!!! PLEASE READ!!! Important News Regarding Swaps & Shares!!!

[dato63]

Never mind. No point in beating a high horse to death.

 

[HsvTeacher]

A guest staying on member points is not treated any differently then a renter as far as DVC is concerned. They have no way of knowing if I am making a reservation for my sister or somebody I don't know. Also not sure what you are referring to with DVC members being "charged" and the hassle to get charges taken off. What would members be charged for and what bills are we taking charges off of???

DVC members and people renting points are treated differently. We as DVC members have DVC printed on our room keys. We are also not charged for valet parking and internet fees, and we are allowed to pool hop.

People renting points do not receive these perks.

 

[KigerKat]

So all of the people on here that are coming down on those that like the swaps, accusing people of "getting something for nothing" have paid full price for everything you own? Never borrowed a book or movie from a friend?...Borrowed a neighbor's power tool for a project?...Never shopped the clearance section of a store?...Chipped in with some friends/family members to buy someone a gift?...Purchased a big ticket item (like a car) through a private party to avoid sales tax?...Used coupons?...Carpooled? Wow. I'd like to live your life.

The people here that use these swaps do so to save money where they can. It doesn't mean they can't afford their vacation, they just try to get the most bang for their buck. I'm just shocked to see the comments and hateful replies coming from the Anti-Swappers here. But look - you win!! The swaps/shares are gone!! (At least the $$$ ones). Go celebrate!!

But it looks like there will be a lot of sites popping up on the net that will keep these things going...so nothing's really going to change - it just won't happen here on the DIS. Just because they are banned here doesn't mean it's banned everywhere forever.

And could someone tell me the site to sign up for that refillable mug swap?? I'm in for that one!

 

[Bicfam]

Would it be acceptable to do one post about a photoshare and give an email address, and have everything done through email? Then everything would be done off of the boards except for the original contact.

Sounds good to me, but I have a lot more posts to read through. We have to get organized

 

[Mom2Nick]

Not true...I have made reservations for other members of my family and they do not get the free Valet perks or the free internet. There room cards are not printed with DVC member on them and they can't get the discounts etc. They are coded differently in the system. because of this - sometimes members get a charge for one of these services and have to go fix it.

I don't have an issue in renting or gifting points...but it does involve Disney

First off - read what I said. Guests of DVC members and "Renters" are not treated differently since DVC has no way of knowing who knows the member and who does not.

As for the charges - again I have no clue what you are talking about. I have brought guests every single trip sincve we became members (4 different rooms this last trip in 3 different DVC resorts) and not once have they had charges against me because of something associated with a reservation I have made for my guests. Why would they even charge me? They would be charging the actual occupant of the room for any services they have used.

 

[mommy4]

I have to say that I am very upset about this. I'm already suppose to be in a photopass share for this November, and I was in one last November. As a mother of 4 who is already spending a lot of $ on this trip, I could NOT pay the $100 for the photopass. The only way I can do this is if I take part in a share, yes it is a risk, but it's better than no pictures at all.

 

[DisneyTravels]

So all of the people on here that are coming down on those that like the swaps, accusing people of "getting something for nothing" have paid full price for everything you own? Never borrowed a book or movie from a friend?...Borrowed a neighbor's power tool for a project?...Never shopped the clearance section of a store?...Chipped in with some friends/family members to buy someone a gift?...Purchased a big ticket item (like a car) through a private party to avoid sales tax?...Used coupons?...Carpooled? Wow. I'd like to live your life.

The people here that use these swaps do so to save money where they can. It doesn't mean they can't afford their vacation, they just try to get the most bang for their buck. I'm just shocked to see the comments and hateful replies coming from the Anti-Swappers here. But look - you win!! The swaps/shares are gone!! (At least the $$$ ones). Go celebrate!!

But it looks like there will be a lot of sites popping up on the net that will keep these things going...so nothing's really going to change - it just won't happen here on the DIS. Just because they are banned here doesn't mean it's banned everywhere forever.

And could someone tell me the site to sign up for that refillable mug swap?? I'm in for that one!

