More declines by degree

I promised I'd start posting reader mail from MiceAge in here, but have mostly forgotten to do so. Here's a good one:

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I’ve been reading your columns on declining by degrees for a long time and I though I’d share my recent experience. This may or may not be the way things have always been done, I don’t know, but it sure felt less than magical to me:

We recently booked our second trip to WDW for September to take advantage of the free DDP. On the prior trip we stayed off property and never interacted with Disney Travel, but this time I booked directly with the website and put up the $200 deposit, with the rest to be paid from our tax rebate (doing my patriotic duty here!). About 5 days later, I received an envelope from the Travel Co. and opened it excitedly. Inside the envelope was nothing but a bill and a return envelope for payment. No brochure, no congratulations or even an obvious thank you (After my 1st read, I didn’t see a thank you at all, but when I let one of my coworkers look at it he found one buried in the middle of a paragraph at the bottom.)

Now how much could it cost to put a brochure or even park maps inside the envelope? Something to encourage the excitement instead of just a bill? Also, it seems to me that the “Thank You for booking with us” should be the biggest thing on the page and the first thing you see, not the balance due.

Anyway, it’s not a huge deal, just a little experience that was less than magical that seems to me to fit with your theme, so I thought I’d let you know.

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