Disney's free gift card scam

And you’ll look like a petty child.

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And yes it bloody well does. And you know it. This is a deliberate act of deception on Disney’s part. It’s unarguable. You’re just arguing it to be annoying.

And that’s different from what Disney is doing how?

Turns out that person was me. I win my bet.

Here’s the headline offer:

You’ll note the gift card offer is footnoted.

Here are the footnotes, exactly as presented on the site:

It’s written as one continuous paragraph. It’s not even split into individual footnotes. Unlike the headline it’s in light grey text on a white background. In tiny text. You have to click a link to see it. The link is written in even smaller text.

Here’s the relevant text for the gift card offer:

US$100 Disney Spending Money offer: Available to book 03 July, 2019 - 22 October, 2019 for selected arrivals 01 January – 29 March, 2020 and 19 April – 03 October, 2020. Booking must include 5 nights’ minimum stay at a participating Disney Moderate Resort Hotel, Disney Deluxe Resort Hotel or Disney Deluxe Villa Resort. Disney Spending Money will be provided via a Disney Gift Card loaded with 100 Disney Dollars to be spent at Walt Disney World Resort and select US Disney Stores only.

Zero mention of how you get the card.

Your luggage tags are mailed to you at your home. Your magic bands are available for collection at your resort.

The gift card?

All this was thought through and deliberately executed in this way to achieve a goal.

It is a conscious act of deception. And it stinks.

And it really is that simple.

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No; I’m arguing because you’re wrong. There’s no deception here. Are you not getting the gift card? Are you not able to get said card while on Disney property that you will be currently visiting? As both those answers are, at this time, yes, then there’s no deception.

Again, how you feel they should give you the gift card, to best align with your trip plans, has no bearing on the validity of the agreement. Had they required you to travel to the DVC property in Hawaii to get it, then you’d have something.

I want to go to a passholder preview of SWGE but because it happens in August, I can’t go because it’s too close to another trip. In other words: I don’t wanna spend the money to go down there for only a day. That doesn’t suddenly make the preview a scam.

Small obstacles such as a trip to the store that you’re 15-20 minutes away, that has free and abundant transportation to it isn’t enough to claim scam. The obstacles have to be far more challenging before it can.

In what sense? I’m genuinely not following.

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:joy:

No, you’re arguing because you want to be argumentative.

Best case scenario it’s an hour out of my time.

You know that’s unreasonable. For some reason you just don’t want to say that it is.

And, per my post above yours, I checked. No mention of this in the small print.

We both know why Disney does it this way.

And don’t even try to pretend you wouldn’t be pissed if you were in this position.

has this been announced?!

Ya caught me. I just love to see you rant unironically about getting $100 … :roll_eyes:

C’mon, man. It’s me. You know I don’t like to see you waste your energies on things that won’t benefit you or your trip. (This is one of those). Positive thoughts as you go into your trip. :slight_smile:

Cause it’s not, in my eyes. I have to go to the actual park desk to activate an annual pass. Where there’s almost always an insane line. That you can easily lose an hour in, and in the heat no less. When it can realistically be done ANYWHERE. (Seriously, it’s a computer check and writing a name on a card. That’s. It. ) Is that suddenly a scam? No.

And the hour can be “made up” by going after the parks close down (just make sure you know the hours of the Disney store, think they close at 11Pm). With parks shutting down around 9-10pm, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Yeah, cause it has the possibility to change locations of where you get it. Did they choose a spot for enticement, absolutely. But I’m still not seeing actual maliciousness here. Is a “buy 3, get 1” sale at a grocer a scam?

Pissed? No. Annoyed? Ehh, if there’s been other stuff going wrong in my day, this could be “the straw”, maybe. But I try to make it to DS anyway. And even if I didn’t, I definitely wouldn’t waste much time worrying about it. It’s a cost/benefit thing. If I don’t feel I could use or make up that $100, id just bail on it.

Bigger question now: why weren’t you going to DS anyway?

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Yeah, they’ll be sending out emails soon I think. It’s on the pass hold page. All but Gold members get a peek.

drats i’m gold. thx for the heads up, though :blush:

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Yes, and you know you’re my favourite. With a U.

I’m not really into shopping. I’m not really into merch. Well, I’m kinda into merch but I don’t want to spend any more money than I already have and I don’t have the suitcase room.

I actually did schedule DS for my last full day, but that day now has an alternative schedule, which is UOR. I really want to make sure I see Diagon Alley on a light, clear day. As one of my UOR days is fully taken up with a VIP tour, that only leaves one shot at DA. So I’ve scheduled a second one, just in case.

A lovely liner has offered to scoop me up and take me to DS to collect my ticket and then whisk me to MK, so it might all work out beautifully.

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Actually if I understand correctly that this package is through Virgin, it is a package through a third party vendor and the rules are what was negotiated when they entered into the package agreement with Disney. So if you should be ticked at anyone it is Virgin for making that agreement.

Punishing people at Disney for it does make you look like a petty and spoiled child.

People who book through Virgin collect it at MCO when their flight lands. It’s only if you book through Disney you have to go to DS to get it. So his anger at them isn’t misplaced.

While I think @sanstitre_has_left_the_building is over the top in his outrage about this, I assumed too that we’d get it at the resort the first time we went. We get $200 so it’s not insignificant. We go to DS a few times though so it’s no big deal.

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I remember seeing it on the U.K. Disney page where it was being advertised. In the small print, fair enough, but I noticed and remembered about it.

I actually agree with you in that I cannot for the life of me think why they can’t have it waiting, or even give you an e-gift card now that we can buy them (finally). Except to entice you to visit DS and spend money.

But I can’t agree with the term scam.

Ah. I thought he had booked through Virgin.

At least you GET a gift card! I would happily go over to DS - even if not on the schedule - for $100. We in the US don’t get them - just the $10/day housekeeping opt out at values or mods, which you are eligible for also.

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image

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They have to offer us incentives because flights are so expensive. And we don’t get free dining at values.

Flights are expensive from many places in the US as well. And there are a lot of us who don’t do free dining - I would never do a QS package anyway.

There are two issues here.

First, the substance. I’ll be brief.*

Disney makes a headline offer to UK customers. The intention is to encourage sales of Moderate ($100 gift card) and Deluxe ($200 gift card) hotels.

At no point on offer page — including the tiny, light grey, stream-of-consciousness small print, which I screenshotted in full in my earlier post — do they mention that you have to go to Disney Springs to collect it.

This is manifestly an inconvenience. And it is manifestly unnecessary. They sent luggage tags to our homes. They sent magic bands to our resorts.

This is a deliberate tactic to force people to go to Disney Springs. They even make you go right into a retail store.

The second issue is language.

I’ve been on this site — in one guise or another — for over two years and have an extensive posting history. My love of hyperbole should be fairly well known by now.

That being said, I genuinely — genuinely — do not understand people who do not recognise how — at best — frustrating it is to be told you have to go at least an hour out of your way to get an incentive that forms part of the package you were offered. Especially when this is not make clear until well after you have booked and paid for it.

It is irrelevant that some of you love to go to Disney Springs and so this would present no problem for you. I don’t like to do so. It is a genuine inconvenience to have to go to Disney Springs.

Disney could manage this in many other ways. It would not be hard for it to do so. This is a deliberate choice they have made to force people to go into a retail store in a retail park, a twenty minute drive away from their hotel.

I call it a scam. You call it what you want.

But if you can’t agree that it is aggravating then I just don’t understand your point of view.


*This turned out to be a lie.

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