Reservation downgraded at Pop? How did THAT happen?!

[Applemomma]

Just got our final papers for our trip in two weeks and the final reservation confirmation sheet shows that our room at Pop Century is a "standard" BUT we booked, and our original reservations papers shows, that we booked a "prefered".

Called Disney and the fellow kept saying "I don't know what to tell you"...."there must have been some miscommunication when you booked"....no, the paper DISNEY sent me in December shows "preferred"! He tells me the price on the invoice I got is for standard and that there would be a $25 charge now for preferred and that regardless there are no more preferred rooms available.

Should I call Pop Century directly and see what we are booked into? Obviously this isn't a major disaster but I was looking forward to being central! And I'm more then a little annoyed at the CM for suggesting that the miscommunication or mistake was my fault.

Any suggestions? Anyone else have this happen to them?

 

[helenk]

I'd get my original confirmation in hand and I would call back and ask to speak to a supervisor. If in fact your confirmation shows that you booked and paid for a preferred building then you should be given a room in a preferred building. If for some reason they have over booked then you should get a refund if you were booked the additional rate which by the way at a value resort is about 13.50 per night with tax.

 

[agnes!]

Call CRO and when someone picks up ask for a Manager. ONLY speak to a manager.
Explain to the Mgr. that there has been a mistake on WDW's part, not yours and you're hoping something can be worked out. Cite the Res #, offer to FAX the original paper in. If you got an confirmation e-mail from Disney Destinations LLC (seperate from something that was mailed), offer to forward that to the CRO Mgr. Don't be a PITA, be nice. Maybe you'll get someone who can fix things.
One time we checked in to POP and got a 1-night upgrade to a mod (the values were full ).

Good luck,
agnes!

 

[Applemomma]

Wow! Thanks for the quick responses! Part of my problem is that I do not having a pushy personality so have a hard time with "can I speak to a manager" so had hubby call when he got home with his best "my wife has a problem help me solve it voice "

Spoke to a manager and the upshot is that we did pay for a preferred, but that when we called to apply the free dining code the preferred room must have gotten dropped then. We only got an invoice for how much more it was, not a detailed list of what was included so we didn't catch it then. Hubby is faxing all the papers we have to the manager he spoke to and he'll get back to us. He did agree it seems that the fault was on their side - probably someone hit the wrong code when upgrading our original reservation. It was within the first hour of the day the free dining offer came out so no doubt things were hectic.

The upshot is that we have at this point paid them an extra $100 aprox. We will be upgrading our tickets when we get there so the credit could go to that but I'd like to have a little something something for the misunderstanding and inconvienience (heck I'd be happy if they threw in a free fridge for the week .... I'm easy to please). Not sure it's "upgrade to another resort" inconvienience.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

if the paperwork you have says preferred they need to honor that
I would call ask for guest services and offer to fax it over

 

[bytheblood]

if the paperwork you have says preferred they need to honor that
I would call ask for guest services and offer to fax it over

Agreed!!!

 

[Applemomma]

if the paperwork you have says preferred they need to honor that
I would call ask for guest services and offer to fax it over

Hubby is doing that now. But the upshot is that if they downgraded our room in April and all the prefered rooms have since been booked up then how could they honor a prefered room for us? I would not make a good negotiator....

 

[Luv2Roam]

I have no idea, but I wonder if there was no preferred when you switched to a free dining package. Too bad they did not mention that at that time.
Or as mentioned it was a mishap at not selecting the right room type.
Poor excuse, but I am sure that was a very hectic time.
The plus side is you got the free dine. I much rather have free dine than a preferred.
Your original paperwork read preferred. But in the meantime you modified your res.
Hopefully it all works out to your satisfaction though.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) My guess is that it happened at the Free Dining time.
2) We have seen many room categories change when Free DDP was added.
3) There were no more rooms available in that category for DDP.
4) Thus, the room category was changed to one that had open Free DDP.
5) It does happen, A LOT.
6) This is not WDW's fault, because Free DDP has a limited amount of rooms.

