Those were the words my mom spoke to me last night when she told me how her July 4th weekend was. My parents went down to the good ‘ole Jersey Shore for a seafood festival, and they entered a “giveaway” at one of the booths. We’ve all done that, right?
Well what a surprise, she’s the grand prize winner of a $4,000 vacation package!
Her prize includes the following:
- 4 roundtrip airline tickets which could be used domestically or internationally
- a week’s worth of hotel accommodations
- $900 in shopping-spree money
- $200 dining voucher
Fantastic! Now where are we going?!?
Nowhere.
The woman on the other end of the phone told my mom that she had to book a 2-hour appointment at their flagship hotel in order to “claim” her prize. Ya know, cause when you’re a grand prize winner and all, it could take that long to collect yourself from all of the excitement, right?
My mom asked if she could have the T&C for the offer, and the woman refused, saying that it was only available to her after securing her appointment time.
The good news is that we all laughed. Â Thankfully my family is well-traveled enough to recognize that this is a time-share scam, and not actually a dream-vacation prize. I can bet my bottom dollar that at the end of the night, the booth attendants dug through the box of entries, filtered out all of the duplicates, and ones with the same last name, and then called everyone with the same pitch.
The sad news is this: time share sales pitches are very deceptive, and it’s very easy to fall for them. I bet they easily filled the room for their presentation while having families believe they really have won an amazing getaway.
Right off the bat, all of the “red flags” added up for us within the first minute of the call, but how quickly can other non-seasoned travelers spot them?
On one hand, I kind of want my parents to “play dumb” at the presentation just for giggles, but I know it’ll just be a waste of time for everyone.
I personally think these time-share vulture companies are getting out of hand with their fraudulent and deceptive marketing tactics, what do you think?
I would love to hear from others who’ve been in a similar boat. Have you ever went to a time-share presentation before? If  so, please share.
We ‘won’ something like this from the NYT Travel Show. We actually agreed to go but decided not to show up.
Although the flights are free, there is a clause that says the credit can be used towards like $50 a hotel, but that’s all. This would be to replace the flight and to avoid paying a week of hotel accommodations. We originally decided it was worth it just for that but then backed out after we read more reviews online.
We didn’t quite understand reviews online where people were ‘tricked’ into paying thousands of dollars… Perhaps travel hackers are the best people to go to these, they won’t be tricked easily!
Would have been nice to read a Trip report from you Dad again.
I’ve been to several timeshare presentations to “earn” the free goodies. You just have to be bold enough to say “NO” “NO” “NO”. Previous perks include $100 shopping spree and $100 dinner voucher at Treasure Island Las Vegas, Massage, Hair cut and $100 credit to spend at an upscale resort in Cancun we were already staying at, Two night stay at selected Hilton resorts. I have nothing against timeshare but definitely want to read the fine print before I sit in a two hour presentation.
I have been to 2. The first was one of my very first trips after getting out of college, and I was an inexperienced traveler. It was everything you expect from a timeshare presentation right down to the sleazy salesman who actually asked my husband how he stayed married to me. (Needless to say, the salesman and I were not getting along.) I vowed never to do another one, but several years later Hilton Grand Vacations called with a 3-night stay at one of their Orlando properties. It was $99 or so to stay all 3 nights in a 1-bdrm. Since I needed somewhere to stay on our upcoming trip, I agreed. It was actually very well done and not a high-pressure presentation. We did not buy of course, but I would so another one of their promos in a heartbeat.
I actually love going to these presentations as i own a Marriott Time share and everytime i go i usually know more than the person presenting it or i learn something new on how to better use my timeshare. I love to lead the salespeople on especially on the phone. But overall its the best thing i purchased in very long time and get A1 resorts. Once hey try to hold me hostage at a presentation until i started disrobing and getting almost nude and walking around in my underware harrassing other potential buyers letting them expirence and see what type of people may own at these resorts, before they allowed me to leave with my goodies.
We’ve been to a few. We haven’t done as many since we’ve gotten into the points and miles community but other than the first one we went to (where we weren’t actually old enough to go) we haven’t had very many bad experiences.
We ended up getting that first one worked out but we felt compelled to stick around and really listen to the pitch because of our situation. We didn’t buy but we got a free helicopter tour of Maui.
The other one that really sticks out is one when my husband just straight up told the guy who was pitching to us that we weren’t interested and that we were just there to get the $100 that we were promised. The guy basically just gave us the brief details of the offer and then sent us on our way with our $100. Best 30 minutes we ever spent!
I went to a TimeShare like presentation last summer while I was in Cancun. I only agreed to do it because they offered 70% off all the excursions I had planned to do and decided sitting for two hours was worth saving all that money. Was also treated to a nice breakfast buffet and they paid for the transportation from my hotel to theirs. The presentation of hotels was okay but then they brought person after person to sell us. Each time I said no they brought out someone new until I got a little annoyed and was just like look I want my discount. I told them unless they wanted to give me the Time Share for a $1 they weren’t getting a penny out of me. Just be really firm and stick to a firm NO. At the end of the day see if the benefits outweigh the presentation and for me in this situation it certainly did.