$300 to sit thru a time-share sales pitch

[mosta]

I was visiting on an island in mexico with my girlfriend and upgraded to a new resort by listening to their timeshare pitch. they required a wife or fiancee. they want both I figure b/c they assume the normal lay out will be that the guy runs the money, the girl gets sucked in, and their #1 line is "you won't do this for your lady?!" and they rolled out various different guys/types as I resisted.

I threw out a few good objections and they weren't fazed. but here was the solid one that got me out (I don't think I could have caved, but I have a reluctance about conflict): "THERE IS ABSOLUTELY ZERO CHANCE THAT I WILL SIGN HERE, NOW. I will not make a long term real estate deal without talking to my lawyer first." That was the end, not another question. They wouldn't even "give me a couple days" to "send the contract to the states" and get a quick answer back. For whatever reason, as far as they're concerned it's now or never. They might be less rigid when they're domestic.

[crazy canuck]

I did this 3 years ago with my gf and I'd say it was worth it. As others said, the key is to look really uninterested and firm. They really tried every angle:

- Can't afford it? Easy financing available.
- Some people make money on it.
- Sympathy. Our sales guy said that he lost a lot of money in the Timor bombing.
-When the nice guy couldn't make the deal, an overconfident [censored] came over. Finally, I just told him I don't think it's worth it. They had no counter to this one. So we were the first ones out of there.

One interesting aspect was that some people made a purchase as soon as they could (like 5 minutes after a half an hour movie).

Yes, there are a lot of stupid people (and leads to them aka sucker lists) but I still found this weird. After researching I found out that these people were likely to be insiders. It turns out that it's an established practice in high pressure sales. People will be more likely to make a purchase if they see someone else doing it.

I'm curious also how they got our contact info. At the time we just moved to a new city. I have no idea how they found out that we have the required household income.

[Hopey]

When my wife and I were in Hawaii for our honeymoon earlier this year, we almost ended up attending a time-share presentation without even realizing that we were signing up for one. The circumstances surrounding this still bother me a little.

We had just spent most of the day hiking in the heat, and were just looking to get back to our room, shower, and have a nap before going out for dinner. On our way through the lobby of our hotel, we got stopped by a young girl who asked us if we had "received our free gift yet". We told her that we hadn't, and she immediately lead us to the reception desk. Everything seemed legit at this point.

A guy dressed in the same uniform as the rest of the hotel staff then "welcomed" us to Hawaii, asked us how we liked the hotel, asked us if we were on our honeymoon, where we were from, yadda yadda. He then told us that we were entitled to a choice of three free gifts from the hotel.

He started bringing out coupons for restaurants, boat tours, etc... and asked us which ones we wanted. Again, everything still seemed legit. As a bonus, one of the "free gifts" was a luau that we had planned on attending the next day.

My wife picked out the "gifts" that she wanted. That's when the sales pitch started. Well, it turns out that to get the "free gifts", we had to have breakfast at the hotel next door. He asked us which day we'd like to have breakfast. At this point the alarm bells started going off. My wife told him "Thursday morning" and he immediately hopped on the phone and called over to "make a reservation for us".

He got off the phone and then told us that the reason that they want us to have breakfast over there is because that hotel is new, and they want people to check it out and get "word of mouth" spreading about it.

Oh, and we'd have to attend a short 1 hour sales presentation about the hotel as well...no biggee.

I was quite pissed off at this point because we'd been standing there talking to the guy for about 15 minutes, and were tired and sweaty and had just wanted to get back to our room -- but had somehow gotten sucked into a sales pitch for a time share.

I asked him if he was selling time shares, and after a bunch of hmmming and hawing from him, he finally admitted it. He started bringing out pamphlets to show us how affordable a timeshare is, and started offering us free trips to other properties that the time-share company owned (of course, we'd have to attend a timeshare presentation at those places too).

I finally told the guy that we weren't interested, and I grabbed my wife and stormed off.

The thing that really pissed me off is that we were staying at a very nice hotel, and were paying a small fortune to do so. I expect to be accosted by these guys on the street, or by telemarketers, but not at the kind of hotel we were staying at. To have the hotel (or at least a salesman working for the hotel) try to trick us into attending a time-share presentation...it was just all very tacky and disappointing.

The next day the same girl tried to stop us and asked us if we had "received our free gift" as we walked by the reception desk. I told her to go to hell and kept walking.

[suzzer99]

That sucks. So they were there with full approval of the hotel? Which chain was it? Did you complain to the hotel about being accosted with a sales pitch when you were already paying good money to stay there?

[MissT74]

I've been invited to the one you're going to Howard, good luck to you. : )

SAY NO TO TIMESHARES!!!

However, if you're willing to spend the time in the presentation and break a salesperson's heart, then go for it. You not only get that $300, but you're also getting a vacation in lovely Sedona is how you need to look at it!

Have fun.

[tuq]

MissT74,

I think I see a connection here. Kingman is about as far from Sedona as Phoenix. You are averaging one post per year, and you used it on Howard. Howard is single; you could be single or at least could pretend to be single.

Why don't you meet Howard there to see if there's a spark? If not I'd like to introduce you to my friend Anacardo. I have a pic of him I could share but really I'd like to see how it goes for you two first. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[edfurlong]

Tanya Peck. That name seems familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.

Edit: Oh yeah, Pantherpoker. Never mind.

[Howard Beale]

[ QUOTE ]
I've been invited to the one you're going to Howard, good luck to you. : )

SAY NO TO TIMESHARES!!!

However, if you're willing to spend the time in the presentation and break a salesperson's heart, then go for it. You not only get that $300, but you're also getting a vacation in lovely Sedona is how you need to look at it!

Have fun.

[/ QUOTE ]


Hi, T! I see you've finally come over to the 'Dark Side' and opened a 2p2 account. Personally, I like it here better than RGP these days.

Anyway, I'm going to make a day of it and get away from both Mom and the poker room for a day. I'll drive back thru Jerome and Prescott and relax. Should be fun!

And, btw, I'm not too certain that timeshare salespeople HAVE hearts.

[Howard Beale]

[ QUOTE ]
MissT74,

I think I see a connection here. Kingman is about as far from Sedona as Phoenix. You are averaging one post per year, and you used it on Howard. Howard is single; you could be single or at least could pretend to be single.

Why don't you meet Howard there to see if there's a spark? If not I'd like to introduce you to my friend Anacardo. I have a pic of him I could share but really I'd like to see how it goes for you two first. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL! I've known T for quite a while. If she were a known regular on 2p2 her current situation would make a 500+ reply thread. But I will tell no tales. You'll have to find it for yourself! (psst: RGP)

[4_2_it]

Be polite. Listen thoughtfully. When you get 1-on-1 with the salesman, just tell him you have no interest. Tell him you are there only for the freebies.

My wife an I did this in Aruba and got a couple hundred in free stuff for an hour of time.