Spring Direct Incentives 2/9-4/27

[ClaraOswald]

I have nothing to compare to with buying direct, but i will say at least with resale i knew what I was getting without having to calculate things and correct a guide over and over with what I should be getting

How many points did you end up purchasing?

 

[Brian Noble]

their job is to sell, not to educate…

In particular, if you are leaning towards signing, it is VERY MUCH not their job to reduce the price.

 

[Girlstar30]

Yes, it's odd! For the VDH quote, the "cash incentives" were just a lump sum with no information. You have to guess which incentives were applied.
It's going to take a lot of back and forth to get this sale finalized as each quote must be individually generated. I feel bad that this is what the cast members need to do for each request.
I'm sure DVD has manufactured some sort of internal tracking around this new system, but it is off-putting to me, an existing member. I would imagine I'm not the only member that feels that way.
Again, too many mental gymnastics.

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I completely feel your pain and am really stunned at how they handle things when purchasing direct. In my case, one of the many mistakes they did, was telling me over and over that they deposited the correct amount of banked 2025 points when it was completely incorrect.

I had to share math equations, call ms for my guide, go thru all my transactions to prove to them they didnt deposit everything, have sales tell me one thing and ms another over how many points they were deciding to give me because they didnt want to give me 50 more banked points when I upgraded to 200 points and opted out of mb for the purpose of getting more banked points in the first place.

Calculations were miscalculated by my guide along the way including how much I paid as a down payment when migrating to new contracts which my guide encouraged me to do to get the print. It was just an absolute catastrophe.

Im not going to share my whole story until I close and even then I think id like to put this chapter behind me. I did write a letter to all execs including Bill Dierecksen and it seemed like multiple investigations took place.

In the end, so far, i got what was promised, im not fully beleiveing anything until closing, but not without almost losing my mind.

 

[Girlstar30]

Does anyone else find it off-putting that they label it "Sample Pricing" cause to me that feels like it's not the actual price and they're intentionally leaving out something.

The big turn off for me was that they never ever wanted to put any pricing in writing. Even saying they cant do this anymore and that you verbally have to speak to a guide to figure out pricing and even then they dont give you straight forward pricing. Seriously no thank you. I got to experience this how they handled this new way of doing things because I happened to unfortunately straddle into the new incentive period where all this began and chose to go with the new way of doing things. Big mistake for me.

 

[Girlstar30]

A very interesting thing to me was that the prices actually got worse the more points you bought this incentive round for vdh. Perhaps thats why they dont want us looking at charts that would incentive us to buy more points when seeing the discount for buying more points because it actually got worse the higher up you got which makes zero sense to me. Perhaps they are banking on people not realizing this. Im not sure if it was like that for other resorts

 

[Girlstar30]

Hi! I actually purchased at the Poly. VDH was one I considered though. I wasn't sure where you were interested, so mentioned the VDH artwork incentive.

I agree, the new "quote" for points is really frustrating. I don't like that it's not broken down by what you are saving with each incentive. The guide didn't tell me about each incentive and then acted all put out when I told him I heard there was a Visa incentive as well. It was like I had to ask for each promo. The process before was much more transparent. As mentioned before, specifically ask for each incentive. If you have Disney+, you are eligible to have a free D23 gold membership, which will save you $500.


That is what my guide also sent me when I got a new quote due to this set of incentives. It's awful. Disney, if you read this--- NOBODY likes this.

They heard me loud and clear LOL I told them that buying resale was a cake walk for me compared to buying direct

 

[intamin]

I'm currently in VDH and will say that I am pleasantly surprised. I like the rooms here and really the walk isn't bad at all. Obviously it's not to the level of VGC convenience which would still be my preference just because I like the theme and Napa is special to me but I will definitely be doing staycations on the weekends picking up random nights here or for random birthdays for the kids and have no problem using direct points here.

As a follow up I got a survey after my stay and laid into them for only giving one free lightning lane per guest for the entire stay which is ridiculous and asked for it to a free lightning lane daily per guest even though I didn't even go into the parks. I just used it as a pitstop to get in n out on the way to Aulani for a week

 

[Girlstar30]

How many points did you end up purchasing?

