PIF Extension - DCL Unwilling to help

[NaturalNine]

What’s with the off topic posts?

 

[Karin1984]

What’s with the off topic posts?

People try to come up with better reasons to extend a PIF than 'it's Christmas' or 'it's not a good time paycheck-wise'. These people are probably more on your side.

 

[NaturalNine]

People try to come up with better reasons to extend a PIF than 'it's Christmas' or 'it's not a good time paycheck-wise'. These people are probably more on your side.

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

 

[piccolopat]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

IMHO, it would only be smart business if Disney offered greater flexibility in exchange for a late fee. Would you be willing to pay an extra $200 or so to exercise that option? Otherwise, it seems to me that the due dates are well know far in advance and Disney is just treating everyone equally by enforcing the PIF date. As you said, the "reason" for needing an extension is entirely irrelevant.

 

[freshmanjs]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

This makes no sense. They have decided how much flexibility they are willing to offer and set the PIF date accordingly. I guess you are saying you think it should be 83 or 76 days instead of 90, but they've settled on 90. If they made it 83 as you suggest, then you'd probably just be asking for 68. They need to draw a line somewhere and they have.

 

[Karin1984]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

How many businesses where you shop as a customer (Not business to business) do this? Do you do this with your taxes, mortgage, or other loans?

And if you do, do these companies accept as a reason 'because I say so?'

 

[Maggie'sMom]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

They do offer flexibility. You can PIF anytime from the moment you book the trip all the way up until the PIF date. Most people book these cruises months in advance so that should be plenty of time to come up with the money.

 

[Karin1984]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

You cannot say that the reason is irrelevant. You were upset (annoyed, frustrated, or some other emotion) earlier as your post below shows. You wanted to discuss it and give a reason.

I wasn't even given an opportunity to discuss any reasons behind the request, just a point blank decline for extension. As frustrated as I am by Disney's unwillingness to be flexible on these things, my post is more advisory to others who may have felt Disney would offer flexibility and that they should plan to not receive it. So no need to apologise (Though unsure why you are apologising as a fellow customer of Disney?)

 

[otten]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

Disney isn't hurting for business.

In the words of some of my professors in college, mark your calendar with the PIF date 2 weeks early. There you have a 2 week extension.

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

How it is smart business? and at what date should be the drop dead date for the final payment? You want 1 to 2 weeks; while someone else might want 30 to 40 more days to pay. Who is correct and again where would it stop?

What you consider smart business would create a moving target for the due date and why have a PIF date at that point.

It would be one thing if someone booked their cruise 9 months or longer in advance with an expected PIF date at 90 days before the cruise; and then have Disney change the PIF to 120 days out. The 90 date PIF was there from the start and was known when the cruise was 1st booked.

By having a hard deadline; everyone knows what it is and can plan accordingly.

Psy

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

How many businesses where you shop as a customer (Not business to business) do this? Do you do this with your taxes, mortgage, or other loans?

And if you do, do these companies accept as a reason 'because I say so?'

Actually, many businesses will "work with you" if you call with a problem.

The IRS particularly WILL work with people unable to pay their taxes on the due date. There may be late fees/interest, but they will work with you. It says so explicitly on the tax forms.

Banks (for mortgages, credit cards) will work with you to figure out a payment plan. They would rather work things out than take people to court or foreclose. It's when people don't call to make arrangements (and instead choose to ignore the problem) that the banks will take immediate action.

So, yes, due dates can be flexible. If something unexpected happened, which made it hard to pay by the PIF date, do you really think someone shouldn't even try calling Disney to try and work things out? Of course they should try.

OP did try, and reported that Disney was not willing to work with him. That's their prerogative (as OP basically says). But, there is nothing wrong with believing that this is, overall, a bad business decision on the part of DCL. I honestly can't believe people are coming down on those for having this idea of what good business practices should be. It's not a question of right or wrong. It's a question of what is good for the business (for both bottom line and public relations/guest satisfaction).

I understand why Disney is unwilling to work things out. It is not easy to sell cruises last minute (hence the bigger discounts). Therefore, if someone is unable to pay, they need to know sooner rather than later. If they try to work something out, and it falls through, it would be even harder to rebook the room than if they knew by the PIF date.

However, if the person in question has already paid most of the cruise (to a point that is perhaps close to *GT rates), it could be in Disney's best interest to make the amount already paid completely non-refundable, and hope to get the rest in time (perhaps with automatic bi-weekly payments). If not, they get to keep most of the fare for an empty cabin. The more creative they could be with working things out, the better the risk benefit analysis would be. The problem is, it would be very labor intensive for DCL to do such an individualized risk/benefit analysis for everyone hoping to extend the PIF date.