Great post. Thank you!
I want in on the mug swap too...lol

 

[speedyf]

I am sure someone else has said this but I don't have the time to peruse all prior posts but besides the whole "money passing between DISers rule" . I just have an obvious observation that I would like to expound. It makes business sense not to allow such transactions or discussions to take place here due to the relationship between Dreams Unlimited Travel and Disney. Sure such swaps save us money and technically aren't "illegal" as Disney provides a copyright release for the Photopass and other joint financial endeavors as discussed on here are far from against the law. However when one looks at it logically at its core this is a business site not a fan site so the owners have the right to protect their vested interest no matter how irrational it may seem to some.

But still...the unsanswered question remains...why allow the DVC Points Rental (money changing hands...thousands) and not allow the swaps ($10-$20-$30 changing hands).

I think the answer to the question is in WebmasterKathy's post. Even though they are stating that the reason for the swap shutdowns is because it is breaking the money transfer rule, it's really because of the problems and complaints.

Again...that's fine with me...just come here and tell us that....which WebmasterKathy did....so, I am grateful.

They choose to not allow the swaps, yet continue to allow the points rental because they are getting too many complaints about the swaps. I'm guessing if the point rental boards would be getting alot of complaints, they would shut that down as well. I'm sure a point rental or two has gone bad and the DIS has had to hear about it...but, the complaints on these swaps must have hit a tipping point for this decision to have been made.

Speed

 

[parkers*momma]

So essentially she has a stroller rental business that she is promoting on the DIS which is a clear violating of the DIS guidelines. Seems pretty cut and dry to me as to why they are being discontinued.

I'm going to put myself out there. I'm the dis'er you are speaking of. I do NOT run a business. Up to this point, in the rules that were posted in the sticky we were allowed to do everything that has been done in our swap. A BUSINESS is to make a profit. I have never made a profit of any kind. Since January, we have had to buy 3 new strollers out of the 5 that are in the swap. One was lost and two that was in dire need of needing replaced. Today, another mass quanity of replacement parts arrived and will be shipped to Disney to provide our swappers with safe strollers for their children.

I can't actually see any difference in maintaining a swap than to close one swap down to start another one. Which I could have done because at the point of strollers going bad...they were allowed on the boards. If I was trying to make a profit, I would have cared less on how run in the ground the strollers became for the swappers. Instead, out of the goodness of my heart, my love for DISBOARDS, and my friendship with the swappers.

BUSINESSES could care about friendships and communities...a BUSINESS worries about the bottom line. The almighty dollar!! A BUSINESS gets paid for their time and effort...Ours goes in the hole trying to keep the strollers safe and sound for the children riding in them. A BUSINESS under the new rules would fold up shop and run for the hills taking the strollers with them and forget the ppl who depend on that BUSINESS. We're not, we are going to abide by the rules and move forward for the benefit of the swap and each swapper who has an emotional/financial investment in the swap.

Our swap is OWNED by no one person. Any reference to the me in the thread as 90% of the time been WE...as I feel this is a community. I could go on and on but I won't even bother. I know, as do the DIS'ers in our swap, know what lengths each of us have went to keep the swap going. And it will still be going as long as they want it too.

But I do resent being told I am violating rules that weren't in place at the time. Being a CARING DEDICATED DIS'ER, I will as I always have, abide by DISBOARDS rules.

 

[speedyf]

http://www.instep.net/Product/Swivel_Wheel_Joggers/Swivel_Wheel_Double/

I think what a PP is stating is the strollers by manufacturer's price is at most $369, even with s/h round it up to an even steven $400.

There are 5 strollers (ASMu, ASSp, ASMo, Pop and I guess an extra one) which is "renting" for $20 per week.

Assuming all 5 strollers are rented out all 52 weeks a year, your total is $5,200.00, agreed?

Take out the cost of each stroller 5 at $400 is $2,000.00 agreed?

A net profit of $3,200.00. With that money remaining, the organizer could purchase another 8 strollers (top of the line w/ shipping), hence, no need to purchase "replacement" parts.

