Complaining to Disney

Lord_Vader

Join me, together we can rule the galaxy.
We have complained in the past, typically the issues have been with our rooms and at all levels of resort.

POR Summer 14' pd for a Preferred Room only to receive a parking lot view through a stairwell, this was after spending two weeks at AKL and YC with spectacular views of a Savanna and BWI. We only received a shrug and "well, the rooms here are categorized by building not views and since you requested something close to accessible (no WC accessible rooms were available) we put you close to the parking lot to make it easier." This was a slap, especially since the room had stairs to get to the lot so we had to walk around the building anyway to get to the parking lot. We will never stay at this resort again BTW.

Still POR Summer '14... We had our bags transferred from YC to POR and when they arrived the refrigerated snack items (they were labeled by YC bell services) were hot, some smashed and not edible any longer. After a quick visit to the front desk, they offered to replace as much as possible (theme park specific snacks cannot be replaced at resorts apparently) and they did replace everything including a few bags of melted Disney Gummies and added more than a few items from the resort with sincere apologies. We were impressed with the quick and unexpected level of service after the issues with our room location.

Pop Century '02 was overbooked one trip, 10 days into a 12 day visit we were notified that they were overbooked and we were being moved. Our choice was AS-S at the same price or CBR, we chose CBR but were forced to pay the price difference for the two nights as we had a "choice" We called and complained about not only being forced to move but having to pay the difference which resulted in being comped the price difference with a small thank you sent to our room from the head cheese.

BWI Christmas '13 put us in a parking lot view room after we paid for a preferred room, my wife had a cow especially given the amount of money we spent for the location and view. It took three hours and two visits to the front desk to get it straightened out as there was "a mix-up" in room assignments that resulted in too many preferred view rooms being sold. We were placed into a preferred room with a chipped sink that had been blocked off for repairs and were comped a single nights stay for our trouble on our account and an apology by the manager.

I have found that if you travel enough issues will be encountered. Disney usually does a great job of taking care of any issues

After waiting nearly 45 minutes for my sons ghostly photo at MM in MK (which is great BTW) the CM sent a small apology with a magnet thanking us for our patience and that she was sorry we had to wait so long but enjoyed chatting with us during the time we waited. This was a little magic that was unexpected and means a lot to us.

GR in DHS (Ross) helped us with or MM package issue. After trying to resolve the issue with our resort (POFQ) to no avail he went above and beyond to make sure everything was fixed to our satisfaction.
 

rob0519

Well-Known Member
We've have a few complaints over the years and each one was resolved in some manner.

The first was many years ago when Regis and Kathy Lee were hosting a Cinderella Wedding for two contest winners. Main Street was absolutely packed to the point where you could not move. We havea son who needs a wheel chair and they could not get through the crowd to get away from it. My wife made a comment to the Front Desk person at the Contemporary who asked her to put her complaint in writing and provided a form. Several weeks later we received 5 one day / one park passes with a note apologizing for the crowd control. Abouit three years later we were in San Diego and drove up to Disneyland. I asked the cast member at the gate if we could use the passes even though they were for WDW. She took the passes to her manager for approval and within minutes we were in DCA.

A few years later, we were back at the Contemporary and I went to do our laundry in the Garden Wing. Well, after three cycles in the dryers all the clothes were still completely wet. I went back to the room, called the Front Desk (Call Center) and asked for the location of the closest Coin-Op laundromat. I was told someone would get back to me. A few mintues later the night manger of the CR called and told me I didn't need to go off property to do laundry. Simply put it all in the plastic laundry bags and place in in the hallway. She would have our clothes dry cleaned at no charge. I said it wasn't necessary, but she insisted, so we put the clothing for a family of 5 in the hall. After a full next day at the parks we returned to find all our laundry had indeed been dry cleaned and put on hangers. Based on the posted prices for Disney Dry Cleaning this would have easily been worth several hundred dollars.

The last incident involved a half complaint / half request. Our resevration at the CR was for 6 days in a Bay Lake view room. When we checked into our room, we discovered parts of the pool area were cunder heavy construction and since parts of the pool were still open, loud music was blaring all day as it was at the tail end of Spring Break season. I went downstairs and asked if there were any MK view rooms availalbe and was willing to pay the difference to move both our rooms. I was told there were no other rooms available. So, I asked if there were any rooms at either the Polynesian or GF for all or even several days of our stay for which again I would pay the difference. The desk clerk went to check and returned with one of the Asst. Managers who upgraded us to two Concierge Level rooms with the MK view at no cost to us. As the clerk was making our new room keys I asked her why we recieved such a generous upgrade and she said once I asked about moving to another resort, they would have done whatever they could to keep us in the CR because it looks bad on the management when a guest is unhappy enough to change hotels.

