DONE! Fixed. 6 Hours Today on Hold, Back in Que, Was put back in the same que I was originally in, starting over, been doing this since 8:30 am, Day 3

[js]

Well, I disagree. I never waited on hold this long before COVID. I did have issues with their MDE app back then and was able to get things resolved in a much shorter time. I know they had issues bringing online their whole new MDE up to speed. That was bumpy for them. Most new things are.

My reference to being well oiled was the whole enterprise of what they did at their parks and resorts. They had enough staff. They had training programs for people. They handled tens of thousands of people every day in hotels, parks, dining, etc. And did it quite well. They provided good customer service which I experienced personally and they were recognized by industry sources as being at the top of the game on customer service.

Disney's IT has NOT been well oiled in many, many years prior to Covid. When they fired all their US IT people and had them train their replacements, that was the beginning of the end. Also, Disney's IT recording before being placed on hold when you need to press options, is "if I have a question about FP". Yes, it is asking if I have a Fast Pass question to press a number on my phone.

Sorry, but seven hours today on hold without any resolution (even being told they cannot fix), is not acceptable for
ANY business.

 

[HydroGuy]

There are lots of upset people on this forum for many reasons. I hope you all get a solution. I am not going to debate this anymore. As I said, I am choosing to view things differently. I hope you all have a good visit to WDW whenever you go.

 

[Figvention]

Well, I disagree. I never waited on hold this long before COVID. I did have issues with their MDE app back then and was able to get things resolved in a much shorter time. I know they had issues bringing online their whole new MDE up to speed. That was bumpy for them. Most new things are.

My reference to being well oiled was the whole enterprise of what they did at their parks and resorts. They had enough staff. They had training programs for people. They handled tens of thousands of people every day in hotels, parks, dining, etc. And did it quite well. They provided good customer service which I experienced personally and they were recognized by industry sources as being at the top of the game on customer service.

Apparently, my first comment was "mean", (honest) and got removed. Americans continue to shovel money their way for the worst customer service in the travel/entertainment industry. I don't wait this long on hold for questions with Viking Cruise Lines, did they not suffer from Covid? Delta Airlines (notorious for bad customer service) has never made me wait HOURS on hold. DIS has astronomically raised profits by cutting services and raising prices (far higher than record inflation), this is ECON 101. Stop stumbling over yourselves to give them money and maybe things would change. Because something is "popular" is not a reason to treat customers with disdain. If you chose to give someone thousands of dollars (could have 6 flights and 2 cruises down the Rhine for the cost of one Disney trip) to lose EMH, now pay for Fast Passes and have lower quality food/smaller portions, then wait HOURS for the privilege of shoddy customer service, you LITERALLY get what you pay for.

Disney nerds have problems with the truth. We are (I used to be) the largest group of consumers with Stockholm syndrome. Please flag this post for being mean if you must, this group catharsis is unhealthy as we vent with each other and then still hand Disney ludicrous amounts of money for service NOBODY would have put up with 3 years ago. Hospitals/transit/face-to-face hospitality is bumpy, sure! Customer service and IT folks have been working at home for YEARS before Covid, this is not pandemic related. It's spiking the profit football in your face and laughing all the way to the bank. Nothing I've said in here is inflammatory, it's simply outside of the Disney bubble group think, facts and logic are not "mean". They are NEVER fixing these issues, complaining here is a waste of everyone's time, stop living in the past.

 

[Neener16]

Maybe it was because I had a simple problem to solve, but I called yesterday to see if i could add a day to my existing reservation. I got the message about long call times and if you wanted a callback instead of holding, press 1, if you want to continue holding press 2.
I pressed 2 but literally every minute they had the same recording and I had to continually press 2. I finally pressed 1, confirmed the number they needed to call me back at, and thought I would not hear back. I did within an hour. I don’t know what would’ve happened if that person couldn’t answer my question, maybe I would be thrown into the abyss like the rest of you. My experience was OK.

 

[js]

Maybe it was because I had a simple problem to solve, but I called yesterday to see if i could add a day to my existing reservation. I got the message about long call times and if you wanted a callback instead of holding, press 1, if you want to continue holding press 2.
I pressed 2 but literally every minute they had the same recording and I had to continually press 2. I finally pressed 1, confirmed the number they needed to call me back at, and thought I would not hear back. I did within an hour. I don’t know what would’ve happened if that person couldn’t answer my question, maybe I would be thrown into the abyss like the rest of you. My experience was OK.

