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Hilton "upgrade" pitch

Duh

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Man someone p*ss in your coffee? Just go listen / read the original materials. Diamond is 3 star, a lower class of customer than Hilton. It's much cheaper to buy HVC than HGVC. Like Ford customers are a lower class than Rolls Royce customers. An entry level business course can explain the concept of customer stratification.

Yea, you and your ilk have pissed me off with your elitist BS. While HGVC resort "may" (operative word is "may") have somewhat nicer resorts, that in no way, shape, fashion, or form concludes that Hiltons owners are a better class of people than Diamond owners. You show who are the real lowlifes here Mr Howell.
 

Duh

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I'm surprised you are seeing changes already, the takeover as you call it has barely started. Most of us here are wait and see, not interested in Max.

As for the disagreement with this other person, it's best to ignore some of the argumentative GOFs (grumpy old f*rts) here, he is already on my ignore list. As Twain said, never wrestle with a pig – it gets mud all over you and the pig likes it.

Sent from my Lenovo 10e using Tapatalk

Yes, there have been changes made already.

Cannot book an 84 night reservation anymore. Max is 29 nights.
For those who have converted to Max, they have already lost their ability to upgrade.
Availability issues, even at 13 months out. Someone is monkeying with the system.
For a time, upgrades, free Platinum RPP, and DPs were lost, now they are back again for Legacy owners. For how long??

I think I would like to visit a Hilton resort now just so I could take a dump in their pool just to show them how low class some Diamond owners can be when pissed off with their BS.
 

CalGalTraveler

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I see that you are upset. Why don't you contact HGVC about your concerns rather than taking it out on other owners?
 

chapjim

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winger

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And yet just a year or two earlier it was the other way around with Hilton owners crying. But at no time did Diamond owners think their crap didn't stick and were better than Hilton owners. I see that is not the case here.
I don't like your use of double negatives, I can't follow with certainty. Now, if you are claiming Diamond owners always felt they were better than Hilton owners, you are wrong. I know because I never once thought this.
 

goaliedave

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Yea, you and your ilk have pissed me off with your elitist BS. While HGVC resort "may" (operative word is "may") have somewhat nicer resorts, that in no way, shape, fashion, or form concludes that Hiltons owners are a better class of people than Diamond owners. You show who are the real lowlifes here Mr Howell.
HGCV is a higher class product attracting a higher class of customer than Diamond. Similar to Rolls Royce vs Chevrolet. People of all customer classes are happy that's why most don't need to upgrade.
 

dayooper

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Are you serious? You have facts in writing to back up this kind of claim? BTW, my credit score is 835 currently so it would be rather hard to go 30 points above that and while some may not consider me rich, I have no debt whatsoever and have a $400k house I paid cash to have built. This elitism by Hilton owners is exactly what I'm talking about.

I’m sorry, I said that wrong. The average HGVC customer has an average yearly income of $20,000 more and an average credit score 20 points greater. Those are the facts from HGVC themselves. They took that from the credit applications from those that took a loan out to purchase. When the merger happened, it was said the the level of accommodations of HVC (former DRI) was upscale and HGVC was upper upscale. Hilton Club is Luxury. That's what I meant. If you took that wrong, than I apologize.
 

Duh

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I don't like your use of double negatives, I can't follow with certainty. Now, if you are claiming Diamond owners always felt they were better than Hilton owners, you are wrong. I know because I never once thought this.

That is the exact opposite of what I said. Diamond owners haven never felt they were better than Hilton owners. Proof is in the pudding in this thread that the opposite is true of what Hilton owners think.
 

Duh

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HGCV is a higher class product attracting a higher class of customer than Diamond. Similar to Rolls Royce vs Chevrolet. People of all customer classes are happy that's why most don't need to upgrade.

It's a wonder you can even function in life thinking such generalist statements are even close to being true. You have proven the opposite to be true here.
 

Duh

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I’m sorry, I said that wrong. The average HGVC customer has an average yearly income of $20,000 more and an average credit score 20 points greater. Those are the facts from HGVC themselves. They took that from the credit applications from those that took a loan out to purchase. When the merger happened, it was said the the level of accommodations of HVC (former DRI) was upscale and HGVC was upper upscale. Hilton Club is Luxury. That's what I meant. If you took that wrong, than I apologize.

You know, one thing I have learned in life is that it doesn't matter what anyone makes, it all boils down to what they spend. I know many people who make 6 figure salaries and are in debt up to their eyeballs because they are always trying to keep up with the Jones' or just can't mange money worth a crap. Others make 5 figure salaries and have no debt whatsoever and tidy retirement accounts. What someone's income is doesn't mean a hoot as to how financially stable they are. As for average credit scores, I would love to know how they legally came across that information? I know I have made all of my Diamond purchases in cash so my credit score was never pulled so I can tell you for sure, the numbers they tossed out sounds like a used car salesman pitch......and about as accurate.

