<p>A few months ago I accepted a phone solicitation offer for a 5 day/4 night all inclusive vacation in Cancun. At $199 I couldn’t say no, even though there’s a mandatory 90 minute timeshare presentation involved.</p>
<p>We’ve been to a few of these presentations before and, while I’m pretty good at resisting the hard sell, DW and I are dreading this part of the trip.</p>
<p>We’ll be arriving tonight and the torture session will be Monday morning. For my primary objection to their sales pitch, I’m planning to tell them I’m in no position to make a decision until I’ve had a few days to enjoy the resort. </p>
<p>Just get it over as soon as possible so you can enjoy the rest of your trip. Schedule something for the time the presentation is scheduled to end and walk out at 90 mins on the dot. Do not feign interest to be polite. Treat it as entertainment; take mental notes so you can recount the funny/most outrageous part of pitch later. If they offer free alcohol before or during presentation, don’t accept it. Good luck. Don’t buy no matter how appealing it seems. Just say no; don’t worry about coming up with an excuse beyond, “Not interested.”</p>
<p>We told the timeshare people that, since H travelled for a living, we had more than enough hotel points to stay at any of their resorts (Marriott) whenever we wanted. So, the agent nicely cut our presentation short and didn’t pester us. It was very low pressure. But, even so, I would just keep saying “no thank you” and get up and leave after the initial presentation. </p>
<p>We have done a couple of these. Sometimes if you let them know up front that you REALLY are not interested, they will let you go early. DO NOT ask any questions, just to be nice, as I think someone said up thread. Don’t show any interest. </p>
<p>Not the same as a high pressure time share sales pitch , but when I was being offered a store credit card a few years ago, I joked that my bankruptcy attorney told me to stop applying for credit cards…thinking this would make the sales person back off, it only encouraged him to keep pushing, telling me that people with bad credit always get approved. There went that excuse !</p>
<p>Don’t these kinds of deals require you to affirm that you have financial means above a certain level? I wouldn’t start making up stories about bankruptcy. You might get presented with a bill for the actual cost of the weekend. Honestly, you owe them no explanation whatsoever. Anything you say will be viewed as an opening or opportunity. I would definitely set a timer and walk out at 90 mins on the dot, regardless whether they release you or not.</p>
<p>I’ve been to one time share presentation. I was at a friend’s 50th birthday extravaganza weekend at a horrible place and was bored with the drinking at the pool that was the main activity of the group. I agreed to sit through a time share presentation in exchange for $300 in resort credits out of sheer boredom. There was zero chance in hell that I would agree to purchase but I actually found the experience fascinating from a sociological perspective. So maybe if you put yourself in that kind of a mindset, almost like a cultural anthropologist, it will be more bearable. What is this thing they call a timeshare sales pitch? </p>
<p>The whole pitch depends on your answering their questions. How much do you spend a year on vacation? Where do you like to travel, etc. If you simply refuse to answer, there’s not much they can do with you.</p>
<p>So… you took this cheap trip partly in exchange for spending this 90 minutes and hearing them out. So do it. Don’t cheat, don’t complain. You didn’t have to accept the offer, but the honest thing to do is attend and at least listen to them.</p>
<p>I would listen and nod and then say “oh, wait, did you say…” and reference something three points back. I’d keep doing that and at the end say “I’m not comfortable I really understand it all and our 90 minutes are up, we’ll let you get to your next appointment. Bye!” </p>
<p>We did this many years back for a free weekend in Rancho Mirage. I kept close track of the time and just said at the end that we really preferred spending our vacations in wilderness areas and national parks. Where in national parks or wilderness areas did they have any timeshares?. Well, of course, none. End of deal.</p>
<p>Sure, listen to what they have to say, but don’t get suckered by lying and bsing. If they weren’t able to sucker enough people into buying in, they wouldn’t be doing this. However, here is what I suggest.</p>
<p>Decide ahead of time that no matter what the offer, you will not, will not accept. Not going to happen, no chance. </p>
<p>We can cut them off in about one minute. This is the honest truth for us, but this might also work for others who are willing to say so. We say we are airline crewmembers, and get massively discounted deals all over the world. We like to travel to different places, get great deals, and don’t think this would be a good deal for us. Plus, we often don’t know when we’ll get time off until the last minute. They instantly stop the hard sell and move on to other victims, as they know that talking to an airline crew member is a complete waste of their time. We are cheap, want and get great deals everywhere, and they know they can’t compete.</p>