Most unexpected place to encounter a timeshare sales rep?

[ambere]

Question: Where's the most unexpected place you have encountered a timeshare sales rep? In Cabo, you know they will be lurking all around the airport, car rentals and beach. But the other day, I was grocery shopping at Fresko al Comer grocery store by the Sirena del Mar. A guy with some sort of name tag came up to me, was charming, and asked if there was anything he could do to help me find anything. Actually, since most the labels were in Spanish, I did ask him to help translate a few things, see if he could find grenadine when I couldn't (he couldn't either), locate tin foil (he picked out two and recommended one for grilling) and find Cold Brew for my daughters -- located not in the coffee aisle, or by the creamers, but in the produce section, go figure. I thanked him for his help, and as I was checking out, he revealed that he was not actually a store employee, but claimed he worked for RCI/Interval.

In fact, he worked for Vidanta (the resort's name was embroidered on his polo shirt) and he tried to persuade me to go on a timeshare tour with him! We had just done one that morning at our resort, so I truthfully told him there was NO WAY my husband would agree to it, no matter what he gave us, even though he was offering the world: $2K toward future stay at the resort, free airfare, $200 cash. I was totally caught off-guard. But, I actually did appreciate having a personal shopper. If I wasn't so surprised, I would have still declined, but given him a tip for his help!

 

[Janann]

I have also encountered a sales rep at a grocery store in Cabo. He helped us find distilled water.

 

[Luanne]

My father encountered one on the golf course in Newport Beach. That is how we got our first timeshare. This was back in 1974. Dad was playing golf with this man, somehow they got talking timeshares and Dad was invited to come down and check it out. My (now ex), Mom, Dad and I all went down. Mom and I loved the units, My ex and Dad loved the idea of playing golf there with no fees. You could book like a hotel, a night at a time. We bought one unit to share (they were sold in two week blocks). After about a year we each bought another two week unit to use for trades. I still own it.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

also encountered a sales rep at a grocery store in Cabo

must be a Cabo kind of day. We met a smoooooooooooooth TS sales guy in Cabo in November after stopping at the "Tequila Tasting" shop at, the marina. I wanted to keep walking, but my wife has an "expensive tequila" fixation after having traveled to Mexico on business a bunch of times with some heavy drinkers, all of them on expense accounts.
She stopped. Chatted. I walked to the corner of the shop to avoid the whole thing. The guy poured 2 shots from a ($180?) bottle of tequila, which reaffirmed my view that really expensive tequila mostly just tastes like rum that would cost 1/5th to 1/6th the price. I nudged her to get going. He poured her a shot from another bottle. I declined. He waved his hand, signaling to some guy out on the street to come in. This 2nd guy was the TS guy and boy was he smooooooooooooooth.
Bizarre thing was it took my wife til the very end to realize he was selling TS. By the end he was going to supposedly give us a 1 day car rental delivered to our resort plus some other excursion to get us to a breakfast meeting at the ?Grand Solaris? I think it was. Sadly for him, he tried to close with GOLF, which I can't imagine being interested in, in addition to having zero overall interest anyway. Golf + TS? May as well offer to put me in the iron maiden.

 

[mentalbreak]

My father encountered one on the golf course in Newport Beach. That is how we got our first timeshare. This was back in 1974. Dad was playing golf with this man, somehow they got talking timeshares and Dad was invited to come down and check it out. My (now ex), Mom, Dad and I all went down. Mom and I loved the units, My ex and Dad loved the idea of playing golf there with no fees. You could book like a hotel, a night at a time. We bought one unit to share (they were sold in two week blocks). After about a year we each bought another two week unit to use for trades. I still own it.

Never thought about it that way, but your post just triggered this - Timeshares are way more difficult to unload than a marriage.

 

[easyrider]

I think it was a man at the Mega in San Jose del Cabo that found the wine we were looking for that was the oddest timeshare invitation. It was 10am when we were invited ,10.30 am when we showed up to the nice lunch with $300 incentive and 1pm when we left.

