Wrote to Guest Services and Disney Paralegal Answers!

[Redbeard52]

Originally posted by AirForceRocks
You're kidding, right? Or do you really consider that letter to be snotty and insulting?

Sorry, but I just don't see it. Impersonal, sure, but snotty and insulting?

I, too, do not see how this response was snotty, insulting (?!), or rude. You got a response...be glad for that!

Yeah, Disney has to hold a corporate line nowadays. Have you noticed they they are, after all, a business? Sorry, folks, but the reality is that the bottomless barrel of Disney Magic is gone. The sooner you realize it, the better off you'll be.

Goodness, people...you got a reply from a person who signed the letter with their name. That, in itself, is magic right there! And...they told you that your communication was being deleted. At least they told you...they did not have to.

It boggles my mind reading these boards lately. The post the other day about finding a bug in the room just about did me in. Come on - you're in the middle of a swamp! No, really...you are. You made the decision to travel there; it's not the other way around. Ponder that...

 

[Pat_Elliott]

Originally posted by DrTomorrow
Pat_Elliott,

And we're all overjoyed that you can be bored, if even for a few minutes.

Kungalooshes for Kimberly and Amy,
Erick

And three Kungalooshes right back at'cha!

 

[Fantasmic303]

*te he he* I didn't read the thread about the bug in the room (yet), but I find this particular thread humorous for a couple of reasons...

1 - Way back when, when the All Stars were in the works but not built yet, my family took our yearly trip to WDW and I, being the Disney AND movie lover that I am, was inspired to suggest a new movie-themed hotel. The entire vacation I thought about pool themes and room decor and everything else to go along with it, and I wrote a letter to Disney as soon as we got home. Months and months later, I received a very friendly letter thanking me for my ideas for "improving" the Resort and informing me that my letter had been forwarded to the department "in charge of such matters" and that I "may expect to be contacted by them separately". I was thrilled - I never did hear back from them, but I was 14 at the time and it was one of the most exciting pieces of mail I'd ever received. Within a few years, of course, All Star Movies was announced. I'm quite sure it was already being planned at the time I submitted my ideas, but it still made me proud to know that I think along Disney lines. Oh, and I never had any intention to ask for anything more than that.


2 - After my first hotel idea was responded to so positively, I wrote again, this time with a hotel themed around a circus, complete with, again, themed pool ideas, restaurants, and attractions. I thought it was genius...and sorta still do lol. Anyhoo, this time I got a letter back from one Sharon Mecca, paralegal. In fact, it is VERBATIM the same reply that prompted this thread originally, except that mine was a hard copy as opposed to email. That's the humor - their official spiel hasn't changed in seven years. And, actually, I was a little hurt by the wording - probably because I was disappointed they weren't as receptive to my ideas as they were in the past. *shrugs*


3 - and THIS is the kicker:

I wrote about six years ago concerning a giant disgusting bug I found sharing the bathroom with me at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Totally grossed out, I was. And I told them so. They replied with a letter full of regret and $50 in gift certificates for my trauma. Then I wrote back to them telling them I still loved Disney.


Anyhoo, that's my two cents, for what it's worth. I think you've got a good idea, and I hope they "come up" with a comparable solution so that other families don't lose Mickey.

 

[Niagara2]

Fantasmic303 thanks - that sums it up nicely. I am actually more surpised at the response to this thread! I still love Disney too, just wish it wasn't so easy to lose Pal Mickey. Yes - the world isn't as easy to live in as it once was but we can still go to Disney and leave those cares behind. Thanks for all the insight and information friends.

 

[RickinNYC]

Sorry in advance folks, but I have to disagree with most of you. Disney is a corporation. As much as I would hate to admit it, the Disney Company is absolutely no different than Ford Motor Co., Coca Cola, McDonald's, WalMart and on and on and on... Sure, they create magic, they created a wonderful vacation destination, they produce movies that can make a grown man cry, but they are no more or less a corporation then the folks you bought your car from or the superstore you purchased your guidebook.

