Saying "NO" to timeshare

[mjgruber]

Not liking everything or not agreeing with them helps. Then they can't ever get you into the negotiating stage. When they say "wouldn't this be nice"? Well, not really...we prefer hotels. I actually have fun looking for hotel and trip bargains...no we don't like to golf...we're not beach people, etc. etc.
(all honesty on our part). I also am honest with the salesperson. I told one one time that if I was ever going to buy a time share it would've been from her because she was good, but that I'm not ever going to buy one. So then you'll get, "well why did you come then?" For the FREE STUFF that you keep insisting we go for! You didn't ask us when we signed up for this whether we'd actually consider buying one! All they care about at that time is whether we meet the minimum income requirements. Their fault for their screening process!
We're doing one this weekend, as a matter of fact, in Charleston, where we're getting two free hotel nights, a carriage ride and a $25 gift certificate to a store. But we have to go through the 90 minute spiel. It's okay, we're ready for them.
The worst experience I ever had was making the mistake to be driven to one in the Bahamas. NEVER AGAIN. When we said no, they had no interest in taking us anywhere and we had no idea where we were. They wouldn't even let us use the phone. At least here in the States we have some protection.
I might add that I'm not dissing anyone that chooses to purchase a time share. It can be worth it to a lot of people. It's just not for us.

After 90 minutes I start getting louder by the minute..."WHAT PART OF NO ! DONT YOU GET ! ".

 

[TN Traveler]

I haven't read all 5 pages of this post but the first 2 pages had a lot of good comments and replys so I wanted to post a reply too. 24 yrs ago my DH and I were on our honeymoon in Panama City Beach, FL. We were offered a complimentary meal at Capt Anderson's if we would "tour" this new property aka timeshare. Well, being on our honeymoon we were very "giggly" and easy to get along with. We really liked the resort and considering the fact that both of us LOVE the beach and PCB is only 8 hrs from our house, we bought a week. That was probably one of the best decisions we have ever made. Yes, there have been a few years we couldn't make our week due to pregnancies or other vacation destinations but I'm willing to guess we've been to our condo 18 times in the last 24 yrs. The years we didn't go we either gave it to a family member or rented it to someone else and made a nice little proffit that covered the yearly maintance fee and gave us a couple extra hundred dollars.

Now, the question is would I go to another sales pitch and sit through a song and dance talk.....no, probably not. Timeshares cost double or even triple what we paid for ours 24 yrs ago (doesn't everything?!) and for us, it's just not worth it. We were a member of RCI and never once took advantage of the exchange privileges. We love PCB so much that we always wanted to stay at our "2nd home" and if we wanted to go somewhere different, we did it on our own. One year we went to Colorado w/my parents and stayed each night in a different hotel. One year we went to St Augustine, Daytona Beach, Port Canaveral, saw a shuttle go up and back home. One year we went to Puerto Rico for a week. We've always enjoyed going to the condo but there have been times when we couldn't go. It's easy to rent out if we don't go and honestly, I wish we had another unit a different week or another unit the same week.

One person mentioned they went to one at a resort in Cancun. Let me tell ya, those are the toughest ones!! I am a travel agent and have had MANY people come to me w/these special offers they get in the mail----Come to Orlando and stay in this property they'd get passes to Disney or whatever and then a 3 day crusie or 3 nts in Vegas. That's all a bunch of hogwash folks. If I have only 3 days to be somewhere, I sure won't waste 1/2 of a day listening to a sales pitch about something I know I can't afford or not interested in buying. My time is just too precious for that. When we went to Cancun we were approached about timeshares as well. I simply told them I was a travel agent, wasn't interested and kept walking. This woman actually started walking w/us trying to talk us into coming to their presentation. After politely telling her "no thank you" at LEAST 5 times, I finally turned to her and said "Look, I know you're just trying to do your job but I am not interested. I'm a travel agent. I can go pretty much anywhere I want, when I want at a fraction of what you're offering so NO THANK YOU and good bye." She left us alone after that. I did have another rep approach us at a different resort but I told her we didn't have the income required to buy one....she said "Oh, are you a stay at home mom?" I said "Yes, and I'm also a home based travel agent that works on commission." She said "Oh, have a good day!" and never bothered us again!

My best advice I can share w/ya'll is the same thing I tell my clients when they are going to Cancun or Hawaii. Just say no thank you and keep walking. If they keep bugging you, just keep walking. If you get suckered into a meeting, just tell them your income doesn't qualify and be done w/it. I also like the idea of taking the stop watch and giving them only the 90 minutes or so of time required. That's a great idea. Or better yet, just don't go. In my opinion, my time on vacation is MY time...I don't want to share it w/anyone for a complimentary meal or sightseeing tour or anything else like that.

