WE get a phone call, just about every week, in which a guy tells us that we are “eligible” for a free"vacation" in lovely Orlando, Florida. I am polite, I tell him that:
-we have no intention of ever travelling to Orlando
-we do not wish to part with $30,000 (to “purchase” one 52’nd portion ownership of a crappy, ticky-tacky condo in this dump
-we understand that there is “no obligation”-we know better!
Seriously, I once got roped into one of these scams…we got a “free” crappy breakfast, in return we were harangued for 45 minutes by a guy trying to get us to sign up to purchase a time share. I actually had to threaten him with calling the police department for him to back off! They cannot take “no” for an answer!
Just for the sake of asking, does Florida have a “buyer’s remorse” law? I wonder how many people who sign on to these things actually back out?
Haha, I’m used to work valet at the exact resort you’re talking about in downtown Orlando. Those people got suckered into a long ass, aggressive timeshare sales pitch for an entire day, so they could get a free day’s pass at a theme park. Customers would be taken down to a farther away building, and if they bought a timeshare they were transported back to where their cars were parked in a limo. If they didn’t buy it, they either had to wait for the shuttle (which apparently sometimes would take an extremely long time), or had to walk back down a long sidewalk in the summer heat of Central Florida.
My wife and I have a hobby of going to these things all the time for their free junk (some good, some not so good)
I found the perfect thing to say and they have a hard time combating it.
“Gee Mr salesman/woman, this sounds interesting. Do you allow dogs? What? Yes, I have two dogs. Yes, they are rather large. No I don’t need them for a medical reason, I just take them everywhere. Every vacation, every trip, EVERYWHERE. I guess as your place doesn’t allow dogs, this conversation is over.”
How can you hard sell over that? You can’t.
Another fun thing I’ve done is tell the first salesperson this little beauty:
“You know, I went to one of these once. It sounded like a really good deal. I ALMOST bought it but my first salesman tag teamed me with other salesman who tried to pressure me into buying. I can’t stand that kind of sales tactic and I would NEVER do business with anyone who tried to do that to me again. I hate it, hate it, hate it. Anyway, you were saying?”
Then, when you say no and they bring out the pressure salesman you can simply remind the first one how you warned him about tag team sales and now you will NEVER buy their timeshare.
I did go to one where the salesman turned into a real asshole. He started saying what a bad father I was because I was “throwing money away on hotels instead of investing in a property to leave for my daughter”. My daughter was sitting right next to me hearing this whole thing. (she of course thought the salesman was an asshole). My basic reply to him: “do you really think calling me a bad father is going to make me get out my checkbook? Man, are you an idiot”
Around here ‘they’ (you know, them guys) run an ad on TV which says something like:
Sell your Timeshare… for CASH! The commercial makes it seem like it is unusual to get actual money for selling a timeshare.
Could a timeshare actually be a liability in that you couldn’t give it away or even have to pay someone to get out of it?
(don’t know much about timeshares…)
Yes. Once you’re stuck with a timeshare, you’re also stuck paying “maintainance fees.” It’s a continuing obligation.
I went to Cancun on my honeymoon and got roped into one of these presentations. I had just come into some money a few months earlier so my wife proceeded to tell the guy we had the money to pay for it, we just didn’t have it with us. So we had to hear all the ways we could get the money down there.
Conversation when the guy got up to get his “manger”
Me: Do you want really want to get this?
Her: No
Me: Then why didn’t you just say we couldn’t afford it?
Her: I didn’t want him to think we don’t have money.
:smack:
My standard line is “That looks like a great deal but I don’t have the cash right now and my credit is wrecked.”