guide called me the most negative person he's met

[randomiam79]

I will say, however, that the sales presentations we have been to were VERY low-pressure. Maybe it was because we did a group presentation on the cruise and not at WDW where we were getting something in return for going on a tour. When we were ready to buy, we set up an appointment at the booth and did the paperwork.

We toured at Westgate Lakes on our honeymoon in 2003 and the guy was nice enough until we told him we wouldn't be buying when he proceeded to insult us and tell us how we wasted his time.

 

[Who's your Mickey?]

The Customer is always right.

Another overused, completely ridiculous slogan...

It's just like American Express and their old slogan, "Membership has its privileges..."

or, "That's how it's always been done..."

I've been a member of some very exclusive and not so exclusive clubs in my life. I've normally fount that the members who have always felt a sense of uber-entitlement and quoted idiotic slogans like the ones above usually cause the most problems, offer the fewest solutions and are normally the biggest pain in the ****.

For every time the customer is right, they are wrong at least as often, if not more often. Membership does have its privileges, but that membership also bears a responsibility with it. And things may have always been done a certain way, but that doesn't mean that the process can't be improved upon.

Stories have two sides and we are only hearing one. I am not saying the OP is a negative person, but perhaps they were having a bad day. Maybe the guide was having a bad day. The guide was most definitely out of line if he called a potential customer "negative", as it is his/her job to sell his product regardless of the disposition of his client. DVC guides have a tough job. They are asking people, who most likely have spent a fortune on the vacation they are currently on, to spend another hefty chunk of change on a DVC membership. Personally, I swallowed pretty hard when I signed all the papers on my first contract.

I guess my point is that no one on an internet forum should jump to a conclusion about how or why Disney hires or fires DVC guides based on only one side of a story.

 

[robertdangelo]

Another overused, completely ridiculous slogan...
It's just like American Express and their old slogan, "Membership has its privileges...
or, "That's how it's always been done..."
For every time the customer is right, they are wrong at least as often, if not more often.

Here's another one... "Customers make Paydays Possible!"

 

[dclfun]

Here's another one... "Customers make Paydays Possible!"

I like that one better, lol, mainly because in reality the customer is not always right. Still, a company needs to make every customer feel valued and to take their points of contention into consideration. There's usually a way to turn things around in a negative situation. Sometimes you gotta dig!

OP, glad you found a way to become a DVC member that made you comfortable, and welcome!---Kathy

 

[Micca]

One thing DVC guides would do well to remember (and should be trained for) is that the people taking these tours are already customers, they are Disney guests. At WDW almost all of the prospective DVC buyers are on their Disney vacations with families. These guests are so under the spell of the Disney magic they are taking hours away from their trip (that has already cost a small fortune) toconsider spending even more money with Disney. With these premium customers you get impatient or rude???????? Even people who decide against a DVC purchas are STILL Disney customers. They may decide to re-think DVC again at a later time or not. In any case, they are still the kinds of people who take Disney vacations, buy merchandise, go to Disney movies, etc. If the DVC sales jobs are being outsourced to non-Disney real estate agents, they need to take the Disney University course all new CMs take to get some perspective on the company.

 

[GrazingGoat1966]

We signed up in "08 with a guide who allowed us to have a think about it for a couple of days with no pressure after explaining everything and answering all of our questions. We purchased and could not have been happier with both RC and with our purchase. However when we went on our first DVC vacation and brought along an uncle of mine, he took the tour because he was genuinely interested in purchasing. Our guide had since left DVC and so he was assigned another guide. I went with him on his tour, and have never encountered a ruder disgrace of a salesman in my entire life. Needless to say my Uncle didn't buy (bit hard when you aren't even taken on "the tour" of the rooms!), and ended up buying resale. Me....I went back to the guy at AKL who my uncle signed up for the tour with and registered my disgust with him. He was truly embarrasssed when I explained that we weren't even given the courtesy of the tour and he promised to raise it with those higher up. All I know is that I am planning to add-on in the next 12 months and will only do it through resale as there is no way on this God's earth that I will allow that clown to get one red cent in commission from me.
I spent 18 years in menswear retail and the last 10 running my own small business. He was easily the worst example of a salesman I've ever encountered......and according to him, he had been with DVC for 18 years....hard to believe.

