The Good Guys of Hurricane Irma!

[buckeyeguy1]

While on my way home from work today, I was thinking about our friends that are currently at AoA and decided to ride out the storm there, when I thought of what I thought a good thread to start for those of us who had to change our plans and reschedule for later dates:

What businesses, large or local, treated you right before, during or after the storm? What businesses stepped up to make help you out or at least to make you feel more comfortable in the situation you were in? Did anyone go above and beyond?

When we go down for our make-up trip in January, I would like to give some of my business to some of these places that went that extra mile during a stressful time to help others.

Please keep your comments to the title. Positive experiences only. Don't let this get trashed with negatives or bashing of "The Bad Guys".

 

[buckeyeguy1]

I should probably start. Sorry if these are the "easy" ones, but this was my experience.

Disney Resort Reservations - Called Wednesday, was on hold for 30 minutes and you could tell the cast member I spoke to was having a long day. Took care of changing my reservations with absolutely no issues at all. I thought that since I was within the 5 day cutoff for modifications/cancellations I would have had to lose my deposit. To Disney's rules, they had not issued a Hurricane Warning so I was more than pleased with the outcome.

Disney Ticket Line - We had 2 tickets to MNSSHP for 9/10. I called on Wednesday to see if I could get a refund for the tickets (before they made any announcement about the party). I waited on hold for 60 minutes and had an EXTREMELY nice and chipper cast member refund me my tickets. Again, I was under the initial impression that I would probably lose out since there was a no refund policy in place. I asked and they refunded.

Southwest Airlines - Called on Wednesday evening and was quoted a 120+ minute wait time to talk to an agent. I had a special situation in which I was not comfortable winging it online so I decided to wait. After only 15 minutes, an agent answered and took care of the flight change. The agent was very pleasant and never made me feel like they had to hurry and get me off the phone to answer the next caller.

Southwest Airlines Corporate Support - Due to the special situation, I needed to call another number in order to get a refund for a couple tickets. I waited on hold for only 35 minutes and the support agent that answered was very upbeat and cheery. They took care of my issue with no questions asked.

Of course these two companies (but four entities) gave me what I wanted, but the professionalism and attitudes of the people I dealt with were amazing. Given the circumstances, I could have been treated like dirt and would have been able to brush it off knowing what these cast members and agents are going through. Instead, I was greeted with better attitudes than I normally get at a lot of businesses where I live.

 

[buckeyeguy1]

Another one to add, no where close to Orlando, but willing to give a hand....

Akron/Canton Airport - Our friends were in Disney for Irma and are not sure when they would get a return flight back, or which airport they would fly back to. I offered to picking up their vehicle for them to keep from racking up extra days in parking fees and be a little more flexible incase they were not flying back to the same airport. The location I got through text was a little cryptic so I explained the situation and asked one of the shuttle drivers if it made much sense to them. He offered to help me find it, so he drove me around until we did. Nice guy and definitely understood the situation.