# And so it continues: HGVC can't help themselves or keep their word



## dougp26364 (Oct 10, 2014)

Last year we did the owners update and, after they shot us a heck of a deal for a developer purchase (something like $20,000 for 7,000 points at one of the CA affiliates), we were told they used that offer to determine if we'd ever be a prospect. Those that turned it down would be taken off the list and never offered an update again.

Fast forward to this morning. We're at Elara and, you guessed it, they called asking us to attend a little get together in the new owners lounge on the 57th floor for breakfast and, ta-da, an update. Not a great offer of 20,000 HGVC points but still, contact trying to get us into the showroom with an incentive. 

They just can't help themselves.


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## WalnutBaron (Oct 10, 2014)

It's like asking a piranha not to eat raw meat. It's just not natural.


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## gnorth16 (Oct 10, 2014)

I'm here at Elara and they only called my room 3 times and my cell (which was only given to call us when our room was ready) 4 times, all within the first three days.  They have left me alone ever since!


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## Talent312 (Oct 11, 2014)

I use caller ID to ignore their calls, and delete any VM's.
I've been roped into 2 "updates" in my life. Quite enuff.


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## dougp26364 (Oct 11, 2014)

Talent312 said:


> I use caller ID to ignore their calls, and delete any VM's.
> I've been roped into 2 "updates" in my life. Quite enuff.



I just wish they'd keep their word when they say we're "off" their list and will never be invited back. Best I can tell by their offer of only 20,000 HGVC points, what they were really saying is they'll keep bugging me to attend but stop offering me anything significant for my time.


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## Ron98GT (Oct 11, 2014)

dougp26364 said:


> I just wish they'd keep their word when they say we're "off" their list and will never be invited back. Best I can tell by their offer of only 20,000 HGVC points, what they were really saying is they'll keep bugging me to attend but stop offering me anything significant for my time.


Are these 20K HGVC bonus points or 20K Hilton HHonor points, for attending the owner update?


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## linsj (Oct 11, 2014)

Ron98GT said:


> Are these 20K HGVC bonus points or 20K Hilton HHonor points, for attending the owner update?



Honors points.


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## Ron98GT (Oct 11, 2014)

linsj said:


> Honors points.




That makes sense, HGVC points didn't.

Since 20K points only pays for 1/3 of a nites average stay, it wouldn't be worth my time. 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Asl18940 (Oct 13, 2014)

I always tell them that either I'm about to file for bankruptcy or that we're getting divorced.  Curiously, the calls dry up after that.


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## 1Kflyerguy (Oct 14, 2014)

I have never done an "update" at a resort, as i usually have other things like relaxing on my agenda...

But did finally bite on a phone update last week.  The initial call was promoting elite membership.  I have some casual interest in Elite, so thought what heck lets see what they offer..

I currently own 5K at the Las Vegas Strip.  We chatted on the phone for a bit, and setup a meeting for the following day with a "Sales Manager".

The sales manager started by discussing all benefits of Elite, then their big offer was:

Take back my 5K deed at the Strip.

Sell me two 5k resale units at LV Hilton location for 21K each...Total of 42K

Then i would have 10K points, and could easily move up to Elite in a year or two...

Just amazing.. spend all your time promoting the benefits of Elite, and then what is touted as an "Amazing offer" doesn't even get me there...  

I was prepared for it to be really expensive, i wasn't expecting expensive, and not even achieving the stated goal..

Not to mention, why trade a 5K unit for a different 5K unit with higher MF?

No surprise, i decided against this offer


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## PigsDad (Oct 14, 2014)

1Kflyerguy said:


> Take back my 5K deed at the Strip.
> 
> Sell me two 5k resale units at LV Hilton location for 21K each...Total of 42K
> 
> Then i would have 10K points, and could easily move up to Elite in a year or two...


Amazing!  And in a year or two they would probably offer to take back your two 5K weeks and replace them with two 7K weeks for another $42K. 



> Not to mention, why trade a 5K unit for a different 5K unit?



Did you ask, or were you too stunned by their offer to form words? :rofl:

Kurt


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## 1Kflyerguy (Oct 14, 2014)

PigsDad said:


> Did you ask, or were you too stunned by their offer to form words? :rofl:
> 
> Kurt



I was stunned, but did ask for the logic behind trading my current unit, and was told the $21K was less less than what I paid for my current unit when i bought it from HGVC a few years ago, so it was a better deal.. 

And with that circular argument, i stopped asking questions and was certain nothing good would come from the conversation...


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## dougp26364 (Oct 14, 2014)

linsj said:


> Honors points.



Yes, HHonors points. Sorry about that.


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## PigsDad (Oct 14, 2014)

1Kflyerguy said:


> And with that circular argument, i stopped asking questions and was certain nothing good would come from the conversation...



Good decision! 

Kurt


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## TheWizz (Oct 20, 2014)

Wow... glad I got in when I did and now have all the points I could want/need.  I'll be curious to see if I get calls from the sales squids when I go to Elara in Feb.  :annoyed:

I have a nephew that works for Wyndham Timeshares in the back-office group and in their systems they denote folks like us (buying resale) from their retail customers and have a "Dirty Points" flag that let's them know if someone purchased resale or not.  He said they rarely do updates for "dirty owners".  All of my TS purchases have been resale via one method or another, so I guess I'm about as dirty as they get!


