Expedia / DisneyWorld Vacation Packages

Expedia / DisneyWorld Vacation Packages

Expedia case #20075sss

I have spent the last week devastated by my experience in preparing for a trip to "the Happiest Place on Earth."

On May 22, 2005, I booked reservations for us and my daughter and her family for Walt Disney World. As a part of their 50th anniversary celebration, Disney is offering "Magical Express" transfer service from the airport to the Disney hotel. I printed the vouchers and followed the instructions to give Disney the information they needed to send us luggage tags, etc. Nothing happened.

Two weeks ago I re-entered the information. Nothing happened. My son-in-law entered the information from his end. Nothing happened.

So - - I called. I called Expedia. I was on hold for 45 minutes on Tuesday, June 28, evening while they determined that the appropriate Disney office was closed for the evening and asked me to call the next day during work hours.

I did. I was on hold for 36 minutes in my office before I had to leave for a meeting. Soon after I left the office, Expedia called back. My secretary took a message for me to call a Disney phone number and ask for Dixie. As soon as I was free from my meeting, at 3:30 in the afternoon, I called. I made my way through the maze of push this number, then that one until I reached a live Disney employee. I told her that I was instructed to call this number and ask for Dixie. The employee was clearly offended. She responded in an exaggerated southern accent, "Why, yes, I'm Dixie." I did my best to explain myself and apologize. I explained my problem with the Magical Express Service and she transferred me to another number. That employee had no interest in helping me. In fact, I believe that I told her she did not have a Disney attitude. She transferred me to another number.

This was great. This person seemed to know about my case. Unfortuantely, they had the wrong person. What I learned from that call is that someone with a very similar name will be at DisneyWorld the same time I am. At this point I was referred back to Expedia and was told that the problem was theirs and that I had no hotel reservations in their system.

You can only imagine my panic. If you have ever made the mistake of working with Expedia, you know that the most expeditious part of the whole thing is how fast they can bill your account. Now I have reservations paid for and nothing on the record at Disney.

I called Expedia again. I spent hours listening to their hold music. In fact, it wasn't until 5:45 p.m. that I was told by Expedia that the Disney offices were closed and that they couldn't verify my reservations. [Let me recap. I have now spent 5 hours and 6 minutes on the phone with no resolution in sight. I have called during the day as instructed. I have been extremely patient. I need to add that I spent most of my on hold time crying from the frustration of not knowing whether or not I have provided my family with the vacation I had intended.] I asked that some compensation be given for my stress and my trauma. The agent, Raquel, graciously provided me with the above case number and $100 in an account for my next Expedia vacation. [Incredible isn't it!!!]

I called Expedia at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. I gave the case number to the agent. The agent reported back that she had spoken with Randy at Disney and that he would be working on our confirmation and that it would be on the system that day. I asserted that the $100 towards a future trip was not sufficient for the distress and the time involved in resolving this issue. The agent put me through to Margaret who said she was a supervisor. She said that $100 is all that Expedia would do and in a condescending tone told me that she would take over the stress of holding for information for me and she would call me as soon as my confirmation number was posted. She also made condescending comments about the fact that I should not have called the hotel that, of course, they did not have the confirmaitons until 5 days before a trip. [Please note again - I did not do that!! I called because the Magical Express luggage tags and information promised by both Disney and Expedia did not arrive as promised. In the course of my calls about that I learned that Disney did not recognize my reservations.] That was Thursday morning and this is Saturday morning. Margaret has yet to call me. I called again yesterday morning. Agent Corbin took my call. I asked for a supervisor who would actually do as promised. A few minutes later Veronica picked up the phone and asked for my confirmaiton number. I asked if she weren't the supervisor. She said no. She had picked up the call cold in packages. She spent a long time away from the phone. When she returned she asserted that my confirmations would post with Disney 7 days prior to the trip. She was again condescending about my calls. I don't know if I'm more hurt or angry. What I do know is that I was crying again as I hung up the phone.

I am assured that my family will be treated as all other customers even though we do not have the luggage tags to mark our luggage for the Magical Express Service. I am told that we will have appropriate rooms in the resort we selected. Right now, I am afraid that we will not. I have spent now approximately 7 hours on the phone to resolve an issue that never should have arisen. I was told that it was caused by the high number of people wanting to visit Disney in Florida. Please. That's supposed to be their business. It's supposed to be Expedia's business. It appears to me that neither of these organizations have appropriately trained their employees regarding working with the other company.

I do believe that our trip should be upgraded. To put us in an upgraded resort is not out of line given the stress and trauma caused by incompetence of their employees. Expedia does have all of our contact information.

I do appreciate your assistance in resolving this issue. Our trip begins on July 9.

David

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