"He wanted to burn his timeshare condo down." That was my point, most owners eventually come to regret it with an active hatred nonetheless.


BURN BABY BURN, TIMESHARE INFERNO. BURN BABY BURN.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I like your singing voice as well as your choice of words. "Active hatred" is a fitting phrase.

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The only people I know who have timeshares and are happy with them are a couple of sets of friends who are all Disney fanatics. They each have a week at something in the LBV area with two bedrooms and two baths. For them the cost and schedule certainty is worth it, and they don't mind going every year.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

My mother in law, who was always gullible, bought a few. She ended up with alzheimer's so they (wife and her siblings) had to pay to get rid of them.

We have sat through a couple of the presentations in exchange for cheap weekends at nice resorts. The hard sells came but we simply told them we have a standing rule of not making "on the spot" purchases.

I am firmly in the camp of not prepaying for vacations. Too much can change in life.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Waste of damn money. Eight years ago I took a trip to Miami. One of my cousins owned one. She said that I could use hers for the time that I was there but I'd have to go the 90 minute presentation. I said cool and she said that there was a catch. You either have to be married or engaged. I said no problem I will have our other cousin drive down from Orlando and pretend to be the phony wife or whatever. My cousin drives down and if I didn't know any better I'd think she was working with them. Before I knew it she'd talked me into purchasing one of those damn things.

For about 3 to 4 years I was paying on a damn space that I never used. I finally got out but not before I'd switched it from Orlando to Vegas (more money). It also didn't make any sense because your rooms in Vegas are either comped or cheap more often than not.

When you factor in the amount that you spend before you use it it is really a waste of money. Shit you end up paying more for taxes and assessment fees alone than youd pay for your room. Don't do it

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You end up poking her?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I'm from the Low End of Chicago not Tuscaloosa Alabama.

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The Disney one seems like it'd be a good deal.

The inlaws have a couple weeks at a place in Playa Del Carmen...they aren't locked into the exact weeks or the same resort. They get used every year by someone.

Otherwise, we did get roped into a week in Puerto Vallarta...cancelled it as soon as we got back stateside. Haven't been back there in 20 years.

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I wont buy one mainly because the salespeople are relentless.
They stalked me for all 7 days both times I was at Puerto Vallarta.
They started to make me regret going there.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

At the Cancun airport you have to run a gauntlet of timeshare guys. They are dressed in such a way that it is easy to mistake them for airport personnel. If you want to make it to your hotel the same day you arrive you must run, don't walk, past them. Don't talk to them and don't even make eye contact with them. EVER.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

I find this an interesting subject. If I had to use a single word to describe America it would be "advertising". And high pressure sales, when done correctly, is an emotional appeal that hits all the same buttons as good advertising.

There's a reason that these sales tactics are used- because they work. Now, I'm sure MANY will insist that these tactics "don't work on me". That may or may not be. I would suggest in certain instances they work on anyone, but the point is, they need only to work on about one person in ten.

About ten years ago, I started a company where we had to build a sales organization from scratch. One of my partners, himself a highly successful guy as a traditional salesman, decided that we were going to scrap many these high pressure techniques and use what he called the "consultative sales process". Basically, that simply meant that the set up was a little different, that you spoke with people like human beings until the point where you started closing hard. Unfortunately, all the salesmen we had didn't really grasp the concept. They had this crazy idea that we didn't want them to sell on the first night. Eventually we had to go back to the tried and true sales graph, appealing to the prospect's emotions, offering one night only drops, and hard riding to the close.

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

High pressure sales tactics clearly work. People are strange. When I worked telemarketing there was a guy who had to sit 30 feet from every other person because he would literally yell at people on the phone all day about how they need to buy whatever thing we were selling.

I think everyone else was surprised it worked but it did. I think when you see it from that side you get kind of immune to it. I take high pressure sales tactics as a sign of an inferior or useless product.

However, aren't you the same guy that complained about places like Hot Doug's that treat customers like crap? What is the difference?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I would feel badly for Hot Doug's customers because they seemingly love his product and are apostle category customers being treated badly. That isn't the same as being that way to convince a first time prospect for your widget or service.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

High pressure sales tactics are how we get people to falsely confess to crimes. People usually want to please others, and everyone has a breaking point. It is interesting that the would work over the phone though. Trapped in a room it makes sense, but why don't people just hang up. Something psychological.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I hate to be the guy who says it doesn't work on me but it didn't. I was so pissed I avoided that lobby like the plague during daylight hours so I wouldn't walk past the timeshare jerk.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I love the ones at the Dells that offer to "watch your kids" while you go on a three hour tour (a three hour tour).

Those are EXACTLY the people I want caring for my kids.

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Maybe it's because I've been living in the city since 1995 and have told every homeless person I run into since then to fuck off and get a job, but I have no problem dealing with the timeshare sales people in Cancun. Just leave off the "get a job" part.

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1-800-600-7404

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

You also have a suitcase full of weed so you need to get out of the airport post haste.

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if suitcase is a fancy word for anus.

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We used to have a Powerpoint that we used in sales training that featured a Linear Sales Graph. The horizontal axis illustrated the steps the salesperson was to take and the vertical axis graphed the levels of pressure and release. It started with the presentation, then ratcheted up the pressure, let the prospect off the hook, then came on strong again, then your drops came in, etc. The final step, assuming the sale was made, was called "Cement". It basically just meant wrapping up while refraining from talking past the sale.

If things got slow we would have our sales manager hold a refresher for the established salesmen. During one of these, the manager was going back over the Linear Sales Graph and reinforcing the steps. My current partner, Joe, was in the session and they were using a sale he had previously made as an example.

Joe was just a young kid at the time, maybe 22 or so. He was probably hungover during this meeting and annoyed at having to come in early for it. So the manager got to the last steps and when he got to "Cement", Joe raised his hand. The sales manager called on him and Joe said with a level of purposeful obtuseness far beyond any ever displayed by even BRick, "My project is built on existing piers, why do I need cement?" I almost spit my Diet Coke across the room. I knew right then Joe and I were going to be good friends.

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Communists are just people who are terrible at capitalism.

Hot Doug's took the opposite sales approach but it was equally successful. Who knew that telling a customer that you don't care about whether they eat your food would make them want to eat your food?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The new place occupying Hot Doug's space is better than Hot Doug's. Unfortunately, the two times I've gone to Cafe Tola I've been the only person in there.

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Empanadas?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.