Reservation Accidentally Canceled by MS

[rlk]

I’m so glad you were able to get those rooms back. I think MS checks for waitlists at certain times of the day, that’s why stalking works. You certainly have gone through unnecessary stress due to their mistake. It’s upsetting when a mistake happens, but it is unacceptable when MS response is getting back to you in 5 days. I hope they compensate you in some way for all the stress they caused.

 

[monstermash23]

I’m so glad you were able to get those rooms back. I think MS checks for waitlists at certain times of the day, that’s why stalking works. You certainly have gone through unnecessary stress due to their mistake. It’s upsetting when a mistake happens, but it is unacceptable when MS response is getting back to you in 5 days. I hope they compensate you in some way for all the stress they caused.

Thank you, we’re very happy as well we got them back.

I was wondering if the waitlist was more of a manual process then an automatic process, so this explanation makes a lot of sense.

At this point, I just want the Disney trip to go without any issue and to not have to think about this anymore lol. Extra compensation would def be nice here, and warranted, but I won’t be asking for anything now that I have exactly what we wanted originally. But I would be hoping for extra compensation for someone else if they were in my shoes too. Thank you!

 

[New Mouse]

Thank you, we’re very happy as well we got them back.

I was wondering if the waitlist was more of a manual process then an automatic process, so this explanation makes a lot of sense.

At this point, I just want the Disney trip to go without any issue and to not have to think about this anymore lol. Extra compensation would def be nice here, and warranted, but I won’t be asking for anything now that I have exactly what we wanted originally. But I would be hoping for extra compensation for someone else if they were in my shoes too. Thank you!

I wouldnt let them off the hook. Theyd didnt do their job, even by putting you on the waitlist, they failed you. Id imagine the person who called you the first time didnt even know the waitlist was manual.

 

[kes601]

UPDATE:

What a turn of events. So I was planning on calling this morning, but figured I would check the DVC hotel inventory again across all of WDW before I did so (I’ve been doing this once an hour for a few weeks now, so been used to it). And what do you know, the 2 bedroom villa at BC popped back up on the market for the exact nights I needed, ready to grab. So thankfully I did, and the nights are back in my possession
now.

However, the kicker is that I’m still on the waitlist for these exact rooms for these exact night. So now my question becomes, did they somehow screw up my waitlist too? It clearly states the right info on my dashboard, but how did this room slip through my waitlist and enter the market? Because if I didn’t maniacally login and search the inventory every hour and purely relied on the waitlist that they promised I was atop of, I would have NEVER caught this being available again. Not happy about this situation either as I’ve lost confidence in MS handling my reservations properly, and have also now lost total confidence in the waitlist process.

I’ll def be speaking to a supervisor this week about that part, because the waitlist issue is very concerning to me. And to also convey that this entire experience as a whole was nothing short of terrible and FAR below the Disney standard of service/hospitality. I’m still baffled at how poorly they managed this situation, and how it continued to be mismanaged even after the accidental reservation cancellation. Luckily, in the end, things did work out. Phew. But this particular cast member’s training, and their resolution process, absolutely needs to be redone and rethought based on this experience. Because this was almost disastrous, totally avoidable, 100% Disney’s fault, and somehow remedied by me and not by them.

If anything else comes from my supervisor talk this week, I’ll make sure to update the board further. But thank you all for your help and suggestions with this. It has been greatly greatly appreciated! Stay safe

Glad you got the room back. Waitlists for whatever reason don't always snag the rooms the minute they become available. I think in theory if the room becomes available the system is supposed to put a hold on it (not return to inventory) and then MS processes the actual reservation during normal business hours. There have been several posts on Disboards that indicate people "beat" their own waitlists by stalking. So, I don't think they necessarily messed up the waitlist.

 

[monstermash23]

I wouldnt let them off the hook. Theyd didnt do their job, even by putting you on the waitlist, they failed you. Id imagine the person who called you the first time didnt even know the waitlist was manual.

