Tell me all about your bad experiences!!

[acejka]

I know all about the great experiences that people have had, now while I am waiting for our down payment to hit the bank, tell me about your bad ones (PM me if you are more comfortable) I want to know what made it bad and where you stayed.

 

[keys2kingdom]

Awww come on, you don't want to start your membership off that way.

Just for the record we haven't had any bad experiences. Don't worry, I'd bet really bad experiences are few and far between. Some people report fairly minor incidents now and then but most will tell you it's not enough to sour them on ownership.

 

[acejka]

Awww come on, you don't want to start your membership off that way.

Just for the record we haven't had any bad experiences. Don't worry, I'd bet really bad experiences are few and far between. Some people report fairly minor incidents now and then but most will tell you it's not enough to sour them on ownership.

I know the membership is great, but my mom and hubby are like something has to go wrong sometime, so I told him I would post and see what kind of replys I get because I know they will be minor.

 

[keys2kingdom]

Most of what you tend to see are complaints about late check in times with rooms not being ready and reports of housekeeping not being up to snuff sometimes. The great glassware debacle of 2008 was quickly laid to rest for the most part and they are working on a complete resolution.

I can't recall any really big issues on the boards lately, anyone else?

 

[hakepb]

On our first trip (bought SSR)
I was expecting a rather pleasant first "welcome home!"
We always drive, and arived about midnight. I check in and am given a room number and building. After spending 15 minutes walking around that building (with sleepy DS x2) I realize that room number DOES NOT EXIST
I go back to check-in and they give me another room number, I walk up, (alone just in case) The room number does exist! But, there is a"Do not disturb" sign on the handle (They tried to give me an occupied room!)
3rd time back to check-in and they finally give me an existing, available studio.

It did work out the best for us as we were put in the most convienent building (same building as the models), and a nice room. Just was not the "welcome home" experience I was expecting, especially for my first time.

 

[Inkmahm]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1802846

 

[SusieBea]

You know what, in 15 years of membership we've had a few, I guess I would call them annoyances. But they were actually so minor - like our room not being ready until 4PM, which is when they tell you check-in time is - that I don't even really remember them. And every time we've complained or needed something, it's been taken care of in a timely fashion. It ain't perfect, but it's purty darn good. Enjoy your membership!

 

[MikeyNS]

My worst experience so far was not buying enough points to begin with. My guide didn't pressure me to buy more at all. I'll show him!

 

[salmoneous]

Call me lucky, but below is my complete list of bad experiences with DVC:

..
..
..

 

[DisFlan]

We haven't had any. Honestly...none.

No late rooms, no dirty rooms, no ressie problems, no billing problems, no MS nightmares, no problems getting home resort.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but no problems to this point.


DisFlan

 

[bwvBound]

My perspective comes from owning and enjoying other timeshare products. From this viewpoint, I seem to have troubles accepting the way DVC's points work. Understanding and tracking point "status" (current year, banked, borrowed, holding, reservation) is key. DVC does a great job assigning the points of various status to each reservation in the "best way possible" at the moment a reservation is booked. However, things go south quickly if you have to cancel.

Simple example using 160 current year and 40 banked points:

• Book a new reservation at BWV using the 40 banked points plus 60 current year's points.
• Book a second reservation at AKV using 100 current years points.
• Cancel the BWV reservation; get back your 40 banked and 60 current year's points.

Hold the story here for a moment -- you get back 40 banked points ... while the AKV reservation still uses 100 current year's points. Can't I simply swap that around a bit? Wouldn't it be nice if the reservation system automatically adjusted the points tied to the AKV reservation to use my older points first? (Perhaps as a nightly process run against modified reservations ...)

This concept along with the way DVC treats banking/borrowing, points transfers among owners, and disadvantaged II access continue to bug me. Bottom line, DVC is a niche product ... it does one things exceptionally well ... don't expect it to perform like other timeshares.

I know you had a rough start with your Williamsburg purchase -- but don't let yourselves believe that DVC is the only well behaved timeshare on the market. DVC is a great product for staying in DVC resorts -- but leave space for handling outside travel using other tools.

 

[PutnamDS]

We haven't had any. Honestly...none.

No late rooms, no dirty rooms, no ressie problems, no billing problems, no MS nightmares, no problems getting home resort.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but no problems to this point.

