If you were among the thousands of shoppers that descended upon the shopDisney website on Saturday morning in an attempt to obtain items from the latest “it’s a small world” release for the Minnie Mouse: The Main Attraction collection, then you probably shared in the collective frustration of website glitches, sold-out items, and in some cases, hundreds of dollars charged to your account.
Knowledge of the website’s issues on Saturday morning was widespread, with many merchandise fans taking to social media to vent about lagging or unresponsive pages, getting logged out repeatedly, or payments that refused to go through.
I was among the lucky few who couldn’t even get the website to open at 9:59 AM (EST). Instead of loading, it’d give me a blank, white screen with a tiny “Refresh” button in the middle. (In the aftermath, I did read that many others using Safari experienced similar issues, and I’d probably recommend using a different browser for the next release.)
By the time I did manage to get through and get the items I wanted into my bag, the system refused to log me in. I’d enter my username and password only for it to refresh and still not have me logged in. Guest Checkout did not work, either. Like many other shoppers that day, I eventually gave up and figured this was a divine message telling me to not spend $80 on park accessories in the middle of a pandemic.
However, some lucky guests who were able to complete checkout were then in for a not-so-lucky surprise, as many reported to be severely overcharged. One of our contributors here at WDWNT mentioned in our chat as the shopDisney issues persisted, “You know those horror stories of people having thousands taken from their cards when transactions revert back to their cart? Yeah, it just happened to me. Disney took $500. I’ve only succeeded in a $27 purchase. Been on hold for an hour…” Throughout the remainder of the weekend, we’ve had multiple others contact us with similar issues of being charged multiple times (11 times in some cases), resulting in an astronomic charge for merchandise.
If you were affected by these website crashes or glitches, you can give shopDisney Guest Services a call at (800) 328-0368 in the U.S., or otherwise click here to check in on the status of your order. The May release is set to go live on May 16, and will be themed to the Enchanted Tiki Room. With Disney Parks and Disney Stores closed throughout the nation until further notice, shopDisney is currently the only way to obtain these limited-release items.
We’d love to hear about your experiences with shopDisney’s latest limited release. Were you able to get the items you wanted, or were they sold out before you got to them just minutes into the release? Were you among those charged multiple times? What’s your strategy for the next upcoming release? Let us know in the comments below.
It wasn’t a glitch. It was resellers using bots to get around the item limit restrictions. The bots overloaded the site and caused the issues. It will happen again next month as well. Until Disney does something about resellers, real purchasers will be pushed out of the releases. Look at all the stock on eBay. I saw a screenshot online from one person who had bought 4 of each item.
This exactly. Disney really isn’t at fault here, theres just too many bots logging onto the page at one time and causing it to crash. During the march release I saw an ebay seller have 30 ears! I also saw a seller selling a lot of four ears. As you said this will continue to happen with every release. Disney could up their security but im sure the bots will be able to get through no matter what. These scalpers are the most selfish people on the planet.
When I accidentally put more than 1 in my cart (because there was a delay clicking on it) it said it was over the amount allowed. I actually thought you could get 2, not 1? What if I had 2 daughters?
I saw one person who had 7 of the pin sets.
Just because they said they had 7 sets, doesn’t mean they will actually receive 7 sets when they are shipped. Disney cancels multiples of the same item, even if placed in different orders.. The result is, a site like eBay will show sales, but won’t show all the cancellations the Seller must make when it becomes obvious a week or two later that they won’t be getting more than one.
:-)
ShopDisney is the worst website based on their backend. They can’t handle a moderate load and process payments accurately. Why in 2020 does a major corporation take a week to ship your items? I had multiple charges for items not obtained. Even after getting through to one order, I got a mystery charge of $12? What? You cannot charge people with charges not approved by the card order. That is boarder line fraud. Disney needs to beef it up since this is the only way to get Disney merchandise and in turn deliver profits to Disney.
I finally got the plush and the pins after a very frustrating hour and 15 minutes. It was ridiculous and I feel ridiculous for spending that much of my life for a Minnie collection, but I did. I had many of the troubles described in your article but have not been overcharged. They really need to figure this out. It seems to be getting worse each month, not better.
