Wow, thats definitely some great customer service.

Doesn't matter, she's still never gonna let him forget it.
"Babe, I think I'm gonna chill out and watch the game tonight."
"Uh uh. Remember when you threw out our engagement, wedding and five-year-anniversary rings? You're taking me out to dinner tonight."

i bet the housekeepers had a "magical" day.

OMG!!! At Knotts Berry Farm my key came flying out of my pocket on a ride. They shut down the ride for 15 in and scoured the area but could not find them. They said to come back later and check in to see if they had any luck finding them. An hour later I checked and THEY HAD FOUND THEM!!!

I couldn't believe how much effort they put into looking for one guys keys. Absoultly incredible customer service.

Note, these were European car keys that replacements had to be ordered from the factory and I was 1000 miles away from my spare.

Hilton, are you taking notes?

One time when I was a kid I swallowed a lead fishing sinker. I had to big through my own poo each day until I found it to make sure it passed through my system. I think I would prefer to have to do that again than dig through other people's garbage. These guys should get a raise. I hope the people gave them a tip or something.

Second post in a week about Disney going above and beyond. Is Disney coming up soon in the Worst Company in America polls? :)

I've said it before, when the Disney machine is firing on all cylinders it really is amazing.

Holy cow, that's awesome. Go Disney World!

They deserve great pat on the back for going that extra mile.

That's way beyond the call of duty.

I once went through the garbage of the 200 room hotel where I work to find a copy of a newspaper the guest threw out with an important phone number on it. Took me 3 hours. He gave me $2. After a while it just becamse about the mission....

@laserjobs: As a former KBF employee, I'm happy you got that level of service. Obviously, these were frontline employees that searched for and found your keys, because the management there... well... their competence in the actual operation of a theme park leaves a little something to be desired. Oh, and they treat their employees like sh*t and pay them crap wages, so the fact that they had the motivation to actually look for you keys is quite surprising.

slavery = good customer service!

Kudos to Drew and the volunteers! This is the America that I love.

We went to WDW on our honeymoon and my shopping bag fell off in the Haunted Mansion. They told me to stop off at guest services at the end of the day after they could do a walkthrough on the ride. Sure enough, I got my bag back, but a small pin had fallen out.

I really liked the pin so I went back to repurchase it the next day. I mentioned my story while chatting with the sales lady and she replaced it for free.

This was just one thing they did for us on our trip. Disney may be a lot of things, but they have the best customer service I have ever encountered.

One day, a tourist walked up to me and said "Excuse me, but where does the trash go?"

I looked at him and decided he was a harmless crazy, and started to explain that our trash was taken away by Tinker Bell at night, who probably dumped it on Wendy's front lawn. But he interrupted me and proceeded to explain that he had accidentally left his credit cards on his tray when he threw them away. Stifling a sigh, I and my buddies said we would get a manager. There was no way in hell we were going to dig thru the trash.

Manager comes up, (Who was fresh out of college, named Chad, worshiped Disney, and wanted us to scrape gum off the underside of tables when guests weren't looking) speaks with the lovely gentleman, and his wife, and then turns to us. "Has the trash been compacted yet?" he asks. His eyes pierced our souls.

"No," we whispered. It accumulated in a big bin which we then pushed to a trash compactor. We threw the bags in when it got to be about 10 feet tall, 'accidentally' flinging some kind of moisture that accumulated on the bottom of the bags at each other. Good fun.

"Well, lets go find it!" And off the overzealous Chad charged, leading the way BACKSTAGE to our pile of cheap plastic bags, plates, cups, and food mixed together to look like vomit.

Luckily, the trash HAD been compacted. When the manager went back to explain, the couple explained FURTHER that what they had lost were the SPECIAL credit cards you can request from your Disney Hotel to charge ALL your DisneyWorld purchases to your credit card.

Those are easily replaced. Thank God. I think he would have made us dig in the compactor for them.

Then there was the time some random guys, 20s or so, came up and told us they'd left $3,000 cash on their tray. Dennis ran backstage like his pants were on fire and Chad barely made it in time to pull him out of the compactor. Dennis was such a skinny guy, he got into street fights in downtown Orlando for the extra crash.

I worked at a Disney restaurant and we had to do this all the time for people who'd left their credit cards on their trays.

Trust me, this shit happens all the time at the higher end hotels (Wilderness Lodge). Find a story about this happening at Pop Century or one of the All Stars. You'll prob find it there too.

@jurijuri: What a brilliant idea—I'm going to "accidentally" drop something on the Haunted Mansion ride so I can do a walk-through after hours.

Oh yeah, and if you're wondering what the employees get for doing this, it's a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs pin. Yes, one of those stupid Lanyard pins for pin trading you see. (I do have one, that's what they were giving away 3 years ago)

I live in Orlando and have an Annual Pass. I am always impressed by Disney, but this outdoes themselves. @LiC One word- stupidguesttricks.com
@Chris Walters If you lose something off the side, you won't get to do the walkthrough. Would break the magic :)

    I'd welcome an after-hours walk through the Haunted Mansion. When we went on that ride, the car stopped about every ten feet. A voice would ring out: "The spirits are experiencing technical difficulties! Please stay in your DOOM buggy!" Naturally, I had been sucking down high-priced Disney carbonated/caffeinated sugar all day, and had a WAY overfull bladder. Oh, God! I literally had to crab-walk to the bathroom, after the ride! That said, Haunted Mansion is probably the coolest thing about the Magic Kingdom, once you discover that you won't be allowed to explore Cinderella's castle and look off the balconies...

