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Timeshare User Group TUG Civic duty accomplished today.

billymach4

billymach4

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Went into the Lazy River at Aruba Surf Club after 4 today. As usual you begin to see familiar faces after spending a week here. Of course the chatter leads to timeshare and MVC chatter. Then it leads to Sales Tours.

Speaking of Sales Tours .. I must be blacklisted with a red flag? Oh well not crying. When I went to get my discount card and the no winner scratchy card the guy behind the desk made absolutely no mention of any bribery to attend the 90 min gig.

Anyway back to the plot. Of course I eventually mention TUG in a big way. Still I am amazed that a simple search on any connected device will return TUG2.NET however most times I mention this great forum I get the "No never heard of TUG". Well I don't speak softly and I can tell others are around are listening. So as the people exit then I get questions for others.

Happy to say that I spread the TUG gospel today poolside. Better than a T-shirt!
 
I would guess that the word of TUG gets spread poolside more than any other way!

It truly is quite something to see someone learn about TUG/resale/etc for the first time from a conversation you are having while on vacation!

Thanks to you and all those who have these conversations year in and year out!
 
I mention TUG fairly frequently on the MVC Grande Vista Facebook page, whenever people have questions that I remember being answered on TUG, or I figured would get plenty of answers on TUG.
 
I never really end up talking to anyone at the resorts. Even at the sales presentations no one is really around me wanting to talk lol.
 
I've had lots of conversations over the years but also seen even more people who simply don't want to be informed. Maybe they bought retail that trip, believe that their ownership can be treated as a business expense or that they can make large profits renting. I'd say the most common is simply that they can learn to do a better job of using their options and get the reservations/exchanges far more often that they would prefer. I do try hard not to speak into others lives unless they express further interest after opening that door.
 
Knowing that alot of folks poolside have indeed bought full freight from developers and direct sales I do attempt to soften the bad news about resales. As most of yall know my philosophy is that we need direct sales to support resales.

Then there are also the glazed over looks along with the quizical disbelief looks.

Just like we all have friends and relatives that despite advising against buying direct they just blatantly ignore our TUG Ninja skills.
 
I also suspect that some folks are not as adept or have little to no inclination to navigate the online and transactional nature of the timeshare aftermarket. It does take some time and patience to learn. After all I am still learning.
 
I am used to those glazed eyes and quizzical disbelief looks, as though I am lying like the last salesperson they talked to. It's caused me to back down from talking to some people who just cannot phantom a resale market.
 
rickandcindy23 said:
I am used to those glazed eyes and quizzical disbelief looks, as though I am lying like the last salesperson they talked to. It's caused me to back down from talking to some people who just cannot phantom a resale market.
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Definitely relate to this. Some people may think we are also trying to sell them more nonsense.
 
billymach4 said:
I also suspect that some folks are not as adept or have little to no inclination to navigate the online and transactional nature of the timeshare aftermarket. It does take some time and patience to learn. After all I am still learning.
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We never stop learning. I just received a call from Capital Vacations to set me up for a timeshare presentation. What is that all about? We own a week 52 at Foxrun and we are not at Foxrun at the moment. That is a strange call to get while sitting at home on the sofa.
 
billymach4 said:
Knowing that alot of folks poolside have indeed bought full freight from developers and direct sales I do attempt to soften the bad news about resales. As most of yall know my philosophy is that we need direct sales to support resales.

Then there are also the glazed over looks along with the quizical disbelief looks.

Just like we all have friends and relatives that despite advising against buying direct they just blatantly ignore our TUG Ninja skills.
Click to expand...

What the usual is for us is to be involved in a conversation about resorts and destinations while at the resort pool, hot tub or other public area, where a person we have just met is telling us how much they spent on the timeshare they just bought. My experience is that when you tell a person that they over paid buying the timeshare from the resort sales staff has been bad, so I just congratulated them anymore.

Occasionally, if my wife likes the couple, and she likes everyone off the get go, she will tell them that we have several timeshares where we didn't really pay much to own and only pay the maintenance fee. If they ask questions they will hear about Tug.

When we do attend a presentation, it rarely ever gets to 90 minutes because of the acquired "tug Ninja skills", lol.

