As you may know, I have been trying to reach Disney by phone to change the start date of my Disneyworld passes. Prior to this weekend, I have been on hold with them for about eight hours in total, over the course of about three attempts. Each time, I have not been able to get through to anyone before having to hang up and do other things.
On Saturday, I decided to try again, this time starting around 2:30pm. I knew their customer service line ends each day at 8pm, so I had almost six hours to get through. The only way this was even tolerable was that each time I called I was using my Zoom account. When I changed phone plans about a year ago, I gave up free US long distance calling and Disney’s number is not a toll-free one. If I had been using my own phone to call, I probably would have racked up hundreds of dollars in extra charges. My Zoom account through work allows for long-distance calling to the US.
I also used a headset for the call, so this allowed me to be hands-free the entire time. On Saturday, I had a bunch of housework to do, so I just started the call and did everything I needed to do that day. I did several chores, took breaks to drink and eat, and I even turned the call volume down to watch a few YouTube videos.
Somewhere along the three and a half hour mark of being on hold, the hold music stopped and I heard the familiar sound of a call going through and ringing. Had I finally waited long enough to get through to a real person? The call connected and a person identified themselves and asked me how I was doing and what they could help me with for today. I was kinda speechless for a few seconds.
I kinda stammered out that I needed to change the start dates of my tickets to a date as far into the future as possible. They asked me some verification questions and we managed to move my tickets out one full calendar year. The whole customer service interaction lasted about five minutes and I was done.
I was on hold for probably close to twelve hours total, for something that took five minutes to fix. Interestingly, the customer service person also fixed some sorta bug with my reservations so that it’s now possible for me to change the dates by using the Disney web site now. This means that when I need to change the dates of the tickets again, I won’t need to repeat this tortuous exercise.
What an adventure this has been.