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One thing the salesman got right

mindy35

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We still have incentive to travel in a poor economy

As I stare at "my itineraries" section of my UAL account, I am appreciating the decision to bite the bullet and purchase this timeshare when we did.

In normal economic times, we are fortunate to have a pipeline of trips planned out for the year ahead. Now I view my itinerary listings and see that the only travel we currently have planned is for the use of our units. And we feel fortunate to have that.

We are organizing our next trip to HI. I must say that it feels as if it is a good $$ deal since the only cost is the MF. We are also encouraged by the fact that we can minimize the cost of our trip by not eating every meal out at restaurants.

We recently went to a presentation at another property/TS system . It was high pressure, deliberately misleading and eventually got rude and insulting (even moderators on this board have declared it a confusing system). Although we originally had no intention of buying, we momentarily got enticed by the thought of locking in more vacation time in the future. We luckily came to our senses in the nick of time and did not sign on the dotted line.

I know there are lots of complaints about SVO's treatment of owners but I will say that our initial Starwood sales presentation was professional and respectful and we have not regretted our purchase for a single minute.

Aloha!
 
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tomandrobin

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My Westin sales presentations have always been very good, in fact only one other timeshare company gives a better tour and that is Disney.
 

LisaRex

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I've never been on a TS tour bought when we went out to check out WKORV and WKV, the salespeople were very nice. And every now and then I feel a twinge of guilt saying "RESCIND!!" because I know these guys have to support their families too. (Of course, if Starwood would price these units correctly, I think it would help sell them.)
 

WalnutBaron

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I agree with the OP. My wife and I recently stayed at the Marriott Desert Springs Villas in Palm Springs on a Getaway purchase through II. The sales pressure to take the tour of the Enclaves section of their Shadow Ridge property was overwhelming. We kind of expected to get the pitch from the concierge when we received our "welcome packet". What we did not expect was the pitch to take the tour from the activities director, or the person at the front desk when we checked in, or the mid-week call we received to see how we were doing and would we like to take a tour of the new Enclaves section.

The crowning blow was when we walked into the lobby of the beautiful Desert Springs hotel for a nice dinner we'd planned. We were accosted by one of the Shadow Ridge salespeople as we came through the front door.

Westin's approach is much more professional, much less hard-sell. One of the reasons we're owners in the SVO network.
 

dss

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That is funny, we recently came back from Shadow Ridge and did the preview tour. Easily the worst tour I've ever done. The rep was beyond insulting and unprofessional. The closer was disinterested (I guess the rep told him we were a lost cause). Anyway, that was my first, and last, Marriott preview tour experience. The only good news is that we were able to get out of there in under an hour as the salesperson wanted to cut her losses.
 

sjuhawk_jd

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How about if we reciprocate

That is funny, we recently came back from Shadow Ridge and did the preview tour. Easily the worst tour I've ever done. The rep was beyond insulting and unprofessional. The closer was disinterested (I guess the rep told him we were a lost cause). Anyway, that was my first, and last, Marriott preview tour experience. The only good news is that we were able to get out of there in under an hour as the salesperson wanted to cut her losses.

Since some of these salespeople are so unprofessional, insulting and lie all the time, how about if we reciprocate. Ask for the manager/security if the salesperson is insulting and say that "the salesperson made sexual comments at my spouse" or something like that. Your mood is spoiled anyway, why not create a scene!

I have enough timeshares now and due to these issues I have stopped taking the timeshare tours.

This got to be stopped somehow.

There are all kinds of people in this world who have to support their families without insulting and lying to others.

What do you say!
 

calgarygary

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Since some of these salespeople are so unprofessional, insulting and lie all the time, how about if we reciprocate. Ask for the manager/security if the salesperson is insulting and say that "the salesperson made sexual comments at my spouse" or something like that. Your mood is spoiled anyway, why not create a scene!

I have enough timeshares now and due to these issues I have stopped taking the timeshare tours.

This got to be stopped somehow.

There are all kinds of people in this world who have to support their families without insulting and lying to others.

What do you say!

I do hope you are not suggesting that people lie about sexual harassment in order to get a salesperson fired. That approach is beyond comment.
 

FlyerBobcat

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I do hope you are not suggesting that people lie about sexual harassment in order to get a salesperson fired. That approach is beyond comment.

Agree, it seems way too low to stoop -- even in these situations

In any case, it sounds like something that could potentially lead to legal issues.
 

WalnutBaron

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I say we stick to the truth and let the chips fall where they may. The high road is never the wrong road.

Well said, Lisa. Besides, we all know what we're getting into when we agree to take a preview tour.

There is one thing, however, that we CAN do without hesitation. Those who sign us up for these tours routinely tell us that the tour will take "90 minutes of your time". Let's hold them to that. The next time I agree to take a tour, I am going to take my watch off and set it on the salesman's desk as a reminder. And when we have ten minutes to go, I'm going to make sure he or she knows that we're leaving in ten minutes. I have seen some poor couples who are too polite to say so but have wasted 3-4 hours getting buttonholed on a tour.
 

mindy35

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Been there....done that

There is one thing, however, that we CAN do without hesitation. Those who sign us up for these tours routinely tell us that the tour will take "90 minutes of your time". Let's hold them to that. The next time I agree to take a tour, I am going to take my watch off and set it on the salesman's desk as a reminder. And when we have ten minutes to go, I'm going to make sure he or she knows that we're leaving in ten minutes.

We actually did try this at our most recent tour. I posted this experience afterward:

"First we had the breakfast. We did not reveal that we were already owners of a timeshare. After our 1/2 hour - 45 minutes at breakfast (at which we asked many pointed, timeshare specific questions), we told him we only had an hour before our family would be meeting us for our activity of the day (hence fulfilling our 90 minute requirement) and he immediately got rude.

"No, no, no!!! The 90 minutes starts NOW! Don't you dare timebomb me." When we walked into the presentation room he announced loudly to anyone who would listen "Hey guys...I've been TIMEBOMBED here!"

This alerted the troops and we had a group of 4 "managers" hovering over us during the salesman's pitch. They waited to have their turn at us after our initial "No Thank You." They held the confirmation/ratification of the discounts promised over our heads to wait until they were finished. We had already invested that much time and we thought we weren't going to give up then. Our poor friends were waiting for us on the other side of the door.

My husband's only regret is that he did not stand up at the end and yell in the same fashion as our salesman did (so that everyone else in the room could hear).................."WHAT???? YOU ARE OFFERING US 117,000 POINTS PLUS BONUSES FOR ONLY $13,000???? AND YOU ARE WILLING TO GO LOWER??? WOW!!!!" "

It was the most offensive, sleazy, confusing and amateurish presentation we had ever attended. We were initially pulled in by the $$ savings they were offering (I think we netted $400-500 worth of incentives). We enjoyed the resort so we were considering it for a second but the techniques the salesman used (and realistically, the info I have gained from TUG) made us walk away."

So much for getting them to stand by their commitments. A tell tale sign for sure!
 
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