Kudos to Disney

GregT · Oct 24, 2014

All,

I purchased a small Disney package so that I could sporadically visit Aulani when visiting the islands. Well, we plan a 3 day trip there next year before going over to Maui, and the booking window opens next month. I think I need to rent some additional points and have been talking with Slum808 on how to accomplish this.

I logged onto the Disney website today because I can't recall how many I need and realize that, like a genius, I'd apparently made a waitlist request for Grand Californian that subsequently matched. The date has come and gone and my points with them. :doh:

Well, I called Disney and explained the details of my stupidity and they were very kind and restored the points to my accounts. I'm very very happy. I doubt any of my other timeshares would do something so owner friendly.

Good work Disney -- it is appreciated!

Best,

Greg

vacationhopeful · Oct 24, 2014

Was the customer service agent a woman?

If so, you got MANY MORE points for admitting your stupidity. And with details to boot. It made your day but definitely made HER WEEK.

Glad it worked out. But I think the Disney Customer Service representations actually get paid to MAKE owners & guest HAPPY verses citing the manual to work the bottom line on the spread sheet a few dollars richer. That is called customer service ... and as any one knows working with the public, a happy customer spends MORE.

PS I also own a small 90 AKV/DVC points contract. It took several stays and multiple call ins to the 1-800 number, before I felt the "Welcome Home" was just not a catch phrase ...

hcarman · Oct 24, 2014

We don't own at Disney Vacation Club, but I was just saying today how we probably should have bought there instead. I don't hear of many unhappy customers. I find with our Marriott that the hotel side is still very accomodating, but the vacation club side not so much - seems a bit strange -but that has just been my experience over the years.

Rsauer3473 · Oct 24, 2014

One more reason why DVC continues to maintain its value. We missed a deadline to ank points last year when we were in Australia. No problem: the agent moved the points without a comment other than asking if we'd like anything else today.

JimMIA · Oct 24, 2014

I've always found DVC MS to be very pleasant and helpful.

However, over on the DIS DVC boards, you hear a LOT of complaints about very long (>20 minutes) wait times if you need to speak to a human.

The banking exception is the standard "super-secret one-time exception." They won't do it again, so hopefully there were enough points involved to make it worthwhile.

Trudyt623 · Oct 25, 2014

Disney is the best

I love disney because of the excellent customer service.

Greg, (or anyone else) I am wonderering what the benefit is to having a very small DVC package at a Disney resort for owners of a larger contact in another Dvc resort. Many owners do this and I believe it's for early reservation purposes but am unclear how it works.

taffy19 · Oct 25, 2014

All we can do is suggest it to them. We get enough surveys to fill out so they want our opinion.

JimMIA · Oct 25, 2014

Trudyt623 said:
Greg, (or anyone else) I am wonderering what the benefit is to having a very small DVC package at a Disney resort for owners of a larger contact in another Dvc resort. Many owners do this and I believe it's for early reservation purposes but am unclear how it works.

It's not for early reservations. Only home resort points can be used prior to seven months, so owning a small contract at another resort would not work.

My guess is they found they needed a few more points because of point reallocations and Disney was no longer selling their original resort. The other likely possibility is they use the small contract for a special stay at that resort every third year using banking and borrowing -- like a Christmas stay at VWL, where they would need the 11 month booking.

I also know a couple of owners who bought a small contract for the annual pass benefit, and are in the process of selling the rest of their DVC.

littlestar · Oct 25, 2014

We've been DVC members since 2002 and that's always been my experience. Excellent customer service. I do love my DVC membership.

DeniseM · Oct 25, 2014

Greg - Curious: didn't they send you a confirmation notice?

fluke · Oct 25, 2014

DeniseM said:
Greg - Curious: didn't they send you a confirmation notice?

It hs been my experience and understanding that DVC doesn't send a notice when a wait list fills. I guess you are expected to keep up on your own.

GregT · Oct 25, 2014

DeniseM said:
Greg - Curious: didn't they send you a confirmation notice?

Yes, I was surprised about that too.

