We just got kicked out of a presentation

[rickandcindy23]

When we went to a Diamond presentation on Maui our second time ever on Maui, my mother-in-law, Rick's stepmom, went with us. She was hilarious because here is this older lady, 76 at the time, and she was crushing on the salesperson, who looked a lot like Kurt Russell in his younger years. He had blue eyes and a nice tan, and she was enjoying the entire presentation because he was so nice to her and kept bringing her coffee and sweets. I thought we would never get out of that one.

That particular day, this was July of 2006, there was a fire in the parking garage at the resort. When we arrived, Rick had to get people out of the garage who were in a panic before the firefighters got there. He was and is always a firefighter hero. So proud of him.

 

[capjak]

We have been to several, we like the $300 gift cards and sometimes they help us with things to do in the area. We are also professional plate lickers (that's what the financial advisors free dinners call our kind that don't intend to sign up).

 

[Iggyearl]

To the OP: You need to understand that you bought a CONTRACT that requires you and your wife to attend a 90 minute presentation at your vacation location. You owe them your time. Even though your wife may be "on to them," the salespeople don't consider themselves to be criminals or bad people. They are just trying to make a living. (albeit a nasty living). They only want the chance to tell their story. You need to listen. You might prepare, in advance, any reasons why you find a purchase not in your best interest.. It could be money. It could be family obligations. It could be that you both can't plan because of your jobs. Of course it could also be that you have researched Diamond Resorts and seen a lot of unhappy customers. (there are).

You can look at the following websites and form your own opinion: Ripoffreport - 236, Pissedconsumer - 291, BBB complaints - 1064 (in 3 years), Complaintsborad - 208, Trustpilot - 1268 (1 or 2 stars), and Tripadvisor - 1257. The numbers are fairly recent. There certainly will be overlap, and some complaints are minor. But you get the picture.

Be calm - be organized - be unemotional. And just drift through the 90 minutes. You can do it.

 

[rchansler]

Update: They rectified the situation. Yesterday, corporate rescheduled another presentation for this today. Then, this morning, they canceled the presentation, said we won't be charged for the cost of the room, and unhooked our account so we no longer have to do presentations for the remainder of our sampler. Thanks everyone for your advice!

 

[TamaraQT]

Which Diamond resort was this? I've heard Diamond sales pitches are becoming as bad as Westgate.

 

[winger]

We frequently get calls to get updates - sure, if they put it that way. We only go if time allows - it's free money. They offer, so why not? Just sit, listen and leave. Ask questions if you like.

 

[artringwald]

My vacation time is too valuable to even give up 90 mins.

That's exactly what I tell them when they try and get me to schedule a presentation. I usually ask them if they'd rather spend 90 minutes of their precious vacation in a meeting or 90 minutes on the beach. The honest ones say on the beach and let me go.

 

[Cornell]

That's exactly what I tell them when they try and get me to schedule a presentation. I usually ask them if they'd rather spend 90 minutes of their precious vacation in a meeting or 90 minutes on the beach. The honest ones say on the beach and let me go.

plus the times for the presentations are always in the middle of the day so it chops up the whole day.

 

[Luanne]

plus the times for the presentations are always in the middle of the day so it chops up the whole day.

Not always. We had a breakfast one in San Francisco (breakfast provided).

 

[winger]

Not always. We had a breakfast one in San Francisco (breakfast provided).

Most of ours include breakfast or mid morning snack

 

[pedro47]

We frequently get calls to get updates - sure, if they put it that way. We only go if time allows - it's free money. They offer, so why not? Just sit, listen and leave. Ask questions if you like.

It is not free money. You must sit and listen to a sale presentation for 90 minutes.

 

[Patri]

You could also ask the salesperson if they own at that resort. The response could be quite amusing.

 

[Snazzylass]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I shared them with my wife and she admits that she could have handled it better. She hates getting taken advantage of and high pressure sales. Plus, she was not feeling well. I think we learned from our sampler experience that these kinds of things aren't for us. Corporate scheduled another one for us tomorrow and said that if we show up and they refuse to let us do the 90 minutes that it will be on the sales associate and we won't be charged. My wife said that she'll play nice tomorrow if they let us do it.

Holy cow! 4??

So how did it work out yesterday?

Here's the disconnect: "She hates getting taken advantage of and high pressure sales" 1. Not understanding how you were being taken advantage of? You agreed to this, didn't you? A "free" vacation in exchange for the 90 minute presentation? 2. After the first time, how did you not know this was high pressure?

Where in life can you get something for nothing? Seems y'all have had a pretty good run. Stick around here. There's lots to learn - like DR has a reputation as a den of snakes.

 

[Snazzylass]

You could also ask the salesperson if they own at that resort. The response could be quite amusing.

Funny, but likely not relevant. My sister worked for RCI years ago (back when the DeHanns were just getting started). She could stay for free at T/S. Great perk! I would assume the same is true for the managers, at least. Usually a company wants you to be familiar with the product. My company offers me a significant discount on the product I offer.

 

[bogey21]

It is not free money. You must sit and listen to a sale presentation for 90 minutes.

Agree 100%...

George

 

[DesireMore]

I worked for Diamond Resorts for two years as an administrator. I worked closely with the sales department, and the sales people all see you guys as nothing but walking paychecks. I've worked for the timeshare industry off and on over the last fifteen years at pretty much every major timeshare company in various roles, even tried a short stint in sales. I've also done probably close to 60 presentations at all of them for various gifts, vacations, money, etc.

