Upset with MS

[Luv2trav]

So I have my first bad experience with MS. I am making reservations at 11 month mark by calling day by day and the idiot I spoke to yesterday didn't do ANYTHING with my reservation that I asked for. He was suppose to add 2 additional days to my reservation due to the holiday and he didn't. I called today to add another day and she told me it wasn't added and now 1 of the days is NOT available. I am so ticked I asked to speak to a supervisor. The best they could do is put me on priority wait list. This is also the same man who when I called last week to add Grand Gathering to my June trip totally blew me off telling me I needed all this information and to call back when I had it. So I gathered all the information and called back and the next lady said I didn't need any of this information because it was already on our reservations. He just didn't want to do the extra work because it takes about 20 minutes to do.

This really annoys me especially since I am getting ready to pay my dues bill and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I will say the lady today handled it the best she could without kicking someone else out of my reservation. I do appreciate her doing what she can to help me. However there is still a possibility I may not get that night that was available yesterday when I called.

I work in a call center so I know sometimes you get bad apples in every company but this still TICKS me off.

 

[spiceycat]

do you have his name, the date and time?

if you do write to DVC and tell them about your problems with him.

DVC says that they record our request these days - so they can play it back and either retrain him or fire him.

 

[disney54us]

So sorry about the problem you had, I would be completely frustrated also. Sometimes you can just tell from the start of the conversation that the person, doesn't know what they are doing. I'm sure that if you were put on a priority waiting list it will come through, and I would call and check back from time to time (speaking w/a supervisor). I just got done making day to day ressies and it is the first time we have done it this way. I was confused on Mon. since they are closed Sundays that I couldn't book 2 days. I was told it's b/c Dec has 31 days?? I don't know, but yesterday since they were closed on NY's I was able to add 2 days. I'm sure it will come through for you, and next time if you get that person or someone who you can tell doesn't seem to know what they are doing I would hang up and call back to get someone else! Good Luck.

 

[DebbieB]

Always ask for your point balance before you hang up. Most will automatically give it to you but some don't. That way it's easy to catch if they didn't do the dates right. I also check online, when I made a res last week it showed up immediately.

I was confused on Mon. since they are closed Sundays that I couldn't book 2 days. I was told it's b/c Dec has 31 days?? I don't know, but yesterday since they were closed on NY's I was able to add 2 days.

Alot of people were confused by this. It's because 11/30 checks out on 12/1 (there is no 11/31). 11 months from 12/1 is 1/1, they were closed 1/1 so you had to call yesterday.

 

[Luv2trav]

Lessoned learned. I didn't get his name either time and I will definately write them down going forward. I am sure they can trace and pull my home phone number to get who answered it. At least we can at my work but it's a little more work to get. As for the time I called I think it was 9:01 am..

I am not that stressed out since they handled it well today. I am the 1st in line for waitlist since they put me on the priority list. She even told me to get my totals at the end of each call. I did check on line yesterday and noticed all my points were totally up but I thought it may have been an update delay.

 

[betsywdw]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I had the same thing happen to me when I was booking our past trip. I called and was adding on day by day. When I called one of the days, the girl asked if I wanted a night skipped in the middle of the trip I had no clue what she meant until she said that I didn't have anything booked for the middle of the week. Luckily it was still available and I got it. Sure hoping everything works out for you too!

 

[Luv2trav]

Sometimes you can just tell from the start of the conversation that the person, doesn't know what they are doing.

I know exactly what you mean. Even when I got him yesterday I thought to myself this is the same jerk that blew me off last week. However I thought he could at least manage adding 2 days to a reservation. Big mistake.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

A lot of these problems can be solved if at the 11th month mark, you could book the whole trip without having to call day by day. I do not see the logic in calling every day. If I were to just want to call CRO and book a room for cash, you can call 2 years in advance and book the entire week(s)/month, etc. It's not like you can book more than you have points for.