Bill
 
I wear my t-shirt around the resorts, especially Wyndham. People never ask me about TUG, but I bring it up. I also bring it up with people who inquire on rentals. I tell them that I have almost 35,000 posts on this site, so if what I say isn't true about this listing I am renting, you can out me for being a scammer on TUG. It never happens, of course, because I know what I own and no one is going to complain about me here. I feel that it gives me substantial credibility.
 
rickandcindy23 said:
I wear my t-shirt around the resorts, especially Wyndham. People never ask me about TUG, but I bring it up. I also bring it up with people who inquire on rentals. I tell them that I have almost 35,000 posts on this site, so if what I say isn't true about this listing I am renting, you can out me for being a scammer on TUG. It never happens, of course, because I know what I own and no one is going to complain about me here. I feel that it gives me substantial credibility.
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Whole heart ❤️ agree 👍
 
rickandcindy23 said:
I wear my t-shirt around the resorts, especially Wyndham. People never ask me about TUG, but I bring it up. I also bring it up with people who inquire on rentals. I tell them that I have almost 35,000 posts on this site, so if what I say isn't true about this listing I am renting, you can out me for being a scammer on TUG. It never happens, of course, because I know what I own and no one is going to complain about me here. I feel that it gives me substantial credibility.
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I have worn my TUG T-Shirt a couple of times but my wife forbids it now. It does tend to shorten the sales presentations though.
 
Dean said:
I have worn my TUG T-Shirt a couple of times but my wife forbids it now. It does tend to shorten the sales presentations though.
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Our son called me a dork last time I wore it. I laughed, he laughed, but he really does think I am a dork when I wear that shirt. I have two of them. Pink and blue. The blue one was supposed to be for Rick, but he has never worn it.

I am a vacation pusher, according to my family. Yes, well I do have a lot of weeks for the kids to use.
 
rickandcindy23 said:
Our son called me a dork last time I wore it. I laughed, he laughed, but he really does think I am a dork when I wear that shirt. I have two of them. Pink and blue. The blue one was supposed to be for Rick, but he has never worn it.
I am a vacation pusher, according to my family. Yes, well I do have a lot of weeks for the kids to use.
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I don't normally wear t-shirts but I'd love to have one or two nice polo type shirts with the TUG logo on them.
 
The memories and the experiences are priceless.
rickandcindy23 said:
Our son called me a dork last time I wore it. I laughed, he laughed, but he really does think I am a dork when I wear that shirt. I have two of them. Pink and blue. The blue one was supposed to be for Rick, but he has never worn it.

I am a vacation pusher, according to my family. Yes, well I do have a lot of weeks for the kids to use.
Click to expand...
 
rickandcindy23 said:
I wear my t-shirt around the resorts, especially Wyndham. People never ask me about TUG, but I bring it up. I also bring it up with people who inquire on rentals. I tell them that I have almost 35,000 posts on this site, so if what I say isn't true about this listing I am renting, you can out me for being a scammer on TUG. It never happens, of course, because I know what I own and no one is going to complain about me here. I feel that it gives me substantial credibility.
Click to expand...
I need to make up some sort of T-Shirt with a good quip on it - I have all the stuff to make T-Shirts, I just rarely do.
 
Dean said:
I don't normally wear t-shirts but I'd love to have one or two nice polo type shirts with the TUG logo on them.
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ill ask/see if there is a polo shirt option on tspring to add the tug logos to.
 
billymach4 said:
Knowing that alot of folks poolside have indeed bought full freight from developers and direct sales I do attempt to soften the bad news about resales. As most of yall know my philosophy is that we need direct sales to support resales.

Then there are also the glazed over looks along with the quizical disbelief looks.

Just like we all have friends and relatives that despite advising against buying direct they just blatantly ignore our TUG Ninja skills.
Click to expand...
It happens with everything. People know me as "the researcher", and there's even a joke about "bla bla is good if you do it like jp10558 does it (but he's a little strange and everything is complicated)". Yea - the mass easy way is usually the just below average way of whatever. IDK, the 40% percentile or something. I mostly just try and hit the 75% percentile - usually I can get there without getting into serious diminishing returns. It just takes a little time up front to figure stuff out and sometimes a little more money in replacing the first researched choice due to some things that are such personal preference you cannot know till you try it. What's crazy to me is people don't learn from me (on how to figure stuff out on their own), or listen to me. Probably because it's somewhat "different", you're not walking into Wal Mart and grabbing it most of the time.
 
sadly they claim they only do tshirts and hoodies :(
 
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