I dont have that option. I need ticket escalation. It's just awful.

 

[Jennasis]

Funny enough, I did the "call me back option" (which is how I finally got through) and the recording read me back the number they had on file to call and it was NOTHING REMOTELY CLOSE to my phone number. I looked it up for fun and it was an area code in another state!

 

[Neener16]

Funny enough, I did the "call me back option" (which is how I finally got through) and the recording read me back the number they had on file to call and it was NOTHING REMOTELY CLOSE to my phone number. I looked it up for fun and it was an area code in another state!

The same thing happened to me, I thought it was maybe my reservation number. The second time around they had the correct number.

 

[Neener16]

I dont have that option. I need ticket escalation. It's just awful.

That is awful and so frustrating. I’d love to hear the real reason this is happening. At this point, who would want that job answering the phone?? People must be incredibly angry (rightfully so) after holding for hours.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Funny enough, I did the "call me back option" (which is how I finally got through) and the recording read me back the number they had on file to call and it was NOTHING REMOTELY CLOSE to my phone number. I looked it up for fun and it was an area code in another state!

Were you calling from a land line? In some businesses the caller ID that goes through to the person who answers is nothing at all like the number actually needed to call back. My husband's employer is like this (well, was when they worked in their offices). There was never any telling what number would show in my caller ID when we called me from his desk phone.

 

[Jennasis]

Were you calling from a land line? In some businesses the caller ID that goes through to the person who answers is nothing at all like the number actually needed to call back. My husband's employer is like this (well, was when they worked in their offices). There was never any telling what number would show in my caller ID when we called me from his desk phone.

Cell phone.

 

[fireflyer]

I wanted to add an extra day to my existing ticket order. It took 2 days of waiting on hold, and after eventual conversations with live humans, more transfers and more holds. On the first day, I hung up after 2 hours on hold. Next day I "upped my game"... I called on 2 different cell phones simultaneously. After approximately 3 hours on hold on one cell and 3.5 hours on the other cell, and several transfers to "other" hold lines, a human finally answered who had knowledge of how to add an extra day onto the park ticket.

This is THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED in my life, from any business. So the logical question is: why would I be a customer if the service is so bad? Answer: because we'd planned this trip a couple years ago, and Disney had a good reputation. Flash-forward to today: Disney still has a unique, unmatchable product... so people might keep paying, or they might not. Reasonable consumers ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT PAY FOR CRAP SERVICE. But, Disney markets its product to higher-spend customers, not to low-income America.

Therefore, Disney may be able to survive for A LONG TIME, marketing to willing-to-spend consumers, even though the Disney product is now CRAP. Translation: Disney is profiting now off of its prior years' reputation. Disney's current reputation is going to hell-in-a-handbasket, and the current leadership is okay with that, because they're still profiting from last-decade's decisions.

 

[boredghost]

I wonder if travel advisors have similar communication issues. Seems like going through a TA (which doesn’t cost any more) would be way less stressful for an individual.

 

[Jennasis]

Remember, Disney's "Legendary customer service". Oh it's a legend all right...like Bigfoot or the Lochness monster.

 

[Eastern]

I would use any alternative rather than calling. For adding an extra day, first, I would try calling exactly when they open or later in the evening. Plan B: I would wait to do it once I got there. Add on the day in person, at guest services. Make that your Epcot day because it usually has availability for park passes. If it doesn't, save your money and do something else. Pool day, DS, etc. I just cannot be bothered trying to call them lately.

 

[popy]

Poor service, but what else, can you expect ? Only too get worst.

 

[js]

Okay, Day 3. I called Disney IT now on hold for 25 minutes but they are not the people I need to speak to.
I need someone to pick up and then explain my whole issue again and then ask to please be transferred to
Ticket Escalation. Today, I was smarter, I'm using my cell phone. However I have a meeting at 8:45 am and I
am actually bringing my cell phone, playing Disney music into my meeting.
Disgusting, but here I am doing it since how else will this get resolved. Not like it's a quick phone call (or even an hour).

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Same here. I call and am on hold for 3 plus hours. Then they say they need me to email the ticket issue as they cannot look up my tickets. I sent an email 2 weeks ago and nothing. Not even an auto reply.
When I use up these last Disney tickets I will be buying Universal ones. I have already switched to their resorts.

