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View Full Version : Buyer Beware! (DLR Ticket Issue with Disney Store)



mynameisearl
07-13-2006, 07:44 PM
I recently purchased DLR tickets for our upcoming trip at The Disney Store. The total came to around $500 for three of us. It took over a half an hour because the manager was having issues with the tickets. It turns out we were double charged and Disney refuses to credit us back the second $500 charge because they have a strict policy when it comes to tickets, and refuse to reimburse. Even though the manager fully admits she made an error and we should not have been double charged. We have had to file a dispute with Visa to get our money back. This just seems criminal to me!

The manager is a gem though. She actually drove copies of the voided receipts out to our house on her day off! Now that is service!

Anyways, I will be writing a letter to the higher ups at Disney regarding this seemingly illegal practice. Does anyone have any contact info for the high ups at Disney?

Thanks and beware! :mad:

Malcon10t
07-13-2006, 07:51 PM
I recently purchased DLR tickets for our upcoming trip at The Disney Store. The total came to around $500 for three of us. It took over a half an hour because the manager was having issues with the tickets. It turns out we were double charged and Disney refuses to credit us back the second $500 charge because they have a strict policy when it comes to tickets, and refuse to reimburse. Even though the manager fully admits she made an error and we should not have been double charged. We have had to file a dispute with Visa to get our money back. This just seems criminal to me!

The manager is a gem though. She actually drove copies of the voided receipts out to our house on her day off! Now that is service!

Anyways, I will be writing a letter to the higher ups at Disney regarding this seemingly illegal practice. Does anyone have any contact info for the high ups at Disney?

Thanks and beware! :mad:The Disney Store is not owned by Disney. It is owned by Childrens Place. They are licensed to sell Disney products. Make sure you send the letter to the proper location. Their address is:
The Children's Place
Customer Service
915 Secaucus Road
Secaucus, NJ 07094

I Heart Disneyland!
07-13-2006, 08:24 PM
The Disney Store is not owned by Disney.

Therein lies the problem!

Disney Vault
07-13-2006, 09:02 PM
That really doesn't seem right and I hope you get your money back ASAP.

Andrew
07-13-2006, 09:48 PM
Filing a complaint with Visa is the correct way to resolve the problem. Visa will (or should) credit your account and then chargeback to the store that overcharged you.

Tinkerbell02
07-13-2006, 10:09 PM
I had a problem with my tickets when I bought them at the Disney Store also. However my problem was activating the ticket. Disney now sells their tickets as plastic cards. The girl at the Disney Store checked and re-checked my ticket to make sure it was activated. I guess if you buy tickets at the Disney Store and they're not activated when you get to Disneyland they wont do anything for you because you bought the ticket from an outside party, so to speak. I think it's nuts that Disney refuses to help people with their ticket purchases. But I was lucky that the girl at my Disney store caught that one of our tickets wasn't activated otherwise I would have been very angry when I got there. So there's a tip to anyone that buys their tickets from the Disney store, just be sure the ticket is activated!

I Heart Disneyland!
07-13-2006, 11:41 PM
Filing a complaint with Visa is the correct way to resolve the problem. Visa will (or should) credit your account and then chargeback to the store that overcharged you.

I agree. I work at a bank and that is exactly what you should do. File a dispute with VISA.

SarahShep
07-14-2006, 08:21 AM
Don't send a letter to Children's Place (unless you just want to commend that wonderful manager). They have nothing at all to do with it. Just because they are technically "owned" and operated by Children's Place doesn't mean they are unaffiliated with Disney. Disney still has say in how they run the store. That was part of the agreement. The Store is only a third party in the ticket sales. You are still buying the tickets from Disney, but the Store is collecting the money for them. They make no profits from those sales - in fact, they don't even count toward their daily sales.

When we went in January for my birthday, it was exactly the time they switched to those new plastic cards. My sister, who is a manager at a Disney Store, bought tickets from her store. They gave them so much trouble that she ended up having to buy them at a different store in another mall. Then, after we arrived, we found that a glitch in the new system prevented them from being activated at Disneyland, even though they were properly activated at the store. It was a mess! But luckily, the gate CMs were kind enough to fix the problem for us. I'm not sure it would be so easy now, since the system has been in use for several months now. The idea, however, that they won't help you at all is simply untrue. In fact, we had more trouble with another gate CM who apparently didn't know how to read a ticket (we had bought them under the "adults play for the kid's price" promotion, so the tickets read 3+ instead of the usual adult/child). He didn't believe us that they were also adult tickets (even after a lot of explaining and us showing him the 3+ mark) and embarrassingly made us stand to the side until a manager arrived to tell him he was wrong.

