Shady DVC People

[bumbershoot]

He had almost no expectations when they, basically, cold-called him. I put in a request for the DVD on the website, and put his cellphone b/c I didn't want to put mine there. There was NO expectation of them to call (not by me, and especially not by him since he didn't know I gave them his phone number, LOL), so what they did was basically a cold-call. After all, when I request other info from the Disney sites, I get no calls. I do things by email because I don't enjoy phone calls (also why I put his number...I now know that it bugs him so I won't do that again, LOL).

I don't know exactly what they said to him, but he TRIED to talk about the WDW resorts because that is ALL he knew about at the time. The person didn't want to talk about the WDW places, and ONLY wanted to talk about the international places. They didn't even mention the new part, the AKV? part I read so much about here!

He knew nothing of the points structure or how it worked, all he knew is that his wife was talking about WDW, and these people were talking about all over the world, and he got excited.


I personally find it SO, so....frustrating is a better word than the one I typed first... to have people decide that my plans have no value, when to me they would. I have family right there in Orlando; the idea of having somewhere other than their houses to stay in while visiting has quite a bit of value to us. We routinely take mini-trips all over the place, and enjoy them very much. I don't need daily house, er, mousekeeping. A washer nearby is similar to the resorts, I believe. We don't need to do everything on one trip to a place, and enjoy the idea of going back and experiencing new things. (see my DL trips)

And the "perks" that are being mentioned...to me, the perk is to have a room during the time we usually travel out of state anyway. Which isn't really a perk. It's what we'd be paying for. The only actual perk I've thought of is that, should we ever feel like taking a Disney cruise, we might be recognized as DVC members and get, um, a keychain or something.

As for flexibility, I guess I don't have the same feelings about it as others. To me, DVC has MUCH more flexibility than any timeshare my mom and stepdad had, so they are already ahead on that. The first one my mom and Bob bought into...they tried almost a year in advance to get me a postgrad graduation gift for a trip to Ireland (they wanted to let me use the place, while I paid for everything else), and there was nothing. I think in the years they had it, they took one trip to the Bahamas where there was mold in the unit, my mom got sick because of it, they had no vegetarian food but salad, and they were miserable. I might mention it was their honeymoon. That's about the only trip they were actually able to take (it's a wellknown one with initials, can't remember them now, it was 12 years ago). Then they sold it and started with another place and found a place in the Adirondacks they loved, and decided to buy one on their own. So then they had the exact same place on every trip.

DVC is more flexible than that, and I like it! I wouldn't see a studio in OKW during the time we travel out of state anyway to be a bad thing, I see it as a comforting, happy thing! We stay in smaller places regularly down in Oregon, and LOVE it!

All travel is a luxury, and we know what we like, and what we're comfortable with, and since DVC does allow it, we see nothing wrong with it. But should we change our minds and decide to finance the big purchase (please note that I do hope we run into a non-shady DVC person while at Disneyland), I hope that we can keep ourselves from the us/them feeling I've gotten, for the first time since reading the DVC forums other than in jest, here today.

 

[bumbershoot]

A timeshare is not realizing it's full benefit if you don't own enough points to take advantage of those benefits. Since 160 points is needed for an II exchange, that is and should be the minimum ownership requirement. I'm one who wonders why DVC has not tried to prevent the ownership of less than minimum contracts. It doesn't really seem fair that someone who owns 25 points total should get the same benefits as someone who ones the minimum of 160 and upwards to 5000 points.

Besides that, if you are only planning to own that "tiny" contract, then maybe you are better off paying the higher rack rates for value rooms for your trips. There doesn't seem to be much point in owning if you are only going to use 4 weekdays and assume you are staying in an OKW studio in low season all the time. The real point of DVC ownership is missed in that case. The true value of none of those features. No need to blast the program when you are trying to beat the system.

I don't know about realizing true potential, that's not what we use to factor value for US.

You also have to realize that when all you get is the Dream book and the DVD, with a weird call from a rep the week before, the term "II exchange" isn't even something in your vocabulary, unless you see it here.

To us, the value of it is to have a "home" to go to for years to come. Any international travel, as known to us before and after the DVC phone call, will be done as we have both traveled in the past...close to the earth, near the people, and possibly visiting family if any is around..we enjoy that! (staying with Korean family is EXPECTED and would be an insult to not do, whereas staying with Orlando relatives would just be a pain for a long stay)

I love a Westin-stay here in the States, but it isn't going to be my choice while traveling to Ireland or Seoul or Singapore. The DVC salescall was a blip in our thoughts, but we didn't really feel it was fully explained during the call.

