Poor service in Epcot today...

[Cardiff Bob]

Hi

We are in Epcot today and my wife took my kids to meet Jasmin. Anyway Jasmin accidentally broke the Disney pen that came with the (Disney) autograph book.

She was told this would be replaced and we should see a cast member. When they got to the shop they were referred to other cast members - 6 in total. The books were Christmas presents bought in the Disney shop in the UK.

My wife explained that ‘father Christmas’ bought the books/ pens but they repeatedly asked where they were bought and if they had the receipts with them!

Eventually the 6th cast member gave us a pen but insisted that we hand in the broken one. They walk away but then my daughter cried because the original pen was a Christmas present.

They then retrieved the broken pen and give back the new pen.

I inform Disney this and they have offered us $10 for making our child cry at Disney! I am going to make a further complaint.

Maybe I am over reacting (I am not well today) but I just feel this is appalling.

 

[focusondisney]

Hi

We are in Epcot today and my wife took my kids to meet Jasmin. Anyway Jasmin accidentally broke the Disney pen that came with the (Disney) autograph book.

She was told this would be replaced and we should see a cast member. When they got to the shop they were referred to other cast members - 6 in total. The books were Christmas presents bought in the Disney shop in the UK.

My wife explained that ‘father Christmas’ bought the books/ pens but they repeatedly asked where they were bought and if they had the receipts with them!

Eventually the 6th cast member gave us a pen but insisted that we hand in the broken one. They walk away but then my daughter cried because the original pen was a Christmas present.

They then retrieved the broken pen and give back the new pen.

I inform Disney this and they have offered us $10 for making our child cry at Disney! I am going to make a further complaint.

Maybe I am over reacting (I am not well today) but I just feel this is appalling.

Yep, I think you are overreacting. I’m not sure what kind of pen was broken, but for $10 you can buy her a nice new one. Unfortunately, most of the pens seem to be cheap plastic, so probably break easily. It is unfortunate that the pen was broken, but it was an accident. Personally, I wouldn’t have even wasted time trying to get Disney to replace it. I would have just told my daughter “accidents happen”; emphasized how great that she got Jasmin’s autograph & just got another pen in my own.

I don’t do drama. So caring on over a broken pen wouldn’t have lasted long in my family.

 

[buzznina]

It's standard practice that you need to give back the broken item to receive a new one. We had to do this a couple of times because the pens are cheaply made and all we did was go to a counter with the broken pen and they always exchanged it. It's is not a hassle and I am not just going to throw $10 away.

 

[Cardiff Bob]

Yep, I think you are overreacting. I’m not sure what kind of pen was broken, but for $10 you can buy her a nice new one. Unfortunately, most of the pens seem to be cheap plastic. It is unfortunate that the pen for broken, but it was an accident. Personally, I wouldn’t have even wasted time trying to get Disney to replace it. I would have just told my daughter “accidents happen”; emphasized how great that she got Jasmin’s autograph & just got another pen in my own.

I don’t do drama. So caring on over a broken pen wouldn’t have lasted long in my family.

Thanks - I just wish they had not not said they would provide a new one - if it was going to go sour (I don’t care about the pen of course - it was the way they handled it)

 

[OhDannyBoy]

You went to 6 different people for a $10 pen?

Okay.

 

[Lynne M]

Moving this to the Theme Parks board.

 

[Cardiff Bob]

You went to 6 different people for a $10 pen?

Okay.

The pen wasn’t even worth $10 - but when you are with a child and they are told they will get a pen we kind of assumed we would just get a pen. We did not go to 6 cast members by choice - but if you are passed to another one,you kinda think they might do what that said they would do, without an interrogation

 

[OhDannyBoy]

The pen wasn’t even worth $10 - but when you are with a child and they are told they will get a pen we kind of assumed we would just get a pen. We did not go to 6 cast members by choice - but if you are passed to another one,you kinda think they might do what that said they would do, without an interrogation

Meh fair enough.

I'm surprised they didn't just give you one right there.

 

[Cardiff Bob]

It's standard practice that you need to give back the broken item to receive a new one. We had to do this a couple of times because the pens are cheaply made and all we did was go to a counter with the broken pen and they always exchanged it. It's is not a hassle and I am not just going to throw $10 away.

It was a hassle for us though - we were passed through 6 different cast members!

 

[Cardiff Bob]

Meh fair enough.

I'm surprised they didn't just give you one right there.

That was kinda the point. ;-)

 

[Marionnette]

Hi

We are in Epcot today and my wife took my kids to meet Jasmin. Anyway Jasmin accidentally broke the Disney pen that came with the (Disney) autograph book.

She was told this would be replaced and we should see a cast member. When they got to the shop they were referred to other cast members - 6 in total. The books were Christmas presents bought in the Disney shop in the UK.

My wife explained that ‘father Christmas’ bought the books/ pens but they repeatedly asked where they were bought and if they had the receipts with them!

Eventually the 6th cast member gave us a pen but insisted that we hand in the broken one. They walk away but then my daughter cried because the original pen was a Christmas present.

