Complaint letter to Disney?

My daughter & I came upon a rude cast member working in Tomorrow Land & immediatly reported her directly at Guest services. I've been to Disney many times over & it was the first time we ever encountered a problem. They wrote down what we said & hopefully took care of it.

I had an issue come up that I wanted to discuss with someone, so I sent an e-mail and a snail mail to Disney back in December. I kept the letters short and sweet and to the point without a bunch of useless dialog (unlike I'm doing here). Well, guess what happened? The second week in April, I got a phone call from Guest relations wanting to discuss the issue that I had. Be patient. They will usually get back with you, even if it does take them a little over 4 months to do so.

That was a great article, the guy there had a lot of good points.
The way a letter is written is key, and he made good points that
some gentle nudging while they were there would have corrected
a lot of things.

A lot of people whine and complain in silence, and that does no good.
Nor does writing a complaint letter well after the fact.
I've always found that CM's will go out of their way to make things right
if you just explain things to them and ask politely.

Also, Disney really went the distance for that letter writer by giving
the refund, wow! I hope those folks are happy, now!

That was a good article. I have written a complaint letter before and did get a response. I did exactly what the writer suggested. Keep it short and sweet.

Atomicmickey said:

Also, Disney really went the distance for that letter writer by giving the refund, wow! I hope those folks are happy, now!

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I'm sure that by having the MSNBC reporter contacting Disney helped the fact they were given refunds on their passes. I just hope I never have a vacation go this bad. I always leave WDW wanting more.

We had an issue once with paying for 2 "rooms", one was a campsite and the other was a cabin. The CM who checked us in did not seperate out the two "rooms" and the front desk kept leaving notes at the camp site saying there was a problem with the bill. Problem two was that our teenaged (senior spring break) daughter and freinds were at that site and they were constantly in the parks, didn't tell us about the letter and a day went by without anyone connecting the two of us together. Long story short, we finally got the notice from the kids, went right away to the front desk at 1130 PM and took hours to straighten it all out. The very next day, another letter at the campsite, this time we heard right away becasue we raise so much you know what with our daughter for ignoring the first letter. We went back down, took more than another hour to re-straighten it all out and we lost a morning in the park. They recified their mistake right away, gave us a 10% off the total bill and gave us hoppers for the day. I was more than satisfied. the original problem was all their mistake. The total bill was paid but it looked like the campsite was not paid at all and the cabin was overpaid, it was a mess and it was upsetting because it looked like we were free loaders, the way the letter was worded it scared my daughter, she thought we were being kicked out! I literally said one thing about this upsetting what we had planned as a nice spring vacation and they offered all the perks. It was unexpected but appreciated.

My wife wrote a complaint email about bad service at a meal at crystal palace. About a month later they called her and discussed and refunded the entire meal amount back to us. And we were on the dining plan.

WishIwasThere said:

If anyone has even had a really bad or disappointing experience at Disney and has ever written a letter to them. And have felt that the letter had disappeared into a black hole. MSNBC has an article today that addresses such a thing and how to properly write the letter to possibly get some sort of response.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30526959/

Luckily I've never had a issue with any of my Disney trips to warant such a letter, or even a visit to guest relations, but if I did, this is a good guide line to follow.

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I have to admit that I have written a letter like this. I never thought that I would. I am a Disney Lover through and through! However, this past planning experience had me in such a tizzy, I had to write. Although I mentioned that issues with the website / hours / dining line, etc. that was NOT the point of the letter. The main point of the letter was on the phone, a CM charged my card when they were not supposed to and did not tell me. It was credited right away but not done properly. So I did not know of the charge until after the fact and the credit was not properly done and I had to call three times to get it corrected. When I called back, the CM was very rude stating that it was somehow my fault. Then I made a significant payment towards the vacation and 3/4 was returned - b/c Disney didn't think that I meant to do it. So I tried to pay again and they couldn't find my reservation b/c of the returned funds. At this point - I wrote a letter. It was two months and I just felt better for writing it. But never really thought I would hear anything. I was then called by the customer service department and all was made right. At that point, the vaca had been paid for and was happily planning away. So I was very surprised to get a call. Very pleased about the way that it was handled. :sohappy: Again, I did not complain about the website and hours and ADR's etc. Charges, refunds, and bad info from CM's was the focus. I never thought that I would write one - not to Disney.

I think the guest received way more than what she should have.

