WARNING: Disney Vacation Account took money without permission

[dkrauss]

I don't understand how this system can still be down!!! Honestly, i could easily get a company to put a staff of 5-10 guys 24/7 on this and get it fixed in a few days MAX. Come on, i'll even donate a few dollars from my DVA account to pay for these guys to fix the mess disney created.

Who knows...maybe when those IT workers that got laid off and had to train their replacement put a bug in the system to blow up after they left...probably sitting and laughing at the ineptitude of the Disney IT dept right now.

That layoff was cancelled as I understand it. While you're comments could have merit, they point out the problem with Disney's lack of transparency (oh jeez........) on this issue. Rumors start just because of this.............However, in my corporate experience in IT when folks are laid off and have access to important/sensitive financial data they are most times.........escorted from the building after removing personal belongings (chaperoned of course) immediately. So given the story regarding the layoffs I doubt that group would have been apart of this.............but ya never know?

Doug

 

[lugnut33]

Honestly, has anybody else ever seen a large company site go down for what is now a week?

There has to be a major issue to take the site down for a week.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

This is so frustrating and I feel so bad for everyone having issues. When they had the giftcard issues I had submitted a $50 refund from my account. It literally took 5 requests, 2 angry emails and a month to get that refund. Needless to say I am far from impressed with this product. Luckily I wasn't one that had an extra withdrawal (I never set up automatic withdrawal). I was able to check that my balance is intact by going to MDE and pretending to order tickets. I have over 3K in giftcards sitting there. My 120 days isn't until early Sept for a mid Nov trip so I can bide my time and holdout for the $60 giftcards. Part of me is just thinking call and pay off my balance and cut my losses. Disney should be embarrassed putting there name on such a terrible product. Vacations are sacred to people and to mess with people's savings and cause all this stress is inforgivable. The complete lack of communication just adds insult to injury.

 

[tup1830]

So i tried to call a human being to get an answer on whats happening, etc.

CM tries to tell me that the site is just going regular maintenance...REGULAR. I tell her that its been down for a week now and she said its just being maintained. I said i want my account number and to close my account...she said there is no need to close the account, its still good. Ummm, her word means nothing to me...i want to see my balance.

She said the only thing she can do is take down my information and have someone call me back...but never took my phone number...lol.

What a joke.

 

[Marionnette]

So i tried to call a human being to get an answer on whats happening, etc.

CM tries to tell me that the site is just going regular maintenance...REGULAR. I tell her that its been down for a week now and she said its just being maintained. I said i want my account number and to close my account...she said there is no need to close the account, its still good. Ummm, her word means nothing to me...i want to see my balance.

She said the only thing she can do is take down my information and have someone call me back...but never took my phone number...lol.

What a joke.

Well, you can't fault her for toeing the company line. She's being told what to say and knows nothing more than we do. It's kind of amusing (in a wry sort of way) that she didn't even take your phone number after telling you that's the only way that you'll get an answer. I'm sure that she has been bombarded with similar phone calls.

Did you call back so that you could give a CM your name and phone number?

 

[CinderElsa]

So i tried to call a human being to get an answer on whats happening, etc.

CM tries to tell me that the site is just going regular maintenance...REGULAR. I tell her that its been down for a week now and she said its just being maintained. I said i want my account number and to close my account...she said there is no need to close the account, its still good. Ummm, her word means nothing to me...i want to see my balance.

She said the only thing she can do is take down my information and have someone call me back...but never took my phone number...lol.

What a joke.

Are we all being punked?

 

[sibesx2]

I just called and was told that they are sending out emails (in waves) to anyone who has an account. I haven't received an email yet. Has anyone?

 

[Jing]

I just called and was told that they are sending out emails (in waves) to anyone who has an account. I haven't received an email yet. Has anyone?

Nope. And I don't believe I will.

I have been debating making a payment on my vacation package to drain the account, but do not like flying blind.

 

[CinderElsa]

I just called and was told that they are sending out emails (in waves) to anyone who has an account. I haven't received an email yet. Has anyone?

Nothing here. I did get one from a nice newspaper reporter, though!

 

[Elevationist]

I have been debating making a payment on my vacation package to drain the account, but do not like flying blind.

This is exactly what I'm going to do with my remaining balance. I have two booked trips (Dec 2015 and Oct 2016) that I can apply my entire DVA balance to, and drain the account down to $0. I'm not going to close it completely, but I am going to at least get all of my money out of it for now, as this current situation is making me nervous. I'm hoping that in time things will improve and I'll feel good about using it again to save for future trips, because until this whole mess hit, the DVA program really did work wonderfully for me.

