What's Happened To Disney Customer Service?? Horrible Experience!!

[luvmy3boyz]

A tool used to support the customer isn't the customer service. And paying enough people to work a given shift so one person won't have to be on hold for eighty minutes (which could have been a technical - aka programming - glitch, as someone indicated) is fiscally irresponsible.

Freed-up dining availability goes back into the live reservationists systems overnight. It's understandable that freed-up room reservations would work the same. And it makes absolute sense that any company wouldn't risk allowing its customers access to its internal or proprietary systems/programming - so they'd have another system for customer use entirely.

What?

Again, the computer system is required by the agent to support the customer. It IS part of the customer service function. If the system doesn't work, or is incorrect, it adversely affects the service provided to the customer, and the customer is unhappy.

However they do it now, they could keep the systems in synch. So what if they're separate systems? Update them at the same time so that their information is the same. Whoever suggested allowing people access to internal or proprietary information?

And you're assuming that this excessive wait time happened to only one customer in whatever time period. I'm suggesting, through recent personal experiences, that long wait times are not exceptions any more, and that Disney could do a better job supporting the customer (while being "fiscally responsible" ). And, if it is a glitch, fix it, because it can happen again. Being a glitch isn't an excuse and doesn't make it any better for a specific customer.

Anyway, obviously this no longer has anything to do with the original post, so I'm out. At least my number of posts increased a little! And I can go back to cleaning up the trees and limbs littering our property.

 

[mad madam mim78]

So do restaurants with long waits also provide poor customer service? Is disney also providing poor customer service when you stand in longer lines? A queue is a queue is a queue. Yeah it's a bummer but wait your turn.

 

[I Love Pluto]

It's a sign of the times. I registered for a routine x-ray on Friday. It took 53 minutes AFTER I was called to the clerk's window. 53 minutes!!!!!

First - the woman had computer issues. It really was going crazy on her. We got a few good laughs over this.

Finally - the computer woke up! She finished registering me, then the printer went completely down. She could do nothing until it was fixed. We had a delightful conversation while we waited for someone to fix the printer, but it was getting annoying for all. There was a line of people behind me waiting to register for procedures.

53 minutes to register for an x-ray! Oh, my!!!!!

 

[Belle83]

I'm sorry you had such a frustrating experience OP, but am glad it was fixed and all worked out.

I don't care what you call it, it's frustrating for customers to have to wait on hold for such a ridiculously long time. It's also frustrating that Disney's website online availability is different than what their own travel agents have access to, regardless of wheher you were aware of this or not (I had never heard this). It's not like the OP is demanding a free trip or something crazy because of this experience. I think it's worth venting/complaining about.

 

[Christopher Robin 26]

I'm sorry you had such a frustrating experience OP, but am glad it was fixed and all worked out.

I don't care what you call it, it's frustrating for customers to have to wait on hold for such a ridiculously long time. It's also frustrating that Disney's website online availability is different than what their own travel agents have access to, regardless of wheher you were aware of this or not (I had never heard this). It's not like the OP is demanding a free trip or something crazy because of this experience. I think it's worth venting/complaining about.

Thank you: ).

 

[mom2taylorandemily]

I do not feel as though the wait times are an isolated incident. I have tried to call 3 times last week, each time was at a different time of the day and after waiting 45 mins. minimum on all 3 calls I gave up, hung up with the intent of calling again. All I want to do is make a small upgrade to my reservation, and we leave in 30 days! I am sorry, but I am tired of being on hold (or as I call it "IGNORE") for 45 min. that is unacceptable, so when I do finally get thru tomorrow, trust me I will do a survey and if it takes me 45 minutes again, I will let them know.

 

[bumbershoot]

The availability the customer sees should be the same as what the agent sees. Fix your systems.

I'm not sure it's a fix situation. I've always understood the phone system to be DIFFERENT than the online system. There are perks you can get with packages (at least in the past) that are different based on if you book online vs on the phone. That indicates they are different, and they are supposed to be separate.

Therefore, it would make sense to me that the phone TA can't see everything that's online, because they are, in effect, different companies.

It works that way at Disneyland, too.

It would be like calling Disney's phone TAs and expecting to see what Expedia was showing; they are different, and they cannot see the same thing.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Sorry, it IS horrble customer sevice.

The availability the customer sees should be the same as what the agent sees. Fix your systems.

And, no-one should be waiting 2 hours on hold anywhere. Unacceptable. If it's a busy time and some customers tie up agents for long periods of time, have more agents available. There is an industry standad for average time to answer, and Disney is clearly not meeting it.

I love Disney, just returned from a wonderful trip in September, but I agree with the original poster. Disney's customer service is no longer what it used to be when they were viewed as the gold standard of customer service.

I bolded
Can it be that the powers that be have made so many changes...that the "feelings" that the CMS are expressing in general or the overall feelings guests are experienceing is going downhill due to the cutbacks fof cms, I dont know...but the recent changes for example the opening Starbucks on Main Street comes to mind...what about the old Disney feeling of ESCAPISM, Starbucks, really??? Seems like $$$ is the Disney Feeling now, not family time, etc...is it just me, or is it an Overall decline in all things Disney...KWIM?
I feel like it is not the same as years past...we know its a business, its there to make money...BUT if your Advertising for Eons is about the TOP customer Service, the Best Place on Earth...etc....the standards better stay that way....
Could just be me,,,,but I have seen these downward changes in the last few years overall...and I for one, dont like it...so I visit less....which saddens me honestly....I wanna keep that "disney feeling" and if that means remembering it from the past....so be it I suppose....
Maybe Im just tired, its late afterall.??

 

[WanderlustNZ]

It always makes me laugh when people get so caught up in semantics they stop seeing the forest for the trees.

'Bad Customer Service'. 'Under-staffed call centre'. 'Incompatible computer systems'. Whatever you want to call it, the OP was inconvenienced and rightfully annoyed.
I'm pleased to hear though that it's now all sorted and Disney came out good in the end.

 

[kaytieeldr]

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[slabau]

I just made 2 phone calls to Disney Passholder reservation line and after spending literally 1 hour 20 mins. on the 2nd call had to hang up after receiving no response! The first call I made (wait 46 min) was to modify a reservation from CBR to POP. I was online looking at an available reservation but the woman on the phone insisted there were no rooms available at POP 12/1-12/3. She told me to try to reserve online (which by the way I was able to do) then call back and cancel my previous reservation. When I called to cancel I was on hold for 1 hour 20 minutes before giving up. We have been annual pass holders for 8 years and frequent the parks quite often and never experienced such terrible customer service or should I say NO customer service! We just came back from Disney and once again renewed our AP but noticed that friendly Disney feeling from cast members was just not there. Come on Disney bring back the exceptional customer service you are known for that keeps people coming back!

I had the same experience this morning with the dining customer service. Was trying to book Hoop-Dee-Dooz, it was available on line but wouldn't allow me to use DDP, I called customer service and she said nothing was available. She told me to pay for the reservation on line and they would eventually issue a credit. And this was after I held on for 30 minutes before I got " no help".