Lost our free dining :( How much it really to add it back?

[TERRILYNN]

We booked back in April for the last week in August, and were lucky enough to get free dining along with (I think) a discount on our room (All Star Music). 2 days ago I called to make changes to the number of tickets we had gotten, we were arriving on a Saturday and leaving the Following Friday and had 7 tickets total, but it will be late Saturday night and early Friday morning when we arrive/leave and since I've learned we can't 'park hop' with the extra days tickets, I wanted to get 5 days instead of 7. Well when the arrangements were changed, our package was totally canceled and I got a new conf number, but it LOST THE DINING. I've called customer service and they wont give it back saying there was a "code" back in April that was no longer valid. They also werent clear about the cost of adding it to our package (2 adults 1 child... 6 night stay). Does anyone know how much this will cost? I'm thinking it's total crap (excuse my French!) that the guy would not give me a number because "he didn't know until it was added how much it would be". I spoke to 3 different people about this, 1 very nice lady who apologized profusely and said they would add it back, then she transferred me to someone who barely spoke English and kept repeating why did you cancel why did you cancel. Then on from there to the man who gave me no specific answers at all. If we hadn't already told our 4 year old we were going, I would have just canceled the whole thing (and lost 200.00 in the process) Adding insult to injury, BOTH packages were paid in full and BOTH are showing on our credit card still... they've never refunded the first one and have up to 2 months to do so according to the lady I couldn't understand. Help? Anyone know prices for me to buy it back? Even last years would be helpful. I just don't want to end up eating donuts and sandwiches in the room all week which is what my husband is now planning to do.

 

[TERRILYNN]

I should add we had the free quick service dining but I'm open to either that or the table service prices, either one.

 

[WDWmazprty]

Wow! Did you try to talk a manager? Its a shame that the new number didnt have the dining, thats kinda weird that happened.

 

[TERRILYNN]

I asked to but the 2nd lady I talked to kept telling me it didn't matter who I talked to, noone could fix it, then she transferred me to the 3rd person (man). I'm assuming he was the manager. It was just a complete disaster. You have no idea how much I'm kicking myself, I had no idea a person could mess something up so badly!

 

[TERRILYNN]

She kept telling me that the free dining wasn't until the fall, and I kept saying I KNOW the new promotion isn't until fall but I had this package since APRIL. Ugh.. so frustrating!

 

[Master Yoda]

This reservation should not have been canceled and re-booked. The CM who did this made a huge mistake. Call the reservation center and immediately ask for a supervisor. If you have some form of conformation (email, online print out, etc) they should be able to correct this. Do not stop calling until it is corrected. If everything happened as you described it is their's mistake not yours.

 

[WDWmazprty]

This reservation should not have been canceled and re-booked. The CM who did this made a huge mistake. Call the reservation center and immediately ask for a supervisor. If you have some form of conformation (email, online print out, etc) they should be able to correct this. Do not stop calling until it is corrected. If everything happened as you described it is their mistake not yours.

I agree. Thats why I say its kinda weird it happened this way. As long as you have SOMETHING (email, print out, etc.), they should be able to fix it.

 

[TERRILYNN]

Yes, that's exactly what they did because now when I log in to view my reservations instead of saying booked in April at the top, it says booked July I don't have anything, they did it all over the phone. All I have is the orignial email from April where I booked it online myself, and the email I got from them saying it was paid in full, then I have the new one, saying July is the booking date. I'm really getting worried because BOTH still show on my credit card as paid in full, they've not refunded anything. I'll try calling them again. I swear if its something bizarre it will happen to me!

 

[TERRILYNN]

I have had a Disney file since April! Menus... receipts... dining reservations, my husband is very OCD so I love having paperwork to hand him whenever he asks me something. Makes life easier! Hopefully they will do something.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Yes, that's exactly what they did because now when I log in to view my reservations instead of saying booked in April at the top, it says booked July I don't have anything, they did it all over the phone. All I have is the orignial email from April where I booked it online myself, and the email I got from them saying it was paid in full, then I have the new one, saying July is the booking date. I'm really getting worried because BOTH still show on my credit card as paid in full, they've not refunded anything. I'll try calling them again. I swear if its something bizarre it will happen to me!

If you have the original email stating what was booked, they should have to change it back for you. If it was their error, that is. The email will show you had the free dining booked.

 

[WDWmazprty]

If you have the original email stating what was booked, they should have to change it back for you. If it was their error, that is. The email will show you had the free dining booked.

Right! That will be PROOF of what was booked in April. You can easily fax it to them so they can see for themselves if need be. Definitely ask for a manager as soon as you call.