Bill

 

[ScoopKona]

The OPCs are the people who rope tourists into a tour. Then tourist meet the salespeople and sales managers.

The OPCs are typically the most well-paid in the organization. They were getting $100 per qualified tour 25 years ago. It's probably up to $300 now. That's why timeshares are so expensive -- paying the OPCs to promise gifts in exchange for "a short, 90-minute opportunity!" OPCs can be found anywhere tourists can be found -- as long as the venue gets a kickback from the timeshare developer.

 

[TheHolleys87]

We were recruited for a TS presentation inside one of the Universal Orlando theme parks. DH, who loves to start conversations with strangers, was approached by a guy in a tourist information kiosk. We ended up booking a TS tour (DH also likes to make people happy), can’t remember where. Fortunately we were able to escape the tour on time with the promised gift card and without a new TS.

 

[rickandcindy23]

We were recruited for a TS presentation inside one of the Universal Orlando theme parks. DH, who loves to start conversations with strangers, was approached by a guy in a tourist information kiosk. We ended up booking a TS tour (DH also likes to make people happy), can’t remember where. Fortunately we were able to escape the tour on time with the promised gift card and without a new TS.

Probably Westgate. That was the last one I remember Universal pushing at the parks. You would know if it was Wyndham because it would be at Bonnet Creek, since Wyndham is so proud of it, and they like to say it's on Disney property, but it really isn't.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Ha Ha. I was approached similar to the OP at the La Comer grocery in Los Cabos. Was a kind older U.S. woman in her late 60s or 70s who started by helping me to find items at the store.

She was pushing some kind of Mexican timeshare - I do not do any presos outside of the big hotel names so it was a hard NO. Nice lady though. I felt badly that she needed to so this kind of work as a retiree to pay her bills. Who knows? Maybe it is for travel money.

 

[buzglyd]

If you rent a car at the airport the rep at the rental car place hands you off to a helpful person with a map that tries to steer you to Diamonte for a tour.

 

[noreenkate]

Probably Westgate. That was the last one I remember Universal pushing at the parks. You would know if it was Wyndham because it would be at Bonnet Creek, since Wyndham is so proud of it, and they like to say it's on Disney property, but it really isn't.

Definitely Westgate at Universal - they gave excellent “gifts.” $250 all 3 of us.
Before i started picking up resales I did sales presentations at most the big brand names - it gave me a chance to see what the rooms and stuff looked like…

For me though it’s our local mall OpryMills was a shock at first. 2 different developers, one in bass pro shop is bad enough but Wyndham has taken over all the information kiosks.

Though the weirdest one was coming out of the Dolphin show at the GA Aquarium last month.

 

[HitchHiker71]

How about a former timeshare sales rep? We were enjoying ourselves at Blue Ridge winery in the Poconos, talking to one of the managers there, and he asked us where we were staying, to which we said Wyndham Shawnee. He laughed out loud, and then told us he had worked in real estate and timeshare sales, including for a long time at Wyndham Shawnee himself as one of their sales reps, for roughly 20 years. He got let go during the pandemic, and had some friends that worked at the Blue Ridge winery, and the rest is history so they say. He was much happier working at the winery of course, and didn't really miss the timeshare sales at all.

 

[BingoBangoBongo]

I really didn’t need any additional reasons to avoid Mexico. Seems kinda creepy.

 

[geekette]

They are at grocery stores in Gatlinburg, too, but they don’t help you find anything in the store, just mope and hope at their kiosks usually offering discount tickets to attractions.

 

[mtm65]

Our craziest experience happened after I had been pushed onto the road shoulder while driving a rental car in St Martin. An oncoming bus was traveling down the mountain outside of Anse Marcel on the French side and there wasn't room for both of us. I drove onto the should and caught a rock on the side of the road which damaged the rental car tire. I managed to get to the top of the mountain on the flat tire to a good area to change the tire. The car was up on the jack and I was ready to take the damaged tire off when two young guys pull up next to me. They got out of the car and I thought maybe they were going to help me with the tire change. Instead, they asked if I was still heading to Anse Marcel after the tire change and would I be interested in hearing about their timeshare offering. Obviously, we were not interested!

