WDW renegged on my old never-expiring tickets. -watch out!!!

jleslie48

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 14, 2005
Messages
56
I just cannot believe it. here's the letter I sent to WDW detailing my last trip, I'm awaiting there response:

Well Now I know why you refuse to acknowledge old
cards online. It is reprehensible the way your park
didn't honor my 4 year old, never expiring passes.
Your personell were rude, non-compromising and
completely wrong. Your computer systems are
completely in error at the parks, and your ridiculous
insistence of showing me monitor screens are bullying.
I have been a life long devotee of your parks and I
have never had such an experience of incompetency (I
can only hope) or outright thievery (I fear.)

1) You wouldn't confirm the balances on my cards by
email or phone, prior to my visit, why? So I couldn't
dig out my receipts???

2) I arrived at Carribean beach and check with their
computer, they confirmed what I had already known, 2
days left on a 4, 4-day park-hopper cards (built into
my old room keys) never expiring. From what I
remember, that was always the case, now I see it is a
pay in option (very poor taste,) however I was now
confident that my cards were fine.

3) I arrived at your ticket booth at magic kingdom to
get the days passes, the person collecting the money
ran the cards, confirmed for a second time that I had
2 days left on 4-day park-hopper cards, no need to do
anything proceed to the monorail, and enter the park.


4) arrive at gate, access denied. I was told to go
back to the ticket booth (1/2 hour round trip???) you
have a bit of nerve. after making me 10 minutes while
the gate officer sold kids pins, returns to send me to
the information booth, (this is a wear down tactic,
I'm familiar with it.) where I wait on a line, only
to get the "see my screen shows that the cards are
expired" line. Your salesman has the audacity to
actuall turn the monitor around to show me, COMPLETELY
IGNORING THE FACT THAT TWO OTHER PERSONELL HAVE
ALREADY CONFIRMED THAT THE CARDS ARE GOOD. Refuses to
even check with the others.

This situation continued for two days. I went back to
Carribean Beach, and they too, re-confirmed that the
room keys and the 2001 park-hopper passes were valid.


I am completely disappointed with your service.


In addition on my stay:

1) I reserved my Alamo car rental through your
services, when trying to get my car, there is complete
denial of any WDW responsibility in anything but they
patch me through to Alamo, who says no problem all you
need is your drivers licence and credit card. Upon
arriving at the Alamo car rental area, they have no
record of my car. Apparently I need some voucher that
they have no way to look up because they have no
record of my credit card, my name, nothing. Meantime
I'm on your property and you proudly proclaim I can to
everything with my room key. Now I have to wait for
Alamo to go through regular phone connects to find out
my voucher number. This takes over 45 minutes as you
don't answer phones and rely entirely too much on
automated phone systems. This system is unacceptable.


2) Room change. for some reason, now in october, with
a half empty hotel, I am placed in the physically
farthest hotel room from all resort services (huh???)
Not a big problem, I call the front desk and they
graciously change my room, just leave my bags packed
up before I leave and they will be in my new room,
which will be assigned by 3pm. So I leave for the day
at the park 8am, stop by the front desk at 8:00pm that
day to find out my new room, get my new keys, all is
well. I get to the room. No bags. HUH?? I call, "oh
you didn't call for your bags, your supposed to call
for your bag delivery" ARE YOU KIDDING? That's the
stupidest thing I've ever heard. So the bell cap says
he'll bring the bags over. So we wait in our dirty
clothes waiting to go to dinner. 20 minutes goes by.
I call again. "where's the bags" answer "oh I'm
still waiting for the the bags to be put on the truck
and the driver" ARE YOU SERIOUS? THIS IS AN
ACCEPTABLE ANSWER??? 30 minutes later the bags
come....

3) Magical express. 2 hours from "checking in" at the
magical express to getting to my hotel room, including
20 minutes waiting for a bus, and an additonal 30
minutes of watching a bus driver chit chatting with
the ground personell while the bus sat full of people.
NOT ACCEPTABLE.

