If you’re among the thousands of guests that descended upon shopDisney this morning with a faint glimmer of hope at being able to obtain any of the new May the 4th releases for Star Wars Day, you probably noticed the odds were not in your favor.
Despite implementing a new virtual waiting room to ensure fair chances for all to obtain merchandise, the same issues that have been plaguing the shopDisney website and app for the past month for limited edition pin releases and the Minnie Mouse: The Main Attraction monthly collection nearly rendered the site unusable.
First, the site had its customary full-on crash the moment the items became live at 10:00 AM (ET). Then, as guests scrambled for each item, some were faced with immediate “out of stock” notices, while others had to make repeat attempts at adding them to their cart. And that’s just where the fun begins.
Completing check-out has been impossible for nearly everyone––even if you managed to add the items to your cart and proceeded to sign in or fill out your address and billing info, no payments would process in order to complete the order. Some guests have also reported being continuously stuck inside the virtual waiting room with seemingly no sign of being transferred to an item page.
We’re aware of the technical issues that you are currently experiencing and working quickly to resolve them. Our apologies for the inconvenience and thank you so much for your patience.
— shopDisney (@shopDisney) May 4, 2020
At 11:49 AM (ET), nearly two hours after the official launch, shopDisney released the following statement:
“We’re aware of the technical issues that you are currently experiencing and working quickly to resolve them. Our apologies for the inconvenience and thank you so much for your patience.”
It is unknown whether additional stock of these limited edition items will be released. Various screenshots of the same items that sold out within seconds being resold on eBay at increasingly high markups have been spotted all across social media, as automated bots have been snatching up limited release items before actual humans can get through the checkout process.
Did you brave the virtual lines on shopDisney to get your Star Wars merchandise fix this morning? Did you succeed in your mission? Let us know in the comments. And if you aren’t looking to wait in any lines, virtual or otherwise, you can shop tons of Star Wars Day deals from other retailers like LEGO, Her Universe, and more by clicking here.
Like everyone else, I was highly disappointed in the site and did not manage to get one of the Ahsoka headbands.
Their response, or rather lack of one really, is pretty disgusting.
Logged in right as the new star wars stuff went live. Actually got to the check out page for one of the limited edition items. Put in credit card info and hit submit. The page has been cycling since. I haven’t closed the page yet but obviously I’m not getting the item. Now it appears that the Emperor’s stormtroopers have somehow got the goods and are marking them up on eBay. Disney needs a new system. The Dark Side simply cannot be permitted to win. Immediate marked-up resale of limited edition items needs to stop.
I had the same problem you mentioned in the article. I had the item (the key) in my cart and after several attempts to checkout I gave up. I kept getting the error message that my request couldn’t be processed when I would try to submit my order. This is ridiculous, and I don’t want to go on Ebay and deal with money gouging.
Refreahed and the item (key) didnt.go live until 10:10, then once I get it added to.my cart on the 5th try I was on the queue for 10 min, finly clicked check out, sight locked up, and low and behold sold out it took almost 40 minutes from the time i selected the item to the time i.kicked me was almost 40 min, but on a brighter note, I can buy it on Ebay for $500.00.
Yup tried and failed miserably. Super frustrating. Was on And ready right on time and It signed me out and basically blocked me at check out. Positive point I now have my cc info memorized.
I started browsing the website at 9am (ET) looking for other summer sale items so I can have a $75 and get free shipping once the Star Wars pins and key were available. I only saw the virtual que at 9:50am when I clicked on my “wish list” and it routed me to the que. I couldn’t add the key because it marked sold out but when I went to checkout, luckily (I though) the key was there! I have been trying to check out since 10:07am (ET) and I kept getting error messages. I tried PayPal and my debit card, neither worked. I was also signed out and not able to sign in to check out. Then my cart completely erased and I was sent back to the que. I’ve tried this cycle of craziness for hours. It is now 1:07pm (ET) and I’ve been in this que for about 2 hours with no sign of being transferred to the page. Thank goodness for this post or I would’ve though it was just me losing my sanity.
