Disappointed in David's Vacation Club Rentals

[Princess Figment]

After listening to this week's podcast discussion I was super-excited to go online and check out the new sponsor- David's Vacation Club Rentals. My husband and I are planning a trip to the World on 2/20-2/24 and this seemed like a great way to try out a DVC and support a DIS sponsor. I checked the site out, as did my husband, and he had a few questions so he clicked on the live chat icon. This is the conversation that followed:

Give me a few minutes to connect and respond to your question.

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David: Thanks for initiating a chat with me. How can I assist you?
Jonathon: My wife was looking into DVC points for an upcoming vacation - just wondering how you make money as a reseller?
Jonathon: Sorry for asking - I'm an MBA
Jonathon: Smilie
David: I don't think that is a question I am going to answer through a help chat
Jonathon: Would you talk over the phone? I'd think a "how does this work?" type of question is pretty standard. I asked my wife why we would buy through you rather than elsewhere - she said to ask you.
David: I appreciate your curiosity about my business but I will keep that information to myself. If you are interested in how my rental process works, I invite you to review my easy rental process.
Easy Rental Process
http://www.dvcrequest.com/rental_process.htm
Jonathon: OK - we'll post this conversation on the dis message board. Best of luck.
David: Thank you.

We've decided not to do business with David's Vacation Club Rentals. I wanted other DISers to know about our experience- then you can decide.

 

[rlduvall]

I really don't see what was so bad about his response? It's really not a secret how he makes his money. He charges you a certain amount per point for your reservation [which is a DVC owner's points] and pays that DVC owner a couple of dollars less per point. That's it - simple and clean.

And I am honestly not a shill for his services, but it is definitely an upfront business.

 

[Princess Figment]

Thank you for answering my question so kindly That's really all I was looking for. I think my husband may have been asking about surcharges or commission (which would be reasonable in a situation like this). We were just struck by the abruptness of the response.

 

[mazdabug]

To be honest it is none of your business how he makes money. Would be like going to a store and asking where do you buy your TV’s at wholesale so I can get one at your price. He in it to make money. I have run a retail store for years. It`s none of the customers business how I make money

 

[Mrs D]

Perhaps the question caught him off guard. Maybe he was expecting how do I go about renting, what are the risks instead of how he makes income?

I understand where you were coming from with your question. I think he may get a hard time from some people because of wording in Disney's DVC contract about profiting from your DVC ownership (I don't have exact terminology, but I know on DVC boards David's business is frequently discussed).

Here's my bottom line on it. I had some friend who were going to book a DVC 2bdrm directly through Disney when I mentioned David's DVC rental as well as doing a private rental of points. They were not up for the research and risk of a private points rental, but they felt comfortable with the guarantee offered by renting through David and got a better price than booking directly through Disney at rack rate. They were very satisfied and I would recommend his service to anyone who wants a sure thing in a points rental.

That being said I have and would continue to do private points rentals, but I am willing to do the work to minimize the risk involved.

Sorry it was not what you were expecting.

 

[doconeill]

Count me as thinking the response was fine.

It is sort of like signing in to a Dell Support Chat, getting a technician, and asking how the determine their suppliers for hard drives. The person on the other end is expecting you to ask about why you can't eject the DVD, not their business practices.

I think the business model is nothing unusual - he's going to get a percentage of the rental cost. He's a rental broker. Not sure why it is a question. And he isn't going to give up his proprietary business information to anyone in a chat.

Now, if we were talking about that guy that was offering Fastpasses for any park on any day...then we've got questions to ask...

 

[op2k]

I saw nothing wrong with his response, rather I thought the questions posed had nothing to do with needing "help".

On the flip side, I can tell you that the service David's offers is perfect for my situation, which is "not a DVC member but wanting to try it out once before I invest". Since my wife is apprehensive about me renting points off of members on the board, she feels more secure knowing that it is an actual business. That security is worth it to me to pay more per point, and if I thought his prices were too high, I just wouldn't use his service.

And speaking of pricing, I checked the price of staying at AKL via David's vs. purchasing the room straight up with my Florida Resident Discount and David's price was almost $250 less. Guess I know who I'll be using.

 

[DaParkers]

After listening to this week's podcast discussion I was super-excited to go online and check out the new sponsor- David's Vacation Club Rentals. My husband and I are planning a trip to the World on 2/20-2/24 and this seemed like a great way to try out a DVC and support a DIS sponsor. I checked the site out, as did my husband, and he had a few questions so he clicked on the live chat icon. This is the conversation that followed:

Give me a few minutes to connect and respond to your question.

Currently 1 users waiting for Live Help. [Refresh]
Would you like to continue waiting or leave an Offline Email ?

David: Thanks for initiating a chat with me. How can I assist you?
Jonathon: My wife was looking into DVC points for an upcoming vacation - just wondering how you make money as a reseller?
Jonathon: Sorry for asking - I'm an MBA
Jonathon: Smilie
David: I don't think that is a question I am going to answer through a help chat
Jonathon: Would you talk over the phone? I'd think a "how does this work?" type of question is pretty standard. I asked my wife why we would buy through you rather than elsewhere - she said to ask you.
David: I appreciate your curiosity about my business but I will keep that information to myself. If you are interested in how my rental process works, I invite you to review my easy rental process.
Easy Rental Process
http://www.dvcrequest.com/rental_process.htm
Jonathon: OK - we'll post this conversation on the dis message board. Best of luck.
David: Thank you.

We've decided not to do business with David's Vacation Club Rentals. I wanted other DISers to know about our experience- then you can decide.