DisFlan

We've had the same experience as DisFlan. No real problems to report. We've always had a great time and expect little snafu's (crowded busses, etc) to be part of the deal.

Deb

 

[dgaston]

I guess we had a minor problem last October. We were on the DDP and were charged a breakfast at Cape May that should have been credited as use of TS. One phone call took care of that. I didn't even think of it as a problem until I was searching my memory banks for a "bad experience." I guess I remember more the surprise balloons and pictures for DH's birthday (2x) (none for mine -- maybe that's the bad experience), lots of "Welcome Homes," and even getting into our unit early a few times.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

This is so small that it isn't really worth mentioning.

Our 2 bdrm and studio for our big family trip was not remotely close together as requested, which caused problems with the family. Our 4pm check-in was also closer to 5pm on that trip.


Murphy's Law applies to DVC when you bring family. You tend to really want to show off your DVC and make it absolutely perfect, so of course its not.

 

[acejka]

I figured all of the "bad" experiences were going to turn out to be minor annoyances. And that's not to say anyones trip shouldn't have been perfect, but nothing really bad has happened, like sewer backups, or peeping toms etc. I'm extremely happy to hear everything has been minor!

 

[Disney Doll]

Ours are minor too. Mostly rooms with some minor repairs needed, which get taken care of (or have always been for us) if you call right away.

About the biggest "annoyance" I can think of is once we stayed at an OKW room which was somewhat dingy...probably close to being time for it to be refurbished. We called and had the things fixed.

A few days after we got back, we got a mail-in survey, so I filled it out with what I remembered the room's issues being, and I also noted the fact that everything was taken care of when we called Maintenance/Housekeeping.

Imagine my surprise when a few days later I got a call from the head of housekeeping, asking me for more detail about the room, were the repairs satisfactory to us for enjoyment of our trip etc. I told her that everything was handled satisfactorily. She then told me that she had viewed our room herself and had taken it out of inventory and put it on the refurbishment list because she did not feel it was up to their standards. I thought that was a pretty impressive response, especially since I had said on the written survey that once it was repaired that it was quite satisfactory.

 

[DVC Jen]

Our one and only bad experience wasn't really a DVC issue. We were staying at VWL and went to the pool (villas pool) after the parks one evening. They must have just shocked the pool and kept it open. The smell of chlorine was overwhelming - worst than I have ever smelled it before. I really have to wonder if someone "spilled" more than they were supposed to.

Anyway - my youngest DDs eyes were burning badly - so we left. When we got back to our room we noticed all of our brand new swimming suits were horribly bleached out and I had some sterling silver jewerly that was badly tarnished.

We called the front desk - spoke to the manager. Someone was sent up to see the swimwear and my jewerly. The manager compensated us - not a lot. She credited $ to our room account.

That has never happened to us at any other time. We have always been very happy with DVC - and like I said - this really wasn't a DVC mistake - it was more like a general pool maintenance error. And I was more concerned about the health of the people swimming in all of that chlorine than I was our swim suits.

BTW - they did close the pool down for the night after someone came up to see our things.

 

[Cruelladeville]

My only bad experience at Disney wasn't really a DVC issue. We were beginning our stay at Caribbean before switching over to Boardwalk(DVC). Our flight was delayed, so we arrived at midnight, and our wheelchair was locked up for the night,and they refused to open it up until the next day! I hobbled/was carried by DH to our room, and was in a lot of pain the next day. I requested a transfer immediately to BW, where they met me at our car with a wheelchair they had to get from Epcot, and they called nearly every day of our stay to make sure everything was OK. They really made up for Caribbean's mistakes! We have been to Disney 76 times, and never had a problem until the wheelchair situation.

 

[OlderMan]

Our worst experience was that prior tenants had left an empty soda bottle in a cabinet over the refrigerator.

I had to remove it to the recycle bin.

It was a HORRID experience!!!!!!

 

[DVC Jen]

Our worst experience was that prior tenants had left an empty soda bottle in a cabinet over the refrigerator.

I had to remove it to the recycle bin.

It was a HORRID experience!!!!!!

Wow - I am so sorry that happened to you. I really hope it didn't ruin the rest of your trip. Not sure how I would have handled that one.