Just received an email that things were still in my cart, but I still can’t log in to enter my payment information to checkout…
I’ve yet to hear of a single true Star Wars fan have any luck! It’s all greedy shop bots and resellers who want to make money. Disney only cares about money and won’t even fix their issues. I was so upset, I woke up early and had it open on three tabs. I had the items I wanted and when I go to the payment page it would not stop loading. And it took me to the waiting room and they were sold out. It’s so unfair that greedy asshats have to take away the collectibles from the true fans. I’m so disappointed in Disney. And then they tried to blame it on technical issues but that’s just an excuse. Also I heard the mugs were a limit of 10 per person (or should I say bot) so of course the asshats grabbed them
This was without a doubt the worst online launch I have ever seen.
I know more people are home now, but good god Disney clearly did not prepare for this at all.
I did. What a fool I am to assume Disney, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, would have an IT staff to prevent this kind of mess. It’s ONE thing to have it happen once and be surprised. This is a repeated failure. And nothing will change because they’re still going to sell out. But instead of my kid getting Ahsoka ears (when my wife personally drove to a Eckstein signing for the Leia ones for her) and me not getting my pin. I could do without the pin, but at this rate the kid is more important and it’s such a vast let down.
Timeline:
0700 EST Logged in
0900/0930 EST Refreshed pages looking for the queue page.
1001 EST site dropped, items started to appear on the SW page (like pics saying Key available even though the order page wasn’t up).
1007 EST I was checking out. Ears were reportedly OOS but I got my pins.
1008 EST Couldn’t log in, so check out as guest
1009 EST First failure, Paypal wouldn’t go through
1011 EST Now Credit card
1033 EST Disgustedly wrote them on Twitter to find massive groups all having the same issue
1045 EST Gave up hope
It was a S*** show I was there sign in and everything right at ten was put in a virtual queue line for nothing because by the time I could get in the key was already sold out. I manage to put the Starbucks cups in my cart for nothing because it ask me to sign in again and it wouldnt work then do it as a guest to then unable to load your payment to then say that they were out of stock it was a nightmare didnt got absolutely nothing
again this crap happened. resellers get all the win and people in the UK and not a single real purchaser from the US was able to pick up any item. so over shop disneys garbage website and app
I was on shopdisney a little before 10 AM and then it kicked me off so I opened a new browser and it took about 15 minutes for me to get to the Star Wars page and an additional 5 to get 2 of the keys in my cart. When I went to check out though, the site would not process my payment. I tried for over 2 hours until shopDisney kicked me out and emptied my cart. I’m so annoyed because for 2.5 hours I thought I might actually have a possibility of getting the items and then just poof. There are other sites that have to deal with similar situations and I don’t understand why Disney doesn’t learn from those sites on how to handle situations like this.
It was a joke. Had the items in my cart, but it wouldn’t let me log into my account OR checkout in a guest account. I tried PayPal and a credit card. It never processed. Now my cart is empty (not by me…they simply vanished) and all the items are sold out. What’s worse is that this isn’t the first time Shop Disney has dropped the ball on exclusives. Disney doesn’t seem to know or care that their online shopping site is a miserable failure.
Lmao. What a cluster…I got screwed by the Main Attraction thing the other week. Glad I didn’t really want any of this stuff that badly.
Tried all morning just to get the SW Day Key. Always got stuck at the payment screen. After nearly three hours of struggling with the site, it just utterly failed and gave up on me. Then it had the gall to suggest calling Guest Services. Epic Fail Disney.
Had all these issues. This is unacceptable. Disney has owned the Star Wars franchise for how long? Seven or eight years? How could they possibly not have worked this out by now? Why are there even Limited Release items for Star Wars anyway? Everything will sell out! And removing the limited stock would discourage the evil resellers (yup I said it; they’re evil). Disney should implement a pre-order system, and let people order what they want. I’d happily order in advance, so they can plan for how many more they need to produce, and wait to get my items. For a company as large as Disney, this is embarrassing.
I ended up ordering nothing. Sorry Disney.
I was finally able to checkout around 2:15 pm ET. I had removed the key at some point thinking that maybe that was what was hanging it up but I honestly don’t think it would have mattered. I was able to get every thing to process that was in my cart including several of the limited edition pins for my dad so we will see if they are actually able to ship it all. I would hope so since the confirmation order says I bought them.
I had the same thing happen with the last Minnie exclusive. After 2 hours of hell, it finally went through and gave me a confirmation, but my credit card wasn’t charged. Plus, there were a number of reports of multiple charges being made on orders. It was a week later that the charge finally appeared, and I started breathing again, convinced the order was correctly processed and would arrive. It did. Good luck!