Because we live in such an obscenely, offensively litigious society, ALL corporations absolutely MUST protect themselves and their rights in order to avoid any possibility, however slight, of a lawsuit. There are thousands of people out there who would rather spend their time, effort and money on suing a conglomerate in hopes of a windfall, so who can blame Disney?

And yes, our court system is as much, IF NOT MORE, at fault. If those asinine cases were simply thrown out of court and not even considered, we wouldn't have to worry about impersonal, cold, letters like the one described.

It's not Disney's fault. It's the fault of those friggin' losers who are trying to win the Litigation Lottery and the idiotic lawyers who choose to represent them. and the judges who allow those cases in court. ALL of the above should be ashamed of themselves, NOT Disney or any other company big or small for that matter.

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

Read on another forum that people are using the drink holders to contain their Pal Mickey's. Is a win for Disney as they will sell even more of those useful items. LOL

Slightly Goofy/Linda

 

[ChiTownZee]

What is a "Pal" Mickey? Am I just not knowing the correct name for something I already own or is this something I'm missing? $50?

 

[mat2672]

Thank you Rickin NYC. I think people are being a little picky here. and the response from the paralegal was not snotty at all. I hate corporations and lawyers as much as everyone else, but it is common sense that they have to protect themselves from every angle possible. You cant just say that "my little suggestion was so innocent and why would they think I would sue?". Most people im sure send these comments, etc. with the best intentions and dont really think its that big of a deal, but such a large corporation has to take a generic approach and basically send everyone the same response. That doesnt make it snotty because the response seemed cold and unpersonal. Its just a corporation doing business. I think people forget what a huge business disney is. Maybe thats a credit to them that they can create so many magical feelings for so many people, but at the same time be a business who's purpose is to squeeze every penny that they can from as many people as they can. Plus, you have to remember that they will send a more personal response under certain situations such as complaints, etc. How many corporations will go that far? I love the magic as much as everyone and I show my appreciation by spending thousands of dollars there every year, but at the same time I know its all business and Im just a customer.

 

[Dancind]

Wondering how much a creative idea is worth? I noticed a tiny item in the paper yesterday, or maybe it was on-line. Anyway, an advertising firm just won $30 million from Taco Bell. Seems they pitched the chihuahua ad campaign, and Taco Bell turned around and took their business to another firm. Diana

 

[DancingBear]

Don't be offended. Big companies who produce products have policies in place to provide standard responses to any sort of product suggestions.

Many times, they might be working on very similar products, or modifications to products (particularly if those modifications are "sensible" and address problems experienced by the early users), and, as noted above, they risk being sued by folks who can show by their letters that "See, I sent this suggestion to Disney in December, and in June they came out with almost exactly this product. I deserve to be compensated for my idea."

By handling all of these suggestions in a standard manner, they can help defend against these lawsuits by showing the court that (even if they can't locate a record of your specific letter) "whenever we get any sort of product suggestion, our policy is to issue this standard response, and to delete/destroy the message before it is ever seen by our product development people." Therefor, this letter was never seen by our product development people, and they developed this product/modification completely on their own."

I actually find the form letter to be very well-written and considerate.

 

[LisaDougKaylee]

What ageneric response. Mc Donald's corporation does the same thing. When September 11 happened, the doctor I work for was in California for a conference, due to come home the evening of the attacks. She was stuck clear across the country trying to get back , but because she would be flying into Logan/Boston, and that being where the two of the planes took off from, Logan was one of the last airports to reopen several days later. She ended up traveling part way by train, part by bus etc etc till she finally made it back.

Long story short, during this time, she had no other choice but to eat at restaurants near or at bus/train stations/depots. She sent McDonald's a letter stating her experience and how as aphyscian she felt there would things that could be done to make it easier for customers to recognize more healthful choices on their menu (very limited, she did add.)

Well, wouldn't you know, about three weeks later she recieved a letter almost a carbon copy of Disney's!!!

It must be some sort of standard response from legal departments.

