We went to a presentation yesterday. I needed the 17,500 MR points. I had repeatedly said we wouldn't do it. . .but we did. Didn't have any expectation of how it would go but when he asked why we were there I thought I'd ask how to use our legacy points. (I didn't try for restaurant/area information. We've been here 11 years and I have lots of friends to get that from.) The guy would have none of it. When I asked if he could explain the timing rules with the points, similar to a recent shuffling thread, he got to the point and said this was a sales presentation for the new Trust points and Owner Services could tell me about the rules of the legacy points. Or and the end of the presentation someone else could come in for that type of discussion. In the beginning with introductions DH asked where he was from and that gave us a bit of background on him. He asked some info on us. Said he didn't bother looking up our profile ahead of time. Later I figured he wasn't interested in what we had, only interested in what he could sell. There was a bit more discussion where TUG and flyertalk came up where he said you have to be careful what is said. I figured he was referring to the difference in Legacy and Trust points but I didn't want to have that argument and let it go. So.. .we let him get on with the recitation of memorization and got out of there between 90 & 120 minutes. Stopped him for a few questions but knew it would only drive up the time.
Here were a couple things he mentioned (well this is the way I heard them) I thought interesting. Can't say how factual they are so please don't think I trust it's all true:
--the people who sign you up get $50 a person. They are extremely aggressive this year at OP.
--they will not be so aggressive in future years

since we didn't buy. They are weeding out the non-buyers.
--legacy points people don't get to see the same things on their my-vacationclub.com webpage as the Trust owners. i.e., when legacy owners book one of those tour type packages Trust owners get first pick and legacy get what's left.
--platinum premier status doesn't matter with solely Legacy owners because I won't be able to reserve 13mo in advance for Trust properties.
--he does 3 presentations a day and sells about 1 out of 3 (didn't ask how many rescind)
--Marriott recruited him with his degree in marketing. 12 years. Only job he's ever had. Given him lots of opportunity to travel. This intrigued me. Do all the sales people have college degrees? Is is necessary to do this?
--he threw out the carrot of incentives for purchases but when I asked what they were it was such a quick explanation I couldn't tell you what he said. U could have asked for clarification but didn't really want to. By that time it was evident it didn't matter what incentives there were, we wouldn't be buying and he could sense it. He wasn't giving any more information than he had to. But I've got to hand it to him, he did it with a smile.
--Marriott is aggressively recovering inventory through ROFR. Now that was the one statement that tweaked my interest. Could that drive up resale prices?
After the presentation we had to wait for someone to come in to give us receipt for the MR points. He asked if we understood, was the person friendly, things like that. I take care of "managing" the travel accounts so most of this was new to DH and he was taken with this young man's ability to recite the program beginning to end without hmm's, haw's and umm's. I had a different opinion but that's the difference in personalities. I let DH's opinion answer the questions because in the end what does it really matter.
The 3 times a day really stuck with me. 3 times a day, recite the same thing over and over. 3 times a day 12 years. Never done anything else. 3 times a day. 3 times a day. Sometimes I get tired of the subject of trading/DC points coming up over and over at the pool and dinner when on vacation. Oh the drudgery of 3 times a day, day after day after day. . .