Waitlist Nightmare!

[mikki.young]

I had booked a vacation for someone else with my points (way back in April). They got two nights at Beach Club and rest at Saratoga early October. A waitlist was set up to move them over to Beach Club if it became available. A few days ago I chanced to look on the members website and saw that an extra 3 days had been added at the Beachclub but that had cancelled all 8 days at Saratoga! I rang up straight away and they said for some reason two waitlists had been set up, one for 3 nights and one for the whole 8 nights and that when the 3 night one came up they cancelled the lot. Worse still there were now no rooms available at any resort. They have put me on what they call a VIP waitlist but at this late stage I don't know how confident I can be that something will come available.

I have emailed in a complaint about this which has gone to their 'customer satisfaction unit' but may not hear from them for a week or more. I said I expected them to find accomodation somewhere for the people concerned but I don't know what they will do. I had the unpleasant task of ringing the person concerned today to tell them that there may not be rooms for all their nights after all.

Please can you send some to fix the situation.

Any suggestions of what I can do more to try and get it sorted? I feel really awful about the whole thing.

 

[JimMIA]

I'm sorry you had this problem, and I'm even more sorry I don't have a good suggestion for you.

I think you just need to be very firm with the Customer Satisfaction folks and remind them it is not your fault that their people and their automatic waitlist caused this problem.

I know they changed all waitlists to automatic in order to reduce their workload , but the implementation has been so flawed I've told the rest of my family never to use waitlist at all. If you don't really understand the new waitlist system, and double- and triple-check everything, you are taking a big risk.

With the new banking regs, this is going to become even more of a nightmare.

 

[mikki.young]

I understand what you say about the new waitlist rules. This booking was made long before they came in and even looking at the new rules no reasonable person would say 3 days is comparable to 8 days. I fully intend to be firm with Customer Satisfaction!

 

[lizanne]

Wow, they sure created a mess for you.

Don't give up. Many years ago we had to go to the head of DVC to get something straightened out. Keep making noise until the right person hears you.

Good Luck

 

[CarolMN]

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

I know you emailed something to Customer Satisfaction. If it were me, I'd follow that up with a "snail mail" letter to the same person/place. Those seem to get more attention than email messges. If you can (not sure how the UK postal system works), send it with delivery confirmation.

Good luck - and please let us know how it turns out.

P.S. I wish DVC would put waitlist requests online so that members can check to see if they are correct. There have been too many errors reported - if members could verify that they are correct, it would surely save MS (and members) a lot of aggravation.

I have never been a fan of waitlisting (too much stress for me, LOL). When the auto waitlist process was announced, I became even less of a fan. I am with JimMIA - no waitlisting for us. We'll just stay at our home resort if the alternative is to use a waitlist.

 

[JimMIA]

I really think their waitlist has become a fiasco. It's broke, and DVC needs to fix it.

Between the screwups, and the people who call to see how they're doing and suddenly being told -- "Oh wait! Look at that -- your waitlist JUST CAME THROUGH! " it's obvious the system is not working, and that it's being manipulated to take availability from the person on the top of the list and give it to the person who just happened to call.

 

[VrBchJ]

After reading your horror story I'm going to call tomorrow and cancel my Dec. wait list. I have my BWV room and I'm going to keep it and be very happy with it. This is too scary to take a chance with a MS mistake. I hope you get some satisfaction.

 

[kimberh]

I wonder if MS can secure a room from Central Reservations for you? I would sure ask! You made your waitlist before the new waitlist rules went into effect. I thought they were suppose to notify you per rules in April. I now see that I will sure think twice before I use waitlist. So sorry for your situation.

 

[Lexxiefern]

Yikes! I hope they fix this for you fast. Good luck.

 

[stacy6552]

I would call back. For our last trip, I had a screwey CM almost mess everything up. I called back and asked if the CM was a vet because I had some questions and had just had said hinkey experience with what could only have been a newbie. She totally got it, fixed everything and sent me on my merry little way.

 

[LIFERBABE]

Im with Jim,

No way would I use the waitlist now if it involves cancellation of anything that i have already confirmed. Those that do are taking a huge risk of being left out in the cold (well sun, but either way, you wont have a place to stay)
I posted weeks ago that the waitlist has been gutted and it is only good now for adding a night to an already confirmed ressie or if you have nothing and want anything.

OP I am sorry this has happened and I would definitely stay on them and I agree, write an email and a snail mail.

The problem as I see it, is that DVC is "dumbing" down the system so that they can hire anyone off the street to work at MS. The members understand the system, many of the new MS people do not. I guess they dont want to pay the experienced MS people or invest much in training the new ones, so they make everything automatic or simple which affects our flexibility.

 

[mikki.young]

Well they have just rung back. They have 'communicated' with member services that they need to be more careful making their notes when they do waitlist requests. I said so that may help someone in the future but won't help me. They then claimed that there were no rooms available anywhere on disney proerty for the dates concerned and that they couldn't magic a room where none existed (an interesting choice of words I thought). They also seemed confident that in their experience the waitlist would come through but had no answer for what happened if it didn't. That is now 3 people I have spoken to and I am getting the same message from all of them. So still very much Grrrrrr

 

[mikki.young]

For whatever reason the waitlist has just come through and we now have all the dates we wanted.

I don't think I will be in a hurry to use the waitlist ever again though!

 

[CarolMN]

Thanks for letting us know - so glad it worked out for you and your renter!

 

[disneykidatheart]

For whatever reason the waitlist has just come through and we now have all the dates we wanted.

I don't think I will be in a hurry to use the waitlist ever again though!

I"m very happy your problem was solved. I wonder who got scr**** in order for them to help you! That might be the next post we see.