Personally speaking, I'm done with this thread. The elitist mentality of some of the Hilton owners here make me want to puke and if I was ever on the fence as to whether to upgrade to Max or not, I can tell you now, I most certainly will not! I would never want to meet these people at a Hilton resort.....or anywhere else in life.
 

goaliedave

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I’m sorry, I said that wrong. The average HGVC customer has an average yearly income of $20,000 more and an average credit score 20 points greater. Those are the facts from HGVC themselves. They took that from the credit applications from those that took a loan out to purchase. When the merger happened, it was said the the level of accommodations of HVC (former DRI) was upscale and HGVC was upper upscale. Hilton Club is Luxury. That's what I meant. If you took that wrong, than I apologize.
No amount of clarification will educate Duh.
 

goaliedave

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You know, one thing I have learned in life is that it doesn't matter what anyone makes, it all boils down to what they spend. I know many people who make 6 figure salaries and are in debt up to their eyeballs because they are always trying to keep up with the Jones' or just can't mange money worth a crap. Others make 5 figure salaries and have no debt whatsoever and tidy retirement accounts. What someone's income is doesn't mean a hoot as to how financially stable they are. As for average credit scores, I would love to know how they legally came across that information? I know I have made all of my Diamond purchases in cash so my credit score was never pulled so I can tell you for sure, the numbers they tossed out sounds like a used car salesman pitch......and about as accurate.

Personally speaking, I'm done with this thread. The elitist mentality of some of the Hilton owners here make me want to puke and if I was ever on the fence as to whether to upgrade to Max or not, I can tell you now, I most certainly will not! I would never want to meet these people at a Hilton resort.....or anywhere else in life.
We humble and open Diamond owners must stick together!
 

SeattleAl

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I stayed at HGVC Flamingo during Labor Day week on a Dex exchange and never heard from the Hilton people inviting me to a presentation.

I'm going to Point at Poipu next week, and got the call from "HONOLULU". They left a voice mail on my landline and then called my cellphone. It was obvious who it was.
After hemming and hawing a bit, they invited me to a presentation to explain the new stuff. I told them I was on TUGBBS and knew a lot about HGV Max from the discussions here.
Plus, I lost a lot of money in the stock market and didn't have a lot of money to blow on a timeshare program of dubious benefit to me. Why do I need to explain this stuff to them every time I go to a Diamond property?

I expect them to try again when I get there. As far as I can tell, their new "gentler" approach isn't much different than the old approach.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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I stayed at HGVC Flamingo during Labor Day week on a Dex exchange and never heard from the Hilton people inviting me to a presentation.

I'm going to Point at Poipu next week, and got the call from "HONOLULU". They left a voice mail on my landline and then called my cellphone. It was obvious who it was.
After hemming and hawing a bit, they invited me to a presentation to explain the new stuff. I told them I was on TUGBBS and knew a lot about HGV Max from the discussions here.
Plus, I lost a lot of money in the stock market and didn't have a lot of money to blow on a timeshare program of dubious benefit to me. Why do I need to explain this stuff to them every time I go to a Diamond property?

I expect them to try again when I get there. As far as I can tell, their new "gentler" approach isn't much different than the old approach.
Our experiences at Point at Poipu -

About five years ago - pre HGVC - as existing owners we were routed to a different sales team. Time obligations was reduced to 60 minutes, and the pitch was much more low key than on the main sales floor.

In August of this year, the entire DRI sales force appears to have been completely replaced. The person we met with had come from Marriott, and it was obvious that he wasn't nearly up to speed on the system. Presentation was still decidedly low key (aka, no pressure).

The main focus of the sales presentation was oriented toward getting involved with HGVMAX. They presented two main points of entry in to HGVMAX. One was to simply buy some points in HGVMAX. The other was to buy a resale deed and link that with HGVMAX as an entry point. For the resale deed option, they showed us a "menu" of currently available resale deeds - we identified two deeds from the list that seemed to make the most sense for us to consider (purchase price, number of points, and current annual feesEach deed option had a specific point value, purchase price, and current annual fee.

