our reservation was almost cancelled!!

[justhat]

Okay, tonight I was on the phone with WDTC for 45 minutes, in what started out to be a call to modify our reservation. But we found out we almost didn't have a reservation.

We initially called to shorten our reservation to 5 nights fromthe 7 nights we booked our trip last February. We used the come-back rates and got a great deal on POFQ, and as you all know that's currently closed, so we were offered an upgrade to AKL so we took it. That upgrade took place on May 21, and when we spoke with the CM who changed our reservation she told us that she'd send out a new confirmation in the mail with our new reservation number, resort name, and the new total for the stay. We were told that since we had already paid our deposit for POFQ that we were fine and could pay the balance at chieck-in, like we've always done. Our new confirmation was mailed on May 23 and stated our balance was $0.00 and listed AKL and the new total. We called back on May 30 to book a reservation for May 2004 and at that time confirmed our October AKL stay, which we were told was fine.

Well, for some reason we decided to modify the Oct reservation tonight and when we called we got the worst CM ever. Well, we finally get him to understand that we simply want to change it from 7 nights to 5 nights, and then were about to ask him to make a PS when he said "So you called to pay the balance on your deposit since it's the last day, right?" Uh, no, my balance is 0. Well, then he was super confused and I was on hold 20 minutes while he talked to a supervisor (thank goodness for the DC toll-free number). He finally comes back and says "If you don't pay the balance on your deposit now, your reservation will be cancelled." So I explained that we have a confirmation stating no balance, then he kept telling me I was looking at the wrong confirmation (which I wasn't, and explained to him that they had different numbers anyway). Then I said "Fine, I'll pay the $40 you claim I still owe, but why have I not received a confirmation, letter, or phone call about this? What if I hadn't chosen tonight to call, but waited till tomorrow or even 6 days before our trip since we can cancel up to 5 days before our check-in?" He then responded that our reservation would have been cancelled, with no notice or warning.

Has this happened to anyone before and would Disney actually do that, even though we have the confirmation stating that we don't owe anything? It was pretty scary to know that we could have arrived in Oct and not had a room.

 

[Montana Minnies]

Hi Justthat

 

[Montana Minnies]

Sorry about that, I accidently pushed the wrong button before I even had a chance to post.
So I will try it again! lol
I can emphasize with your situation. My sister and I went to WDW last July and had reservations to stay at AKL. The AAA travel agent had called them the day before to set up some PS's for us and to confirm the dates of our stay. Nothing was said about any deposit. The next day I went back with some more things I needed and she called and was told our reservation had been canceled! What a shock! My heart dropped to my feet. Thank goodness our TA was able to straighten things out with them, but just for a moment I thought the whole thing had been deleted by the push of a key. It had been some major mixup. It was a good thing I had gone in because otherwise I don't think she would have checked it until later on and then it may have been to late. They told her our deposit was due too, but nothing had been said about it the previous day so we thought everything was OK. As it turns out it was.
We ended up having a great time!
I hope everything works out for you too!
"Montana Minnies"

 

[Fridye]

If I were you, I'd call again until I got a CM who was capable of understanding and explaining what occurred. You paid $40 to a confirmation number you weren't aware of. You should find out which number is actually your reservation.

 

[dznyntnh]

There was a post to another board recently where someone had the same problem with a reservation almost being cancelled for non-payment and she was told by guest services (not a cm at cro or wdtc) that you have about 10-15 days of 'grace' they will actually try to contact you by mail and by phone to let you know the balance has not been paid and that you have until xx/xx to pay it.

This is what I read and she was told, but like any large company, Disney seems to have several answers for every question.

 

[elismom]

I called Disney yesterday to pay off the rest off my hotel bill for christmas
when I asked if she would be sending me a new bill stating my A.P rate and the fact that my bill was paid in full she said no
But I said I would really like to have the print out and she finally said yes.
Why would they not send a new bill saying I was paid in Full?
Shelley

 

[maroney495]

I called yesterday to finish paying for our XMas trip, gave all my info and the CM said (in a surprised voice) "and your there" I told him I really hoped so. He said that they are working on 4 data bases right now and that he know I would be in one of them but was in the first. Seems that there are lots of changes and mix ups going on.

 

[justhat]

Wow, it's sorta reassuring to know that other people have been in similar situations, but also pretty scary to know that Disney can mess up reservations that frequently and severely. I mean, what if I hadn't called until after the 'grace period' had ended? And what made them pick a random date over 4 months after I had made the new reservation to be the last date for payment, especially without any notice or contact since then? It still sounds sort of strange to me, and I know that CRO and WDTC have been notoriously unpredictable, but I never realized they were this bad. Fridye, we did call back to get another CM to be sure everything was now settled and that our first CM didn't cancel the reservation or do anything else weird (he at one point told me that I had called to extend it to 11 nights, rather than shorten it to 5 nights). The new CM confirmed everything for us and showed a payment of $40 towards our reservation so I figure that if nothing else, it'll be $40 less we'll have to pay when we arrive. We also told her that we were very unhappy with our first CM's ability to handle the situation properly, causing us to sit on the phone for 45 minutes and she gave us that line about having to use new systems and we said that if that's the case, that Disney is not training their employees to use their new systems, then we should be given to a supervisor or someone else who can handle our request (we did ask for a supervisor but did not get to speak with one and we didn't want to hang up and call back since we were afraid he might cancel it). I'm calling back again today to make sure it's all straight now and that they mailed out a new confirmation since I don't want any problems when we check in. Does anyone know what would have happened had we arrived at AKL with our confirmation that shows we paid, if they had cancelled the reservation? Would they have had to get us a room, or is there some Disney loophole that gets them out of things like that?

 

[FloridaCat]

When you get a bad CM, hang up and call back My DD was sick and I called to move our ressie out another week to give her a cahance to recover. CM told me there was no room at the resort we were going to. I hung up called back and got it changed with n problems.

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

to dznyntnh

I have let a few reservations lapse without ever paying the deposit and they never contacted me by mail or phone. It just cancels itself out after awhile.

 

[floridaminnie]

I"ve stayed at WDW several times and have had only one bad experience with their ressie department so far. It was 3 years ago when I called and book the beginning of DEC at the Wilderness Lodge and bought non-refundable tickets for MHJCP. When I received the confirmation in the mail they had me for the beginning of Jan. I called and received the rudiest person I've ever talked to. It was all my fault, (huh) they were fully booked and there was nothing they could do for me. I asked to speak to her supervisor. I explained how unacceptable this CM was and what happened with my orginal ressie. The supervisor "found" a room for us at Boardwalk (a 1 bedrm) for the same price as our orginal ressie.