YOU Wanted 3 hours lead time on my flight to go back
to the airport, IT'S 30 MINUTES AWAY. Plus that was
leaving from the hotel, that means I'd HAVE TO leave
the PARK an HOUR EARLIER. PLUS since my flight was at
8:10pm, and It was 7:30am (so I could go to the parks
on my last day) I COULDN'T EVEN CHECK IN TO THE DISNEY
EXPRESS, IT WAS MORE THAN 12 HOURS BEFORE THE FLIGHT.
Not acceptable. PLUS DISNEY EXPRESS CHECK IN CLOSES
AT 2:00PM. Ridiculous.

That's about the size of this trip to WDW. NOT
Magical at all. More like that Nightmare you have
when you are trying to get somewhere and something
stupid always gets in your way. You wasted over a
half of one day with nonsense that should of been
nothing, plue it took me 2 days to calm down. This is
not how a vacation is supposed to go.

Sincerely,

Jonathan
 
You might want to post this in the Themeparks or Resorts forums too. I wish you well with your situation.
 
*steps into DH's bunker gear*
Disney RARELY responds to to angry laundry lists of what went wrong with your vacation. You would be better to edit that letter down to a informative, non-reactive note mentioning the problems with the tickets. You failed to get people's names so they have no one to clear up any problem.

The very sad truth ( believe me, I am really sad about this ) if you never go back to Disney, WDW will not notice...hundreds of thousands of people are in line behind you who are more than willing to take your place.

That being said, Disney does try to give every person a magical vacation, but these people aren't magical...they have bad days too..they may only know what the system tells them and maybe they don't know what else to tell you.

I hear your anger and I am sure I would be just as angry, but sending that letter as it is will not solve anything and has a better chance of being set aside then really being taken as constructive.
 
That is not the way to write a complaint letter. You'll be lucky to even get a response. I only made it halfway through.
 

Sorry but I have to agree with Betsy. The anger in your letter isn't going to get you very far with Disney. It would be best to re-write the letter in a different tone. I really do wish you well.
 
Just to add:
If you are really interested in fixing the problems you mentioned, you would be better to call Disney and get the names and address of the person in charge of each area. I am sure the person in charge of tickets isn't the person that handles resorts. The Magic Express isn't going to care that someone in Magic Kingdom was not helpful. Break your letter down and take out the victim angle and you have a great chance of getting some help.
 
I have to agree. Some of your complaints sound valid, but the letter does not explain very well what happened.

Remember, the Disney corporation is huge - this will be read by a person completely new to what was going on. I think you need to mention the dates you were there and the problems occured. It is one thing to call employees rude and irrepensible, but if you can't name exactly who you had the personal conflict with, they can't do much with it.

Also, what do you want now? An apology letter, a one day pass? Some kind of refund?

I think I might send two letters. One to Customer Relations about your ticket and Magical Express experience, and another to the hotel Manager about the room and baggage difficulties. I wouldn't expect much there however --- they did move your room and they did transfer your luggage... just not as fast as you wanted.
I've dealt with the baggage handlers before. Their system is set up to move LARGE amounts of luggage and it can be quite time consuming to get your bags from one place to another.
 
Good Luck with that letter - I'd be interested in seeing if you ge a response.

Did you ever go to Guest Relations outside or inside one of the theme parks for remedy to your ticket situation?

Kelly
 
Keggy said:
Did you ever go to Guest Relations outside or inside one of the theme parks for remedy to your ticket situation?

Kelly

ITA. Guest relations was the place to go, not a booth outside the themeparks.
 
Miss Jasmine said:
That is not the way to write a complaint letter. You'll be lucky to even get a response. I only made it halfway through.

ITA Miss Jasmine. A calm, well written and organized letter works better. While you can be firm the old saying goes "you get more flies with honey than vinegar". Your letter starts off somewhere in the middle, is rambling, angry and hard to read. Sorry :(.

I am also sorry that you had a bad trip and that you received different answers on the your tickets. All the non-expiry tickets I am familiar with are separate admission media and not added to your room key. When did you stay at WDW last? Were your tickets "Length of Stay" passes? If so, then they expired on the day you checked out.

