Softballdad, I am so surprised at your stand on this one, my friend. Consider that NO ONE goes to a presentation to buy, but some buy anyway.
It's a numbers game. The salespeople know they cannot sell everyone who comes in the door, and if they did, they wouldn't make as much per sale as they do now. How many people really go to a timeshare presentation, where they have been invited
from the street by some vendor or body snatcher. No way would anyone go to a timeshare presentation from a cold call or if just invited by a stranger, without an incentive. It's the nature of the beast.
(Softballdad3}
Hi Cindy! I 'm not taking the sales people side at any time but what I am saying is we understand they will say anything to hook a buyer. People going in to this have no right to moan and complain later that they wasted all this time when all they were there for were the gifts.
I do disagree with you that no one goes to buy because many go in with that idea and sometimes these salesman talk them out of buying because of the lies.
My point is all these people should understand what their putting themselves in for and people do need to be responsable for their own actions.
Your right that many Tuggers and non-Tuggers go to check out a resort for trade but most just go as a lie to buy when all they want are the freebies and these people are lying as much as the sales people are.
These people want to be honest then walk in and state I don't want to buy but am only here for the free stuff!:rofl: But instead they will sit and try and act interested for few minutes and waste this persons time and then whine that they sit for ninty minutes. They could get up and walk out but of coarse they wouldn't get those free gifts.
I do not like the term gifts because that gift cost them 90 minutes of their life.
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We bought two timeshares from developers, always intending not to buy. And we plan to go on a tour of Fairfield specifically to buy and convert our weeks to Platinum VIP (or maybe Presidential, who knows?). This will happen very soon, but I have to be prepared for the purchase--meaning I will know what we are going to pay ahead of time, and it will be the lowest maintenance fees and purchase price I can find from the developer. We will travel specifically to that destination for that purpose.
I think it is very wise to get informed. If we hadn't attended a Fairfield presentation almost a year ago, we wouldn't know what we now know, as I wouldn't have cared to find out on my own. Now that we are confident in the system, we are going to sell almost everything else and just purchase Fairfield, because it has all of the qualities that we want. We own points now, quite a few, actually, all bought resale, mostly from RPMI Realty and Jeff Fudge/ Angel England. Platinum is what we need to use the product more efficiently, so we WILL buy, and comparing that system to Diamond/ Sunterra, Marriott, and a few others we checked out, some that we own as well, like RCI Points, just seemed like a wise way to compare systems.
It is our right to talk to salespeople and become informed before a major purchase. We also go to several car dealers, look at their products, take a test drive, and then move on to the next dealer. Once we decide on a car, we go to several dealers and get the best price. That is the smart way to do it.
Sure the developers offer free gifts, but it is part of the game, and it is a game. The lies are a part of the game I don't enjoy.
I have only known about TUG for less than 3 years, so I received almost all of my education from timeshare salespeople over the years. I am not as likely to go on any ol' presentation anymore. Rick and I are looking for quality and value for our retirement years. If a new product comes out that intrigues us, we will sure look into it by attending yet another timeshare presentation. I still haven't been to a Worldmark presentation, which is another one on my list to learn about. We also are very curious about Bluegreen because there are locations that we love within that system. Exchanging is getting more difficult as mini-systems take a larger share of the market. We cannot count on exchanging in the future, so owning within a system is going to become more and more necessary.
Consider the knowledge we have on TUG that people out there don't get from salespeople, no matter how many $100 gifts they take? Too bad some people have to get their timeshare education from salespeople, but most do.