Good luck to those that attend these meetings.

Karen

 

[dustysky]

Read the fine print and don't do this overseas but I know someone who'd just buy and then cancel the next day, sometimes even the same day.

I didnt think you could do that.

 

[dustysky]

EDCOP:

I think that if I lived out of state I would feel the same as you, however, I live in Florida , only 3 hours away from Disney. I can go to Orlando everyweekend if I choose (or can afford) so for us the hour is no big deal when we already know we can come back as many times as we want.
That being said, we have only done a few time shares and normally we take the $70.00- $100. cash and smile on the way out!

 

[djm99]

I didnt think you could do that.

Yeah you have 3 days to cancel. Friends of ours, went to a Kinkos like place and wrote up a basic letter and then faxed it and mailed a copy post marked within 24 hours of the purchase. They were not held responsible financially and since they put their deposit on a credit card (they called to cancel that) it worked out perfectly fine.

 

[edcopp]

This is getting funnier and funnier every time someone else posts to this thread.

Now we are going beyond just sitting through the presentation for some incentives and/or cash. Now we're actually agreeing to purchase a timeshare from somebody, wasting what has to be at least another hour doing paperwork, running credit cards etc.... When we know that we're just going to cancel the thing anyway?!? This, apparently, also requires a 20-30 minute stop at Kinkos. This is how you prefer to spend your vacation time?

The worst part of it is the toying with some poor schlub who's just trying to make a living there. It's one thing to say "no" when you know that you're not interested, but to say "yes," give the salesperson a credit card, have them go through the agreements with you, shake your hand, wish you well, etc... When you know in the back of your mind that you're just playing with him/her?!? That's horrible.

Do you people buy expensive dresses for weddings/holiday parties, wear them and then return them a week later too?!?

 

[Lewisc]

A warning---the 3 day rule does not apply overseas. Some people found that not only couldn't they get a refund but the Mexican timeshare company hired a United States law firm to try and make them close on the contract.

Yeah you have 3 days to cancel. Friends of ours, went to a Kinkos like place and wrote up a basic letter and then faxed it and mailed a copy post marked within 24 hours of the purchase. They were not held responsible financially and since they put their deposit on a credit card (they called to cancel that) it worked out perfectly fine.

 

[MaMa3Princess]

Yeah you have 3 days to cancel. Friends of ours, went to a Kinkos like place and wrote up a basic letter and then faxed it and mailed a copy post marked within 24 hours of the purchase. They were not held responsible financially and since they put their deposit on a credit card (they called to cancel that) it worked out perfectly fine.

YEp we did this too Westgate, Yes we cried and poo-poo all the way to Disney with our 100 dollars cash aswell as free tickets. Do, I feel sorry for them No!!! because after we sent our letter Fed Ex to cancel our contract we had to spend 30 minutes on the telephone as well as tell them we are recording this conversation and giving it to a lawyer. Those people are sharks and they are unscrupulous. I would tell anyone TAKE THEIR MONEY!! BEcause guess what for the 9 people that tells them no, 1 sucker --I mean person will tell them yes and they make a nice penny on it.

 

[djm99]

This is getting funnier and funnier every time someone else posts to this thread.

Now we are going beyond just sitting through the presentation for some incentives and/or cash. Now we're actually agreeing to purchase a timeshare from somebody, wasting what has to be at least another hour doing paperwork, running credit cards etc.... When we know that we're just going to cancel the thing anyway?!? This, apparently, also requires a 20-30 minute stop at Kinkos. This is how you prefer to spend your vacation time?

The worst part of it is the toying with some poor schlub who's just trying to make a living there. It's one thing to say "no" when you know that you're not interested, but to say "yes," give the salesperson a credit card, have them go through the agreements with you, shake your hand, wish you well, etc... When you know in the back of your mind that you're just playing with him/her?!? That's horrible.

Do you people buy expensive dresses for weddings/holiday parties, wear them and then return them a week later too?!?

I agree - I think that is a little deep (saying yes - and knowing you are going to cancel) but in the case of the friends I mentioned, they purchased with her father/step mom and my friends husband was not happy about the possibility of carrying that financial burden alone. The husband all but made her cancel that Timeshare. It was a good thing they cancelled when they did, because her step mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer a few months after that trip. It’s been since 2003 (almost three years now) and the step mom is fine now. They (my friends) would have been responsible because of the sickness – and the step mom’s lack of work. My DH and I don't have that problem - the problem of saying "NO"!! We just say it!!

