Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <This foolishness has just gone way to far in recent years.> If recent, you mean the last 15 years, then, yes you're correct. I worked at City Hall at WDWs Magic Kingdom 1986-1988 and had many an encounter with guests who wanted refunds, extra days added to their passports, special demands and the like. Their complaints usually stemmed from the Park being too crowded or being overwhelmed, or hot, or that the park didn't meet their expectations. In my first week at City Hall, a guest marched in, threw down his one-day passport and declared 'I want my money back, there's nothing to do here.' I was so flabbergasted, that one of my associates had to step in and handle it for me. At that point in my life, it never occured to me that someone wouldn't like being at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. The biggest thing I learned while in Guest Relations: Not everyone in the world likes Walt Disney World Resort. Shocking, but true.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost While I am sure it existed in the 80's, because it didn't happen overnight, I don't believe it was as big a problem as it is today. It has grown and grown and become a real problem for people that are trying to do the right thing by people who need help. It is becoming, IMO, overwhelming to try and separate the fake from the legitimate. A very sad social commentary!
Originally Posted By mickeynewe I have only ever had one problem at Disneyland and I wasn't even upset over it, however, regardless of the fact that I WASN'T upset, the manager bent over backwards for us. We took 2 rolls of film in to be developed on Main Street. When we picked them up there was a scratch mark across all of them. I inquired about it and they told me they would have to check with the lab. They asked if this was our last day and I told them "no" and they gave me a couple of replacement rolls of film and told me to check back in a couple of hours. Again, I wasn't upset. I know these things happen and I just wanted to see if the lab could re-print the pictures. Sure, I was a little disappointed that all my pictures had scratch marks, but I still had time to re-take photos in the park so it wasn't an "all is lost" case scenario. Anyways, we checked back later in the day. When we came in we were greeted by a Manager who apologized profusely and said that a few orders had been ruined by a piece of malfunctioning equipment and they were so sorry! She was very nice, I didn't feel the need to be upset as they had kindly given me replacement film earlier in the day and I had happily snapped more pics. They gave us the pictures free of charge of course and also gave our daughter some really nice colored autographed pictures of the characters. We thanked them for trying to save our film and told them that we appreciated their efforts. As we turned to leave the Manager asked our daughter if she liked the "Princesses". Of course, our little girls said, "yes". The Manager smiled at us and took our little girl's hand and told her to come with her. She lead her into the adjoining gift shop and picked up one of the Princess ornament sets that look like they are in a book and gave it to our daughter and told her that they hope she really enjoyed the rest of her stay at the park. It was totally unexpected. As far as we were concerned they had already tried everything they could to accomodate/please us and nothing further was needed. However, it made a memorable impression on us as to the importance Disney takes in keeping its guests happy when there is a problem.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost And it follows suit with my observation that if you don't act like an entitled idiot, better things happen. It is only natural that someone will go out of their way to help you when you are not making their life a total hell.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal Good for you, Mickeynewe. Thanks for being a reasonable person who dealt with a cruddy situation and made the most of it. I think that story is a wonderful example of Guest Service recovery. I think the fix, and the Guest's response, were appropriate to the level of the error. The unfortunate thing is that there are some Guests who would not be satisfied with an apology, replacement film, a souvenir, and autographed pictures. They'd demand a refund and free tix, etc. I wish there were more Guest's out there like Mickeynewe!
Originally Posted By magicbeinghad2 I feel that an apology is due to the first poster, on being attacked and basically being called a fraud to get extra money or compensation.
Originally Posted By RAM1984 I agree magic... She did not say DL sucks. She just explained a whole day gone wrong. This has happened to me a few of my MANY days at DL. I would like to think that if I wanted to express my disappointments that LP would be a safe place to go. **mother of stitch** If after all the bashing you come back to this thread.... I understand and hope you have many good memories to offset the bad.
Originally Posted By RAM1984 I do not have any idea what happened to my insertion point but sorry for the extra space my post took up.
Originally Posted By HRM WOW, what an interesting TOPIC and discussion... I actually saw this TOPIC a few days ago and wasn't able to participate in the debate... I must admit, I didn't quite understand the initial post either; and thank you to hopemax for explaining the post. It is nice to know that Mother of Stitch received a refund; hopefully, this is a happy ending, and a learning experience for all concerned. ºo° ...by the way, imadisneygal, how does a person get to work as a CM for TGS @ DL?