What benefits do you mean, when you talk of 25 point vs 5000 point owners? It seriously confuses me. I get what I pay for, the 5K owner gets what she pays for...we all get use of a pool, is that a problem to a 5K point owner? Getting to pay to eat in a restaurant at the next table? A little meet-up on a cruise, paid by points or cash? I think maybe, no I KNOW that I must be missing a list of perks and benefits, because I just don't see where the split should be.

By the way, I didn't blast the program AT ALL. Not even one tiny little bit. I adore the program. I YEARN to meet someone and have an in-person conversation while at DL. We're working as hard as we can to make something happen ASAP.

I used the word "blasted" because the points listed on those charts were SO different from the WDW resort charts. It surprised us, it even shocked us, the difference. It blasted our short-lived thoughts out of the water.

And, class thoughts aside, "luxury" thoughts aside with different definitions of luxury for each person....

Even if we bought in at 160, we'd then do a longer trip in a small space. So to use 160 for a WEEK for international travel...we just wouldn't do it. And to use 2 years of vacations to get maybe 2 weeks somewhere...well that's unattractive to us, too. 3 weeks by spending 3 years worth of points...that's also unattractive to us! What about those other years? We like our mini-breaks! (thx to Bridget Jones for that phrase)

So even if we owned the full and "proper" amount, we still would feel that the international (or even national other than WDW) would be too heavy in points-usage for us to do happily.

But I didn't "blast" the program.

 

[dianeschlicht]

What benefits do you mean, when you talk of 25 point vs 5000 point owners? It seriously confuses me. I get what I pay for, the 5K owner gets what she pays for...we all get use of a pool, is that a problem to a 5K point owner? Getting to pay to eat in a restaurant at the next table? A little meet-up on a cruise, paid by points or cash? I think maybe, no I KNOW that I must be missing a list of perks and benefits, because I just don't see where the split should be.

I was thinking more along the lines of the $100 off the AP. Seriously though, if you asked for information and put down a phone number, you should have expected a call. They don't cold call. Yours was not a cold call, because you requested the information.

 

[DVCLiz]

Bumbershoot, I think the issue here is that you are, in essence, trying to "work the system." And you're discussing it with DVC owners who didn't.

What I mean by that is that DVC is a Disney-sponsored program, and it's set up in a way that makes its use very effective for certain kinds of WDW vacations. That is, the points are designed to be most effective when used at a WDW DVC resort, and the "value" perceived by the trade options would be factored in using the Disney-approved minimum buyin numbers. So naturally, the salesman who called you (at your request - I laughed when I saw your "cold call" comment because of course you requested it) tried to show you how the points could be used in other places. That's nothing but good salesmanship. He had no way of knowing that you were thinking you would buy a small resale and stick to 50 points. He assumed you would buy the minimum Disney allows - 160. And he was telling you what you could do with those 160 points other than use them at WDW.

Buying a small resale is perfectly legal, and it works great for many, many owners on this board. But it's not fair to say, "Oh, we feel we were misled because it costs so many points to take advantage of some of the choices." DVC is a DISNEY program - it's not set up to be effective as an international timeshare program. If that's what you want, there are many others that give a far better value.

I do hope you get to buy some DVC points, because it's a great program!!!!

 

[Chuck S]

Remember that for all II trades, no matter if you own DVC or not, you have to deposit a similar week accomodation at your resort to trade out. So if you want a one week one bedroom II trade, you have to deposit a set number of points to do that, and DVC averages those points rather than let you deposit the "cheapest" season. The same would be true of almost any other timeshare.

 

[starbox]

We've had two dishonest guides assigned to us. The first guide told us, in when we initially toured, that DVC members could absolutely add the DDP to their reservations. This was not true at the time, and would not be true until a year later.

That guide did not stay with the company, and our reassigned guide was great. We bought in. Then, he left and we were reassigned again. The new guide did three things I did not like.