I was lucky enough to get x2 Disney Keys and x2 May the 4th be with you Stormtrooper pin! Currently trying to get the $50ish pin, it’s not looking good 😬
So got in to the Site at 10:00 the key didn’t go live till 10:10 took 10 min to get one in the cart, over 10 min in queue to befor i could check out tried to check out for most 20 min, finley got kicked out of the site and when i went back in,out of stock, but on a bright side, i can get one off Ebay for $500.00
5 hours and 2 1/2 movies later I was able to pay for and complete my order. Hopefully they honor my basket and not remove the sold out items, since they were in there at 9 am central time.
I was able to add a pin and the key to my cart, but couldn’t check out 😩
I was able to put a pin and the key in my cart, but couldn’t check out.
Waited nearly 4 hours because it kept me hoping with refreshes and showing the items in my cart. Absolutely no way to sign in, and guest checkout just kept refreshing with an error. Finally, it added up to 8 of the items in my cart at one time. Couldn’t get it to edit or pay. Finally gave up. (sigh) I really had hopes, but I guess that’s just going to be impossible until the Parks reopen.
While working online for real work, I tried to order one of the Starbucks Hoth mugs but, it kept making me sign in again and again and again.
I tried checking out as a guest, like a pedestrian, but that didn’t work either. I guess I will go without because it eventually refreshed and refreshed until the mug was sold out.
I won’t be purchasing from a 3rd party.
Oh, well. I guess Disney will get my money in another way.
FYI I saw that they are taking back orders for the Starbucks mugs, with July delivery.
Yes I was one of those who got to check out three times. Putnin all my info and bame. Man was sitting there for over an hour. Sucks looked for the key and the pin. Get to the pay page and the force was not with me. So disappointed. They should do somthing. I dont know what but something.
I was at the checkout page with my items from 10:30a – 3p today and it went through at 3. They had a month to get this some what up and running to handle the at home rush.
My wife did, and everything that was stated in the article happened to her. She had to purchase at a ridiculous amount of money on eBay. Sad that fans are forced to go through this. If the park was open we would have went this morning and probably been able to get what we wanted…and gotten our discount.
I am surprised current season pass holders could not get items first. They have a certain amount to sell to them first before opening up to the public. It’s awful what you went through
If people stopped buying the items are ridiculous prices on eBay the price gougers would stop using bots to buy them. Their behavior is reinforced by people paying them 20x what the item initially sold for.
I had the Star Wars key in my bag twice. The first time, I was trying repeatedly to sign in to my account (I had been signed in beforehand, but apparently that reset somehow) and despite repeated attempts, it timed out. I quickly tried again, managed to get the key in my bag again and went to check out as a guest, and actually made it to the end of the process to complete my order. I hit “submit order” and the swirly blue circle appeared…and was there for over an hour. It never went through. I see I can get one on ebay now for 80 bucks, though! :(
I got on at 10am, was in there room at 10:07am, started check out at 10:27am, and finally got my payment to submit at 2:30pm. But the primary thing I wanted was solid out by 1015am.
I’m an annual passholder and will let you know that this has been going on way longer than 1 month. Disney would like you to think that it’s only going on for 1 months but this is actually been going on for over a year. I’m absolutely disgusted with their failure upon this
I got on the website at *exactly* 10:00, right at the second it opened up, and it crashed after about 3 seconds. After a few minutes of refreshing I got placed in the “virtual waiting room” and after waiting for 3 hours, I gave up. What a waste of time.
I was one of the few that decided to try my chances at getting one of the keys and a set of the mugs for me and my husband as well as set for my parents as a gift who are also huge fans. however we were met with issues right off of the bat I got all of the items into my shopping carts and tried to check out as one by one of the items showed that I could not purchase them. After an hour of attempting to check out me and my husband gave up and decided not to try any further.
Perhaps it would have helped if the company hadn’t furloughed half of their employees and instead allowed them to continue working. Just a thought.
As a cast member, I am glad they furloughed us. I miss making magic, and trust me if you were in my location, I would move heaven and Earth to find you what you want, but if it comes down to safety, both mine and yours, I’m glad the mouse closed the park.