Oh they are definitely getting an earful, without question. They will be dealing with a very unhappy DVC member when I can reach the supervisor. We also found the head DVC person’s email and will be writing out a very detailed timeline of what happened and will be displaying our full disgust with this whole process in that email. I guess I meant to say that I just won’t be throwing in specific demands anymore like I originally had in mind (to be placed in Riviera for duration of canceled nights with Stormalong Bay access, etc, things like that). But they def aren’t off the hook on this, this was a huge mistake on their part in multiple ways. I’ll make sure they know that.

 

[monstermash23]

Glad you got the room back. Waitlists for whatever reason don't always snag the rooms the minute they become available. I think in theory if the room becomes available the system is supposed to put a hold on it (not return to inventory) and then MS processes the actual reservation during normal business hours. There have been several posts on Disboards that indicate people "beat" their own waitlists by stalking. So, I don't think they necessarily messed up the waitlist.

Yea this makes a lot of sense and is kind of what we’re realizing. Good to know though for future planning. I guess stalking is really the best way to go (so used to it now with Disney over the years anyway).

 

[drusba]

As to the wait list issue, my understanding has always been that filling openings from a wait list actually requires intervention by a human being at MS, while the opening of, and showing as open, previously filled dates in the system merely requires an online cancellation for those dates. As a result, those who "stalk" can sometimes get openings before the wait list is used to fill the dates. Many of us have wondered why DVC has forever failed to do anything to improve how the wait list should work to actually assure priority to those on a wait list.

 

[supersnoop]

I was wondering if the waitlist was more of a manual process then an automatic process, so this explanation makes a lot of sense.

I've found that the waitlist does grab the room, but doesn't book it into your account immediately. When you cancel the waitlist, see if availability opens up at that moment. I've seen this happen where two rooms must have opened up and I grabbed one while my waitlist must have grabbed the other. When I cancelled the waitlist, the other was released back and I saw it as available. It seems exceedingly unlikely that two 2BD BCV rooms opened up at the same time, but I guess it's not impossible.

 

[Sandisw]

Thank you, we’re very happy as well we got them back.

I was wondering if the waitlist was more of a manual process then an automatic process, so this explanation makes a lot of sense.

At this point, I just want the Disney trip to go without any issue and to not have to think about this anymore lol. Extra compensation would def be nice here, and warranted, but I won’t be asking for anything now that I have exactly what we wanted originally. But I would be hoping for extra compensation for someone else if they were in my shoes too. Thank you!

The waitlist search does not run 24/7 and there are times rooms get into the system before it matches them.

It is also possible that when the CM tried to merge and lost the room, it ended up in cyberspace for a little bit. This has happened to me when trying to book something, I change my mind, and then it’s not showing for about 20 to 30 minutes,

Once a match is in place, a CM has to manually process it.

Glad you got back what you needed and wanted. Other than the frustration from the mistake, you are now at least back you where wanted to be!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I think waitlist runs as a Cron job - basically, from an IT perspective, it runs on a periodic basis. If a room is dropped in between processes, it will show as available until the process runs again.

It is kind of like a 9:30 standup meeting. Happens each day at 9:30 but that doesn't mean weird stuff doesn't happen between.

 

[Pluto777]

I also worry when I have a complicated check in with merges, seperate bookings etc. Next time maybeit's a safer way to go by just waiting until you actually check in at the front desk for the first night, then ask them AS YOU CHECK IN if they could merge all the next nights reservations then? Would this way make it safer since you know that you are already there, and so it is less likely an error is made?

 

[CarolMN]

I also worry when I have a complicated check in with merges, seperate bookings etc. Next time maybeit's a safer way to go by just waiting until you actually check in at the front desk for the first night, then ask them AS YOU CHECK IN if they could merge all the next nights reservations then? Would this way make it safer since you know that you are already there, and so it is less likely an error is made?

IMO, this would make it LESS safe. Front Desk CMs generally do not know how to do much of anything with the points system. More likely than not, your account would be messed up. There are quite a few reports of the Front Desk CMs messing up accounts, and the impacted Member having to call MS to get it fixed.

I am very sorry this happened to the OP. It was human error and is not a common occurrence. None of us is perfect all the time. I am sorry for the stress this caused the OP and very happy to hear she was able to end up with what she needed. I am sure the CM involved is also sorry and stressed out over the error. Thankfully, he owned up to it right away and was trying to make it right.