 

[Cee]

What's important is that you bought in. Welcome home!

 

[TisBit]

Basically as Disnenynutz stated, they don't want an internet, especially DISboard, educated customer. They can't lead them astray with half truths.

But also as he stated, DVC has put lots of pressure on them to sell at any cost. That is why so many have "retired" and been replaced with the new breed of timeshare, snake oil, sales people.

I agree to an extent that some guides don't want educated customers.....but that would go for any salesperson. You will not walk into a Ford dealer and not have them try to sell you something....and if they don't offer exactly what you want, they won't tell you go to Chevy, they will try to make what they have fit your needs.

DVC Guides are sales people and to hold them to another level is just wrong on our part. A lot of the Dis educated customers will come into the situation hostile and ready to find any flaw in the guide, to prove they are telling a half truth. Its the self fulfilling prophecie, if you look hard enough you will find a flaw.

Same thing at the resorts, if you read a few posts that there is a worn carpet at your resort, when you walk in the door you are going to check the carpet and very well might decide that it is worn. But, if you never saw those posts, you might not ever look closely or even conclude that it was worn to begin with.

 

[Dean]

I agree to an extent that some guides don't want educated customers.....but that would go for any salesperson. You will not walk into a Ford dealer and not have them try to sell you something....and if they don't offer exactly what you want, they won't tell you go to Chevy, they will try to make what they have fit your needs.

DVC Guides are sales people and to hold them to another level is just wrong on our part. A lot of the Dis educated customers will come into the situation hostile and ready to find any flaw in the guide, to prove they are telling a half truth. Its the self fulfilling prophecie, if you look hard enough you will find a flaw.

Same thing at the resorts, if you read a few posts that there is a worn carpet at your resort, when you walk in the door you are going to check the carpet and very well might decide that it is worn. But, if you never saw those posts, you might not ever look closely or even conclude that it was worn to begin with.

DVC is the least affected of all the timeshares when it comes to truly informed consumers. Factors that affect the likelihood of an informed consumer buying include the product itself, price, differences between resale and retail (both price and options) and the sales pressure. DVC has a great product but historically the differences between resale and retail haven't been that much. The relative resale value made it such that many informed buyers bought resale anyway for the new resort and relatively low price differences. The lack of sales pressure and no differences otherwise between resale and retail hurt them in sales. Going forward the price differences should be more, the differences between resale and retail should increase and the sales pressure should increase. And while I know that many find these issues hard to stomach emotionally, the fact is that cont strong sales are a good thing for current members, no matter what they think of the methods. Sure there will be some that don't buy because of these issues but overall, they will provide higher sales with such changes.

 

[nunzia]

In response to this: The guide and I were debating whether or not it was better to own DVC or take advantage of the discounts (40%, free dining, etc). I feel like we hadn't spent much on our vacations vs how much we'd spend on MFs.
We were also discussing concierge, housekeeping and other amenities not available with DVC. And debating whether or not using points for cruises were a good idea. And if we would still want to go to Disney every year after the kids got older, or if we'd want to go other places/get tired of Disney. And how many points we would need.

I don't think any of these have a right or wrong answer. And it's something my husband and I needed to figure out if DVC was a fit for us.

After the guide said this, I did back off and stop providing him this internal dialogue going through my head - more smiling and nodding. I also explained that the day before I left for vacation, I found out my company was soon going to be doing layoffs so talking about spending that much money put me in a bit of a panic. And then we understood each other a little bit more. And he was quite helpful in offering information and even mentioned that we could write the whole thing up and we could cancel when we got home. I thought this wasn't a good way to do business though. If I write up a contract, I want to stick to it.

We really did consider buying direct - DH was ready to sign right then. I loved the idea of splitting the contracts into 2 and the extra points they were giving as an incentive. In the end, I couldn't commit to the number of points we needed b/c if I lost my job we'd be in big trouble. When I found out I was safe the following month the incentives weren't available and the price per point direct was going up, so I started checking the DVC disboards, where I learned the resale market and the 3/21 change. And we decided to buy even more points resale than we would have been able to direct.