1. He did not return phone calls.
2. When I finally got ahold of him he said that there was no developer point option for AKV, then, when pressed, he said "Oh, yes, there is - but it was such a new offer that he had not heard of it because he'd been out sick for three days". (Developer points have been on the table since AKV was announced).
3. He flat out lied and told me there were no VB points in the system - a week later when we checked in at VB, there was a flyer in the welcome packet announcing inventory at VB.

I asked to be reassigned and we our new guide. She's really open and very good about communicating with us.

 

[Mule2007]

When I visited the DVC Kiosk - I was greeted by a very nice and knowledgeable representative. I visited the DVC sales program the next day and also visited the Marriot time share program that same day.

I bought DVC -- Marriot -- now that was the definitive hard sell!


Mule

 

[dianeschlicht]

When I visited the DVC Kiosk - I was greeted by a very nice and knowledgeable representative. I visited the DVC sales program the next day and also visited the Marriot time share program that same day.

I bought DVC -- Marriot -- now that was the definitive hard sell!


Mule

And your experience would be what I think most of us encounter. I have been to MANY timeshare presentations, and all were at least 10 times worse than anything we ever experienced at DVC. The Kiosk folks are particularily low profile, since they are just there for minimal information and to "whet the appetitie" so to speak, to get folks to see the presentation. The presentation itself doesn't need a hard sell, because it truly does sell itself.

 

[disneynutz]

We've had two dishonest guides assigned to us.
2. When I finally got ahold of him he said that there was no developer point option for AKV, then, when pressed, he said "Oh, yes, there is - but it was such a new offer that he had not heard of it because he'd been out sick for three days". (Developer points have been on the table since AKV was announced).

The AKV release was a big screwup from what I saw. The Guides were having meetings and getting email updates after sales opened. It seemed like the people making the decisions forgot to tell everyone what the plan was. The point charts were not even published to the Guides until the night before. After questioning their ineptness, it was explained to me by a Manager that some information is deliberately held back from the Guides until the official dates because some are loose lipped and will share information early.

 

[starbox]

The AKV release was a big screwup from what I saw. The Guides were having meetings and getting email updates after sales opened. It seemed like the people making the decisions forgot to tell everyone what the plan was. The point charts were not even published to the Guides until the night before. After questioning their ineptness, it was explained to me by a Manager that some information is deliberately held back from the Guides until the official dates because some are loose lipped and will share information early.

True, but this guide claimed that there were no developer points in June of this year. Then, he said that it was a brand new incentive which was why he did not know about it. I am cool with someone making a mistake or not knowing about something, but I don't really tolerate people lying to avoid taking responsibility for their mistake. He could have just said "Oh, I was wrong, that is an incentive." It was the "Oh, there is a developer point incentive and the only reason I did not tell you about it is that I was sick for three days and they just started doing developer points".

I've known about the developer point offer since pre-sales started. There's human error and simply being misinformed and there's outright dishonesty.

 

[disney junky]

3. He flat out lied and told me there were no VB points in the system - a week later when we checked in at VB, there was a flyer in the welcome packet announcing inventory at VB.

Inventory changes daily. He could have been telling the truth that day. I wanted to add on points at BW. They were available one day and gone the next. A couple weeks later, they were available again.

 

[Josh125]

My experience was very positive when we looked at SSR last year. The kiosk woman at AK was very nice and even gave us a short back lot tour on the way to the pick up bus. The salesperson was also very nice and thanked us repeadily for taking the time out of our vacation to learn more. He called a grand total of once when we returned home. After I got home I reviewed what he said and what the book said and I did not find anything wrong, he clearly stated the limitations and benefits and left it up to me to decide. I don't think DVC has to be a hard sell, in fact I can see where they sell themselves.

Having said that I would expect no less from a CM, professional all the way.

 

[tor]

He had almost no expectations when they, basically, cold-called him. I put in a request for the DVD on the website, and put his cellphone b/c I didn't want to put mine there. There was NO expectation of them to call (not by me, and especially not by him since he didn't know I gave them his phone number, LOL), so what they did was basically a cold-call. After all, when I request other info from the Disney sites, I get no calls. I do things by email because I don't enjoy phone calls (also why I put his number...I now know that it bugs him so I won't do that again, LOL).

I don't know exactly what they said to him, but he TRIED to talk about the WDW resorts because that is ALL he knew about at the time. The person didn't want to talk about the WDW places, and ONLY wanted to talk about the international places. They didn't even mention the new part, the AKV? part I read so much about here!