FWIW, unless the trip is only a few weeks away, combining reservations is a good use of the email system. These are worked behind the scenes (less time pressure to move on to the next call), and those CMs who work them have access to technical assistance when/if they need it.

 

[supersnoop]

I think waitlist runs as a Cron job - basically, from an IT perspective, it runs on a periodic basis. If a room is dropped in between processes, it will show as available until the process runs again.

It is kind of like a 9:30 standup meeting. Happens each day at 9:30 but that doesn't mean weird stuff doesn't happen between.

It seems like this used to be the case, but they seemed to change it from schedule to something more like a database trigger a few years back, running when a cancellation occured.

Or maybe it transitioned from a manual, once-a-day (as long as that person wasn't on vacation) process to an every-30-minutes automated task. The process definitely changed to the detriment of stalking.

 

[Pluto777]

IMO, this would make it LESS safe. Front Desk CMs generally do not know how to do much of anything with the points system. More likely than not, your account would be messed up. There are quite a few reports of the Front Desk CMs messing up accounts, and the impacted Member having to call MS to get it fixed.

I am very sorry this happened to the OP. It was human error and is not a common occurrence. None of us is perfect all the time. I am sorry for the stress this caused the OP and very happy to hear she was able to end up with what she needed. I am sure the CM involved is also sorry and stressed out over the error. Thankfully, he owned up to it right away and was trying to make it right.

FWIW, unless the trip is only a few weeks away, combining reservations is a good use of the email system. These are worked behind the scenes (less time pressure to move on to the next call), and those CMs who work them have access to technical assistance when/if they need it.

Interesting, I figured that since you are already standing there the risk would be less since you could certainly speak to them and check everything in real time. Do you think that would also apply to a 'cash' stay combining 2 different reservations as well?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

It seems like this used to be the case, but they seemed to change it from schedule to something more like a database trigger a few years back, running when a cancellation occured.

Or maybe it transitioned from a manual, once-a-day (as long as that person wasn't on vacation) process to an every-30-minutes automated task. The process definitely changed to the detriment of stalking.

Your experience is similar to mine. Because I am curious I will go check availability after I cancel a reservation and most always find some or all of it gone. I'm also west coast so sometimes it's at very unlikely hours for east coast to be diligently searching for rooms and MS itself isn't open although sometimes it's during hours that members and MS might be searching. And I believe I'm now at two times for finding a room during my own searching and then finding out that my waitlist had also grabbed a room. The waitlist remains rather mysterious.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Disney IT being a force for chaos cannot be discounted.

 

[supersnoop]

Interesting, I figured that since you are already standing there the risk would be less since you could certainly speak to them and check everything in real time. Do you think that would also apply to a 'cash' stay combining 2 different reservations as well?

The risk at the desk isn't so much that they could lose the reservations, but that they could royally screw up your account. The horror stories of front desk modifications include all points from the current reservation going into holding and then new points being borrowed to cover the updated reservation. It's just a different kind of headache. The front desk is not trained in managing DVC accounts.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Interesting, I figured that since you are already standing there the risk would be less since you could certainly speak to them and check everything in real time. Do you think that would also apply to a 'cash' stay combining 2 different reservations as well?

That thought made me wince. Front desk merging. I've had points get messed up for a couple of weeks by them just changing us from a room they accidently reassigned us to back into the room we were already in. Had to eventually call MS to have them straighten it out.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Hi everyone, I’m new here. Been going to Disney annually for 30+ years and have been a DVC member for almost 3-4 years now and our home resort is Beach Club.

We have a ~2 week trip coming up at the end of July. There’s a few groups coming (large family, friends, etc). So we have a bunch of reservations.

Long story short, we added about 4-5 days onto the back end of this trip a few weeks ago as some friends had scheduling issues. So I’ve been piecing together reservations for a little while now to make that all work (you know the drill, when planning this close to a trip, you have refresh a Disney site every 5 seconds hoping something good falls through the cracks). I got lucky and pieced together 3 different 2bedroom reservations at the Beach Club over the last few weeks. 3 consecutive nights, but 3 different individual reservations. I was estatic, everyone was. And we started planning around it accordingly.