    I did enjoy talking to the Disney employees. They seem to really put an emphasis on being cheerful. That, both times we went to Disney parks, it was during an Autumn cool snap. I think the 45-degree temps put the Florida natives in a good mood!

protip: don't throw your wedding rings in the trash

@laserjobs: a girl got killed at Magic Mountain in CA because some dumb tourist lost their wallet... and the ride was not shut down properly.

Good customer service, but really, how the hell do you manage to "accidentally" throw away 3 sets of rings like that???

I lost upper and bottom retainers in closed Green case in at Universal - Islands. First week with 'em. The first week looking guy said he'd look, but I don't think he did, I came back hours later and nothing.

In retrospect I should've offered 20 or 40$. Even if it was a friend's money. value 500$

@AcidReign:
It costs extra ($60), but adults can book a "Keys to the Kingdom" tour. It goes into the backstage areas and teaches you about all the interesting stuff Disney theme parks has done. They show you thru the Utilidors (WDW's basement & storage/costuming areas), cut you into lines at rides so you can learn how the rides & animatronics work.

Oh, and they give you lunch at the Harbor House too.

Growing up an hour away from Disney World in Florida, I see a lot of the people that work for Disney. It's almost cult-ish. They all take the happiness mentality to heart. I sometimes wonder if they're medicated.

They seem to almost always go above and beyond for people. It's refreshing.

@LiC: It sounds like you were sort of forced into that situation.

I have quite a few friends who are cast members at WDW and even though they don't get paid nearly as much as they should, they love their jobs and they love creating that "magic" (ie. excellent customer service) for their "guests." So I was not surprised to read this story, but glad to hear that Disney's quality of service is still alive and kicking.

How did he lose all those rings? 1-2x engagement, 2x wedding, 2x anniversary. That's 5-6 rings, most of which would be on their fingers. Did they take ALL of them off to get them cleaned, put them in a manilla envelope next to another full of junk mail, and throw away the wrong one? At least he didn't have a macbook air too.

@ironchef: Yes they certainly do but I am going to wait until they shower first.

I can't bash Disney customer service. They go above and beyond whenever they can. Granted, this means the employees are treated with extreme strictness (kind of sucks, I have family members who work for them), but it makes any vacation completely enjoyable. I'm glad this couple got back what they needed.

@FightOnTrojans: You can't put a wage on common decency. Either someone's going to care or they won't, no matter what they get paid.

The same sort of strict "conditioning" of employees is the norm in Japan. The main difference is that it's utterly soulless. People smile and go through the motions, but it's rigid politeness. Most tourists can't really tell the difference. At least it sounds like the Disney employees are a bit more into it and genuine about doing a sincerely good job being friendly (at least in some cases), rather than being trained like soldiers to follow customer service protocol with dead eyes, fake smiles, and exaggerated bowing.

I have had many experiences with Disney on vacation that have proven to me they are wonderful.

1) While away for my friends wedding at Disney, we ended up at the best mans hotel till almost 2. At that late a hour we had to pray we could get a bus to Downtown and still be able to make it to our hotel otherwise taxi time. The busdriver for the downtown stop actually drove us to our hotel without even saying a word. We tried to tip him but they are not allowed to take tips sadly.

2) When going home from that same trip, we missed out "Magical Express" bus since it was one of the ones they use for the cruse line, and not a standard ME bus. Our hotel manager pulled 60 dollars out of the register and called a cab for us to Orlando without even giving us a hint of a attitude, apologizing to us for what was basically our mistake. Again refused my tip no matter how hard I tried. (after this trip I sent a email to Disney commending both of them with the hope they might get some reward from their bosses)

3) On our Honeymoon, 6 months later, they practically showered us with stuff. Free deserts and champaign, all kinds of certificates autographed by "Mickey and gang" etc. There was not a day the entire week we didnt get something from a staffmember because it was our honeymoon.

Needless to say, despite not even being that into Disney these days, my two trips to WDW have been two of the best trips my entire life. I didnt once worry about a thing while I was there, which is rare for me.

Paul owes somebody a gigantic tip.

My first vacation in about 5 or so years was to Disneyland a month or so ago. I have to say that the escape was one of the best things I've experienced in a long time. This just makes me feel that much better for spending my money at Disneyland.

@Crazytree:

Or, even better, don't take non-essential valuables with you while traveling!

Disney has given me fantastic customer service as well. We had to catch the "Magical Express" bus to Port Orlando for a Disney Cruise.

My wife wants to go shopping at Downtown Disney three hours before we're supposed to catch the bus. Every fiber of my being told me this was a bad idea.

