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No Longer an "Owner Update"...It's Officially a "Educational Based Sales Presentation"

Quilter

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THey have 8 resorts in Hilton Head to feed tour flow, only two in Aruba. It is also not location dependant, it can also be based on your profile and likelihood to be a good candidate to purchase.

I've been trying to figure out what "not location dependent" means. Besides that, are you saying someone who is targeted with a higher potential to buy will be offered more, even at the same location?

Honestly, I don't even understand why they would ask me to attend. I know I have a history of not attending. I have repeatedly asked that they don't contact me (especially at Ocean Pointe). Yet, during this HHI week (first of 3) I have been contacted once by the local concierge and twice by someone out of Charleston at a satellite location. The come on is "I see you haven't taken your update of the new program", or something to that effect. We already own 7 enrolled weeks and if anyone looked into my account they would see it is highly used and I rent points from other owners. There's just no way they should waste time contacting me.

However, for 600-750 DC points I just might persuade DH to waste their time.
 
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VacationForever

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I just had a 40-min presentation over Microsoft meeting for 500 Plus Points. She was super nice and would buy from her if we are convinced that we need more.
 

dioxide45

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I've been trying to figure out what "not location dependent" means. Besides that, are you saying someone who is targeted with a higher potential to buy will be offered more, even at the same location?

Honestly, I don't even understand why they would ask me (or Marty) to attend. I say this because by Marty's posts he attends often but hasn't said he's purchased anything beyond his many weeks. I know I have a history of not attending. I have repeatedly asked that they don't contact me (especially at Ocean Pointe). Yet, during this HHI week (first of 3) I have been contacted once by the local concierge and twice by someone out of Charleston at a satellite location. The come one is "I see you haven't taken your update of the new program", or something to that effect. We already own 7 enrolled weeks and if anyone looked into my account they would see it is highly used and I rent points from other owners. There's just no way they should waste time contacting me.

However, for 600-750 DC points I just might persuade DH to waste their time.
By "not location dependant", I mean not everyone touring at the same location is going to be offered the same incentive. So questions like "what are the gifts offered at xyz location" really don't mean anything these days. Surprisingly they still invite us to attend and we have been to over 50 presentations. Yet they still invite us. Though our offers are more like the one Marty had. It is rare for us to get offered anything over 25,000 Bonvoy points these days.
 
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jabberwocky

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I've been trying to figure out what "not location dependent" means. Besides that, are you saying someone who is targeted with a higher potential to buy will be offered more, even at the same location?

Honestly, I don't even understand why they would ask me (or Marty) to attend.

We already own 7 enrolled weeks and if anyone looked into my account they would see it is highly used and I rent points from other owners. There's just no way they should waste time contacting me.
Analytically you’re somewhat of an ideal candidate. High usage of existing ownerships plus renting. If I were in MVC’s position it looks like you would be a good candidate to add more to your portfolio.
 

Quilter

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Analytically you’re somewhat of an ideal candidate. High usage of existing ownerships plus renting. If I were in MVC’s position it looks like you would be a good candidate to add more to your portfolio.
Not at 70 yo :cool:. I’m old enough to know the kids aren’t interested in doing the work to manage the account. My DD has a little dog she likes to bring and rents airbnb or VRBO.
 

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I got a call yesterday for a presentation at Timberlodge. He still called it an update. Offer was 700 dp or $250 Visa card or 45000 Bonvoy. I turned it down because we will be with my parents, but it’s still tempting me.
For 700 DC points I would attend for the 90 minutes. I am sure your parents would be ok for a couple hours :giggle:
 

frank808

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I never get asked. Just got back from Grand Vista and Sheraton Vistana Villages and the "parking" people just gave me my pass and let me go. I would love to attend for these 700-750 DC point offers.
 
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winger

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I got a call yesterday for a presentation at Timberlodge. He still called it an update. Offer was 700 dp or $250 Visa card or 45000 Bonvoy. I turned it down because we will be with my parents, but it’s still tempting me.
700 dp is quite a good deal
 

AlmostRetired

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The the educational session call to my house for my upcoming stay in St Thomas. The offer 300 DP, 20,000 Bonvoy Points, $125.00 credit. The offer was crappy but even if it was twice this, I would not go. I promised myself no more of these presentations and of all the promises I made with myself, this happens to be the easiest one to keep.
 
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Against my better judgement, I accepted the offer for 600 DC/Abound points to attend a 75-minute "Educational Based Sales Presentation" which would include 4 parts, the last of which will be some sort of sales offer. I got the pre-arrival call from SVV and the deal was too good to pass on. If they send us to the same lady at Lakeshore they have the past two times, she's going to lose her mind. LOL
This is great news. So, the next time the salesperson gets mad at me for not buying from them, asking me why I showed up then, I can point out that I wanted the other 3 out of 4 parts!
 