 

[WDWBetsy]

I didn't think it sounded snotty either.

 

[Jollymon]

You think that the paralegal wrote that message?

Surely you guys are not that gullible.

That is a canned responce. It is called an auto responder and depending on the contents of an e-mail, different messages are sent in reply automatically by the mail server. Then the message is deleted, much like a spam blocker.

Andrew

 

[Uncleromulus]

Well said RickinNYC.
Having worked in our court "system" at the State and Federal level for nearly 34 years, I saw the "problem" up close and personal.
Can't blame Disney for their response. Our courts left them no choice.

 

[nicknamy1996]

Wow, I just remembered around 75 years ago or so, I told this guy Walter... I can't remember his last name. I think it was Dizzy or something like that. He was an artist of some sort. And I told him he should have a signature character, perhaps something like a hamster or even a mouse. And he could base short animated films on him, even full length ones, and eventually expand into merchandising, multiple theme parks even parks in europe and asia(... no wait I told him to stay away from Europe), retail stores, websites(I was a real forward thinker back then), magazines, books, and live action movies, even a movie studio... and more, the whole works. Now there's an idea that could have went somewhere. If he would have took my advice I could have sued him and got rich. Too bad, I still think it would have worked. I wonder what ever happened to him?

It's probably for the best because with a vision like that it probably would have gotten too big and people would be jealous of his money and try to sue every chance they got, and with litigious people around every corner he would have to be cautious in everything he did. Then people would read his cautiousness as being snooty. Others would complain that this company which would have to deal with Millions and Millions of individuals could occasionally seem impersonal. And still more would be so critical of every little detail, they would sit around on message boards and type not about how excited they were when they saw one of these theme park's icons for the first time, or when they cried when their sons or daughters finally hugged some college kid dressed up in a big paper mache' costume(ok I'm still working out the details on that one.) No these people would skip that, but they would type about how cold thier pancakes were on their breakfast on their third day at one of these theme parks or that a trash can was overflowing in one of the restrooms. One restroom! They'd spend 7 strait days using "public" restrooms, not mention the fact that most of them were ridiculously clean, but complain about the one that was not.

Now that was snooty!

I felt the letter was written very well. Assembled in a way get what may be an unpleasant point across in the friendliest, most professional manner. Definitely not snooty.

 

[tmq2766]

OMG NICKNAMY1996 You definately nailed this one on the head!!!!!!!!! Instead of sitting and picking apart the Disney Parks and staff people should really take a comparison look at the Disney parks compared to let's say Six Flags parks.

 

[mat2672]

your right on TMQ2766. Whenever I face the inevitable teasing from people I know who dont understand why me and my family can be "fooled" into believing that disney has some kind of magic , and then being asked why we would ever spend so much to go there at least once a year I always shoot back that I know disney is a business to make money and lots of it, but at the very least they do a great job with the product they have. The other parks don't come close to disney's level of cleanliness, customer service, employees that actually seem to be genuinely happy to work there. Ive never seen anthything that comes close. Now of course, every once in a while an employee has a bad day and is rude or maybe the hotel room wasn't clean enough, etc. and all of a sudden people are up in arms ready to hang someone from a tree because the maid at the hotel didnt make towel animals or whatever. Dont get me wrong, I wont let anyone treat my family bad and I will get angry when something bad does happen, but you have to look at the big picture and realize that such a large business will be impersonal sometimes or maybe hire a few bad employees by mistake. The bottom line is that although its a money hungry corporation under it all, it is still the best at what it does. We could all find a little detail to complain about. Power to the Mouse!!

 

[tmq2766]

Rock on Mickey!!!!!!

 

[nicknamy1996]

Did any of you happen to catch a story on the news recently about the 2 guys who sued Taco Bell. They claimed the "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" chihuahua was based on an idea that had submitted to Taco Bell. I'm guessing the had a lot of evidence to back up that clam because they were just awarded 30.1 million dollars from a jury. With a possible follow up suit for another 5-10 million for pre-judgement interest on the money they were awarded.