Responding to bad service

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Chris Hamm

butterflyology
Joined
Mar 21, 2019
Pete's video about poor customer service (at the Grand Floridian) is really hitting home with me right now. One of my take aways from his post was that there need to be consequences for bad service.

I love Tiki Bars, collect mugs, and love Trader Sam's. The Grog Grotto was sold out of mugs each of the last six trips I made to WDW. Last week my wife and I stayed at the Poly and on Friday night two skippers told me that mugs would be available Saturday. Our original flight home would have prevented us from going to the GG so I changed our flights in hopes of getting mugs. Mugs were not released on Saturday (they were released on Monday).

I took the word of two skippers, changed my flights and came up empty. I wrote the manager of the Poly and WDW and have not heard back after four business days.

Taking away money from WDW and telling them why is the best response I can think of. I cancelled a 4-night trip in December and told the CM that helped me the reason why I cancelled.

How do you respond to bad customer service?
 
Pete's video about poor customer service (at the Grand Floridian) is really hitting home with me right now. One of my take aways from his post was that there need to be consequences for bad service.

I love Tiki Bars, collect mugs, and love Trader Sam's. The Grog Grotto was sold out of mugs each of the last six trips I made to WDW. Last week my wife and I stayed at the Poly and on Friday night two skippers told me that mugs would be available Saturday. Our original flight home would have prevented us from going to the GG so I changed our flights in hopes of getting mugs. Mugs were not released on Saturday (they were released on Monday).

I took the word of two skippers, changed my flights and came up empty. I wrote the manager of the Poly and WDW and have not heard back after four business days.

Taking away money from WDW and telling them why is the best response I can think of. I cancelled a 4-night trip in December and told the CM that helped me the reason why I cancelled.

How do you respond to bad customer service?

About all you can do is what you did (and what I would do to). If they don't respond, the other option is to post your negative, unanswered issues on a broader social media platform where they may take more notice.
 
Pete's video about poor customer service (at the Grand Floridian) is really hitting home with me right now. One of my take aways from his post was that there need to be consequences for bad service.

I love Tiki Bars, collect mugs, and love Trader Sam's. The Grog Grotto was sold out of mugs each of the last six trips I made to WDW. Last week my wife and I stayed at the Poly and on Friday night two skippers told me that mugs would be available Saturday. Our original flight home would have prevented us from going to the GG so I changed our flights in hopes of getting mugs. Mugs were not released on Saturday (they were released on Monday).

I took the word of two skippers, changed my flights and came up empty. I wrote the manager of the Poly and WDW and have not heard back after four business days.

Taking away money from WDW and telling them why is the best response I can think of. I cancelled a 4-night trip in December and told the CM that helped me the reason why I cancelled.

How do you respond to bad customer service?
Those must be some mugs!
Can you order them so you have them for your collection?
I feel for staff too, those skippers were probably giving you their best info...it starts at the top. If they were told by their supervisors to expect an order Saturday, they are simply sharing what they have been told. Things happen, shipments get delayed or if it was received, they open the box & realize the mugs are defective. It stinks when you are the one impacted.
I think we all have our own "tipping point" when it comes to poor/lacking service. I seriously don't think corporations care anymore, when you complain or bring a real concern to their attention, you get lip service. Not always the case but it happens to all of us.
What I do if something has gone sideways in the customer service area, is I wait. I wait a couple of days & see if it is still on my mind and bugging me. I pick my battles, sometimes it is just not worth it.
If it is worth it, I call or email with a suitable resolution in mind. I think I'm a reasonable person. You know within minutes of speaking to the person on the other end of the phone if they are reasonable & have any authority to rectify the issue. Have a reasonable solution in mind to present. For example, in your case, I wouldn't expect Disney to cover your airfare change fees (that was your choice), but if you are buying the mugs, could they cover shipping charges? Something along those lines. Good luck.
 


I'm sorry about your mugs, but with all the "legitimate" customer service problems out there this is not one of them. First there was no "guarantee" that the mugs would be there on a certain day and like a PP mentioned the employees told you the information they probably heard (grape vine). Heck how many posts are on DIS about CM's having the wrong information. You decided to cancel your flight, no one else.
 
