurricane looming near our state. Do the research with your search engines for newspapers in FL and read them from all over the state. Go to the www.myflorida.com site & the www.FloridaDisaster.org to see what our state looks like outside of the WDW snowglobe.
I am not saying that someone has the right to be mistreated & they never should be hung up on, but please stop and think of these CM's. Maybe show them some "magic" instead of wanting it from them in their time of need. Sit back, take a deep breath & put yourself in their shoes, see how you would feel.

 

[jweiss]

The CM's at BCV were there on a voluntary basis, and many had already volunteered to work the "ride-out" for Ivan. Then got paid double time, including their sleep shifts. they wre provided with meals, and a room at BVC. Many were able to b ring their families to stay there while they worked. I FULLY acknowledged the stress on both staff and guests, both verbally and in my heart. I still maintain there there was NO excuse for the way I was treated by a certain CM. I also don't understand why Disney couldn't "bend" a bit on prices for people stranded.... Long story.... still too wiped out to post it all.

 

[ez]

at OKW as well, I was checking out Sat, the front desk told me they couldn't extend my stay at that point, that everything was frozen. I called dvc, and they told me the same thing...they were told they couldn't book any rooms from FRi thru mon. I told her I had an infant with me and that was unacceptable, my husband was in Daytona, I had no vehicle. She said she would call me back, and she did, 2 hours later, telling me it was fine and I could stay.

 

[kathleena]

Originally posted by buzz5985
She explained to us, which the other CM's didn't know was that when the hurricane was coming all the reservations systems were shut down. Nobody was able to make any reservations at the call centers. Just the front desks in the individual hotels. This was to accomodate the Floridians who were evacuated from the coastal areas.

This is exactly the point I was trying to make in my post earlier - that for some reason - even DVC couldn't make ressies but yet people were getting ressies thru the front desks at various hotels.

What really would have frustrated me about this is that guests who were staying there because of cancelled flights were just as stranded as coastal locals, yet were being told "no room at the inn". We are not talking about people who "feel it is perfectly OK to arrive in the state for vacation while the state is in a "State of Emergency" due to an approaching hurricane." We are talking about people who were there days before, planned to leave and then couldn't get out!

I can see shutting off ressies for newly arriving guests without prior ressies - but ones that are already there and needed to extend. Nope. Don't see that.

And I just see no sense for all these judgemental wagging fingers here - aimed at people who were stranded and were cold-shouldered by Disney. They were asking nothing unreasonable and no where in any of their posts can I see any blind eye to the severity of the situation, or the predicament of locals and CMs.

 

[jweiss]

I also was alone with three children. I tried Wed thru Fri (we were supposed to leave Friday p.m.) to get an earlier flight out. No way. The roads were impacted, there was no gas at many gas stations, and there were no rental cars available. My 6 month old was sick....the older girls had colds, but were better by this time. I had no car and no contacts whatsoever in Florida. Our length of stay park passes had expired. It was a very isolating experience.
There were some AWESOME CM's who went above and beyond and made the experience bearable and even memorable. However, I am aware of NOTHING that DVC or MS did to try to make our UN-PLANNED and UN-WANtED stays better, or, god forbid, to make it so that we would want to return "home" again someday.
On Sunday evening, when the restaurant re-opened, it was a $18.99 buffet. My 12 yo wanted only a salad. My 13 yo only a bowl of soup. We NEEDED to get out of the room, and there were no other options for eating "out". I thought that was an outrageous price. We were still unable to leave the resort. We NEEDED some healthy food. We had no choice.
There was no discount on points......45 pts/night Fri and Sat for being locked in building. Cash price for 1 bedroom was over $300. There was no discount for park passes for those of us still unable to fly out Monday, with kids who needed to get out, and no where else to go.
The front desk manager told me...."Everyone knew this was coming. You could have left." I was appalled. I had not been spending my vacation watching the news and I had no idea what this all meant.
"Welcome Home".

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Originally posted by kathleena
This is exactly the point I was trying to make in my post earlier - that for some reason - even DVC couldn't make ressies but yet people were getting ressies thru the front desks at various hotels.

What really would have frustrated me about this is that guests who were staying there because of cancelled flights were just as stranded as coastal locals, yet were being told "no room at the inn". We are not talking about people who "feel it is perfectly OK to arrive in the state for vacation while the state is in a "State of Emergency" due to an approaching hurricane." We are talking about people who were there days before, planned to leave and then couldn't get out!

I can see shutting off ressies for newly arriving guests without prior ressies - but ones that are already there and needed to extend. Nope. Don't see that.

And I just see no sense for all these judgemental wagging fingers here - aimed at people who were stranded and were cold-shouldered by Disney. They were asking nothing unreasonable and no where in any of their posts can I see any blind eye to the severity of the situation, or the predicament of locals and CMs.

