Problem with Add-On -- Any Advice for Feedback to DVC?

[ammo]

I recently added on points and was charged for an extra contract that I did not want. To make a long story short, DVC immediately charged my credit card for the 10% downpayment. After discovering their mistake, they took more than a week to credit my card, which was just enough time for my statement to cut off and have the charge appear on my bill. This occurred despite repeated calls to both my guide and Quality Assurance to expedite the credit in order to avoid having the charge appear on my monthly statement.

The only thing other than an apology that I have received is an offer of gift cards in the amount of the extra interest on my credit card due to this DVC mistake. I would like to contact Disney and let them know that DVC should correct their mistakes with as much haste as they charge members' credit cards for addons. Please let me know if you have any advice about how to deal with this. The gift cards are of no use to me (the credit card company will not accept them as payment), but I might enjoy complimentary pool-hopping at SAB for a year (this is a pathetic attempt at humor -- please do not turn this into a pool-hopping thread ).

Here is the more detailed account of some important dates (names purposely omitted, as well as a number of almost daily calls to my guide):

Apr. 26 (Thur.) -- Guide called to say that they could fill my 50-point addon request. In fact, they had more points available than I needed, would I like to increase my addon? Yes, I would like another 25 points to make 75 total.

Apr. 27 (Fri.) -- Guide called to say that my order had been processed incorrectly, and I was given the 50-point contract in addition to the 75 points that I wanted. Did I want to keep the entire 125 points? NO -- I can't afford and don't need that many points at this time. Guide said that the extra 50-point contract would be cancelled.

Apr. 30 (Mon.) -- Called my guide to see if things had been taken care of with the incorrect contract. Guide told me that DVC had charged my credit card for the 50-point downpayment ($475) but that I would receive a credit.

May 2 (Wed.) -- Talked to QA Rep #1 at Quality Assurance. I saw online that my card had been charged earlier in the week, but no credit was appearing. I asked that the credit be expedited because my credit card statement would cut off for the month around May 7. He assured me that he was making a note in the system, but that they were very busy. Me thinking: They were not too busy to charge my card, why are they too busy to credit it for their own mistake?

May 4 (Fri.) -- Talked to QA Rep #2 because I was getting worried about the delay (still no online credit to my card) in relation to my looming monthly cutoff date. He assured me that he saw the note in the system about my need for an expedited credit and that DVC was doing all that they could. (I received a lot of "assurance" from Quality Assurance, but not much beyond that).

May 7 (Mon.) -- Called my guide to inform him that the credit still had not appeared on my online account and that my statement was about to cutoff.

May 9 (Wed.) -- My statement actually cut on the 8th rather than the 7th, but to no avail. I called my guide and he told me that DVC submitted the credit to my credit card on Monday the 7th to post to my account on May 9. This effectively ensured that I would have to pay the extra $475 this month and wait to receive a credit next month.

I went back and forth with my guide and QA Rep #2 about ways that DVC could help me pay the $475 this month (I am a college professor and I stop receiving paychecks for the summer this month). They assured me (there's that word again) that DVC could not legally give me $475 to pay the mistaken charge, but that I could receive gift cards to cover the interest cost on my account attributable to this mistake.

Thanks for your patience!

 

[chalee94]

if you contact the CC company and dispute the charge, you should not be liable for it this period. then when the credit shows up on the next statement, you are good to go.

you shouldn't have to pay the disputed amount - have you called your CC company?

no worries...

 

[hellerjw]

Did you consider calling your credit card company and disputing the charge? I've always had much better luck getting my cc company to credit things back than a slow vendor.

Disputing the charge then puts pressure on the vendor (in this case DVC) to prove the charge was valid or they will receive a chargeback against their cc receipts.

 

[ammo]

if you contact the CC company and dispute the charge, you should not be liable for it this period. then when the credit shows up on the next statement, you are good to go.

you shouldn't have to pay the disputed amount - have you called your CC company?

no worries...

Not yet (hadn't thought of that). I have already had enough headaches dealing with this. My experience with CCs is that it is never easy to fix charges once they appear on your bill, which is why I spent so much time trying to get DVC to correct this in the first place. Perhaps DVC would handle all of the necessary CC paperwork for me ...

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[ammo]

Did you consider calling your credit card company and disputing the charge? I've always had much better luck getting my cc company to credit things back than a slow vendor.

Disputing the charge then puts pressure on the vendor (in this case DVC) to prove the charge was valid or they will receive a chargeback against their cc receipts.

