Wow, DCL is getting really desperate!

[jennypenny]

We had two cruises booked while we decided on which one. (before I get slammed the second cruise was a cat 12 that popped up one morning at almost half off so we booked it while we decided) We decided to cancel the cat 12 so I called today to cancel.

Wow, they would not let me cancel. I was on the phone for 10 minutes. Really personal questions like why are you cancelling, and don't you want to hold on to the booking in case you want it later, and the deposit was only $750 so it's not that much to hold it, blah blah blah. When I finally said I'd keep it if they lent me the money the guy actually said the cruise wasn't that much money so how was that the problem. What?? By then I was really mad--who cares why I'm cancelling? And they had my money for over a month--it wasn't a courtesy hold. He really wasn't going to cancel. I kept waiting for him to transfer me to the retension department--it reminded me of the time I tried to get rid of my long distance on my landline.

I guess they're really hurting. I know the Baltic cruises and the 3/4 nighters seem pretty full, but maybe everything else (Mexico, Alaska, Med) is slow? It really turned me off though. I'm used to pushy sales people, but I guess the reason we pay through the nose for WDW/DCL is to get the 'disney' experience and this phone call definitely wasn't.

Sorry to vent. I was just really surprised by the attitude. And a big pet peeve of mine is the way Disney keeps you on the phone so long even though it's not a toll free call.

 

[GrumpyBelle]

Good to know the magic phrase. We are thinking of cancelling our upcoming cruise--want to do something different this summer--since we have done the Nassau trip twice. We will be deciding over the next couple of weeks.

 

[elkesails]

We had two cruises booked while we decided on which one. (before I get slammed the second cruise was a cat 12 that popped up one morning at almost half off so we booked it while we decided) We decided to cancel the cat 12 so I called today to cancel.

Wow, they would not let me cancel. I was on the phone for 10 minutes. Really personal questions like why are you cancelling, and don't you want to hold on to the booking in case you want it later, and the deposit was only $750 so it's not that much to hold it, blah blah blah. When I finally said I'd keep it if they lent me the money the guy actually said the cruise wasn't that much money so how was that the problem. What?? By then I was really mad--who cares why I'm cancelling? And they had my money for over a month--it wasn't a courtesy hold. He really wasn't going to cancel. I kept waiting for him to transfer me to the retension department--it reminded me of the time I tried to get rid of my long distance on my landline.

I guess they're really hurting. I know the Baltic cruises and the 3/4 nighters seem pretty full, but maybe everything else (Mexico, Alaska, Med) is slow? It really turned me off though. I'm used to pushy sales people, but I guess the reason we pay through the nose for WDW/DCL is to get the 'disney' experience and this phone call definitely wasn't.

Sorry to vent. I was just really surprised by the attitude. And a big pet peeve of mine is the way Disney keeps you on the phone so long even though it's not a toll free call.

I have a policy with that sort of situation and it can be a lot of fun. If they start asking personal questions....I give them really personal answers.....like....Well it is a secret but My husband was just appointed president of Bulgaria and we need to get to over there. I just found out that my house is sitting on an giant diamond mine. They are coming out next week to excavate and we think we will have enough money to actually buy Disney.

........the crazier the better.

 

[kcashner]

Another good reason to work with a TA! One call to the TA and she'll handle DCL for me.

 

[ShellyLynn3630]

I have a policy with that sort of situation and it can be a lot of fun. If they start asking personal questions....I give them really personal answers.....like....Well it is a secret but My husband was just appointed president of Bulgaria and we need to get to over there. I just found out that my house is sitting on an giant diamond mine. They are coming out next week to excavate and we think we will have enough money to actually buy Disney.

........the crazier the better.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[calmpets]

Personally I would have demanded a supervisor and complained. I've never heard of them doing anything like that!

 

[nashville_minnie]

oh, geez, that reminds me of trying to cancel AOL!!

thanks for the heads up, as sadly, i think we are going to be canceling our Alaska cruise.

 

[AbsyBabsy]

I have a policy with that sort of situation and it can be a lot of fun. If they start asking personal questions....I give them really personal answers.....like....Well it is a secret but My husband was just appointed president of Bulgaria and we need to get to over there. I just found out that my house is sitting on an giant diamond mine. They are coming out next week to excavate and we think we will have enough money to actually buy Disney.

........the crazier the better.

NO WAY - both these things just happened to me!!!! LOL too funny!

 

[over50visits]

Wow. That doesn't sound very Disney to me! I've never been high pressured by them for anything. Tell them you're switching to the Universal Studios cruise (grin).

 

[Subi WRX]

$750 isn't a lot of money?

To whom?

That's more than my monthly mortgage payment.

Jerk.

 

[lovethedream]

Personally I would have demanded a supervisor and complained. I've never heard of them doing anything like that!

Having had booked and canceled a cruise or two, a DCL cruise was one of them (if the money is not there, it's not there, kinda thing), I have never had that kind of experience. I agree with calmpets, I would have asked for a supervisor immediately as it is simply uncalled for.

Did you keep the other cruise that was booked? I probably would have threatened to cancel everything at that point just to throw gas on the fire.

 

[ibela]

That's terrible! And now that I think about it, I got the same thing!! On our last cruise Dh had booked 2 rooms for a next cruise to get the OB rebooking discount, one for us and one for my parents. Issue was we didn't know if my parents wanted to go when we did, and we wanted to go on the Dream which hadn't been out yet. When we called about 2 months ago to change the date for the Dream, we wanted to cancel my parents' room (who said they can't plan a vacation so far in advance) and the phone rep did a sales pitch of "you only have $125 deposit which keeps your 10% discount and OBC, there's still plenty of time that you can cancel if they really don't want to go or if you don't want a 2nd cruise. Maybe you should hold onto it for now". With us it worked because dh was thinking the same thing prior to calling so they still have my money, but looks like they're being trained/encouraged to handle calls that way now...

 

[Servants of Evan]

Personally I would have demanded a supervisor and complained. I've never heard of them doing anything like that!

It's not just DCL -- while at WDW I was on the phone with dining for almost 15 minutes and all I wanted to do was check availability for WPC. The CM was asking me question after question and wasn't answering my simple one -- was there availability or not. I finally hung up on her and called the restaurant directly. While normally I don't mind helping with their marketing a bit, I thought this was excessive.

 

[gometros]

$750 isn't a lot of money?

To whom?

That's more than my monthly mortgage payment.

Jerk.

Jerk - what part of PA are you in! I wish I could say my mortgage payment was $750/month!

Sorry, about the salutation. Couldn't resist. Just the way you wrote your post, it could be taken as a sig

 

[Kim&Chris]

Wow. Through the years, we've had to cancel a cruise or two and I can honestly say the DCL reps have always been great. No questions at all. Just stuff like "oh, I'm so sorry you have to cancel", and then they'd go about cancelling my reservation in their system....but no pressure at all.

 

[jodifla]

Wow. this is pretty surprising. When I canceled the last cruise, they did ask me why, but didn't give me a hard time about canceling.