200, but for a second there i thought it would be zero. I even sent my recission letter to Quality assurance because they were not giving me what my guide promised. I am glad everything is pulling forward as I wouldnt want to be a dvc member without being direct and if I pulled out due to broken promises I would have been completely soured on the whole product.

It was definetely a learning experience and I can say with 1000% confident that you will not see me buying anything that isnt deeded with as much protection as possible if I ever buy direct in the future.

 

[Girlstar30]

As a follow up I got a survey after my stay and laid into them for only giving one free lightning lane per guest for the entire stay which is ridiculous and asked for it to a free lightning lane daily per guest even though I didn't even go into the parks. I just used it as a pitstop to get in n out on the way to Aulani for a week

I put this in the survey too, it is ridiculous, and also that some rides are blocked out.

 

[airjay75]

So, we do have a chart that someone got for the SSR sale. I got a similar chart for CCV during the last incentive period. Those charts, although not as good as the old ones IMO, do still lay out how the incentives change as you decide to buy more points.

Is anyone getting charts like that for the actively selling resorts? Or are they only giving you these weird new sheets that only show the price/incentives for the specific number of points you've asked about at a particular resort?

If they are refusing to give charts for the actively selling resorts where you can see how the incentives change for each point level, that is just ridiculous in my view. I am hard pressed to understand what their thinking is with that. Those charts go a long ways to encouraging potential buyers to buy more points to get higher incentives. I don't know why you would want to hide that from potential buyers.

If they're still giving the charts, you just have to speak with a guide to get that, I'm a little more sympathetic to that strategy because I'm sure there are some annoying people who were constantly straddling the end of an incentive period with "tours" and never deciding to actually buy. I can understand how they might have wanted to discourage that - make you talk to a guide, and give you a limit of one tour per incentive period.

 

[Cfabar1]

I got the charts from my guide... they're a different format than before, but they do still exist upon request.

 

[byurick]

So, we do have a chart that someone got for the SSR sale. I got a similar chart for CCV during the last incentive period. Those charts, although not as good as the old ones IMO, do still lay out how the incentives change as you decide to buy more points.

Is anyone getting charts like that for the actively selling resorts? Or are they only giving you these weird new sheets that only show the price/incentives for the specific number of points you've asked about at a particular resort?

If they are refusing to give charts for the actively selling resorts where you can see how the incentives change for each point level, that is just ridiculous in my view. I am hard pressed to understand what their thinking is with that. Those charts go a long ways to encouraging potential buyers to buy more points to get higher incentives. I don't know why you would want to hide that from potential buyers.

If they're still giving the charts, you just have to speak with a guide to get that, I'm a little more sympathetic to that strategy because I'm sure there are some annoying people who were constantly straddling the end of an incentive period with "tours" and never deciding to actually buy. I can understand how they might have wanted to discourage that - make you talk to a guide, and give you a limit of one tour per incentive period.

On our recent cruise a few weeks ago I chatted with a guide (to get my free Stitch shoulder plushy). I told him right up front I wasn't really able to buy more points (not a lie). We chatted about what I currently have and where I wanted to be so he ended up giving me a Riviera sheet that was exactly like the SSR one you posted on page 1 that showed the different levels of incentives. He even wrote in all the other ones I would be eligible for (Visa/35th Anniversary/MB) and I didn't even have to ask, he was up front about all of them. Maybe I just got lucky?

 

[airjay75]

Ok, so maybe this is just another thing where you might need to affirmatively ask your guide for the full pricing sheet or you might not get it. Still annoying that it's not so easy to access, but it seems like all the information is still there whether you use the add-on tool or contact your guide for an actual pricing sheet.

 

[ClaraOswald]

200, but for a second there i thought it would be zero. I even sent my recission letter to Quality assurance because they were not giving me what my guide promised. I am glad everything is pulling forward as I wouldnt want to be a dvc member without being direct and if I pulled out due to broken promises I would have been completely soured on the whole product.

It was definetely a learning experience and I can say with 1000% confident that you will not see me buying anything that isnt deeded with as much protection as possible if I ever buy direct in the future.

Your experience was so different than mine and I'm sorry you had so many issues. Such a bummer! Do you think your using points on a stay and then changing the contract is what started most of the issues?

