Have you tried to return scrappers to Disney?

[Agogley]

Has anybody tried to take their scrappers and get something in return from Disney? I'm not talking about simply trading so that a CM doesn't know. I'm saying, have you ever gone into a pin trading store and told them you just traded for this pin and it's counterfeit or a scrapper? I'm just wondering if there is some way to recoup some of the money I spend on pins I traded only to get scrappers/counterfeit pins without trading them to unsuspecting CMs.

 

[tinkerbelle1956]

This was my situation . I came across a manager with two Genie T Shirt pins on her lanyard . I said to her you do realize you have a scrapper on your lanyard and pointed to the royal blue one . She responded good eye, I traded for the real one, light blue . I asked will you discard the other knowing its a scrapper . She said No, they still have the Disney back stamp . So sad !
That same evening I found another manager wearing a large Belle in red winter cloak . That evening was the PTN . I took it out and matched it to the same pin, a collector had . It too was a scrapper/counterfeit . I was so upset . I have it to a little girl, but told her mom not to let her trade it as I had just discovered, it was a counterfeit . She took the pin and put it in her purse and said her daughter loves Belle, so she'd be sure to put it on her board . So I would say the answer is no, if the management don't care, I'm almost sure the CMs won't , but you can try . Best of Luck !

 

[Agogley]

Honestly, it would be easy enough to trade. But I guess they'll just get traded. I have a baggie with pins I know are counterfeit or scrappers. I have several other pins that I think could be scrappers, but I just can't be 100% certain. I'm going to trade those.

 

[rubyslipperedgoddess]

After a day of trading with CMs, I took what were scrappers to Guest Services and they pretty much said the same thing as Tinker's manager. They had no pins to replace them with but I was more than welcome to put them back on a CMs lanyard. To what get more scrappers? It seems as if Disney does not much care about the proliferation of scrappers.

 

[Aquata]

I never have because the couple of times I told a CM, one got kind of indignant like I was insulting her and her pins and the other didn't seem to care much so I didn't really get the impression that going to management would be much better... :sad:

I personally don't think they will ever do anything about the scrapper issue at the resorts. It's a touchy subject I imagine for management and CMs and no one is really a "qualified expert" to say with 100% certainty to a guest "Sorry, you are trading a fake/unauthentic pin". I think most people would be pretty accepting and willing to learn but you'd inevitably have those indignant or rude people who snap back "I paid $30.00! What do you mean FAKE!?" and then they'll proceed to blame Disney and demand a refund even though they bought through Ebay or some other 2nd party seller and so on and so on. My point is, to really limit/make a move to rid the parks of scrappers, CMs would have to flat out tell some guests that their pins are fake and refuse the trade and that would not make for a happy guest. Plus it would also make for some disappointed/sad children. It sucks though... I hear you. It's frustrating. There are some adorable HM pins that I would love to collect but just won't because of the high scrapper rate on those particular pins and it just isn't worth worrying and obsessing over to me. So, I just gave up collecting HMs and stay away from them altogether. It's also frustrating beyond description to endlessly nit pick pins for flaws, find the tiniest thing and worry you have a scrapper/unauthentic pin in your collection.

 

[Dalisair]

To be fair, I had 2 cast members tonight ask me to school them on the scrapper/counterfeit pins. I explained some of the obvious things to look for in at least older pins, but also pointed out the NEWEST pins coming out seem to have a lack of QA. Prime example - Pin 15331: Mickey Shaking Hands with a Firefighter/Fireman. The newest version of this directly on the rack RIGHT NOW has dips, lack of uniform coating and the off coloring that the initial fakes had. It's really a shame. If you have a chance to look at DLR (I have no clue about WDW) on the racks, just glance at the lack of coating, fill and obvious brush strokes that are getting passed through QA (Quality Assurance) now on almost every pin. It's making it harder to tell the fakes from the real ones. I'd like to think that they are not PURPOSEFULLY doing this...

