How to Attend a Timeshare Presentation Just for a Free Gift
There is a reason the words timeshare and scam often go together: in most cases, buying a timeshare is a poor financial decision. Because of their notorious reputations, timeshare companies lure you with gifts like lunch vouchers, concert tickets, or awesome vacations. All you have to do is survive the grueling high pressure presentation. If you enjoy playing with fire, here are some tips for getting to the other side without crashing – and with a free gift.
This post is part of our Evil Week series on Lifehacker where we take a look at the dark side of goal achievement. Sometimes evil is justified, and sometimes knowing evil means knowing how to defeat it. I want more? Visit our wicked week tags page .
Some of these presentations can last several hours ( or eight , in some extreme, nightmarish cases) and are overwhelmed with high pressure selling tactics. It’s as easy as saying no, of course. But it’s not that simple: the whole concept is that it’s harder for you to say no, so that you end up getting bitten and they wind you up. However, many people have gone through the timeshare presentation. to get freebies without spending money. I myself have never been to one of them, but have always been intrigued. So I consulted with the experts: timeshare survivors who won Disneyland tickets, free lunches, vacations, and more.
Calculate the value of your time
Before getting into this, make sure you have a clear idea of how long your presentation will take, and then ask yourself how much your time is worth. Are these free tickets to the magic show worth three hours of your life? Personally, I would rather take a three hour nap than sit in a presentation or go to a magic show, but hey, this is your life. In other cases, the freebie is quite valuable. A couple of tickets to Disneyland cost a couple of hundred dollars, which fully pays for a few hours of your time.
But it’s not just about time. It takes effort to get through this. You will go through a series of views to make sure you have a good grade, and this can take several hours . After all, it takes a long time to shake someone.
Still a game? Then let’s get down to business.
Bring the bad cop
There is safety in numbers. Even if you are determined to say no, every part of your promotional offer is carefully thought out to convince you otherwise. The company knows your apology. They studied them and worked hard to find a way for you to hide. For this reason, it is imperative to bring in another person.
One reader (who prefers to remain anonymous) said she went to a timeshare show in Vegas and admits she got into the hype:
I was in two signatures from signing my life. The way I was able to get away without a timeshare was that I brought in one of my best boyfriend friends who was able to give me a little sanity and help me pass the offer. The best option worked: I need to check with my [financial advisor] if this is a good investment . They handed me the papers and I drove without a timeshare in my name.
If you have any problems with rejecting at all, they will find your weak point, so make sure you have a backup person ready to talk you through. And if you still can’t stand up for yourself, blame an imaginary financial planner or coach.
Choose your strategy: offense or defense
Obviously, in order to attract customers, the timeshare company wants to reduce the number of people they think will give up. As certified financial planner Jason Hull points out, it’s a numbers game.
They want to reduce as many false positives as possible, people who say they are going to agree but end up disagreeing as quickly as possible. If you are not going to buy a timeshare, you are a false positive – someone who passed the initial review … but is not going to buy.
To be clear: you want a false positive. But you want to disguise yourself so they don’t weed you out. To do this, Hull recommends agreeing. That way, they will not only think you are biting, but they will also go through the presentation faster. The salesperson doesn’t have to stop and explain the situation to you. They will go to the end where you politely say that you are not interested, and they will understand that they made a false positive.
It’s a great defense strategy, but what about offense? After you pass the initial screening, you may choose a more aggressive approach, depending on your personality and the nature of your presentation.
One anonymous informant – let’s call her BJ – survived three timeshare times to earn free tickets to Disneyland. She begins by asking the facilitator how long the process will take from start to finish. In her experience, they say it will be about 60 minutes. BJ reminds them of the time every 15 minutes, which she says helps them not drag out. But the real fireworks are coming to an end:
For the last 15 minutes, we are in a large conference room filled with other salespeople, managers and, of course, a lot of people like me. Each group sits down at the table and the pitch begins. When they tell me the final price of the timeshare, I immediately take it apart. I pull out my calculator and begin to estimate how much this free vacation timeshare will cost me. I then tell them how many years it will take me to pay off the timeshare before my vacation is effectively “free.” Most are unable to find a return argument and rush to the manager who comes to talk to me. I am just repeating the same argument.
