Where to complain?

[bsb]

Hi!
We just got back from a 9 night split stay and while we made the best of it and had a great time we had some major issues with the Boardwalk hotel. We basically lost an entire day of our vacation and didn't get to use a full day of our park tickets. I talked to several managers and got nowhere, the service was just plain terrible. The solution they gave us was 3 extra anytime fastpasses, went to use them and got denied (try explaining to your 2 year old you cant go on toy story mania right away when you have already told them you could). It was problem after problem with this place and I feel like I need to voice my concerns to someone higher than the hotel managers as they didn't seem to care. Anyone know the best way to go about this? Should I call someone or would an email be ok? If anyone wants details I would be happy to share. After coming to Disney for 30 years and never having anything less than great service this was a bit of shock. Thanks for any help!

 

[sharadoc]

Yes of course we want details.

I have heard good results from e-mailing guest relations.

 

[ErinsMommy]

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com sorry to hear you had difficulties in your trip.

 

[Jennasis]

I found the staff at BW...less than enthusiastic, to say the least, on our visit in May. I had a condescending bell services guy, the valets out front were down right curt, and the front desk staff were indifferent. We still had a great trip because that's how we roll...we just didn't seek out the hotel staff's help for anything after watching how they roll haha.

 

[Mike&AllisMom]

Hi!
We just got back from a 9 night split stay and while we made the best of it and had a great time we had some major issues with the Boardwalk hotel. We basically lost an entire day of our vacation and didn't get to use a full day of our park tickets. I talked to several managers and got nowhere, the service was just plain terrible. The solution they gave us was 3 extra anytime fastpasses, went to use them and got denied (try explaining to your 2 year old you cant go on toy story mania right away when you have already told them you could). It was problem after problem with this place and I feel like I need to voice my concerns to someone higher than the hotel managers as they didn't seem to care. Anyone know the best way to go about this? Should I call someone or would an email be ok? If anyone wants details I would be happy to share. After coming to Disney for 30 years and never having anything less than great service this was a bit of shock. Thanks for any help!

That is very disappointing! What kind of issues did you have? I have a reservation for here next month.

 

[bsb]

Thanks! I will try to email them. Ok well here it goes.. So we were coming from 4 nights at the CR (which was amazing) so we had our luggage transferred including milk and other groceries we had ordered. We did bring a back pack with swim suits in it so we could go swimming right away in case the room wasn't ready (we came right at 3:00). We go to check in and the room wasnt ready so we changed, headed to pool and left our backpack at bell services. We went swimming for about an hour still no room. We go to get our backpack so we can change out of wet clothes and go eat and come to discover they lost it. They think they accidently delievered it someone else and promise to find it right away. We wait and we wait, I talk to the front desk and they say they are doing best they can. The baby is cranky because we all have wet clothes, it's past his nap time and we are stuck in the hotel lobby basically.

Our room wasn't ready till after 7, and there was no crib, no luggage, nothing. I called down to at least get a crib while we wait so baby can take a nap before we head to the parks for a couple hours. I called about our groceries so I can give the baby milk and they said they were still trying to locate everything but would bring up milk. They never did. There was no deadbolt on the door so the baby could just walk out so they said they would send someone to fix it. That took an hour, while he was there I said our bathroom lock was not working and he said he would come back with the right tools to fix it, he never did. I had to call 4 times before getting a crib at 9:30. I had requested a crib when I made the reservation mind you.

They finally delievered groceries that were not ours. We did not get our stuff till past 10 pm and at that point the only park open was MK and we just didn't have it in us so we lost the entire day. The manager apologized and said she would give us the extra 3 fastpasses for the nest day and they would be for anytime, anywhere. So we went to use them and got denied. She never actually put them in the system. I had let the fastpasses I already had lapse because the anytime ones were going to be more convienent so I had to spend an hour on the phone with them while we were at Hollywood studios to explain what had happened. Everyone I talked to acted like I was just trying to get free fastpasses. They finally resolved it but the whole thing was just a mess. The rest of the stay waits were long anytime I needed to go to the front desk, we had several outlets that didn't work, housekeeping was meh. I have had 100x better service at value hotels and for the amount of money we were spending it was just a disaster. I will never stay there again. Sorry it was so long!!

