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*GASP* Just got back from WDW...you will not believe what a CM told me!

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*GASP* Just got back from WDW...you will not believe what a CM told me!
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mylittletyguy

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I am trying to collect the Animal Kingdom Mystery Pin Set right now...and I kept going back for boxes to try to complete my set. (Didn't happen, by the way...) and the girl and I were talking and I was telling her about how if I had a job at Disney as a cast member I would never have any money because I would use the discount to buy pins. She snarked and said..."I can't afford it either, but I love to collect pins...I go on eBay and they are MUCH cheaper. I just bought 50 pins for $30 and I come on my days off and trade for the "good" pins." O.M.G. Seriously????
 
I think it must have been an ignorance issue...she was really young and seemed very nice...not like she was "working" the system. I was stunned when she told me that. I didn't know how to respond. I think I only said "wow." Like...did you really just SAY that kind of "wow." But I agree...I mean, she was working at a PIN STATION...for goodness sakes...that's her job!
 
Disney moves people in and out now so often that I find most of the people at the pin places have no clue anymore. Have the times I ask a question at one of the counters I seem to get a blank look. In some of my last visits I have seen people that could answer those questions that worked a long time in the pin stores working registers in more general merchandise areas.
 



I think between that and what they pay their employees...if it isn't a PASSION...it's hard to care enough about it to know any better. You know?
 
Ewwww this is so depressing (
We need to get our honest, pin educated forces out there working. Because I mean if she told you that, how many OTHER park guests has she told that maybe don't know better, so will go out and do exactly the same !!!
 
Its just sad!!! Something has to be done. I mean so many famlies work so hard to go to the parks to enjoy themselves. The last they should have to worry about is trading for fake pins. It breaks my heart when my nephew wants to trade but I find myself making an excuse not to. Something has to be done.
 
OMG!!! Olvia you would surprised how many of the cast members know that they are trading fakes and still trade them. I met 2 cast members who only had about 4 pins on their lanyards. They actually us told they would rather have a little then to be caught dead with fakes. I was like you guys are awsome!!!
 
So I'm appalled by the CMs that knowingly perpetuate the existence of scrappers, but I would like to make a point about the ones who don't know any better. As someone mentioned CMs don't get paid enough to care, this problem is not their fault nor their responsibility, the blame should not be placed on the individuals working at the parks, but rather Disney, the multi-billion dollar company that allows the problem to exist in the first place. If Disney cared they would be doing something, and if they're not willing to do something about the factories that produce these pins than they could educate every single one of their employees that is either going to be selling pins or wearing a lanyard, but expecting an individual who makes minimum wage to take matters on themself is not only unfair, but ridiculous. I mean if you were making 8-9 an hour, would you give yourself homework? Disney doesn't pay enough to make people care about scrappers/counterfeit pins. Is it great when someone does anyway? Of course! The world needs more people who care about others, who have conviction, but the reality is that there are fewer and fewer of those people everyday. So perhaps, since it's blindingly obvious to me that Disney isn't going to do anything maybe we as a community need to do something. Maybe a protest is required because simply informing new traders of the problem doesn't seem to be stopping it, simply not buying pins for $1 on ebay is not stopping the problem. Perhaps what we need to do is organize a very peaceful protest that lets Disney and the media know that we've had enough. Until people outside of the pin trading community know that there's a problem, until our concerns affect Disney, nothing is going to change.
 
To be fair, at DLR even a lot of the cast members working in the pin shops like Little Green Men or Westward Ho were unaware that there was a such thing as fake pins...

 
Very well said!
 
Dalisair said:
To be fair, at DLR even a lot of the cast members working in the pin shops like Little Green Men or Westward Ho were unaware that there was a such thing as fake pins...
Click to expand...

I'm sure that's absolutely true, but it doesn't make it any less of a problem. A problem that Disney really does need to address, I mean scrappers notwithstanding, I hate asking someone who is working in a pin ship a pin related question and they have no clue what I'm talking about. I think it's basic customer service to know your products. But if Disney moves CMs from store to store how can they expect that to happen. Things were so much better when you could go into a store and the same people worked there on a daily basis and actually knew what they were talking about. Now, I know more than the CMs and that's not right.
 

I wasnt surprised by your post - here in the UK many a cast member has commented to me that they love pins but cant afford them. I was also told by one cast member that a lady comes round to the store once a month with a bag of pins so cast members can buy "cheap pins". Certainly food for thought, when the majority of pins on cast lanyards are fakes!
 
Sign me up for the petition puurrleeaase, when I finally made it to a Disney park albeit only Paris, after 6 years of saving, it really took away from one of the main reasons I was there (to trade - for fun) to have to stay away from most cast lanyards because they were full of tat.
Disney really *DO* need to do something, anything, even to make a start on tackling scrappers. I know its a many-headed beast; but they could do something.
A fact sheet available to CMs, maybe posters I don't know, something. In the meantime the company as a whole needs to do something about the factories and processes that allow these pins to reach the open market.

C'mon Disney work with us here!

:banghead: :rant: :soapbox:
 
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