The Colorado Kid

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I just had a 40-min presentation over Microsoft meeting for 500 Plus Points. She was super nice and would buy from her if we are convinced that we need more.
@VacationForever curious if she was selling something you can't find resale?
 

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It's about time that MVC got past their ***deceptive marketing*** of baiting owners and guests to a sales presentation under the false premise that it is an "Owner Update," that just so happened to be conducted by a ***sales person***. I beliieve it was not long until State Real Estate Boards, in cases where MVC timeshare salespeople are licensed real estate salespeople, or other regulatory bodies, including State Attorney Generals, and the FTC, went after MVC, for their deceptive business practices. In my opinion, MVC simply beat them to the punch.
 

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I write this to question my own sanity --

Wouldn't MVC sales be better off recognizing that those of us participating in these TUG forums are unlikely to purchase points. If I were to characterize this group - a few are totally new to timeshare and are searching, most got caught and entered into a bad timeshare deal or two or three, most now seem somewhat experienced and savvy to the limitations of points, we own lots of legacy weeks, we are protective of those who may overbuy the MVC programs, we distrust the sales personnel, we do like the resorts, and we question our own sanity for our mistakes in timeshare. And we are gullible about attending another sales presentation but will for a trinket and can still be overwhelmed enough by the "imagine" theme to buy again.

What if there was a qualifying presentation question such as do you participate in TUG or TUG forums? Where would you categorize TUG members on your sales prospect list?
 

Dean

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I write this to question my own sanity --

Wouldn't MVC sales be better off recognizing that those of us participating in these TUG forums are unlikely to purchase points. If I were to characterize this group - a few are totally new to timeshare and are searching, most got caught and entered into a bad timeshare deal or two or three, most now seem somewhat experienced and savvy to the limitations of points, we own lots of legacy weeks, we are protective of those who may overbuy the MVC programs, we distrust the sales personnel, we do like the resorts, and we question our own sanity for our mistakes in timeshare. And we are gullible about attending another sales presentation but will for a trinket and can still be overwhelmed enough by the "imagine" theme to buy again.

What if there was a qualifying presentation question such as do you participate in TUG? Where would you categorize TUG members in your prospect list?
I would think that way as well along with others who have similar profiles of resale purchases and not buying at presentations. But they have the data and I must conclude that the metrics still favor spending the money on the presentations for the % of sales they do get.
 

dioxide45

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I write this to question my own sanity --

Wouldn't MVC sales be better off recognizing that those of us participating in these TUG forums are unlikely to purchase points. If I were to characterize this group - a few are totally new to timeshare and are searching, most got caught and entered into a bad timeshare deal or two or three, most now seem somewhat experienced and savvy to the limitations of points, we own lots of legacy weeks, we are protective of those who may overbuy the MVC programs, we distrust the sales personnel, we do like the resorts, and we question our own sanity for our mistakes in timeshare. And we are gullible about attending another sales presentation but will for a trinket and can still be overwhelmed enough by the "imagine" theme to buy again.

What if there was a qualifying presentation question such as do you participate in TUG or TUG forums? Where would you categorize TUG members on your sales prospect list?
There are plenty of TUG members who have purchased points directly from Marriott. Some just straight up bought points, some did bundle packages and some enrolled post June 2010 weeks. There is an angle they can take for just about everyone.
 

ljmiii

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I write this to question my own sanity --

Wouldn't MVC sales be better off recognizing that those of us participating in these TUG forums are unlikely to purchase points....

What if there was a qualifying presentation question such as do you participate in TUG or TUG forums? Where would you categorize TUG members on your sales prospect list?
MVC (unlike HGVC) has chosen to offer products that are attractive to knowledgeable existing owners. I've purchased points to enroll resale weeks as well as purchased a hybrid bundle package at a price that was comparable to the cost of resale DPs + MVC's activation fees...and I chose a week with attractive MFs that I might want to use as a week.

And though I have never purchased one, MVC also sells non-US weeks that offer excellent point/price ratios (e.g. in Spain) as well as weeks in places like Aruba that allow one to enroll resale weeks and are arguably better deals than doing so by buying points.
 

DRH90277

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Heck! The entire review crew is up and about. Interested to see who responds to my ramblings....

So far, it looks like there is light toward the timeshare program...
 

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For 700 DC points I would attend for the 90 minutes. I am sure your parents would be ok for a couple hours :giggle:
My parents ended up bailing on the trip because a leaning tree was threading their house after weeks and weeks of rain.

