Has anyone here seen “The Queen of Versailles”? I saw it on DVD, and several of the deleted scenes in the extras feature people being pressured into buying. The one I especially remember is a black couple, who had just had their third child, who are being hounded by two black salespeople, and when one salesman gets the cost down to about $30 a month, they realize it’s a scam and walk away.
Quoted for truth. Many of us on here are smart or at least think we are. But when you go into a time share, you are an amateur and they are the pros. Tread lightly, and make sure that you and the wife keeps your yip shut when asked direct questions.
I’m convinced that most domestic violence incidents occur after timeshare presentations. If one of you says the wrong thing, they bring in the “hammer” like in Sam Stone’s case and you are forced to “back out” “admit you lied,” or tell them to fuck off to get out of the place.
I’ve seen that, but on Netflix, so it didn’t have the extras.
Still, it was a fascinating and slightly disturbing movie to watch.
Or, “none at all” – the practitioners of this art, most likely, having none to begin with.
The zombie strawberryist has struck again!
I worked for a watersports company with a location at a timeshare resort. I was amazed at how many professionals would buy an extra week or upgrade their unit at least once every couple years. Some would insist on buying direct from the developer rather than at much lower resale prices on the secondary market because the developer’s salesman would give them a free snorkeling trip or scuba dive.
I got to know the resort’s bookkeeper and several of the sales staff. A sizable portion of each sale was paid as commission to the salesperson who made out very well. Unfortunately that meant that the resort did not have enough banked to repair after a big hurricane resulting in a “special assessment” being collected from all the timeshare owners.
Zombie thread notwithstanding, I had a timeshare sales pitch experience (years ago, when newlywed) much like the one Seven described in post #12.
On reflection, I think the mistake most people make is to remain polite. If, for God knows what reason, I found myself cornered in a timeshare sales pitch again, I’d just be a lot quicker to tell them to Fuck Right Off.
What money was refunded if you hadn’t bought anything?
My sister bought a timeshare. She’s not good with money.
How about making ridiculous requests throughout the meeting?
“I really can’t take a sales pitch seriously unless the salesman is hopping on one foot whenever we walk anywhere.”
“I don’t tend to believe numbers unless they speak them in falsetto without fail.”
“I don’t trust anyone who keeps both eyes open when talking to me.”
You know, this is kinda funny. But I have this one person on my Facebook, and they went to Disney this week. (I’m a bit jealous - would love to take my kids to Disney.) it just occurred to me. It must be a timeshare! That’s why they go (only there) every year (same time of year, for a measly two days) when they don’t seem to be doing very well financially in other respects.
They went to Disney for their honeymoon, 12 years ago. I bet they bought a timeshare!
SUCKERS!
Feeling so much better about myself now. FB Envy has subsided!
I love the SDMB.
I bet you are wrong. The majority of Timeshare purchases are the equivalent of a seven day stay. If they are staying less, they would have most likely have had to had bought a points based product. If that was the case, there would be no reason to have to go at the same time each year. Even with points, they are usually redeemable for a week. I suppose they could have purchased points for a very small studio type unit for a week and are now using them for two days in a two bedroom unit. Also Points were not very common 12 years ago. One more thing, the normal “split” week is 3 days and 4 days (totaling the 7 night stay). There are some that offer nightly but is is not as common (actual Disney Vacation Club properties do though I believe).
There is as good or better of a chance that they make this a priority and budget accordingly because it is something they enjoy greatly.
Full disclosure… I provide reporting, statistics, and analysis for this industry. I’ve been doing this for the past 25 years, so I’m well aware of what the market was like 12 years ago. It is not impossible, but they would be the very far edge of the bell curve.
And then there is the other side…
My parents bought a time share about 30 years ago. It’s in a nice, well kept resort in the mountains about 1.5 hours from where we live. Units are updated every 2-3 years and well maintained. Some, if not all, of our family has gone for our week every single year since then. It’s not unusual to have 3 generations there, we sometimes even rent an additional unit for overflow. We love the resort, we love the area, we look forward to going every year. The maintenance fee works our to less than $55 a night. Dad recently passed away, Mom is not sure she wants to make the trip anymore, so she will soon deed the unit over to me. My family and I will continue to use the property for the foreseeable future.
I have no idea what they paid for it then, or what it’s “worth” now. They never seemed to regret it for a minute spending the money - and they weren’t rich. Perhaps we’re outliers, but good time share stories do happen.
No, you are actually in the majority. I don’t have the most recent ARDA study handy, but it is usually over 75% who rate their experience Satisfactory or above. The best sales lead a resort can hope for is someone who is already an owner because they often buy an additional week.
