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Old 12-12-2012, 09:07 PM
 
Location: Mission Hills, San Diego
1,471 posts, read 3,340,069 times
Reputation: 623

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Yes they are an absolute rip off, I can't imagine getting sucked up in that mess and paying the costs of these "vacations" With that all said last year we were at a fair in Little Italy and were approached by these sharks. At the time I was not working and thought it would be a good sporting event to try and game these people. Free 5 day cruise? I'll play ball. Against my spouses better judgement, we decided to go to the presentation-this was Hyatt or Hilton situation. We were prescreened and then went to a 2 hour presentation, 1:1 not a group like I was hoping for.

The first guy was nice, the "good cop" , when we said there was no way it would work for us, the "bad cop" was turned on us. Mind you this women, as young as his oldest daughter, had been trying to flirt with my husband going into this. He told me within minutes of being there that she pulling some scam by trying to overtly make eyes. This naive twit doesn't know how things
work does she? Let's say I actually wanted a boring resort vacation for the next 20 years?
Well if I did -I never have-I would not have let her make the sale based on her behavior. I'm not sure on what planet did she think she was living on? Then she unleashed her wrath on me (I'm not the book keeper in the family, but sort of the CEO when it comes to spending decisions). She essentially called me a con artist for coming to the presentation and not
buying when "clearly your hard working husband would like our vacations" . LOL. We knew it would be awful, but it was in some ways not worth the 2 hours. Needless to say we got our "free" cruise-we had to pay port charges, I think around 275 total for both of us which was not bad for 5 days of lodging and meals, plus we
had a great time.
At this point our time is too valuable to be treated like that again. Plus I think they actually "black list" you
at certain properties so people dont go around and try to get too many free vacations At one point she asked me ( not my husband of almost 20 years) if I , not if we , had ever done this before. When I said now she picked up our paper work and trotted off, only to return sulking and admitting defeat.
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Old 12-13-2012, 11:02 AM
 
Location: Santaluz - San Diego, CA
4,498 posts, read 9,385,109 times
Reputation: 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clevelandgal View Post

At this point our time is too valuable to be treated like that again. .

I totally agree Clevelandgal. I only went to one of those time share meetings once almost immediately after I graduated from College. I think I was down in Cancun and there was some free tour or something. It was just God awful! I swore I'd never go to one of those again. No matter what they were offering free.

I travel a TON and come across a lot of people and I very rarely (almost never) have heard of anyone that had a time share that they were happy about or didn't regret purchasing.
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Old 12-13-2012, 01:01 PM
 
Location: San Diego
50,315 posts, read 47,056,299 times
Reputation: 34085
We learned our lesson down in Cabo. They had us get on a bus and go to a remote resort. We basically had to run out and find a taxi back into town since we wouldn't sucker into their scam. Kind of scary actually.
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Old 12-13-2012, 10:17 PM
 
Location: Mission Hills, San Diego
1,471 posts, read 3,340,069 times
Reputation: 623
Yeah I'm amazed that people are tortured by presentations for a free meal, tour or parasailing. I only did it because it was cruise, albiet Carnival . It was 2 hours of our life, plus the drive to Oceanside...but the whole thing was horrific. I'll just pay for my stuff myself rather than endure that again!
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Old 12-14-2012, 06:25 AM
 
Location: San Diego
50,315 posts, read 47,056,299 times
Reputation: 34085
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clevelandgal View Post
Yeah I'm amazed that people are tortured by presentations for a free meal, tour or parasailing. I only did it because it was cruise, albiet Carnival . It was 2 hours of our life, plus the drive to Oceanside...but the whole thing was horrific. I'll just pay for my stuff myself rather than endure that again!
We were actually interested until we saw the costs and hidden fees. I can't believe anyone actually pulls the trigger for an obvious ripoff.
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Old 12-14-2012, 07:39 AM
 
Location: Mission Hills, San Diego
1,471 posts, read 3,340,069 times
Reputation: 623
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer View Post
We were actually interested until we saw the costs and hidden fees. I can't believe anyone actually pulls the trigger for an obvious ripoff.
Yes in theory, if it were not a scam, it could work for some people. The flat fee seemed reasonable, but then all the maintence, and booking fees, and so on. We are not resort type people though so it was really, really not going to happen.
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Old 12-14-2012, 08:36 AM
 
Location: Santaluz - San Diego, CA
4,498 posts, read 9,385,109 times
Reputation: 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clevelandgal View Post
Yes in theory, if it were not a scam, it could work for some people. The flat fee seemed reasonable, but then all the maintence, and booking fees, and so on. We are not resort type people though so it was really, really not going to happen.

I guess it might work for some people IF the development is legitimate and IF they don't rape you on maintenance, HOA, taxes, fees, etc AND it's well managed (that's a lot of IF's).


But even then, personally if I plan to go somewhere every single year on vacation, I'd seriously look into possibly buying the place outright and use it for the weeks I want to use it and rent it for the time I'm not there. I own properties like that where I bought them many years ago and I use them the weeks I want to use them (or let friends stay free), rent it out for the time I'm not there, or trade them for weeks in other properties around the world. It works out beautifully and several of them have already been paid off with
rental income.

I just can't see the appeal to a time share investment these days.
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Old 12-14-2012, 10:13 AM
 
Location: San Diego
50,315 posts, read 47,056,299 times
Reputation: 34085
I looked at their paperwork and they have a total of TWO resorts (both suck) without having to do a xfer fee to another resort. So, they are basically just booking the rooms for you, plus a fee, that you could do cheaper yourself. AND, the resorts you have access to you have to book like a year in advance. It would cost half as much just to book off the net and avoid the scam 10k they get you as the purchase.
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Old 12-14-2012, 01:38 PM
 
Location: 92037
4,630 posts, read 10,276,114 times
Reputation: 1955
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer View Post
I looked at their paperwork and they have a total of TWO resorts (both suck) without having to do a xfer fee to another resort. So, they are basically just booking the rooms for you, plus a fee, that you could do cheaper yourself. AND, the resorts you have access to you have to book like a year in advance. It would cost half as much just to book off the net and avoid the scam 10k they get you as the purchase.

I was dragged into one of these things from my mother in law and wanted to die a slow death.

I just remember after the song and dance and looking around the room like wtf, these people are really into it! They then ushered us into a room to sign up at one of their dozen or so tables.
I remember the sales guy writing on a blank piece of paper saying "Yeah, but you are 'investing' in your yearly vacation with a HUGE network of properties are your disposal." "Look at how much an average vacations costs ...Guess what? Hotel rates are going to go up but your annual dues wont! Look at the savings!"
I know the guy was trying to do his job but man it was brutal.

You hit the nail on the head 1ATP. I dont get it either, what a ripoff.
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Old 12-14-2012, 04:43 PM
 
Location: Santaluz - San Diego, CA
4,498 posts, read 9,385,109 times
Reputation: 2015
The thing is like anything else out there (crap or not) there are always a small percentage of "impulse buyers" out there. Doesn't matter if you're talking about crap on HSN, expensive cars, jewelry or time shares. There will always be a % of the population that are impulse buyers that are willing to purchase it.

These are the people these sharks are looking for. The people that are "I just have to have it" types.
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