Just had an awful but educational timeshare presentation experience
 

You guys will probably say there’s no such thing as a wonderful timeshare presentation experience. Anyway, right off the bat the sales rep lady starts lying to us about costs and benefits of ownership. Then she proceeds to throw out numbers to purposely confuse us. She refused to take no for an answer and even called her “manager” over to talk some sense into us. Her approach must work on a lot of people since her picture is on the wall as sales leader of month for four months straight. After an hour, they finally relented and gave us $150 for sitting through the presentation. It was quite an education for me but sure tired me out. Now on to Disneyland for some family fun.

The ads placed by legal firms to get you out of timeshares were enough to convince me. Never went to a sales pitch thing.

Dont know how those people sleep at night, but why bother going life is too short

Based on experience, I believe the only good education to come out of a timeshare presentation is 1 Don't fall for it and 2 never do it again. You never get that time back.

They are pretty sure they will sell you when they invest that kind of money in you.

They paid for most of cost of a week in Hawaii for my family including airfare, car, and place to stay...then gave us a significant cash voucher to attend a meeting with a salesman. We chose not to buy, but the presentation was fantastic...and tempting. It was a beautiful place and we had a great time.

We went back to Hawaii and stayed elsewhere a few years later and the resort was not nearly as nice. They had eliminated much of the landscaping, pools, and tropical restaurants/bars and added additional skyscrapers in their place (with more rooms). It was a bit run down as "owners" seemed to have grills and junk everywhere there was an inch of beach/land. Glad we passed.

The same people call me often and offer other "vacations" that sound much the same. Maybe a retiree with not much to do could take advantage of this a few times until they stopped calling.

Just had an awful but educational timeshare presentation experience
 

Did one of those a few years ago. When they wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept trying to kick me up to the next level closer, I retaliated by not trying to control my 3 bored kids who were 6, 8 and 10 at the time. When they started running laps around the office, we got our voucher.


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Why the hell you waste your life on sitting through an hour of that crap. You really need the $150 that bad?

That got all mad at me when I told them we would not be buying a timeshare because I know how to do ‘math’…

Lol. You think that's bad for 150 bucks.

Imagine the girl making 2 dollars over minimum wage to perform Brazilian waxes all day.....

I guess you haven't made 14 dollars the hard way! ����

We were staying at a timeshare deal my wife found for our Disneyland trip.

I sat through one once about 20 years back in Puerto Vallarta.

It was less than an hour and they gave us a fifth of Bacardi Rum for listening.
Easy to walk out when done...they didn't ask a question.

LOL, yes. I did the math on a time share during "presentation.". I said, so you are telling me that this one unit is worth 20 million? She snapped "we have financial planners invest in these all the time." Yeah, I laughed. I found the whole thing fascinating.

We honeymooned in Cancun. We had lots of time to burn for three weeks, so we decided sit for 45 min and get free dinner vouchers. How bad can it be, right? It was wonderful seeing the house type on the beach with hot tubs, looking at Cuba? I almost pulled the trigger thinking how great would it be when kids come along and go down there yearly or somewhere for a week with a guaranteed nice place to stay. We were young and dumb but I pulled out in the last minute. Oh boy did I see price drop fast. That's when I knew I needed to walk. My mama didn't raised no fool!

My wife and I also went to one in Cancun or Mazatlan, somewhere down there, over 25 years ago.
I told the sales people up front that they shouldn’t waste their time on me, it’s better spent on others, because there was no way in the world they could get me to sign anything.
They did try for a while. I could see they were highly trained and pretty effective. They used every psychological and salesman trick and angle in the book (identify objections and have a ready answer for all of them, good cop bad cop, peer pressure, etc).
I used very short answers, like just yes or no, or ridiculous responses (“Do you like to save money? No.” Do you go on vacations? No.)
I did also often remind them that I told them up front that I was just there for the free stuff and had zero interest, and they said that was ok.
They were more persistent than I expected, but did give up, but they definitely took their pound of flesh by becoming pretty nasty, and also making us stay until the very last agreed upon second. Actually, they tried more, in that they vaguely implied we weren’t free to leave. And I wondered if they were going to not give us what was promised, but to their credit they did.
Never again though!

Yeah, that's almost as bad as having a wife that refuses to tip in restaurants.