The best analogy I can think of is Used Car Salesmen… there is a huge difference between one at Joe’s Discount Auto and BMW certified used cars. Some of the major players that you would recognize in the industry are Wyndham, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Disney, and Holiday Inn. There are several others that are also big but most people wouldn’t know the names.
The product isn’t for everyone, but for over 7 million families it fills a demand.
And for those who have great ideas on how to “get back” at the sales presenters… just don’t go in the first place. You agreed to go in return for Theme park tickets or whatever. Don’t waste their time and don’t waste theirs… and don’t expect those tickets for nothing. If you really want those free tickets so badly, sit there nicely and politely say no at the end. They didn’t barge into your living room and force you to listen… you agreed to go to their place of business in return for some incentive.
We went to a pitch in, yes, Orlando, in order to get free Aquatica tickets* and had much the same experience as many here: a smooth sales pitch (our rep was an attractive lady) and the complete refusal to let us leave. The interesting tidbit was that the woman said she came from “Persia” which is, of course, modern Iran. I didn’t call her on it, but it told me a lot about her expectations of me. :rolleyes:
They also separated us from our daughter (first and biggest mistake) and the tour around the complex was designed to confuse the mark as to where they are on the grounds, and where their kids are in relation. Fortunately, it’s FL in the early morning so it’s easy to track the fact that we pretty much made a circle during our tour, right? So, when we first asked for our daughter, the woman said Sophia was quite a ways away from us and it would take “15 or so” minutes to get her, to which I told her was bullshit, she was about 100 yards away from us, etc, please take us to our daughter - we don’t want to wait to have her brought to us.
The woman refused.
This was when my wife started freaking out. I did too, and they hustled us out of there pretty damned quick. Lots of yelling, shouting, etc. And yes, Sophia was on the other side of some wooded area in their day care.
We got our daughter and our tickets, and the experience was so NOT worth it.
But whatever you do, don’t let them separate you from your kids (if you have any.)
*Which was another disaster, but that’s a different story.
Yes, I’ve seen The Queen of Versailles (highly recommend) and the answer to the question in the OP seems to be Never Take No for an Answer. With a side of “they’re trying to scam us out of [a free breakfast or whatever it was], so they deserve whatever they get.” :eek:
Anyone who thinks that ebay is the true price is crazy. Also if you got escorted off property it means you were hostile and didn’t get your gift. Would you like to be treated like that at work? People who buy aren’t stupid. They have something missing in life. Vacations at resorts. No one will get mad at you for saying in hotels, but if you cannot afford one then don’t buy them. Car companies mark up 300% but you still buy from them. So why be mad at the companies making a profit? I will never understand this logic. You win.fyi they have police off duty at the resorts and keeping someone on a presentation is not against the law. The PD would have probably arrested you for false 911 calls. :smack:
Pssst, Orlandian…it’s been eight years since Ralph didn’t get his gift. I have a feeling he’s gotten over it.
mmm
I am speaking on behalf of my friend who lives in Orlando and has been selling timeshares over the phone for a little over 5 years.
He and his coworkers operate from what appears to be just a neighborhood home. Less than 40 employees total. Most of the employees are under 30 years of age.
With 5+ years of experience, he makes, on average between $25k-$30k a year. Excluding bonuses.
He uses a different personality at work. He has created a name (I won’t actually say it), but it’s something simple like Bryan Smith. Then he goes on with pitching timeshares as this person.
Him and his coworkers don’t sell timeshares in person. Nor does his company give out freebies.
No clue how any of them make any money doing this, but it works somehow.
Twice a zombie…a rarity indeed.
That was my experience, too - My wife and I got snagged by one of these outfits on holiday in Malta a couple of years ago. It wasn’t exactly timeshare, but it was close - rather than being stuck in one resort, they had a whole load. The prices actually seemed maybe-sort of reasonable.
But I would never, ever sign up for anything on the spur of the moment, and wanted to go away and do some proper research. I told the guy that we were interested, but wanted to think about it and did he have a phone number so we could get back to him? Then things went a little bizarre.
‘No, I can’t do that. I’m looking to get people signed up today. In my experience, people never call back.’
‘Um, we probably will?’
‘No, if you want these deals then you need to sign up today.’ (then he made a few vague mentions of a cancellation policy that was probably worthless, if it even existed)
‘Well I’m certainly not signing up today. Not a chance. Could we come back here tomorrow?’
‘No.’
‘Well there’s no point us being here then. Thanks for your time, we’ll be off now.’
‘Hold on, I’m not finished yet’.
And the guy insisted on carrying on with his pitch, in spite of us saying we were no longer interested. In the end, we had to just get up and walk away. There was supposed to be someone take us back after the presentation, but we just found our own way out.
As it happened, I did some cursory research and found a lot of complaints about the company online so would never have signed up anyway - I have to assume that’s what he was afraid of. But I found it really strange that he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of us getting back to him. 