12/06/08-Beware of Timeshare

From Orlando, Florida

We also went to Epcot today, see our photos of our Epcot visit.
It was Great Fun!!!
Photos

The entire trip began all because of a timeshare package we purchased from Bass Pro store in Kansas City. For $60, we get a 3-day-2-night hotel stay and $50 Bass Pro gift card. In exchange, all we had to do was sit through 2-hour presentation. Being adventurous as we are, we thought, what the heck, lets try it.

Blue Green Resort Timeshare
We thought it was only going to be a short painless procedure, but it turned out to be a very frustrating process that lasted three and a half hours. Despite this fact, we nevertheless expected it and found their strategy interesting, yet dishonest. Here are some of things we noticed and would to share with you should you decide to subject yourself to these types of scams in exchange for a cheap vacation.

1. Salesperson matching

When you first walk in they ask you to sit down and fill out papers. You may notice it takes a while for your salesperson to greet you. That is because they are actually watching your actions and then try to match you to a person you would most likely connect with. I noticed this when I saw other people around us. A young blond couple was matched to a young sales party-guy with blond hair. An older couple from Texas were sitting with a salesman with a strong southern accent. For us we were matched with a mature gentleman in a nicely pressed suite. Each time our sales man hit a road block with us, he excuses himself and left us alone. If you ever watched 20/20 (investigative TV program) on sales scams, you would automatically know they were observing us while we were left alone at the table. We didn't say anything.

2. Confusion

They basically control the entire conversation. They will only tell you everything and anything when they are ready, regardless when you asked the question. The sales agent told us about a point-system how it allows us to take advantage of it over the years. We kept asking him how much a point would cost us, but he kept telling us he'll get to it later. I think we asked him that same question about 3 or 4 times while we were seated at the table. Only after we were walking and touring the facilities, he began reciting all the fees and the cost of the points. Luckily, I had the human calculator with me (my husband), and we noticed when the sales guy was adding the list of numbers from the top of his head, he had omitted some fees such as, international booking fees, maintenance fees, property taxes, membership fees and etc. Because we were up and about with people coming and going around us, it did take some concentration to get all the numbers straight in our heads.

3. Distractions

While you are sitting at the table with your sales agent, you will notice their "superiors" coming by offering you a drink or telling you your agent was "a great guy" and that you were "in good hands". If you carefully observe the timing of their "visit", it would be when they see their agent and the ploy was not heading the right direction. They kept asking us if we wanted anything to drink whenever my husband started to lean on his arms and stared down at the floor. I have also observed them going to other tables around us when their clients were quiet or looked less than intrigued with the sales pitch. They would stop by the tables and make jokes to somehow liven up the table again. They "checked up" on our table more frequently when our sales guy started to discuss about the figures $$.


If you are interested in hearing other accounts regarding timeshare experiences specifically with Blue Green Resort Timeshares:

Don't buy Blue Green Timeshare

Read entry by Thomas Vine, we had the same experience as they did!

After talking to our agent, his supervisor, and some executive, we were finally free. Next stop, Epcot!

Overall, regarding purchasing timeshare presentation vacation packages, it is a good deal, when it comes to saving money on your hotel stays, as long as you don't mind the high pressure and rudeness by sales thugs for about 3 hours. According to my husband, he would purchase the vacation package just to utilize the cost savings and just ignore the sales scumbags for 3 hours. If we do this again, I would like to pretend we are ignorant and mess with their heads. I would like to set a goal to keep within only 2 hours next time. How is that for a psychological experiment? I would like to bring my iPhone and look everything up during the presentation. I wonder what they would do.