Back in the 1980s my wife and I sat through a sales presentation at a timeshare on Lake Conroe, just north of Houston. Some annoying, hot shot 20 year old kid had the high pressure routine down pat. The most miserable hour of my life. The bait was a "stereo sound system" that turned out to be little more than a cheap battery operated portable radio with a flimsy head set.

My brother bought a week in February at a time share in Vale, Colorado back when they were building it in the 1970s. He still has it and we use it about every year. It is one of those rare places where it seems to work out as its value keeps going up. We rarely ski at Vail any more as the lift prices are outrageous, but there are other areas close enough where we go. When we can't use it, that week gets snapped up real quick. The property is getting dated but they have done a good job of maintaining it. We figure it won't be long before he gets bought out and the place is bulldozed to build a new high end place. The real estate values there have skyrocketed.

I have a family member who spent over $500k over 20 years plus $8000 a year in annual dues to achieve platinum status with these bastards. It’s all sunk costs now that he has passed away. It can’t be sold. They are scum of the earth in my view. They prey on people hungry for status and those who are susceptible to “used car sales” pitches. If I ever met the leadership I would spit in their faces

lol

The history of "timeshares" is really fascinating and a relatively recent business - early 1970's is when the ball really got moving. One of my finance courses in college had a two class focus on the business side and it was awe inspiring just how silly the concept is unless you really work at it.

But, there are plenty of people who plunked down a bunch of money...

A guy I played HS football with started selling timeshares in the late '70's and just retired a few years ago...to his house on the beach in Newport Beach.

The last time I was in California I met Ted and a few other friends for dinner. Ted said that he would be retiring soon because the internet really "hurt" the business (people could read negative timeshare website reviews); that and AirBNB like groups have really made the timeshare industry difficult.

Timeshares, insurance as an investment, High fee/cost mutual funds...........


Part of me is a bit curious and can see the sport in arguing with sales pitch, but would never go on principle. Is getting free chit from a low class near criminal enterprise that compelling? Rather pay my own way and not share the same air with these fols

Wait..wut? We're still talking about timeshares, right?

Many. many years ago, my parents dragged us to a timeshare presentation. My sister and I had a fun time playing Space Invaders in their gaming area. (Yeah, it was many years ago!)

My dad would never throw money into such a foolish scam, but he went because they promised a projection TV if they sat through the presentation. And we did get that projection TV. It turned out this projection TV was just a flimsy plastic dome you would place on your own tube TV that needed to be pointed upward towards the ceiling. Even in my pre-teen years, I knew that was a total piece of garbage.

Live and learn...

Instead of a 30 yr deal a 5 yr deal can be a way to stay in a couple of nice places.
Like IN & OUT, know the options not on the menu.

Almost as bad as cuckold that tips no matter what. Bad service. Bad food. 18% tip.

By the way, you can buy into timeshares through the reseller market and pay pennies on the dollar. Some of those “I’ll get you out of your timeshare” ads on tv actually get their inventory from people feeling stuck and desperate. They buy them out real cheap then resell them for a mere fraction of what the builders charge. The annual maintenance fees will be the same as buying from Marriott, Wyndham, Westin, etc but cost of entry is minimal. That way you can buy then rent it out as an Airbnb and make some extra cash.

Had a buddy in SF, Ca who could sniff out any deal on the planet. Three hours of hard-sell he** and emotional psych experiments. This fish didn't bite. We got round trip airfare and two nights to Vegas a couple times. Won another free night at a casino while we were there but they tried to jerk him around. Rented a car and saw everything just about free in the area. Donkey rides at the petting zoo. Red Rock bars. Watching precise landings at the base. etc. The desert is beautiful at certain times. Those were low cost vacations.

Going into it, the numbers did not add up. Successful sales are ballpark 10%closed but that might be more or less for those presentations. Only a few people signed paperwork and were probably plants. Huge overhead for that advertising model. Someone has to pay for it...i.e...existing owners of the pyramid scheme. I felt sorry for the staff, pulling out pictures of kids. "How much do you have in your wallet to put down right now". etc. Independent contractors.

The sales pitch for the cattle-car perspectives is based on someone taking monthly vacations with full family and staying in $400/night hotels. The availability for using this purchase was entirely at the company discretion which could be any 1-bed condo squatter joint anywhere in the third world. A definite maybe. I'd rather take my chances swimming with real sharks in chummed waters.