 

[Master Yoda]

Yes, that's exactly what they did because now when I log in to view my reservations instead of saying booked in April at the top, it says booked July I don't have anything, they did it all over the phone. All I have is the orignial email from April where I booked it online myself, and the email I got from them saying it was paid in full, then I have the new one, saying July is the booking date. I'm really getting worried because BOTH still show on my credit card as paid in full, they've not refunded anything. I'll try calling them again. I swear if its something bizarre it will happen to me!

If that original email has all the details (conformation number, booking date, package details) that should be all they need. Quite honestly, they should not need any documentation but it will help them if you have it.

The refund and its timing is kind of a tricky thing. Here is what happens. The CM that canceled your reservation sends the credit to accounting immediately. It will take time for accounting to process it. Normally this is done in about 24 hours but if a weekend, holiday or excessive number of credits get in the way it can take longer. The longest I have personally seen is around week. After it is processed it is in the hands of your credit card company. The can hold onto this credit order for pretty much as long as they want but they will typically process the credit is a simillar fashion that Disney does.

 

[TERRILYNN]

That didn't go so well, I talked to a manager, then about 30 min later had my husband call. It was outright canceled, and a new trip was booked, not even right after, it looks like several hours later the new one was processessed. The first one I had paid the inital 200 down on one cc, and paid it off with a 2nd credit card. The next booking just shows it all going to the 2nd credit card. Again I got the "I shouldn't have changed my mind". I thought it would be perfectly fine to make a change to the reservation, especially since we were still 45 days out, but it looks like whoever did the change completely screwed it up, then went back later and tried to fix it maybe? In any case they won't do anything, hubby is livid and we may now be canceling the whole trip. Years ago my parents took my 2 older children down to Wilderness Campground to stay for a week, they had called and made the reservations, had their packet they were mailed with them, everything was paid in full and when they got to the campground the reservation could not be found. They gave them all the info they had sent, confirmation number was no longer valid and it showed the it was canceled. (My parents never canceled it, and all was done by phone, they are not computer 'people'. They NEVER received a refund on that trip, they went ahead and stayed there 2 nights because my boys had road all that way from MO to FL in an RV thinking they were going to see Mickey Mouse, but they had to pay again for those 2 nights and were placed in a far part of the park, (for 2 elderly people, with 2 little kids, that didn't work so well). When we booked this my mom reminded me of that trip and of course I thought oh it's DIsney, it will be fine (all along thinking maybe my parents had messed up the reservation or missed understood something) now I see things like this do happen. We filed a complaint with the cc company on the first reservation just to be safe, hopefully it comes through like its supposed to. I'm betting my husband goes ahead and cancels the 2nd one even though we will now lose the 200.00, I'm conflicted, I feel bad for our daughter but this has really left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[TERRILYNN]

If that original email has all the details (conformation number, booking date, package details) that should be all they need. Quite honestly, they should not need any documentation but it will help them if you have it.

The refund and its timing is kind of a tricky thing. Here is what happens. The CM that canceled your reservation sends the credit to accounting immediately. It will take time for accounting to process it. Normally this is done in about 24 hours but if a weekend, holiday or excessive number of credits get in the way it can take longer. The longest I have personally seen is around week. After it is processed it is in the hands of your credit card company. The can hold onto this credit order for pretty much as long as they want but they will typically process the credit is a simillar fashion that Disney does.

Thank you for explaining how the accounting process goes, I'm not quite as worried about that as I was. I'm just glad it didn't max out the card, that would have been even worse!

 

[WDWmazprty]

Wow! So sorry to hear that. It sounds like the CM who did the original booking is the culprit here. Too bad you didnt get his or her name. Disney is usually very good with these types of things but with any company there are exceptions and weird circumstances; this happens to be the case here.

 

[TERRILYNN]

Yes it seems like there are always a few bad employees in the bunch, I'm sure it wasn't anything intentional but things do happen all the time, especially with such a busy place. Just talked to hubby and he says we are still going, will just have to be creative with packing lunches, we won't be buying 3 meals a day for sure.

 

[TERRILYNN]

Another question... I just got off the phone with a VERY nice Dining Rep.. she was so sorry this happened, and she gave me a code for a reduced dining plan.. its still pricey, but if we got the table service ones, taking into consideration the character meals, it really still makes sense to purchase it. Not as good as free of course... but still better than paying out of pocket to eat. Ive already booked and paid for our CRT reservation though, can a rep switch that over to the dining plan and refund the payment to us? Or would I have to give up that reservation (no way!) and try (impossible) to get another booking for that? Anyone know?

 

[WDWmazprty]

That shouldn't be a problem, but just make sure of all the details first, and write down everything! LOL! Good luck! =)

 

[TERRILYNN]

Yeah I'm scared to try now! lol Thank you!!

 

[lilclerk]

I believe with those pre-paid meals like CRT, you can ask when you get to the restaurant to pay with your dining credits and they will refund your credit card.