I see a trend here. I think I'll pick up the phone.

 

[ammo]

My credit card company will allow me to net the credit against last month's charge after the credit appears in my account. The credit has not posted yet (perhaps tonight during daily processing). So that should take care of my cash situation.

Any advice on how or whether to request DVC to add some symmetry to the charge vs. credit process? This whole thing reminds me of a current cell phone commercial where the straw-man competitor has a customer rep who keeps saying, "That is a problem, and we are working on it."

 

[hellerjw]

Didn't mean to make a redundant post to what Chalee94 was saying. I think we were posting at roughly the same time and I didn't refresh before I posted mine.

I would ask for some kind of "compensation" for your troubles. You may not get anything more than a $20 gift card or some other small token, but that's better than nothing.

At least it would force them to recognize there was a problem and spend some extra time generating the gift card, etc. Its doubtful it would have any impact on their future procedures but it would be a small admission of guilt

 

[ammo]

Didn't mean to make a redundant post to what Chalee94 was saying. I think we were posting at roughly the same time and I didn't refresh before I posted mine.

I appreciate your advice. Two similar posts in rapid succession spurred me to call the CC company. The only pain it caused me was sitting through a promotional message at the end of the call (another reason I wanted to avoid dealing directly with the CC ).

 

[Anthony1971]

Not to go over this...
I deal with wholesale and retail
Our retail stores make mistakes.... we get disputes...
from personal experience you can dispute any charge and you will not be responsable for it until the place or person who made the charge can prove the sale is legitimate. They will ask you if you contacted the vendor just say yes and they told me they would credit this but they have not.....
In turn Disney would have to fax them a copy of the credit or call them after they issue the credit to show it was issued
I know dealing with the CC menu debacle is no fun but it is faster then getting MOST places to credit you for a mistake and it forces them to take care of it quickly and suspends your charge.
Compensation The Mouse will apologize but more than that keep us posted... a 3.00 gift card for interest WOW thats generous maybe you can buy a bottle of water on your next trip

 

[bluslag]

I own a business and when someone returns something and we credit their account right away it won't show credit on their card for about 7 days. I'm not sure why this is. We went to Disney this year and bought the DDP and they mistakenly charged for all 6 of us instead of splitting it up. They credited my card and I thought that would show up right away. Anyway when I got home and got the bill the whole amount was on there which made me nervous because that was a large amount of money. I called Disney right away and they said they did not credit my account until I checked out and it would take another 7 days for that credit to show up. We were there 10 days so in all it took 17 days for my credit to show up. I called the credit company 7 days later and got a new balance and paid that.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

I'm confused? they over charged you $475.00, then you got your bill with the $475.00 on it, then they credited you $475.00. Are you disputing the interest charged? I guess my question is, how could interest have accrued on the bill, during the month you had to pay it off, they had already credited you the amount, so your next bill should be zero? Right, or did I miss something.

Sure they messed up, but they corrected the problem, and compensated you with gift cards to cover the interest. Though I don't see how any interest will accrue?

I have been out of credit and collections for over 10 years now, maybe I just didn't read it correctly, but I don't get how you owe anything?

 

[ammo]

I'm confused? they over charged you $475.00, then you got your bill with the $475.00 on it, then they credited you $475.00. Are you disputing the interest charged? I guess my question is, how could interest have accrued on the bill, during the month you had to pay it off, they had already credited you the amount, so your next bill should be zero? Right, or did I miss something.

Sure they messed up, but they corrected the problem, and compensated you with gift cards to cover the interest. Though I don't see how any interest will accrue?

I have been out of credit and collections for over 10 years now, maybe I just didn't read it correctly, but I don't get how you owe anything?

It was too long a story to follow easily (sorry!). DVC charged the extra $475 immediately, but delayed the credit until after my statement-ending date. So I owe my credit card $475 this month and minus-$475 next month. It is a question of timing. Unlike some DVCers, I do not always have that much extra money laying around from month to month. No gift cards received yet, just a promise at this point. I would prefer not to have to make the payment.

But previous posters have pointed me to the place that will help me get this straightened out -- my CC company. By matching the coming credit against last month's charge, I should be able to avoid interest. But I still think that a company that prides itself on customer relations should have handled this a little better. I wasted a lot of time on the phone trying to get DVC to take care of this, and in the end my CC will end up bailing me out (who'd have thunk it?).

