Very Un-Disney Restaurant Policies

[RustySpork]

Are you kidding me? EVERYTHING is under Disney control? Ever hear of power outages or cable outages. Most of the time when a system goes down, it is not at the source but somewhere miles away. Someone doing construction nicked a wire, etc. Maybe this time they had an internal outage, we don't know. But come on, you can't possibly believe that technology is infallible.

Disney supplies the power. Disney supplies the connectivity. You obviously haven't worked on any sort of moderate to large scale infrastructure. Systems such as this shouldn't have single points of failure. If they do, that's also Disney's responsibility to fix.

 

[jaklgreen]

In the moment it is double paying, in the end it is a free loan to multi billion dollar enterprise.

LOL Free loan. It was taken care of within hours. Now who is exaggerating?

 

[jaklgreen]

We’ve had very different experiences with people. Probably explains why we look at things differently.

Probably. Do you also work front line food service?

 

[lazyboy97o]

LOL Free loan. It was taken care of within hours. Now who is exaggerating?

How is it not a loan? You have Disney money and they gave it back. That is borrowing. Borrowing money is called a loan.

 

[jaklgreen]

How is it not a loan? You have Disney money and they gave it back. That is borrowing. Borrowing money is called a loan.

Well in that case, they are loaning you the food you eat at a sit down restaurant. You have not paid for it yet, but here you are, eating away.

 

[xdan0920]

In this case, you are asking them to trust that someone has the dining plan points to be able to retroactively go back and use them when the system goes down. Like it or not, sometimes technology goes down. And after dealing with the public for over 30 years, I don't trust anyone. People lie, cheat, and steal all the time. You are wanting them to trust that hundreds, if not thousands of people are being honest. They obviously are not willing to take that risk.

You may wanna step away from ye olde internet machine for a bit. You seem quite upset.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Well in that case, they are loaning you the food you eat at a sit down restaurant. You have not paid for it yet, but here you are, eating away.

Not when you’ve paid in advance...

 

[jaklgreen]

Not when you’ve paid in advance...

You have not paid until they have redeemed the points.

 

[jaklgreen]

You may wanna step away from ye olde internet machine for a bit. You seem quite upset.

Why, because I have experienced the crap that is humanity? You all do realize that your wonderful co-workers that are just great and friendly are the ones that go off on food service workers.

 

[lazyboy97o]

You have not paid until they have redeemed the points.

So it’s not all Disney? Disney has the money you paid beforehand, they just have not transferring it to the restaurant that you say we should not consider as being separate from Disney.

 

[xdan0920]

Why, because I have experienced the crap that is humanity? You all do realize that your wonderful co-workers that are just great and friendly are the ones that go off on food service workers.

No. Because you are getting increasingly agitated, and it seems like a break would be a good idea.

 

[jaklgreen]

No. Because you are getting increasingly agitated, and it seems like a break would be a good idea.

I am sorry if you think that my difference of opinion is caused by "agitation". You can say the same thing about Lazy and Rusty, since they are still in the conversation. They are free to their opinion, but I am not? Got it.

 

[xdan0920]

I am sorry if you think that my difference of opinion is caused by "agitation". You can say the same thing about Lazy and Rusty, since they are still in the conversation. They are free to their opinion, but I am not? Got it.

They don’t seem as upset as you. You are of course free to post what you like. Just a suggestion, we’ve both been members for many years, don’t think we’ve ever had any run ins.

 

[RustySpork]

You have not paid until they have redeemed the points.

Wrong. You've paid in advance the second you paid Disney in full for the vacation.

 

[larryz]

While I am very much on the side of those who believe people with the DDP should be able to breeze thru the billing process, from a very practical perspective, this situation is much like paying a bill where you know your credit card is good, and the restaurant normally accepts it, but for some reason your card is declined. You pony up another form of payment and take it up with your credit card company.

Yes, the OP paid for the Disney dining plan, but the dining plan is a system of CREDITS, not MEALS. You exchange a credit for a meal, much like you pay for a meal with a credit card. If for some reason your MDE account doesn't show a meal credit, they can't do that exchange. And that's purely on Disney, but in the meantime, you've got a third-party restaurant that expects immediate payment for the meal they just provided.

Every WDW meal I've had, I always get asked if I'm using DDP credits, and they ALWAYs verify those credits at the beginning of the meal. I don't know why that didn't happen in this case.

 

[RustySpork]

While I am very much on the side of those who believe people with the DDP should be able to breeze thru the billing process, from a very practical perspective, this situation is much like paying a bill where you know your credit card is good, and the restaurant normally accepts it, but for some reason your card is declined. You pony up another form of payment and take it up with your credit card company.

