What "Bad Service" Have You Received?

[Poly Pal]

On the "Disappointed with the Poly" thread, alot of posters mentioned "bad service" or that the "service was not worth the price." So, if you have had disappointing service, what was it?

I'll start, but first let me say that I have almost always had my service expectations met at the Polynesian (or the other WDW resorts at which we've stayed.)

One year at check-in our room was assigned, but not ready. That was fine since we had arrived early afternoon and were planning to use the pool. I went to check out our room (back then the room numbers were shown on the exterior of the longhouses as well as on the interior doors). I discovered that our first floor, Raratonga room's patio was right next to a big air conditioning compressor and went back to the front desk and asked if we could be assigned a different room. I worked with the friendly CM to make the change to Tuvalu garden view - not an upgrade, just a quiter patio! That room was not ready either and we were given a beeper (like you get at a restaurant). We went to the pool and waited to be paged. Well, by 5 pm we still had not been "beeped" to let us know our room was ready, so I went back to the front desk. The CM said, "Oh your room has been ready for a while," and proceeded to give me keys to the original room in Raratonga (argghhh!) There had been a shift change and the original CM had not completed the room re-assignment. After 20 minutes of explaining, I finally got a manger to move us to Fiji, room 1313 (double trouble!) which was very nice.

So, what has disappointed you or not met your expectaitions service wise?

 

[Jasminetigger]

I am happy to say we have always had wonderful service at all the resorts we have stayed at from value to deluxe. There have been little glitches every now and then but nothing worth mentioning.

I do have a funny story to tell. I guess some might consider it bad service. We actually think it is funny now. It all started about four years ago. We always go to Boatwrights on our last morning for breakfast. We ordered strawberries and cream with our order. The waitress never brought it. No big deal. We got our bill and we were charged for it. She took it off when we told her what happened. A few months later we went back to Boatwrights. Ordered the strawberries and cream. They never came. They were on the bill. Again it was taken off. A few months later we go back again, try to order our strawberries and cream. You guessed it. Never came. Got charged for it. Had it taken off the bill. I think we have been there a total of five or six times now and we have never seen our poor strawberries and cream. It is a running joke in our family now to see if we will ever get our strawberries and cream. But I still love their omelettes. One of these days I am sure we will see those strawberries and cream.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

No real problems that would ruin my trip. When I used to smoke twice I was given a nonsmoking room and told to smoke on the balcony. Which in turn pissed people off around me. At BC I went to the desk and complained and they upgraded me to CL to change my room. At BW no one was near us since it was January and I just stayed in that room. Otherwise we have never had a problem. Seriously.

 

[newcomer52]

It's all in the eyes of the beholder. I've have no bad service to report. Only magical times.

Jerry

 

[yasmina]

A minor inconvenience...

2 yrs. ago, we were at BWI concierge (upgraded at check-in, surprise, no cost). On our 3rd day, we returned from the park around 2PM and our room wasn't cleaned. We called, said we were going to the pool and they said they'd be right up. About 2 hours later, we returned, room still not cleaned. We called again. They said they would send someone up. Off to the park we went for the evening. Returned about 10 PM - still not cleaned. We called. They asked, do you really want it cleaned? Uh, yes! Went to the lounge for about an hour and voila! it was cleaned when we returned.

Did it ruin our trip? Absolutely not!

 

[BionicEar]

It's all in the eyes of the beholder. I've have no bad service to report. Only magical times.

ITA. I think people come with unreasonably high expectations and end up looking for the "bad service."

We've never had bad service when we've gone to WDW and we never expect anything fantastic, if you know what I mean. We've had a fabulous time every visit.

 

[fakereadhed]

I've had some bad service at a deluxe, but I won't mention it. WDW is staffed by people, and to err is human.

 

[CarolA]

A few incidents have occured, but my ALL time FAV was at CSR.

Get to room. NONE of the lights will come on in either bedroom or bathroom. AC is also not running. I decide room has no power. Pick up phone to call, no dial tone. Hike to front desk. First response, Are you sure the lights won't come on? You have to flip the light switch. (I may be blonde, but I am not that DUMB!!!!) Second response "Can't you just deal with it tonight" NO!!! It is SUMMER in Florida I need AC especially since you don't have windows that OPEN! LOL! Asked for manager. Manager is very put out that I don't like room and seems to think I somehow turned off the power. He explains that "maintenance is gone for the evening so there is nothing we can do? (What, Disney has a few thousand hotel rooms and there is "nothing we can do"? I asked if they were sold out, no, but they need to keep rooms for walk up (I could not make this up... ) He finally moves me..... (No apology, no offer to have bell services move luggage etc. Just "HERE is your new key") And when I reported this on the DIS, I was told that I was a "Problem Guest" (for demanding POWER??? LOL!)

(And don't even get me started on the GF. It's been so long ago that the statue of limitations has passed. While the room had power, the staff had "attitude")

I will still say at CSR, but I have never had good service from that front desk staff...

 

[DisneyBride'03]

No complaints here...from value to deluxe........