Sounds too simple? She admits that her strategy stirred up some feathers during one of her presentations:
I did have one agent who, realizing that I was not going to buy a timeshare, became very aggressive and unpleasant. So I just spoke very loudly and clearly so that the whole room could hear me, and I said, “I don’t like that you are trying to put pressure on me like that … I told you no, I’m not going to sign these documents. ” Then I get up and say, where are my free tickets to Disney?”
Even though her story made me cringe, BJ is my new hero and she says it’s best to step up your crime. However, not everyone has the courage to do this. If you’re not an aggressive person, this can backfire and you might fold when shit hits the fan. If so, a more defensive strategy may be needed.
Turn it into a game
One way not to get carried away with the drama of a timeshare presentation is to not take it so seriously. At the end of the day, it’s just about sticking to your weapon.
Pamela Hanson says she and her husband were on vacation in Mexico as they sat at a timeshare presentation to win a free dinner and breakfast. They realized that after they flatly refused, they were turned over to a new person offering another deal. She said:
We made it a game when we realized it was a template. We enjoyed the meal and then relaxed and let the timeshare company ferry us to different people, offering us a “deal we couldn’t refuse.” The final sales pitch came from a former footballer in the Super Bowl ring who tried to convince us to buy out a mortgage on a seized timeshare unit because the deal was too big to backtrack. He was good too. He worked flawlessly from this angle and we were impressed with his initiative. When he finished and made sure we weren’t parting with any money, he led us to the room where they gave us our restaurant voucher.
Hanson said she really enjoyed it, describing it as a day filled with “good food, great fun and relaxation from the sunny beach our skin welcomed.”
“Plus we have to see the Super Bowl ring and have a delicious dinner,” she said.
It’s all about your attitude. If you can really enjoy the process, it will be much easier for you to go through all the trials. Just don’t have so much fun that you forget to constantly say no.
Come up with your exit strategy
An exit strategy is absolutely essential and easier said than done because the timeshare company has prepared for it. They’re banking on you to refuse, and their whole plan is to find holes in your excuse. Can’t afford it? But this is less than what you spent in one night in your last hotel! Not traveling enough? You will be when you have this sweet timeshare!
You can’t just find an excuse. It must be durable. A good salesperson won’t accept a negative answer and instead of asking you if you are interested in a package, he will ask you which package you need. When you tell them that you cannot afford it, they will remember that you are on vacation right now, or they will ask how much you spent on your last vacation.
Financial advisor Matt Ahrens confirms this. When he went to the timeshare presentation on his trip, he simply told the company that he had budgeted for a vacation over a year ago when his financial situation was very different. He then said that he had nothing extra in his budget to pay for timeshare.
Ahrens says it’s about explaining your own numbers to them. He reveals what he explained to the companies in his exit strategy:
We just bought a house at 4% per annum on a mortgage. If we bought a timeshare, we would pay at least 11% interest on the remainder of what we owe. It doesn’t take an expert to know we didn’t get a good funding deal … If we or our kids wanted to sell the timeshare back, we’d get 60 cents on the dollar. As a financial advisor, I would rather invest this money elsewhere than know that I will charge a 40% service fee.
On the other hand, it sends you down the rabbit hole of denials, notes Melissa Heisler of ItsMyLifeInc.com . When you approach them with numbers, they simply come to you with additional numbers. She shares her exit strategy:
Find a “no” that they cannot reproach … In the end, I said that my mother was sick and I could not bind myself to any long-term plans right now. Lies, I know. But one thing they could not resist.
Mostly when all else fails: lie to get out of the presentation.
Lying on a free vacation is pretty evil, but don’t be discouraged. Timeshare companies expect this and have built it into their model. In fact, their tactics are also pretty wicked. As the saying goes, a fire cannot be extinguished with a fire, but in the case of a timeshare, you can win a free lunch out of it.