That being said, you do have some valid concerns.
(1) It seems that WDW Travel Company neglected to give you a voucher for your Alamo rental (or, you forgot said voucher at home). There should be a better way to pick up your rental car.

(2) Your room change was also not handled as well as it should. You always have to call Bell Services to ask them to move your bags. I am sorry that the front desk CM gave you the wrong information.

(3) Here's one that I don't think is valid. I believe that the Magical Express busses run on a schedule. So you may have had to wait 30 minutes for the bus to leave, but that's the schedule. As for your return ... it is frustrating that you couldn't check-in for your flight before you went to the park. But, it's not like you couldn't go to the park. You could have checked in at 8:10 AM for your 8:10 PM flight and been to the park by 9:00 AM. And then you would need to be back before 5:00 PM. That's a almost a whole day by my standards. Yes, it's 30 minutes to the airport, but all airlines suggest that you get to the airport 2-3 hours before flight time. Disney is giving themselves some time in case of traffic and security issues. You would be mad if you didn't make your flight, right? If you don't like the free transportation, then book a limo or rent a car from the airport next time. If there is a next time.
 
Keggy said:
Good Luck with that letter - I'd be interested in seeing if you ge a response.

Did you ever go to Guest Relations outside or inside one of the theme parks for remedy to your ticket situation?

Kelly

Yes in the park I got the same answer, the tickets were expired. I don't have to take names, each time I went to a guest relations booth they had the complete history of what had transpired, I even got "you tried to use these tickets yesterday at Magic Kingdom and Tim told you they were expired" It's amazing how complete their computer system is in telling me my tickets were NOT valid.

Carribean Beach resort had the correct information, I had them transfer my tickets to the new room keys; it was funny they said there was no reason to do it, the old tickets were fine. I insisted that they issue me brand new tickets, and give me a paper receipt.

The entrance booth still gave me a hard time. My kids got in ok since the tickets were upgraded based on their new ages, but My wife and I's new passes were flagged. The only reason the Guest relations officer had to concede was because of the paper receipt that I had from Carribean beach showing clearly I had brand new 2 day park hopper passes. And he was furious, said the hotel was out of line, the person who did this was incompetent... even threw his pen on the ground. I was utterly disgusted.

I also know I'm not getting anywhere with disney. I'm just trying to warn those out there to be carefull. If enough people who get ripped off make a big stink, they will pay attention.
 
also - not to be rude - but you might wanna send that through a spell checker too.

personell is actually "personnel"
 
I've got to say I'm completely lost, did they let you in with the passes or did you have to buy new ones?
 
I agree, while you have a right to be angry, this letter is too angry. It needs rewriting and the maters in it need to be adressed. Staying YOU toward WDW isn't a productive way to handel things, they are just going to start shifting blame. More facts, less anger. Stick to the very last lines to share your feelings and how it effected your vacation an family. Also state you trust that Disney will do something to correct the situations (with the tickets, after all they shuld still be good.) Infact from the letter is unclear if you were ever able to use them.

I don't think you are going to get much of a respose. I am guessing the letter is going to "get lost in the mail".

Good luck, I am sorry things went so badly, expecailly about the tickets that was a pain the butt. It should of been handeled better. Remember more flys with honey. :)
 
If someone threw a pen on the ground in front of me, I would have gotten their name!

As it is, as far as I know, 4 years ago, tickets on room keys were only length of stay..they had no ability to add park hopper tickets (that didnt expire) on room keys because I tried this SEVERAL times. I hated carrying my KTTW card and ticket, but they had no way of linking them. Someone messed up and it sounds like it was the resort.
 
It sounds like a big mistake on Disney's part but letters never get as much attention as a raving lunatic in line at Disney gates. I wouldn't have taken no for an answer and would have gone up the chain of command while there and taken the top dog with me to the first set of gates.

Next time, be sure to get your problem taken care of while you are there...you have a much bigger chance of actually getting it taken care of that way.
 
robinb said:
ITA Miss Jasmine. A calm, well written and organized letter works better. While you can be firm the old saying goes "you get more flies with honey than vinegar". Your letter starts off somewhere in the middle, is rambling, angry and hard to read. Sorry :(.

