Since I posted a while back about my ordering experience, I thought I'd pop back on here to finish the story. My daughter and I got back home from our trip on 7/12. On 5/20, I purchased a Sorcerer Mickey Premium MagicBand for my daughter, but chose a basic band for myself. On 5/29, I received an email saying that "due to demand" my order had been delayed, but not to worry.
With our trip coming up on 7/4, I emailed customer support about the order on 6/22, since I had heard nothing more about the order.
On 6/28, I finally got a response saying that my question had been "escalated" to ShopDisney, since they were in charge of fulfillment of the premium bands. Of course, 6/28 was a Friday - and the email arrived in the evening - so I had to wait until Monday, 7/1 to reach anyone by phone.
When I called on 7/1, I spoke to a very helpful person who tried very hard to sort things out. By the end of the nearly half hour call, I had been told that the specialty band had been reordered and that it would be rush shipped to be at our resort on 7/4 when we arrived. On 7/2, I received a shipping confirmation that the bands had, in fact, been shipped.
Note: Our trip was spit between three resorts - 1 night at Saratoga, 3 nights at Bay Lake Tower, and 4 nights at the Poly.
We got in to Saratoga late in the afternoon on 7/4 and the desk staff had two default MagicBands waiting for us, but hadn't received any package with the premium band. I checked the tracking and, sure enough, it hadn't been delivered yet, but WAS in Orlando with UPS. "no biggie" I thought, excusing the delay on the holiday. The cast member at the desk put a note on my account saying that we were moving to Bay Lake Tower on Friday and to forward the package there.
On 7/5 we went into MK bright and early, only to find that neither of our MagicBands worked.
A 15 minute detour to Guest Services rectified that issue, and we enjoyed our day.
Returning to Bay Lake Tower at the end of the day, I checked at the desk and - no package. I checked tracking and the premium band was still with UPS in Orlando, but hadn't moved for two days.
By our third day in the parks, with no premium band having arrived, I called ShopDisney (the division I got the shipping confirmation from) to ask for a refund. Even at a reduced cost, I wasn't going to pay for a MagicBand that we'd only have for half the trip. The cast member I spoke with on the phone was less than helpful and was eager to blame "My Disney Experience" for the problem and that I had to talk to them about it. We went back and forth for a bit (since My Disney Experience had told me - and the shipping confirmation showed - that Shop Disney was in charge of fulfillment). After being lectured on the many different divisions of the company by this operator, my generally polite phone manner dropped and I simply told her that, as a customer, all I need to know is that I am doing business with Disney and whatever needed to be done between departments was their business - not mine - I just needed the refund.
That did the trick and I was assured that a refund would be on my account within a couple of days. It was.
Meanwhile, I checked the status of the premium band which had been sent. UPS shows that it was delivered to Saratoga Springs - to my attention - on Monday, 7/8 - a full week after it was "rush shipped" to me. The delivery delay is not Disney's issue - it was clearly the fault of UPS. HOWEVER, I was on property through 7/12 and, despite my linked reservations and supposed notes on my account about the package being expected, the MagicBand never found its way to me, and that is clearly Disney's issue.
Now, while we were enjoying our time in the parks, where in nearly every shop that had displays of the grossly overpriced MagicBands for sale (seriously, can the cost of manufacturing these be more than $2, max?) my 13 year old daughter proposed the following: Why don't they simply provide a coupon code to you when you book your vacation which you could then use - on your own - to pick out a band of your choice at any of the shops, and be done with it? Disney then doesn't have to deal with shipping, coordinating between departments (which, they seemingly can't do effectively) and processing online payments. You book a reservation, you get a $15 off coupon (with whatever stipulations they want to put on it) for each member of the party, and from there the burden is on the customer to fulfill the order... by walking into a shop on property and choosing something they like. Much less effort needed from Disney, and customer satisfaction MUCH higher!
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