They told me that an email auto-generates, but I went back and didn't see anything in my Old Email so I don't think I ever received it.

And the agent was a very nice lady -- she probably was amused by the call...

Best,

Greg

SueDonJ · Oct 25, 2014

GregT said:
All,

I purchased a small Disney package so that I could sporadically visit Aulani when visiting the islands. Well, we plan a 3 day trip there next year before going over to Maui, and the booking window opens next month. I think I need to rent some additional points and have been talking with Slum808 on how to accomplish this.

I logged onto the Disney website today because I can't recall how many I need and realize that, like a genius, I'd apparently made a waitlist request for Grand Californian that subsequently matched. The date has come and gone and my points with them.

Well, I called Disney and explained the details of my stupidity and they were very kind and restored the points to my accounts. I'm very very happy. I doubt any of my other timeshares would do something so owner friendly.

Good work Disney -- it is appreciated!

Best,

Greg

That's awesome, DVC's excellent reputation is proven once again. I don't blame you for being happy.

But I'm curious about what I bolded, at least as far as your Marriott ownership. There have been several reports to TUG about Marriott working with owners on one-time exceptions, one of the most recent being a report from a Weeks Owner who mistakenly clicked through all the warnings about the finality of converting a Week to DC Points yet did it anyway when that wasn't what he wanted to do at all. Despite his obvious error, when asked Marriott reversed the conversion and restored his Week to his account.

That's not the only feel-good story we've heard about Marriott. It's off-topic here and I apologize for that, but I was reminded of Marriott's occasional rule exceptions in a different thread just before being surprised by what you wrote here. IMO, it's always worthwhile to ask for help from the Customer Service people when an error occurs, by you or by them, and I don't agree that DVC's occasional rule overrides for owner/member mistakes are unique in the industry.

JimMIA · Oct 25, 2014

I find Wyndham's customer service very good -- the polar opposite of their sleazy sales staff. I haven't had any situations where I've needed an exception, but the service has been excellent.

And you don't have to wait for 20 minutes, which is the one complaint I've heard recently about DVC.

Wyndham's online service is also very good and easy to use. That used to be non-existent, then very poor, with DVC -- but I think it is greatly improved now. In fact, I read a lot of "happy-camper" posts about their online system now.

One thing I think we need to remember about DVC is that it is a very small system compared to the Hiltons, Marriotts and Wyndhams of the world. For that reason, some things tend to lag behind and take a long time catching up.

littlestar · Oct 25, 2014

JimMIA said:
I find Wyndham's customer service very good -- the polar opposite of their sleazy sales staff. I haven't had any situations where I've needed an exception, but the service has been excellent.

And you don't have to wait for 20 minutes, which is the one complaint I've heard recently about DVC.

Wyndham's online service is also very good and easy to use. That used to be non-existent, then very poor, with DVC -- but I think it is greatly improved now. In fact, I read a lot of "happy-camper" posts about their online system now.

One thing I think we need to remember about DVC is that it is a very small system compared to the Hiltons, Marriotts and Wyndhams of the world. For that reason, some things tend to lag behind and take a long time catching up.

Ditto. Wyndham customer service has always been excellent for me, too. We have added additional points with both systems this last year (resale of course). I like their point systems.

mjm1 · Oct 25, 2014

Greg, nice story. I do wish other major programs were as focused on customer satisfaction. We have another friend who owns DVC and they love it too.

Mike

blondietink · Oct 26, 2014

We have always had excellent service from DVC representatives. Ditto for the Starwood reps we have talked with on the phone.

GregT · Nov 17, 2014

Today is when the 7 month window opened up for June 17, 2015. I dialed at 5:59:57am PT and sat on hold for 30 minutes before speaking to an agent.

I was able to book a 1BR OV at Aulani for my desired dates. I would have preferred a 2BR but they were all booked, and a 1BR will be fine for us. I had rented 50 points from another owner, so the good news is I didn't have to borrow next year's points to complete the reservation (which a 2BR would have necessitated). I did waitlist for a 2BR and it may still come through.

