Time Share (or "vacation packages") stories

[Tskware]

Got shanghaied last week into listening to a sales pitch by one of the big time share companies, although they quickly try to tell you that they are not selling time shares, but "prepaid vacation packages." Got some freebies so it was worth 2 hours of our time.

Anyway, I cannot understand why anyone buys one of these deals, first offer they made to us was for a basic package of $60,000, plus $2400 maintenance fees per year for life. What you get is a week's vacation or maybe two (room only) at a wide choice of resorts, world wide, but of course, there are limits on availability, upgrade fees, etc. After about five minutes I knew there was no way in hell I was buying. Never mind the cost of flying to England, Cayman Island, rental car, food, etc. Not to mention, for the most part, most of these places were not high on my bucket list of things to do. For the kind of money they were talking, you could buy a hell of a lot of nice vacations in America and elsewhere, especially given that all you are getting is the room, all the rest of the vacation nut is on you.

Where is the upside of this concept?

 

[fvanhoose]

Well some salesman and a bunch of high ranking company officers at the Time Share provider all make cushy salaries. I suppose that could be considered an upside. You, on the other hand, get two hours of high pressure sales pitches (or more) and get a few freebies for enduring it.

Just tip your hat to P.T. Barnum and move on.

 

[CatDaddy4daWin]

yeah my girlfriend signed us up for one of those in Vegas. Get 2 nights free just to listen to a 2 hour salespitch. After reading up on it it just amazes that people are this gullible.

The horror stories I've read on how it's hard to find dates that you can use and all the fees, not to mention that your maintenance fees go up every single year for life.

 

[BigSexyCat]

Yeah I signed up for the free vacation/time share deals before. I would never do it again. A two night stay at a comfort inn is not worth the bore and aggravation.

 

[bradyjames]

Tell them you have 509 credit score and they will leave you alone.

 

[Tskware]

Has anybody had a good experience with them?

I couldn't believe it but the couple sitting in the table right next to us was about ready to buy, they had a bucket of champagne all ready with the glasses ready to pour. And our agent told us he had a 35% success rate, so obviously, unless he is a bald faced liar (and he was an older gentleman, a retired engineer, and really did not seem like one to me) about 1 out of every three sales pitches are successful.

 

[UK!!!]

I signed up for one in Pigeon Forge, the were offering tickets and some cash I signed up but then cancelled and made them give me my twenty dollar deposit to hold the spot back. I would have never signed up for the timeshare deal anyways but I was afraid it would've ruined my little vacation if they were to not give me what they promised.

 

[Deeeefense]

I love these things becasue I love to expose these clowns by asking all the questions they don't want to hear. We have sat through three of these, the first in Cancun where we were rewarded with 2,000 pasos (about $200 USD). They are always the same. First is the soft sell guy. He becomes your 'friend" he may even spring for lunch or drinks, he wants to know all about you family and your home town etc. Then he shows you beautiful pictures and an album full of happy faces that bought in. Now it's your turn to sign on the dotted line. After about 30 minutes worth of "no" he leaves the room and in comes the hard sell guy. He tells you that you must be crazy for turning down this once in a lifetime deal, and that if we left without signing "you will regret it". He is argumentative and overbearing. His goal is to shame you in to buying. After you tell him to buzz off you get the prize. I will say one thing, every single one of these has made good on the offer they made up front.

BTW if you really want to buy a time share go on line there are tons of them for sale at deeply discounted prices from people that want to get out from under the fees.

 

[Tskware]

Originally posted by Deeeefense:
I love these things becasue I love to expose these clowns by asking all the questions they don't want to hear. We have sat through three of these, the first in Cancun where we were rewarded with 2,000 pasos (about $200 USD). They are always the same. First is the soft sell guy. He becomes your 'friend" he may even spring for lunch or drinks, he wants to know all about you family and your home town etc. Then he shows you beautiful pictures and an album full of happy faces that bought in. Now it's your turn to sign on the dotted line. After about 30 minutes worth of "no" he leaves the room and in comes the hard sell guy. He tells you that you must be crazy for turning down this once in a lifetime deal, and that if we left without signing "you will regret it". He is argumentative and overbearing. His goal is to shame you in to buying. After you tell him to buzz off you get the prize. I will say one thing, every single one of these has made good on the offer they made up front.