This also seems to me like "busy" work and not really productive. Think of the cost savings Disney could have if MS was not taking multiple calls from the same people and only had to do it once.

 

[Luv2trav]

A lot of these problems can be solved if at the 11th month mark, you could book the whole trip without having to call day by day. I do not see the logic in calling every day. If I were to just want to call CRO and book a room for cash, you can call 2 years in advance and book the entire week(s)/month, etc. It's not like you can book more than you have points for.

This also seems to me like "busy" work and not really productive. Think of the cost savings Disney could have if MS was not taking multiple calls from the same people and only had to do it once.

That is an excellent idea. They already do this for ADR why not DVC? It would cut back on a lot of unnessarey work by their employees.

 

[spiceycat]

A lot of these problems can be solved if at the 11th month mark, you could book the whole trip without having to call day by day. I do not see the logic in calling every day. If I were to just want to call CRO and book a room for cash, you can call 2 years in advance and book the entire week(s)/month, etc. It's not like you can book more than you have points for.

This also seems to me like "busy" work and not really productive. Think of the cost savings Disney could have if MS was not taking multiple calls from the same people and only had to do it once.

you have never tried for standard view at BWV for thankgiving week or the rest of the year.

believe me it absolutely necessary for it. now sometimes there are cancelation but never count on cancelation.

now I would add the value view at AKV - unless the size of the rooms put enough members off.

now with OKW or SSR it is probably not necessary. those should be at 11 months. but bcv and VWL - would definitely during a popular week - again Thanksgiving week and after. probably July 4 week too.

 

[DebbieB]

A lot of these problems can be solved if at the 11th month mark, you could book the whole trip without having to call day by day. I do not see the logic in calling every day. If I were to just want to call CRO and book a room for cash, you can call 2 years in advance and book the entire week(s)/month, etc. It's not like you can book more than you have points for.

This also seems to me like "busy" work and not really productive. Think of the cost savings Disney could have if MS was not taking multiple calls from the same people and only had to do it once.

For busy times, you could be easily shut out if you did not do day by day. I stayed at BWV 12/1-7. I called on 1/2 for the first night around 2:00pm and the cm said I got the last boardwalk view studio for that night. If I would have waited until 12/7 there's no way I would have got most of my nights.

Conversely, if they allowed all nights to be booked on the check-in date, I could have been shutout by people who arrived a few days before.

I think day by day is the fair way to allow a level playing field for everyone to get their chance to book a night.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

I still don't grasp (and its probably me), how booking day by day versus booking all at one time really makes a difference. BTW, the booking all at once would pertain to the Check-in day at the 11 or 7 month booking window.

In Spicycat's comments (sorry, I don't know how to do multiple quotes from multiple posts), if I were to book a busy time, it doesn't make any difference if I do it in one phone call or several. I DO need to be sensitive that there are certain times of the year that are popular and certain locations and would need to book ASAP and not wait.

In response to DebbieB's comments. If I were to book day by day, I could still be blocked by the resort being sold out 1 or more days and have to be put on a waitlist. This could also happen if I were to book with one call. Example: I want to book Dec 6 - 14, 2008. If I could call on January 6 at my home resort and book this entire stay, that would be more efficient than day by day. It doesn't mean that if I call, they might not have some of these days available which would mean I would have to go on a waitlist anyway. It does not make it an uneven playing field. Whether you book day by day or all at once, you still risk not getting the dates you want.

 

[ktbugsmom]

tinkerdreams,
I believe the point is that you can't call January 6 and book December 6-14. You could book December 6 - but the system will not allow you to book December 7 yet because you are more than 11 months out.

Therefore, during peak times, if you want December 6-14 in a standard view or Boardwalk view at BWV - you best call Jan 6th, then 7th, then 8th etc. to be able to make sure you get Dec. 6th, Dec. 7th etc. - just to be safe. For Christmas week - day by day would be very wise as well...