I realized though that we may potentially have to check in/check out multiple times or switch rooms. I wasn’t sure, so I chatted with Member Services on the website chat function, asked if they could merge the reservations to avoid that check in check out moving around situation. They said no problem, so I gave them the reservation #s and asked them to merge them onto 1 reservation to avoid multiple check in/check outs during that 3 day stint. They said no problem, they were elligible for that and that I’d get a confirmation email within 24 hours.

Instead, I got a call about 5 hours later from a CM at MS that sounded pretty frazzled. He told me I had a really confusing reservation setup, and that consequently he accidentally canceled 2 of the 3 reservations since he tried to merge the wrong reservations together (how the hell do you mess that up?). So somehow in all of that he wanted me to know that my confusing reservation setup was actually the reason for his screw up when I in fact copy and pasted the exact reservation #s in question, couldn’t be any easier to translate. I was pretty ticked off by that, still am. But the “good news” was that he placed me atop the waitlist for the nights/rooms that were mistakenly canceled at the Beach Club. I told him that was unacceptable, and that something needs to be done about this to gaurantee a reservation on the property that is somehow equitable to what I had in order to correct the issue, since this was a huge mistake on Disney’s part. This is a hotel reservation, not a dining reservation. And we’re all flying in from across the country.

So I’m not sure if this is common for merging reservations - this consequence I encountered - but I think at least I should have been warned or called about this as or before the action was taken (if they can call after the screw up, they certainly couldve called before that to PREVENT the screw up). Besides Old Key West and Saratoga Springs, its slim pickins out there right now and no surprise either. The CM from MS who called about the screw up told me he would call back with a solution as soon as possible. A few hours go by, and I realize there’s no ticket number or anyway for me to have this on record. Or even a confirmation of if/when he’d actually call back. So a few hours later I called MS again and requested a supervisor to escelate the issue but was told one was not available and that they would call me within 5 days.

I’ve been going to Disney for 30+ years and they’ve certainly made mistakes before, I’m no stranger to them. But they have always made things right. Will that be the case here too? Will they make things right somehow or is being placed at the top of a waitlist the best they can really do? Because I’m pretty ticked off and I’m having a hard time believing this is the best they can do for such a ridiculous screw up, in my opinion. What are your guys’ thoughts though? Any others with experience with this kind of thing? I figure a bunch of phone calls will be required this week with bunch of CM’s to actually get anywhere, considering the roadblocks and deadends I ran into intially today.

Anyway, thanks in advance guys and sorry for the long read!

Yes, we did have a reservation inexplicably cancelled on us. And we didn't find out until we were standing at the front desk of the resort. We had made a reservation for 6 days, then added on 4 days as we got closer, and staying extra time gave us better flights, and more time for fun! When we got to the resort, she had us listed as leaving after 6 days, as originally planned. A call to MS, speaking to a supervisor, at first didn't help much. The supervisor insisted it must be us that cancelled the reservation, but finally she agreed to go back and listen to the original recording of our calls (you know how they say "This call may be monitored or recorded for training purposes"? It IS recorded). When she called back a few hours later, suddenly her tone was VERY different and so nice! But this was a time when the resort was sold out, and it was at DHHIR, so there was no other resort to move us to. Our airplane tickets to leave were for in 10 days, not 6. The front desk was so nice (it wasn't their fault), and so for the last 4 days we just hoped for a last minute cancellation day by day-otherwise we threatened to take mattresses and drag them to the little woodsy area in front of the resort (anyone who's been there knows where I mean). Although it happened, it was the ONLY time in 19 years of membership that a reservation has been cancelled. But you can be sure that I DO keep an eye on my "existing" reservations on my dashboard now!

 

[CarolMN]

The front desk was so nice (it wasn't their fault), and so for the last 4 days we just hoped for a last minute cancellation day by day-otherwise we threatened to take mattresses and drag them to the little woodsy area in front of the resort (anyone who's been there knows where I mean).

So did you have to drag the mattresses into the woods for the last 4 nights? How did this turn out? (It's really none of my business, but I am curious, LOL).