He knew nothing of the points structure or how it worked, all he knew is that his wife was talking about WDW, and these people were talking about all over the world, and he got excited.


I personally find it SO, so....frustrating is a better word than the one I typed first... to have people decide that my plans have no value, when to me they would. I have family right there in Orlando; the idea of having somewhere other than their houses to stay in while visiting has quite a bit of value to us. We routinely take mini-trips all over the place, and enjoy them very much. I don't need daily house, er, mousekeeping. A washer nearby is similar to the resorts, I believe. We don't need to do everything on one trip to a place, and enjoy the idea of going back and experiencing new things. (see my DL trips)

And the "perks" that are being mentioned...to me, the perk is to have a room during the time we usually travel out of state anyway. Which isn't really a perk. It's what we'd be paying for. The only actual perk I've thought of is that, should we ever feel like taking a Disney cruise, we might be recognized as DVC members and get, um, a keychain or something.

As for flexibility, I guess I don't have the same feelings about it as others. To me, DVC has MUCH more flexibility than any timeshare my mom and stepdad had, so they are already ahead on that. The first one my mom and Bob bought into...they tried almost a year in advance to get me a postgrad graduation gift for a trip to Ireland (they wanted to let me use the place, while I paid for everything else), and there was nothing. I think in the years they had it, they took one trip to the Bahamas where there was mold in the unit, my mom got sick because of it, they had no vegetarian food but salad, and they were miserable. I might mention it was their honeymoon. That's about the only trip they were actually able to take (it's a wellknown one with initials, can't remember them now, it was 12 years ago). Then they sold it and started with another place and found a place in the Adirondacks they loved, and decided to buy one on their own. So then they had the exact same place on every trip.

DVC is more flexible than that, and I like it! I wouldn't see a studio in OKW during the time we travel out of state anyway to be a bad thing, I see it as a comforting, happy thing! We stay in smaller places regularly down in Oregon, and LOVE it!

All travel is a luxury, and we know what we like, and what we're comfortable with, and since DVC does allow it, we see nothing wrong with it. But should we change our minds and decide to finance the big purchase (please note that I do hope we run into a non-shady DVC person while at Disneyland), I hope that we can keep ourselves from the us/them feeling I've gotten, for the first time since reading the DVC forums other than in jest, here today.

I dont understand you give them your husbands phone number even though you had no reason to believe they would call?? They didnt cold call him, You set him up

Then you expect them to try to convince you how horrible it would be to own? Instead of pointing out the benefits of ownership.

 

[rinkwide]

I always try to put my 2 cents in when I see a person talking to the DVC kiosk people with a quick "Best decision we ever made!"...

My obese brother-in-law says the same thing when walking by the funnel cake stand.

 

[Starr W.]

The AKV release was a big screwup from what I saw. The Guides were having meetings and getting email updates after sales opened. It seemed like the people making the decisions forgot to tell everyone what the plan was. The point charts were not even published to the Guides until the night before. After questioning their ineptness, it was explained to me by a Manager that some information is deliberately held back from the Guides until the official dates because some are loose lipped and will share information early.

When we did our add on for another resort, I asked about AKV and our guide came right out and told me his opinion was they really messed it up. He said his customers knew more than he did until they got the "official" pep talk until right before the sales began. Unfortunately someone up the food chain was feeding info to a good DVC customer, who posted it here, so that's how we ended up knowing more than the majority of guides did.

I said I hope they learned from their mistakes and plan CRV better, our guide just laughed.

 

[Mean Queen]

My obese brother-in-law says the same thing when walking by the funnel cake stand.

Then I'll make sure I go drop a couple grand there too!

 

[dwelty]

It looks like this was a "drive by" post intended to imply that DLR DVC reps are unethical. Notice that the original poster has only 2 posts under his/her belt, and has not commented since his/her original post. This thread is a waste of space.

 

[dianeschlicht]

It looks like this was a "drive by" post intended to imply that DLR DVC reps are unethical. Notice that the original poster has only 2 posts under his/her belt, and has not commented since his/her original post. This thread is a waste of space.

Yep, I was noticing that too. Just a troll out for a stroll.

 

[Starr W.]

Well we kind of got side tracked by the poster wanted to buy a tiny contract resale and realized you can't do anything but stay at a DVC with a 25 pt contract.

The Dream book burst her bubble.