You are correct in saying people that were there many days before. I am talking about the people who knew ahead of time yet continued with plans and arrived the 3 days or so before estimated landfall ...they had every opportunity to cancel & get a refund, but chose to come anyway. They are the ones I am talking about. I have seen posts where someone has even said that if she hears the airport maybe closing, she will leave a day or two ahead of time to get there before she can't. Those are the ones I am referring to....not the ones who may have been at the end of a week long stay.... if someone wants to get there before the airport closes tells you something, it isn't like saying that she wanted to leave before the airport closed....and I want to say again, there is no reason for someone to actually get hung up on...but I can honestly see someone getting frustrated and snippy, no it isn't right, but I can see why it would happen

 

[kweaver]

No matter what the situation with the CMs or the lack of hurricane preparedness plans (give me a break...this is FLORIDA after all), there is absolutely no excuse for WDW or DVC to put current guests out on the street in harm's way in the middle of a hurricane. I don't care if they had to put people in the lobby with pillows and blankets.

I realize that the mgmt was following directions from higher levels...but if I have 100 people (families) in line staring me in the face that have nowhere to go with a hurricane quickly approaching and I have empty rooms...I need to make some quick decisions. Even if that decision is to have folks hang out in the lobby and watch movies for a couple of hours until a better plan can be made. And yes, there needed to be MUCH better communication between MS, CRO and the hotel front desks (not to mention the management of each of Disney's core businesses) during this time. To send people out during a hurricane when you have rooms available could be a huge liability for Disney.

In an emergency situation, no matter if you are working for WDW or anyone else, you have to make a decision. Either stay at work (where you are obviously needed in one capacity or another)...or go home and help your family. If my family needs help and is in danger...it's a no brainer. CMs had that same decision to make. If they stayed at work, they needed to do their best to be helpful and take care of the guests.

Those who were supposed to be a VB and wanted ressies at WDW to ride out the storm...that's just not smart. You don't drive toward a hurricane, you drive away from it. I do agree that the folks at Vero could have been much more helpful with this situation...but I think they should have pointed you North and away from the storm rather than toward Orlando. I believe this is essentially what they were trying to do when they wouldn't (couldn't?) give anyone a WDW reservation.

Complaining about the prices of the food is ridiculous, as long as they were still charging the standard Disney price. You went to Disney, you are staying on property, you need to be prepared to eat there if necessary or provide your own food. Disney is under no obligation to give away or heavily discount anything due to a hurricane.

If I'm ever in a hurricane at WDW, I'll be happy to have a roof over my head and food available. A lot of people had it a lot worse than that.

At the very least, we know WDW and DVC will be MUCH better prepared next hurricane season. Hopefully they will escape IVAN without too much damage.

Just my thoughts after reading post after post about dealing with the hurricanes at WDW.

 

[jarestel]

Above all, the lesson to be learned here is to NOT put your vacation plans at the top of the priority list. If there is a chance of a hurricane, flood, or any other natural disaster, then get home at the earliest possible opportunity, or postpone your arrival. Just because one doesn't want to lose a day or two of vacation time is a pretty trivial reason for not leaving an area that could potentially be affected by a hurricane. Hopefully, we can all learn from the experiences of those who chose to stay. My sympathies go out to those who were caught in the storms, but I know I've learned from these stories that I definitely DON'T want to chance being in an area that is under a hurricane watch or warning.

 

[lightningcoach]

You have to cut everyone some slack. People react different ways under stress. For many people the fact that Charley had struck and done significant damage and Francis was coming was enough to send many off the deep-end. While many people visiting WDW said they didn't see much damage- where many of the CM's lived took huge hits from Charley. Central Florida has never really been hit hard by a hurricane before. There have been several tornadoes in the past, but nothing like this. Unfortuantely it takes a mess like this for companies to put disaster practices on paper so all employees know what the rules are. Also for those heading there now realize that many CM's are still having problems with flooding and Ivan will not help matters.

 

[threegoofys]

I have a solution to the problem, Disney just needs to suck up their losses and kick everyone out in advance of a threatening hurricane coming their way. This way their cms can be at home with their family and then Disney doesn't have to worry about what to do with the visitors. It really amazed me how many people were still trying to goto wdw with a category 4 hurricane heading to FL. Really people, how inconsiderate!!! Those of you who got stuck down there, I am not blaming you, Disney should have informed you of what was coming and gave you the option to leave early before everything got crazy and credit your accounts. Should the cm have been so rude, no. Could Disney have handled it better, yes. Hopefully they will learn from this and it will be handled much better for the next one. But until you have been in their shoes, you have no idea what those cms were going through. Hurricane Fran almost totaled our house. We had no water and no electricity and were being told that our house was not safe to live in because a gigantic oak had been uprooted and was only being kept from smashing through our house by a tiny dogwood. I was still in college and was working as a waitress at the time and since we were one of the few restaurants open we were slammed packed. It amazed me how people would throw a fit because they couldn't order everything off the menu. Here I am wondering if I will have a house and people are crying over no steaks. Finally I told one guy that I would be happy to throw a steak on the grill that has been at room temp for 2 days, but I wasn't responsible for the food poison he would receive later. Those of you thinking of dropping DVC now, come now really!!! I think some DVCers get this attitude that they are better than everyone and should be treated as such because they are with DVC. I haven't heard of one person yet who was left standing outside in the middle of the hurricane with their luggage. Everyone was eventually taken care of, some were not handled very well, but to pull out of DVC because of it is a little too much. Just be grateful that you were able to go back to a home that was still standing. Many others were not that fortunate and would rather have dealt with your hassle than the loss of a home.

