9/12/2012

Is This the Room Where They Beat You With Rubber Hoses?

That's what I asked my husband as we neared the end of four grueling hours.

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After many years of phone calls where we discovered we were the winners of a three-day, two-night getaway, we finally gave in and took advantage of our "prize."

That's right.  We went on one of those time-share trips where you listen for 90 minutes to the sales spiel, say "No thanks" and go on to enjoy the rest of your mini-vacation.  Only we didn't get off so easily.

Ninety minutes grew into four hours, we were driven from one holiday resort to another, taken back and forth to the sales office, said "No" in as many ways as we possibly could and grew so weary and confused that we forgot where we were and where we parked our car.

I told my husband it reminded me of the wrestling matches I watched on television with my dad when I was a little girl.  There would be special tag-team matches with two, two-man teams.  When one wrestler grew weary he would fight his way to his corner and slap the hand of his tag-team partner whereupon that man jumped in and our weary warrior stepped out to regroup.

But there was always one team who would fight dirty.

We were not that team.

No less than three salesmen tried to befriend us and find our weak spots, wearing us down to the point where we would sign on the dotted line.  One salesman even inferred that I didn't care enough for my husband because by saying no, I was not allowing him enough relaxation time so he might have a heart attack and die.

I'm not kidding.

I'll spare you all the details, but in the end we said "NO" and stuck with it. But I'd love to share a piece of advice.  If you ever decide you want to buy a time-share, just keep saying "NO."  You would not believe just how low a price we finally got them to offer, just by being stubborn.


5 comments:

  1. Been there, done that, too! It's extremely frustrating, because you're trying to be nice and they take advantage of that. A friend of mine said that they give them their 90 mins and then just politely leave.

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  2. I can believe it. This happened to my daughter and son in law, they even got nasty with them when they wouldn't buy.

    We purchased a time share many years ago thru friends no pressure. We figured we'd never be able to afford vacations with five kids otherwise when they were growing up. It turned out to be a nice thing for us.

    We never go to our home resort because they try to sell us something bigger and more expensive.Why would I want to spend one dime when we don't owe any money on the one I own?

    We just trade and go other places. We're going to the Freeport Grand Bahamss in May the resort for a week right on the beach ended up costing a couple hundred dollars, the cost of the trade.

    When we check in we let them know we do NOT do sales tours period. And if the phone rings we don't answer, the kids call us on our cell or text- email.

    Sorry you had such a terrible experience. They should be ashamed of themselves.

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  3. Sounds like a nightmare. Wow. Thanks for the warning.

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  4. Thanks for sharing this. I've been tempted at times to accept these things, now I'll forget it. Although I would love to have a time share property.

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  5. No more thank you - it was awful!!!!!!!!

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