Got an email from Disney I'm not sure I understand

[Kainsel]

3 out of 4 credit card companies are no longer requiring signatures starting in April. Visa has not made an announcement on what they are going to do just yet. This might be part of the reason Disney is trialing this since cards are becoming easier/faster to use. Magic band with pin or just pop in credit card and done.

Edit: Just found out Visa will join the party and no longer require a signature.

 

[bumbershoot]

I can't think of one public entity that has a completely seamless technology experience for their users.

Our paycheck has come from amazon almost exclusively since 1999. I can’t think of one.

Unfortunately, the US hasn't joined the rest of the world. Even when the machines here take a chip card they don't use the PIN

And thank goodness since I can’t remember mine.

But fwiw the machines in Dublin didn’t require the PINs either in November.

But apparently Disney either has no qualms about their IT department or it's status quo for their size of a corporation, because to everyone's point, the IT stuff hasn't changed much in the four years the bands have been around. In other words, the IT team may be typical rather than incapable.

IT is mainly up in Seattle and they somehow managed to snag several former amazonians as management (old coworkers of DH and they avoid me since they know I have some questions for them). They are capable. They just don’t care for some reason. And from another source, their basic work is done by underpaid 19 year olds who do what they are told. A friend of mine in that age range tried to get in but had too much knowledge and was turned down. Went on to run the IT dept for a local sheriffs office and is now at aazon climbing the ranks. If he’s not a director by 30 I’ll faint.

Comparing Amazon to the entire IT infrastructure of WDW is *not* an apples-to-apples comparison.

IMO it is. Disney could do what amazon does. Management knows how to do it as many of them did it at amazon. I continue to be amazed at how Disney works on a live site bc the managers who came from amazon KNOW better. Work on the master site and roll it out live when it works.



nkereina mentioned phishing emails from amazon? No. Might be people using the name to phish but it’s not amazon. Return glitches are generally human-based not IT.



Disney worked on the infrastructure that included MBs for two long and painful years. It’s been out since ‘13ish. They’ve had a ton of time.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's actually right there in the email on the first first post

Look at that. It is. Skimmed right past it.

Having problems believing it though.

Would love to see in that info that they'll refund in cash extra $$ on MB's or Gift Cards in cash at check out.... That would be the only thing that would make me want to add cash to my MB. Guessing they won't though...

They’ll refund you.

. credit on account (very common) ...

What account?

The only account that they have for us is room charge, and that’s for when you’re there. If you’re checking out and leaving, there’s no more room charge account.

Calling it a deposit imo tells us it’ll be refunded if not used.

 

[AngiTN]

Look at that. It is. Skimmed right past it.

Having problems believing it though.
.

What other option would there be? You can't take cash to a store to buy a gift card, stores can't take cash, remember?
The front desk would have to take the cash, no one else can.
And, they did put it in writing. Sort of hard to back out of that
Though it would be subject to change of course. As everything is. At least those hitting this test have the option

 

[WDW_Ding]

IMO it is. Disney could do what amazon does. Management knows how to do it as many of them did it at amazon. I continue to be amazed at how Disney works on a live site bc the managers who came from amazon KNOW better. Work on the master site and roll it out live when it works.

To be clear, I mean that Amazon's IT department isn't dealing with:

• day only tickets, day only ticket with hooper, 7 day pass, 7 day with hopper, 7 day with hopper and water parks, AP gold, AP Premium
• room access across 20,000 rooms
• charging at thousands of locations across property
• photopasses
• Fastpasses, Fastpasses booked in advance, Fastpasses booked same day

The WDW IT department is dealing with all that, plus the resort systems, and ride systems, wait time systems, dining reservations, etc.

 

[AngiTN]

To be clear, I mean that Amazon's IT department isn't dealing with:

• day only tickets, day only ticket with hooper, 7 day pass, 7 day with hopper, 7 day with hopper and water parks, AP gold, AP Premium
• room access across 20,000 rooms
• charging at thousands of locations across property
• photopasses
• Fastpasses, Fastpasses booked in advance, Fastpasses booked same day

The WDW IT department is dealing with all that, plus the resort systems, and ride systems, wait time systems, dining reservations, etc.

Seriously going to compare that to the millions of items Amazon sells, keeps up with, millions of accounts, all that they ship, etc?

 

[tarak]

Who are you tipping?

I don't tip anyone at WDW, aside from the waitstaff at restaurants and the Magical Express driver if he/she handles my bags for me.

Bell services if I need them, housekeeping, ME when I use it, cab drivers, resort airline check-in. That's just what I came with off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

I could be wrong, but I don't think complaining will change Disney's mind. If it works for them monetarily, they will call this a success and probably roll it out to all hotels. It may or may not work in the parks. I don't really know. My point is, if it works for Disney, they will do it. I think the only way they will abandon this, is if the patrons speak with their money, i.e. refuse to stay at that resort.

So, my question is, are people upset enough to speak with their money and boycott that resort, or will they continue to stay there, and just complain about it?

 

[amylevan]

It may or may not work in the parks.

Are there still carts in the parks that still only take cash? I know we have bought popcorn or something from someone who wasn't set up to take a MB or credit card in the parks at some point in the past.

 

[AngiTN]

Are there still carts in the parks that still only take cash? I know we have bought popcorn or something from someone who wasn't set up to take a MB or credit card in the parks at some point in the past.

The roaming ballon sellers are the only ones we've encountered that can't take electronic or credit payments.