 

[ez]

as I live in the Daytona area and went thru 6 days without power due to Charlie while caring for my 3 week old. I figured Disney would not lose power, and I was right. We went over Wed night, and the plan was to move to Orange lake country club on Sat. Unfortunately, my parents backed out of coming over at the last minute, and DH was ordered back to Daytona with his job, so that is how I became stuck. I had a porta crib, baby swing, stroller, so much stuff that it barely fit in our van, plus DH took the carseat, so it wasn't like I could take a taxi to Orange Lake in the storm. What was annoying to me was, I called MS probably 5X Tues & Wed, and also central reservations, and I was assured there was a ton of availability if I needed to extend. The dvc person on WEd said, I could always add more days when I got there. So I was a bit miffed when I called and was told they were no longer taking ressies. Wish someone had given me the heads up.

 

[carolanne]

I thought that you were writing my story when I read your account of being stranded in the hurricane. My time sequence was exactly like yours. We were staying at OKW in a grand villa. There were 12 of us, including 6 children. We were told by MS and by the manager at OKW that we would have to be out of our rooms on Saturday morning at 11, even though the airport was closed and we had no where to go. The CM I spoke to at member services was brusk and rude and in the heat of the moment, thinking about my grandchildren, I was brusk in return. We were told at 9:30 Friday night that they would let us stay until Monday morning in the Villa. In the meantime, we had made alternate reservations at the Marriott Village. The people there were kind and gracious. We did cancel the Marriott and stayed in the Villa. I do not know how many points they sucked out of account for this extended, forced stay, but when I cool down a bit I will call and let my feelings be know. Does anyone have the address I could use to write to them in addition to calling?

 

[DebbieB]

In the meantime, we had made alternate reservations at the Marriott Village. The people there were kind and gracious. We did cancel the Marriott and stayed in the Villa. I do not know how many points they sucked out of account for this extended, forced stay, but when I cool down a bit I will call and let my feelings be know. Does anyone have the address I could use to write to them in addition to calling?

Instead of being upset about it, why don't you call and find out how they used your points. I don't think they could have borrowed more than 1 use year ahead. I would have asked about that upfront before you decided to stay at OKW rather than go to the Marriott. They gave others the option to pay cash (some with the member discount) instead of using points. If you had a credit card on file, they may have charged it to your card if you did not have enough points available. I would find out on Monday.

 

[manning]

I think this is a florida law and there is a 1939 (I believe) treaty which I believe is called the Warsaw treaty (and yes it does apply here) that states you cannot evict anyone from a hotel room if they decide to stay and pay.

Also there is a Florida law, which may not apply here, that states anyone invited to stay cannot be evicted because it is now considered their place of residence. I saw that in the paper not too long back where someone took in a relative until they got on their feet and then tried evict them. The law sided with the evictees. So if any of you in Florida feel kind hearted be sure you live in a trailer. You may have to leave town with it in the middle of the day. when the deadbeats are out.

And before you flame, no I'm not calling anyone a deadbeat. Just the relatives that smell like fish.

 

[DrTomorrow]

I believe that manning is correct about the eviction law - of course, my legal education consists of what I've read here (DIS School of Law ). However, I've also read that the hotel is allowed to charge you the maximum rate for that room - you know, that scary number that's always on the back of the door, under the fire drill info.

 

[wdwsos]

Originally posted by manning
I think this is a florida law and there is a 1939 (I believe) treaty which I believe is called the Warsaw treaty (and yes it does apply here) that states you cannot evict anyone from a hotel room if they decide to stay and pay.

Manning, I'm so glad you wrote this. My husand was telling me this as we were trying to figure out what to do during Charley, and I was surprised that nobody else was mentioning it.

Btw, I had a good experience at the OKW. We were due to fly home on the 13th, the day that Charley hit. I was in a panic, thinking we'd either be stranded at the airport, or would be flying into the wind. I went to the front desk that morning, and the CM told me that I probably wouldn't be able to stay in the GV, but that he still had one- and two-bedroom villas available. He said to book as soon as I could, because he didn't want to run out. He also said not to worry about room occupancy -- he just wanted to keep us safe. (Our friends had already left so that wasn't an issue.)

We ended up flying out at 3:30pm, and MCO closed at 3:40pm. We were lucky, although I think my husband had flashbacks of when I was in labor. "This is all *your* fault. I do *not* want to do this! Get me *out* of this!" ;-)

Dotti