No more friendly customer service

[lelew]

I don't blame theme park employees I look at upper management. This trip I just took I just felt like a burden to the staff. They just seemed irritated. This was also noticable at the resorts and also Disney as well. I have been going annually to Orlando since 2006 and never remember seeing customer service so bad. It makes me sad because as much as enjoy these parks over the years I am getting a vibe employees are not being treated right. They are the face of these parks, if they are not happy there then neither are the paying customers. Visited April 9th thru 15th 2022

 

[reddog21]

Do you think that maybe it has nothing to do with Disney management and that guests seem more entitled than ever??

 

[lelew]

Do you think that maybe it has nothing to do with Disney management and that guests seem more entitled than ever??

No. Cant keep using entitled guest as excuse for bad customer service. What about all the guest that dont act entitled? Besides I think some people have always act entitled in these resorts but Disney and Universal customer service never stooped to their level. They made every guest feel important no matter what.

 

[Nabas]

I don't blame theme park employees I look at upper management. This trip I just took I just felt like a burden to the staff. They just seemed irritated. This was also noticable at the resorts and also Disney as well. I have been going annually to Orlando since 2006 and never remember seeing customer service so bad. It makes me sad because as much as enjoy these parks over the years I am getting a vibe employees are not being treated right. They are the face of these parks, if they are not happy there then neither are the paying customers. Visited April 9th thru 15th 2022

Please keep in mind that they just finished one of the busiest weeks of the year.

Prior to WWOHP, we went to Universal 2 weeks after the end of Easter. We waited 10 minutes to ride Men In Black Alien Attack.

I happened to chat with the person letting us in. He told me the wait was 3 hours 2 weeks earlier.

The point is, it’s a rough week for anyone working at the theme parks.

 

[lelew]

Please keep in mind that they just finished one of the busiest weeks of the year.

Prior to WWOHP, we went to Universal 2 weeks after the end of Easter. We waited 10 minutes to ride Men In Black Alien Attack.

I happened to chat with the person letting us in. He told me the wait was 3 hours 2 weeks earlier.

The point is, it’s a rough week for anyone working at the theme parks.

I get what your saying that's why alot of things I just brushed off. For example in one of the gift shops at Universal the worker was stocking the wall and I asked her "kindly" if I could grab the ET socks on the wall she looked at me in disgust. What did I do wrong? The worker at the veloster coaster was just seemed annoyed and harsh when he was giving directions on how to use the lockers. All I am saying is that I have been going since 2006 and NEVER witnessed this kind of service. The reason I brought up Management because it starts from the top. For example I read somewhere that Disney castmembers where losing perks, something about how they dont get access the way they use too. If the company pass the magic onto the employee then they pass that on to us. That why I said I dont blame them at all.

 

[StageTek]

People interacting with guests have a very difficult job. They way they treat guests should not change depending on how entitled guests act or how busy their day (or week) was. There will always be difficult guests and very busy days.

I agree with you, lelew, management isn't treating their employees well at either resort. and that seeps into how they treat guests.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

We were just there, and the only rude/inept TMs I encountered were at Leaky Cauldron. The first night the host sent us to a cashier stand that had no one working at it, and the other cashiers ignored the line of us who had been sent to the empty station when we inquired when someone might take our order. Another morning, they kept asking my mom to move because a lady of size seated directly across was blocking the aisle, when we told them it was unreasonable for her to be asked to move every five seconds (she is petite and was already scooted into the table as much as she could have been) they gave us attitude and I finally suggested just moving our whole table over since the aisle behind me was more clear.

Other than those two hiccups I felt the staff at Universal was really fantastic, especially guest services at the Portofino, who helped me get a last-minute reservation at Toothsome, and the folks at Lost and Found who helped me recover the expensive sunglasses I lost on Men in Black.

 

[xipotec]

Do you think that maybe it has nothing to do with Disney management and that guests seem more entitled than ever??

its not JUST that. although post covid, as a healthcare provider, I can tell you customer irritability for the slightest inconvenience is the NORM!

The real problem, in almost all customer facing businesses , is labor. There seems to be a collective resistance to paying these workers. Businesses want cheap labor, and have been spoiled by years of people working for non-living wages. Well the labor movement has educated them to the realities of Wall Street profit taking and the fact that they are undervalued. So only the most desparate people are still holding on to these jobs, which quite frankly suck.

The issue is modern companies no longer care about customers either. Only the Wall Street bottom line. So dont blame the underpaid, understaffed employees, Blame the company who refuses to staff properly in a busniess that is hospitality.

 

[lockets]

the folks at Lost and Found who helped me recover the expensive sunglasses I lost on Men in Black.

I got a chuckle out of the irony of losing sunglasses on MIB sounds like something I would do

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I got a chuckle out of the irony of losing sunglasses on MIB sounds like something I would do

Even though I got them back, we became sunglass fairies every time we rode it after that, telling people in line to take them off their heads and put them somewhere secure! It was that first turn after the target practice ends where it really whips you around with no warning. People may have thought we were crazy but they seemed grateful! And by far, the MiB team members had the biggest bag of lost goodies at the end of the night, followed by Gringotts and Transformers.

 

[dez1978]

Do you think that maybe it has nothing to do with Disney management and that guests seem more entitled than ever??

this, 100%. Disney and Universal both. Perhaps guests need to start taking some accountability for how they treat CM/TMs at both places, as well as how they treat other guests. After reading facebook posts where people are commenting about how they threw a fit to get their way or how they manipulate to get "pixie dust" and influencers posting numerous videos trying to get characters to say something they arent allowed to say or do, not giving a darn that their video may cost someone their job. How many articles have you read lately about fist fights and people jumping off rides and what ever other dumb stuff? Guests throwing trash in lines and then blaming CM's bc the parks are a mess. No amount of money that any company could pay would make up for the way customer service workers get treated. And while I realize most of us here don't act like that, there are a ton of people who do. And eventually that will wear anyone down and they'll have less patience for any of the guests. Sure, companies don't always treat their employees the best, but even the best company will lose workers due to the way customers act.

