i'm scared to talk to my guide

[pakdayton]

once we finally decided we want to buy DVC we've been on the fence re: resale at OKW through a non-disney realtor and SSR thru disney

finally made an offer on OKW resale ... but i havent told my guide ...she knows DH is still "crunching numbers" but when do i tell her that we've bailed?

do you think the guides have any say in ROFR? i wouldnt blame her (well ... i would) ... if she snagged ours just because we've led her on ... again
(we've actually talked to her twice since 1995 about buying and then ... ended up having baby, buying bigger house ... and backing away from DVC)

has anyone been in similar situation?
when and what do you tell them?

do they get ~pissy~ if you buy a resale?

 

[rocketriter]

do they get ~pissy~ if you buy a resale?

I've not heard of the guides acting that way. Nor have I heard any stories of Disney deliberately exercising ROFR just to pull the rug out from under a specific individual.

 

[littlestar]

I wouldn't worry about it. You know you'll be calling her if you do a small add-on through Disney at another resort, don't you?

Once you buy in, add-on itis happens and its unavoidable!

 

[Beca]

We did the same thing, and my guide couldn't have been nicer!!! He sent me some info after we closed (member guide books and such), with a note and a card that if we ever needed him....well, that was April, and here we are in August...working with him to try to get an add-on!!!

I think DVC sells so well that guides don't feel "upset" if you choose a resale. Plus, like my guide said, "I want you to be happy. Different people like different resorts for different reasons. If SSR is not what you want...that's a lot of money! Buy where you will be happy...and then come see me when you want to add on!!"

Three months later...here we are..."add-on-itis" is a VERY contagious disease.

Don't sweat it...just be honest, and you will be surprised how nice your guide will be.



Beca

 

[lurontravel]

I never told our guide anything until we passed ROFR. When I did tell him, he got more then "pissy", so much so that I was shocked. I couldn't believe that he was so downright rude to me. When we first went into tour DVC, we had never thought about resale. After going home and thinking about it, we decided that we were absolutely sure we didn't really want to buy BWV, and I asked him if there was anyway we could buy OKW, and he said absolutely not. It was completely sold out. He did say that we might be able to add on to OKW after making an initial BCV purchase of 150 points. After we thought about it for a few days, we figured that there had to be some resale people out there whom we could buy OKW from. I never called him back, he did f/u with periodic phone calls to us. I put him off once we figured out the resale thing, and had it going through ROFR, a little nervous that he might see it and exercise Disney's right to buy it out from under us. When we got the call finally that it had passed ROFR, the next time he called, I fessed up and told him that we were under contract for a resale. He said that it probably wouldn't go through, and was very negative. I told him thank you, but it just passed ROFR a day or two ago. That was when he got rude. I pretty much blocked it out, but I do remember that he gave me a major guilt trip and put us down (told us that we were getting him in trouble, and that he works on commission, and he was counting on us, and that we were causing him to not meet his sales quota for the month or quarter or something and that DVC was putting a lot of pressure on him, and it was out "fault"), including putting OKW down in general (told us it was an old resort, not near anything that we'd be interested in, etc.). We had to do what is right for us, and I knew that he'd be a bit upset, but hoped that he'd maintain the "Disney way" and smile and say "good luck" and then just write us off. As you see, he did the opposite of what I expected. I did call DVC and asked to speak to a supervisor a couple of days later to ask him to switch our guide. He asked me why, and when I told him he was immediately apologetic, and said that the guides don't work on commission, and that he was just glad that we were members now, and knew that we'd be happy with our OKW points, blah, blah, blah. All of the things you'd expect Disney to say. Our new guide called us later that day and was gracious and welcoming. I did tell her what the situation was, and why we were assigned a new guide, even though I'm sure she'd already heard. I wanted her to know my side of the story from me. I have never used my guide since then. We purchased our add-on (also OKW) and it was totally uneventful. I don't know why anyone cares about their guide once the sale is complete???