Tinkermommy
07-14-2006, 09:05 AM
Shortened:


Don't send a letter to Children's Place....They have nothing at all to do with it...The Store is only a third party in the ticket sales. You are still buying the tickets from Disney, but the Store is collecting the money for them.

Is it the store's cash register that double-charged the customer while collecting the money for them, and that should issue the credit? Or is it a completely separate cash register system? :confused:

bradk
07-14-2006, 09:35 AM
the store is completely at fault. maybe not directly, but ultimately.

when you purchase something with a credit card, it gets authorized - not charged. the funds are held and deducted from your available balance until the batch is closed out.

until the batch is closed out (which is usually done once at the end of the day by most retailers), they [should] have the ability to void any transactions. the end result is the authorization may last a few days, but should clear up, releasing the funds. how long the authorization lasts is dependent upon the card issuer.

unless you were fully charged twice and left with an extra set of tickets, disney doesn't even enter into it.

disputing it with the card issuer is probably the second best way to handle it (assuming the store did in fact charge twice and did not issue a chargeback), but i agree with the others wholeheartedly that it's not a concern of disney or disneyland.

JookyG
07-14-2006, 09:39 AM
It seems to me you shouldn't be asking Disney for the refund--you should be asking the Disney Store or Children's Place. They're the company that billed your credit card. If I buy a new iPod (for example) at a department store and get overcharged for it, I wouldn't try to get a refund from Apple.

For my DLR trip last May, I bought 4 park hoppers from the Disney Store. I didn't have a problem, thankfully, but the clerk was very clear that I should take the receipt with me, and pack it separately from the tickets in case one or the other got lost or there was a problem. Seems like a risky process--too risky for the minimal convenience over buying tickets at the park.

I'd recommend ordering online if you have enough time before your trip--that way you'll get the paper tickets that don't require activation. I only went to the Disney Store because I forgot to pre-order in time and had to buy them at the last minute because I didn't want to stand in line at the park on my Early Entry day.

Always check with your employer or credit union before ordering from Disneyland.com or Disney Store--they usually offer theme park ticket discounts.

Bolivar
07-14-2006, 09:51 AM
It is a concern of Disney because their name is on the store and an unhappy customer doesn't know about nor care about the Disney vs. third party company running the store issue. The customer just knows she was charged two times and is unhappy with whoever's name is on the store. Disney may have had nothing to do with the transaction, but the customer is still unhappy with Disney and that is Disney's problem. Were I Disney, I would deal with it for the customer -- I would behind the scenes work with the store to get it fixed. Yes, that is an expense to me for something that I didn't do (the expense being my time talking to the store, not me refunding the money, the store needs to do that), but I wouldn't want the issue reflecting on my brand. After all the customer isn't out there saying, "Children's Place, the company that runs the Disney store did this to me." She is saying, "Disney did this to me."

Disney Vault
07-14-2006, 10:35 AM
It seems to me you shouldn't be asking Disney for the refund--you should be asking the Disney Store or Children's Place. They're the company that billed your credit card. If I buy a new iPod (for example) at a department store and get overcharged for it, I wouldn't try to get a refund from Apple.
Very nice example

DianeM
07-14-2006, 12:05 PM
I'm not sure I understand what the issue is. You were charged for a product you didn't request or receive (the 2nd set of tickets). It was the store's error. The store manager is aware that it was their error. Why can't you simply go back to the store and have a refund credited to your card? You can dispute it with your credit card company, but the store is ultimately responsilbe for ensuring that they don't overcharge customers. Store policy on reimbursements has nothing to do with this. They aren't reimbursing you for tickets you purchased but don't want - you never got the 2nd set of tickets to begin with. If they refuse to refund the money that never should have been charged, then they are guilty of fraud. That's what it is when you charge somebody for goods that they didn't ask for. I appreciate the manager's extra effort to straighten this out - but is is her reponsibility to make it right, not simply to tell you what happened and make you deal with it. If you have to, complain to their corporate office and the better business bureau. No company should have a policy that says they can't return people's money if they took it under false pretenses.


I recently purchased DLR tickets for our upcoming trip at The Disney Store. The total came to around $500 for three of us. It took over a half an hour because the manager was having issues with the tickets. It turns out we were double charged and Disney refuses to credit us back the second $500 charge because they have a strict policy when it comes to tickets, and refuse to reimburse. Even though the manager fully admits she made an error and we should not have been double charged. We have had to file a dispute with Visa to get our money back. This just seems criminal to me!
:

silly'olbear
07-14-2006, 07:58 PM
I went tonight and bought two 5-day adult park hoppers but I knew exactly what the total should be so I would have noticed a price difference in what I was being charged. She said the same thing about keeping the receipt separate from the cards mostly because if you lose one you have the other. I didn't realize that people were having problems with those cards. Guess I'll just have to cross my fingers!!