 

[jco_direwolf]

What it prevents is a different way to "game" the system.

If I want to stay say the week between Christmas and new years (24 Dec - 2 Jan say) and it was based on the check-in date. I book the 22nd through the 2nd on the 11 month mark, then I call 2 days later and shorten it to the 24th that I wanted.

You get 2 day head start on everyone, and there is no penalty, assuming you had the points for the 22nd and 23rd for the 2 days to book. You get the points back.

The way to make it TRUELY fair is 11 months ahead, but any change to your reservation you "lose" you whole reservation, you get your points back but you loose your position in line for every day of the reservation (so anyone already waitlisted for a day gets your room when you change.) That basically keep the effect of the current system, but allows people who really do know they want to go from day X to Y to book 11months+ in advance.

It's sorta like the ADRs 180days before check-in+10. Which means I want to go to Cindy's table on the 25th, I make reservations for 10 days starting on the 15th, call 190days before, and make the reservations, then change my stay to the dates I want. You don't lose your ADRs when you change your stay reservation.

johno

 

[Luvdisney]

I work at a call center. They should be able to look up your call with the telephone number you called in from. As long as it isn't masked or shared they should be able to do a search on it. Just need to give them a time frame as to when you called and the number.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

If I want to stay say the week between Christmas and new years (24 Dec - 2 Jan say) and it was based on the check-in date. I book the 22nd through the 2nd on the 11 month mark, then I call 2 days later and shorten it to the 24th that I wanted.

You get 2 day head start on everyone, and there is no penalty, assuming you had the points for the 22nd and 23rd for the 2 days to book. You get the points back.

The way to make it TRUELY fair is 11 months ahead, but any change to your reservation you "lose" you whole reservation, you get your points back but you loose your position in line for every day of the reservation (so anyone already waitlisted for a day gets your room when you change.) That basically keep the effect of the current system, but allows people who really do know they want to go from day X to Y to book 11months+ in advance.

So, if I understand you correctly, the fundamental difference of being able to book the whole stay at the check-in date versus day by day is if I were to book the entire stay at the check in day and then cancel 1 or more of those days, I would have to cancel the whole reservation and if someone was on waitlist they would get those days. BUT, if I book day by day and then cancel 1 or more days, the entire reservation does not get cancelled - only the day(s) I want to cancel.

Is this correct?

 

[ITGirl50]

He was suppose to add 2 additional days to my reservation due to the holiday.

What does this mean? Is this another trick I need to know about? You guys are making me nervous about getting AKV at Christmas.

BTW...I would be ticked off too! I'm really surprised you have to work the system so much to get rooms. I'm glad this board is here or I wouldn't know anything about how to work the system. Thank you!

 

[jco_direwolf]

So, if I understand you correctly, the fundamental difference of being able to book the whole stay at the check-in date versus day by day is if I were to book the entire stay at the check in day and then cancel 1 or more of those days, I would have to cancel the whole reservation and if someone was on waitlist they would get those days. BUT, if I book day by day and then cancel 1 or more days, the entire reservation does not get cancelled - only the day(s) I want to cancel.

Is this correct?

More to the point, there is no reason to make a reservation for today +11 month. If I don't intend on using it. But if you allow people to make reservations for say 11months from check-in + day 14 days... then there is a reason to game the system (for days 2 to 14 I get 1 to 13 day jump on people.)

I then proposed the a solution to the problem (which happens to be a locking problem) and that is when you book a block of days you have a series of locks, to get a different set of locks you have to first release all the locks you have.

johno

 

[Luv2trav]

What does this mean? Is this another trick I need to know about? You guys are making me nervous about getting AKV at Christmas.

BTW...I would be ticked off too! I'm really surprised you have to work the system so much to get rooms. I'm glad this board is here or I wouldn't know anything about how to work the system. Thank you!

January 1st was a holiday so MS wasn't open. When they reopened on 1/2 I had 2 days worth of reservations to do.