Complaint Review: Universal Studios Orlando

I purchased a vacation package and went to the theme

parks in early March of 2012. I also purchased five tickets for breakfast at The

Three Broomsticks Restaurant. On the scheduled day of the breakfast, there was

literally a torrential downpour going on. It made no sense to go into the theme

parks just for the breakfast and waste an entire theme park pass, when it was

scheduled to rain the whole day. I called the vacation packages line early and

informed them that we would not be attending due to the weather, and also asked

if I could reschedule for the next morning. They informed me that there was no

availability for the next two days. I then asked if we could use the voucher

towards dinner at that same restaurant and was told that they could neither do

that nor could they give me vouchers to eat at any other restaurant or spend in

the theme park. I was told to go to the guest services window in the park, turn

in the vouchers and wait six entire weeks for a refund.

I did this and on

4/23/2012 I called back to inquire about my refund which I still had not

received. Of course, I was told to hold forever while they researched this. The

agent, Celeste, that I spoke with then came back on the line and stated "sorry",

for some reason they had not even started processing the refund. But, she did

see that the vouchers for five breakfasts was turned in to guest services. She

then stated that she was submitting it for processing and it should take a few

more weeks. She also offered me five All Day Dining Meals for the

inconvenience.

I called on 5/28 to see about the refund that I still have yet

to receive and also about redeeming the All Day Dining meals. I was then told

that there was no record of my visit, at which time I supplied them with my

original reservation number and offered to email the original reservation. I

also gave a comment number that I was told by Celeste to use on future

inquiries.

At that point, I was basically told that they had no idea what

happened to my refund and to contact the revenue dept.. As for those promised

meal deals, well they must have just been a figment of my imagination. They also

had no record of that. I asked to speak directly with Celeste and was first told

she was on another call and then that she was off altogether. I asked for a

manager and spoke with someone named Jimmy, who claimed to be a manager but was

by far the rudest person I have ever spoken with in a customer service dept.. He

basically yelled at me and implied that I was a liar because Celeste would never

promise those things. When I asked who I might speak with to file a formal

complaint he told me that he was it, there was no one above him and that even if

I submitted a complaint online it would be forwarded to him. Which is why I am

now taking every available forum to vent my frustration, including the consumer

affairs website.

This vacation package was a nightmare from the beginning.

What should have been a relaxing vacation for my son who just returned from

bootcamp, turned out to be miserable. From the bed at the Portofino Bay hotel

that was made up beautifully, but when my daughter got in it the first night of

our arrival turned out to be very wet with some unknown fluid, to the horrible

treatment I encountered for over a simple refund. I spent over 3,000 dollars

with Universal and I can"t believe that a company would allow its employees to

treat a customer so badly over a situation like this. At this point, it is no

longer about the money, but about principle. I feel like I was beeing riped off

from the start which is why the refund could not be processed while I was

actually at the resort. It now seems like a concerted effort in hopes that

customers will just go home and forget about the fact that they just lost some

money through no fault of their own. Therefore, I am now telling all of my

friends, family coworkers and the facebook community about my awful experience

and that they should steer clear of a Universal Vacation Package unless thay

want to be ripped off.