Sorry, but again, someone, somewhere is making money. And btw, you can even have these companies "drop ship" the product to the resort with your name on it, so to say someone has to pay for delivery to them and then overnight it to WDW, is nuts!

If that is the case, then I definitely say to shut that down. Again...the only swap I participated in was a fridge swap. The first 10 people paid $10 each for the fridge and then it was free to the rest. When the fridge finally broke or was lost, etc....the swap was over. No one was "renting" the fridge.

I was one of the free ones....

Speed

 

[DisneyTigers]

I'm going to put myself out there. I'm the dis'er you are speaking of. I do NOT run a business. Up to this point, in the rules that were posted in the sticky we were allowed to do everything that has been done in our swap. A BUSINESS is to make a profit. I have never made a profit of any kind. Since January, we have had to buy 3 new strollers out of the 5 that are in the swap. One was lost and two that was in dire need of needing replaced. Today, another mass quanity of replacement parts arrived and will be shipped to Disney to provide our swappers with safe strollers for their children.

I can't actually see any difference in maintaining a swap than to close one swap down to start another one. Which I could have done because at the point of strollers going bad...they were allowed on the boards. If I was trying to make a profit, I would have cared less on how run in the ground the strollers became for the swappers. Instead, out of the goodness of my heart, my love for DISBOARDS, and my friendship with the swappers.

BUSINESSES could care about friendships and communities...a BUSINESS worries about the bottom line. The almighty dollar!! A BUSINESS gets paid for their time and effort...Ours goes in the hole trying to keep the strollers safe and sound for the children riding in them. A BUSINESS under the new rules would fold up shop and run for the hills taking the strollers with them and forget the ppl who depend on that BUSINESS. We're not, we are going to abide by the rules and move forward for the benefit of the swap and each swapper who has an emotional/financial investment in the swap.

Our swap is OWNED by no one person. Any reference to the me in the thread as 90% of the time been WE...as I feel this is a community. I could go on and on but I won't even bother. I know, as do the DIS'ers in our swap, know what lengths each of us have went to keep the swap going. And it will still be going as long as they want it too.

But I do resent being told I am violating rules that weren't in place at the time. Being a CARING DEDICATED DIS'ER, I will as I always have, abide by DISBOARDS rules.

I, for one, am very grateful for the swap organizers. I didn't use your particular swap, but it doesn't matter. Thank you for all you've done for us budget-minded DIS'ers who want to get the most out of our vacation dollar!

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Yes, I make them! I love sewing and have learned to do so because of friends here on the dis---njow I use that to help supplement DHs income. Funny how things work out I hope one day to own into DVC but it is a long way off, if ever!

Good luck - looks like you have a talent for that. DVC isn't as out of reach as people think. Resale contracts are pretty cheap right now due to the economy.

I have stayed out of this until now. I will, of course, abide by the rules. I don't care if people like the fact that the new swaps asking for startup money are over, or if some people dislike it. It is a done deal by the sounds of it.

But I am very curious why if it is a monetary reason they are being stopped, why are the dvc point rentals allowed. Again, I don't care, don't want to argue. I just think that is a valid question that has been brought up in this thread many times. And this is the first time a webmaster has chimed in. The official response has always been that happens on another forum that is not mine to control.

So, since we now have a webmaster posting in this thread that has purview over both forums, what is the difference? DVC points are rented at varying dollar amounts that should involve a profit. The money for a refer swap never hits disboards accounts, nor does it for a dvc point rental. Neither are illegal.

Just curious.

Sorry but there is no way on this planet that the DVC owners are "making a profit" by renting out their points for $10 or $12 a point. Maintenance fees alone are about $4 a point and up depending on where you own. The cost of points right now is over $100 a point to buy into DVC thru Disney. Where is the profit coming in?

People do it with the WDW "cruises" , too.

But, I am glad if it cuts down on the pages of swap threads that clutter the board.

Actually Disney is going to have fireworks cruises that anyone can take for a flat price per adult/child. No more fireworks cruise shares after that takes place (sometime this summer).