 

[Girlstar30]

Your experience was so different than mine and I'm sorry you had so many issues. Such a bummer! Do you think your using points on a stay and then changing the contract is what started most of the issues?

Thank you. Yes that was the reason for all the issues really. Just a huge failure of communication on their part along the way of it all.

I should have never been told I should switch to a new incentive period when I already used points. It made it so that those used points actually didnt really exist because the contract was invalidated! So what to do with points that never existed?? Freeze my whole account, demand more money as if I did something wrong??? I should have been told what the expectations were in the first place or not to switch that would have avoided everything!

Cancelling reservations and not telling me that was going to happen to send me into full panic mode?? It should have been communicated that they were just being migrated when I chose the new incentive period.

Then the slap in the face of me UPGRADING for more points and foregoing MB to get more points and then them only wanting to give me 150 because thats what I originally signed even tho I was promised I would get 200??

And me telling them over and over the points arent adding up to 200 and them swearing it did and lo and behold I had to figure out myself what the discrepancy was which was so hard to figure out because points were already used and they acted like they gifted me those points because they had to because they didnt exist yet it was actually LESS than the 200 points I was supposed to get not better!

Then once I figured that out and was furious they told me i was right all along and we were all happy to put it behind us only for MS to call me the next day and tell me we weren't getting them after all that sales was mistaken. It was insanity like literally me questioning my own sanity and thinking I was going nuts. I typed out that recission letter and sent a letter to all the top execs telling them everything that happened to us. As of today, the points have been deposited correctly after my fight and a week of investigation into phone calls and emails of promises that weren't being fulfilled

I have no contact with my guide as I told them I dont know who to trust when I talk to DVC direct. Is MS or Sales telling me the truth? I have no idea who is going to close this out for us and have just been making my payments and counting down the days! I wish I could close immediately.

 

[juliebee]

Ok, so maybe this is just another thing where you might need to affirmatively ask your guide for the full pricing sheet or you might not get it. Still annoying that it's not so easy to access, but it seems like all the information is still there whether you use the add-on tool or contact your guide for an actual pricing sheet.

I asked for the sheets on the first day of the new incentive period and was told they didn't offer those anymore and was given the "sample quote" for the specific resort with number of points, etc. similar to what was shown above. However, that was a month ago, so perhaps they realized they really do need to have those sheets. Has anyone found them online like we use to have?

 

[juliebee]

Thank you. Yes that was the reason for all the issues really. Just a huge failure of communication on their part along the way of it all.

I should have never been told I should switch to a new incentive period when I already used points. It made it so that those used points actually didnt really exist because the contract was invalidated! So what to do with points that never existed?? Freeze my whole account, demand more money as if I did something wrong??? I should have been told what the expectations were in the first place or not to switch that would have avoided everything!

Yikes, how crazy and complex. I'm glad you got the weird points situation figured out and they fixed things.

My experience was easy to change from one incentive period to the next, but it did take me knowing what incentives are out there and specifically asking for them. I would not buy from my guide again because of the attitude that he was giving me, but he did get me a favorite week contract that others had been told was not available so that is why I continued with the process with him.

 

[Girlstar30]

Same situation as me in the sense that I rode it out with this guide because they did something others told us couldnt be done, but right off the bat my instinct was telling me that this was someone that was not experienced and was more interested in a sale than a smooth process.

I knew some of the info being told to me was incorrect due to knowledge ive gained on here, but I did not call them out because of the exceptions that were being granted. Honestly it felt wrong from the beginning. Now it could just be a case of someone who didnt know the rules and what they were doing and nothing malicious , but either way I was definetely not being guided and was the one doing the guiding And I just cant risk another mess up, like I emotionally cannot handle thinking my dream of being direct isnt going to happen again after the roller coaster of its going to happen and no its not multiple times.

So they did ask me now that the points situation was resolved if I wanted to continue with this guide and I said I just cant anymore too much has happened, its gotten awkward and the thought of the guide switching me from cash to financing, which is the last step, and something happening with that and blowing the sale is just something I am not willing to deal with. I was told I would be put with an experienced guide to close this thing out about 10 days ago and I havent heard from anyone