 

[kamik86]

I don't understand how this system can still be down!!! Honestly, i could easily get a company to put a staff of 5-10 guys 24/7 on this and get it fixed in a few days MAX. Come on, i'll even donate a few dollars from my DVA account to pay for these guys to fix the mess disney created.

Who knows...maybe when those IT workers that got laid off and had to train their replacement put a bug in the system to blow up after they left...probably sitting and laughing at the ineptitude of the Disney IT dept right now.

even if it wasnt done on purpose they are probably laughing.

My department recently got MUCH bigger due to a large new contract. The issues we have had with training so many at once and having more then half our staff be relatively new (less then 2 months) to the program and probably 1/3 to the company. This is with those of us that were working the system before still being here and us having known for months that if we won this contract we would be staffing up.

Now if most of us that worked the project had instead been replaced... and the training done by those that would lose their jobs. There is not a huge incentive to train well in that situation... Where now I have huge incentive to train those coming on well. The sooner they are trained and fully sufficient the sooner I no longer have to review and check everything they do! Well lets just say I can see why disney seems even worse for IT right now.

 

[kamik86]

I don't understand how this system can still be down!!! Honestly, i could easily get a company to put a staff of 5-10 guys 24/7 on this and get it fixed in a few days MAX. Come on, i'll even donate a few dollars from my DVA account to pay for these guys to fix the mess disney created.

Who knows...maybe when those IT workers that got laid off and had to train their replacement put a bug in the system to blow up after they left...probably sitting and laughing at the ineptitude of the Disney IT dept right now.

It can still be down because DVA isn't really a money making system. As long as people are still booking vacations (if their reservation system was down so no one could book they would definitely be paying whatever they had to in order to stop losing income!) this system isn't actually losing disney money.

Well at least not directly.

 

[ksantilli]

Can anyone tell me where I can find my acount number? I have several emails after I have deposited something, but none of them have an account number, at least that I can find. TIA!

 

[ksantilli]

So I just called them directly. They said they are unable to give me my account number. Hmmm
When I asked her when they thought it would be back up and avialble to make payments, she said that they are hoping this weekend!!

I'm glad I don't have to make any payments towards my trip any time soon. We go again in October and I've not made any payments except for the inital $250, as it's all in my DVA. At least mine is in the form of gift cards and not a auto withdrawal, I guess.

 

[Marionnette]

Can anyone tell me where I can find my acount number? I have several emails after I have deposited something, but none of them have an account number, at least that I can find. TIA!

The last 4 digits of the account are only available on the website. The first 12 could be obtained by requesting to have them sent to you via an email to the address on file with the DVA.

IOW, you can't get the account number without being able to get into the website.

 

[CinderElsa]

Back in the news... http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busi...ney-vacation-account-update20150623-post.html

 

[JoAnnPan]

I just called and was told that they are sending out emails (in waves) to anyone who has an account. I haven't received an email yet. Has anyone?

I received an email on Thursday from DVA stating that a refund has been issued; the funds were back in my account on Friday.

 

[dkrauss]

I just called and was told that they are sending out emails (in waves) to anyone who has an account. I haven't received an email yet. Has anyone?

Yeah I received email(s) over the weekend explaining that there was a problem and the monies taken in error would be refunded (which they were). They also said no payments would be taken thru 6/20. My next payment is coming up on Friday............fingers crossed

Doug

 

[Elevationist]

I just received the following email:
________________________________

We are very sorry for recent difficulties accessing your Disney Vacation Account.

The Disney Vacation Account website is currently experiencing a longer than expected downtime. We are working diligently to make the website available for you as quickly as possible. We will contact you again when DisneyVacationAccount.com is back online.

If you have additional questions, please call 407-939-7734.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,

Walt Disney Travel Co., Inc.
1375 Buena Vista Drive
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 33830

You may obtain a full refund of your Disney Vacation Account at any time.

DO NOT REPLY - this email was sent from an unmonitored account.

 

[Marionnette]

It can still be down because DVA isn't really a money making system. As long as people are still booking vacations (if their reservation system was down so no one could book they would definitely be paying whatever they had to in order to stop losing income!) this system isn't actually losing disney money.

Well at least not directly.

In a way, it is still a money-making venture. Disney cannot touch the money until an account owner "releases" it to pay for a trip. According to the terms and conditions:

16. You agree that Disney shall be entitled to the benefits, if any, that the bank or banks make available to Disney as a result of Disney placing the Program Bank Account or Program Bank Accounts at the bank or banks. You assign to Disney any rights to reductions in fees for banking services and any other benefits obtained by Disney as a result of the Program Bank Account, provided that Disney has no beneficial ownership rights in the funds deposited into the Program Bank Account on your behalf.​

It almost sounds as if Disney might receive some sort of benefit from Chase in exchange for hosting the program.