Yes, the OP paid for the Disney dining plan, but the dining plan is a system of CREDITS, not MEALS. You exchange a credit for a meal, much like you pay for a meal with a credit card. If for some reason your MDE account doesn't show a meal credit, they can't do that exchange. And that's purely on Disney, but in the meantime, you've got a third-party restaurant that expects immediate payment for the meal they just provided.

The third-party relationship is between Disney and the vendor, not the vendor and the guest. If the guest can show that they have the credits in MDE, it's the vendor's responsibility to work the problem out with Disney on behalf of the guest.

Every WDW meal I've had, I always get asked if I'm using DDP credits, and they ALWAYs verify those credits at the beginning of the meal. I don't know why that didn't happen in this case.

This is exactly right, and another symptom of the restaurant management not doing their job.

 

[bpiper]

In the very first post:

"Magic band did not show my Deluxe Dining Plan. However, from elsewhere, they could see that I had twenty three dining credits. It was the second time the DP was used and that morning had worked fine for breakfast. "

From post #3:

"It took me an hour in Guest Services to get this cleared up."

So the restaurant could see the credits so they served the meal. When it came time for their POS system to notify Disney that the restaurant needs compensated for the meal's credit, the process broke down. That is on Disney and the restaurant.

To all you people who say that it only takes a few minutes to fix this, see Post #3. It took an hour.....

Here is what I would have done.

Here is my CC, charge the bill. Meanwhile I am leaving and will be back in 1 hour. At that time, I expect the problem to be fixed, and the meal credits deducted and the CC charge reversed. And a free desert will be waiting for me.

Restaurant is happy, they get guaranteed payment.

OP is happy, he isn't wasting time while the process is fixed.

The Restaurant eats the dessert cost as the cost of customer service recovery.

This is what happens all the time in non-Disney restaurants, they mess up, comp a desert.

 

[Chi84]

While I am very much on the side of those who believe people with the DDP should be able to breeze thru the billing process, from a very practical perspective, this situation is much like paying a bill where you know your credit card is good, and the restaurant normally accepts it, but for some reason your card is declined. You pony up another form of payment and take it up with your credit card company.

Yes, the OP paid for the Disney dining plan, but the dining plan is a system of CREDITS, not MEALS. You exchange a credit for a meal, much like you pay for a meal with a credit card. If for some reason your MDE account doesn't show a meal credit, they can't do that exchange. And that's purely on Disney, but in the meantime, you've got a third-party restaurant that expects immediate payment for the meal they just provided.

Every WDW meal I've had, I always get asked if I'm using DDP credits, and they ALWAYs verify those credits at the beginning of the meal. I don't know why that didn't happen in this case.

I would agree, except the #1 selling point of the dining plan is convenience. That’s what Disney is marketing and if you read through all the threads on the plan, that’s what people believe they are buying. Most realize it’s not designed to save them money, but they’re willing to pay a premium for ease of use. It’s Disney’s job to figure out a better plan for its restaurants than asking the customer for another form of payment when things go wrong.

 

[senor_jorge]

While I am very much on the side of those who believe people with the DDP should be able to breeze thru the billing process, from a very practical perspective, this situation is much like paying a bill where you know your credit card is good, and the restaurant normally accepts it, but for some reason your card is declined. You pony up another form of payment and take it up with your credit card company.

Yes, the OP paid for the Disney dining plan, but the dining plan is a system of CREDITS, not MEALS. You exchange a credit for a meal, much like you pay for a meal with a credit card. If for some reason your MDE account doesn't show a meal credit, they can't do that exchange. And that's purely on Disney, but in the meantime, you've got a third-party restaurant that expects immediate payment for the meal they just provided.

Every WDW meal I've had, I always get asked if I'm using DDP credits, and they ALWAYs verify those credits at the beginning of the meal. I don't know why that didn't happen in this case.

One major difference is that to be best of my knowledge Disney fills almost all of the roles in your analogy with the exception of the third party vendor. They are effectively MasterCard as it relates to DP credits, they are the processing company, and also provide POS hardware etc. to the best of my knowledge. It's just not the same. I don't think it's unreasonable to at a minimum expect better processes to maintain guest satisfaction, since they essentially are responsible for the entire transaction with the exception of inputting the orders.

 

[RustySpork]

This is what happens all the time in non-Disney restaurants, they mess up, comp a desert.

Right. I've also experienced meals being comped when there was an error, but it takes management that understands the concept of accepting responsibility.