 

[mommyrosa2]

Thanks! I will try to email them. Ok well here it goes.. So we were coming from 4 nights at the CR (which was amazing) so we had our luggage transferred including milk and other groceries we had ordered. We did bring a back pack with swim suits in it so we could go swimming right away in case the room wasn't ready (we came right at 3:00). We go to check in and the room wasnt ready so we changed, headed to pool and left our backpack at bell services. We went swimming for about an hour still no room. We go to get our backpack so we can change out of wet clothes and go eat and come to discover they lost it. They think they accidently delievered it someone else and promise to find it right away. We wait and we wait, I talk to the front desk and they say they are doing best they can. The baby is cranky because we all have wet clothes, it's past his nap time and we are stuck in the hotel lobby basically.

Our room wasn't ready till after 7, and there was no crib, no luggage, nothing. I called down to at least get a crib while we wait so baby can take a nap before we head to the parks for a couple hours. I called about our groceries so I can give the baby milk and they said they were still trying to locate everything but would bring up milk. They never did. There was no deadbolt on the door so the baby could just walk out so they said they would send someone to fix it. That took an hour, while he was there I said our bathroom lock was not working and he said he would come back with the right tools to fix it, he never did. I had to call 4 times before getting a crib at 9:30. I had requested a crib when I made the reservation mind you.

They finally delievered groceries that were not ours. We did not get our stuff till past 10 pm and at that point the only park open was MK and we just didn't have it in us so we lost the entire day. The manager apologized and said she would give us the extra 3 fastpasses for the nest day and they would be for anytime, anywhere. So we went to use them and got denied. She never actually put them in the system. I had let the fastpasses I already had lapse because the anytime ones were going to be more convienent so I had to spend an hour on the phone with them while we were at Hollywood studios to explain what had happened. Everyone I talked to acted like I was just trying to get free fastpasses. They finally resolved it but the whole thing was just a mess. The rest of the stay waits were long anytime I needed to go to the front desk, we had several outlets that didn't work, housekeeping was meh. I have had 100x better service at value hotels and for the amount of money we were spending it was just a disaster. I will never stay there again. Sorry it was so long!!

Wow... we too had several issues with our stay there back in August and eventually moved to another resort.

I would definitely email guest relations, you can find their email right on the WDW website under "contact us". Make sure you explain everything in great detail. Be sure to mention that you want a call back regarding your stay and include the best number where they can reach you. I'm so sorry this happened and for the amount of money this resort costs, it is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE!

 

[Praying Colonel]

So sorry you went through that, OP. Any number of places along the way they could have made the situation so much better by doing something more than just throwing you some FPs that turned out to be unusable, anyway. I think any WDW guest should expect better treatment, but it had to be especially galling to get that treatment at a "deluxe" where you're paying a lot.

 

[Pua]

The start of your stay sounds so frustrating! There's no excuse for them having lost your backpack or making the mistake with the anytime fast passes, but something important to keep in mind is that requests for things like cribs are never guaranteed: they're just requests. I'm surprised they didn't at least have a pack and play sent to you. The one time we stayed at Boardwalk (which will never happen again because we had similar issues with guest service), they didn't have a crib ready for my nephew either. They explained to us that requests for cribs are just requests and are unfortunately first come, first serve. They were able to get us a pack and play after a lengthy wait, and by that time my nephew was sleeping in his baby sling attached to my sister! We actually ended up requesting to switch resorts after calling the "front desk" button that's on the room phone (we know it's a call center - not the actual front desk) and were upgraded and moved to GF.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'm so sorry this happened and, unfortunately, not surprised. WDW is a lot of fun until you have a problem and then, I find, the customer service is really lacking. The right hand never seems to know what the left hand is doing. Rule of thumb is to try to take care of this kind of stuff with a manager, while onsite, but, quite honestly, I understand why you didn't want to take any more time out of your vacation to deal with more problems. Contact guest services and be as detailed as possible. I would emphasize how much of your vacation time was wasted due to their horrendous customer service.

