Very disappointed

[lovedvc]

Yesterday it was time to book our vacation for this coming July and I've never been so unhappy and disappointed with DVC. Our friends and us decided to share a 3 Bedroom Grand Villa for 4 nights at OKW in July. I have 3 contracts with DVC and our friends have one. I called DVC and explained to the woman what we were planning to do. I was going to transfer my half to our friends account and then they would make the entire reservation in their name. I should have known it was headed for disaster when she told me that I did not have a contract with BLT. I said you better double check that, I have all ready made payments. She puts me on hold. While on hold my friend and I are discussing how we don't feel comfortable with the woman and we should call back, but we decide to give her the benefit of the doubt, BIG MISTAKE. She comes back, tells me yes you do have a contract with BLT. Now she checks for availability and they have a grand villa for 3 nights, not 4. I told her to reserve the 3 nights and we'll wait list the 4th night, but in the mean time to book a 2 bedroom for the 4th night. She puts the room on hold for those nights and proceeds to the rest of the transaction, puts us on hold again. She comes back and tells us there is a problem with transferring the points due to the use years, so I told her no problem. We decide to book the first 2 nights in my friends name and the next 2 nights in my name. I repeated this 2x and she then repeated the whole thing back to me. Good, she got it. She puts us on hold. We have now been on the phone for 50 minutes. We were still on hold its now been 1 hour and 2 minutes when a recording comes on. I don't believe it she disconnected us. So now we answer the automated questionairre with the lowest possible rating we can. They tell us we will receive a phone call back from the questionairre in less than 24 hours. Now it's time to start the process all over again. We call back and get a very nice woman. I explained to her what just happened and immediately apologized to her that she was getting the brunt of my anger. I said please don't take it personally but I would prefer to speak with a supervisor, she had no problem with that. (She wanted to get rid of the crazy lady) The supervisor gets on and looks at her computer and it says that the former woman tried to call us back 5x times, which was a bunch of bull. No one called back. The supervisor was very nice, she looked at the reservation which no longer existed. The Grand Villa was now only available for the 1st 2 nights. We could make a reservation for Saratoga Springs, but that's not what we wanted, we wanted to stay at OKW. We lost our reservation. We were so aggravated that we decided to book a one bedroom for each family. I have never, ever had such a problem with a reservation before.

 

[DVCGeek]

Sorry to hear about that fiasco! Did you try and do any wait lists anyway for the GV and hope for the best?

 

[jekjones1558]

What lousy luck to get a clueless CM when you needed to do a relatively complicated reservation. I feel for you because I have had a similar problem in the past. I hope that you find a way to use the waitlist to get what you want. Good luck!

 

[DebbieB]

Ignore, got my days mixed up.

 

[eliza61]

Op, sorry for your bad experience. It stinks when you get any customer service person who is clueless.

I called American express a couple of months ago. I wanted to find out what the transaction fee is when you make a purchase in France and they convert from the Euro to the Dollar. The women told me "You can't do that, it's an American card, you have to make your purchase in Dollars".
I thought I was being "punked" really, I kept waiting for Ashton Kutchner to poop out. First time I think I was speechless.

 

[vicki_c]

I called American express a couple of months ago. I wanted to find out what the transaction fee is when you make a purchase in France and they convert from the Euro to the Dollar. The women told me "You can't do that, it's an American card, you have to make your purchase in Dollars".
I thought I was being "punked" really, I kept waiting for Ashton Kutchner to poop out. First time I think I was speechless.

LOL! Totally off topic (sorry OP) but that reminds me of the time my mom went to the Post Office with a letter addressed to New Mexico and the clerk told her she would need additional postage since the letter was going out of the country - they had to get the supervisor to come over and confirm that NEW Mexico is in the United States!

 

[Disney_Daddy]

Sorry to hear about your difficult experience.

I've learned to go with my gut when calling MS. If the person on the other end gives me any reason to question their competence, I always find a reason to hang up and then I call back.

In the past I've done this multiple times in a short timespan before booking a reservation.

 

[pickles]

for sure try and wait list if you really want that grandvilla

what about the treehouses? they look like fun for a big group?

 

[Inkmahm]

LOL! Totally off topic (sorry OP) but that reminds me of the time my mom went to the Post Office with a letter addressed to New Mexico and the clerk told her she would need additional postage since the letter was going out of the country - they had to get the supervisor to come over and confirm that NEW Mexico is in the United States!

I had a similar experience the first time we traveled to Alaska. I called AT&T to see what kind of coverage my cell phone would have in Alaska and if there were any difference in rates since it wasn't part of the lower 48. I was on hold forever because the guy was trying to find Alaska in the list of international calls to find the rate! I had to explain that Alaska was most definitely NOT an international call.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Op, sorry for your bad experience. It stinks when you get any customer service person who is clueless.

I called American express a couple of months ago. I wanted to find out what the transaction fee is when you make a purchase in France and they convert from the Euro to the Dollar. The women told me "You can't do that, it's an American card, you have to make your purchase in Dollars".
I thought I was being "punked" really, I kept waiting for Ashton Kutchner to poop out. First time I think I was speechless.

Poop out?????

Anyways, again off topic, I recently bought something from england, charged it on my American Express. They easily converted it, and added like a $4.87 transaction fee. I think the item ended up being almost 400 in american funds including shipping, whats scary is even with the shipping included, I still managed to save $200.00 by going that route!!

 

[Micca]

They need to hire & train people who can understand the various rules, and ins & outs of points, etcThey also need to figure out a way that it can all be done in a few minutes. 50 minutes to make a reservation? Seriously?

 

[DabsandTroy]

I totally agree that 50 minutes is a very long time for making a reservation.

On the other hand the times of simple reservations has changed. They now have so many resorts to choose from (not to mention room types and views) that I am sure it is overwhelming for the first time DVC member services rep.

I dont work for the company any more. But I can tell you, one of the reasons I was a good cast member (at DRC) was the fact that my parents took us to Disney every year. I know that place like the back of my hand. So, I knew what I was talking about and did my best to give factual and correct information. Of course there were people who were hired to work there, sitting next to me, who had never been to the resorts they were selling (except for a quick tour that DRC does at hiring). Those are the ones who would take forever to make a booking (or lean around the corner to ask me where Cinderella's Restaurant was!)

I truly cant imagine what "a day in the life" of a DVC Agent is like ... I for sure dont envy them.

And that said ... I totally agree that you have to go with your gut. If you dont feel like the person on the other end of the line has 'got it together' .. call back.