I can tell you customer irritability for the slightest inconvenience , is not tolerated these days…..

I don't know about that. Customers seem to get to treat people any way they want to these days. With the exception of physical violence, I never see any one getting kicked out of anywhere for the way they treat people.

 

[xipotec]

this, 100%. Disney and Universal both. Perhaps guests need to start taking some accountability for how they treat CM/TMs at both places, as well as how they treat other guests. After reading facebook posts where people are commenting about how they threw a fit to get their way or how they manipulate to get "pixie dust" and influencers posting numerous videos trying to get characters to say something they arent allowed to say or do, not giving a darn that their video may cost someone their job. How many articles have you read lately about fist fights and people jumping off rides and what ever other dumb stuff? Guests throwing trash in lines and then blaming CM's bc the parks are a mess. No amount of money that any company could pay would make up for the way customer service workers get treated. And while I realize most of us here don't act like that, there are a ton of people who do. And eventually that will wear anyone down and they'll have less patience for any of the guests. Sure, companies don't always treat their employees the best, but even the best company will lose workers due to the way customers act.

I don't know about that. Customers seem to get to treat people any way they want to these days. With the exception of physical violence, I never see any one getting kicked out of anywhere for the way they treat people.

Yeah thats actually a typo! LOL, what I mean to say was;
Customers will not tolerate anything going even slightly wrong….

“its not JUST that. although post covid, as a healthcare provider, I can tell you customer irritability for the slightest inconvenience is the NORM! Slight customer inconvenience is not tolerated these days…..”

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I really don't like the idea of people being painted with this single, wide brush of all being unfriendly cast members, whether it's Uni or Disney. I cannot speak to Universal, since we've not been there in 5 years. But we were at Disney 3 times since December, and we had many magical cast members and some superior customer service. Our dining experiences at Disney restaurants were excellent, and we had 1, maybe 2 servers that we thought were less than magical - but certainly not nasty or unpleasant - just inexperienced or had too many tables.

Were all our encounters perfect? Of course not - but we didn't encounter anyone rude in the many days we were there. The cast members were never perfect on previous trips either - not 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago...... But we enjoyed our interactions so much with many friendly cast members this year, as some of the mask requirements were eased outdoors, and we could actually see smiles and have a conversation at times. Looking forward to going back again soon.

 

[lelew]

I really don't like the idea of people being painted with this single, wide brush of all being unfriendly cast members, whether it's Uni or Disney. I cannot speak to Universal, since we've not been there in 5 years. But we were at Disney 3 times since December, and we had many magical cast members and some superior customer service. Our dining experiences at Disney restaurants were excellent, and we had 1, maybe 2 servers that we thought were less than magical - but certainly not nasty or unpleasant - just inexperienced or had too many tables.

Were all our encounters perfect? Of course not - but we didn't encounter anyone rude in the many days we were there. The cast members were never perfect on previous trips either - not 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago...... But we enjoyed our interactions so much with many friendly cast members this year, as some of the sed outdoors, and we could actually see smiles and have a conversation at times. Looking forward

 

[lelew]

Unfortunately my experience was not as good as yours.

 

[twentyco]

I was at Universal about a year ago (mid May, I think), and thought that every CM I encountered was working really hard, but there just were not enough of them to get the job done in a reasonable way. I don't know if that is still the case, but to me the jobs seemed very difficult and the service was definitely suffering. It's not necessarily anyone's fault, and it certainly isn't the fault of the CMs who are working so hard, but it was definitely a frustrating guest experience at times.

 

[lelew]

I was at Universal about a year ago (mid May, I think), and thought that every CM I encountered was working really hard, but there just were not enough of them to get the job done in a reasonable way. I don't know if that is still the case, but to me the jobs seemed very difficult and the service was definitely suffering. It's not necessarily anyone's fault, and it certainly isn't the fault of the CMs who are working so hard, but it was definitely a frustrating guest experience at times.

I agree. I have been working face to face with customers as a deli clerk in a large chain grocery store over 25 years. At times customers do see frustration from the employee but most times it comes from issues of higher authority that customers are not aware of. That's why I said Management needs to be addressed because something internally is going on that we as customers may not understand. I really dont go to the theme parks just to get on rides. I visit the Orlando parks because of the experience and the cast members and team members play the most important role in that. That's why I return year after year even when my family get annoyed with another Disney/ Orlando trip. My point is that I see a decline in friendliness that I have been accustomed to over the last several years.

 

[lelew]

its not JUST that. although post covid, as a healthcare provider, I can tell you customer irritability for the slightest inconvenience is the NORM!

The real problem, in almost all customer facing businesses , is labor. There seems to be a collective resistance to paying these workers. Businesses want cheap labor, and have been spoiled by years of people working for non-living wages. Well the labor movement has educated them to the realities of Wall Street profit taking and the fact that they are undervalued. So only the most desparate people are still holding on to these jobs, which quite frankly suck.

The issue is modern companies no longer care about customers either. Only the Wall Street bottom line. So dont blame the underpaid, understaffed employees, Blame the company who refuses to staff properly in a busniess that is hospitality.

I agree they should get paid. I am a Deli Clerk in a bargaining union that constantly fought along side my union for a decent wage and health care, and fight for my overtime, paid vacations ect. Again that is why I said in my Post MANAGEMENT needs to be addressed without trying to get political. At the end of the day these companies promote an escape into a fairytale land with people like myself buying into it. I dont think about the political side of it because if I did I would never book my vacation in the first place.