I think that you'll have a much nicer experience then I did, a true "Disney" one, or you can always avoid it altogether and tell them that you aren't ready to buy from Disney now. Yes, I am aware that that is untruthful.

Good luck, I really hope that your contract makes it through ROFR. I've been reading the dismal news for re-sale purchasers tonight, and I'll keep my fingers crossed, and am sending Pixie Dust your way!

 

[Skip Wiley]

The same thing happened to us, we were looking at SSR when we decided on a BWV resale. Our Guide (Byron) called to see if we had any questions and I was upfront with him about the BWV purchase and asked if he could influence the ROFR so we would lose the contract. He said they had no contact at all with the ROFR process and couldn't influence it if he wanted to, and that he would still be our Guide one way or another and would be happy to help us in the future with add-ons. Our contract went through and Byron has been great getting us a BWV add-on, so in our case it didn't make a difference. Good luck!

 

[KristiKelly]

We recently purchased SSR but were on the fence for awhile, I was upfront with our guide & told him that we were also looking into resales. He told me that he had bought into SSR & sold his OKW through one of the resalers out there, he told me who but I don't remember. He was very understanding, in the end though, we bought through DVC, DH wanted 50 years. Another option, don't say anything, you may not here back from the guide, I think they are very busy & not being pushy, they may not call back.

 

[Pa@okw95]

You do not have to talk to your guide-all they are salesman. Once you decide to buy through a re-sale, there is no need ever to talk to a guide.

 

[carlos1117]

Guides are on salary so I don't think they care. However, you will still get the same Guide with a re-sale. Their system will match your name with the Guide when they do the paper work for ROFR. So your stuck with her.

 

[PamOKW]

As pointed out, a guide does DVC a disservice when being anything but pleasant. As long as Disney is selling DVC, everyone is a potential future customer. Can you even begin to imagine how many "just looking" tours a guide gives?

Is it nice to let the guide know you've made a decision that doesn't include making a sale? Yes, it is. Especially if the guide has been gathering information and following up with you, you can let them know so they can concentrate their energy elsewhere. However, you are under no obligation to let them know. It's like when you buy a car. One Saturday you may spend several hours at the Toyota dealer discussing what you'd like. If on Tuesday, you decide the Honda is actually right for you and you purchase it, it's nice to go back and let the Toyota dealer know but not necessary.

You can always request a new guide. I think you may also find that as the years go by, you are reassigned to several different guides as they move on to other jobs.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

lurontravel, it sounds like we had the same guide! We didn't even do anything more than come home after the initial presentation and tell him we couldn't at the time. (We just ran into some major medical expenses after returning home.) He got really upset with my husband which I thought was uncalled for. I tried to chalk it off to a bad day. Anyhow when I was ready to buy I didn't feel comfortable enough to deal with him again. Byron is a great guide but there is only one concern...he said that he would make sure ____ would get credit for it?!? I don't know how it works but I would hope Byron gets credit for it. I just received an updated cataloge, price sheets, etc. yesterday and it had my old guilde's name on EVERYTHING!! It just made me feel weird.

 

[chrissyk]

Why not just wait until your contract passes ROFR before telling your guide that you've purchased a resale? That way, you won't have any worries in that regard.

We took a tour just to get the information booklets on DVC. We were already pretty sure that we wanted to buy resale, as we didn't want BCV as a home resort (that was what was for sale at the time). We ended up adding on through Disney at VB less than a year later. Oddly, our guide the second time around was definitely not the same as the guide who gave us the tour. I have no idea why. Both the tourguide and our VB add-on guide were really nice and polite, though.

 

[Granny]

I agree with ChrissyK....I wouldn't tell the guide until after it passes ROFR.

What if Disney exercises ROFR? And resale prices go up and you decide that SSR is really the way to go after all? There's no need to even run the risk of alienating a guide until you know your resale purchase is a sure thing.