The ticket issue doesn't appear to have been Disney's. She states in the letter, the wrong tickets were purchased. She may have paid the agent for the correct ticket, but the agent requested the wrong one to Disney (or could be Disney's fault).

Getting keys replaced is an issue as lots of times one person in the family will replace all the keys - and mix and match bad/good keys. Multiple dining plans used at one table can be confusing.



The travel agent may not have booked everyone as part of the grand gathering. I've seen cases where 1 room is an entire magical gathering. Did everyone book through the same agency? Lots of travel agencies/tour companies can't do magical gatherings. Did everyone book the same room category?


My advise.


1. Book everyone through the same place and for the same details (resort and room category).

2. Check your confirmation/paper work before you leave, especially if it's from Disney directly.

3. Address problems at the time they happen.

I'm Sorry! They didn't deserve a dime back!

I couldn't help but shake my head the whole time reading this article! Does this family live in a box and this was their first vacation ever? Would the make a trip to Vegas or Europe and not grab a book to read up on what to expect? what to plan for? I can just see this family writing a complaint to B__________gham Palace because they came to see the Queen but they couldn't get in!

I could not find a thing Disney can reasonably be held liable for, further more I cannot believe that they were refunded anything! Maybe I will write Disney and tell them that since SM is closed my trip was ruined!:ROFLOL:Seriously, I have no sympathy!

i wish he could have helped me and I for the first time had a horriable experience checking in and getting my promotional gift card. They told me I would get a refund for the first night and i haven't seen anything still. I have been home since April 4th, and no one has contacted me at all.

I have to say that I unfortunately had to write a complaint letter once to Disney. Mine was as simple and clear as I could have been and concluded by suggesting ways in which improvements could be made to avoid similar (or worse) situations in the future. I received several follow-up phone calls from my letter and the result was a change in operations within a particular area in concerns to safety (vague, but I agreed not to ever share specific details even though it was several years ago). After assuring reps from Disney on the phone several times that I wasn't after anything other than seeing that a safety concern was addressed properly, I recieved a refund in the mail for a resort upgrade that I willingly paid for during my trip. It was something that Disney did not have to do and very unexpected. Furthermore, operational changes directly related to my complaint letter were initiated to prevent a similar incident from occuring in the future. I think it really shows that Disney cares not only for the safety of their guests, but also that they continually exceed all expectations of their guests.

Address?

WishIwasThere said:

If anyone has even had a really bad or disappointing experience at Disney and has ever written a letter to them. And have felt that the letter had disappeared into a black hole. MSNBC has an article today that addresses such a thing and how to properly write the letter to possibly get some sort of response.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30526959/

Luckily I've never had a issue with any of my Disney trips to warant such a letter, or even a visit to guest relations, but if I did, this is a good guide line to follow.

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What is the address- it is not on the websites article.

Writing a Letter, Emailing, Calling the Guest Relations Line, or all of the above is always worth it if you have a problem with something that happened while on your Disney Trip.

Definitely be nice in your letter though, you can be mad but respectful at the same time...and if you write a letter in a really harsh tone, they're going to be reluctant to answer. I've had to resort in writing letters 3 times to Disney:

1. Bad EMH policy where some CMs at the gates to MK were giving out wrist bands without checking for MYW cards at all...I explained in my letter that I pay extra (usually) to stay on property to be able to enjoy perks like this and I saw quite a few people who watched these CMs not checking for cards as they were getting ready to walk out, and decided to get their own wrist bands. Disney offered some COMP tickets but we politely declined to let them know we weren't just complaining to get something for free.

2. We booked at the Contemporary this past Feb under a passholder deal that was supposed to include some free Lithographs at check-in...nobody had any idea what we were talking about when we got there and they sent us on a wild goose chase through the parks to hunt down our own answers instead of offering to call around themselves. We went down to the World of Disney store Info desk where we were supposed to retrieve them and they said we neededa voucher from checkin..we explained the situation and they gave us the lithos anyway. We sent a letter to Disney when we returned home explaining the lack of information and effort and they ended up sending us another set of Lithos and a $50 giftcard.

3. Went to the Olzsewski signing in March and all of the new release models were pre-signed before the event...unfortunately, mine was like the only one that was overlooked. Sent a letter to Disney explaining that we had made a special trip that day JUST to get the signed model and they ensured that they had all been signed when mine actually hadn't. I ended up getting two signed replacements (one from Olzsewski, one from Disney) in another mixup and basically got to choose which one I wanted to keep.