I, too, had multiple problems as you described. I was actually signed into my account and on the website several minutes before 10 am ET, but when they went live and I put the item into my bag, it made me sign in again. ( I had NOT put in credit card information.). I spent 2 very frustrating hours trying to sign in, put in my payment information, take the item out and re-add it, different kinds of check-out options, etc. I had similar problems last month, but not to the same extent (it ONLY took an hour then.). Finally, I tried calling Guest Services and the recorded message just said everyone was busy with other guests and hung up on me. Tried this over and over while still trying to get my online order to go through, and it finally did. However, after reading your article just now, I checked my credit card and am not seeing ANY charges. I hope that is only because it hasn’t shipped yet and not because I am not getting it after all. I do have my confirmation, and it says shipping may take longer, so, I will keep checking the credit card. I also sent an Email to Guest Services once the order went through (not knowing, of course, that it was everyone), detailing my odyssey and verbalizing my anger and frustration. I would suggest anyone who feels so inclined do likewise, even now. I was told by an agent that the more people “fuss” about something, the more likely it is to be addressed. Certainly, they should be able to handle website traffic of a large volume and/or have it restored quickly once people start to tell them about it, and they must know by now that special releases will generate a larger-than-usual amount of web traffic. The fact that some payments went through multiple times is extremely troubling and unacceptable.
I was on and saw them go up at 10:01EST. They all vanished and didn’t show up until about 10:04 on the site but slogging through the latency issues I finally got to the payment. The site refused to process my payment and eventually crashed completely about 10:15. I spent another 20 minutes trying to get in to numerous crashes and the inability to log in. My cart was cleared as well leading to more frustration leading to adding to the cart and “one of your items is out of stock”. Still extremely sad and disappointed in the experience after sitting prepared for an hour on the site.
I emailed guest services as my experience with the whole ordeal was horrible. I didn’t expect to get the ears but this is what Disney sent me:
In light of recent events, and with the recently announced closures of our Disney Parks and Disney Store retail locations, we had heavier than normal site traffic for Saturday’s release which caused instant sellouts for most of the items in the “Minnie Mouse – The Main Attraction” collection.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused. Your email is vital in our continued guest satisfaction efforts for shopDisney. Disney prides itself on providing quality entertainment and merchandise for all and we will continue to make every effort towards achieving that goal.
Yep! Definitely happened to me! I was at least able to log in once it all started, but upon getting to the check-out process and trying to submit the order through, it just kept giving me the shopDisney blue spinning circle, and would revert me back to the check out page like nothing went through. I eventually was able to get an order through, when on Sunday discovered my card had been charged 8 times for one purchase. So was charged $316.24! For only 1 item I wanted! Thank you shopDisney I appreciate the frustration and anxiety.
Yes it was frustrating, the page was very slow and when finally i could log to my account the plush was sold out 😭 I really want this collection and this didnt happen with the last 3 months
I was struck by this glitch repeatedly. I have over $2k in holds, over 30 charges for ears I didn’t get. And then to see people selling them for $150 online within minutes just ruined all of the magic.
I had April’s mug in my cart with a few other items. Went to check out and the mug was gone. Went searching for it and noticed that all Minnie the Main Attraction merch was mysteriously gone. As of today, the merch is still gone from the disney store website. I emailed customer support and I’m waiting to hear back. Hoping I can buy the mug today, since it’s free shipping, but not getting my hopes up.
Sad state of affairs… had the ears and pins in cart along with other items to get the free shipping. REFRESH…. get logged out. (About 4x) Finally get back in 5 items in cart. Get to process check out. “One of your items is not available ‘ or whatever it says.
Now these douches are selling the ears for over $175. (Many sellers ads look like EXACTLY the same, which leads me to wonder).
I paid extra for last month’s ears. I was fortunate enough to be in person for the Pirate ears.
I don’t know. Its just bloody sad the grab for more money people will make. Its also sad an organization as large as Disney can’t seem to curb some of this. The site malfunctions, the multi purchasers, etc. Even if they worked with Ebay to curb the price gouging.
I even took pics of my screen with the items in cart. And the spinning circle.