 

[bsb]

Thanks guys, yeah it was pretty terrible. The night before check out I went to pay my balance at 11 at night with one person in front of me and waited 30 mins because they were so slow. I ended up seeing a manager I hadn't talked to before so I stopped him and explained everything how it was so frustrating and ended up crying lol and he promised he was going to do something to fix this and fix my view of his hotel. He said he would call me the next morning, that was 5 days ago now and nothing. I don't think that staff really cares.

About the crib, I didn't care what it was I just needed somewhere for the baby to sleep. I would have gladly taken a pack and play. I told them that and everytime I called they said they were working on it. When we were at CR we got a crib within 5 minutes. I mean at a hotel I think a place to sleep is the most basic service they need to provide. I thought it was just us that had this terrible experience but sounds like a lot of people have had these kinds of experiences with them.

 

[sharadoc]

Wow, so sorry, I would have been furious too. That's no way to treat a guest, especially all those things on top of each other made for an awful day. I think what we're seeing is the general lack of service based on long hours, short staff, low pay. Really, really sad.

 

[nkereina]

That sounds awful! Did they eventually find your backpack? I would have lost my mind if they said they accidentally delivered one of my bags to the wrong room. That's always my biggest fear with DME!

 

[cvjw]

Boardwalk is one of our home resorts and our favorite resort to stay in while at Disney. We end up staying there a couple times a year

That being said, I have had several issues during our stays. I agree that the front desk staff leave something to be desired. Every time I have had issues, it has been fixed by a bwv manager - either thru fast passes or a monetary credit.

 

[bsb]

That sounds awful! Did they eventually find your backpack? I would have lost my mind if they said they accidentally delivered one of my bags to the wrong room. That's always my biggest fear with DME!

Yes, they did eventually find it but we did not get it till 10pm. It had a tablet and my husband's work laptop in it so yeah we were freaking out. I don't know how they possibly could have done so as it had a tag on it with our last name in giant letters. The fact that we got groceries that belonged to someone else makes me think this is not an uncommon thing for them.

 

[bsb]

Boardwalk is one of our home resorts and our favorite resort to stay in while at Disney. We end up staying there a couple times a year

That being said, I have had several issues during our stays. I agree that the front desk staff leave something to be desired. Every time I have had issues, it has been fixed by a bwv manager - either thru fast passes or a monetary credit.

I did not have any luck with the managers. Like I said they did offer the fastpasses but never actually put them in the system. They also just seemed like I was putting them out everytime I talked to them. The resort itself was nice, I liked the area a lot but next time we will be at BC or YC, I can't get over the amount of time of our vacation we wasted.

 

[DWDan]

Ugh, I so hate reading posts like this. Totally bums me out! For the cost of a trip to DW, poor service, broken locks on doors, uncaring staff is just NOT acceptable. DW markets itself (and charges people) like it's a world class resort and people need to be held accountable. I would go up to the highest possible person you can speak with and if you don't like the answer you get then ask for that person's manager until you get an answer that is satisfying to you. Good luck!

 

[rteetz]

George Kalogridis
President of Walt Disney World
407-828-2600
george.kalogridis@disney.com

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I won't excuse your experience, but a pro tip for the future is never call from your room for anything (save to Housekeeping or Room Service). You aren't talking to the front desk. You're speaking to an off-site call center. The mechanics of them having the request come through to the real front desk are terrible and it always ends badly.

 

[bsb]

I won't excuse your experience, but a pro tip for the future is never call from your room for anything (save to Housekeeping or Room Service). You aren't talking to the front desk. You're speaking to an off-site call center. The mechanics of them having the request come through to the real front desk are terrible and it always ends badly.

Good to know, hopefully we won't have to deal with anything like this again but I'll remember that.

When you guys say you get good results from email what does that mean? Do you think they will credit me some of my stay or what would you expect? I don't know what they can possibly do to "make up" for lost time but is there a standard compensation? I didn't even really think about that before but I did leave with one unused ticket day because of the whole fiasco do you think it would be too much to ask to have that credited back somehow? I have no idea what would be reasonable.