Switching Guides?

[Iggipolka]

I've read a number of posts from people who are unhappy with their DVC guides for one reason or another. Some guides don't call people back, some are out on unexpected leave and some are just not friendly. Thankfully, I have a fantastic guide at DL (H.S.) who has helped me out tremendously! I was wondering though, if you are unhappy with your guide, can you switch? Does DVC make it difficult for you to switch?

 

[LindaBabe]

It is extremely difficult. I tried for several years and talked to probably a dozen people before finally finding the right one and achieving success.

 

[DVC Grammy]

We're resigned to having "The Invisible Guide". In the 10 years of ownership, we've spoken to him one time, after the initial face-to-face purchase! And that's through two add-ons!

I don't know if, or when, we'd add-on again, but if we do, we'll just call up the main office or drop in at the DVC main office when we're at WDW, and deal with whoever is available. It's too much of a hassle to try to change guides after all this time, especially if we're not sure we'll purchase again.

(It's bad enough when guests don't have the "Disney Spirit" in WDW, but a guide.................?)

 

[Iggipolka]

Uck! How frustrating! You would think that to work for DVC, you'd have to love Disney in order to sell Disney!
I guess we are really fortunate to have had a much better experience with our guide.

 

[KristineN]

I was not happy with my guide for a number of reasons....I made 1 call regarding the matter and by the end of that day received a call from my new guide. I have been extremely happy with him and have added on 3 times since that time.

 

[disney junky]

Some of the veteran guides don't work on site. They work from home. That's the case with my guide. Were I to want to add on, she'd take care of it for me. That's mostly what she does now, add ons for the clients (sorry, guests) that she has sold to (sorry, worked with) over the years that she's been there. They are sales people. Your contact with them, if there is any, is supposed to consist of hearing from them at least once a year, but the mailings which are basically form letters, count.

I know we've had threads like this before. I guess some people get quite close to their guides. I've never had that kind of relationship. In fact, the only way she'd know me would be if I called ahead and she checked her notes on who I was and what we talked about. Keep in mind, though, that their compensation is based on sales, not relationships with former buyers, other than for the purpose of adding on.

Hey, I'm cynical.

 

[global_mom]

We recently had a strange "guide switching" situation....

We took the tour a year ago and really liked our guide. We bought SSR thru him about 6 months after our tour. We had 4-5 conversations with him during that 6 month time frame. Once we decided to buy, I had to leave 3 messages before I actually got him on the phone to compete the order. That was a little frustrating but I knew that they were very busy so I did not think much of it.

This past August we decided that we needed more points (of course we needed more) so we placed a call to our guide. We left 4 messages over a 10 day period. This time I was frustrated b/c the double dev. points were about to end and we did not want to miss it. On the last day of double points, when I still had not heard from our guide, I called the call bank number and spoke to Ron who was great! He assured me that our guide would still get the sales credit and that he (Ron) would get the papers processed and have the guide call me ASAP. Our guide did finally call later that same night and we had a good conversation. He was to put the add-on points in the system right away so that I could make our spring break ressies. 4 days later the points were still not in the system. Again I left a message with no call back. I called back to Ron, who had been so helpful, and he discovered that the add-on contract had not been turned in by our guide. He promised to handle it and he did as he promised.

About an hour after talking to Ron I got a call from a Manager at DVC who was calling to apologize for the mix-up with the add-on. He was very kind and asked if it would be OK for him to switch us to Ron as our new guide. He made no mention of what had become of our original guide but I got the feeling that this had not been the first time that the guide had "dropped the ball". The weirdest part of the whole thing was the fact that we had a very pleasant "relationship" with our original guide. DH is a Realtor and I am a TA so we had lots to talk about in our many conversations.

We are very happy with our current guide situation and were very pleased that Disney reacted to our issues even though we never complained. Now we just cant wait for Contemporary to be announced so that we can all up Ron and order a couple hundred more points!!

 

[CarolAnnC]

Ron Brumbaugh is our guide too, and we love him to pieces!!

 

[global_mom]

Ron Brumbaugh is our guide too, and we love him to pieces!!

That's him and he is awesome!!!

 

[n2mm]

I would like to think you could switch. I would not be happy if my guide was like some of you described. I have a wonderful guide. She returns phone calls promptly and is always there to answer any questions. I get a phone call from her everytime I checkin to my resort "welcoming" me home. And that is 4 trips a year. She makes it easy for me to give DVC my money!

 

[Crissup]

They are sales people. Your contact with them, if there is any, is supposed to consist of hearing from them at least once a year, but the mailings which are basically form letters, count.

However, if you are on the federal do-not-call list, they can not call you unless they have a specific reason. Calling you to prod you to purchase additional points is not sufficient reason and can land them in trouble. I've referred friends before and been told that they couldn't contact my friend until my friend contacted them first for this very reason.


Directed at no one in particular...
As for guides, some people like to hear from their guides periodically. Some don't ever want to hear from them again unless they decide to add on. Some see them as "friends" and some see them like car dealers. You probably wouldn't want your car dealer to call you once a year, would you?

As CarolAnnC mentioned, our guide is Ron Brumbaugh. Ron is awesome. He's been with DVC from the beginning, so he knows what he's talking about. He's also on the ball. He's never failed to return a call and he's just a really friendly and funny guy. However, Ron doesn't believe his members want to hear from him for no particular reason. So, if we were to expect calls from him just to say hello, we'd probably be disappointed.