I am also sorry that you had a bad trip and that you received different answers on the your tickets. All the non-expiry tickets I am familiar with are separate admission media and not added to your room key. When did you stay at WDW last? Were your tickets "Length of Stay" passes? If so, then they expired on the day you checked out.

That being said, you do have some valid concerns.
(1) It seems that WDW Travel Company neglected to give you a voucher for your Alamo rental (or, you forgot said voucher at home). There should be a better way to pick up your rental car.

(2) Your room change was also not handled as well as it should. You always have to call Bell Services to ask them to move your bags. I am sorry that the front desk CM gave you the wrong information.

(3) Here's one that I don't think is valid. I believe that the Magical Express busses run on a schedule. So you may have had to wait 30 minutes for the bus to leave, but that's the schedule. As for your return ... it is frustrating that you couldn't check-in for your flight before you went to the park. But, it's not like you couldn't go to the park. You could have checked in at 8:10 AM for your 8:10 PM flight and been to the park by 9:00 AM. And then you would need to be back before 5:00 PM. That's a almost a whole day by my standards. Yes, it's 30 minutes to the airport, but all airlines suggest that you get to the airport 2-3 hours before flight time. Disney is giving themselves some time in case of traffic and security issues. You would be mad if you didn't make your flight, right? If you don't like the free transportation, then book a limo or rent a car from the airport next time. If there is a next time.



1) I had the voucher, but when I called alamo, they said all I needed was my drivers licence and the credit card I made the reservation with. That made sense. I never brought my voucher which was in my bags that were moved to some where.... It's stupid. disney's own car rental service couldn't even contact the reservation.


2) That is the idea of moving a room, packing your bags and having them put to your new room. I made this very clear and asked no less than twice upon setting this up. I even told them I will not be back until 8:00pm, and to just move the bags when they have the new room. It is unheard of in any hotel room to have to separately tell someone to move your bags when you change rooms.

3) Unacceptable. I was ready at 7:30 hanging around for 40 minutes is a crock for some stupid computer thing. Besides your argument falls apart if my flight was at 9:00pm, 10:00pm... You have also ignored the hour it takes to get back to the hotel, thats now a 4 hour transfer. 2-3 hours in advance? hardly. 1 - 2 is all that is expected. The car rental for the week is $150. On the way back to the airport I left THE PARK at 6:00pm and got to the airport at 6:30, that was 1 1/2 hours before flight. Plus I got to the park at 8:00am for a nice full day. Your way would of been at best a 9am-4:00pm. Thats not counting all the other days of the week I didn't have to wait for the bus to make all its stops... I was 12 minutes from my hotel room to Magic kingdom.
 
3) Unacceptable. I was ready at 7:30 hanging around for 40 minutes is a crock for some stupid computer thing. Besides your argument falls apart if my flight was at 9:00pm, 10:00pm... You have also ignored the hour it takes to get back to the hotel, thats now a 4 hour transfer. 2-3 hours in advance? hardly. 1 - 2 is all that is expected. The car rental for the week is $150. On the way back to the airport I left THE PARK at 6:00pm and got to the airport at 6:30, that was 1 1/2 hours before flight. Plus I got to the park at 8:00am for a nice full day. Your way would of been at best a 9am-4:00pm. Thats not counting all the other days of the week I didn't have to wait for the bus to make all its stops... I was 12 minutes from my hotel room to Magic kingdom.

i'm pretty sure I read that they don't let you check in more than 12 hours before because of airline security reasons.

1) I had the voucher, but when I called alamo, they said all I needed was my drivers licence and the credit card I made the reservation with. That made sense. I never brought my voucher which was in my bags that were moved to some where.... It's stupid. disney's own car rental service couldn't even contact the reservation.
I'm sorry, but are yous aying you left them in a bag at home or the bags at the hotel?


Not to be rude, your story is very hard to follow, I think you need to calm down before you right anything to Disney.
 
So, you did ultimately get the tickets honored -- correct? That is not clear from your letter posted.

You should write a calm letter detailing Disney's lapses in communication and a separate one about the hotel issues.
 


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