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## Tamaradarann (Oct 21, 2014)

*Resale Owners are Bad News for Developer Sales People*



TheWizz said:


> Wow... glad I got in when I did and now have all the points I could want/need.  I'll be curious to see if I get calls from the sales squids when I go to Elara in Feb.  :annoyed:
> 
> I have a nephew that works for Wyndham Timeshares in the back-office group and in their systems they denote folks like us (buying resale) from their retail customers and have a "Dirty Points" flag that let's them know if someone purchased resale or not.  He said they rarely do updates for "dirty owners".  All of my TS purchases have been resale via one method or another, so I guess I'm about as dirty as they get!



We have gotten the feeling from both HGVC and Wyndam that Resales Owners are bad news that developer sales people don't want to deal with.  They know that selling a timeshare to someone for 3 or 4 times more than they paid for the timeshares that people currently own is an almost impossible task.  I find that the price that the developers place on timeshares interesting.  I wonder if it is based on anything tangible or is it just someone in high management whim of what they want to get for a unit.  When the cost of real estate was bottoming in Florida and Las Vegas, two of the major areas that HGVC has timeshares, in 2010 I asked a salesperson why was Hilton raising timeshare prices when whole real estate lost half its value.  They couldn't give me an answer except that Doctors and Lawyers were buying them.


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## dougp26364 (Oct 21, 2014)

TheWizz said:


> Wow... glad I got in when I did and now have all the points I could want/need.  I'll be curious to see if I get calls from the sales squids when I go to Elara in Feb.  :annoyed:
> 
> I have a nephew that works for Wyndham Timeshares in the back-office group and in their systems they denote folks like us (buying resale) from their retail customers and have a "Dirty Points" flag that let's them know if someone purchased resale or not.  He said they rarely do updates for "dirty owners".  All of my TS purchases have been resale via one method or another, so I guess I'm about as dirty as they get!



My guess is, at the very least, you'll get a call to attend the "group" presentation for a few HHonors points. I doubt you'll get the full invitation for the full on sales presentation with a more substantial gift. To be honest, I've never found the Vegas gifting tables to be all that great and certainly not worth my vacation time.


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## Talent312 (Oct 21, 2014)

I bought resale and got called for an "update" about every 6 months.
Then I started using caller ID to avoid 'em, and changed my number.

.


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## PassionForTravel (Oct 22, 2014)

We will be going to elara shortly and I got a call from their sales guy, started off by saying that I'd owned for a long tine (wrong, resale 1 1/2 years ago) and wanted to let me know that now they were doing me a favor because I can now do an owner update at elara instead of having to go to another location, they were offering me $175 gift card. When I declined, he got a little snippy saying that I always decline and don't I want to know about the new stuff, I explained that I know more than they do and he offered to take me off the list, which I agreed to so I won't get offered the opportunity unless I initiate the call (if only, not holding my breath). 

Ian


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## mgeez (Oct 22, 2014)

I think the owners update is a super deal. We do Disney sometimes twice a year. They always call 2 - 3 weeks before we go and offer us an update. We always jump at the chance for $100 for an hour of our time. We insist on the first appointments of the day, somewhere around 8 AM. I imagine there are a lot of tuggers that make $100 per hour in their real life job......we don't make anywhere near $100 per hour. I go on a bkfst binge and eat several donuts and bagels, We leave with several banannas each and usually another 2 donuts. It is always entertaining watching the salesperson squirm when we always know more than they do. The last 2 times we were out of there in 30 minutes. We then go to the outlets and spend the $100. And usually we are ready for the parks around noon.


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## Talent312 (Oct 22, 2014)

mgeez said:


> I imagine there are a lot of tuggers that make $100 per hour in their real life job......we don't make anywhere near $100 per hour.



But ya' know how some peep make $100/hour? <snicker>
... and it's more like 1/2 a day lost... <just my 2 cents>.

More power to you.


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## mgeez (Oct 22, 2014)

... and it's more like 1/2 a day lost... <just my 2 cents>.

QUOTE said:
			
		

> 1 hr max really is not a half day. We only do the owners update when we are staying at the Parc Soleil and only if we can do the 1st appointment in the morning. Heck, most of the time we don't leave for bkfst until 9 or so. So, in our case, no vac time really wasted. There is also some "entertainment value", most of the time, when the salesperson is speaking. LOL


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## brp (Oct 23, 2014)

mgeez said:


> > ... and it's more like 1/2 a day lost... <just my 2 cents>.
> 
> 
> 1 hr max really is not a half day. We only do the owners update when we are staying at the Parc Soleil and only if we can do the 1st appointment in the morning. Heck, most of the time we don't leave for bkfst until 9 or so. So, in our case, no vac time really wasted. There is also some "entertainment value", most of the time, when the salesperson is speaking. LOL



Same here, when visiting New York. The reality is that we've been getting out in about half an hour once we make it clear that we know what we're doing and they're not going to sell us anything. $100 cash (gift card) for 1/2 hour of time first thing in the morning is a reasonable deal to me.

In fact, on a recent such visit we were convinced to buy W 57th and sell back (to HGVC) our HCNY. We were not liking aspects of HCNY and this was the right move. Of course the purchase of W. 57th was done resale, but we got the idea (and the $100) from them 

Cheers.


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## TheWizz (Dec 31, 2014)

I need much more than $100 to attend another "update" from HGVC or DRI.  The last time we did one with DRI the therapy costs afterwards was much more than $100 to get our brains back to normal...       I believe they will be serving snow cones in H**L before my wife will ever agree to go to another one.


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## lto (Jan 1, 2015)

Yeah the last time we went , they made us feel like crap after we did not buy it.  No longer worth going to.


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## piyooshj (Jan 1, 2015)

My wife swears she will never go back to one of those presentations again. Sometimes they get nasty and it's not waste of 1-2 hrs the bad taste you get just ruins your entire vacation.


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