I know that the vast majority of guides are low pressure and nice, but I've read several stories over the years on this board about the guides "turning nasty" when told that someone bought resale.

I just don't see any reason to even talk about it until it's a done deal. Then a courtesy call to let the guide know would be appropriate, IMHO.

 

[lurontravel]

When I called to let them know that I'd like a new guide, I too was told that they do not work on commissions, and find it surprising that Byron has said that ___ would get the credit. I don't blame you for not wanting ____to get the credit if you were not treated well by him/her. I wouldn't want ____to get the credit either! I wonder if they don't get some sort of bonus or perk for how many sales they complete. They must, or they wouldn't have a whole lot of motivation to try to sell it. Just some more thoughts.
BTW, we bought our first ontract in 2002 - I wonder if our original guide is still with DVC?

 

[vanstoj]

We bought on board the cruise and I thought our guide was really rude, we bought in 2002 so it could be the same guide as others of you had. In the future, I dealt with Linda Streetman who was absolutely wonderful. Our original guide must have left because Linda is now our guide and couldn't be nicer. If you r guide is Linda, you have nothing to worry about. She is honest and nice as can be.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

I know my guide is still there because we just met him in March and we still get promo material with his name all over it. Hopefullly we just caught him on an "off" day.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

sorry...double post

 

[Mike]

I really liked our guide when we toured SSR in June. We did decide to purchase an OKW resale though and I had every intention of letting him know. But I never received a follow-up call from my guide. At some point I was expecting to hear from him since during the tour I was obviously interested in DVC and we were working through different scenarios on how to use my points. Like everyone else, I wanted to wait until I passed ROFR which I just recently did. But now it has been about 6 weeks since my tour and I still have had no contact with him. Now I almost feel that calling him is not the right thing to do - almost like calling to rub it in. If I had maintained contact with him I absolutely would have let him know. But since I haven't I have decided not to call him.

 

[elgerber]

Originally posted by Skip Wiley
The same thing happened to us, we were looking at SSR when we decided on a BWV resale. Our Guide (Byron) called to see if we had any questions and I was upfront with him about the BWV purchase and asked if he could influence the ROFR so we would lose the contract. He said they had no contact at all with the ROFR process and couldn't influence it if he wanted to, and that he would still be our Guide one way or another and would be happy to help us in the future with add-ons. Our contract went through and Byron has been great getting us a BWV add-on, so in our case it didn't make a difference. Good luck!

We did the same thing, we talked to Byron then bought a BWV re-sale. When he made the follow up call, I told him the truth, and he welcomed me as a new member. He even called me back a couple of times for various other reasons. When it was time for our add-on (do you see a trend here people? LOL) he took care of it nicely for us.

Erika

 

[panfan]

I've also had a bad experience with a guide. We toured OKW in the first year , decided not to buy. A couple years later..got info on it again. Then when vacationing at Boardwalk Inn we decided to take the tour at the sales center there. We called and made the appointment. The guide who met us was a man about 40ish...don't remember his name...wish I did. The first thing he did was look us up in the computer....it had all the times we inquired about DVC and our two previous addresses listed. He was pretty much rude and said that he really didn't want to "waste his time" by giving us the tour unless we were really serious this time! DH wanted to leave at that minute but I wanted to see the samples! LOL! So we did the tour and then got even more attitude from him when we weren't ready to sign on the dotted line right that second! Well we didn't.
A couple years later....May of 2003...we finally bought at BCV. When we called again for information...a nice lady Betty is our guide and I'm sure we'll do an add on either next year or the following!!
The guide at BWV made us feel stupid at that time and left a
bad taste in our mouths! If it wasn't for our love of WDW.....
Anyway....we were just a young couple seeing what was available . If we had someone better guide us at the BWV that day we probably would have signed...I guess in the Long run it was our loss....just cause we waited even longer.