And yes, I wrote very nice thank you letters to Customer Service when we returned home afterwards.
 

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
I told them calmly that I want them to go research the call as I know all calls are recorded. Within 2 hours, I received a call back, profusely apologizing for the agent's error.
My brother had a similar issue. This one is a long doozy but I'll try and keep it as short as possible. His credit card was charged an extra $200 at Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at Poly. He noticed when he got home and called Disney. They refunded the money and gave him 5 sets of 5 day passes (one for each member of his family) for the trouble. Needless to say, my brother was thrilled.

A few weeks later he learned a friend was visiting WDW and he offered 3 days out of his passes as a gift to her to help with expenses. He called Disney to confirm this was ok and was told yes. He spoke with a CM (Sarah) at length and was given instructions on how his friend was to use the pass. Sarah even gave him a number to reach her in case of a problem. Of course upon arrival his friend was told the ticket was invalid and they even confiscated it and told her that "it was purchased online illegally". She calls my brother (who was at work). Lucky for him he was able to get Sarah on the phone. She tells him that there are notes in the system from the GF concierge regarding these tickets and someone paid for two day passes at GF and tried to add his 5 day pass to their magic band account and they were flagged as illegal. He three way called his friend so she was on the phone with Sarah as well. She tells them she is staying offsite and has never even stepped foot in the GF AND that she is only staying for three days so it makes no sense that she would buy extra park passes. Sarah hangs up with them so she can look into the issue. She calls my brother back an hour later and basically says that someone made an error in the system notes and thats all she can say. Sarah has GR at MK issue a new pass and all is well.

A month or so later my brother offers the remaining two days of the 5 day pass to another friend who is only going for two days before he heads out for a disney cruise. Knowing the huge pain in the butt the first ticket caused he calls Sarah and lets her know whats going on. They have a good laugh about the previous incident and she assures him that it wont happen again. His friend arrives at WDW and when attempts to enter MK with his wife and daughter the exact same thing happens. Disney says the ticket was purchased illegally , blah, blah, blah. My brother is at work and again has to call Disney. Sarah, The same CM he has dealt with from the start tells him, "I fell for your lies the first time, but its not gonna work anymore". She accuses him of selling his tickets illegally. He is fuming at this point and asks to speak with a supervisor. Supervisor gets on and my brother explains the whole situation to him. The supervisor tells him the ticket his friend is trying to use was already used over a month ago and that is usually what happens whenever someone is using illegal tickets. My brother asks him why on earth if he was selling illegal tickets would he risk calling into Disney, give Sarah his name, phone number, work phone number, and not to mention DIsney has all his other information on file from previous trips. The supervisor tells him that the notes on his account are vague and dont even mention half of the stuff my brother is telling him. Brother tells him thats ridiculous and to ask the Sarah because SHE took the notes. The supervisor tells him, "oh, I was only looking at the past few days, not over a moth ago". What an idiot. He pulls up the notes from the prior trip and discovers that the dates the ticket was used on are the exact same as the days of his other friends (the girl) trip. Then he discovers that the CM at MK issued her a three day pass using the remaining days out my brothers free pass and cancelled two days off the 5 day pass, even though he should have issued her a completely new pass for 3 days and left two days on my brothers 5 day pass. The supervisor begins to apologize profusely as he realizes that the lazy CM at MK completely botched it all up. He corrects the current situation and asks my brother what he could do to make it up. My brother was pretty ticked off by now and had wasted half his day on the phone and been accused of selling tickets illegally. The supervisor offered to send him a new 5 day pass for the trouble. He accepted and all is well. I informed my brother to quit giving away his passes and use them!
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
We go 2-3 times a year, so that leaves the door open for being there a lot more, which in turn leads to the greater chance that something could go wrong just because we're there a lot. We've had to complain quite a few times about TS restaurants, resort rooms, bus service, and MM+.

These next two stories aren't really "complaints" per se, but they are great stories. I might go into a couple of bad experiences in another post, but I will try to keep this one positive.

This next one really wasn't a complaint, nor was it entirely Disney's fault, but it was at Kouzina's. I have several food allergies, which I had just developed (I was in middle school at the time), so I was just avoiding the foods I was allergic to on menus. That was a mistake. We were there for breakfast, and I didn't realize that the blueberry pancakes contained nuts. Thankfully, I noticed when I got them and immediately told the wait staff. They were nice about it, didn't say anything about not telling them about the allergy, brought the chef out, and said that they would make me ones without the nuts. Well, I got the next set, and they were undercooked. Still had batter in the middle. By this point, I was hungry and about in tears. They brought me a properly done set, some fruit before the pancakes, and a cereal bar for the road. When we got back to the room that night, we found a large fruit basket waiting for us. It had the fruits I'm not allergic to in it, plus a few of the gluten/nut-free snacks. It also had several pins that were attached to a heart made from construction paper. There was also a note inside with my name on it. So they figured out where we were staying, what my first name was, and they bothered to check to be sure that there was nothing in there that I was allergic to. I still have the heart with the pins on it.

