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Bad experience.

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Bad experience.

RumsGone

New DPF Member
Rating - 90%
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Location
Los Angeles, CA
So I went to Disneyland with my sister yesterday and we got to where the trams where and I saw a cast member with pins so i went over and noticed a scrapper pin. I informed the lady and she had the nerve to say that she didn't care and who ever traded for it would get a really good scrapper. She then told me that she had gotten it from backstage. It was one of the NBC candy corn pins and I told her that the bottom color was to be neon yellow and not neon green. She gave me the dirtiest look ever. Looked at and told her that I thought the look was unfair and that I was only trying to help them stop the companies from over seas from making scrappers of their pins.
She then told me that she just didn't care about pins. My sister had to drag me to the trams cause I was so pissed. I'm just sad that I didn't get her name to complain about her.
 
It sucks when you get a rude cast member like that as it can totally ruin the rest of your day. I remember my first trip to paris and I got a cast member refusing to trade and rumaging through my pin bag without my permission and laughing and talking in french to other cast members (which I assume was about me) it totally ruined my morning that day.
 
:shock: Wow, that CM had some nerve I guess.

I think there is no way to force CMs to care about pins. It is sad, but true. To us, it is "Happiest place on earth" but to some of the CMs it is only a job, I guess.

If Disney and park management does not want to educate their CMs about pins and put some ground rules in place, there is not much any of us can change by merely getting pissed or just complaining about one single CM's attitude. They have to make a radical change.

Some time back, I had seen guidelines about "Pin Trading Etiquette" and it was for guests. After reading your post and also the post regarding the "manager made a big stink" I can't help wondering if there are any mandatory rules for CMs?
 
I wished you had gotten her name too!

She needs to be reported!!!!

She is so NOT DIsney cast member material!

Vicki
 
My Irish temper was going so bad at that moment. They should have rules for the castmembers about pin trading. I say get a group of us to go in and educate them. We know what we are talking about. I wish I had my big pin book so I could have shown her what the real one looks like.

She even said good for the Chinese. At least they are making money. At that point I wanted to deck her for that comment.
 
and its a good job you didnt have your big pin book or else it would of made quite an impact on the CMs head..

*good for the chinese...BOOOM!*
 
I think she would have been missing part of her head. The book is rather full of pages of pins plus a 3 inch binder stuffed with pins. I didn't take it yesterday because we both had class that morning and I didn't wanna carry everything around.
Stitch2814 said:
and its a good job you didnt have your big pin book or else it would of made quite an impact on the CMs head..

*good for the chinese...BOOOM!*
Click to expand...
 
I wished you had gotten her name too! She needs to be reported!!!! She is so NOT DIsney cast member material!
Click to expand...

Same here. That is UFB! I would've gotten her name, location, time of day, etc. and written to the Disney Legal Department with that story (not that anything would be done about it). Also maybe written to one of the local newspapers with that story (not that it would get anywhere with a paper, either).
 
Merryweather said:
I think there is no way to force CMs to care about pins. It is sad, but true. To us, it is "Happiest place on earth" but to some of the CMs it is only a job, I guess.
Click to expand...

Exactly. It's not what everyone thinks it is. When you walk backstage it's dead, non-magical, careless. (At least where I go)
There's tension in the air that no one wants to be there. ;p

Believe me, you DON'T want to go to the TRUE backstage, lol.
You don't even want to know about the break room stories. Makes me want to puke!
 
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First up! Sorry you had a negative experience. Stuff like that sucks. With that said, here's my perspective:

I've had a couple negative experiences with pin-trading DLR CM's, but I try to remember that the program is largely optional at DLR, and that some of the abuse the CM's take can be pretty off the charts. I've personally never reported a pin-trading CM for being less than magical about a pin-related interaction, strictly because I know everybody has rough days and overall, I just appreciate that the CM chose to wear a lanyard in the first place. Given how some pin traders act, it's inevitable that some small segment of the CM population will group us all under the header of "crazy pin people" and perhaps treat individual traders unfairly on occasion. Hazard of the trade.

Sidenote: I never point out when a pin is counterfeit or scrapped on a CM's lanyard. I don't expect a CM to learn the minutiae even if I do tell them: it's a tiny part of their job and at this point, I just accept that it's up to the individual traders to know the difference. I might step in if I see a new trader about to drop a freshly-purchased rack pin for a counterfeit or something, but in that case, I tend to just sidebar with the guest, and not involve the potentially-embarrassed CM. Disney's made their decisions about how they intend to deal with scrappers and counterfeits, and it's not my system to change. Trying to do so only ever results in awkwardness.

Just my two cents,

-JD
 
I was just trying to help the lady out and didn't expect the response that she was going to have. I understand that it was fairly warm (104 at 4:30 pm) and she might have been having a bad day but at least try and fake a smile because they are the ones that can make or break a guests day and she broke my happiness of being there till a really cool cm on Space started talking to my sister and I and actually willing to be nice to the guests.
 

I completely agree with everything you said.
 
I'm sorry that you had a bad experience, Rumsgone. I try to count my blessings when I encounter a less-than-magical CM, because the bad encounters have been far outweighed by positive ones. But I know that doesn't help when you're getting dumped on by a CM.
 