I can understand all this and the debate thing..really to be between your DH and yourself beyond factual questions and answers from your guide..As we have all said so many times no-one but yourself can determine if DVC is 'worth it', so I can also see your guide's frustration if he thought you were trying to get him to tell you certain things that are subjective, and then if you didn't later agree could come back and bit him in the butt in some way. Also, DVC guides always give people the option to think about it and then be able to back out if needed..in fact, they have no choice and there are laws about this....My biggest thing is, although you got more points cheaper at resale, you also have over 100 points more than originally planned and have to pay MF on those forever and ever. Also, you might regret down the road having one large contract rather than 2 smaller ones if you decide you want to downsize but still own DVC. Still..congratulations and I'm sure you'll love SSR

 

[Brian Noble]

Also, the insult and guilt angle is common enough that I must assume it is effective in some situations.

Remember back several months ago, there was person who was staying at POP, and was told "You can't afford it, but I suppose I'll show it to you anyway..."? They came here to complain, we *told* them that it was a sales technique to get them to "prove the Guide wrong", and they *still* ended up buying from that Guide after another week or two.

So, yes, it does work, at least some of the time.

 

[Dean]

Remember back several months ago, there was person who was staying at POP, and was told "You can't afford it, but I suppose I'll show it to you anyway..."? They came here to complain, we *told* them that it was a sales technique to get them to "prove the Guide wrong", and they *still* ended up buying from that Guide after another week or two.

So, yes, it does work, at least some of the time.

IMO, the shame and guilt angle is likely to be effective during the sales presentation but not after. I suspect the insult at the end of the tour or on other contacts to be a situation where there's really nothing to lose for the salesperson. They've already lost the sale because not enough buy after that to be worth even worrying about it. Ultimately I think it comes down to one upping the customer for the gratification of the sales staff. DVC likely has the least of any commercial timeshare company when it comes to this type of thing excluding Ritz and Four Seasons. I'll also say, as I have before, that it's very possible to turn up the heat on sales and still be professional, a few others do so.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

"I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling in there!"
"Your winnings, Sir."
"Oh, thank you."

It's hard to find a job these days. I really feel for people if they would love to find a more secure job, but become guides because working on commission for Disney is better than nothing. It's a hard gig and I wouldn't want to have to do it.

On the other hand, if Disney chooses to use incentives to entice vacationers to take a tour, it's hardly brain surgery to understand that a certain percentage of them are going to waste a guide's time just to get the incentive (fastpasses?, whatever they are handing out these days.) Ditto that a certain percentage are going to take a lot of time to try to figure out what the deal with DVC is, then go home, think about it, decide it's not for them, or even buy resale.

There's a lot of money involved, and if only 1% (or whatever) buy at full price immediately after the tour, well that's the nature of trying to sell a timeshare. Timeshares are, in fact, iffy purchases, not for everybody, and are almost always cheaper via resale. That's just the way it is, which makes a timeshare by definition a tough sale.

For a salesperson to assume that it's ok to treat some portion of the 99% of the people who roll through their offices rudely just because they are responding predictably to a timeshare presentation seems to me to be unprofessional. Personally, I did most of my research on the DIS, bought our first contract resale and then took minutes of a randomly assigned guide's time to buy a few small contracts direct from Disney. But IMO a guide who starts rolling his eyes at the "shock" of realizing a particular person is unlikely to buy that day is not only doing a poor CM's job of representing Disney, he hasn't even really accepted the nature of the job he signed up to do.

 

[eva]

Ah, the "Customer's always right." line. As a long time salesperson, I tend to agree. But that is once they become a customer.

 

[lmshaggard]

Ok, well I might have deserved it. Each point for DVC I came back with a counterpoint. A nice friendly debate, right? Aren't they used to that? [And not once did I ever mention resale].

Anyway - after he said that I totally was put off. DH would have bought direct that day, but no way was I going to buy from that guide.

We would have bought BLT with two 110 point contracts.

Instead, we just bought 330 SSR resale for a lower overall price. Maybe I should be glad he insulted me?

I just hope you like SSR - for us, it is my "last resort" resort, which usually means I will stay elsewhere on cash or just stay home BLT has been holding it's value - SSR has never sold out - how many years later? As long as you are happy with your home resort, it was a great idea. For me, I am VERY happy that BLT and GC are my home resorts

 

[BEASLYBOO]

So, I have to ask, Are you a very negative person? Just kidding, "Welcome" to the DVC ownership club. I also bought resale, not as a result of an overzealous salemen but rather strictly from a monitary perspective! I love OKW, favorite resort, followed by SSR (Congress Park area) but truthfully I'd stay at any of them without batting an eye!

