Unhappy with member services - kind of long

[kerridvc]

I just got off the phone with my sister, who is very upset with a young man and his supervisor in MS. We are both dvc members, and I joined a few years after her because she enjoyed OKW so much.
We, my 2 sisters ( the third bought at BWV last year) and my brother and families went together last thanksgiving. She made her reservations for Thanksgiving and asked them to bank the rest. She has gone consistently every 2 years since buying.
Today, at my urging, she called MS to see exactly
how many points she had remaining. (I am trying to convince her to take the cruise with me). The young man told her she had X number of points but they will expire at the end of the month. She said no she had asked that they be banked and he replied "oh come on, you know the rules". Very sarcastic and unprofessional. She asked to speak with the supervisor, who also turned out to be rather rude. She asked them to review the history of her vacation pattern and pointed out that she has never had a problem to date and there must have been a mistake. The supervisor basically cut her off and said he had made his decision. She asked for his supervisor's name and plans to speak/write to him. I have had MS reps who have been less than friendly, but I try to chalk it up to 'having a bad day'. But my sister has 4 children and works 2 jobs, and it takes quite a bit to get her this upset.... I guess I just had to vent, after she had to vent with me.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I just banked some points last week and when I did so, they gave me a transaction number. See if your sister can find this information as it may help her out.

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[WebmasterDoc]

Sorry to hear your sister had a negative experience with MS. I have made the habit of writing down all information for any DVC transactions. They will give you a "banking" number whenever you bank any points. This is similar to the confirmation number provided when you make a reservation. You can also request a points accounting of your account (by snail mail), which will give you a complete history of your transactions.
I always check the point balance of my contracts after each transaction- to make sure I have everything understood.
It sounds as though the problem was created when the banking transaction was missed or misunderstood, thus no record of that transaction appears in the account record. If your sister had a transaction number for the banking, at least she would have had a means for DVC to cross check the account record. Hopefully, some correction may be provided by the supervisor. Good luck!

Doc
doc@wdwinfo.com

 

[JudithM]

I just went through my notes from the 2000 OKW annual meeting. At that time the cast member in charge of member services is Rick. I did meet him & chatted with him after the meeting. I would call member services & ask to speak to him. Let us know how this turns out.

When you sister banked her points the cast member should have given her a banking number - similar to a reservation number. Does she by chance have that number?

 

[PamOKW]

I'm sorry about the attitude you sister got from MS. Unfortunately, this points out the importance of keeping track of banking numbers. When I bank the MS rep always asks if I'm ready to take down the banking number. Just like a deposit receipt from a bank ATM it's really the only proof you have. Other people have said they do their banking by e-mail so they'll have a written confirmation. At the very least, if your sister could come up with the date or approximate date she did this banking and for how many points it might be helpful to her case.

I think in the beginning before we know what we're doing and then later when we become too accustomed to dealing with points we are likely to run into problems. It's a lesson for all of us that banking, borrowing and making reservations are all serious business and we really do need to keep records and write down confirmation numbers. It's not a bad idea to note the name of the MS person you spoke with also.

I hope you are able to resolve the problem.

 

[dwg]

This type of situation is exactly the reason why I always ask for a transaction statement each time I make a reservation or bank or borrow points.

I have a main contract with an add on done later. I came very close to loosing points on the add on contract because MS used the points from the main contract before using the banked points in the add on. I happened to catch this while reveiwing the statement and called MS to correct the reservation so that all the banked points would be used first and to restore the current year points to the main contract.

Without that statement I would not have caught the error until after it was too late and the points banked from the prior year would have been lossed since they would not have been used in the current year.

Because of the way MS made the reservation I was in jepardy of loosing points even though the point total MS showed remaining agreed to mine per our telephone conversation.

 

[DVCDAVE]

I am sympathetic to your sister's problems, but when I bnaked my points from 2000 to 2001, MS gave me a transaction number. I feel as if my points are $, and I treat it that way and wrote the number down. If your sister kind find the transaction number she should have no problem.