So I am set for 2015 now!! 3 days at Aulani and then 13 days at MOC (in 6206, if any of you track the Marriott board).

I'm really excited. Thanks to all good TUGgers for the loads of Disney information, and especially Slum808 who has given me lots of good advice on the Disney system.

I think next time I need to learn how to walk the reservation because the system had been predicting availability a few days ago, and even yesterday, there was 2BR OV available. Or maybe my atomic clock isn't good enough :doh:

.

But under all scenarios, I'm happy with the reservation and happy with my modest Disney package.

Best,

Greg

frank808 · Nov 17, 2014

Greg you could have logged in online at 9am est to book the first day or how ever many days you have available points for in your account. Then call in to add days to the reservation with the transferred in points. You might have been able to score your ideal reservation. Before there was on line booking I remember calling in 15 seconds before 9am. This helped because when the lines opened up I would be in the call que already. This was to book at VGC. Got tired of doing this twice a year so ended up biting the bullet and buying VGC points instead of fighting at 7 months.
Well enjoy aulani next year!

GregT · Nov 17, 2014

frank808 said:
Greg you could have logged in online at 9am est to book the first day or how ever many days you have available points for in your account. Then call in to add days to the reservation with the transferred in points. You might have been able to score your ideal reservation. Before there was on line booking I remember calling in 15 seconds before 9am. This helped because when the lines opened up I would be in the call que already. This was to book at VGC. Got tired of doing this twice a year so ended up biting the bullet and buying VGC points instead of fighting at 7 months.
Well enjoy aulani next year!

Frank, that's really interesting. I didn't think I could do it online because I was using banked points and was told I needed to call in.

But it looks like I could have recorded the one day online, and then called in and added Days 2 and 3? That would definitely have worked....

Thanks for the suggestion and still happy with DVC!

Best,

Greg

frank808 · Nov 18, 2014

You can make reservations with banked points. All banked, current and future year points show up online. You can use them to make bookings. The only thing you cannot do on the website is to use transferred in points. So as long as your points are not transferred in you can book the first day and add the other days by calling in to use the transferred points. Enjoy your stay and wish I could meet you in June.

slum808 · Nov 18, 2014

Greg
Glad to hear you got something that will work. The miss match between the online booking and opening of the phone lines is one of my big pet peeves. It's not only Disney it's just about all systems.

Steve

GregT · Nov 18, 2014

frank808 said:
You can make reservations with banked points. All banked, current and future year points show up online. You can use them to make bookings. The only thing you cannot do on the website is to use transferred in points. So as long as your points are not transferred in you can book the first day and add the other days by calling in to use the transferred points. Enjoy your stay and wish I could meet you in June.

Thanks again -- it's interesting because I must have had three or four conversations with DVC member services last week trying to find some booking trick with DVC that would let me book online. And the member services kept telling me I needed to call in because I was using transferred points.

I should have asked TUGgers instead :doh:

Steve has given me room suggestions for Aulani so I will call in to make the request. Thanks again for the comments!

Best,

Greg

PearlCity · Nov 18, 2014

fluke said:
It hs been my experience and understanding that DVC doesn't send a notice when a wait list fills. I guess you are expected to keep up on your own.

I've gotten notice when waitlist fills but you need to call in to connect reservations

frank808 · Nov 18, 2014

Just got an email for a waitlist I had at VGF. Wife wanted to add another day and of course the room was not available. Waitlisted it last month and got an email confirming waitlist filled. Might want to check spam folder also.

Kudos to Disney

GregT

TUG Member

vacationhopeful

TUG Review Crew: Rookie

hcarman

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

Rsauer3473

JimMIA

Trudyt623

taffy19

JimMIA

littlestar

DeniseM

fluke

GregT

TUG Member

SueDonJ

JimMIA

littlestar

mjm1

TUG Review Crew: Expert

blondietink

Guest

GregT

TUG Member

frank808

GregT

TUG Member

frank808

slum808

GregT

TUG Member

PearlCity

frank808