Changed flights to try to get mugs. Then wrote to Disney and cancelled the next trip due to anger over delayed mug availability.

Um...Maybe you made too much of the mug issue? Maybe, if it was that important to you, you should have checked with someone more senior than a skipper before changing your plans?
 
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Do you know for sure these skippers intentionally mislead you? Were they 100% certain these mugs were being delivered on a specific day? Could there maybe have been an unforeseen reason the shipment was delayed? Did you tell them you were going to change flights based on their information, and did you offer to leave your contact information so they could inform you of any changes delays?

Reaching out as you have done and spending your vacation dollars elsewhere are really the only two appropriate responses to poor service. Four days is really not that long though. I wouldn’t be surprised if they contact you a few days from now.
 


Those must be some mugs!
Can you order them so you have them for your collection?
I feel for staff too, those skippers were probably giving you their best info...it starts at the top. If they were told by their supervisors to expect an order Saturday, they are simply sharing what they have been told. Things happen, shipments get delayed or if it was received, they open the box & realize the mugs are defective. It stinks when you are the one impacted.
I think we all have our own "tipping point" when it comes to poor/lacking service. I seriously don't think corporations care anymore, when you complain or bring a real concern to their attention, you get lip service. Not always the case but it happens to all of us.
What I do if something has gone sideways in the customer service area, is I wait. I wait a couple of days & see if it is still on my mind and bugging me. I pick my battles, sometimes it is just not worth it.
If it is worth it, I call or email with a suitable resolution in mind. I think I'm a reasonable person. You know within minutes of speaking to the person on the other end of the phone if they are reasonable & have any authority to rectify the issue. Have a reasonable solution in mind to present. For example, in your case, I wouldn't expect Disney to cover your airfare change fees (that was your choice), but if you are buying the mugs, could they cover shipping charges? Something along those lines. Good luck.
Let it go. Let it let it go.....not worth it. Ask Disney to ship it free...
 
Pete's video about poor customer service (at the Grand Floridian) is really hitting home with me right now. One of my take aways from his post was that there need to be consequences for bad service.

I love Tiki Bars, collect mugs, and love Trader Sam's. The Grog Grotto was sold out of mugs each of the last six trips I made to WDW. Last week my wife and I stayed at the Poly and on Friday night two skippers told me that mugs would be available Saturday. Our original flight home would have prevented us from going to the GG so I changed our flights in hopes of getting mugs. Mugs were not released on Saturday (they were released on Monday).

I took the word of two skippers, changed my flights and came up empty. I wrote the manager of the Poly and WDW and have not heard back after four business days.

Taking away money from WDW and telling them why is the best response I can think of. I cancelled a 4-night trip in December and told the CM that helped me the reason why I cancelled.

How do you respond to bad customer service?

If two different CM's gave you the same info, it sounds like the inventory was expected, to the best of their knowledge, but was somehow delayed, which is completely out of their control. I'm surprised they didn't phrase their answer in traditional Disney-speak where a CM tells you something will happen with the caveat that it may never happen. Disney will never, ever guarantee anything. On top of that, the amount of misinformation CM's toss around is astounding. I could go on and on about the misinformation I've heard from CM's over the years including one server at HBD who was going on and on about something that was going to happen in WDW and, by the end of the meal, admitted she got all of her "information" from Facebook . . . I'm actually astonished two CM's gave you the same information which leads me to think they really believed the mugs would be there. I understand you are upset and, hopefully, someone will respond and maybe even send you a mug. I would highly suggest in the future, though, not to spend copious amounts of time and money rearranging plans based on something a CM tells you. If it isn't in writing on some official Disney site, I would take it all with a grain of salt.
 
While moving flights to get mugs seems a little extreme it doesn’t matter. Voting with your wallet is the best way to handle it.
 
Did 2 separate CM’s tell you the mugs would be available on Saturday, or did one say it and the other standing nearby not say anything to the contrary?
 
I second the advice about waiting a few days to see if something still seems important enough to complain about, then email with a detailed, polite statement of what happened and a reasonable suggestion for a fair solution.