Another non-complaint type was with Pal Mickey. I was about 9 and dropped my pal Mickey in the water of Rio del Tiempo accidentally (one reason I was not sorry to see that version of the ride go: personal bad memories!:joyfull:). Needless to say, water and electronics do not mix; he had completely stopped working. We took him to the camera shop in Epcot, the center for Pal Mickey issues at the time, and told the CM working there what had happened. The CM just said, "Oh, not good," and smiled. He left us there for a second, went in the back, brought out another Pal Mickey, and said, "How would you like a new Pal Mickey?" Free of charge, we just gave them the old one. Above and beyond what we were expecting. That one CM definitely saved that day and that trip. And yes, I still have that Pal Mickey.:happy:
 

DManRightHere

Well-Known Member
We were checking into Animal Kindom Lodge about 30 minutes before check-in and for some reason they were having issues with management pre checking our room. A CM told us she would find us when they have a resolution for the issue. We went and had lunch on site and checked in an hour later and the hotel credited us $100 for the inconvenience. I was perfectly happy with that. I guess technically I didn't complain..but I was going to if they didn't offer us something..as we were almost wasting the extra $10 per park ticket we paid for that day, but we were already running ahead of schedule :)

Oh yes...almost forgot. The bro and sis inlaws were checking into an all star resort the same day and the hotel was overbooked, they DID have reservations. Disney saw our MM+ accounts were linked, and the inlaws were upgraded to AKL with us.
 

nepalostparks

Well-Known Member
After dozens of day trips, overnight stays, and a few longer vacations in the last several years, I'm happy to say that there have only been a few times I truly felt the need to complain about an experience at Disney. Most were small issues that I can't even be bothered to remember, which must have been fixed adequately since I don't recall most of them.

My biggest complaint was actually recent - just before Thanksgiving at Diamond Horseshoe. Having never had a chance to dine there before (we normally avoid the Orlando park on holiday weeks on purpose) I was excited to check another spot off my list of things done at Disney. Unfortunately, it was one issue after another.

First, for whatever reason, the line to order was dreadfully slow. There were only two or three sets of families/guests ahead of us, but it still took nearly 20 minutes to order. The prices on the menu board above the cashiers was wrong - we were charged some 20 or 30 cents extra for each entree. It wasn't a big deal, and if that was it, I wouldn't haven't complained. But like the infomercials tease - wait, there's more!

Onto the second line after paying to wait with our receipt to go pick up our food. We waited a little under 10 minutes there. Then we get to the counter, and wait another two or three minutes to get our drink. The cup they gave us was only about 2/3 full. I caught the attention of one of the staff and asked that they fill it completely. Then we waited several more minutes to get our food that looked like it was ready under the warming lamps (it was - but apparently the order ahead of us was waiting on one item, and the cast member handing out the food didn't feel the need to continue working down the line of guests whose orders were ready).

We finally get our food (it's been somewhere around 35-40 minutes from the time we walked in at this point) and head upstairs. The soda was flat. Not under-carbonated, completely flat. My partner's pork brisket sandwich was extremely dry - he likened it to eating chalk. My bbq turkey sandwich was good, the only highlight of the meal.

I asked to see a manager, because if one or two of the issues had occurred, I would have just chalked it up to a bad day and moved on. But I felt that with all of the issues we encountered, they needed to know. The manager we spoke to listed to me rattle off basically what I typed above, apologized for our experience, and offered a full refund. I said I would be happy to pay for my sandwich since I enjoyed it, but she ended up refunding the whole thing.

Wish it didn't happen in the first place, but after so many interactions and time spent at Disney, I consider myself lucky that we haven't had any really big issues that required attention.
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
I have corresponded with Guest Relations after every trip. I make sure to voice both the good and the bad. Of course the good outweighs the bad, but I want to present a fair and balanced report to them. Not once have I not gotten emails and phone calls and they always seem interested in what we have to say. Whether or not anything is done with that information is beyond me, but it's nice to be able to give them feedback via person to person instead of just some random survey.
 

SamandChel

Active Member
Original Poster
@draybook I have emailed guest relations after most trips and also have received phone calls/emails back from them. I emailed them before this trip to solve an issue with fp+ not working with our reservation and they solved it and comp'd us a few things. A few days after I received another call from them just checking to make sure we were all set with everything and they even offered us more for our trouble.

Disney is one of the few companies that I feel actually want to hear feedback good/bad. A lot of the time I feel other companies just say something to getthou off their back hahaha.
 

