PillGrimm

In my opinion, it's not _MY_ vacation if another person set up the trip for his/her own purposes.

And going on one of these promotional things is, to me, about like being trapped, real-time, in a protracted troll. You get hooked by something and go along for the possible amusement and next thing you know, the whole thing's going down some awful road and you can't get out.

These things are an abomination -- there's no way the timeshare/resorts/realtors are losing money on them, otherwise they wouldn't do them. If you buy into one, you've just contributed to the next person's non-vacation. It's a merry-go-round of no-exit ripoffs ("resale"? Are you kidding?).

Sallie

My second husbands son also sold timeshares to poor unsuspecting folks. He made barrels of money and lived like a king, and laughed at all the smucks who bought from him. I dont' know who was worse, him or his father (now my ex)

Becky

Dear Paul of Timeshares Int'l.
Unlike my fellow-fodorites, it appears, we LOVE timeshare presentations!! Although we sometimes have small pangs of conscience for attending when we have no intention of buying, I am quickly soothed on that front by reminding myself of the thousands of dollars we have spent on the timeshares we now own (4) that we also had no intention of buying!
We also use the tour as an opportunity to check out the resort's amenities for future "trades".
If the freebies are not good enough we don't go. My favorites are: free or almost free accomodations, if not at the resort itself then at a quality hotel (I'll check first!); free fine dining; free activity tix, such as dinner cruise or snorkel boat, or shows, etc.
I will not consider those free nights given for later if it involves any jumping thru hoops with a certificate!
If salespeople become rude in their frustration we have no problem sticking up for ourselves by mentioning that their attitude is a turn off.
Now that we're more educated about the industry we would never buy retail again. But we love our timeshares, use them in every way possible, and wouldn't part with them for anything.
Anymore, "just" a hotel room will not do.
So keep on keepin' on, you earn your commission the hard way, by putting up with people who want the freebies but won't open their minds for it. Don't let them get you down. Many of your suckers are very happy with their purchase(s)!

NoneOfMyBiz...

I love time shares. Oh, I would NEVER "buy" one. But I can think of no better way to illustrate the concept of the "opportunity cost" of money to the high school students that I teach economic concepts to than to be able to show them, step-by-step, how you can go on wonderful vacations every year for the rest of your life to just about anywhere you want for far less than the money you would torch on a timeshare. For anyone who STILL thinks a timeshare is worthwhile, NEVER consider anything except a resale at a fraction of the original cost.

Duger

I have done 3 presentations while on vacation. The first was in Orlando a couple of years ago and we recieved 15,000 Marriott points from the Marriott timeshare. Very low key and lasted about 90 mins. We stayed at the Marriott on points anyways so it just put some more back in the kitty. We also went on two presentations on our recent trip to Kauai. Again we stayed on points at the Marriott and went thru their timeshare program for another 15,000 points. Very professional and low key again. We went on a second one for the half price helicopter tour. Saved a little over 150 bucks and it was a little more pressured than the Marriott folks. Still we were the first couple out of there after 90 mins. Worth it in my opinion, although I have heard horror stories about some timeshares in Mexico where they forget where they parked your car etc.

Cost Plus

For me, spending more than 1/2 second listening to anyone sell anything is painful and a major robbery of my short stay in this life. If I had a thicker skin and didn't care whether the salesperson is wasting his/her own time or I am wasting my time, then maybe I would be more accepting of paying that "price" for a freebie vacation.

But for me time is worth far more than money, and annoyance to me is worth paying a fair amount to AVOID.

Also, I dislike hucksters enough that I don't want to spend any time in their company, let alone vacation time.

But I hate being pitched to so much that I could never, ever consider it a vacation if I went on any such tour. The price is too high.

KJ

CostPlus and NoneofMyBiz are quickly restoring my faith in the good sense of posters at this site (after all the garbage dumped into those threads about kids in Vegas and bickering about psycho traveler comments lately).

Feelssogood

No, I couldn't spare 90 minutes of my vacation to listen to a timeshare presentation, because I have more enjoyable things to do. Like being held captive at an Amway convention. Or attending the Tone Deaf Karaoke finals. Or having a root canal without anesthesia.

wendy

I've done it before and would again if given the chance. I love to see the timeshares, I love the freebies. Unfortunately, the last time I was approached for it, I told the truth that I'm a student with no income and lost out on a free ticket to Cancun. *sigh* The way to get them off your back, I've noticed, is to tell them you're not signing anything without having a lawyer see it first. Works like a champ.

Peter

I figure sleazoid resort salespeople and parasites like Wendy deserve each other. I just don't want to be at that particular party.