I just watched the video referenced by another poster, and I agree that the customer service he received missed the mark. That happened to us recently with our magic bands being disconnected from our form of payment.

I don't think it makes sense to excuse bad customer service merely by explaining the reasons behind it. If Disney puts a front desk button on the phone in your room, using it should lead to resolving any issues you have with your room. It doesn’t matter if the button connects to the front desk, a call center or is a direct line to Walt’s grave. The same is true of making an ADR. I don’t care if it’s a true reservation or “priority seating.” If Disney tells you to show up at a certain time, they should seat you within a reasonable amount of time regardless of what reservation system they use. CMs giving bad advice should not be a given, and guests should not be faulted for believing them.
 
No way would I have changed flights for mugs. I say this having desperately wanting the AK and DHS You Are Here Starbucks mugs. We were down there during Irma in 2017 and AK mugs we were told were going through a redesign (correct) so they were unavailable. DHS mugs we were told would be there in the next day or two (incorrect)--they showed up well after we left.

Unfortunately OP this was a decision on you to change your flights and one most people wouldn't even consider purely on financial and logistics reasons--you hoped for the best but the worst happened. Understandably frustrating but no not 'bad service' in this scenario IMO and not worth it to me personally writing to the manager and cancelling a future trip over but that's purely my viewpoint on how the exact situation.
 
Taking stock issues out on frontline staff is uncool. I say this as someone who did time in retail and currently works as support staff in a govt call center. Those CMs probably gave you the best info they had at the time.

Nowadays social media is where it’s at for getting issues resolved, imo. And usually those channels are staffed by the most experienced agents. Most companies don’t throw just anyone on chat or Twitter because it’s so public facing. I’d imagine Disney is the same way. Aside from that, you did what you felt was best. What gets me are the people who are unhappy with something and wait to get on here to complain about it.
 
You chose to change your flights for mugs. That was your choice. If you wanted those mugs so badly are they not on Ebay? Clearly they are a popular item but, Disney cast members can't be held responsible for things outside of their control, like shipping issues, etc. Why would they not be 100% truthful in their reply to you about when they expect items to be restocked? A person in customer service's job is to make the customer happy.
 
Pete's video about poor customer service (at the Grand Floridian) is really hitting home with me right now. One of my take aways from his post was that there need to be consequences for bad service.

I love Tiki Bars, collect mugs, and love Trader Sam's. The Grog Grotto was sold out of mugs each of the last six trips I made to WDW. Last week my wife and I stayed at the Poly and on Friday night two skippers told me that mugs would be available Saturday. Our original flight home would have prevented us from going to the GG so I changed our flights in hopes of getting mugs. Mugs were not released on Saturday (they were released on Monday).

I took the word of two skippers, changed my flights and came up empty. I wrote the manager of the Poly and WDW and have not heard back after four business days.

Taking away money from WDW and telling them why is the best response I can think of. I cancelled a 4-night trip in December and told the CM that helped me the reason why I cancelled.

How do you respond to bad customer service?
I don't think you received "bad customer service". You made a personal decision (changing your flights) based on rumor/gossip.
It's unfortunate the mugs weren't available when you hoped they would be.
If you want to visit in Dec it's fine. If you don't it's fine. Lots of guests cancel for a wide variety of reasons, no big deal.

And an aside, now I really want to know what those mugs look like.
 
I don't think you received "bad customer service". You made a personal decision (changing your flights) based on rumor/gossip.
It's unfortunate the mugs weren't available when you hoped they would be.
If you want to visit in Dec it's fine. If you don't it's fine. Lots of guests cancel for a wide variety of reasons, no big deal.

And an aside, now I really want to know what those mugs look like.
[??
 
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Not bad service- silly on your part.
Why anyone would every change a flight for mugs is incomprehensible. If you truly wanted that badly ask that they be mailed to you.

Canceling a second trip over this is on you. Not Disney’s fault - all on you.

So what do you want them to do with your complaint? Mail you mugs, comp you a day, pay your change fee from airline? Are the mugs available for purchase online?

The CMs didn’t purposely give you wrong information. They were probably told the mugs were coming that day- you made the mistake changing your plans!
 
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