Over the years I've heard many interesting sales tactics used to sell timeshares and even had a few myself that I thought would be fun to share.
Last year I was talking with a guy who told me what a great deal he got on his timeshare which was a two or three bedroom penthouse in Aruba. As he was negotiating for one of the units he overheard this guy on the phone, on the other side of the wall, in a loud voice, lamenting that Brittany Spears just cancelled her order for four penthouses because she only needed three. Of course this guy jumped on the unit she didn't want and got it at a steal, at least he thought.
Another friend went to a timeshare presentation in Cabo St. Lucas and was so excited because they offered her a job to sell timeshares there in Cabo. They strung her along with this job offer till the seven, or how ever many days, right of rescission lapsed and the job offer was taken off the table. Fortunately she was able to get out of the contract after months of fighting.
This happened to me and my wife fours years ago. We went through a timeshare presentation in Aruba with this really high energy saleswoman. At the end of the tour of the various units and the grounds, and before turning us over to the “finance” guy, she kept insisting we try this Aruba drink which we both declined as we wanted to remain clear headed. Then she said to us “You should know that he is going to want you to sign today” and we said that we would want to sleep on anything as important and expensive as this. Then she pointed to my wife’s purse and said “suppose your wife was looking at an $800 purse and was thinking it over when the salesperson said that he would sell it to her for $100, would you buy it?”, so I said “yes”. Then I asked if this finance guy’s offer was going to be comparable and she said “yes”.
So we meet with the finance guy and his best offer is something like $30k for a two bedroom, but then he takes out his calculator and tells us that if we sign today, he’ll sell it to us for….when I interrupted him and said, I knew the number, about $4k. I then told him the purse story and insisted he call in the saleswoman to corroborate, which she did. He said that there was no way he could sell it to us for that, so we walked out. Then, thanks to TUG and other research we bought resale for about a third of what they wanted. Caveat emptor!
Last year I was talking with a guy who told me what a great deal he got on his timeshare which was a two or three bedroom penthouse in Aruba. As he was negotiating for one of the units he overheard this guy on the phone, on the other side of the wall, in a loud voice, lamenting that Brittany Spears just cancelled her order for four penthouses because she only needed three. Of course this guy jumped on the unit she didn't want and got it at a steal, at least he thought.
Another friend went to a timeshare presentation in Cabo St. Lucas and was so excited because they offered her a job to sell timeshares there in Cabo. They strung her along with this job offer till the seven, or how ever many days, right of rescission lapsed and the job offer was taken off the table. Fortunately she was able to get out of the contract after months of fighting.
This happened to me and my wife fours years ago. We went through a timeshare presentation in Aruba with this really high energy saleswoman. At the end of the tour of the various units and the grounds, and before turning us over to the “finance” guy, she kept insisting we try this Aruba drink which we both declined as we wanted to remain clear headed. Then she said to us “You should know that he is going to want you to sign today” and we said that we would want to sleep on anything as important and expensive as this. Then she pointed to my wife’s purse and said “suppose your wife was looking at an $800 purse and was thinking it over when the salesperson said that he would sell it to her for $100, would you buy it?”, so I said “yes”. Then I asked if this finance guy’s offer was going to be comparable and she said “yes”.
So we meet with the finance guy and his best offer is something like $30k for a two bedroom, but then he takes out his calculator and tells us that if we sign today, he’ll sell it to us for….when I interrupted him and said, I knew the number, about $4k. I then told him the purse story and insisted he call in the saleswoman to corroborate, which she did. He said that there was no way he could sell it to us for that, so we walked out. Then, thanks to TUG and other research we bought resale for about a third of what they wanted. Caveat emptor!
Last edited:
