Disney not being very helpful

[mergatroid]

Now I'm hoping I'm not going to be perceived as 'argumentative' by this post, but I do feel something could be agreed as a compromise by Disney. I sent them this email just over a week ago which should pretty much explain the predicament my wife and I are in.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I hope you can assist me with a problem with my annual pass purchase. I'm a long time visitor to Disney (40+ years) and every 2 years purchase an annual pass. I had a similar problem with the last AP purchased due to me living in the UK.

I understand that the magic band I'm entitled to can't be posted to the UK, however with me not staying in a Disney hotel there's nowhere I can have the band sent. Last time I had this problem, somebody from your guest services dept kindly sent me a Disney voucher for $30 so I could purchase the magic band I'd already paid for with my AP purchase.

As I would like a new magic band I'd be quite happy for this to happen again. If this solution seems amicable, I'd be happy to send you my full name and the AP reference number I've received electronically?

Hope to hear back from you shortly and have a great day

Mergatroid ( name changed to protect my identity)

Now the reply I received from Disney was this

Dear Mergatroid,

Thank you for your message.

We truly appreciate that you are a part of our Annual Passholder family. Regretfully, due to international customs restrictions, we are unable to ship Magic Bands outside of the United States. While I am glad that John was able to assist you in the past, we are unable to provide the same consideration as the Disney Gift Card was extended as a one-time good will gesture. Should you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel, you may customize your Magic Bands and have them delivered to your Resort Front Desk for pick up upon check-in. I'm sorry for any disappointment this may cause.

Mergatroid, we look forward to entertaining you in the future.

Kindest regards,

xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx
Guest Experience Services
Walt Disney World Resort

Some more emails sent and they're going to phone me this week but won't back down on crediting me for the price of the magic bands I've paid for but can't receive as I have no U.S. address for them to send them to and don't really trust the hotel we're staying at (none Disney) to pass them on to us. I know they can't post them to the UK but can't really understand why they refuse to send them to a Disney Hotel for me to pick them up unless I pay to stay there? Also the gift voucher they sent last time to overcome the problem didn't really cost them anything, nor did I gain from it as it only got me what I'd already paid for?

I now it's a tad petty on my part for something that costs my wife and I an extra $25 (?) each you may say, but it's the principle of the thing that annoys me really when we're dropping around $1.700 for AP's.

Thoughts?

 

[Master Yoda]

Disney will ship the bands to your non-Disney resort for free. IMHO they have done everything required to solve your problem.

I hate to be rude, but you not trusting your resort to pass the package along (something nearly every hotel in the world does on a regular basis) is not Disney's problem.

 

[thomas998]

You can have them sent to the hotel you are going to go and have that hotel hold them for you. I can't imagine you would actually be staying in a hotel you don't trust enough to have them hold a package for you. If you don't trust the hotel, why would you stay there? Frankly I would say your anger should be directed at the UK government that wants to put an import duty on something as trivial as a magic band, because that's the problem.

I'm also a bit confused as to why you even care. Apparently you already have them as they sent you the gift card on your last stay to get them when you arrived so did you throw them away last time? They will still work, we've used some that are 3 years old and they still work perfectly.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Now I'm hoping I'm not going to be perceived as 'argumentative' by this post, but I do feel something could be agreed as a compromise by Disney. I sent them this email just over a week ago which should pretty much explain the predicament my wife and I are in.




I now it's a tad petty on my part for something that costs my wife and I an extra $25 (?) each you may say, but it's the principle of the thing that annoys me really when we're dropping around $1.700 for AP's.

Thoughts?

Aaah mergatroid,
I gotta go with the mouse on this one. The issue seems to be that they can't ship them internationally and your off site resort for whatever reason won't accept packages. I think that's the jist, so you want a 50 dollar credit. Now the problem is what was a one time goodwill gesture has become an entitlement.

Now let's look at it this way, suppose there were 5000 othe AP holders who want various things held at a disney resort that they are not staying at. along with the paying guest stuff that have stuff shipped to hold. can you imagine the liability issues? the headache?
I know folks who have food and laundry goods shipped down to the mouse, can you imagine if they opened that up to anyone who has a park pass?
Yes you drop a pretty penny on the AP, but so do thousands of others and they have to play by the rules. can you speak with your resort about holding packages?

 

[Monty]

the UK government that wants to put an import duty on something as trivial as a magic band, because that's the problem.

Actually, the "problem" is that MB have short-range radios [RFID] in them. Shipping to international guests would require Disney to certify the technology with the foreign equivalent of the FCC in EVERY country they would ship to. A rather expensive regulatory "hoop" I suspect Disney has decided isn't worth the RoI.

Disney doesn't ship anything to international AP holders. No MB, magnets, Mickey Monitor, etc...

 

[DisAl]

Actually, the "problem" is that MB have short-range radios [RFID] in them. Shipping to international guests would require Disney to certify the technology with the foreign equivalent of the FCC in EVERY country they would ship to. A rather expensive regulatory "hoop" I suspect Disney has decided isn't worth the RoI.

Disney doesn't ship anything to international AP holders. No MB, magnets, Mickey Monitor, etc...

You are 99% correct. RFID is a PASSSIVE device that only activates when near enough to the RFID transmitters, i.e. the tapstiles you hold the MB up to when you enter the park, payment points, fast pass tapstiles, etc. However, there are low power transmitters (1.175 milliwatts if I remember correctly) in the MBs that are used for triggering ride photos, crowd tracking, etc. in the bands too. Since they are certified only in the U.S. they can't legally ship them to other countries where they have not been certified by that country's equivalent of our Federal Communications Commission.

 

[mergatroid]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Have been in touch with the hotel we're staying at and the response we got didn't fill me with any confidence as they were saying they couldn't sign for packages unless we'd already checked in and would they be required to do so. Ringing the number to speak to a Disney sales agent from the UK on Friday, I was told they could be sent to a Disney hotel if requested even if not staying there?

As for the 'one off good will gesture' it was never described as that when we had the problem resolved last time. The gentleman who dealt with me back then just said the easy solution was to send me the value of the bands as a gift certificate. I suppose in fairness the difference last time was we'd been incorrectly told when purchasing the passes over the phone that our magic bands would be issued at 'will call' and had arrived at 'will call' to collect them, only to be told that it didn't work like that. Thus we went without the magic bands for our stay and got it resolved when we returned.

I guess when I speak to Disney this week the only solution is to have them sent to our hotel but to order them only a few days before we leave as we can't risk them arriving before we do and not being signed for, only problem being that they may not arrive till near the end of our stay. As for the bands that we obtained with the voucher last time, they were in a bag that was stolen from our car (not that that's of any relevance other than to the person querying why I don't just use the old ones).

I guess I'm just a bit annoyed as I've been told two different things now from representatives from the same company and in fairness I'd not thought of the number of people wanting a multitude of items sending to Disney hotels to be collected as somebody else kindly pointed out. I'll be polite as ever to the lady I speak to but on the surface it seems like the simplest solution for us (not Disney, I agree) isn't an option. Ah well, such is life and again thanks for all the replies.

 

[DryerLintFan]

I think sometimes when we look at things that are "included in a package" we tend to break them down. You feel like you already paid for your magic bands and should receive the full worth of them. You're asking for cash value for something that to Disney is more a perk/freebie that "comes with" your AP.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

Could you have them sent to one of the Disney hotels, and then just pick them up at the front desk the first day you intend to go to the parks? Or perhaps have it shipped-to and held at one of the stores in Downtown Disney?

 

[Kingtut]

Sound like a potential business opportunity for someone local.

It's the American way!!

 

[mergatroid]

Could you have them sent to one of the Disney hotels, and then just pick them up at the front desk the first day you intend to go to the parks? Or perhaps have it shipped-to and held at one of the stores in Downtown Disney?

No, I did request that but was told yes by English Disney rep but no by guest services via email.

 

[AdventureHasAName]

Three more ideas ...

1. Try to get it sent to "package pickup" at one of the stores at one of the WDW Resorts ...

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/package-pickup-and-delivery/

2. See if you can get it sent to one of the Guest Relations locations ...

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/guest-relations/

3. According to their website, WDW Resorts have complimentary lock boxes - see if you can have it sent to one of the WDW hotels and stored in a locker until you can come pick it up ...

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/resort-front-desk/

 

[mergatroid]

Three more ideas ...

1. Try to get it sent to "package pickup" at one of the stores at one of the WDW Resorts ...

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/package-pickup-and-delivery/

2. See if you can get it sent to one of the Guest Relations locations ...

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/guest-relations/

3. According to their website, WDW Resorts have complimentary lock boxes - see if you can have it sent to one of the WDW hotels and stored in a locker until you can come pick it up ...

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/resort-front-desk/

Will try suggesting that when I speak with them, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Or you could just use the hard ticket like I do. It works the same as the magic band, even easier in my mind. Put it in your pocket, when you need it reach into your pocket and pull it out, use it, put it back in your pocket. Worst case scenario is that you will lose weight from all that extra physical activity.

 

[DisneyDoctor]

Or you could just use the hard ticket like I do. It works the same as the magic band, even easier in my mind. Put it in your pocket, when you need it reach into your pocket and pull it out, use it, put it back in your pocket. Worst case scenario is that you will lose weight from all that extra physical activity.

The MB eliminates all those extra steps lol.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Have Disney ship you the "hard tickets"...once you enter the first park of your visit. go to guest relations and they should be able to transfer the cards to a magic band...the only thing is they will probably be the "generic" gray bands like the resorts use when guests lose one.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

They gave me a new colored band when my other colored band didn't work at Epcot guest services

That's good to know...when we were there in November, someone bumped into me and the band fell off in the MK...didn't know it until I tried to get into my room and couldn't. The front desk gave me a gray one (that's the only color they had). Funny thing was, the week after we returned, Disney sent my MB back to me as it was found in the MK!

 

[s8film40]

Here's the way I see it. They're selling a product that they can't deliver. While they may or may not be in the right in doing it this way basically saying "of well, too bad" is pretty poor customer service especially for how much these things cost. This obviously doesn't affect just you. It seems the simple solution would just be to have a "pick up at the park" selection when customizing it on the site. Instead of adding an address you could just select a park and a date and pick up at guest services. This sounds like one of those things that'll end up being the center of a big class action law suite and everyone will end up getting a $10 gift card or something, perhaps it already is and that's why they aren't allowed to offer compensation for it. Either way it's kind of petty on Disney's part to first of all not have a solution available to begin with and secondly not find a way to get their guests what they paid for.

Alll that being said these Magic Bands are really dumb and they need to just get rid of them altogether. I assume that won't happen until the merchandising fad of them wears off.

 

[Chicagoshannon2]

Here's another issue. You don't get your AP MB when you order the AP. They send it to you AFTER you activate it. So we went in Feb and activated our AP. Didn't get the bands until we got home. So you'd have to wait until your next visit anyway. You'd need to use your old bands or purchase new ones for your first visit.

 

[larryz]

Disney will ship the bands to your non-Disney resort for free. IMHO they have done everything required to solve your problem.

I hate to be rude, but you not trusting your resort to pass the package along (something nearly every hotel in the world does on a regular basis) is not Disney's problem.

Why couldn't they put the MBs at the Disney Springs GS desk and let him pick them up will-call?