The buses are supposed to run every half hour. We wait for an hour without seeing a bus to our resort. Finally a bus shows up. The bus is supposed to hit six stops before our resort. We have fifteen minutes to make the cruise bus. We explain this to the bus driver. The bus driver drives us directly to our resort and refuses a tip. We made the cruise bus with time to spare. Because of the bus driver's act of kindness and the fantastic customer service we received on the cruise, we're doing a longer Disney cruise this year.

I wish more companies understood that good customer service breeds loyal customers and loyal customers spend more money.

Pfth. Big deal. We've dug through lunch trash for a fellow student's orthodontic retainer. :P

Goodwill++

Fuck, am I supposed to buy my wife a 5 year anniversary ring?

Disney always seems to get it good here. For all the complaints about, well, every other piece of their business, I have yet to see anyone really run a theme park quite like Disney does. We've never had special incidents of this sort, but Disney somehow manages to make its staff get a sincere niceness. As an ex retail slave, I have to wonder what their secret is. Then I make a guess. They look at who they're hiring. It's the kind of person who can keep a positive outlook when they're bored out of their skull. It's the kind of person who knows the day is going to be repetitive, but still looks forward to the inevitable guest who breaks the monotone - even if it's a truly strange request. It's the kind of person who really believes that if the customer comes out happy, then it all works out.

I know there's a couple conspiracy theories about the Worst Company in America thing, but I've never had anyone complain about Disney's customer service at their parks. It's just all the other things that seem to draw the ire, like modifying the rides.

(I still think Disney should just take those old 360 degree cameras from the Circlevision shows, go through every ride they're about to shut down or significantly modify with them, throw in as much trivia as they can to fill a cheap DVD some, and sell it for like $20 at the gate. Cedar Point does just this, and it's awesome.)

@Falconfire: Writing a letter to guest relations is the right thing to do. Those comments WILL be shared with their leads and they will go into their files. It will help when it is time for promotions and such. I can assure you that your letters were shared with the cast members as well.

As for tipping them, here's a secret. They must refuse gifts and tips.... 3 times. After the 3rd time, they can accept it.

This is a pretty good story, glad to hear some companies still know how to take care of their customers and I'm not surprised it's Disney.

Wow! Way to go! Anytime I get great customer service, I always make a point to write a letter to management ...

@davere: That's a great piece of advice (regarding the 3 refusals). I had a fantastic time with my kids at Disney 2 years ago and on 2 occasions tried to tip a person who went above and beyond...both times I offered twice and was refused twice. Wish I'd known that fourth time is the charm because those people earned more than the kind email I sent later. We're going again next spring and I'll be sure to remember the Rule of the Third Refusal.

I worked at Disney back in college when Animal Kingdom first opened, want to know how to spoil magic real fast? Try explaining to a car full of Brazilian tourists why the Dinosaur's head fell off mid-ride on Countdown to Extinction...

@TuxRug: The couple is from the city where I work.

They stayed in a villa for the week, and the night before they were to leave for home, she took them off and put them in a "paper towel bowl" next to the kitchenette sink....wife said hubby is a neat-freak, and tossed the paper towel in the trash when he was picking up that night....

I'd tell the wife to go buy a small ring purse to use for such travels....

Considering Disney employees are union workers, I'm *really* surprised they went that far out of their way for a guest. Two gold stars for them!

Since he probably can't easily give them a gratuity, a glowing letter of gratitude to management would be a minimum.

Or maybe a EECB praising the employees? :-)

As for Disney as "worst company in America", I think one should separate the executives driving the company into the ground from the employees who try to save the company's image with their interaction with the public.

Good on Drew and crew...but they deserve at least half the value of those rings as a reward from the customers. There are some things that I think are too much to ask of employees and wading through days worth of garbage to correct a customer's mistake is one of them. I can't imagine the stench after at least a few of those bags had been in a hot dumpster - it's been about 75 here in Atlanta for the last week, so I'm betting 85-90 in Orlando. Ugh.

And this distaste is coming from someone who used to pickup dead bodies as a summertime college job.

Way to go Disney! You can say what you like about Disney and its theme parks. They're expensive, hot, crowded, etc., but they are always fun, and their customer service is usually stellar.

I've been to DisneyWorld three times in the past three years (it's a long story), and the customer service has been wonderful every time. Everyone is polite, seems happy or at least content, and is always helpful. Going to another theme park soon after one of the trips really brought home the difference.

The only instance where I was treated badly on one of my trips was by an employee of another industry we all love so very much - an airline employee at the hotel who told me my flight had been cancelled and I should've gotten to the desk hours before my 6:30am bus appointment to find that out. After panicking the entire way to the airport, I found out my flight was on schedule.

Count me in on the Disney bandwagon. We go yearly, because every trip something extraordinary happens. One memorable occasion, my then 2 1/2 year old son decided to puke all over me in front of a castmember in a gift shop. The staff was great - they helped me clean him up, and then insisted I pick out any shirt in the store to replace my yucked up one. Free of charge!

@k8supergrover: 2 DOLLARS???

for 2 dollars I would have grabbed it back, ran, and thrown it in a fire.

I drank the "Disney