Today I received an upsetting call from a DCL rep in response to an email I had sent. The rep was rude, condesending and unsympathetic. Backstory: my sweet DH in an effort to do something special and sweet booked a 3 night cruise on the Wonder for my bday. His plan was to tell me over Labor Day weekend that he was able to get a few days off and that he planned a trip to WDW as a surprise since DS has 3 days off that week. He had everything figured out. He was going to tell me he booked a non DVC resort so that I wouldn't have been able to find out and that he made ADR's. We were to have loaded up the car and driven overnight to Florida but instead of waking up at the world I would have woken up at the pier.
When my DH booked the cruise online he noted that we are celebrating a birthday and that he wanted all communication to be by email. He provided his work email. Nowhere on the site does it say that any materials or a hard copy conformation would be mailed to the address listed. We received a hard copy confirm which I opened because I thought it was a soliciation for the cruise line. We've also received several "get excited" mailings.
I emailed DCL to express my frustration in my suprise being ruined along with my husband's instructions regarding communication not being honored. The rep said it was totally my husband's fault. He stated that my DH should have known to call and advise them that the reservation was to be a suprise or that he should have booked via phone. Nowhere on the website does it advise this. In fact booking on the website seems to be their prefered method of booking since they offer a special obc if you book online. Which of course is cheaper for them since they need to staff less people in the call centers.
He also stated that no one books a cruise as a suprise for a family member because passport information is needed. 1. Passport information is not needed to immediately book a cruise. It can be provided at a later date. 2. A passport is not needed to sail to the Bahamas. A certified birth certificate and a government issued id is all that is needed. All of which are readily available to my husband so there would be no need for him to ask me for thesee items.
His next excuse is that there is no way it could have remained a suprise because luggage tags need to be mailed. We are experienced cruisers. Never have we received luggage tags more than 2 to 3 weeks in advance. At which time my DH would have intercepted the mail or called to have them sent to an alternate address.
The rep then asked why my husband did not book the reservation using an alternate address. This is impossible since Homeland Security requires you provide your permenant legal address at the time of booking. PO Boxes and work addresses are not acceptable.
The rep had many excuses as to why this was my husband's fault and in no way whatsoever was Disney at fault in the slightest way. I know this is cliched but I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on my DVC. And thousands of dollars on park passes, hard ticket events, food and other disney junk. I travel to disney 2 to 3 times per year. I am unable to cancel this years reservations because I would lose those points and we do not have the extra money to plan a different anniversary trip and my trip in December is an extended family trip that has been planned for 2 years, My park passes will last my remaining 2 trips. My DVC contract is pretty stripped at this point but saleable. My disney stock shares can easily be sold. I know the revenue from one family means nothing and is easily set off by the revenue of others.
The rep insinuated several times that I was looking for monetary compensation. At no point in my emails or coversation to I say that I wanted or expected compensation. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can escalate this issue. I asked for the phone representative's manager. He said he had no manager (yeah right, that's why you are answering phones in a call center) and that the matter ended with him.
Thank you again for listening to my rant.