mikenk
TUG Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,040
- Reaction score
- 216
- Points
- 423
- Location
- Anna, TX
- Resorts Owned
- Grand Luxxe Villa
I agree that once the contract is prepared for signing and offered, everything is honest from that point forward. This includes the follow on upgrade / sales presentations; they always have something new to try and get into my back pocket; I have no problem with any of that; I can take it, leave it, or make counter offer. The approach for these updates have all been quite different depending on the sales person - but never a canned pitch as in the rant videos.
However, before I bought resale, I got the privilege of listening to a couple of the high pressure initial sales presentations, they were blatantly dishonest regarding the "guaranteed" rental revenue. It was obviously canned and meant to deceive - definitely a scam by my definition. The sales premise is the people will never actually read the sales contract; just sign, pay, and go on. It obviously works and seems to be perfectly legal as the contract in any business is the binding agreement - not non documented promises. Unfortunately, people seem to go brain-dead during timeshare presentations; the vida sales approach preys on these people - which I do feel is morally wrong.
A couple of years back, I was talking with a number of owners around the pool bar, they had all bought retail through the process, they all understood they paid too much, but yet all were OK with it. The common theme was "it has forced us to take vacations and we always have a great time - so be it." The age of the internet has certainly raised the awareness of the sales tactics, but as long as the great majority just move on, I doubt anything will change. Certainly Vida management is aware of the internet backlash; it will be interesting to see if anything changes.
Mike
However, before I bought resale, I got the privilege of listening to a couple of the high pressure initial sales presentations, they were blatantly dishonest regarding the "guaranteed" rental revenue. It was obviously canned and meant to deceive - definitely a scam by my definition. The sales premise is the people will never actually read the sales contract; just sign, pay, and go on. It obviously works and seems to be perfectly legal as the contract in any business is the binding agreement - not non documented promises. Unfortunately, people seem to go brain-dead during timeshare presentations; the vida sales approach preys on these people - which I do feel is morally wrong.
A couple of years back, I was talking with a number of owners around the pool bar, they had all bought retail through the process, they all understood they paid too much, but yet all were OK with it. The common theme was "it has forced us to take vacations and we always have a great time - so be it." The age of the internet has certainly raised the awareness of the sales tactics, but as long as the great majority just move on, I doubt anything will change. Certainly Vida management is aware of the internet backlash; it will be interesting to see if anything changes.
Mike
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