Now, at our local grocery stores they are also selling park hopper cards. Are those giving problems or just the ones purchased from The Disney Store?

If a store overcharges you, they admit it, then you should be able to get your money back. Filing a complaint with the BBB might be a good idea too.

kiwifuz
07-14-2006, 08:50 PM
eh I've never been a BBB fan. My whole thing is that it's the Disney store, not Joe's Auto Shop. I don't know anyone that goes to the BBB before shopping at the mall to see if the store has a good complaint record. Plus its a paid membership organization, doesn't thrill me.

Anyway, if they charged me twice and couldn't refund the amount, I'd ask for the 2nd set of tickets then.... No not really but it would cross my mind.

I have to agree that this dispute is with Disney Store/Children's Place. Maybe Disney has a policy of not allowing refunds on tickets. But I would bet this has to do with actual returns and not mistakes. You can't tell me that if the clerk picks up the wrong ticket and gives it to you, then after you pay one of you notices that the refund is against the rules. No way. The store needs to fix this.

I'd let Visa do it's job. We've all paid them enough money for interest that they can take care of something! ;)

SarahShep
07-14-2006, 09:37 PM
Is it the store's cash register that double-charged the customer while collecting the money for them, and that should issue the credit? Or is it a completely separate cash register system? :confused:

It's the same register system, but I believe a different type of screen that they don't have jurisdiction over. I'll ask my sister as soon as I can, and let you all know exactly why she couldn't just void the transaction out or return the tickets.

SarahShep
07-14-2006, 10:00 PM
Ok...here's what my sister had to say

She doesn't even understand how the OP could have been charged twice unless the CM either put the entire wrong price in or she scanned actual extra tickets. When processing a ticket transaction, they first scan the ticket SKU. After that, they swipe the ticket thru a magnetic strip reader, and then the register prompts for a price. Once a ticket is scanned and activated, it can't be re-scanned. So it wasn't simply a case of "did I scan this ticket or not?"

Ticket transactions CAN NOT, under any circumstances, be voided. It is not physically possible, as there is no way to "deactivate" a ticket. My sister and her store manager had a situation where a customer wanted a ticket upgrade (so no negative consequences from the transaction). They called 'Rescue Rangers' (their help line) and even they had no option for them. This is a Disney mandated feature, and thus has nothing to do with Children's Place. While it was a Children's Place employee who made the mistake, the OP clearly says the manager admitted fault and did everything she could to make it right. I don't feel that it would be appropriate to complain to Children's Place about this situation. It was handled appropriately by the Disney Store employees. Instead, since it is a Disney Co. mandated feature, the complaint should most definitely be directed at Disney itself.

My sister also agrees that the appropriate course of action is to contact Visa about the charge and have them resolve the issue.

Hope I helped that make a little bit more sense.

Malcon10t
07-14-2006, 10:16 PM
Maybe Disney has a policy of not allowing refunds on tickets. But I would bet this has to do with actual returns and not mistakes.
I have returned tickets to Disney before. It wasn't a big deal. They say they don't do refunds. I walked up to the Guest Services window. I explained I had purchased too many tickets (a person dropped out of the trip.) They took the ticket, scanned it, and credited teh amount back to my credit card.

SarahShep
07-15-2006, 07:33 AM
Ok...here's what my sister had to say
Ticket transactions CAN NOT, under any circumstances, be voided. It is not physically possible, as there is no way to "deactivate" a ticket.


Can't figure out how to edit my posts. LOL And I don't have time right now to try to figure it out, but I wanted to add that I should have prefaced that w/ "at the Disney STORE." I have no clue what Disneyland itself can do...and don't pretend to. LOL

stan4d_steph
07-15-2006, 07:54 AM
Can't figure out how to edit my posts.You only have a 30 minute window to edit your post. You do so using the Edit button at the bottom right of the post.

ralfrick
07-15-2006, 08:23 AM
This is like the time I wrote a check over the amount to receive change at a shop, the clerk gave me too little, then acted like it was my tough luck because she'd already closed the drawer. People, huh, you shouldn't get involved with em.

Cheers.

bradk
07-15-2006, 10:40 AM
you CAN void a transaction. maybe not if an extra ticket was already encoded, but if there was a double-charge with only one set of tickets issued, it can be done.

it actually was done in my friend's case at the disney store in the queens mall. it took about 3-4 days for the authorization to clear, but he was double-authorized, but only charged once.