I agree JD. I'm sorry about the bad experience. However, I have had numerous candid discussions with CM's and am truly appalled at how much abuse those poor souls have to put up with from the guests. The general public are pretty rude and obnoxious to our CMs. Its flabbergasting how the simple courtesy of saying "thank you" is absent from most guests basic interactions. I think your CM cracked under the pressure of a long hot day and dealing with a large number on rude guests - then again, she may just be a sorry example for a CM.
 
I have never been anything but nice to the cast members cause I know that they have a lot to deal with during the day. But it was rather rude of her to say that at least the Chinese were making money. I always say thank you to cast members and always say please if I want to see their lanyards or if they have to pull a pin out of a case and if they are trying to get somewhere I let them go ahead of me or I help them get through a large crowd of people by saying excuse me to the crowd so that I can get the CM through to where they need to go. So not everyone are jerks to the cast members.

 
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To avoid any misunderstandings - it was not intended to imply "everyone is a jerk". I was commenting that cast members have a lot to handle. Also, please see my opening and closing comments........"I'm sorry about the bad experience"......................."then again, she may just be a sorry example for a CM."
 
Sweetie, I understand that you were not implying that but I was just saying that I am one of the few people that actually are nice to the CMs because we appreciate what they do for us and that they try their hardest to bring the magic to us.



Tinker: Can you clear out your pm's or email me about this pin. I'm totally blanking on the pin I'm looking for you. EEEK. Loads on my mind with school and stuff.
Tinker said:
Unbelievable , I'd been fuming too . We pay good money to trade authentic pins and then that's the attitude you get. So Sad !
Did you happen to find my pin Rumsgone ?
Click to expand...
 
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Having just returned from Disneyland last week (and ironically a day before your incident), I can tell you that I have seen both sides of the coin.

1) Many cast members, especially those in the heavy pin trading areas, DO care. During one trade with the book session, one of my pins was "double checked" due to being a but more worn on the front than usual. Having seen me take it in trade earlier from another cast member, they decided to make the trade with me to "take it out of circulations." Moments later, I discovered the pin I wanted from them (in the Disney pin book) was untradable - broken (wobbly) back post. Bottom line: questionable pins can get through no matter how throughly both parties check.

2) Cast members are required to trade with guests should they have lanyards, pouches, or hip pads. Unless the pin being offered is an obvious fake or non-Disney pin, they MUST accept it. I even saw some of the infameous Dancers 2000 showing up again on lanyards. And inside on book, the huge 3 part USA map pin was obviously not Disney. While some may unintentionally load their lanyard with a bad pin, most counterfeit / bootleg pins were put there by guests making trades.

3) It's amazing how far "thank you" and "may I please" will get you when trading with cast members.

4) Many cast members will have additional pins to refresh lanyards or pouches. But they usually won't break them out around known pin traders unless they see you doing something positive. Being willing to trade fairly with other guests (especially obvious new traders) or helping make a trade when the cast member was lanyard locked (too many of same pin - typically Costco / AAA / Disney Vacation starters), I was considered a "good" trader. If you can establish that type of reputation, castmembers are more willing to share treasures with you. It also helps if your seen as not looking for Ebay material and collecting for the love of Disney.

5) I also encountered one trader clearly pushing counterfeit pins. Having several of same design inside individual plastic bags is a bad omen. Have to say the fakes are getting better (sadly). It has only a minimal lip on the rim with a proper mouse head waffle pattern. Coloring was good. Magnet test - worthless even with a super magnet only the outer rim responded. Test is dubious at best while almost all new Disney pins are non-magnetic, older pins often include magnetic nickel or iron in their alloy. A casual observer would have NO CHANCE of recognizing this as a bootleg/counterfeit/scrapper pin. It also fooled several cast members until I was able to show them the rim - made more obvious with a magnifying glass. In defense of the person trading, they may not have realized what they had either. They simply responded to the siren lure of Ebay saying great park traders for cheap.

I'm also sorry to hear that you encountered a cast member who appeared unconcerned about the apparent scrapper you found. But getting upset at her won't help. By lecturing her and trying to "get her to care" you can come off as one of the rabid pin traders who scour lanyards leaving only untradables in their wake. Simply note that the color seems a bit off or looks odd, you might later discover that she would remove the questionable pin when she had a private moment or when next meeting with a supervisor.

Hopefully your future experiences will be more enjoyable
 
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I have never lectured a CM about having a fake pin because I would not want a guest or someone else to lecture me about something. That is unfair and uncalled for. Just trying to help them out to capture the fake pins. When I let other CMs know that are nice about it and will put it in a pocket right in front of me and say thank you very much for bringing it to their attention.

As much as I would like them to care I know that we can't change the way they think. Which bums me out. I am going tomorrow so I hope I have a better trip tomorrow.

 
Ditto to many of the comments above. As Disneyland lanyards are optional, I truly do not want to do anything that eliminates another lanyard from at the park. I mean..many Cast members who wear lanyards are NOT Disney pin collectors..they are employees doing their job and facilitating another role of the Disney experience.

We have to do everything we can to make wearing an optional lanyard as positive experience for the Cast member as well as the trader.
 
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