 

[drakethib]

After listening to this week's podcast discussion I was super-excited to go online and check out the new sponsor- David's Vacation Club Rentals. My husband and I are planning a trip to the World on 2/20-2/24 and this seemed like a great way to try out a DVC and support a DIS sponsor. I checked the site out, as did my husband, and he had a few questions so he clicked on the live chat icon. This is the conversation that followed:

Give me a few minutes to connect and respond to your question.

Currently 1 users waiting for Live Help. [Refresh]
Would you like to continue waiting or leave an Offline Email ?

David: Thanks for initiating a chat with me. How can I assist you?
Jonathon: My wife was looking into DVC points for an upcoming vacation - just wondering how you make money as a reseller?
Jonathon: Sorry for asking - I'm an MBA
Jonathon: Smilie
David: I don't think that is a question I am going to answer through a help chat
Jonathon: Would you talk over the phone? I'd think a "how does this work?" type of question is pretty standard. I asked my wife why we would buy through you rather than elsewhere - she said to ask you.
David: I appreciate your curiosity about my business but I will keep that information to myself. If you are interested in how my rental process works, I invite you to review my easy rental process.
Easy Rental Process
http://www.dvcrequest.com/rental_process.htm
Jonathon: OK - we'll post this conversation on the dis message board. Best of luck.
David: Thank you.

We've decided not to do business with David's Vacation Club Rentals. I wanted other DISers to know about our experience- then you can decide.

David was much more polite to you then I would have been had I been in his shoes.

I have contacted him several times in the past and he has always been more then professional. I think you were way out of line.

 

[aaronmckie]

To be honest it is none of your business how he makes money. Would be like going to a store and asking where do you buy your TV’s at wholesale so I can get one at your price. He in it to make money. I have run a retail store for years. It`s none of the customers business how I make money

 

[Miss SD]

Take a look at the huge thread about renting points on the DVC boards titled something like "I trusted and now I'm sorry" and you'll understand why someone would rather go through a DIS-approved company rather than a private party.

And if an MBA can't figure out how the dude makes money on such an operation, I'd call the school for a refund.

 

[yekcoh_99]

Take a look at the huge thread about renting points on the DVC boards titled something like "I trusted and now I'm sorry" and you'll understand why someone would rather go through a DIS-approved company rather than a private party.

And if an MBA can't figure out how the dude makes money on such an operation, I'd call the school for a refund.

That's funny!!!

 

[ms*mountaineer]

And if an MBA can't figure out how the dude makes money on such an operation, I'd call the school for a refund.

I also agree that the answer was reasonable and the question was out of place.

 

[Metsoskil]

I also have no problem w/ his response.

As someone who has rented points from him in the past, I can vouch that the rental process with him is very upfront and that he is very professional. While the $13 per point is a bit more than you can find on the rent/trade boards here, the legitimacy of his business made it worthwhile for us, and allowed us to avoid a majority of the risk that one would take by renting elsewhere.

 

[GAN]

This is one of those conversations that if the same exact things were said over the phone -perhaps no one would have been offended. While the OP may not have intended to be insulting, based on the way the question is phrased it could easily be misunderstood.

 

[corky441]

To be honest it is none of your business how he makes money. Would be like going to a store and asking where do you buy your TV’s at wholesale so I can get one at your price. He in it to make money. I have run a retail store for years. It`s none of the customers business how I make money

Business 101: Buy a product for less than you sell it for = make money

Class dismissed . . .

 

[SueM in MN]

This is one of those conversations that if the same exact things were said over the phone -perhaps no one would have been offended. While the OP may not have intended to be insulting, based on the way the question is phrased it could easily be misunderstood.

I'm not sure it would be perceived any other way in person or on the phone than in writing.

That's the response I would expect from any business for that question, especially as a first question.
I can imagine getting the same kind of response if the question was asked at the checkout at Target, a local grocery store, a doctor's office - basically Amy business I can think of.
My only exposure to this company was noticing an ad at the bottom of my computer screen yesterday. My thoughts when I saw it were that I wondered if he had bought one of tne huge DVC contracts that have been on sale at times, or whether he was acting aa a broker for other DVC owners. Either way, I was curious, but would feel it was none of my business to ask. How he makes money is pretty simple - he charges more per point than he pays for it, whether he personally owns the points or rents them from others.

If I had been on David's side of the conversation and heard or saw that question, I would not have thought "serious renter wanting more information."

My thoughts would have been DVC OWNER trying to set up a business of his own or DVC OWNER who rents points on a small scale and is trying to get more information on how much he can charge.

So, I agree with the posters who thought the response to the question was appropriate ( and much less rude than it could have been).

 

[BriarRosie]

As someone in the accounting department of a manufacturing company, I thought that conversation sounded like one of our customers asking us point blank how much we're paying for our raw material cost just to see how much we're marking it up.

I find it inappropriate at best, rude at the worst. I don't think it's too difficult to see that you can rent points on the DIS averaging around $10-12 per point, and David's service is just a percentage markup for providing a service.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[Dodie]

I don't usually wade into these things, but I simply don't understand why that would be a question anyone would expect to be answered from any business and can't imagine why you are surprised when he was abrubt about it. Would you walk into a store and ask the manager how they make money doing what they're doing before you bought something from them?
Seriously?

Business 101: Buy a product for less than you sell it for = make money

Class dismissed . . .

 

[klam_chowder]

Take a look at the huge thread about renting points on the DVC boards titled something like "I trusted and now I'm sorry" and you'll understand why someone would rather go through a DIS-approved company rather than a private party.

And if an MBA can't figure out how the dude makes money on such an operation, I'd call the school for a refund.

Also didn't find anything wrong with his response.

cheers,