What is causing the huge wait times and MS phones to crash?

Disney1fan2002

<font color=red>Like OMG the TF is SOO psyched to
Joined
Jun 21, 2002
I called last week to inquire about the free 2 day pass, and my wait time was 50 minutes!!! Today, I just had a busy signal for 3 solid hours. I called back after 7pm and lo and behold, no busy signal. Of course, the message was there that they had closed for the day. LOL

I guess people are starting to book their vacations for later this year into next year. But damnnnnnnnn.
 
They seem to have laid off a bunch of MS staff who manned the phones. Which, to me, makes no sense. They can't lay off those staff and claim it's due to COVID cutbacks - those staff are paid out of member dues, not Disney profits, correct?
 
They seem to have laid off a bunch of MS staff who manned the phones. Which, to me, makes no sense. They can't lay off those staff and claim it's due to COVID cutbacks - those staff are paid out of member dues, not Disney profits, correct?

Actually, payment for MS personnel that man the phones and reservation systems is more complicated. There are three sources of income to pay for MS services: (a) a $1 per member per year dues charge called DVC Reservation Component; (b) breakage income from renting rooms that is over and above the small percentage that goes to offset dues; (c) the management fee in the annual dues that equals 12.5% of total annual budgeted dues except property taxes. The key is that your dues remain the same if DVC spends many millions on MS services or nothing, and there is an incentive for DVC to spend as little as possible because the less it spends the more profit it gets to keep from those sources of income.
 
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Actually, payment for MS personnel that man the phones and reservation systems is more complicated. There are three sources of income to pay for MS services: (a) a $1 per member per year dues charge called DVC Reservation Component; (b) breakage income from renting rooms that is over and above the small percentage that goes to offset dues; (c) the management fee in the annual dues that equals 12.5% of total annual budgeted dues except property taxes. The key is that your dues remain the same if DVC spends many millions on MS services or nothing, and there is an incentive for DVC to spend as little as possible because the less it spends the more profit it gets to keep from those sources of income.
So you're telling me that they're legally allowed to keep the income from sources a) and c) and pocket it as profit instead of spending it on Member Services? That seems not only unethical, but illegal...
 


What is legal is also complicated. They are obligated to provide a reasonable degree of services and what is reasonable is a broad term with a lot of possible variance. If there were no working online system and always a 50-minute wait on the phone, you would likely have a decent argument that DVC is not doing its job. However, if the phone problem is not always bad, or if there is an excuse, like all those employees providing such services are s working from home now because of covid and thus services may be worse than usual as a result, then your claim of failure to do what is reasonable becomes weaker.

And yes, they are allowed to keep money from the three sources as profit. Though annual dues must be set up to cover only actual "costs," that does not necessarily rule out any profit. The $1 DVC Reservation Component Fee is just a set fee and thus its "cost" is $1 per member. Breakage income is expressly allowed by the POS. The 12.5% annual management fee is the specified "cost" for providing management services in a contract that each association has with DVCM, the management company. In essence, those are set "costs" regardless of whether some profit might be realized from them. It is the same problem we have with DVC getting most of its services from other Disney entities. For example, it pays the Disney Parks and Resort entity for transportation. What that entity charges DVC for the service is a "cost" in the annual DVC budget but it is possible that the Parks and Resort entity is charging more than what would be its own incurred costs.
 
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What is legal is also complicated. They are obligated to provide a reasonable degree of services and what is reasonable is a broad term with a lot of possible variance. If there were no working online system and always a 50-minute wait on the phone, you would likely have a decent argument that DVC is not doing its job. However, if the phone problem is not always bad, or if there is an excuse, like all those employees providing such services are s working from home now because of covid and thus services may be worse than usual as a result, then your claim of failure to do what is reasonable becomes weaker.

And yes, they are allowed to keep money from the three sources as profit. Though annual dues must be set up to cover only actual "costs," that does not necessarily rule out any profit. The $1 DVC Reservation Component Fee is just a set fee and thus its "cost" is $1 per member. Breakage income is expressly allowed by the POS. The 12.5% annual management fee is the specified "cost" for providing management services in a contract that each association has with DVCM, the management company. In essence, those are set "costs" regardless of whether some profit might be realized from them. It is the same problem we have with DVC getting most of its services from other Disney entities. For example, it pays the Disney Parks and Resort entity for transportation. What that entity charges DVC for the service is a "cost" in the annual DVC budget but it is possible that the Parks and Resort entity is charging more than what would be its own incurred costs.
I think it's safe to say they are not providing a "reasonable degree of service." At this point, a 50 minute wait for MS is actually good. It's more often several hours, or you can't get through at all. It's not because agents are working from home. They laid off a good portion of staff and are using the funds from those lost wages on . . . who knows what.