 

[dtauer]

I've always said there was no way I would ever consider a timeshare presentation. I didn't want anything to possibly tarnish our vacation memories at WDW.

However, after a lot of research, we did buy DVC. So far we love it and have no regrets.

When we just bought tickets through Orbitz, they offered a link to get $150 cash to attend a presentation at Fairfield Bonnet Creek. This one I may actually jump for. For 90 - 120 minutes, $150 is a lot of money. Not only that, but they claim to be "on-site" in that the property is actually on a small portion of the Disney area that is not owned by Disney. For curiosity sake, and $150, it might be worthwhile.

If anyone has done the Fairfield Bonnet Creek presentation let me know what it's like. Thanks.

We did end up doing the presentation mentioned above and for anyone who's interested - here's our take on the presentation and property.

Let me start by saying that during our presentation they were VERY careful to clarify their relationship with Disney. They talked about the proximity to Disney, needing to use Disney roads to get to the property, and they even had the Disney information channel on in the "sample" rooms. However, our guide was very careful whenever mentioning Disney to end the sentence with "but remember, we are not part of Disney".

The presentation started poorly before we ever left home. The person setting up the appointment had no idea how to handle us since we set up the tour through Orbitz. They kept telling us to return to the presentation center, whatever that is, to set up our appointment. My parents did the same presentation, also booking through Orbitz, and ended up calling back several times until they got someone who could actually set up the appointment.

When we arrived, more confusion. According to them we had no appointments, and ended up needing to get a manager to figure out what was going on. After committing my morning to get my $150 I wasn't going to just leave. Finally, we got entered into the computer, and set up for our appointment. After 20 minutes waiting in the lobby, our guide finally found us. Don't know if the 20 minutes waiting should have counted towards our time committment or not.

We were then lead to a room with a model of the property layout with all of the planned buildings. They also mentioned that a few other hotels would be placed on the property such as a Waldorf Astoria. This room also had a few display panels where our guide punched in some data such as 2 weeks of vacation, over 20 years, at $150/night, adds up to some unbelievable amount for a lifetime of vacations. Nothing shocking there, travel is very expensive. She was trying to show how using hotels for your vacations is like renting instead of owning.

Next we were lead into a room full of people with snacks, coffee and juice. In this room there were probably 15 groups of guides, husbands, and wifes. Also a lot of kids, they must not have childcare. Because of all of the people, and kids, this room was so noisy we could barely hear our guide. Not the kind of place I want to be discussing financial matters, information about our children, and future vacation plans. Even stranger was that our guide was paged, she left, and returned with my parents. She said there was some sort of mixup and that we were all on the same reservation number. At first I didn't want to have my parents included with us, but once we verified both couples would get the $150, and we really had no plans to buy anyway, it would work out fine since we travelled there together. The other thing that was very noticeable was the way they matched race with couples. For example, we had a midwestern white guide. The African American couple next to us had an African American guide, and Hispanic couples were placed with Hispanic guides.

On to the tours. She started us in a 1 bedroom, moved up to a 2 bedroom and finally to the 4 bedroom presidential suite. She kept talking about ignoring the points, once we were members we could stay for $65/night in the 1 bedroom through some new program. She also kept talking about the presidential suite and how nice it would be for a family get together. Sure it would, but at what cost? Sorry, can't talk about points or money until we returned to the presentation center.

Overall the property and rooms are very nice. A lot of tile floors, tasteful furnishings, and nice decorating. The rooms seemed bigger than the comparable units at Saratoga Springs where we stayed last week. A couple of things we didn't like. They used the lazy river as a big selling point, and to us it would only be nice if you think a river is about 50 yards long. It seemed to be a very small loop around the pool. The landscaping was new and very nice, but definately did not have the upkeep that we've seen at the Disney resorts.
Also, some parts of the buildings seemed a little cheap. For example, knocking on the exterior "concrete" walls, showed that they weren't concrete after all, but had a textured concrete look, and sounded hollow behind. Not sure is this is a problem, but I know that at Saratoga Springs we rarely hear any outside sound, and knocking on the exterior walls show they are very well insulated.

Finally, the sales pitch. By now we are already over 2 hours, but the property is very nice, and wanted to at least hear what they had to offer. Plus, since we were up late the night before, I knew our kids were probably still sleeping back at Saratoga Springs.

