Questionable CM Trading Behavior

[CarnotaurDad]

We are, unfortunately, leaving WDW today and overall had a great time. However, experienced an interesting transactions with a CM and was wondering if what I saw was outside guidelines or normal practice:

While waiting to see Minnie Mouse at the Christmas Party, our DD(8) wanted to trade with the character CM. She saw two pins and, because her lanyard was not on and mine was, turned to me and asked for two pins. I gave her two pins and she traded with him.

Then, she saw a pin she thought I would like and asked if I wanted to trade. Before I could say anything, the CM said "That's all the trades for your family. It is only two trades per family per day". I asked him, "Isn't it two trades per person per day?" and he said "Nope, rule is two trades per family per day not per person".

Correct me if I am wrong, but I always thought it was two trades per person per day. How would anyone even define what a family is?

Just curious.

 

[Babette]

Sorry you had a weird experience like that.
I always thought the rule was 2 trades per person per cast member at one time. I've traded two items from a castmember's lanyard and had my friend that I'm traveling with also make a trade on the same lanyard. We've never had them deny us a trade because we were over the two per 'family' or 'what appears to be friends traveling together' limit.

Looking at the Pin Trading rules on the disneygallery.com site, it says

"IS IT TRUE DISNEY CAST MEMBERS HAVE TO TRADE THEIR PINS?
Yes. Cast Members at our Theme Parks and Resorts have to trade their pins displayed on their Company issued lanyards. Guests can make up to two (2) trades per "lanyard," per Cast Member, per day. When trading with Cast Members, Guests should offer a pin that is not already displayed on the Cast Member's lanyard."

Hope you have better luck next time!

 

[Luv2Roam]

Maybe the CM was figuring since it came from your lanyard the trades were from you. (And you were the only one wearing a lanyard.) Only thing I can come up with.
Personally, I would not have sweat it and made another trade.

However I am guessing this CM had prior guest trade experiences where her lanyard had been striped by others who left junk in their wake.
Just from a rumor and past experience point of view the reason the two trade limit was imposed was because so many were arriving first thing in the morning and striping the cast lanyards and replacing them for junk. Some would even trade a full lanyard for a full lanyard.
I have been in the parks behind these traders and watched them in action. It's a sad sight. And those traders come in all shapes, sizes and ages. I have experienced and witnessed swimming kids too.
Another case where some bad apples spoiling it for everyone.

Not to say you have or were doing anything like that. But that is just a little history behind the two trade theory. And as with all things, some CM are very lenient and some are overboard strict.
I occasionally run across cast who act as if those are their own personal pins. While others don't care or know about anything they get in return. (And it shows. )

 

[tnhillbilly]

My family was there back in June and me and DS both traded pins with the same CM, if they had something that we wanted, and it was never questioned, or refused. Meet some great CM like that too. The were very helpful with tips to help find a pin if we were looking for a specific one. Some said that they had been on all day and had been “striped” of the “good ones”, but we were doing it for fun, not a business, and going to do it again next trip.

 

[dahirsh]

I think someone was just in a bad mood. A couple of years ago my sister and I traveled together. We are both adults and were clearly together. Never had any trouble with any castmember limiting us, other than the standard 2 per person rule

 

[World Bouncer]

The limit of 2 is per person.

This cast member may have just tried to make this rule based on your daughter not having her own lanyard on?

Our last trip... there were 3 of us with lanyards and there were several times over our vacation, where each of the 3 of us traded 2 pins apiece with the same cast member.

Sometimes the cast members don't really know the rules of pin trading, and sometimes they come up with their own rules.

If you encounter a major problem with a CM then you can get their name from their tag and report it to guest relations.

We reported one CM because someone right in front of us traded pins and we seen the pin they traded, and wanted to trade for it..... the CM went to the side of her cart and pocketed the said pin. We took down her name and location and reported this later that day. We did not want anything out of reporting it, except to keep the pin trading fun for all. We were thanked by guest relations for reporting it and was told it would be quickly dealt with... that was against the rules and considered theft as Disney policy was concerned.

Hope your future pin trading experiences are mostly all good, and that you have lots of fun with it!!! Don't let the silliness of a few ruin the fun for you!!!

Happy Trading

 

[CarnotaurDad]

Hi everyone, thanks for the quick and kind responses.

We, of course, did not let it get us down and our DD didn't even notice (she was so focused on Minnie in her Christmas dress!).

I was more curious about if I was interpreting the rule correctly or not.

We had a FANTASTIC five days of pin trading and had a fun time trading and talking with the CMs.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

The rule is two trades only with that specific Cast Member, so you can trade with as many Cast Members as you want on that day. Just make sure it's no more then two pins. This past August at Epcot I traded for two pins from a Dream Team Cast Member and she told me I can only do one trade with her and I said the limit was two. Well the other Dream Team Cast Member said I was correct and traded me the pins, so it's good to know there are some Cast Members out there that know the rules.

 

[missj1975]

Yeah sometimes the CM's make up their own rules or just don't know the rules. I tried to trade two pins with one CM and she said I could only trade one pin. I didn't feel like arguing with her because she was nice, just a little clueless.

 

[MKhead72]

Our son had a CM actually take back a pin he had traded for one time. He was looking for one of the larger double back pins on our whole trip and finally found one. He traded two pins for one and was excited about it being a large pin. A few minutes later the same CM came up to him and told him he was not allowed to trade that pin and took it back from him and gave him some other pin instead. The more our son thought about it, the more angry he got. But he was smart about it, he caught the CM's name off his ID and we went to a area supervisor and reported him. We were then escorted into a gift shop and our son was told to pick anything from the shop he wanted. We felt very proud of him when he told the supervisor that he did not want anything except for to let someone know what this CM was doing. But the supervisor told him thank you very much and the CM would be corrected for what he had done, and he ended up giving the whole family front of line fast passes for any three attractions we chose!!!

 

[seasheller]

Last Christmas we took our family of eight to Disney for the week. It was the best pin trading we have ever seen. Lanyards were everywhere. Twice I was given the Tinkerbell pin where you keep one and give the other one away. Since our two granddaughters were there they each got a Tinkerbell pin, and I gave the other to my sister. When we were at downtown Disney two months later, a cast member noticed I had several other Tinkerbell pins and told me there was a set of four for the year of a million dreams. I had two. She went back to look in her drawer and came back with the two I was missing and just gave them to me. Thought that was pretty special.

Another time at downtown Disney I started talking to a lady that was buying several pins. Turned out she was a cast member and she said she liked to have nice ones to trade with the kids. So some of the CM's go the extra mile to see smiles.