Disneyland's response to Pirates problems
Disney's response to the Pirates of the Caribbean event problems
On May 20th Disneyland held a special event to celebrate the Pirates of the Caribbean. An important part of the event was the special event merchandise that was available. However, the organization of the merchandise sale resulted in long waits and numerous complaints from guests (click here for the topic on our Discussion Boards where many readers have shared their experiences).
We asked Disneyland's Vice President of Merchandising Tom DeCaro for his reponse to many of the complaints that have been voiced. This is what he wrote:
First of all, I want to apologize to all of our fantastic Guests who attended the Pirates event. Whenever you come to Disneyland, you come with the expectations of receiving the best service anywhere. All of our efforts are focused on providing this service and Saturday night we failed to deliver during the merchandise pickup portion of the event. As a result of our poor execution, many of our Guests had to wait in long and slow-moving lines to claim their merchandise and some have still not received it. This is UNACCEPTABLE and INEXCUSABLE!
This is what we are doing:
1. We have reviewed the details of the event, know what went wrong and why, and will put procedures in place so it will not happen again.
2. For those Guests who were unable to pickup their merchandise we are in the process of packaging and shipping at our expense. We initially thought we could provide pickup on Sunday-Tuesday but later realized this could not be accomplished efficiently and would require the Guest to make another trip to the Park. We decided the best method was to spare the Guest the additional trip.
3. We will be refunding the event admission amount to all Guests who attended. (The refund will be processed in the same manner purchased-check or credit card). Guests do NOT need to do anything. We have all the information necessary to process the refunds.
4. If any Guests want to contact us directly with questions or comments, they can call DeliverEARS at 1-800-362-4533.
5. All of this information is being communicated to Guests in a letter from Cynthia Harriss that was mailed today.
Once again, I want to apologize for the inconvenience and frustration we caused many of our Guests. We are committed to fixing our processes to insure Guests receive great service and a wonderful, memorable experience at future events.
Sincerely,
Tom DeCaro
-- Posted May 23, 2000