Terri

My honest opinion, Paul, would be get a more respectable job where you don't scam people and annoy them while they are on their vacation. Just back from Puerto Vallarta and that place is full of salesmen & promoters trying to get you to a presentation. You can't walk down the street, walk into your hotel lobby, ask information about trips/tours or even EAT without being approached by these people. Even the waiters are in on it so after you order your taco here comes the sale pitch. I've never said "no gracias" more times in my life than the 5 days in Puerto Vallarta. Certainly put a damper on the trip but we did have fun anyway.

Signed,
Not a sucker

(I posted an answer earlier but it didn't show up. I'm trying again)

Paula

Paul, looks like you got your answer, over and over again. NO!

And take another look at the title of your post: ... "for a better overall experience" -- you're kidding, right?

Suzie

Just like Terri, we were bombarded in Cancun. They called our room constantly telling us that we had a free breakfast. We'd see them walking other vacationers around who looked miserable. We hid our faces at he pool when we'd see them coming. Did they think a free breakfast was a good trade off for a bunch of our time? We just said we were busy any time they called. I was amazed that the resort felt they could treat their paying customers like that. Kind of like a captive audience, maybe even trapped.

Cathy

If the gift was good - we would do it. We bought our timeshare in Cancun that way and have never regretted it a bit!!

Laurie

I agree with Kathy... depends on the gift. If it's one of those dumb certificates where you have to travel on the 3rd Tuesday of the 6 month in the leo lunar cycle and leave on Thursday to some exciting destination like Wisconsin Dells, then forget it. However, we did a presentation last week on our Kauai trip to get 50% off our helicopter ride. Well worth it, considering we were able to upgrade our helicopter ride to the waterfall landing/lunch with the money saved! These presentations always make me feel better about one thing- that we bought into one of the better companies- Disney Vacation Club. They are the only company where we were given the price FIRST then shown units etc. No pressure, no sending in the manager to "sign off" on us who really just wanted to close us. With Disney what you see is what you get, quality. When you have a good product you don't need gimicks.

Jack

Cathy and Laurie need to read "NoneOfMyBiz" post above.
Unless you're getting a resale at a fraction of the original cost, you're being sold 'the joy of ownership' idea, but really wasting a lot of dollars and freedom in the final analysis.
But, it's a free country.
Then again, Mexico's not. And your timeshare there can be pulled and rendered worthless anytime the government might choose to do so.

d

We just recently visited florida and we rented a house. Thats the best thing you can do. They are so nice and so very private. We had the double doors to walk into the pool area. Each room had sliding door out to the pool area. Time share resorts can't offer this. However we have friends who always make it a point to stop at a time share and with stand there 90 min talk to get tickets. Not all of them are free. Usually ranging from 15-25$ per. Which is better then 50 buck a pop. We attended one. Got signed up. Went for their complimentary breakfast. Our sales guy was very nice and veru determined. We told him up front. We arent interested. We're here for the tickets. He said Ma'am I still have to take you through the tour. I said ok lets go. They first offered 21,000 and remarkable(I say this laughin) came down to 9,000. What a guy!!!! We werent sold. He closed everything and let us get our tickets. You bring them to the parks and they swap it for a admission pass. You can't be influenced at all to buy. They will tell you everything to sell. It's not worth it. My sister did actually a timeshare in Kissimee about 3 yrs ago. It was opur 3rd day there and we were told we HAD to join a time share owners meeting. Who wants to waste a vac day doing that???
To sum it all up. Take a 90 min tour. Its def not going to waste your day. Get the tickets. Everyone does it for the tickets. Be upfront with the sale guy. Sometimes they will just skip the tour and let you go under 90 min.

Sue

I was suckered into suffering through one of those timeshare presentations in order to get a free weekend away in Napa. I sent in the form listing my top 3 dates (all having to be 3 weeks apart)along with $50 to cover some sort of fees/taxes. Then they said they'd let me know 5 weeks before whichever date I got.

Well, I never got any of my choice weekends but received a letter saying that none of my choices ended up being available and that I again need to choose 3 more weekends.....THEN AGAIN none were available and had to chose 3 more weekends. (of course the whole time I'm trying to keep all of these weekends open in the event that we get this free weekend).

Then just a month ago, I was called saying that my free weekend certificate "expired" and they wanted to know where to send the $50 I had sent in! Of course, I bitched and moaned to them how unethical they were, and how CONVENIENT it was that they never had availability. She just calmly and unapoligetically said that it was all written in the fine print in the certificate.

how can these people sleep at night?......and I still haven't even received my $50 back.

Sorry

Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but they can sleep at night because your $50 paid for a nice bottle of wine. Kiss that money goodbye.

Never, ever send money to someone to pay "fees" associated with a free gift.

Sorry.

Sorry

Oh, and by the way, the reason they called to find out where to send your refund is to verify your address -- that way their mailing list is more accurate for when they sell your name to the next marketing agency. Hope you didn't give them too much personal info so that they steal your identity, too.

Again, sorry.