I say all of this because I can say in confidence that Diamond Resorts is among the worst presentations you could do for any incentives. Your experience in a sales presentation will depend on the sales rep you get and the sales manager you get, but some companies foster a more high-pressure sales environment than others. Companies whose main revenue stream is timeshare are worse than the big hotel brands who just have timeshare as a side hustle.

In summary, I've never had a problem doing any presentation with Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, or Disney. All were mostly positive experiences with no pressure, and I would not hesitate to do another presentation with them if offered an attractive incentive. The companies that I rate as the top 3 most likely to give a negative presentation experience are Westgate, Wyndham, and DRI.

 

[dioxide45]

Companies whose main revenue stream is timeshare are worse than the big hotel brands who just have timeshare as a side hustle.

These don't exist anymore. All of the big hotel brands (Marriott, Starwood, Hilton, Wyndham) spun off their timeshare divisions into stand alone publicly traded companies. There are not hotel brands with side hustle timeshare divisions anymore.

 

[CPNY]

We actually had the best experience at Lagunamar, we were upfront that we weren't going to buy, but we had a great 90 minute conversation about the resort, the area, where they're favorite places to eat were. Not to be confused with Vistana Resort when we said " no thank you" and stood up at 90 minutes only to have the salesperson chase us out yelling "you will be leaving your grandchildren nothing except a black and white TV".

To that salespersons credit..... it is a great line LOL

 

[sfwilshire]

I believe it was a Diamond presentation where I had to call the sales manager over three times because the sales person was so outrageous. I've sat quietly through several presentations that ended pleasantly, but I remember this one as being especially ridiculous. Your wife may have been justified.

Sheila

 

[x3 skier]

Just back from a trip to Orlando where a took a presento from HGVC as a penance for a $200 4 day /3 night Tuscan Village stay. Except for a 30 minute spiel complete with pretty classy slides from a Gordon Gecko type who omitted a few key details (but no outright lies), not a bad experience.

I chatted with the sales lady for about an hour, mostly about places we have been after clearly stating I had no intention of buying since I had all the TS I could ever need. She only made one attempt to sell an EOY deal, called the closer and the Sales Manger for verification I wasn’t buying and I was out the door with 30000 points, a free night (up to $200) in a Hilton property and a handful of granola bars.

Since the morning of the penance was 42 degrees while I was inside, I’d actually didn’t miss much of the mini break from Ohio winter.

I’ll post this in the HGVC Section as well for their info.

Cheers

 

[kckaren21]

I kind of enjoy the presentations as a way to learn more about the different systems, the area, plan for future trades, get free snacks...
DH won't go, so I have to pretend I'm single. (Obviously doesn't work at our TS)

Once I was let out in 30 mins, but the last time time the guy asked at the beginning "Is it ok if we go over a little?" Haha, of course I said No, I have plans right after. (Both times were at Welk Resorts). I always tell them I bought my timeshare on ebay for 25% of the price the resort offered me on the same day (the truth!), and I'm really only interested in the info and free food. I say it really nicely, tho, and have not had any adversarial experiences. My aunt was a timeshare salesperson for a short time (long before I had any interest in it), so I think they are generally just people with a sucky job, and I do my best to enjoy the time required to get the goodies.

At my resort, one guy tried to sell me on converting to points for $5,000 just so I could trade on RCI, instead of II. Who is stupid enough to fall for that?! lolz. He did not seem surprised when I said No.

 

[amycurl]

Our favorite time was at the Vidanta group in Mexico. They guy kept telling us we were lying about the MF for the unit we own and trade extensively, and that it was owner-controlled. (We were in Cancun on an AC at a two-bedroom oceanfront Royal Islander.) And then we said, "Why would we buy from someone who is insulting us and calling us liars?" It truly just became, well, comical. We laughed all the way home, and enjoyed our free day/passes to Tulum and Xel-ha. We did it because that was a pretty good deal, and we wanted to see the resort/units.

 

[DonnaD]

Vallarta Gardens cured us of ever attending another sales presentation.

 

[rapmarks]

This is making me remember a lot of bad presentations. Haven’t been on one in many years. For thos who remember brucecz, we went on a weekend trip with Bruce and his wife to our surprise, he only wanted to go to the different timeshares in the area and go to presentations.

 

[Jwerking]

We go to presentations frequently for the $200 prepaid charge card esp if rainy weather is predicted. Always book the morning appt and make it clear from the beginning that we came for the promotional gift. We listen politely and after they find out how many weeks we already own and are not interested in purchasing any more at the ripe old age of 65, we get out gift and leave.

We go to a lot of Marriott updates as owners - where reps are always polite and low pressure. They don’t even care if you have been to updates recently. We have only had one bad experience at Bluegreen at the Wisconsin Dells where a brand new rep told us that we were wasting his time and should have only come to the presentation if we were interested in buying. After completing the customer survey, I received a phone call from Bluegreen Corporate apologizing and the rep would be counseled. Just attended a Bluegreen presentation about 3 weeks ago in Branson where the staff were polite and respectful!

About 7 yrs ago, we booked a month vacation to Cabo where up to $500 in cash was offered for presentations. We scheduled numerous ones and collected probably $2K to offset our costs. Heck, why not, can’t sit on the beach every minute for a month!