Also, there was a couple who had several book full of scrappers this week. Over the few days I saw many people trading with them. Oddly enough, a lot of THOSE pins did not go in the books. The scraper pins they traded for did go right back in there. I spoke with them briefly today after again looking through one of their books and asked where he got them. He was slightly evasive and explained there is a group in Utah where he lives that does trading. "Utah?" I asked. "Hmmm. Do you sell on Ebay?" He then got REALLY evasive and said rarely does he do so, but his buddy who comes to Disneyland once a month does. The odd thing? The one scrapper lot I bought off of ebay (and sent back) came from Utah, which is why I was interested. I was actually kind of upset by them as I saw them take total advantage of a nice English couple who were at the park before PTN. I didn't have the heart to tell those nice English folks at PTN that they likely got ripped off.

Tonight I also did a small schooling session on fakes and real with 3 different couples that had doubles some they KNEW were fakes, and I pointed out some of the ways to tell.

Also, some of the leads are getting good about pulling scrappers out when refreshing lanyards. The last 3 days (I can only account for today) many of the lanyards were filled with REAL pins at the shift change, or so I hear. And I talked to one lead near Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln who told me some of his secrets about how he refreshes lanyards, and how he does try to pull fakes out when he sees them. But how it is a losing battle for them.

OK, enough rambling.

 

[Agogley]

I've looked a lot of pins since I've come to this forum. I purchased replacements for some of my pins on Ebay. On some of the pins I simply cannot be sure if it is genuine, counterfeit, or fake. I want to say it's genuine, but I so suspicious. Any QA issue (and of course, used means they could have scratches, etc. from that) makes me suspect. If I can't tell, I'm definately going to trade it. The bad ones...well still trying to decide where my ethos is there since I sorta feel that they should be responsible for the ones that I traded from them.

BTW, I feel like they could do more to avoid counterfeits simply by having a consistent back with a consistent backstamp. Scrappers, well, there's going to be some we simply can't tell. Overruns might not be official, but you can't know that.

 

[shls062167]

When a CM starts their shift, do they have 100% authentic pins on their lanyards?

 

[Agogley]

I doubt it. That would mean they refresh their pins or otherwise go through them. At WDW the CMs would sometimes handoff their pin lanyards to the next CM who was rotating in. Also, that wouldn't include the hotel pinbooks and store pinboards.

 

[docfish2u]

When I asked a lead at Disneyland one time why he had so few pins on his lanyard he told me that as scrappers were traded to him he just stuck them in his pocket. He told me that they can not refuse a trade because it is bad p.r. If the guest tells them that they traded for them off of a lanyard they have to take them. It sucks but since Disney is all about a good time you will have scum purposely trading their scrappers onto cast lanyard for any pin that isn't bad. The last trip we quit looking at cast lanyards they were all so pitiful. It is a shame, unless Disney goes after the factories in China who are producing them, it appears there is nothing to be done about them. Not because cast members don't want to, but because they can't.

 

[Agogley]

I'm less offended by the Scrappers than the countefeit. Even if Disney made the pins in the U.S., China would still produce counterfeits. I also think it would be difficult for a CM to turn down a pin trade. Many of the pins that I now know are scrappers or counterfeit, I couldn't discern without extremely careful inspection. I think it would be tough on CMs to deal with that unless it were obvious by the pattern on the back of the pin.

I do think Disney could cut down on counterfeits and scrappers by making some mark on the back that is required for trading. For example, if they had some stamp or engraving done after the pins ship.

 

[paula6989]

I went this past Saturday to DL and was bummed out to see the amount of people pulling out individually wrapped pins, knowing they most likely bought them in huge lots on ebay. I bought 6 booster packs at the park and brought 25 of my authentic pins to trade for hidden mickeys. I did meet a nice CM who told me to come back in 15 min and he went to their office and brought out a brand new bag of 2012 HM's Wave B, he traded way more than the usual limit with me, which was really nice of him, he didn't have to. But i noticed that him and a few other CMs kept the new HMs in a plastic bag in their pockets, I just asked nicely and they brought them out for me to trade. But boy, I saw so many obvious scrappers, esp. of the Alphabet HM's from 2011.

 

[Romancing_Train]

When a CM starts their shift, do they have 100% authentic pins on their lanyards?

It depends. If it was me then about 1 of 3 times I started my shift I had brand new pins because I went and GOT them from my managers. At the end of my shift I would collect all of the scrappers from my friends lanyards (Other CMS) for whatever good ones I had, I would take them to my manager, and she would toss them out and give me two new bags of pins (each bags was 6 pins of new HMs from either 2010, 2011 or 2012 wave A, I was actually the first CM in california adventure to pass out wave A!)