How long ago was this? Good chance that guy was my wife's cousin.

That was about 1982.

Probably not him, he would have been too young.

If it were him, you probably would have bought. That guy could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo

Once (Marriott)…salesman was my best buddy until I said “no” then he immediately got up and led my wife and me down the hall to the elevator in silence. Off to get the next sucker. I’m sure they’re trained that if the guy says no, don’t waste any more time on him. What a way to make a living!

^^^ It's a numbers game to them.

_

I am 100% in agreement that timeshares suck. Don’t want one. And, have even refused a “free” one from family.

But, I have an uncle who is an actuary. Smart guy who does know numbers. He has at least two. And he believes that his timeshare is a good thing. And? He is a tightwad.

I didn’t want to suffer through hearing his explanation. So I have no idea why he believes this.

I hate resort vacations anyway, so I've never been tempted by the time share thing. I just got back from bumming around the CZ Rep. on my own and that's my kind of vacation.

Anyway, I did go to a trade show for the time share industry association - ARDA - American Resort and Development Assoc. This was when I was in software sales. The booth next to ours belonged to a company that designed software to weed out bad salespeople. The industry knows exactly what it takes to succeed and they don't want to hire anyone who will take the job. So they use that kind of software to weed out the ones who just won't cut it in that biz. I'll say this about that biz - those folks are sharp dressers. None of this company logo golf shirt and jeans BS. They were all in suits with flashy colored ties and handkerchiefs, very shiny shoes, etc.

Even if I were remotely interested in the kind of vacations time shares offered, I'd not ever deal with any business that has to offer so much stuff just to get you to listen to their sales pitch. That's all the red flag I need.

My grandparents had several weeks that they had owned since time began. They used them and claimed they were a good deal. They "traded" theirs on an exchange to go wherever they wanted. When they died, my mom took them over and used them. She recently died...and none of her kids or grandkids want them and will just give them up. Why tie yourself to anything that you have so little control over the costs of (maintenance, etc.)?

But the Marriott Timeshare folks did give us one of our best vacations ever with a week in Hawaii when we were young and poor. We could have never afforded to have gone on our own (or would have rented a convertible, dines so well, etc.). All we had to do was listen to a presentation and get a little bit of a hard sell. Best compensated half hour ever. Well worth the price.

Saturday I leave on my 3rd trip to Hawaii in 9 months, twice to Maui, Kauai up next. All 3 are Marriott/Westin Vacation Club trips, 6 days, 5 nights for a really good price. Kauai is 699, Maui was 1199 for an ocean front room both times at the Ocean Club. Fly free on Southwest and have my companion pass. Yeah, I have to sit through a presentation. I actually like the way Marriott does it, based on points, rather than a fixed week. Regardless, I say "no", take another package if they offer, and be on my way.

Yes! Great job using their system

i dont think ive ever been bored enough to listen to timeshare pitch for $150.

and i sharpen bolts for fun.

Anyone sucked into this situation is by definition "prey" in a small tank and in the company of a hungry predator and escape is a miracle. We did this once long ago on vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC (and slowly became worn down with a great sales pitch with no escape). We got back to our hotel and said "what did we just do?!" It was just after SC passed the 3 day escape clause for any sales contract. We called the SC attorney general office and they gave the time share office a call. We had to return the gift (a cheap camera and dinner coupon) and that was the end of it.

How much is the annual "maintenance" fee? only 6 or 7 hundred dollars per year? How many nights do you have it for per year? 6 nights? So that's $100. a night. There is no maintenance involved, that money goes to
the hotel every year. Your assigned week is usually during the off season and the hotel is happy to fill a room for a third of what they normally charge (better than getting nothing for an empty room). Every time share I've heard of does not include a maid to make your bed and clean the bathroom daily. The time share salesman wants you to give him 20K for this special deal but because it's your lucky day they're willing to cut that almost in half! So you're only coughing up 12K for being locked in to a certain date at a specific place once a year and save a few hundred bucks on the week (with no maid to tidy up the room). Oh, but you can change the date or hotel (for $250.)
"You are now one of our special owners!" (but actually own jack squat). The owner of the time share company throws the hotel a couple grand then splits the the rest with the salesman so the sales guy just earned 5 thousand bucks for an hour and half of fast talk. Not a bad wage but not much as his boss is making with several sales people workin it.