 

[gln60]

An HONESTY based Chat forum.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I was surprised to be approached in Hilo Hattie's on Kauai. It was Marriott, believe it or not.

 

[LannyPC]

We were recruited for a TS presentation inside one of the Universal Orlando theme parks. DH, who loves to start conversations with strangers, was approached by a guy in a tourist information kiosk.

That happened to us too but we declined.

 

[jamcclure1044]

Question: Where's the most unexpected place you have encountered a timeshare sales rep? In Cabo, you know they will be lurking all around the airport, car rentals and beach. But the other day, I was grocery shopping at Fresko al Comer grocery store by the Sirena del Mar. A guy with some sort of name tag came up to me, was charming, and asked if there was anything he could do to help me find anything. Actually, since most the labels were in Spanish, I did ask him to help translate a few things, see if he could find grenadine when I couldn't (he couldn't either), locate tin foil (he picked out two and recommended one for grilling) and find Cold Brew for my daughters -- located not in the coffee aisle, or by the creamers, but in the produce section, go figure. I thanked him for his help, and as I was checking out, he revealed that he was not actually a store employee, but claimed he worked for RCI/Interval.

In fact, he worked for Vidanta (the resort's name was embroidered on his polo shirt) and he tried to persuade me to go on a timeshare tour with him! We had just done one that morning at our resort, so I truthfully told him there was NO WAY my husband would agree to it, no matter what he gave us, even though he was offering the world: $2K toward future stay at the resort, free airfare, $200 cash. I was totally caught off-guard. But, I actually did appreciate having a personal shopper. If I wasn't so surprised, I would have still declined, but given him a tip for his help!

On vacation at my timeshare in Puerto Vallarta, my lady friend and I walked up the beach and stopped for a drink at a romantic, thatched-roof restaurant... where the waiter tried to sell us a timeshare.

 

[Tacoma]

We got roped in at the car rental place at the airport in Cabo last month. I had avoided the ones at the airport and the grocery store (husband didn't realize the helpful man at the grocery store was an OPC-I did) but fell for it at the car rental place. At least they honored the $300 off the car rental and the 1.5 hours including breakfast at the resort. They were selling Unlimited Vacation Club and from what I read after it is not what they represented at all. At least we are very good at saying no. Weirdest one was years ago at Park City. We walked into a tourist information store and they tried to get us to go to a Westgate presentation. I told the guy I wasn't interested in Westgate and he asked why? I said friends don't let friends buy Wastegate and he escorted me out immediately. LOL.

 

[TrvlwhnIcan]

We were approached by a friendly man in the Walmart in Puerto Vallarta when my husband was shopping for tequila. After ten or fifteen minutes of tequila talk, he oh-so-casually mentioned that he could set us up with an amazing tequila tour if we attended a timeshare presentation. We had thought that he worked for Walmart because his uniform was very similar. I don’t remember which company he actually did work for, but my husband was pleased with the tequila he ended up buying as a red of this guy’s advice. We passed on the presentation. By the way, the front desk staff at the TS where we were staying warned us about the little stores along the waterfront giving away “free” tequila samples. They primarily exist to rope tourists into TS sales presentations. After they’ve liquored you up, their “friend” magically turns up and offers you amazing things if you’ll just get in that cab.

 

[frog4ever]

I was at a small bridal/wedding show in Newport CA and one of the vendors was promising free honeymoon vacations for attending a time share presentation. We went to the presentation and bought a small Shell contract. The free honeymoon trip to Hawaii was one of those vouchers that are near impossible to redeem. The time share closer also "gave" us a bunch of extra points and credits but his voice mail was also full so there was no way to redeem them. This was in 2007.

 

[dougp26364]

There’s been a timeshare body snatcher desk in the grocery store in Branson, MO for what feels like forever. I’ve also seen them in restaurants in Branson, but can’t recall which ones.