Seems strange to me that any due paying member would defend Disney on this one.
 
IMO, the ticket deal (for which you must call), the frustrating annual pass issues, and the multitude of website issues is putting a large extra burden on MS. If DVCMC considers these to be temporary situations, they will not be inclined to increase the number of CMs. No call centers staff to handle peaks, especially ones that are the result of temporary problems.

That said, if they would just improve/repair the booking website, MS wait times would quickly return to reasonable, and they could then probablyreduce the staffing in the IT Help Center (which is not staffed by DVCMC). JMHO. YMMV
 


The hold time would be more bearable if I could just vibe to Disney music while I wait... but the constant interruptions of announcements could just stop as a courtesy after like 10 minutes or something, or at least spread them out longer! Trust me...if I could do what I needed via the website I would have done it maybe the first seventeen times you mentioned it, and if I wasn't familiar with the new policies before this call I certainly have them memorized by now!
 
I have suggested a robust callback system - like Comcast uses - several times. They're not listening or more likely, can't afford the IT expense.

Right now DPEP is persona non grata. The entirety of the senior leadership team is focused on DMED; it's what has moved their stock price - and therefore made management's stock options much more valuable.
 
I have suggested a robust callback system - like Comcast uses - several times. They're not listening or more likely, can't afford the IT expense.

Right now DPEP is persona non grata. The entirety of the senior leadership team is focused on DMED; it's what has moved their stock price - and therefore made management's stock options much more valuable.

Disney can afford any IT expenses if they make more money for the company. Like someone already mentioned, there is no profit if providing better customer service to DVC members, so it doesn't make sense to invest in such technology.

I am just glad I only have had to call twice over the last 12 months or so. Once to cancel a reservation with borrowed points that needed to be unborrowed and the other for a points transfers. Both times had wait time of over 1 hour, IIRC. Plus, I couldn't get through on multiple occasions before I was able to be queued up for the hour-long wait.

LAX
 
Very frustrating...to say the least. And then there’s the inconsistency of the website...more salt in the wound.
 
The hold time would be more bearable if I could just vibe to Disney music while I wait... but the constant interruptions of announcements could just stop as a courtesy after like 10 minutes or something, or at least spread them out longer! Trust me...if I could do what I needed via the website I would have done it maybe the first seventeen times you mentioned it, and if I wasn't familiar with the new policies before this call I certainly have them memorized by now!

OMG!! I was coming back on here to say the exact same thing!!! I could be on hold for 2 hours easy if they would just play the music and not tell us the SAME THING every 30 seconds.

Today I called at 9:03am and it was a 50 minute wait time. They picked up a little beyond 50 minutes. She put me on hold to fill out the form (I was doing a points transfer), I was trying to get the phone to switch to handsfree in my car while I was on hold, and I hit something that called MS back. Busy signal. I almost freaked that I lost the call, but I saw it was on hold, so I just hit resume and got it back. So only an hour after opening, the phone lines were jammed to cause a busy signal. I am sure that went on for the rest of the day.

How is this acceptable? Members have to call in to book if they are borrowing points, I am sure that is a good amount of members. Some are probably missing out on their dates because of the long hold times, or not being able to get thru at all.
 
I agree. This isn't acceptable. I saw a Beach Club studio with availability and the website was crashing and phone lines busy for the night. Obviously that's gone. Businesses are taking advantage of the covid situation and using it as an excuse to be inadequate to their customers. Covid has been here for a year. Adjust your business plan to properly serve your customers. Daily hour plus wait times if you can even get through are unacceptable.

Edited to add: I now have a waitlist for those nights and if I see something pop up I'd like to grab it and adjust my waitlist, but member services already had a lag in matching waitlists. Normally I would call in to be sure my waitlist hadn't matched before editing it, but it seems that won't be an option. I wonder how long it is taking them to match waitlists right now. Three days? A week? Or two?
 
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Minute 42 on hold because their crap website wouldn't let me borrow 18 points to complete my bookings, so I used to complete wrong contract and my VGF points that need to be banked.

I wouldn't even need the phone if the website worked.
 
When did this borrowing issue arise? I borrowed five points last week no problem. I need to make a booking March 13. This could be a real problem.
 
When did this borrowing issue arise? I borrowed five points last week no problem. I need to make a booking March 13. This could be a real problem.

It’s not everyone. That is what is weird and frustrating because I have had no issues borrowing from any of my contracts in both memberships. My points are direct, resale points bought before the problem started and resale points bought after it did.

If you were allowed to borrow since they made the 50% rule, then you should be okay.
 

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