In all cases, I was always polite and listed my disappointments, but never was rude, vulgar, or threatening in my letters...and every time my issues were resolved in some manner.

About 5 years ago we had a problem with a cast member that was shipping our packages from ASMu to home. She was being very rude and the manager was there watching and saw everything also. She was nasty from the start and was accusing me of trying to ship back boxes that didn't have anything in them so I could make a claim and get something free once I got home. What were in those "empty" boxes were like small cubes with letters on them to make a bracelet. There were two boxes like that and one that had a necklace that was similar to the bracelets, but was already made. After about a half hour the manager finally took over and was pleasant. When I got home I wrote Disney (can't remember if it was through email or snail mail). I was very detailed and accurate with everything that I had saw and hoped something would be done. They wrote me back saying not to worry because the problem had been taken care of. I hope I didn't get her fired....but she just shouldn't have been working with guests with that attitude and falsely accusing them!

disneygirl76 said:

I have to admit that I have written a letter like this. I never thought that I would. I am a Disney Lover through and through! However, this past planning experience had me in such a tizzy, I had to write. Although I mentioned that issues with the website / hours / dining line, etc. that was NOT the point of the letter. The main point of the letter was on the phone, a CM charged my card when they were not supposed to and did not tell me. It was credited right away but not done properly. So I did not know of the charge until after the fact and the credit was not properly done and I had to call three times to get it corrected. When I called back, the CM was very rude stating that it was somehow my fault. Then I made a significant payment towards the vacation and 3/4 was returned - b/c Disney didn't think that I meant to do it. So I tried to pay again and they couldn't find my reservation b/c of the returned funds. At this point - I wrote a letter. It was two months and I just felt better for writing it. But never really thought I would hear anything. I was then called by the customer service department and all was made right. At that point, the vaca had been paid for and was happily planning away. So I was very surprised to get a call. Very pleased about the way that it was handled. :sohappy: Again, I did not complain about the website and hours and ADR's etc. Charges, refunds, and bad info from CM's was the focus. I never thought that I would write one - not to Disney.

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Hi friend...I'm sorry for your not so magical experiences as of late! I agree...not cool!

As I've mentioned in a few posts, I'm kind of assisting my mom in planning her August trip.
Between the hours not being out til late, CMs telling her "AP rates will be out tomorrow...the next day...the next" and then having them not extended to the time she ends, having a CM tell her she can make ressies 100 days in advance, she has been very frustrated too!

I'm glad you wrote a letter...they need to hear it.

they probably quit reading after "5 hour wait at soaring for fastpasses" - :ROFLOL:

do what?

From the sounds of the letter in this article, a $1000 refund seems excessive, although I obviously do not have all of the information. But someone who complains about a 5 hour wait to use Fastpasses may just not understand the system at all or cannot be made happy about anything so therefore complains about everything . And I'm pretty sure the Disney gods didn't breakdown the monorail to make them late for a reservation...
Disney may be the 'happiest place on earth' but they are not the perfect place on earth - problem(s) are likely to happen that will put a bump in your vacation - some of those problems will require just s__________g it up and moving on (5 hour wait for Fastpasses) and some warrant a professional letter to the company explaining what went wrong and usually a (realistic) suggestion on how things could be improved. And while some sort of refund may be warranted, I'm pretty sure $1000 for a laundry list of whining is not (just my opinion since again I don't have all the info...O

We unfortunately had a less than magically experience our late trip in december. We stayed at POR and did not know until 2 weeks before we went it was pop warner time. When we checked in they put our rooms smack dab in the middle of the cheerleader building. Not a problem everyone has the right to stay and enjoy the magic. Where the problem was was the late night pool parties (we had poolside rooms), the drunk parents allowing their children to run around screaming at 11pm and the lack of response from the POR staff. Long story short we actually ended up calling the police and filling a formal complaint with the police dept and disney. After some going back and forth the with manager of POR we were refunded 5 nights stay. We were surprised at the lack of response intially from the desk staff at POR even though we had proof of what was going on but once we got through to management they handled the situation wonderfully. I think disney is known for being magical and compaired to non world vacation venues i think they do the most they can to try to compensate visitors for a vacation gone bad when in fact it is their wrong doing and not just the fault of some vacationers who set the bar too high or didnt do their research.