 

[fla4fun]

Ok, that made me spit my coke on my monitor.
Having been at Disney when 1st gen MDE rolled out back in 2012, I'll just say, that is wrong. The nightmares I had trying to check in to the resorts, ohvey! Disney and redundancy plans do not go in the same sentence. They have proven that many times. I'm not even sure I believe they do any live testing in a lab first.
Or even just think back to the fall. When they had a system update they tried to roll out to the reservation system. How long was it down totally, where you couldn't book anything online?

I have “fond” memories of those days too. Like the day I was checking into BWV and the entire WDW computer system was down. As people were checking in, they were being given a key card to enter their room, because MB were down, and no dining plan or room charges or cc charges could be processed. They were telling everyone where the ATM’s were located. It was a mess. The only saving grace for me was that I had entered my cc number in as a part of online check in, so I didn’t have to go back to the front desk later to put it on file. I just couldn’t charge anything to the card via room charge until the computers came back online. I felt bad for anyone who didn’t have access to cash.

I prefer to use cash because I budget better that way. If all I have is a $20, then I can’t spend $30. With the other payment methods, it’s a lot easier to go over budget. Our company is cashless in most markets, but when it was tried in Orlando, it didn’t work so well. They ended up compromising that cash sales could be done if the customer paid with exact change. 99% of the time that is working, but there are still a few times where one side or the other is eating a few cents. I think a lot of it has to do with the varied types of travelers we get here in Orlando. For some of them, cash is just easier, and if you won’t take their cash someone else will.

 

[Dashzap]

I also have concerns about "unauthorized" transactions which, when all transactions are electronic have a higher likelihood of happening.

Look into ApplePay or AndroidPay. Not going to get unauthorized transactions if they don't have your card number.

 

[Seattlehasnodisney]

My job is in point of sale IT for a global retailer. I think this move makes a lot of sense.

Maintaining secure cash vaults, pickups from armored vehicles up to multiple times per day, having small bills and change delivered... it all costs money. I know merchant fees aren't free but electronic payments account for the VAST majority of transactions conducted in retail now and can't be eliminated.

Comments made about systems going down are a valid, but not as much as one might think. It does happen, but can typically be remedied quickly. Also, most POS systems have the ability to take credit payments offline and process at a later time when connections are restored. Also they have nearly as large of an impact now when they go down since currently 9 out of 10 transactions are paid with electronic funds. Large retailers like the one I work for track uptime vs down time... uptime typically exceeds 99.99% if you have a good reliable system.

The bottom line is. Keeping up all of the painful process with maintaining cash operations doesn't make a ton of sense if nearly all of your transactions are already cashless. It's at least worth a test to see if it impacts sales and customers negatively eliminating cash altogether.

 

[Seattlehasnodisney]

Look into ApplePay or AndroidPay. Not going to get unauthorized transactions if they don't have your card number.

Apple pay, Android pay and Samsung pay are all very secure. I'd also give my stamp of approval to these.

Most important when paying electronically is just watching for fraudulent activity and reporting it. Credit card companies are always quick to remedy legitimate fraud on credit accounts.

Use a credit card instead of Debit card if at all possible. Pay it off end the end of the month and it costs you nothing (if you have a good card you can get some rewards on your purchases). If there is fraud, your personal money isn't tied up while the bank fixes the problem.

Bottom line using a credit card is much safer than carrying cash that can be lost or stolen with no recourse.

 

[LSUmiss]

I don’t like this. I like to pay with cash for things on vacation.

 

[Seattlehasnodisney]

I don’t like this. I like to pay with cash for things on vacation.

I can sympathize and many more may sympathize with you but the number of people preferring cash payments is becoming smaller and smaller. I have seen the hard data that proves it.

The good news is if their experiment doesn't work out...it will go back to the way it was at least for a while until the masses more fully embrace a cashless system.

I wouldn't expect this to not eventually be rolled out in the future.

 

[kwdw]

Ouch - don't like this. My significant other pays for all small purchases in cash - dining, gift shop, etc. He rarely uses a credit card and it opposed to gift cards. And because of how we tend to split purchases - we don't charge to the room.

Does anyone know if when you are leaving if they will give you a refund for the money on a gift card in cash? What will kids do? Convert their money to a gift card? But what if they don't spend it all? Can they get the remainder back? Can they even buy a gift card with cash? I travel with my young niece frequently - and we are trying to teach her how to be responsible about money herself - not do it for her.

 

[AngiTN]

They won't refund left over gift cards in cash.
And yes, if you will read the first post with the message from Disney they mention using cash and/or gift cards or put on the room with the front desk.
For those worried about not spending everything I suggest doing that, put the cash down with the front desk, that way you can get cash back.
We always give DGD a gift card with her spending money on it. When it's gone, it's gone. At least I don't worry about her loosing it (if you register them online you can get a lost card replaced)

 

[BayouQueen]

I haven't followed along this entire thread. I know that "kids" were discussed. But how about teens? I don't have teens anymore, so don't know how they pay for things. They don't have credit cards at 16 or 17. Do most kids have a debit card these days attached to a savings or checking account or something? Seems like the teens would be a huge spending segment at WDW.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I can sympathize and many more may sympathize with you but the number of people preferring cash payments is becoming smaller and smaller. I have seen the hard data that proves it.

The good news is if their experiment doesn't work out...it will go back to the way it was at least for a while until the masses more fully embrace a cashless system.

I wouldn't expect this to not eventually be rolled out in the future.

Cashless systems encourage spending beyond ones means. Buy today...make payments and pay interest later. It’s why so many will never dig out of debt.