Your salesman forgot the cardinal rule, "Never burn your bridges!", he might have ended up with a sale if he'd played along! Oh well, his loss your gain!

Enjoy planning your vacations, it's truly addictive!

 

[heathers4um]

I adore my guide and wouldnt change him for anything! He patiently answered everything, played devils advocate with me as well as himself, and even when things werent going to work out helped me come up with an alternative to keep it all rolling for me. His job and paycheck? Yes. But he was also extrememly interested in making sure I was happy, whatever it meant. We cant all be that lucky of course, but its comforting to know they are out there.

As far as SSR is concerned: DBF and I went on a last minute trip for ESPN Weekend and Flower and Garden Festival just a few weeks ago. I had made the reservations so last minute that the only thing available was SSR - and it was a split reservtion at that. The first 3 nights in a DS and the last 2 nights in a one bedroom. I was skeptical as I had also heard that it hadnt lived up to alot of others expectaions, and also SSR was the only one not sold out.

When I tell you we were more than pleasantly surprised, it doesnt even begin to cover it. Buying where you want to be is the first rule of thumb, however when you are flexible in vacationing dates as well as in a laid back way of enjoying where you are when you are there, you will be as pleasantly suprised as we were. SSR is beautiful and comfortable and we will go back - and not as a last resort.

Welcome home!! As Cee said, whats important is that you bought in!

 

[kikiq]

Instead, we just bought 330 SSR resale for a lower overall price. Maybe I should be glad he insulted me?

Will you be glad when you are not able to reserve BLT at 7 months for your vacation? I'm just saying. If you really wanted BLT and think that you are going to be able to get BLT at 7 months, are you going to be "mad" at your SSR points when you can't?

And BTW, how did you expect the guide to react to your constant comebacks as reasons for you not to buy DVC? Sounds like it was a discussion that should have been with your DH since he was ready to sign.

 

[Greysword]

...After the guide said this, I did back off and stop providing him this internal dialogue going through my head - more smiling and nodding. I also explained that the day before I left for vacation, I found out my company was soon going to be doing layoffs so talking about spending that much money put me in a bit of a panic. And then we understood each other a little bit more. And he was quite helpful in offering information and even mentioned that we could write the whole thing up and we could cancel when we got home. I thought this wasn't a good way to do business though. If I write up a contract, I want to stick to it.

...In the end, I couldn't commit to the number of points we needed b/c if I lost my job we'd be in big trouble. When I found out I was safe the following month the incentives weren't available and the price per point direct was going up, so I started checking the DVC disboards, where I learned the resale market and the 3/21 change. And we decided to buy even more points resale than we would have been able to direct.

So, let me see if I understand. The guide's comments is not the reason for not purchasing; rather, it was due to your concern over your tenuous financial situation. When you found out your situation was in good shape, you did research and made a financial decision to buy resale, instead.

Also during the tour, when you finally told the guide why you had concerns and filtered your own communications, the tension eased dramatically.

I am now a bit curious as to what the guide actually said and how the guide said it. Was it with a light laugh and said with no malice in an attempt to release the building tension or was it with furrowed eyebrows, strong irritation, and meant to cause harm. In my opinion, we are missing the tone and body language portion of the statement (and whole conversation), which makes a huge difference.

It seems to me that the guide may very well have done everything right, but his/her intent was filtered by your apprehension. I think the guides get blamed for our own shortcomings, many times.

- Chris

 

[Greysword]

...SSR has never sold out - how many years later?

Just for information's sake, SSR did sell out a few years ago:

http://dvcnews.com/index.php/resort...oga-springs-qsold-outq-incentives-ending-soon

You can buy SSR through DVC, just like BCV, VWL, BWV, and OKW but I don't think they are actively pushing the points any more:

http://dvcnews.com/index.php/dvc-program/financial/pricing-a-promotions

Also, the addition of the THV extended the SSR sales process, which would have officially shut down a lot sooner.

- Chris