Its bad and sad…
I was having enormous problems getting on the site. As soon as 10 hit, I kept getting server error notifications, the page wouldn’t load, I kept getting sign-in errors. The page wouldn’t accept my login information, so I spent 15 minutes trying to get a page to load. It kept refreshing like it was first time I’d logged in. Once that got straightened out, my cart page took forever to load. Once it did load, the checkout button wouldn’t work. I only got server error and sold out notifications. I spent over an hour trying to get the page to load, accept my login, and load the checkout page only to come out empty handed. Maybe the release weekends should be set up like the boarding groups for rise of the resistance? If you get a group based on the number of collection items available, you get a chance to actually make a purchase, the server wouldn’t get overwhelmed, and the number of errors may decrease.
This happened both March and April’s release. I had multiple problems with the website as described in the article. I used both Chrome and Firefox and encountered the same problems. So it seems it’s a ShopDisney.com problem but really blame all of the scalper/flippers who jam the website with multiple accounts wanting to resell them for 5 times the original amount.
I had the same issues as everyone else. Everytime I would try & login, it would tell me that one of the items in my cart wasn’t in stock, but it wouldn’t show which one. I went from my iphone, to my husband’s laptop, which is very fast, but my husband was actually the one to get the ears and bag on his Verizon Samsung Galaxy 9+!! Disney needs to upgrade their online system! It took me 1hr 20 min to complete the transaction! Usually there’s a Magic Band as well. I honestly feel that it should be in your cart for a certain amount of minutes. It wouldn’t even let me sign in or when you tried to use their Shipping Promo, it took FOREVER!!! Disappointing!
Happened to me for the second month in a row. Got all the way to payment, I was already logged into my account. It told me my information was incorrect, but didn’t highlight which information. Finally got past that and hit submit order- it spun for 45 minutes. I finally gave up.
It is absolutely ridiculous – ordered something today- same account- no issues. Checked out and had a confirmation in less than a minute.
I was charged over $400 worth of items that wasn’t confirmed. They said it’s because they wanted to make sure the card was able to work first. They have tons of items online that are sold out but show are currently for sale. The site is a disgrace.
I knew I wasn’t the only one with issues, but to read an article about the trouble people are having means that finally Disney may do something about it. I have not been able to get my ears the past two months and was logged in and ready before 10:00 AM. I am very disappointed because I’m not interested in reselling as I have seen on ebay, Mercari, and Poshmark. I love Alice in Wonderland and have special memories with my kids on It’s a Small World. I wasn’t able to secure one pair of either. It is disheartening to see sellers listing ears for sale anywhere between $150 to $250. Quantity is often between 2 to 12 pair. This isn’t fair to Disney lovers who want and will wear the one item they purchase. It also isnt fair to Disney. Also, if the parks aren’t opening any time soon, there is an opportunity to sell more. If these are so popular, why doesn’t Disney do a preorder so everyone who really wants them can secure them and money makers who don’t care about the items will have nobody to purchase their overpriced items. Maybe the people taking advantage of the system will stop.
I have found that when it says that after you’ve put the item(s) in your cart, it is not necessarily true. You can quite often remove an item it claims is out of stock and re-add it. Obviously, each case and timing may play a role, but if you find that again, be persistent. You may get it.
Because of the bots? Can RUSS talk to them in their native language to find out what’s going on???
I was not able to get the limited release items for Minnie: March and April and the designer ears that was just released. I was logged in ready to go for all three release dates and times and they were sold out 2 minutes for March. The website crashed in April and the latest designer ears sold out quick. I find it hard to believe that people are able to add the item to the cart, and process the payment in seconds! I’m highly disappointed that they do not have “I’m not a robot” function for purchases on shopDisney. As a frequent visitor I am furious because the parks are closed I can’t go and buy them and I refused to spent triple the price when the ears appear on eBay.
I tried to get the been there mugs SEVERAL times and kept getting “queued” for over an hour.even got to the check out page (finally) and it froze on me 3x so I just gave up :/
Solution seems simple. Buy the outrageously expensive items off eBay, damage them, report the item as damaged upon arrival, get a full refund. The seller pays shipping to you, the seller pays return shipping, the seller pays for the bot, and the seller gets to keep their damaged merchandise.