Ben_since_1971

Well-Known Member
@draybook Disney is one of the few companies that I feel actually want to hear feedback good/bad. A lot of the time I feel other companies just say something to getthou off their back hahaha.

I couldn't agree more. I too usually contact them after every trip and mostly its to tell them about all the good and great things that happened and people I have dealt with. And when something 'un-magical' happens, my goal is to just let them know about it so it can be addressed and corrected.

As someone previous has said, you travel enough things are going to happen. And anything that falls into the 'stuff happens' category is stuff I don't think twice about. But when I see some un-Disney behavior, I feel it is my responsibility as a consumer (and one who treasures WDW) to alert them. Constructive criticism if you will. And each time I do I usually get a personalized email and often a phone call directly from someone at Disney to acknowledge my note and discuss it with me. That is what sets Disney apart.
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
I contacted Disney after our Sept 2012 trip. We went to a very very overcrowded MNSSHP and it was just NOT a good experience. I wanted them to be aware that after spending nearly $400 for 7 people to go it was not good. I got a nice reply but wasn't after anything. Fast forward to summer 2013 I get an email from them. We had reservations for Sept 2013 and they wanted to offer us tickets to a MNSSHP while we were there on them.. That party was excellent!!
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
I do want to add that I have had the same great response from Universal. Not to start the old debate between the two but I just wanted to point out that both companies seem to hold guest feedback in high regards.
 

MickeyMomV

Well-Known Member
The only issue I have ever voiced was on the phone when we were trying to add a promotion to our existing reservation. Adding the promotion actually increased the price as we booked before the summer price increase for an October trip. I tried to get a price break down and nobody could/would give it to me. Finally a supervisor apologized and noticed that I had a 9 year old son. He offered to have a $100 GC waiting at check in for my son and he offered preferred seating to all of the fireworks shows. I don’t think we ever used the preferred seating but my son thought the GC was awesome.
 

BigRedDad

Well-Known Member
I have only complained once and it was because WDW failed to communicate. We were at Coronado Springs. We had no clue it was a half marathon going on. We got to the bus stop and waited for an MK bus. After about a dozen buses passed for DHS and AK, we asked the bus driver where an MK bus was. His response is that it would be there in a few minutes. About15 minutes later it gets there. They make no mention that they cannot even get to the MK. We go some off the wall way, backed up in traffic, in long lines, and dropped off at the TTC. It was over an hour wait for the Ferry and Monorail. People were backed up wall to wall all the way past the ticket booths. Disney Security was blocking people from walking to the MK because it was shorter. We fought the crowds to get to the buses to get out there. We get on a bus to DHS from the TTC. We start getting out and a young lady gets on after finishing her marathon. Stuck in traffic, wall to wall, she starts to lose it. NOt 100% sure what it was, but it was dehydration, heat exhaustion, or heat stroke. The bus driver says he can't open the door to get help even though we were in a dead stop. We finally force him to open the door, force him to call 911, and we run car to car to get water, coolers, and anything else we could find to get her cooled off. She eventually comes to and is visibily scared and confused. Paramedics finally arrive and take her away.

The net of the story is that we were at the bus stop at 7:45, got on the bus at 8:30, and got to DHS at 12:30PM. Almost 5 hours to get to a park because they did not communicate that getting to Epcot or MK will be insane. I sent a hand written letter to Guest Services through certified mail. I received a phone call 2 days later. The lady was very nice, took the issue seriously, and was going to work with logistics and communicating about bus delays. She was also going to work with the bus company on proper ways to handle potential deadly situations. The young lady could have died from stupidity. A person's life supercedes general rules.
 

popcenturylover

Well-Known Member
We've only had 1 complaint & it was on our Sept 12' trip. We stayed at AOA in the LM rooms a week after they opened. Our 1st night we got back to our room after being up at 3:30am for our flights & a long day in the parks we tried to get into our room & the RFID reader wasn't working. So we called the front desk & after 45 minutes they finally sent someone & fixed the problem. They did credit some money back to us for our inconvenience. So, we were happy with that & had a great vacation after that!
 

JoyE

New Member
After waiting nearly 45 minutes for my sons ghostly photo at MM in MK (which is great BTW) the CM sent a small apology with a magnet thanking us for our patience and that she was sorry we had to wait so long but enjoyed chatting with us during the time we waited.

What is the ghostly photo at MM?
 

Danny.gtruong

New Member
A lady I work with had breakfest at Cinderellas castle during the Christmas season, anywho her husband ordered some eggs and it looked like a kids portion. Dont know why they didnt say anything to the waiter, but she called someone up and in the end she got a 250 dining card for Disney. I think next time, I'm gonna complain more
 

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