I'm not sure what I got myself into at Eddie's LA show (night 2)...

callen · April 2008

westsidepie wrote:

I think these are great bits of advice. Also, if you want to gear yourself up for the experience watch the episode of South Park where a bunch of people get a free weekend at a ski resort in exchange for listening to a 90 minute presentation of time-shares. It turns into a weekend from hell, but it is the funniest thing ever. After seeing the episode, it may help to imagine the sales people as the ones in the episode. They will loose their power.

The episode is from Season 6, and it is called Asspen.

They re-ran episode last week...funny. "King of Queens" also has a funny episode on this subject.

burnerben · April 2008

As for that particular spot, my folks stayed there last summer when they came out for my wedding and were pretty happy with it. My parents swear by the timeshare thing, and it's worked well for them, but they're a different breed than most. My wife's folks go to these talks all the time and they've never bought anything but have gotten loads of free trips, so if you're strong willed (her dad is among the most "steel-willed" men I know), you can make out fairly well.

Definitely don't dress up for the talk and grunge out as much as you can, that sends the clear signal of non-interest on your part. You may also want to start by informing the sales rep that it's in their best interest to make the presentation as quick and painless (for themselves) as possible right from the get go. Show absolutely no interest in the talk and look at your watch a lot. If it's a group meeting, bring your phone and start playing games, texting, or just surfing the web.

Warning: The "free" vacation will involve another pitch, so be wary of that one. It may be a fairly aggravating 2 hours or so, but on the upside, you'll only be 10 minutes from the new Stone Brewing Company's brewery, so you can at least get really awesome beer when you're done!

Allie · April 2008

walkunafraid wrote:

No, $30 combined. It's so that the resort can be sure the persons actually show up. They have a very detailed schedule of times for these tours, so having people not show up would totally screw that up. (And, of course, there would be a TON of people who didn't show up if they didn't have to put any money down...)

It's a scam
to get your $ (which they've already done-of course that $30 is non-refundable)
and to get you to show up to market their deal to you.

walkunafraid · April 2008

Allie wrote:

It's a scam
to get your $ (which they've already done-of course that $30 is non-refundable)
and to get you to show up to market their deal to you.

The $30 is given back to us as soon as we show up at the presentation.

ScottZeagle · April 2008

I did this once to get free disney tickets.

I told the guy who was doing the tour that we were only there to get the tickets and were not buying anything, so he could either make it hard or easy on himself and save all the bullshit.

He actually laughed and said, no problem - but I have to at least let the manager talk to you at the end.

When he brought over his "manager" I told him that I was not buying, regardless, and he shouldn't waste anymore of his (or my) time.

They gave me my free stuff and I was on my way.

No problem.

walkunafraid · May 2008

Just got back from the presentation and thought I'd let you all know how it went.

First off, I got a reminder call on Thursday evening and told the representative that we were undecided about whether we were going to make it (although I knew all along that we would, I thought I'd see if there was anything else free to be had). She offered me a pair of free Dodgers tickets if we would confirm our RSVP and show up. Cha-ching!

Fast forward to this morning. We woke up bright and early and headed down to Escondido. We arrived at the resort right on time and were immediately asked to sign in. We took a seat in the check-in room, enjoyed some of the complimentary breakfast, and in 15 minutes were summoned.

The woman who was going to ear-torture us was actually very hot. I mean, good looking. So that was a bonus.

She started off by asking us general questions about our lifestyles, etc. She was obviously trying to get a feel for what angles she could use to get us to buy something, but at least she was nice in doing so.

Now, a few days earlier, I was thinking of excuses to give for why we weren't going to buy anything, and the perfect answer popped into my head -- we may be losing our jobs. Actually, my girlfriend and I are both teachers, and Governor Schwarzenegger (I still can't believe he is our governor :( ) has recently cut the education budget by millions (forcing many schools to lay off teachers), so the excuse actually is not totally false. (Although we haven't actually been laid off, the possibility is still there).

Anyhow, a few minutes into the presentation, the perfect time to let her know of our unfortunate employment situation came up, and so I let her have the bad news. It was all a breeze from then on. Although she continued her sales pitch, her heart obviously wasn't into trying to sell something to a pair of teachers who were going to lose their jobs, so the pressure was off. All we had to say was that it was a bad time for us, and that it would be irresponsible for us to commit to buying ANYTHING with our jobs in limbo, and she didn't push too hard.

She did do the standard bringing of the "manager" in to make us the deal-of-a-lifetime at the end, but at that point she knew that she wasn't going to get anything out of us. After an hour and a half, the presentation was over and we went to pick up our gifts.

So...this was definitely a much easier and more pleasant experience than I thought it would be. In the end, we got a free trip to Catalina (boat and 1-night hotel room included), $200 dollars to spend on concert tickets (the only negative being that the tickets have to be purchased at the box office on the day of the show, and only at one-of-four venues...so obviously it can't be for any artist that's going to sell-out), and a pair of Dodgers tickets.

Thanks for everyone's advice and feedback...

Enkidu · May 2008

That doesn't sound so horrible. I'm glad you survived. (And I can't believe he's our governor either - oops, our "education" governor.)

Sprunkn7 · May 2008

Glad it all worked out. Good excuse. I'll keep it in mind!

kitfoo · May 2008

Glad you didn't end up as an attraction at the bottom of Catalina Bay for the glass-boat tours! But rule #1 in CA (Especially So Cal)...don't talk to anyone on the street!

Firecloud · May 2008

walkunafraid wrote:

Just got back from the presentation and thought I'd let you all know how it went.

First off, I got a reminder call on Thursday evening and told the representative that we were undecided about whether we were going to make it (although I knew all along that we would, I thought I'd see if there was anything else free to be had). She offered me a pair of free Dodgers tickets if we would confirm our RSVP and show up. Cha-ching!