 

[Applemomma]

The thing that I keep thinking about, though, is that the CM I talked to kept saying it would cost me $25 to get a preferred room....Where the heck did he come up with that? It's a seven night reservation! Oh well, we'll see what CM has to say when he calls back.

In the end I'm just glad that we noticed the room change now and not at check in and that we know that we've overpaid so that won't go unnoticed either. As much as I love the idea of going to Disney I'd rather not give them an extra $100 for the privilige!

 

[BrianD]

1) My guess is that it happened at the Free Dining time.
2) We have seen many room categories change when Free DDP was added.
3) There were no more rooms available in that category for DDP.
4) Thus, the room category was changed to one that had open Free DDP.
5) It does happen, A LOT.
6) This is not WDW's fault, because Free DDP has a limited amount of rooms.

Understood that any discount promotion has limited rooms, but it is possible that it is WDW's fault. It is possible that Preferred was available and the CM accidentally selected Standard, or perhaps only Standard was available but the CM failed to mention that there would be a difference in room category. And the fact that WDW has $100 more than they should have for this package indicates that it is a problem that WDW needs to resolve. And I am confident they will. Most of these stories end up with a positive outcome.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

its sounds like disneys error and the CM made a mistake
They should honor it, or make it right
I am not saying upgrade to teh poly concierge LOL
so no flames please disney does make mistakes

 

[Applemomma]

1) My guess is that it happened at the Free Dining time.
2) We have seen many room categories change when Free DDP was added.
3) There were no more rooms available in that category for DDP.
4) Thus, the room category was changed to one that had open Free DDP.
5) It does happen, A LOT.
6) This is not WDW's fault, because Free DDP has a limited amount of rooms.

I agree that most likely free dining time is where the error occured but the idea of no more rooms in that category would be stretching it since hubby called right at opening the morning the promo was starting, waited less the five minutes on hold and asked that the code be applied to our current reservation. The confirmation number didn't change at all which to me means that our reservation wasn't cancelled.

UPDATE:
CM just called ....very pleasant fellow....wanted to let us know he had received our fax and says that since April we have been booked into a standard (must have happened at Free Dining booking). He is looking at the breakdown of cost to see if an adjustment was made to how much the package cost in light of the room downgrade and will call hubby back tomorrow afternoon. He's looking into seeing what he can do for us and I told him that I was just concerned that 1) we hadn't overpaid and that 2) I was really just looking forward to being centrally located. He said he'll see what he can do for me which I took to mean he'll try to get me as central as possible. I was impressed with his professionalism.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

The nicest standard and the worst preferred are equal in nearly every aspect. Sure, it's not what you originally booked, but the fault could be either yours or theirs. Good reminder we should always review our confirmations after making changes.

Enjoy the extra money if they can't accommodate you at check-in. If they can, problem resolved. End of story. Enjoy your stay.

 

[StrwLady]

You can still get a room very close without it being preferred. Check out this map (second one on the page) it will show you preferred rooms. If they can't get you a preferred you can ask that they put you in a certain area as a compromise.

http://willcad.org/maps/resorts/resort_pop.pdf#page=02

Good Luck

 

[Applemomma]

Good reminder we should always review our confirmations after making changes.

In fact, people need to CALL to check their reservations. The only paperwork that we received that broke down what type of room we had, etc., was the original "reservation confirmation" that we got when we booked our room only w/ prefered in December and the one we received today wth our luggage tags. After booking the dining add on we received an invoice stating what our new total would be....didn't state the type of room. We would have ahd to sit down with a calculator and break it down to discover the mistake.

CM actually called us back a second time tonight and told us that he double checked and no, we had not been charged for a preferred room, and that the adjustment was made on our total bill once the dining had been added. So at this point he is trying to put a hold on a prefered room, that we would have to pay for, if we decide we want it and if one is available, or he will do his best to get us fairly central standard rooms.