They had no problem with us taking the information and spending several days researching and looking things over - with the caveat that transactions that involved purchasing a resale deed were linked to the availability of that deed. So if we came back several days later and someone else had purchased that deed, then those particulars would no longer be available.

the only element of more pressured sale was that HGVC used the classic ruse of directing us to another person for a "QA" review of the sales presentation, which was just a ruse to try to sell us "Discovery Package" of points, good for 18 months at a specific set or resorts. That was a wrinkle that Diamond didn't use with existing owners. (I know DRI pushed that heavily on the non-owner sales floor.) We ended up purchasing the package, because the resorts that were listed included ones that we were likely to use, and the purchase price penciled out as compared with renting a unit or buying hotel room accommodations at those areas.
 

magmue

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... two main points of entry in to HGVMAX. One was to simply buy some points in HGVMAX.
Do you mean buy some developer points in HGV/formerly-DRI? How many points at what price point did they pitch to include HGVMAX?
 

flyguy

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Where did you get your information? I attended an owners update last h in arizona. It was presented by Hilton. Although I certainly realize that TS sales people are weasels, the Hilton update was by far the most non pressured presentation we have ever attended. We were offered to upgrade to the HGV Max, which we did. However, the sales guy told is there was no reason we needed to make any decision right then and there. Also said that if we didn’t upgrade it was totally fine to keep our ownership exactly as it was and we would continue to enjoy the same benefits that we’ve always enjoyed. We bought the minimum points it took to buy into HGV-Max. We were interested in meeting able to use the Hilton properties. But, never were we told that there was going to be a”massive” increase in MF’s. We purchased our original DRI here in TUG. We felt that purchasing the additional points at 50%of what they normally sell for was good for our particular needs. You also said you were shown a10 rear projection of MF’s for remaining DRI owners. Did they give you a copy? We were shown nothing like that. Do you know of your presentation we given by a DRI sales snake or by Hilton? The DRI snakes are the worst we’ve ever encountered. The Hilton snake was honestly the easiest and not at all pushy.
Regarding the minimum number of point required to move to HGV Max, we were offered 3,000 at $4 per point and on a Diamond Facebook site, a person indicated that 2500 points was offered and at the $4 price. Having that information might be of interest to someone attending an "update."
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Regarding the minimum number of point required to move to HGV Max, we were offered 3,000 at $4 per point and on a Diamond Facebook site, a person indicated that 2500 points was offered and at the $4 price. Having that information might be of interest to someone attending an "update."
At Point at Poipu in August, we were offered a 2500 points ownership in the HGVMax trust. I don't recall the exact price per point, but it would have been pretty close to $4 per point.
 

Dollie

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Just came home from 2 weeks in AZ. Part of the first week was at Kohl's Ranch, a timeshare still under Diamond. No mention at all about an update. Then 1 week at Sedona Summit, now a Hilton.

Phone call before arrival at Sedona Summit: Started off pleasant; she asked about any room requests; I said I wanted an upper floor unit which we got. Then she asked if I would sign up for a Hilton update. They would take us to a wine tasting and dinner on Friday night and then an hour-long update would be on Saturday. I said no thank you. Then she started in about not having been to an update since 2009 and how I must have had a bad experience with Diamond to not do one since then. (This is not true, we just were no longer interested in the “gifts/incentives” and spending our vacation time in their meeting. We preferred to get our information from the Meet the Manger meeting at our home resort and TUG). She went on about how Hilton’s update was low pressure. She went on about our maintenance fees going up 14% (I track our maintenance fees and they have not gone up that much). She wouldn’t take No for an answer. When she started to say, “You know what my mother always said”, I said I’m ending this call, good night, and hung up.

Check in at Sedona Summit: Went up to the desk and was told I was scheduled for a VIP checking. I was moved to a different person. He started the normal check in. Then another woman came over and started in the same as the person on the phone call, harassing me as far as I’m concerned. On and on until I finally said just give me my keys.

I have never had a check in like this with Diamond or for that matter at any other resort. For all Hilton’s talk about being low pressure, their check in was by far the worst.
 

SmithOp

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Just came home from 2 weeks in AZ. Part of the first week was at Kohl's Ranch, a timeshare still under Diamond. No mention at all about an update. Then 1 week at Sedona Summit, now a Hilton.

Phone call before arrival at Sedona Summit: Started off pleasant; she asked about any room requests; I said I wanted an upper floor unit which we got. Then she asked if I would sign up for a Hilton update. They would take us to a wine tasting and dinner on Friday night and then an hour-long update would be on Saturday. I said no thank you. Then she started in about not having been to an update since 2009 and how I must have had a bad experience with Diamond to not do one since then. (This is not true, we just were no longer interested in the “gifts/incentives” and spending our vacation time in their meeting. We preferred to get our information from the Meet the Manger meeting at our home resort and TUG). She went on about how Hilton’s update was low pressure. She went on about our maintenance fees going up 14% (I track our maintenance fees and they have not gone up that much). She wouldn’t take No for an answer. When she started to say, “You know what my mother always said”, I said I’m ending this call, good night, and hung up.