WDW:
76,77,78,87,FW
92,Offsite
95 POL
96(2), GF,Offsite
97,GF
98,99,00,FW
8/00 DVC member
3/2001 BWV
11/2001 BWV

 

[MrDiamond]

Please not another redundant reponse about writing down the banking number, I'm sure the original poster got the point.

I think she was more upset about the "very sarcastic and unprofessional" manner in which she was advised about her mistake. It makes it worse when someone says to you, "oh come on, you know the rules." What is that supposed mean? I could guess what the CM was infering, but I prefer not to.

It didn't sound like the main point was making a allowance for the mistake (that would be the secondary point), rather the poor handling of a sensitive matter. Remember, those points are someone's "money", an inherently touchy subject.

Mr. D

I gotta figure out how to do an auto signature...

 

[drclaws]

Let's all also remember that we are reading an abbreviated version of what has happened. I'm certain there is much more to the story that we don't know from both sides. That response seems incongruous to a comment that points had already been banked.

Having said that, I'll echo the comments that every time I've banked, Member Services initiates the "here's your Banking Number." If you don't have that, essentially you haven't banked.

 

[Ed T]

Whenever you bank points you should get a banking confirmation number just like you get a reservation number. Unlike the reservation you get a confirmation in the mail the banking of points does not give you a mailed confirmation. This I would think would be nice to have. Can you request this from member services??

Sorry for the personality issues you had to deal with. I have never had that type of experience and we have been members since 1994

Ed
DVC 1994

 

[POLLY ANN]

I made the mistake one time of "assuming" I had banked my points, although I had no banking number and neither did MS. I was truly upset (more at myself than anything, of course), because it happened to be alot of points. MS then offered to bank them for me this "ONE TIME ONLY" without any penalty, but they would not be able to do it again. And, believe me, I learned my lesson and keep track of every last point.

Was your sister ever allowed this "ONE TIME ONLY" option? If she hasn't I would have her call and find out if they can make this one time exception, since they have done it for other members.

Good Luck. Oh, yeah, and tell her to get a banking number from now on.

DVC Member since 1995

 

[Jenn]

I have also read on this board about the "one time only" exception to the banking rules. I haven't used it yet - has your sister? Maybe she can call another CM at MS and discuss her options.

Jenn

 

[kerridvc]

Thanks for all the advice, you are all 100% correct. It is an abbreviated version, but those were the highlights, as I remember them. She has this 'holy grail' of a calendar, that everything goes into and it would have been from '99. And she can't find it. She's hoping that a miracle will occur and it didn't get thrown out or the kids didn't use it for a project (it is a disney calendar). But after thinking about it, maybe it would be a good thing to get an automatic confirmation through the mail, or an automatic statement, like a bank, so that people will be able to double check within a reasonable amount of time to be able to correct any problems without penalty. thanks again... i'm off to a meeting

 

[dvc_john]

Another example of why I am really hoping for the DVC web-site to allow members to look up the status of their point accounts. I'm sure it'll come someday - the sooner the better.

 

[spiceycat]

when I try to use e-mail to bank points - the email they spend me say that I had to call them to bank points - Has DVC changed this policy?

 

[Margie J]

I'm so sorry this happened to your sister. Unfortunately I believe there are a few rude CM's now at MS.

I had a very rude response during one PS transaction last month. I had called to make one PS for relatives that will be staying at OKW, using my points (I had made the res the day before, with a very nice CM).

I told the CM I wanted to make the PS and she started blasting me with "we're not suppose to make PS's for your relatives, friends, etc., etc." It was all in a very nasty tone. I then told her I thought it would be ok since I made the res for them using my DVC points. Then her tone changed when she found out my Member status (not asked for before, maybe she thought I was just someone who got the 800 number elsewhere). She made the PS for me in the end but I really wonder about it now.