After talking it over hubby and I agree that really this is no big deal, and as I said earlier I'm just glad we spotted it now, not a check-in. Logan is supposed to call hubby again when he (Logan) gets into work tomorrow and all we'll ask is that he try and book us into either the 50's or 70's buildings lake side or at worst one of those years not overlooking parking lot. We'll use the extra $100 to buy more stuff! I just really don't want to be looking at cars or be all the way out in 80' or 90's (my apologizies to those that love those sections!). We thought about asking for the 50's B building lakeside to take advantage of being able to see Illuminations but chances are we won't be at the resort in time to see it more then once. Also it's not really fair to try and make to many demands on room requests only two weeks out when it's not such a huge thing.

Thanks to all that responded! This board has been a God-send for planning purposes and actually understanding how Disney works! How do people possibly plan a vacation without the Dis?

 

[BroadwayGirl]

if the paperwork you have says preferred they need to honor that
I would call ask for guest services and offer to fax it over

Actually, I don't think you are right because the OP changed her reservation after receiving the original confirmation (changed to free dining)that she is using as a reference. Now, if there is a confirmation dated on or after the date that the OP changed to the free dining package that would be a different story.

Quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised if room category was changed when the OP switched to free dining due to no more preferred rooms being available at that time. Since none of us participated in the conversation when the reservation was changed we don't know exactly what was said but IIRC there were a lot of people who had to change their room category when they switched to free dining because the room category they had was no longer available. Unless Disney has documentation (such as a recorded phone call) that the OP was told she still had a preferred room when she switched to free dining there is no way to know whether the OP was told the res was changed to a standard room because of availability and just didn't register it, whether she was told and decided the free dining was worth changing room categories and subsequently forgot that she agreed to the change or whether the CM who changed the reservation simply didn't mention the room category when they went over the changes made during the call.

I know that every time I've made changes to my reservations the CM has gone over the entire reservation to make sure the change was actually what I requested. I'm not saying Disney won't try to find a way to get the OP into a preferred room but because the OP made a change to the original reservation a confirmation issued prior to the change date would not be particularly valid, especially since it appears the OP was correctly charged for the standard room that is currently booked.

 

[disneydance]

Hope everything turns out fine!!!

 

[mytwinklestar]

We returned to Disney late May on our most recent visit and were terribly disappointed in the SERVICE. It was not just one CM but several, who were rude and seemed to take pleasure in our disappointment. This was a FIRST for us. It seemed to be a theme throughout the visit - from not getting into one of THREE buildings we requested by phone and fax - to a rude server in one of the restaurants. Then I booked another trip two days ago... YES, we are hooked on Disney... I booked and asked during booking if there were any pin numbers available. NO. Okay, no prob. I booked our Dec. ten day trip. That night, on the DIS, I found a code. I called the next morning and we moved from Value to Mod - all of the value were taken but it was only $46 difference to upgrade for the entire trip. I asked the person who changed the ressie for me why the original CM who booked for me did not let me know about this code since I had asked. I was told, "Maam, people don't understand that Disney World is a business. We are in the business of making money, not giving away free stuff." I almost choked on my own tongue. What is going on with Disney service???????!!!!!!!!!!! As with our last visit, we hope that not ALL CMs will have caught onto this negative trend. There are still some great CMs, I am sure. But it certainly has not been what it used to be. I say for the OP to demand to speak to a manager/supervisor. Fax a copy of the original ressie showing the preferred status. There was a time where I would bet money that you would be satisfied once you spoke to a manager. I cannot do that now. I do however wish you the best of luck. Pixie dust and will watch for your response and resolution. Good luck!

 

[bluefairy13]

This actually happened to me once at the Contemporary. They "didn't know what to tell me" either .

The room I had paperwork showing that I had booked was not available anymore, and so, I am guessing that you and I just got bumped, but they don't want to admit it.