Originally Posted By imadisneygal Unfortunately, TGS is no longer part of the operation at Disneyland. It stands for Total Guest Satisfaction and it started in 1993 as a team of Cast Members who met to help implement Guest Service measures. (Which then lead to "Measure the Magic." Not one of my favorites...) Anyway, there were CM's from many different departments from all over the Park and we met once a week to find ways to break down barriers to excellent service. The team continued for several years and was then discontinued. I entered the Disneyland Leadership Development Program the same summer the team disbanded and was a manager in Guest Relations after that. I think the TGS team was a great idea because it was a multi-departmental approach to Guest Service. We all learned from each other. The best part about the team was that there was always a Director at the meetings (high level manager, just below VP) who could instantly approve or veto our ideas. No waiting around for red tape, memos to be sent, etc. It was very efficient. Bing, bang, boom!
Originally Posted By DlandDug The most egregious example I ever saw of bad guest behavior was during the "Light Magic" preview party for Annual Passholders. The show was not ready for any audience, let alone the most demanding one around. Not long after the rather poorly received performance was over, I was walking down Main Street when a friend came up and excitedly told me that if I went to City Hall and complained, I would get a full refund for the evening's event. I explained that while I thought the preview was poor, the rest of the evening had been fine, and didn't feel a refund was justified. Well! By the end of the evening, word had gone out, and City Hall was mobbed with APs, all demanding their money back. I am certain that the majority of them were there simply because someone told them they were guaranteed a refund. (A day later, a refund with letter of apology from Cynthia Harriss was delivered via FedEx to all attendees!) I am sure that the APs who got that going were very pleased with themselves. Others of us noted that there were NO MORE AP events for a long time after that. There was apparently supposed to be a small world holiday party later that year-- the pins for it turned up on cast lanyards that winter. So guest satisfaction cuts both ways...
Originally Posted By mickeynewe I think that is absolutely horrible! It was a "preview" party, which meant they were probably looking for feedback, but what they got from the guests was uncalled for! I don't go to a show, and just because I don't like it, demand my money back. It really disturbs me when people take advantage of situations. Like you said though, it is the AP holders that will eventually suffer because of this bad behaviour.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal Yes, that was an awful night. City Hall was a mess and there was lots of uproar like Doug said. During that time period there was some animocity on the part of Cast Members because several attractions/shows were previewed to Annual Passholders before being previewed to the Cast. I guess my point is...I agree 110% with Doug.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Not wishing to highjack the topic, I will add that the AP preview of "Light Magic" was one of the worst performances I have ever seen in a Disney theme park. The show simply wasn't ready for an audience. I felt very bad for the cast. They were working hard under a very bad set of circumstances. Paul Pressler had no business selling tickets on the basis that guests were going to see a performance. He did come out beforehand and welcome everyone to a "dress rehearsal of a work in progress." This was a clue to me that the show wasn't ready. Pressler's performance that night was a sad, sad comment on how little he understood guest expectations. But then, "show" was never a significant part of the Disneyland experience for Mr. Pressler.
Originally Posted By ewenome >>(A day later, a refund with letter of apology from Cynthia Harriss was delivered via FedEx to all attendees!)<< I don't know if this is how they settled the AP preview of Light Magic but wasn't Cynthia's letter and refund the result of a botched Pirates merchandise event?
Originally Posted By deadmentellnotales in all fairness to the post, sometimes people fall through the cracks, just because the post doesn't make alot of sense doesn't mean that it's fishy, why post it at all here, it's not like laughing place could rectify the situation. I remember one time when my wife got hurt at disneyland a few years back, she went to the infimary over by the photo store on main street ( i never really paid attention to what it's called) where she told the rest of us to go have fun and she'd either meet up with us later or possibly head back to the hotel. This happened somewhere around 7 or so, I really don't remember the small details too much, anyway we went on several rides watched fantasmic and ate some dinner, by this time we hadn't heard anything from my wife so we figured she went back to the hotel (she had driven most of the way way up the night before and was tired) it wasn't until we went back to the hotel at disneylands closing the we discovered she wasn't there, we went back to disneyland and faught to get back inside and went searching for her, she was still in the infirmary where we left her some four to five hours previously! now to dineys credit they did make up for this many time over, but this is justy to illustrate how sometimes these things happen, the trip went downhill from there i might add, it seems that disney at the time had a policy where you counldn't take a wheelchair from one park to the next, this made park hopping next to impossible even though we were told we could, it seems we were told a differant answer from every person we talked to abou the situation. my point here again is not to criticize the disney staff whom i have the deepest appreciation for, after all they have the responsibilty of managing a large crowd and in making the magic happen at all times, and they handle it with the utmost respect, I'm just trying to point out that while they do a excellent job they are only human and as i said sometimes people fall through the cracks. That said, I'm sure if the original poster is in fact on the level there is no company that would go further to make sure that she is fully happy like disney. I would like to take the time now to thank all those people at DLR for making both the magic happen but even more so for making it possible...
Originally Posted By RAM1984 >> And RAM1984 I have no idea what your indiviual experience was so this post is not a judgement on the validity of your concern.<< If you are still visiting this thread and are interested disneygal, I posted the whole story in community paging you.