 

[js]

Same here. I call and am on hold for 3 plus hours. Then they say they need me to email the ticket issue as they cannot look up my tickets. I sent an email 2 weeks ago and nothing. Not even an auto reply.
When I use up these last Disney tickets I will be buying Universal ones. I have already switched to their resorts.

So sorry. Not acceptable. Just a few minutes ago, someone answered and put me in a que where someone will call me back in what they said approximately 90 minutes. We shall see. It shouldn't be this difficult.

 

[Disney for Life]

Apparently, my first comment was "mean", (honest) and got removed. Americans continue to shovel money their way for the worst customer service in the travel/entertainment industry. I don't wait this long on hold for questions with Viking Cruise Lines, did they not suffer from Covid? Delta Airlines (notorious for bad customer service) has never made me wait HOURS on hold. DIS has astronomically raised profits by cutting services and raising prices (far higher than record inflation), this is ECON 101. Stop stumbling over yourselves to give them money and maybe things would change. Because something is "popular" is not a reason to treat customers with disdain. If you chose to give someone thousands of dollars (could have 6 flights and 2 cruises down the Rhine for the cost of one Disney trip) to lose EMH, now pay for Fast Passes and have lower quality food/smaller portions, then wait HOURS for the privilege of shoddy customer service, you LITERALLY get what you pay for.

Disney nerds have problems with the truth. We are (I used to be) the largest group of consumers with Stockholm syndrome. Please flag this post for being mean if you must, this group catharsis is unhealthy as we vent with each other and then still hand Disney ludicrous amounts of money for service NOBODY would have put up with 3 years ago. Hospitals/transit/face-to-face hospitality is bumpy, sure! Customer service and IT folks have been working at home for YEARS before Covid, this is not pandemic related. It's spiking the profit football in your face and laughing all the way to the bank. Nothing I've said in here is inflammatory, it's simply outside of the Disney bubble group think, facts and logic are not "mean". They are NEVER fixing these issues, complaining here is a waste of everyone's time, stop living in the past.

Well said! I personally canceled 2 Disney vacations (one due to the pandemic) and the other due to the rising costs. I would travel once per year, sometimes twice, to vacation at Disney but now I’ll be spending my money elsewhere.

What did it for me was the removal of the DME. The convenience of not having to take care of my luggage was huge. You got to the airport and headed straight to the DME location. My vacation started the moment I got off the plane. Now, its an extra cost with a lesser service. No thanks Disney.

Only when people start reacting with their wallets that change will happen at Disney. If we continue complaining about it but still give Disney our hard earned money they will not change their business model. I mean why would they? They are still raking in huge profits while keeping their shareholders happy so why change anything?

I get why people return year after year. It’s still a magical place. Lots of fun activities to do and great memories to be made but at what cost? Sorry Disney but you’ve lost my business for not. I’m sure that I will eventually go back some day but not anytime soon. Epic universal, here I come!

 

[JoJoGirl]

I’m on hold again, trying to make a payment on my resort reservation - trying to give Disney literally a four digits worth of my money. Quoted wait time: 93 minutes.

Someone upthread suggested using options other than calling. THERE ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS. Online payment for resort reservations DOES NOT EXIST. The former automated phone payment system is BROKEN, and has been for months. To pay on your account before arrival - which you have to do if you want to use gift cards, a rewards card, or anything other than your credit card on file, you have no choice but to wait on the phone for a live person. For HOURS with multiple cutoffs and redials. To excuse this situation as anything other than abysmal is ludicrous.

Why am I putting up with this? Three years ago, right before the huge price increase, before Chapek, the pandemic, the loss of Magic Express and FastPass, and the previously unthinkable plummet in customer experience, I purchased three Annual Pass vouchers. I happily believed that I had years of great vacations to look forward to. Little could I imagine …

Ever the optimist, I activated an AP last December, thinking things had to get better. Now my extended family is taking a trip that was previously postponed, so here we are. Not even able to pay on our hotel rooms.

I’m sure that once we arrive our trip will be fun and memorable. Will it be fun and memorable enough to offset the roughly 40% price increase, the loss of many services, and having to endure this phone hell? The answer for my previous two trips was sadly no. When my current AP expires I’m taking a break. My immediate family is skipping Disney in 2023. We are currently planning a trip next January to Universal and Marco Island. I‘m not activating my last WDW AP until Disney gets their act together.

This is coming from a 30+ year WDW fanatic. So sad.