Unethical Timeshare Companies' Tactics

[Joeblack]

Hey Plain Crazy:

I forgot to mention that when the timeshare salesman in Cancun saw that we were not going to buy after all the harrassing and insults, he told us we could only leave with the condition that we take a lady with us that had been stored in the kiddie room for a couple of days. After some consideration, we just bashed through the door and escaped. ;-)

 

[The4OfUs]

LOL! You guys are too funny. I forgot to mention how we FINALLY figured out a good way to avoid those streetside timeshare salesguys...we would walk along the sidewalk hand in hand, and when accosted by one of these folks asking us to come see their timeshare, we either spoke to each other in a made up language, with a questioning look on our faces, or used our limited knowledge of sign language to "speak" to each other. They backed off quickly if we pretended to ask them questions in a language they didn't understand!

 

[danicaw]

(I didnt mean for my subject line to rhyme )

Hubby and I are looking for an additional timeshare. We love our DVC and think we will continue to use it as we have been...to go to WDW! But, we are wanting to travel other places so...we are shopping around for a timeshare. Which is not something the sales people at those presentations like to hear.

We went to a Shell Vacation Club (SVC) presentation a few weeks ago and then the next week a Trendwest presentation...we have more "Free" trips to Vegas than one family could possibly need.

Anyway. SVC actually told the group that they had "invented" the points system for timeshares. Wow! What a claim. Seems odd since they have only been using points for a handful of years, but, why would they lie. They were nice and pleasant until we started to put our foot down. "No, we don't want to buy today." We finally told them that although we were gathering information on timeshares, with hopes to buy in the future, we would not buy tonight. My husband is presently between jobs, and spending that kind of money was not an option. They asked who else we would be looking at and at that point we didnt see the harm in telling them. The guy actually told us not to waste another sales persons time if we weren't going to buy and just look for information on the internet. In the end we gathered more information from the Membership information we borrowed from a work associate who joined SVC, than they shared at the presentation. They told us it costs $300 for them to put together the free trips they give away to get people in the door.
I was shaking my head by the time we escaped and got to our car. I don't respond well to the hard sell.

Our Trendwest experince was not as high pressure and they didn't get as miffed when we said no.

So, I would say although we did learn alot from Trendwest about how they are set up. Unless you are tough skinned and don't mind having people upset with you. I wouldn't go just for more information.
And to be honest we really weren't that intersted in the free trip. Its mid-week and crazy flight times.

Oh, well just thought I would share. I guess if you want to learn about a timeshare join the TUG.

 

[Geubux]

My wife and I actually like going to timeshare presentations, and some of them have been quite nice. The best deal was I think Fairfield at Williamsburg, VA. I paid $99 to them. When we went, we got 2 nights in a Sleep Inn, which had a breakfast, $30 gift certificate for dinner in one of 5 restaurants, $30 gift cert to an outlet mall( got $15 sandals and 15 cash back), coupon book(we never used), 2 adult passes to Williamsburg ($30 each) and $50 cash when we saw the presentation. My wife jokes that we needed the money so we took the kids on vacation!
The best one my wife pulled was at Virginia Beach. The lady says,"So are you going to spend your vacations in luxury or cooped up?" My dw says," I guess cooped up." End of discussion. Her second best was at Myrtle Beach. The time share is about 3 miles from the beach. Same as before, What do you think? My dw says, If i'm spending all this money, I want to be right on the beach. End of discussion. Of course, the fact that I have broad shoulders and weigh about 290 may have something to do with it, but now we only accept the really good deals and still plan on telling them no. We do, however, want to add points to our DVC.

 

[KNWVIKING]

Years ago we went thru two "Outdoor World" camp ground resort time shares.Very high pressure,continually dropping the price,bringing out a whole line of managers- each one supposedly higher up then the last- till they finally realized NO MEANS NO !! For the 2nd tour, we were camping in a local state park,came back to our site & found the invitation on our windshield. The gift offer was $75.00- this was back in the early 80's.It was a rainy day so we decided $75.00 was worth the grief. After the whole shpiel they finally our no and offered us a grill- worth about $10.00. When I said NONONO and showed them my offer of $75.00, you should have seen jaws drop & suits flying. It started to get ugly when someone at the top finally said to pay me. I know somebody got fired that day.

The last two presentations we went thru-including the MVC weren't as high pressure. The new tactic is for the salesman to spend the first 45 minutes "getting to know you" with small talk,chit-chat. He's suddenly becoming your new best friend whose feelings you couldn't possibly hurt by saying NO. It's amazing how their attitude towards us- their newest best friend- suddenly turned soar when we got up to leave.

Last new tactic: Your gift is 4 free round trip airline tickets. Catch: You have to book a specific number of rooms at a short lists of resorts at RACK rate. Take a guess what the normal price for the same stay plus the cost of airfare equals: The RACK rate you just paid. Total value of your free gift: $000000$

 

[Joeblack]

NKWVIKING: You are totally right about the "new best friend" technique and the free airline tickets. The latter, I receive 2 emails daily announcing I am the winner of 2-4 airplane tickets.

With such a tremendous arsenal of weapons to hit on a prospective owner, I amo not surprised at how many people end up coughing up a large amount of money when all they wanted was the free gift. I bet the % of people who fall for all this is outrageous.

In any case. I really hope many people read this and also visit the TUG so that they don't fall victims to these tactics.