 

[rrcfan]

I also had a bad experience with the CSR, but it was mainly with the dining area staff and it was a good 7 years ago. The waitress we usually got for breakfast was absolutely terrible and had a really bad attitude, which I think stemmed from the fact that we only had water to drink (We still tipped, but it got lower and lower every single time).
We also had an experience with the lady who was working at the concession stand adjacent to the food court. My mom handed her a Canadian penny as part of the payment (Something which is commonplace up here in the Buffalo area, but understandably foreign down there). She made a big fuss and said "That not ours...that not ours!". My mom handed her a shiny new American penny and she said the same thing. We walked away somewhat disgusted, although in retrospect it shouldn't have been that big of a deal.
After hearing about other problems we had with the room and the service, the concierge was more than accommodating to us, apologizing multiple times and arranging transportation to our accomodations at Universal, which certainly wasn't necessary.

 

[teentoddlermom]

[Believe it or not, I found our worst experience with indifference and "attitude" was at the GF.
We stayed at the Sugarloaf concierge, and were made to feel as if we were really bothering the desk clerks when we had a few minor questions during the week of our stay. This was when they were totally unoccupied with anything, just zoning out at the desk. Also, my daughter got her fingers pinched in the elevator door in the GF main lobby. We asked for help at the main desk and were told with extreme indifference that the only thing we could do was call a doctor on their housecall list at our own expense.

 

[Fortywinks]

It's all in the eyes of the beholder. I've have no bad service to report. Only magical times.

Jerry

Same here. Everything is relative. I've been 10 times and never have had an overall bad trip. We have had some problems situations but Disney made every attempt to accomodate. If you expect perfection 100% of the time then maybe expections are set to high. My rule is when problems do happen, (and sooner or later one will) what positive effort is made to accommodate the guest or enhance their experience to make it a memorable time.

 

[Lovinlifesooomuch30]

In all of our trips we have never had one problem at the resorts. All of the cast members that we have come across have been superb. I did have one minor glitch at the nine dragons in 2002. My extended family and myself had the dining plan. We had a party of 10. We ate dinner and when it was time for the bill I gave the card to the waitress....like we had already done each night after dinner with no problem. We waited and waited and the manager comes up and says that they are working on something. I asked her if there was a problem and she assured me there was not. Well then she comes back and tells me I need to come and talk with someone on the phone in the waiting area of the restaurant. This person on the phone was rude and kept asking me questions about our plan and our ID number. I could hardly hear her. They acted like WE had done something wrong. An hour after we were done eating they finally got whatever they needed done and we were able to leave. No apology and no real explanation of what happened. To this day I have no idea what it was all about. We had nothing out of the ordinary and no alcohol or anything that needed to be charged separately. I have never been back......and yes I know that is silly. We need to try again sometime. I am sure it was just a fluke.

 

[stemikger]

I never had bad service at any of the resorts, in fact it was always the opposite. However, I did get a real bad attitude from one of the CMs at EPCOT. It was a girl in the American Adventure in EPCOT and I walked up to her to ask her when the next show was and she was down right nasty and rude. I'm from New York, so I know rude. I walked away and then I got angry and wanted to go back to her and tell her if she dosen't like the job she is doing, she should quit because the way she talked to me while I'm on vacation was really bad for Disney's reputation of being a magical destination.

 

[PudgetteD]

We've had 5 on-site trips (Pop, FW, GF, Pop again, and CBR) and numerous off-site trips and have NEVER had bad experiences with resort CMs. The only bad experience we've ever had was @ Epcot. DH found a shirt he wanted to buy and took it to the cash register. CM asked if he was ready to check out and DH said yes. CM then proceeded to play with a basketball and totally ignore DH. DH waited and waited and waited and finally after about 10 minutes of watching CM play ball, left without shirt. CM had the nerve to ask DH if he'd changed his mind about buying shirt!

 

[eliza61]

I've been very, very satisfied with all my vacations at Disney, which is probably why I'm always going back. Deluxe resorts have been a dream and well worth every penny I've spent. I did get the "dreaded" dumpster view one trip but I just shrugged my shoulders and chalked it up to luck of the draw. I still enjoyed sitting on my balcony with my cutie enjoying a adult beverage at the end of the day!

So far
WL & WLV
BCV
Ft Wilderness (twice)
Grand Floridian
All stars

I'm back at the BCV's this November. can't wait.

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

We had terrible service in May at All Star Music - we had booked a last minute long weekend get away and we really got the impression that the cast members felt they were 'just' working at a value and the disney level of service wasn't expected. When we spoke to the manager we found out he had been moved there the week before from an Epcot area delux to try and fix just that problem with the staff. And it wasn't just the check in staff - went right from check in to mousekeeping (room was disgusting and it was apparently an inconvenience for them to fix the problems!) to most of the other staff we encountered. We only had 1 good experience with a cast member there and that was at the concierge desk - she was pleasant and really seemed to enjoy what she was doing!! the manager was great to chat with too - we didn't go to talk to him to demand anything we just wanted to express our concerns - shouldn't matter what you pay or where you stay in Disney you should still deserve the same disney service that keeps us all coming back - didn't ruin our stay though - when life gives you lemons you make lemonade and we had a great time at the flower and garden festival!