Fast forward to this morning. We woke up bright and early and headed down to Escondido. We arrived at the resort right on time and were immediately asked to sign in. We took a seat in the check-in room, enjoyed some of the complimentary breakfast, and in 15 minutes were summoned.

The woman who was going to ear-torture us was actually very hot. I mean, good looking. So that was a bonus.

She started off by asking us general questions about our lifestyles, etc. She was obviously trying to get a feel for what angles she could use to get us to buy something, but at least she was nice in doing so.

Now, a few days earlier, I was thinking of excuses to give for why we weren't going to buy anything, and the perfect answer popped into my head -- we may be losing our jobs. Actually, my girlfriend and I are both teachers, and Governor Schwarzenegger (I still can't believe he is our governor :( ) has recently cut the education budget by millions (forcing many schools to lay off teachers), so the excuse actually is not totally false. (Although we haven't actually been laid off, the possibility is still there).

Anyhow, a few minutes into the presentation, the perfect time to let her know of our unfortunate employment situation came up, and so I let her have the bad news. It was all a breeze from then on. Although she continued her sales pitch, her heart obviously wasn't into trying to sell something to a pair of teachers who were going to lose their jobs, so the pressure was off. All we had to say was that it was a bad time for us, and that it would be irresponsible for us to commit to buying ANYTHING with our jobs in limbo, and she didn't push too hard.

She did do the standard bringing of the "manager" in to make us the deal-of-a-lifetime at the end, but at that point she knew that she wasn't going to get anything out of us. After an hour and a half, the presentation was over and we went to pick up our gifts.

So...this was definitely a much easier and more pleasant experience than I thought it would be. In the end, we got a free trip to Catalina (boat and 1-night hotel room included), $200 dollars to spend on concert tickets (the only negative being that the tickets have to be purchased at the box office on the day of the show, and only at one-of-four venues...so obviously it can't be for any artist that's going to sell-out), and a pair of Dodgers tickets.

Thanks for everyone's advice and feedback...

Nice!! Hook me up with the info on this place please! I've been in California ten years now and have still never been to Catalina - and Dodgers tickets wouldn't hurt either...

walkunafraid · May 2008

Firecloud wrote:

Nice!! Hook me up with the info on this place please! I've been in California ten years now and have still never been to Catalina - and Dodgers tickets wouldn't hurt either...

This is their website: http://www.welksandiego.com/.

Not sure if you can apply there for a tour with the free gifts, though. We just happened to be approached at Eddie's show...

tombellanca · May 2008

so all you got was the catalina trip?
no vegas or tahoe? that would have made it really worthwile.
i _almost_ got roped into doing the welk deal last year at a padres game, but when they wanted a c.card for the $30 deposit I walked away.

walkunafraid · May 2008

tombellanca wrote:

so all you got was the catalina trip?
no vegas or tahoe? that would have made it really worthwile.
i _almost_ got roped into doing the welk deal last year at a padres game, but when they wanted a c.card for the $30 deposit I walked away.

They offered Vegas, San Francisco, or Catalina.

We have overdone Vegas the last few years, so we really have no desire to go back.

My girlfriend is from the Bay Area, so San Francisco -- as much as we love it -- wouldn't really be a vacation for us.

We have always wanted to relax in Catalina, since the only time we have ever gone has been as volunteers for their Conservancy (not exactly a vacation...just lots of hard work!).

So, yeah, the other offers were there, we just chose Catalina. And that's not ALL we got...I am honestly just as excited about the $200 in concert tickets. I/we go to a lot of shows, so it will be nice not having to pay for a few gigs. The venues are the Wiltern, the Grove of Anaheim, Coors Amphitheatre (I believe is has a new name now?), or Cox Arena, so there are certainly options. Right now we're trying to decide between Dave Matthews, Death Cab for Cutie, and/or The Cure for our first set of vouchers....

Oh, and you don't have to put the $30 on a credit card. We just paid the deposit in cash, and got $30 cash back at the end of the presentation yesterday.

broken_joystick · May 2008

That's awesome, I'm glad everything worked out for you.

People have mentioned the episodes of South Park and King of Queens, there's also an episode of King of the Hill with the whole "timeshare" theme..

spnoone · May 2008

dress poor, smell like alcohol, sign nothing.

don't make any plans the day of the presentation. "90 minutes" will really take closer to 4 hours.

spnoone · May 2008

ignore that. i didnt read all the way to page 4 to find out it already took place.

walkunafraid · May 2008

spnoone wrote:

don't make any plans the day of the presentation. "90 minutes" will really take closer to 4 hours.

Another part of our strategy was to tell the presenter that we had lunch plans with friends at 12:30 (30 minutes after the scheduled end of the presentation). Then, as it got closer to the end of 90 minutes, we continuously glanced at our watches.

Worked like a charm, because we were out in pretty much exactly 90 minutes!

firecrotch23 · May 2008

i got a bridge in brooklyn for sale, pm if your interested

walkunafraid · May 2008

firecrotch23 wrote:

i got a bridge in brooklyn for sale, pm if your interested

PM sent.

Kilgore_Trout · May 2008

I accidentally signed up for something like this once at a local summer festival... I thought it was just a raffle to win a car... a few weeks later I got a call that said I had won my choice of 1 of 3 cars (BMW, Mercedes, something else) and a free vacation... IF I drove out to this time share thing and sat through a meeting...

Im still not 21 tho so I had to convince my mom to go with me... and she wouldnt... cause she said it was a scam... it probably was... but what if it wasnt?!?

that car couldve been mine!!!

I'm not sure what I got myself into at Eddie's LA show (night 2)...

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