She first concentrated on the 4500 properties available via RCI. She kept making us pick among the places we'd like to go and telling us we could go anywhere because Florida timeshares are the most valuable in the world for trading. Strike 1, we know this isn't true, Bonnett Creek is a deluxe property, but Florida is satured in the timeshare market.

Next she actually talked about some numbers. She showed us how for minimal points we could stay in some place in Virginia 3 times a year or something like that. Strike 2, I can find a place to stay for cheap as well, I want some specifics on what this is going to cost at a realistic desination for us. She didn't give us information on staying in Hawaii, or California, she kept going back to her Virginia example.

Finally, I cut her off and she gave us the information for strike 3. I told her that while my kids are living at home, we will be travelling to Orlando and want a deluxe resort. I want the points I would need to stay at Bonnett Creek, in a 2 bedroom, for 6 nights. This would give me a direct comparison to what we get at Saratoga Springs for our points. She could only give me a range, her manager would have to develop the price. Her manager came to talk with us, and was very nice, but gave me a price higher for Bonnett Creek than I payed for our Disney points. I told him this, and then he switched to some scheme where we would get points every other year and then by borrowing and having "gifted" points and blah, blah, blah we would be able to stay at Bonnett Creek in a 2 bedroom for 6 nights a year. The 2 problems with this was that the "gifted" points only lasted 3 years and then we wouldn't be able to do that anymore. Also, the price STILL wasn't much less than my DVC cost. Sorry, if I can't stay there for significantly less than Disney, I'm just not interested.

So far it's easy, everyone's been very nice, but we have been there for 2.5 hours. We had one final stop to give our opinions on their presentation and how they can improve. Sat down with the final person and she asked us how we were greeted, how our salesperson treated us, what we thought about the units etc. Piece of cake, I'm thinking we're about 1 minute from our money. Suddenly this final person states, "I know how to make you happy with our resort, I'm going to give you a bunch of points to try us out". At this point I lost my patience as I realized she wasn't going to give us our money and was just one more pitch in the cycle. I told her the 2 hour time was more than over, I didn't want to listen to anything else except someone counting the money into my hand.

She stamped our document and pointed us down the hall to the gift center. As we feared, they insisted we only got $150 since we toured together with my parents, but upon insisting that they had promised $150 per couple, we did receive all of our money.

Sorry this is so long, but I'm hoping that someone can gain some insight into the process from our experience. There seems to be a lot of uncertainty about whether the presentations are worth the gifts or not, and I hope this helps answer those questions. Would we do it again with Farfield Bonnett Creek. Yes, without a doubt. It was not nearly as high pressure as I expected, and I felt that our guide and our manager were polite and understood the reasons we didn't want to buy. It also helped to make them do a concrete comparison to Disney. In our opinion, if you want to stay at Bonnett Creek, it doesn't stack up well using their retail prices. However, if we do another presentation I will be firmer on the time as we ended up spending almost 3 hours there.

 

[spiceycat]

sounds like Disney had a talk with the management at Fairfield....

I know the sales pitch I had heard before - Fairfield was acting like it was part of Disney.....

at least now they are being honest. which is very, very, very hard for timeshare sales people....

the only Fairfield I did was in Destin and they were very pushy....they didn't know I asked my friends (who recommend me) for their bottom line number.

they never came even close to that number....I might have brought but I had found a resale timeshare on the beach before then...

 

[mbb]

I appreciate you took the time to be so detailed in your review

I'm glad that it all worked out ok (and you both got your hard earned cash!! )

I'm really surprised that they're more cash than even DVC...well, not really surprised, but I figured their bottom line price would be more in line with what DVC and Marriott are selling for..

Thanks again, all good info to know

 

[djm99]

Thanks dtauer,

I enjoyed your review.

 

[lawgs]

an exchange into Bonnet Creek using RCI is next to impossible, partly due to the fairfield points and internal trading within fairfield.....even if someone from fairfield who owned bonnet creek exchanged into RCI, the "unit" would not necessarily show up in rci inventory

 

[keishashadow]

dtauer - thanx for the informative report, I've been wondering how the presentations were run.

We arrive @ Sheraton Vistana on Saturday. Originally, we spoke twice to 2 different individuals confirming our participation in the TS offer (4 nights for $149 + $14 tax/night; with $100 cash refunded the day after we arrive - with NO TS PRESENTATION requirement).