They then retrieved the broken pen and give back the new pen.

I inform Disney this and they have offered us $10 for making our child cry at Disney! I am going to make a further complaint.

Maybe I am over reacting (I am not well today) but I just feel this is appalling.

I hope that you feel better tomorrow. Not feeling well can color how we perceive things.

I do believe that this was a lot of aggravation over a very small thing. I understand that the pen was special to your child because of who gave it to her but I would have just purchased a new pen and gone on my way. Time is money when you're at Disney. You lost a lot of park time for the sake of a $10 credit and still had a broken pen when all was said and done.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

I understand that if they told you to see someone about a replacement, then you would expect to see someone and get a replacement. I can also agree that it shouldn't have taken 6 CM's to resolve this, and that maybe they should have picked up on your Father Christmas explanation (but perhaps you could have had the children out of earshot while you explained the true origin).

I know it's personal preference but if I hadn't expected a replacement in the first place, I probably would not have bothered with more than 1 CM. It is also standard practice to expect that the broken item be turned in in order to get a replacement. I can't agree that a CM made your child cry- the situation may have upset your child and made her cry, but the choices at hand were to keep the broken pen or accept a replacement. Things, even Christmas presents, break. I understand children often form sentimental attachments to things (and I'm not sure what the child's age is) but that doesn't mean there aren't choices to be made. $10 for the inconvenience is a nice gesture and if it were me I would leave it at that. In reality, they could have done nothing. I don't mean to open a debate about the recent state of affairs at customer service at Disney, but I've seen worse in the last week and nothing has been offered at all.

 

[Cardiff Bob]

Thanks for all your comments

 

[FSU Girl]

I understand your pain. Especially since your child saw the pen as a present from Santa and it held sentimental value to it. I don't think anything further should be demanded of Disney though, $10 is enough to buy a new pen and you can move past this. It is annoying to have to talk to so many people to try and resolve this issue. I've never had something break at Disney so I would not know that it's expected to give the broken item to get the new one.

 

[brockash]

I hope that you feel better tomorrow. Not feeling well can color how we perceive things.

I do believe that this was a lot of aggravation over a very small thing. I understand that the pen was special to your child because of who gave it to her but I would have just purchased a new pen and gone on my way. Time is money when you're at Disney. You lost a lot of park time for the sake of a $10 credit and still had a broken pen when all was said and done.

Yeah, but it wasn't like they went out to seek the replacement; it sounds like the CM directed them to a CM to get a replacement because they broke it and it shouldn't have a been a big deal, nor should of it had to have gone through 6 Cms. It wasn't that the poster was going to all the cms the cms kept directing/handing them off to the next one etc. It probably would have looked rude for the poster to say nevermind and just walk off. It sounds like the cms were just making a very little thing into something very difficult, time consuming and annoying. It's great the first one offered, their handling of it though was not great.

 

[Dug720]

Regarding returning the broken item and them keeping it, yes. That is standard procedure for pretty much anywhere. Because if they let you keep it, there is nothing to say you won't go to another store and want another one. I have never known ANY place - Disney or otherwise - that will replace a damaged item and say "Go ahead and keep the broken one."

 

[brockash]

I understand that if they told you to see someone about a replacement, then you would expect to see someone and get a replacement. I can also agree that it shouldn't have taken 6 CM's to resolve this, and that maybe they should have picked up on your Father Christmas explanation (but perhaps you could have had the children out of earshot while you explained the true origin).

I know it's personal preference but if I hadn't expected a replacement in the first place, I probably would not have bothered with more than 1 CM. It is also standard practice to expect that the broken item be turned in in order to get a replacement. I can't agree that a CM made your child cry- the situation may have upset your child and made her cry, but the choices at hand were to keep the broken pen or accept a replacement. Things, even Christmas presents, break. I understand children often form sentimental attachments to things (and I'm not sure what the child's age is) but that doesn't mean there aren't choices to be made. $10 for the inconvenience is a nice gesture and if it were me I would leave it at that. In reality, they could have done nothing. I don't mean to open a debate about the recent state of affairs at customer service at Disney, but I've seen worse in the last week and nothing has been offered at all.

I agree. It sounds like communication could have been better on both ends and it seems like Disney was being kinda difficult, but the making my child cry thing isn't really accurate. It wasn't like the CM was directly mean to her, the situation was just unfortunate and she expressed herself by crying. I would have asked my kiddo if she'd prefer to have the broken one or a new one and let her decide, but I agree it probably didn't need to get to that level of difficulty.

 

[Cardiff Bob]

thanks folks - the re-using of the broken pen scam had no occured to us.

They knew we got them in the UK and were still asked if we had receipts on us!!

Not taking it any further - it was never about the money and we are going home tomorrow.si nothing they can do.

The kids are now laughing/joking about crying in the happiest place on Earth - so all good now...

 

[Helvetica]

I'm really sorry this happened, but at least the kids are laughing about it now.

Poor Jasmine just doesn't know her own strength. I guess that's what happens when you have a pet tiger.