# DRI VIP Owner's Update (Perfectly Cut Events) at Polo Towers



## TheWizz (Mar 18, 2013)

My wife and I own 30K DRI Points via resale, some legacy Diamond and some legacy Sunterra that a few years ago we were able to convert to The Club for ~$3K and have Gold Elite status and full access to all Club sites.  Prior to this I also had some US Collection Points and other Sunterra deeded properties that I have basically "given away" over time and have been at the 30K mark for a few years.  Just after the Poipu incident, I was able to give back ~8K Club Points as the MFs were far out-clipping the increases for my deeded properties.  I've learned a lot over the years via trial and error, but have been fairly successful at "working within the system" to acquire Elite status w/ both DRI and HGVC - all via resale purchases for pennies on the dollar.  SO... while we were in Vegas this past week for Spring Break, we were called ahead of time by our "VIP Host" and told about a special event.  We decided to take advanced of DRI's VIP Owner Update sessions (yes, that's plural) they call "Perfectly Cut Events".  

So here is what we received for $149:

Dinner on Wed. night on the 19th Floor w/ full open bar - kind of a "meet-n-greet"
Dinner and drinks on Thu. night at a nice Italian restaurant
After dinner on Thu. night, floor seating at the LOVE Beatles Cirque show
Full Breakfast on Fri. morning w/ a chance to win a prize for the "Best DRI story" and a friendly owner update to answer any questions we might have - low key, no pressure...

The Hosts for Wed. and Thu. evening were great.  The show was wonderful and it was indeed low key.  I figured the "value" of what we received by Fri. morning's breakfast easily topped $600 (the show alone was $300 before service fees), so my wife and I were beginning to second-guess why it had taken us SO many years to get over the trauma of the last owner update we attended.  We even won the "Best DRI Story" and got another $100 in dining certificates for that night.  Yes sir, we were riding high, and then the other shoe fell as the _kind _"host" we had broke bread with the night before took us back to the 19th floor for more than two hours of lecturing me on how "illiterate" I am on the DRI system.  

She proceeded to say about a dozen times "_I don't want you to think I'm calling your baby ugly_", and would then proceed to tell me how ugly my baby really is (in her superior mind).  She couldn't fathom how/why I would EVER give back 8K Club Points when those Club Points are apparently (now) the greatest thing this sliced bread and I was told I was basically lying that those magical Club Points MFs would ever rise at a faster rate than my converted deeded weeks points MFs.  She said "The Club Trust Points MFs are the most stable and people love them as they only rise 1% each year".  :rofl:  I had trouble keeping a straight face when she said that!!  And she couldn't seem to wrap her head around the fact that I was a Gold Elite member and had purchased everything resale.  I told her I wasn't there to talk about the past or argue, that I simply wanted to know the best way to use my current DRI Points - not belabor the past or buy anything else.    She had asked how I had used my points this year and I told her to stay at Polo Towers (mainly carryover) and also used my balance towards a cruise in Dec.  She then went off telling me how stupid that was to convert my 28K points into cash when I could have used 15K points for the same cruise.  I did feel a little dumb at that point as she made it sound like that was an option for any cruise, any time, any where.  But as I continued to press her on this, she admitted it was only for NCL.  Before she read me the riot act, she didn't bother to ask if I was sailing on NCL or not - which I'm not.  We are going with friends on RCCL and not NCL, so her whole argument was moot.  So when I told her I didn't want to cruise on NCL, she acted like a cruise is a cruise and I wasted my points.  She then threw out asking if I knew about "all inclusive" options and I told her no and repeated that we wanted to do this to find out how to better utilize what we have and learn.  She then said she really didn't know what to say to us and needed to look-up our account to "see how best to proceed".  So she left for about 15-20 minutes and instead of her coming back to go over how we could better utilize our points, she sent the boss out to go over a couple of handouts on how to get us to Platinum Elite for a mere $42,800.  I was shocked.  I had told them we were not interested in buying anything else, but learning how to better use what we have and instead of answering our questions, it turned into a sales pitch.  The boss knew I was fuming by my response, so when Miss Congeniality came back, he gave the file to her and told her we weren't interested.  So at that point, we became lepers and she told us to go down to the first floor again to "check out".  So I went down and waited on her another 15 minutes, which now put us at over 3 hours total.  My wife split at this point and the "closer" was talking to our host and I could hear him ask her "where's his wife" and she told him, go ask him.  So when he came over, he said he needed both of us present to "finish up" and I told him we committed to 90 minutes and we were now pushing 3 hours and my wife isn't coming back down to talk again.  And while I was talking to him, I could see her (the host) in the background bad-mouthing me to another DRI employee that kept looking over my way.  Quite unprofessional...  So the closer finally gave in and sent me to the "final closer" now to sign the paperwork and get our $100 dining certificate. As I was waiting to see the final person, another couple was ahead of me that was apart of the VIP Events as well and they asked me if we "bought the extra points", so they got the same pitch I did, except their price tag was over $80K!  :hysterical:

What an ordeal...  All in all, it was a good value ($$ speaking), and the whole experience would be worth it IF they would not bait you into thinking this is a true Owner's Update when you can ask for information on the areas you are interested in and avoid the ones you don't care about, e.g. buying more points.  But instead, they have to ignore what you want to learn about and try and cram more points down your throat!   About the only meaningful info I received (if true), is that DRI has $2B in cash to purchase a few more companies this year and two names they threw out were Marriott and Bluegreen (again).  