 

[KATIESMOMMY]

I'm going to put myself out there. I'm the dis'er you are speaking of. I do NOT run a business. Up to this point, in the rules that were posted in the sticky we were allowed to do everything that has been done in our swap. A BUSINESS is to make a profit. I have never made a profit of any kind. Since January, we have had to buy 3 new strollers out of the 5 that are in the swap. One was lost and two that was in dire need of needing replaced. Today, another mass quanity of replacement parts arrived and will be shipped to Disney to provide our swappers with safe strollers for their children.

I can't actually see any difference in maintaining a swap than to close one swap down to start another one. Which I could have done because at the point of strollers going bad...they were allowed on the boards. If I was trying to make a profit, I would have cared less on how run in the ground the strollers became for the swappers. Instead, out of the goodness of my heart, my love for DISBOARDS, and my friendship with the swappers.

BUSINESSES could care about friendships and communities...a BUSINESS worries about the bottom line. The almighty dollar!! A BUSINESS gets paid for their time and effort...Ours goes in the hole trying to keep the strollers safe and sound for the children riding in them. A BUSINESS under the new rules would fold up shop and run for the hills taking the strollers with them and forget the ppl who depend on that BUSINESS. We're not, we are going to abide by the rules and move forward for the benefit of the swap and each swapper who has an emotional/financial investment in the swap.

Our swap is OWNED by no one person. Any reference to the me in the thread as 90% of the time been WE...as I feel this is a community. I could go on and on but I won't even bother. I know, as do the DIS'ers in our swap, know what lengths each of us have went to keep the swap going. And it will still be going as long as they want it too.

But I do resent being told I am violating rules that weren't in place at the time. Being a CARING DEDICATED DIS'ER, I will as I always have, abide by DISBOARDS rules.

I hope all the people who posted nasties about you on this thread reads this and takes it to heart. If those who are referring to her would have read the RC thread they would see how she has spent countless hours keeping the swaps going for everyone. Go through the threads and see the parts that have been ordered, see how other Dis'ers replaced those parts when they got there and all she has done to make sure that Dis'ers had a safe to use stroller when they got there, one that was comfortable for the kids. I just want to thank you Parkers*momma for all you have done for those who participated in the swap prior to the new ruling and for keeping it going for those who were looking forward to using it this year.

 

[JLKennedy]

...Ours goes in the hole trying to keep the strollers safe and sound for the children riding in them.

Our swap is OWNED by no one person. Any reference to the me in the thread as 90% of the time been WE...as I feel this is a community.

So who gets paid? (where does one make payment?) Whose name is the bank account in? (Dis boards 5 royal carriage swap?) Do you offer "transparency" on all payments to the "swap" as well as all repairs/maintenance costs public to those in the "swap"?

 

[GhostLady]

I won't waste time repeating everything that's already been said even though I too am absolutely shocked by the responses of some of the anti-swappers who have posted here. Sometimes I don't like some threads that have been posted and/or I don't agree with things said but for me it's just easier to......NOT LOOK AT THOSE THREADS or at least not participate in them. I can't even find the time to read the threads that do interest me, let alone those that don't.

I do find it very, very sad that I live in a world where something that was set up to help others and/or give people a way to work together towards a common goal, would be criticized so much and banned. It really breaks my heart.

I lead a photopass share last year and it worked great. I could have just bought the CD alone but since it was our first time, we didn't really know a lot about it and didn't get very many pics. If I paid full price for the CD, I would have felt bad for wasting money that we could have spent on other things but since I didn't spend much it was totally worth the price for the few photos that I did get.

I had planned to post another share for my trip this year but I guess I won't be doing that now. I will still have my share. I'll just have to take it to Yahoo and email. No big deal. I just wish that the rules here would apply to everyone. I have only been a member of the DIS for about a year but this is only one of many things that seem to have "exceptions" to the rules.

 

[KATIESMOMMY]

http://www.instep.net/Product/Swivel_Wheel_Joggers/Swivel_Wheel_Double/

I think what a PP is stating is the strollers by manufacturer's price is at most $369, even with s/h round it up to an even steven $400.

