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Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The happiest phone calls on earth
As the father of 2 young daughters, I received my summons in 2005 to take the family to Disneyland. I dutifully switched to a credit card that rewarded me with Disney Dollars. After running tens of thousands of dollars through the card, we finally had the money available for a few days in the park.
Side note: the Disney vacation planning DVD was long on feeling and short on substance. I've got a kid who's 40 inches tall. I wanted to know what rides she could go on. I didn't learn that, but I did see one young woman start to choke up when she talked about realizing her dream to work at Disneyland. Dream big.
You can't redeem your Disney Dollars directly. You have to go on to one of the Internets and order a gift card. That I could do, no problem. Click. Click. Click. Card ordered, January 16.
Well, it's February 13 now and I still don't have the card. So I gathered my information and started looking for a number to call. I finally found one, called it up, and a helpful man said, "I can't help you. Call this number." So I did. I got the same helpful man, but this time he was embarrassed. "I guess no one in that department is in yet," he told me. "Try after 8." So I did.
I called the second number and started pushing buttons like I imagine you have to play those old-fashioned video games that don't have motion-sensing controllers. Credit card number, zip code, menu choices, and so on.
I finally get a lively young woman on the phone who immediately tells me that she can't talk to me. I'm not the primary card holder, you see, and only primary card holders can handle Disney Dollar transactions. I was welcome, she told me, to have the primary card holder -- Ms. Hammer -- call back 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
That's what really set me off. "What do you mean," I asked, "24 hours a day? I just called thirty minutes ago and was told I had to call after 8. Was I mistaken?"
"Yes."
Whaaa? The customer is always right, unless, of course, he makes an assertion of fact. In which case he's wrong. Now, it's possible that the helpful, embarrassed fellow was mistaken and that I mistakenly believed him, but the proper answer to my question would have been something like "Someone must have given you the wrong information."
Now, this bugs me to no end, because I've been doing all the planning and taking the notes and, more or less, I know what happened and when. Ms. Hammer has approved this activity, but she hasn't participated in it. Disney is happy to let me order a rewards card, but they won't talk to me if there any problems about the rewards card.
It's all contained in my 80 page Rewards pamphlet, I'm sure. But the primary card holder only dictate is not mentioned anywhere on the order form for a Rewards card.
We went in circles on this for a minute or two, then I was wished to have a great day and dismissed.
The whole conversation made me wish that my plane tickets were refundable.
Update
Turns out, they forgot to mail the rewards card. This means they didn't need to talk to Ms. Hammer at all. If the operator had just checked my account, she could have told me that and saved everyone a lot of time.
Labels: Disney is teh suck
3 Comments:
Did you mention to them that you are the primary card holder's attorney and fully authorized to act as her agent to resolve all legal and financial matters? You could even ask for a supervisor's name so that you might fax to them your representation agreement. I'm guessing that would get them to talk to you. And for what it's worth I'm guessing you are dealing with a credit card company administering the program for Disney rather than the Disney company itself. I had a similar issue with my Amazon.com credit card and it was all handled by Chase Visa. The phone numbers to talk to anyone who actually works for Amazon customer service are a closely guarded secret.
Now there's a good idea. I'll have Ms. Hammer execute a blanket power of attorney on my behalf. Someone will need to remind me not to abuse my authority, however.
Works like a charm.
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