I put the key in the basket, but I could not check out.
The same screen was repeated no matter how many times I tried.
I was disappointed I spent most of the morning trying to get iteam and sister picked out to go thru to finaly thru after 6pm est for all iteam to be sold out. Hopefull next time I get lucky.
It was such a mess. The first time I added stuff to my cart and despite signing in 30 times I kept only getting the option to sign in and check out and when I clicked it I was returned to the same page. Closed out and tried again, then got that every item I wanted was sold out. So frustrating that a multi-billion dollar company can NEVER handle merchandise releases.
It’s incredibly frustrating that Disney was not prepared to handle this. And even though they knew they didn’t have enough stock or a good system to handle the rush, they advertised the heck out of it anyways. Why can’t they make larger edition sizes so there isn’t such a frenzy? Or allow back-orders/pre-orders so everyone who wants it can get it? I wouldn’t mind pre-ordering or back-ordering an item, even if that meant waiting a few months to get it. Especially with movie theaters, retail locations, and the Parks being closed, turning away orders, or making people who are willing to spend money on merchandise angry and frustrated, doesn’t seem like the best business strategy…
Within 3 minutes, the Ahsoka ears headband had been sold out. I online at 6:50 am PDT and ready. I was able to get them in my cart, kicked out of account, could not check out as guest, and by then the they were sold out. Tried buying a droid, kept getting kicked out of account, after several attempts was able to check out as guest only for “payment error and please try again” message. Then stuck in queue for over an hour. After that I stopped trying. ShopDisney isn’t the only place to have SW merch. Very disappointing and frustrating experience. Especially when I know the merch was bought by flippers/scalpers who don’t even want the items.
Same sad story. One hour before the sale, eBay had 2 Ashoka Tano ears on sale. Mine were in a cart, but couldn’t check out. Tried again, and gone. Then tried for spirit jersey, with same story except this time it kept spinning after entering my payment info. Took hours to reach ShopDisney because I was worried that it went through and I would be charged. In fact, they hung up on me after I connected by phone (on the 5th try) this morning. Six hours later after 10 calls, I spoke to a helpless cast member. By then there were 39 pairs of ears on eBay going from $200-500! Sellers didn’t even have product, just a photo of the confirmation receipt! My trouble with Disney goes back three years on another May 4th, same thing happened with a limited figure! They don’t get it and would rather “sell out” creating false “demand” while real fans are left in the cold disappointed.
You should have seen the virtual waiting room on Build A Bear’s site for their 2nd release of the Baby Yoda BAB. I waited 3 hours before getting an OOS notification.
Can you imagine people at this company administering CDC tests to us before going into a Theme Park. Settle in Mouseketeers, it’s gonna be awhile
As an AP holder & D23 Gold family member… I can say today the force was definitely not with us all.. was up at 5a in anticipation for a virtual waiting room to possibly open up around 6a or 630a, but as soon as 7a hit no waiting room and it was every person for themselves..a complete free for all… the chaos started.. I was able to add the items that I wanted but it took some time with the major lag in the website.. the system wouldn’t let me sign in and so I decided to checkout as a guest.. got all my info and payment info in and just when I thought it was going well as soon as I hit submit order, little did I know that I would only come to face the infamous blue circle of limbo.. about 20mins in trying to process my order I was hit with the infamous payment and blocked IP error.. WTH.. the blue circle continues to spin and so just let it carry on.. hours stuck in limbo afraid to refresh or hit the back button.. word through the net of items being sold out snatched up by bots just made me realize that it was another EPIC DISNEY FAIL… Even though the virtual queue line for the D23 panels was somewhat of a fail also.. shop Disney could have tried to implement the use of that system which might have helped the traffic on the website… All in all I’m gonna be scarred and traumatized on may 4th from now on due to today’s DISNEY FAIL.. thanks for making us fans miserable.. smh
I was on right away and experienced lots of issues. Thankfully, the Starbucks Cups were made available later on backorder with a ship date in July. I’ll take that over eBay pricing.
Started at 9AM Central and could not get my Star Wars Starbucks mugs until 1:15PM. I know a lot of people who gave up after the third hour. Then when the system cleared up the mugs were gone.