If the CM cares then yes, but they limit us on how many new bags of pins we can have a month, and this is because custodians get ot keep their lanyards, we don't turn them in, so I could go after my shift home, take all the real pins for myself and leave scrappers on my lanyard. They obviously didn't want us to do that.

But the thing was, the CMs who got to keep their lanyards were less likely to steal the pins they found because we cared more about them. I started the "give me all your scrappers end of the day turn in" thing before I left...I know some of my friends in DTD still do it...but their new pins are GONE by like 9am.

 

[Romancing_Train]

When I asked a lead at Disneyland one time why he had so few pins on his lanyard he told me that as scrappers were traded to him he just stuck them in his pocket. He told me that they can not refuse a trade because it is bad p.r. If the guest tells them that they traded for them off of a lanyard they have to take them. It sucks but since Disney is all about a good time you will have scum purposely trading their scrappers onto cast lanyard for any pin that isn't bad. The last trip we quit looking at cast lanyards they were all so pitiful. It is a shame, unless Disney goes after the factories in China who are producing them, it appears there is nothing to be done about them. Not because cast members don't want to, but because they can't.

This +10000000000000000000000000000000!!!!

 

[coblj003]

At WDW, for the most part, there were pin replenishment stations at all the parks. You were really only allowed to trade in half your lanyard in at a time(6 pins) a day. Those also don't account for areas such as merchantainment which kept/traded off lanyards between shifts between the CM's. Overall, Disney Management is going to respond to this in kind, you yourself "traded" a product away for another less desirable, but you still initiated it and gave up a $? amount pin. The most they'll do is let you trade for another pin, or if you find a reasonable CM , they can check replenishment and find you a good one.

 

[Agogley]

At WDW, for the most part, there were pin replenishment stations at all the parks. You were really only allowed to trade in half your lanyard in at a time(6 pins) a day. Those also don't account for areas such as merchantainment which kept/traded off lanyards between shifts between the CM's. Overall, Disney Management is going to respond to this in kind, you yourself "traded" a product away for another less desirable, but you still initiated it and gave up a $? amount pin. The most they'll do is let you trade for another pin, or if you find a reasonable CM , they can check replenishment and find you a good one.

The pin was only less desireable because it's a fake. Otherwise, I got the pin I wanted...LOL. Honestly, I could trade the scrappers and counterfeits no problem. I just don't want to do that, although now I feel like the only dope trading away authentic pins for fakes. If everyone is trading fakes, maybe I ought just to trade fakes for other fakes. Then finding a legitimate pin would be like winning the lottery!

 

[KT07]

no one has anwsered your ??? in a way that will help you. YES THEY CAN AND WILL TAKE THE SCRAPPER BACK. As jim said if u get a nice lead they will go to the box of pins and trade u the one u need.

now with that said... i have never tryed to take a whole bag and get all new pins. but for sure i have had them trade my bad pin for a geood one. It has happened at lest 3 or 4 times. Disney is a place of magic and sumtimes u get more of it depending on how u act and treat ppl around you.

Here is a ex of the cms going out of there way to help with pins. i was looking for the last WOC HM pin from last year. It was the orange comleter to the set. I found it and was so happy to trade for it from a cm. On the way out of the park we stopped at a shop and started to talk pins with the lead. I told her how we had just looked for the one pin for the babys collection. (Key word collection.. we dont trade the stuff we collect.) I than picked up babytraders lanyard to show her the rest of the set that we had just completed... at that point i see that the light blue one has fell off that day while at the park. i say.. well we had them all but guess we need to look for one more now. She tells me to wait a min and than gose to the back. She comes out with the blue pin he needs and gives it to him as a gift. no trade needed. To top that off she was doing sum candy stocking and the baby kind of reached for a mikey head sucker. I tell him no he cant have one right as she is saying do u want one. The candys are in a pack all different colors of mickey head candy. She takes the one with the price tag and than gives him all the rest. So i think it come down to how you act with the CMs.

i will say that sum care more than others but its like that at all jobs.