So the next time you are invited to a DRI Owner's Update - set the ground rules up-front even if they did wine-n-dine you for two days at no pressure and set your stop watch and enter with your eyes wide open!


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## artringwald (Mar 18, 2013)

I've been to two "Owner's Update" and neither came anything close to being an update. The sales people seem to know very little about how to use what you already have, and only want to sell more points at ridiculous prices. They can offer all the perks they want, but we're not doing any more updates.


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## pgnewarkboy (Mar 18, 2013)

Experienced owners understand the update is designed to sell the trust. If I have the time and want something "free" for my time that is useful at my destination I MAY go.  Even then it is usually not worth the trouble.

Overall, I stay away from these things like the plague.  Life is too short. I don't need the intrusion into my valuable time.


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## TheWizz (Mar 18, 2013)

I now consider myself "experienced", but in a root canal w/o medz kind of way.     We turned down the normal "55 min. breakfast owner's update" and took a chance on this VIP one for three days/nights of events and had no issues or problems until the last day's (post) breakfast _discussion_.  It was worth the >$600 in freebies, but "barely"...  I think the only way I'd ever talk my wife into another one is to do the wine-n-dine for two days and then fake food poisoning after the last day's breakfast to get outta there quick!


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## singlemalt_18 (Mar 18, 2013)

We attended one of the very first "Perfectly Cut" events ever held almost two years ago in Williamsburg.  Overall, the details were identical; we were wined and dined for pennies on the dollar, and it all went south with the purported "no pressure" owner update.  We were so repulsed by our experience that I ended up writing a lengthy and scathing letter to Cloobeck.

We did get contacted by the Project Director from the Eastern Business Unit who wanted to apologize for what had happened.  Apparently they are not interested in developing a sales team worthy of their clients.  Below are the key excerpts from our letter:


_...We also jumped at the chance to attend the Perfectly Cut event upon getting the invitation, and it was a blast!  Overall, as new Diamond members, *we had been feeling good about our decision, until the moment we finally emerged from our 8:30 am breakfast presentation, at almost 1:30 pm in the afternoon.  Monopolizing five hours of our time to present an “owner update” was totally uncalled for.*

Unfortunately, most of that time was spent with members of the sales staff.  All goodwill established by Scott and the Perfectly Cut event was *squandered by the tedious, transparently manipulative, go-for-the-close, sales approach.*  ... Although their overall level of sophistication may be relevant, they were only doing what they have been trained to do, and therein lies the problem.

For all of the quality, luxury, and exclusivity that appear to be part of the Diamond brand and experience, *a sales team that comes across as little more than desperate, used car jockeys, ultimately does more harm than good,* especially with respect to existing Diamond members... Every couple we spoke with after the update had nothing but harsh words to say about their sales experience.

In our case, the push to “buy up to Sliver now” had the unintended consequence of creating buyer’s remorse about our purchase of only 8 months earlier.  Should we expect to have difficulties securing the places and dates we want, because we only have a regular membership?  That was almost what we were being led to believe.  *Were we sold a bill-of-goods then, or were we being sold one now?*

...The sales process we were subjected to was simply not conducive to understanding options, or helping lay out a timeline and plan to get to the Silver level if that was our goal... After “reviewing the details” of our account for the umpteenth time, we were presented with a special offer.  The offer for which we were “selectively qualified, and was approved specifically for us” was The Sampler.  At this point my wife was very frustrated.  I decided that 10,000 points for two years, and $1,600 was the easiest way to end the misery.  *That seemed to be the final offer made to everyone, in order to get something out of their wallets.*  Only later did we find out that another couple was pitched 7,500 points for $1,000?  The credibility of your sales team was now even further diminished.

*An old rule in sales is to know when to shut-up, and the next person who speaks, looses.  Most of the sales people spend all of their time talking and talking, never coming up for air.*  More importantly, they cannot be listening if they are talking.  Many things said to create urgency for immediate action seem contrived, and the various price-per-point quotes, appear to be arbitrary.  To believe that others pay more than the price quoted to us rings hollow.  Similarly, nobody wants to feel that they paid more than someone else, so this tactic only serves to further blur the lines.  How many point price grids are there, and are they real?   In the end, perception is reality, and people want to have confidence that they are simply being treated fairly.

...Effective marketing can generate a sale, but only a quality sale fosters effective marketing... *For now, we plan to avoid every possibility of interacting with one of the Diamond sales offices in the future.*_


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## TheWizz (Mar 20, 2013)

singlemalt_18 said:


> We attended one of the very first "Perfectly Cut" events ever held almost two years ago in Williamsburg.
> ...



Very well said...  I received a "Owners Update Survey" request from DRI yesterday.  Needless to say, I'll be letting them know what I think, and I may follow your lead and send a note to Stephen J. as well.


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