BTW if you really want to buy a time share go on line there are tons of them for sale at deeply discounted prices from people that want to get out from under the fees.

Bingo!! That is EXACTLY what went down!!

 

[UKGrad93]

We did one of these a few years ago in Cancun. The resort we were staying at had a sister resort about 30 mi. south and my wife wanted to see it. Instead of renting a cab, she decided that we could do the promaotional thing and have a free cab ride & tour (that was how it was presented).

We (me, wife, daughter) get put into a Mexican cab and off we go. The cab driver doesn't speak a word of english, so the whole ride was awkard. I kept having thoughts about that maybe we had really just been kidnapped to be held for ransome.
Get to the resort, we meet some European lady who is the sales person. She offers us breakfast from the buffet. We weren't really hungry though, since we had already eaten at our resort. We sit at a table and chit chat for a while. Everything feels really unnatural. Occasionally her boss checks in. After about an hour or more, we get a quick tour of the resort. Then we are brought into the closing room. We are handed off to the hard sell guy. The buy in starts at over $100k. WTF?

I just want out. The guy gives me a beer to try and relax me. Eventually, the price drops down to $2500. I still tell him no thanks. We eventaulally get out, collect our tickets for an excersion and get cab fare to return to our resort. The whole thing wasted at least half the damn day. It was awful.

The really scary part is that if it weren't for me, I think my wife would have bought in around the $10k mark.


The other time that I dealt with a time share was in Vegas 20 years ago. I was there for a work related class and flew my wife out with me. We were poor at the time, but it was fun. We were offered some show tix in exchange for going to the presentation. We were shown a video and then toured some nice condos. Then to the closing room. The sales guy was what you would expect. Early to mid 50s. Gold chains, too much cologne, etc... He let us out pretty quick. I was only 25 at the time and really had no money.

The show tix turned out to be for a really good show. Only wasted a couple of hours. The real highlight was watching the other people that came in for the presentation. I still remember a blonde milf that was wearing basically a see-thru outfit. Kind of thing you only see in Vegas.

 

[TankedCat]

I was close one time - We were looking at a ski resort condo and the offer was $99 and 2 hours of your time, in return you get 2 nights at the ski resort and lift tickets for a day.

OK, cheap vacation, I'll tolerate the hard sell - until I start reading the fine print and they weren't even going to put me up in the condos they were trying to sell me - I was going to stay at a Red Roof Inn.

Maybe that's the norm but if I can't even stay at unit to get a feel for it, then why would I buy it?

So I turned it down, then I go home and read online about the place they were trying to sell me ( at least the starting point, I understand the trade your time share with others deal). It was straight out of Hot Tub Time Machine - I'm sure it was the shizz in 1984 but the Ms. Pac Man video game in the lobby lets me know the last time they updated the place.

 

[Tskware]

Originally posted by TankedCat:
I was close one time - We were looking at a ski resort condo and the offer was $99 and 2 hours of your time, in return you get 2 nights at the ski resort and lift tickets for a day.

OK, cheap vacation, I'll tolerate the hard sell - until I start reading the fine print and they weren't even going to put me up in the condos they were trying to sell me - I was going to stay at a Red Roof Inn.

Maybe that's the norm but if I can't even stay at unit to get a feel for it, then why would I buy it?

So I turned it down, then I go home and read online about the place they were trying to sell me ( at least the starting point, I understand the trade your time share with others deal). It was straight out of Hot Tub Time Machine - I'm sure it was the shizz in 1984 but the Ms. Pac Man video game in the lobby lets me know the last time they updated the place.

Yep, my initial sales rep admitted that "occasionally" they had to put guests up at the Days Inn up the road, rather than the resort we were staying in.