Bottom line: While no one here has said Disney is unethical/immoral not to extend PIF dates, it is also not unethical/immoral to believe this is a bad BUSINESS decision. Those that do think this is a bad BUSINESS decision are just as entitled to their opinion as those who think Disney's practices are prudent.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

I think it best to let this thread die at this point. OP has said their piece. Others have said theirs.

 

[mevelandry]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

The problem is... They don't need to be flexible. They already charge a huge premium compared to other cruise lines and people still book with them. And if people can't make it, they get to keep the deposit and sell your cabin to someone else for a greater price. It's a win-win situation for them.

Also, the trend in the recent year is that cruise lines have started to move the PIF to a date even sooner in the process.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I agree that it is a bad business decision on Disney's part. Right before PIF- at this point they will be selling the slot at a discount. Either to a CM or TA or military or Florida resident or some other discount bracket. They have someone willing to pay full price but just needs 2 more weeks. What do they have to lose? If the customer fails to make the payment, they are past PIF and will suffer significant fees. From a purely financial standpoint, I do not see how Disney wins by not working with this customer. It's silly on their part.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

The “reason” is absolutely and entirely irrelevant

Disney should, as smart business, offer greater flexibility (1-2 weeks) to those who ask.

End of story

That would be the OPPOSITE of smart business and not of benefit to DCL. The longer they have to wait for your money, the more it costs them. Why would any company sat a PIF date and not stick to it? If they do it for people who ask, word quickly gets around and it becomes the norm. Then people are pushing for a 3 or 4 week extension. It just doesn't make good business sense to open that can of worms, no matter how badly you seem to want it to.

 

[Karin1984]

I agree that it is a bad business decision on Disney's part. Right before PIF- at this point they will be selling the slot at a discount. Either to a CM or TA or military or Florida resident or some other discount bracket. They have someone willing to pay full price but just needs 2 more weeks. What do they have to lose? If the customer fails to make the payment, they are past PIF and will suffer significant fees. From a purely financial standpoint, I do not see how Disney wins by not working with this customer. It's silly on their part.

We do not know that. What if we are talking about a sold out cruise and a concierge stateroom, with people on the waiting list for concierge? As the OP is over 50% and thinks $2K is just the last small balance, it's unlikely we are talking about an inside stateroom.

I googled and it seems that last September Disney became more strict about when a cruise needs to be paid in full, changing it from 90 days in advance to 120 days in advance. That is in indication that Disney was probably losing money on having a PIF date 'close' to departure.

 

[cgolf]

We do not know that. What if we are talking about a sold out cruise and a concierge stateroom, with people on the waiting list for concierge? As the OP is over 50% and thinks $2K is just the last small balance, it's unlikely we are talking about an inside stateroom.

I googled and it seems that last September Disney became more strict about when a cruise needs to be paid in full, changing it from 90 days in advance to 120 days in advance. That is in indication that Disney was probably losing money on having a PIF date 'close' to departure.

I wonder if they are getting more cancellations right before the PIF date with their new pricing structure that is driving this. I just looked at their January 2019 cruises and most have most categories available except for concierge. The cruises within the next 5 days have less categories open but there still are rooms open. Back when we cruised DCL regularly it was rare to not sail on a sold out ship.

 

[ProgressCity]

Disney knows what they're doing and have experience to back it up. I used to work there, and most people who we made exceptions for still ended up not paying and it's a huge hassle from both a technical and guest satisfaction standpoint. When people couldn't make the final payment by the new date we'd give them they were even more pissed and now they lost their money. More often than not it caused less guest satisfaction, not more.

These aren't cheap vacations. The PIF date doesn't creep up on you. You can either pay or you can't. Dragging the process out just causes more headaches. Turns out the OP could pay, he just wanted more convenience. He wanted DCL to jump through hoops so that he could do things his preferred way. He didn't want to dip into his savings; he wanted Disney to alter their systems and procedures and spend money paying a cast member to deal with it for him. There is really no business incentive for Disney to be flexible.

 

[ChicosWife]

Just my two cents but I think DCL is already being extremely flexible by allowing us to book a cruise, well in advance, having the flexibility to pay as much as you want, when you want before the PIF. Other trips can require all the money, up front, at the time of booking. Now, that we book onboard, we have about two years to pay it off and it helps us to spread out the cost over the two-year timeframe.

 

[darnheather]

OP you were within your cancellation date and could have done so and walked away if it was that big of a deal and made you that angry. DCL would have rebooked your room within 24 hours. They don't need to give extensions.