Mine got addressed to my younger child who we don’t even have a membership for. Definitely not a strong endorsement for their IT team,
COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW
- Thread starter WDWRLD
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The only way they would get my young child's name would be from my purchase history of a fun card or daily ticket, not from my membership account. Only my older child and my name's are on the membership account. Definitely an IT issue somewhere.
Their name was in the order for a fun card last year and another order for a daily ticket in two separate purchases. There were three other names in both those orders. The reason I say it's an IT issue, is if it was addressed to members only, then it should have came to me or my older child. If they went to everyone who purchased tickets last year, then the appropriate person to address it to would be the purchaser name. Picking a random name from an order to address that email to is sloppy work at best or an IT screwup.
Sorry for the double post, but I randomly thought of this:
There's only 1 roller coaster I can think of uniquely set up for handling this unintentionally, and it's at BGW. Verbolten. Due to the unique double train station, they could run as a 3 train operation. Use the back load/unload for unload only, then clean the train. Meanwhile the front train is loaded and departs, the 3rd train hits the brake run.
There's only 1 roller coaster I can think of uniquely set up for handling this unintentionally, and it's at BGW. Verbolten. Due to the unique double train station, they could run as a 3 train operation. Use the back load/unload for unload only, then clean the train. Meanwhile the front train is loaded and departs, the 3rd train hits the brake run.
1 - I'm currently not a member and I got the email as well, so it's going out to everyone in their data base.
2 - Last time I purchased tickets using my email address, I put my mom's name in there, and guess who's name was on there.
Its not sloppy work or an IT screw up. Some of these systems don't put the purchaser name as the person to address things to. Some of them use the first name that was entered (aka first ticket) at the primary contact name. I know that's the way my work's system is set up to operate.
I'm sorry but this is the type of thing I was talking about in the other thread. Is it really worth it to keep going on and on and throwing BGW under the bus because your kids name is who the letter was addressed to? In the end that's small peanuts and honestly not something that should be that concerning or noteworthy.
The bolded is my point with all of this though. There are bigger more pressing concerns in the world, and a more macro sense with what SEAS/BGW needs to do. Them worrying about who's name is on the email (because we don't know how the system is setup to operate) isn't one of them.
I agree it's a minor issue, but the purchaser name is collected in the bill to and ship to fields during purchase. The fact that they can't pull that data element into their email to appropriately address a form letter shows sloppy work or limits in IT capability.
I'm not a fan of form letters to begin with, but if you're going to personally address them to your customers, get that right. In my case it was trivial, but what if that email was addressed to a former significant other or a recently deceased family member. That could create a negative response and upset their customers from that poor execution. Details matter in operations and this is amateur hour type execution.
Most systems are set up to use the name of who the purchase was for, not who bought it. It's not "sloppy work or limits in IT capability" for the system to address emails like that. Given the likelyhood that few purchases have been made recently, that's likely the latest information they had and why it got labeled in that way.
There are mire important issues in the world right now, but problems like this are not new for BGW. If things normally were correct and just now there were issues they could get a pass.....but its like this all the time. This is just the BGW way.
Regarding the "it's like this all the time", I personally rarely have the issues that seem widespread on this forum. Maybe it's the insular of people on here know some of the most about the memberships or the ins-and-outs of the parks operations. But anyways.
Here is what I received back about my pass payment (being taken monthly automatically). I am past the 12 month mark.
"Thank you for emailing Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Thanks for your question. For all members who have already met their initial 12 month commitment on EZ pay will be granted complimentary time by a period at least as long as the temporary closure. We will need your first and last name, barcode and email address to process any additional time granted.
Should you encounter finanical hardship durring this time we have a Payment Deferred Plan that allows our guests to defer their monthly installments for one month. The one month will then be added to the end of their commitment, thus keeping the monthly installments the same when payment continues. Let me know if you would like to activate the Payment Deferment Plan for your memberships. Please note if you use the Payment Deferred Plan, you would not be eligible for the complimentary time mentioned above."
Seems like a pretty straight-forward and "template" email, but if so... I couldn't help but notice the spelling errors (financial / during).
Either way, this still doesn't really make much sense. Extend my membership with complimentary time? But what if I keep my membership forever? I get 1-2 free months after I die? Or is it that they will give me 1-2 free months of membership (won't take money) once they re-open?
Who knows... will just keep paying... and figure it out later...
"Thank you for emailing Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Thanks for your question. For all members who have already met their initial 12 month commitment on EZ pay will be granted complimentary time by a period at least as long as the temporary closure. We will need your first and last name, barcode and email address to process any additional time granted.
Should you encounter finanical hardship durring this time we have a Payment Deferred Plan that allows our guests to defer their monthly installments for one month. The one month will then be added to the end of their commitment, thus keeping the monthly installments the same when payment continues. Let me know if you would like to activate the Payment Deferment Plan for your memberships. Please note if you use the Payment Deferred Plan, you would not be eligible for the complimentary time mentioned above."
Seems like a pretty straight-forward and "template" email, but if so... I couldn't help but notice the spelling errors (financial / during).
Either way, this still doesn't really make much sense. Extend my membership with complimentary time? But what if I keep my membership forever? I get 1-2 free months after I die? Or is it that they will give me 1-2 free months of membership (won't take money) once they re-open?
Who knows... will just keep paying... and figure it out later...
I think it means that once this is over, they will not charge you for the duration of the shutdown.
Here's my theory on this whole thing:
I think after they shutdown, they realized that they were still charging people and were like uh, oh, what now? You could imagine, that it would be a challenging problem to go back and review everyone they charged and then prorate based on when their renewal was.
Once this is all over and they have a set amount of time that they know they need to give everyone, they just go and set the next payment for everyone n-weeks into the future.
This solution, while confusing and annoying for those that need the money, saves the company resources that they'd have to spend figuring out how much to compensate everyone. Resources which they probably already furloughed.
Here's my theory on this whole thing:
I think after they shutdown, they realized that they were still charging people and were like uh, oh, what now? You could imagine, that it would be a challenging problem to go back and review everyone they charged and then prorate based on when their renewal was.
Once this is all over and they have a set amount of time that they know they need to give everyone, they just go and set the next payment for everyone n-weeks into the future.
This solution, while confusing and annoying for those that need the money, saves the company resources that they'd have to spend figuring out how much to compensate everyone. Resources which they probably already furloughed.
Agreed with most of this. It’s much easier to put in an “X-days” extension to payment plan end dates than it is to make it stop payment and restart and not have any weeks unaccounted for.
I would like to see a good response to the all season dining plan. I haven't seen any clear directions, unless I happen to miss that post. Do they plan to extend it into 2021?
I interpret that "all active annual passes and membership products" includes the dining plan as it is a product available to memberships and annual passes.
Sure, but what good is extending a dining plan for 8 weeks after the park shuts down in January?
I'll direct you to my March 16th post for my feeling on that:
But regardless, doesn't change the fact that I believe that statement might cover things like meal and drink plans.