 

[JerJan]

I feel your PAIN! I am currently in a dispute since 4/9/07 where I did a small balance transfer to pay off my Kohl's card (less than $400.00) with my Disney Visa card. Well....Disney paid off the amount due in a very timely manner....but they paid MACY's NOT KOHL's!!!! I have never even shopped in a Macy's!? I had to make last month's payment to Kohl's and I paying interest on it as well...... When they want their money it happens instantly, but if they owe you something...FORGET ABOUT IT!!!

Good luck!

 

[ammo]

I own a business and when someone returns something and we credit their account right away it won't show credit on their card for about 7 days. I'm not sure why this is. We went to Disney this year and bought the DDP and they mistakenly charged for all 6 of us instead of splitting it up. They credited my card and I thought that would show up right away. Anyway when I got home and got the bill the whole amount was on there which made me nervous because that was a large amount of money. I called Disney right away and they said they did not credit my account until I checked out and it would take another 7 days for that credit to show up. We were there 10 days so in all it took 17 days for my credit to show up. I called the credit company 7 days later and got a new balance and paid that.

Thanks for the information about processing credits. In this case, DVC knew on April 26 that the charge was a mistake and needed to be corrected. I followed up and requested a credit to my account on April 30 (with my guide), May 2 (with Quality Assurance), and May 4 (with QA rep #2), but Disney did not even submit the credit request to my CC company until May 7. Suspiciously, the original charge showed up on my account within days of DVC's mistake. I don't understand why Disney won't process a credit as quickly as a charge -- $475 affects me a lot more than it affects them.

 

[ammo]

I feel your PAIN! I am currently in a dispute since 4/9/07 where I did a small balance transfer to pay off my Kohl's card (less than $400.00) with my Disney Visa card. Well....Disney paid off the amount due in a very timely manner....but they paid MACY's NOT KOHL's!!!! I have never even shopped in a Macy's!? I had to make last month's payment to Kohl's and I paying interest on it as well...... When they want their money it happens instantly, but if they owe you something...FORGET ABOUT IT!!!

Good luck!

Sorry to hear that! My mistake was just in-house, yours is even more complicated. I guess you have a credit waiting for you at Macy's, and just in time for Mother's Day!

 

[tidefan]

I feel your PAIN! I am currently in a dispute since 4/9/07 where I did a small balance transfer to pay off my Kohl's card (less than $400.00) with my Disney Visa card. Well....Disney paid off the amount due in a very timely manner....but they paid MACY's NOT KOHL's!!!! I have never even shopped in a Macy's!? I had to make last month's payment to Kohl's and I paying interest on it as well...... When they want their money it happens instantly, but if they owe you something...FORGET ABOUT IT!!!

Good luck!

Well, the Disney Visa card is run by Chase Bank, not Disney, so you can't really blame the Mouse for that one...

 

[ammo]

By the way, my guide was very helpful throughout this process, even if he didn't have the juice to get things fixed in a timely manner. I am omitting all names of Disney employees, but I wanted to make it clear that my guide was very responsive.

 

[Doctor P]

Unfortunately, there is almost always an asymmetry in the way that charges and credits are handled. From a cash control/accounting security perspective, it will almost always be easier to charge someone for something (and many more people will be authorized to do so) than it is to give someone a credit. Think about when you have a problem at a store--the charge is instantaneous, but the credit can take some time while they call a manager to authorize it. Disney IS particularly slow with the credits (couple of weeks when DCL needs to credit back, typically, based on my experiences), but credits will always take longer than the charge to process due to security and accounting provisions designed to avoid embezzlement and fraud.

 

[ammo]

Unfortunately, there is almost always an asymmetry in the way that charges and credits are handled. From a cash control/accounting security perspective, it will almost always be easier to charge someone for something (and many more people will be authorized to do so) than it is to give someone a credit. Think about when you have a problem at a store--the charge is instantaneous, but the credit can take some time while they call a manager to authorize it. Disney IS particularly slow with the credits (couple of weeks when DCL needs to credit back, typically, based on my experiences), but credits will always take longer than the charge to process due to security and accounting provisions designed to avoid embezzlement and fraud.

Thanks -- those are valid points that make sense in a typical customer return situation. But in this case, it was a Disney error that was identified within 24 hours of the original transaction, and Disney knew about the error before I did. Perhaps in a case like this (very large amount, their error) they could try a little harder to speed things up.

 

[JerJan]

Well, the Disney Visa card is run by Chase Bank, not Disney, so you can't really blame the Mouse for that one...

I NEVER said I was blaming Disney for anything....I stated that it was my "Disney Visa" card.......