Originally Posted By ssWEDguy I work in the parks most every day. I see a lot of guests ask characters for autographs. They quite often have those $3.95 blue Mickey pens that are sold along with the autograph books. I see many of those blue pens fail EVERY DAY. The characters will start to write with them, and start shaking them when they won't write. They have to get a replacement pen from the attendant. This is not every blue Mickey pen. But entirely too high a percentage of them. Ask any character or attendant -- they'll tell you. Other pens seem to work. But the blue ones fail. These are not old pens, at least to the guest. These pens were bought within hours of their being used. ("I just bought that pen!") Mr. Weiss -- PLEASE PULL THESE PENS AND GET A NEW SUPPLIER. This is not good show.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Mr. Weiss should pull himself off WDW management too. It's a bloody shame how bad he has allowed Custodial to get at the MK.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Does anyone realistically think Mr. Weiss makes decisions on what kind of pens are sold at the parks? Why not bring this problem to the attention of the appropriate merchandising manager so they can correct it? Has this problem been voiced to a manager at that level? If so, and it hasn't been fixed, the next person up the chain needs to get involved. I am guessing since the original poster works in the parks, that all of these individuals within the organization have been duly contacted, and the problem has persisted for sometime without any resolution? If that is the case, then it is a sad state of affairs. If I were in Mr. Weiss' position, and it was necessary to get personally involved to fix a problem like this, I would start firing a lot of middle managers. Of course, if no one tells these managers what the problems are and you skip right to the top of the organization, then they have no opportunity to fix it themselves.
Originally Posted By DLFAN1979 ""Mr. Weiss should pull himself off WDW management too."" Technically he has, he is now only interim Pres. of WDW. I cant wait till he leaves completly. Ive heard horror stories.
Originally Posted By BlazesOfFire I have to say though, i bought one of those multi colored pens with mickey on it for work and looooooove them.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> The pens that you get for free in the resorts are better << To their credit, the attendants and/or characters ALWAYS tell the guest that they can get a new pen for free exchange at any merchandise location. But I've heard the line delivered so often now that I instead tell them that they should get one of the white pens for free at the resort. They work forever and they cost nothing.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> Why not bring this problem to the attention of the appropriate merchandising manager so they can correct it? Has this problem been voiced to a manager at that level? If so, and it hasn't been fixed, the next person up the chain needs to get involved. << I have tried on and off for many months to work through channels, to find out who is responsible for these pens, and what they think of them themselves. Maybe I keep missing. What I've gotten back has been a lot of nodding and hand wringing, but precious little doing. Mostly I don't hear back at all. So I figure by addressing my thread to Mr. Weiss directly that I can at least be ignored by the top too. No I haven't tried sending Al Weiss a note directly. I'm not willing to cut protocol corners that much. Of course Al is not responsible for the pens personally. But I would kind of hope that if something as "trivial" but as pervasive as this got to his attention, he might at least inquire, and perhaps motivate the persons who are responsible to do something. Or not.
Originally Posted By indysoarin19 On a recent episode of Inside the Magic, Sharpie has signed a sponsorship that basically says they are the official pen/marker of WDW. Not sure when this will take effect.
Originally Posted By indysoarin19 To clarify, Inside the Magic is a well-done Orlando-based podcast for practically everything Disney.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> Sharpie has signed a sponsorship that basically says they are the official pen/marker of WDW << Interesting. I wonder what that means? Will this affect the white pens they use everywhere now? I think they're BIC.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney ssWedguy ... why don't you send an email to Lee Cockerell since he is so concerned with quality and standards. He may actually do something.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I remember going in 1996 and getting two of these pens, one for me and one for my brother. Between the two of us, we probably went through 5 pens before we found two that worked. And we weren't testing them in the store either, so we had to keep coming back. This isn't a new issue, and I'm suprised that they haven't addressed it yet.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> why don't you send an email to Lee Cockerell since he is so concerned with quality and standards << Ok. I'm going in... If you don't hear from me after 24 hours, send out a search party...
Originally Posted By Labuda heheh Make sure you let us know how the email chat goes, ss! Or, just email me and tell me if you don't wnat to post publicly. hehe
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney "Ok. I'm going in... If you don't hear from me after 24 hours, send out a search party..." ssWedguy (shines light) is that you down there?
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy Sorry -- still here -- thanks for checking -- I'll let you know what I hear.