So…we went to the presentation. And honestly, it was fantastic. Nicole at Timberlodge (actually at Grand Residence while their offices are updated) was super fun to talk with, the 90 minutes flew by and she was respectful of the time. She had a lot of knowledge about individual resorts. She definitely had some suspicious lines about this being the best time to buy because they are just mopping up after the acquisition, and all these deals will not be available going forward. Also that it will no longer be possible to enroll resale so we might as well buy a bundle.

She showed us the cruise site, which I had avoided like the plague in the past, but it actually looks like there may be some value there based on our mf per point. I’ll call on Monday but if the cabins listed online are available at the rates shown, we might save thousands on our upcoming Alaska cruise.

Anyway, a great way to spend 90 minutes and earn 700 points.
 

Tucsonadventurer

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We are staying at Hyatt Alli first then at North. Is there a different promotion offer if we aren't staying on site. I remember at one time there was.
 

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There are plenty of TUG members who have purchased points directly from Marriott. Some just straight up bought points, some did bundle packages and some enrolled post June 2010 weeks. There is an angle they can take for just about everyone.
What kind of purchase do you need to make to enroll post 6/10 weeks?
 

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We were at one of the Spain resorts recently and took offer of 400 Abound pts to attend a presentation. It was pretty low key, as they have had quite a few people buying to convert their resale weeks. We don't have any resale weeks.
 

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I've an "Owner's Update" next week with MVCI and it's always a sales presentation no matter the change of terms. As they tout Abound with the expected marketing, I'll ask them to skip it saying I won't use Elect for Club Points as Vistana redemptions for Hawaii are better without conversion even if unavailing O'ahu plus how avoiding owners selling is namely their using said ownership thus continuous marketing, my reasons for not buying during the sales pitch part are:
  • ownership reasons
    • I can book early but have many competing plans so no need for more: cruises, family obligations, real life, overseas family all max out work time off
    • too often no availability: not only are Select and Elites given at 13mos prior
    • deadlines for all the options are many, complex game: 3/31 and 7/1 and so on
    • $16.40/pt is usual but $3.50/pt edu fee is high and mf is too high
    • resale allows fine use without any penalties
      • it's not encumbered b/c it's paid off
      • it's not contractor owner because I not anyone else is the owner (else I'd neglect paying!)
    • restricted StarOptions are problematic
  • money reasons
    • owner / "maintenance" fees are unlimited, up $350
    • no limits on Abound fees
    • won't sacrifice opportunity cost as $ to real estate not pre-buying future travel
    • no resale value
    • costs to remove deed
    • rather choose flexible luxury not fixed pre-buying luxury
    • no regulatory on fees in general, lobbying is no good
    • Vistana2MVCI conversion ratio is poor, what can get 2w at a 2br for 5d in Hawaii in Vistana drops in power to whatever 2750 CP gets which isn't that much
  • time reasons
    • can't use any more time off given cruises, family, work, kids school needs
    • no time to keep playing the game of rules, my life has larger goals at hand
  • travel reasons
    • too few locations within driving
    • flying means more cost, tie-in i.e. anyone gets sick
Good luck to that salesman as I just want to go back to my day.
How about the one where MVC charges you 40% more for a Collette Tour than if you bought it directly from Collette
 

Quilter

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There are plenty of TUG members who have purchased points directly from Marriott. Some just straight up bought points, some did bundle packages and some enrolled post June 2010 weeks. There is an angle they can take for just about everyone.


We had a 10 week trip to Ocean Pointe and Grande Ocean. I was contacted a few times but didn't taken them up on a tour. If it was for 700 DC points I would have been tempted.

On the trip I spoke with a couple of the types of owners you refer to who bought points. Both were older than me and I'm 70. The sales push the one guy succumbed to was the enhanced status if he got to a higher level. He was already an owner at Grande Vista (golfer) and multiple OP weeks, both oceanside and oceanfront. He bought 1000 points and is now saddled with the m/f with no use for the points as he really only uses his weeks. His wife has bad knees and no longer golfs and is using a walker.

Another man was a recent widower at Grande Ocean. He said he converted all his weeks to points. It was a brief conversation but I wondered if the sales people got is weeks and he was now a purely points owner. Is that part of the plan in these sales presentations? If so, it's a dastardly move. His Grande Ocean weeks would have had a resale value but the points is a losing option.

Oh yes, and several years ago a widow with a wonderful portfolio called me from the sales presentation when the guy went out of the room for a few minutes to ask me about his suggestion she buy points. No, no, no!!!!!! Don't sign anything, just get out. We'll chat later. She was the picture of health, very active, conscious of good eating. Unfortunately, my dear friend is now gone after a quick bout of cancer.

My point is the Destinations program began in '10. These people went to a presentation when they were 60 and beyond. They already had a nice portfolio for their age. With a bit of trickery they were sold on making it "better" without the counsel to have a serious conversation with their heirs and that they didn't really need anything more.
 
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