Check in at Sedona Summit: Went up to the desk and was told I was scheduled for a VIP checking. I was moved to a different person. He started the normal check in. Then another woman came over and started in the same as the person on the phone call, harassing me as far as I’m concerned. On and on until I finally said just give me my keys.

I have never had a check in like this with Diamond or for that matter at any other resort. For all Hilton’s talk about being low pressure, their check in was by far the worst.
I think those are still the DRI employees, just taken over as Hilton now.

I has that same experience at Summit when I stayed a few years ago. I also spoke with some people at the pool that attended a presentation and said it was terrible high pressure and lies about giving up their deed to get points because they wouldn't be able to trade

I've never had a bad experience at a true HGV presentation, at least not one I could easily talk my way out of. I've been HGV owner over 20 yrs.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 

Talent312

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While HGVC resort "may" (operative word is "may") have somewhat nicer resorts, that in no way, shape, fashion, or form concludes that Hiltons owners are a better class of people than Diamond owners.

As a HGVC owner, I concur.
DRI-HVC has it's unwashed masses, and so does HGVC.
Yet, we dwell in the shadow of "by Hilton Club" elitists.
We could all need showers to rinse off the 'tudes.
.
 

winger

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Just came home from 2 weeks in AZ. Part of the first week was at Kohl's Ranch, a timeshare still under Diamond. No mention at all about an update. Then 1 week at Sedona Summit, now a Hilton.

Phone call before arrival at Sedona Summit: Started off pleasant; she asked about any room requests; I said I wanted an upper floor unit which we got. Then she asked if I would sign up for a Hilton update. They would take us to a wine tasting and dinner on Friday night and then an hour-long update would be on Saturday. I said no thank you. Then she started in about not having been to an update since 2009 and how I must have had a bad experience with Diamond to not do one since then. (This is not true, we just were no longer interested in the “gifts/incentives” and spending our vacation time in their meeting. We preferred to get our information from the Meet the Manger meeting at our home resort and TUG). She went on about how Hilton’s update was low pressure. She went on about our maintenance fees going up 14% (I track our maintenance fees and they have not gone up that much). She wouldn’t take No for an answer. When she started to say, “You know what my mother always said”, I said I’m ending this call, good night, and hung up.

Check in at Sedona Summit: Went up to the desk and was told I was scheduled for a VIP checking. I was moved to a different person. He started the normal check in. Then another woman came over and started in the same as the person on the phone call, harassing me as far as I’m concerned. On and on until I finally said just give me my keys.

I have never had a check in like this with Diamond or for that matter at any other resort. For all Hilton’s talk about being low pressure, their check in was by far the worst.
Why in the the world are you so nice to them?
 

artringwald

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The first time they ask by phone or at checkin why I don't go to updates, I say nicely that they ask too many questions and I don't feel like answering questions. The next question they ask, I point out again that I don't like answering questions. The conversation usually ends quickly after that.
 

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Hilton, IMHO selected the best DRI Resorts where there were no Hilton Timeshare Resorts in their market areas; except in Orlando, Fl.
Yes, that seems to be the case. I, like you am familiar with the Williamsburg properties. In addition, I have also stayed at the Oceanaire in VA Beach as well. Interestingly, only three of the former DRI resorts in VA (from before the Hilton acquisition) namely, Powhatan, Greensprings and Oceanaire have been rebranded to HVC. Neither Greensprings nor the other VA Beach properties have yet to be rebranded. In addition to the property management itself, it will be just as interesting and even revealing to see if the HGV sales people bring a different approach to the pitch of conversion of DRI benefits to HVC-MAX in the same was as has been reported by Mellow. Hopefully others sitting for these "owner updates" will report on their experience
 

Arusso

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Lol. We DID NOT purchase anything, and don’t have any desire to toss more money in the black hole of timesharing. However, thanks for the warning….if I only knew about this site and you kind folks 18 yrs ago!
You can put your name on a list of thousands of people. Many of us purchased in the pre-internet days and had no idea of what we were really purchasing. It is almost unconscionable today, despite having access to instantaneous reference material, how easy it still is today for people to make a large purchase without having full little disclosure. regarding the product purchased. I totally agree. Without question, I believe the TUG community is the best resource for consumers. The experts here have nothing to sell but their knowledge and experience. Hopefully, TUG will have an even greater impact by reaching more people with the recent launch of the very informative You Tube channel.
 
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