‘Glitch’ In Disney World System Charges Guests Four Months Worth of Payments Today Unexpectedly
Many Disney fans are heading into the Fourth of July weekend with a great big Disney surprise and NOT of the magical kind! According to Disney, a glitch in their booking system has meant that many annual passholders had four months worth of automatic payments debited from their bank accounts right before the holiday weekend.
This has meant that some families were seeing hundreds or for those with family passes, thousands of dollars taking out of their bank accounts this morning disrupting lives in the lead into the holiday. Disney has said they are aware of the problem and have advised guests to call 1.888.701.4100 and select option 3.
Here’s a look at what some passholders are saying on twitter:
Did anyone else just get charged $500 for #disneyworld #passholder #annualpassholder ?!?
— Nicholas Jackson (@FlashJackson1) July 3, 2020
This couldn’t come at a worse time as many are feeling financially strapped as a result of the COVID-19 virus.
https://twitter.com/MrTimMattson/status/1279086316790124552
Not to mention that fact that it is a holiday weekend, a time when many guests holding family gatherings or travelling to see loved ones.
According to various online sources, those impacted seem to be passholders who opted to have their expiration dates extended due to the COVID-19 shutdown. Payment direct debit was activated as part of this process and pass holders inadvertently charged this morning for months worth of payments at a time.
@WaltDisneyWorld thanks for letting us know about 4 months of back charges being taken out and not even on my normal payment date your handling of this whole shutdown has been horrible #disneyworld #disneypass #disneyfans #wdw #DisneyAP
— © (@kawiz2003) July 3, 2020
As we previously reported here at MickeyBlog, the charges made earlier today were not ones that theme park guests were expecting as the last correspondence to passholders from Disney outlined that payments would be made as follows:
If you are an Annual Passholder on the monthly payment plan:
On April 5, 2020, we automatically stopped and will waive monthly payments due while the theme parks are closed. We will also retroactively refund payments made between March 14 through April 4, 2020. Payments will resume on the Passholder’s regularly scheduled payment dates once the parks reopen. Please note, pass expiration dates will not be extended and passes will expire upon their originally scheduled expiration dates.
As an alternative, Guests who are paying for Walt Disney World Annual Passes using our monthly payment program may choose to have their monthly payments postponed starting with payments due April 5, 2020 through the park closure period, and then resumed on the Passholder’s regularly scheduled payment date once the parks reopen. Postponed payments will be collected in the months following the end of the Passholder’s currently scheduled payment term. The pass will be extended the number of days the parks are closed. The new expiration date will be reflected on the Annual Passholder’s account prior to the reopening of the theme parks. To request this alternative option, we ask that you contact V.I.PASSHOLDER Support at (407) 939-7277. We do anticipate heavy call volume and appreciate your patience as we answer all inquiries.
As you can see above, the policy states, Postponed payments will be collected in the months following the end of the Passholder’s currently scheduled payment term. This suggests that passholders won’t be charged until guests read the extended dates on their annual pass.
@WaltDisneyWorld @DisneyParks so, you put your cast members at risk by reopening the parks in the midst of record breaking Covid cases AND overcharge APs (several x their monthly payments) 🙄 can’t wait to cancel our passes #wdw #Disney #WaltDisneyWorld
— d (@dpris7) July 3, 2020
For some loyal passholders, the combination of being mischarged and the theme parks decision to go forward with reopening plans despite the spike in COVID-19 cases in Florida is enough for them to reconsider being a passholder.
Though Disney hasn’t released an OFFICIAL statement regarding the issue, reporter Ashley Carter took to Twitter to share the following message:
Official statement from Disney World regarding today's passholder payment error:
"Passholders on the monthly payment program were incorrectly charged today. We are in the process of reversing these charges and apologize for the inconvenience this caused.” https://t.co/duXa1vCCSP
— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) July 3, 2020
This is a story that we here at MickeyBlog will be following closely. Readers are encouraged to keep following along with MickeyBlog for the latest updates regarding this story.
Thanks for the update. Do you know what happens if you call the number above? Do you get the charges reversed immediately or just get told by a human “we are working on it” ? I’m staring at an overdraft fee if this is resolved before midnight: (