I was able to get into the site just after 9am cdt. I had my items in the bag and when I went to check out it wouldn’t process my order. Then it took over 5 hours before I was able to get back into the site and shop and the key was then sold out. Funny part is when I was finally able to get back on before the site kicked me out The key said sold out, but then later in the day I was able to add it again but then when I went to pay is when it told me it was sold out. Not very happy!
I was going to buy something for my significant other and I was on the site at 10. It was hard getting it to my cart but I did get the item in there like three times but even though it was in my cart it kept telling me the billing information wasn’t processing even after confirming my card. I even tried paypal. After about an hour and half to two hours I gave up without getting anything.
Our family has been Disney fans for years and DVC members (Bay Lake) and Aulani both since openning.
Having waited 45 mins dad Key and Shirt in bag only to get to checkout to be told SOLD OUT.
Disney you have do better with the limited quanity GAME in the future. Its getting OLD. You are going to lose customers to this practice
Tried for hours just to have both Star Wars fans in my house very disappointed when by the time I could actually get through, the items in my cart were sold out. Shame on you Disney! You’ve always stunk at reliable technology especially with the My Disney Experience app and now this. I was on the phone on hold for one hour just to have the lady tell me she was sorry but I’d have to continually try to get through online as there was nothing she could do and I couldn’t buy over the phone. My kids ended up paying over double the price due to all the EBay jerks that bought up the pins that I could have bought at regular price.
I’m a Disney freak and a Star Wars fan who was able to get the key and pins. It was just as others mentioned but somehow I was able to get thru. Fingers crossed for the Minnie Mouse release.
I tried to get all of the mugs. Wouldn’t let me sign in, I did guest checkout, when I entered all my credit card info after PayPal wouldn’t work with the site, it would always say something went wrong, or one of the items sold out in my cart. Spent almost an hour dealing with all the loading and waiting screens and garbage. I complained to guest services about how I just wanted one of each mug and couldn’t even get that, why do you let me check out or add to my cart if it’s sold out, why is the limit 10 per person, you realize they’re all scalpers and they’re turning around and exploiting people by selling them? And they basically said “oh well, 10 per person is our normal”. The force was not with any of the fans :(
Same excuse just different items from Disney ever since no one can go to the stores or Parks to buy these by items (including the Minnie Main Attraction) if you want to pay eBay prices that’s the ONLY way your going to get anything. You would think as BIG as Disney is they would have a better system 😞
Disney Store needs a whole new IT department. This has been going on for more than a couple of years. It is incomprehensible that a company as large as Disney cannot prepare and handle online sales. The virtual waiting room has worked for other companies without a problem. Disney never seems able to not infuriate its customers. Then their customer service after the fact is horrendous. They need to better isolate true collectors (not re-sellers), prioritize its real customer base, allow and encourage entire package purchases (both monthly and the whole yearly line), maybe phase purchase times by shipping areas (any remaining open up at after those times). There are so many ways they could do this more fairly. A lottery that required the purchase of the entire line would be better.
Had everything in my cart. No problems get all my info in. Done. Go to pay everythings in. Then boom
The neverending circle ring with a “sorry we cannot process at this time”.
After that couldn’t log on to Disney account. Did guest check out after waiting in que again. Even after they sold out keys were still in my cart because of dumb thing never loading
I did get on site for May 4th. and like everyone else had problems. I think I was in the virtual q with the Millennium twirling around for about 4-5 hours. Fortunately I was in front of my computer when I was allowed into buy my stuff and I did it as fast as I could. The biggest problem was in trying to get pay and get out. I know things were spinning for a long time and then suddenly things worked and I did get what I set out to get. My items did get to my house. I figured I’d have the same problem with Main Attraction as well because I really wanted the Tiki set. I got my Minnie Tiki plush and mug even though at the beginning it said the plush was sold out and then it was back again. I again had payment issues but finally things got confirmed, which was a great relief. It is soooo sad that there are those out there on Ebay who want to scalp, the sad sad thing is there are those buyers who will actually pay those huge prices for things–I’m not one of them. Since I have purchased some things from Ebay and have had success with reasonable prices for some things. I just went into Amazon for a couple of Mickey’s monthly set that I honestly didn’t know about until I read it here today and was able to get the 2 of them — the sequin and Luner without a hitch. Shop Disney needs to learn a few things from Amazon on some things. May the Force be with us all.