There are 5 strollers (ASMu, ASSp, ASMo, Pop and I guess an extra one) which is "renting" for $20 per week.

Assuming all 5 strollers are rented out all 52 weeks a year, your total is $5,200.00, agreed?

Take out the cost of each stroller 5 at $400 is $2,000.00 agreed?

A net profit of $3,200.00. With that money remaining, the organizer could purchase another 8 strollers (top of the line w/ shipping), hence, no need to purchase "replacement" parts.

Sorry, but again, someone, somewhere is making money. And btw, you can even have these companies "drop ship" the product to the resort with your name on it, so to say someone has to pay for delivery to them and then overnight it to WDW, is nuts!

Actually from what I saw there has been 8 strollers and it originally -till just recently- was $10 for the length of your stay. Many folks had it for way more than a week. Also she just had a stroller that was brand new, only used for 3 weeks totally destroyed by a Dis'er, the front forks broke, seat backs broken and wheel bent. She has had strollers overnighted to WDW when a stroller has gone missing and the Dis'er there had no stroller to use as well as she has had parts overnighted so a user did not lose use of their $10/$20 stroller. Money maker it was not.....

 

[kadesha]

I hope all the people who posted nasties about you on this thread reads this and takes it to heart. If those who are referring to her would have read the RC thread they would see how she has spent countless hours keeping the swaps going for everyone. Go through the threads and see the parts that have been ordered, see how other Dis'ers replaced those parts when they got there and all she has done to make sure that Dis'ers had a safe to use stroller when they got there, one that was comfortable for the kids. I just want to thank you Parkers*momma for all you have done for those who participated in the swap prior to the new ruling and for keeping it going for those who were looking forward to using it this year.

Even though I'm not a part of any of your swaps, I commend you for your work! It's so time consuming for me to run just one fridge swap--I can only imagine how much time you put into running 5 stroller swaps. And also keeping the strollers maintained, most people just let them go once they start showing wear and tear. Great job! I hope your swaps last for a loooooong time! I honestly think that people looking in from the outside just don't understand how much work it really is.

 

[PrincessParty]

Just wanted to say I have PM'd all members from our Photopass Share group with my E-mail address. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[KATIESMOMMY]

So who gets paid? (where does one make payment?) Whose name is the bank account in? (Dis boards 5 royal carriage swap?) Do you offer "transparency" on all payments to the "swap" as well as all repairs/maintenance costs public to those in the "swap"?

Yes she did, we on the swap thread always knew what she had ordered in parts, how they were sent to the stroller swapper who needed it and she even posted pics of the strollers that were in dire repair being dropped by truck to her home so her DH could fix them. She also would tell us how much was left in the stroller fund and what the money was going to be used for as far as new strollers or whatever. Also the swappers would post on the thread the repairs needed to strollers and then the next swapper would respond as far as what repairs they made etc....

 

[DVCBELLE]

First off - read what I said. Guests of DVC members and "Renters" are not treated differently since DVC has no way of knowing who knows the member and who does not.

As for the charges - again I have no clue what you are talking about. I have brought guests every single trip sincve we became members (4 different rooms this last trip in 3 different DVC resorts) and not once have they had charges against me because of something associated with a reservation I have made for my guests. Why would they even charge me? They would be charging the actual occupant of the room for any services they have used.

If members are not telling Member services that they rented the points and therefore the renter gets member perks and violating the contract they made with Disney to tell them if it is a guest or renter.

When you rent points you do not receive DVC member perks:

from the DIS rental board:

Renters will receive all WDW resort guests’ benefits such as free parking at the WDW theme parks, use of Disney transportation, Magical Express and Extra Magic Hours. DVC Member benefits such as dining discounts, pool hopping and free valet parking are not transferable to renters.[/QUOTE]

Some members have reported that DVC has in error charged them for valet or internet - it doesn't always happen but it has happened on occasion...if the perks were given to everyone this would not be happening to members as no one in the DVC points room would ever get these charges.

my point is Disney does treat renters different from owners and as a result there are things that Disney has to do when you rent out your points.