They have called us @ least 3 or 4 times since I booked res. a few months ago. Verifying that we will be staying with them, do we have any questions, did we sign up for diamond lane & Surprise, Surprise!!!! would we be interested in touring the resort?

Um, no - slip the $100 under our door - please.LOL The last gentleman I spoke to indicated that he was the concierge & he'd be looking for us in the lobby when we arrive.???

I keep asking when/how do I get reimbursed the $100 but, every one is very vague. Concierge mentioned something about a "voucher" @ checkin to redeem the next day.

I will raise all kind of heck if they jerk me around on the $100 that was promised, in writing, along with all of the other details.

Anyone else accept this particular offer? Did you get your reimbursement?

 

[TotoToo]

Her manager came to talk with us, and was very nice, but gave me a price higher for Bonnett Creek than I payed for our Disney points. I told him this, and then he switched to some scheme where we would get points every other year and then by borrowing and having "gifted" points and blah, blah, blah we would be able to stay at Bonnett Creek in a 2 bedroom for 6 nights a year. The 2 problems with this was that the "gifted" points only lasted 3 years and then we wouldn't be able to do that anymore. Also, the price STILL wasn't much less than my DVC cost. Sorry, if I can't stay there for significantly less than Disney, I'm just not interested.

I don't know if you are seriously interested in BC or not but if you are you can easily buy for less than 30% of what you were quoted at the presentation. How? Unlike DVC Points Fairfield does not ROFR resale points and in fact goes out of their way to devalue resales. Thus points that cost $.12-$.15 at retail you can buy at $.03 or less. And you don't need to buy at BC. Any points in the FF system will get you into any FF resort.

Right now, thanks to this unexplanable attitude by FF, Fairfield points on resale are one of the greatest bargains in timeshare. FF resorts are beautiful and the locations keep expanding. If you have any interest in buying Fairfield do not even consider retail and look seriously into a resale purchase of 200,000 to 250,000 annual points and you will get those 6 nights or more at BC or any other FF resort for far less than DVC prices in units larger than DVC's are.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

My Mom or my Dad says to them we are going home the very next day & 99.9% of the time we are lying. After we tell them that we just walk away & do not look back at them.

 

[robinb]

My DH and own at DVC (2 contracts) and we do the occasional timeshare presentation. We bought our first DVC contract after a terrible experience with Westgate. I actually said to the manager "What part of 'No' don't you understand?" Sharks. I agree that if you can make it through a Westgate, you can make it through anything .

We don't do Orlando timeshares anymore, but we do them in Hawaii were we are more laid back and have more time to waste. We did two of them on our last trip, one at the Hilton Waikoloa Village and one at the Sheraton in Oahu. We always tell the salespeople that we own at DVC so we understand the concepts and we have our vacations already planned. Plus, my DH has close to 1,000,000 Hilton Honors points, so we can stay just about anywhere for free. We also tell them we are there for the goodies and that we are not interested in buying, but we will be happy to listen for the next 90 minutes. The salesperson in Oahu was very nice and I enjoyed my time with him. The salesperson on the Big Island got really pissed off at us for wasting her time and was a complete biatch. She pulled out the picture of her son and told us we were taking the food out of his mouth! We were taking up her time where should could be talking to someone who wanted to buy. I came thisclose to reporting her behavior to her manager, but I didn't. I didn't want to let her ruin my vacation and when she said very icily "I'll be happy to see you out." I replied "I bet you are!".

 

[jjpenguin]

I have only once done a timeshare presentation, I was on my first job, DBF was a musician. We were on a camping holiday in Cornwall (UK) and definitely had more time than money. We got a free trip to the Scilly Isles out of it and were very happy with it. We were young at the time and almost got suckered in but escaped just in time. The funniest thing was when we were leaving and standing outside at the bus stop(!!) the guide came past in his flash car and saw us... wonder what he must have thought!!
Now I have a DVC ownership that I bought site unseen and one of the places we can exchange to is that property in Cornwall!!

 

[djm99]

Right now, thanks to this unexplanable attitude by FF, Fairfield points on resale are one of the greatest bargains in timeshare. FF resorts are beautiful and the locations keep expanding. If you have any interest in buying Fairfield do not even consider retail and look seriously into a resale purchase of 200,000 to 250,000 annual points and you will get those 6 nights or more at BC or any other FF resort for far less than DVC prices in units larger than DVC's are.

Do you have any recommendations for buying Fairfield at retail prices. One of my girlfriends loves her Fairfield timeshare. We are using it this fall in Jamaica!!! I might consider Fairfield.