Nothing in Life Is Free

Posted by Cynical Sarah on December 10, 2006

If I were to make a list of all the things I would never expect to do, sitting through a timeshare meeting would have to be at the top of the list. All the horror stories out there about four hour meetings being trapped in a room full of salesmen have been enough for me to know I would never voluntarily go to one of those sessions.

Then one evening my husband got a call saying he had won a trip to Vegas, and, you guessed it, all we had to do was go to timeshare meeting. There was the usual schpiel about there being no strings attached and no obligation to buy anything to claim the trip. Though I do consider having to bring your wife a pretty thick string attached to the offer.

I didn’t have a choice in the matter. By the time I heard the whole deal, it was all said and done. He’d jumped at the chance to a free trip to Vegas and told them to schedule us in for a meeting and we’d be there.

There was nothing short of refusing to go that I didn’t try to use to get out of it. One of the stipulations of the trip was that it had to be taken during the week. I figured it would have to be used soon, so I said I wouldn’t be able to go anyway since all my vacation days are reserved for a big trip in February.

Unfortunately, me not being able to go on the trip didn’t mean I could get out of the timeshare meeting to earn the trip. Since we’re married, I had to be there, and my hubby would get to take a friend on the trip. It turned out that the trip offer was good for more than year, so then I was screwed out of a trip to Vegas since I’d already given it up for Troy to take a friend, and I still had to go to the meeting.

My next tactic was whining a little bit and pouting a little bit and just not having much good to say about being forced to go to a meeting for something we clearly weren’t interested in. Childish I know, but come on, it was a timeshare meeting for goodness sake.

So, we went and the really crazy part is that not only did my husband enjoy the two and a half hours we spent there, he was actually into the idea of buying in.

Granted, the timeshare deals have gotten a lot smarter over the years. Instead of your one set location that you’re locked into for a certain week each year, they’re now working on a points system. You buy in with a certain amount of points or credits and you can use those at any resort in the company’s system. It’s much more flexible, but still thousands of dollars to buy into.

I went into this meeting thinking we’d be there for an hour and half or less, and my husband would nicely tell them no and take his free trip and we’d be out of there. He’s the kind of guy who has to research stuff to death before he makes a major decision, so I never in a million years expected him to be interested.

Little did I know that he’d actually been researching ahead of time. It would have been nice to be let in on the secret that he would be interested at all in this kind of deal. I might have taken it all a little more serious to begin with, and we could have talked it out more before even heading into the meeting.

Instead, we sat through the intro video and sat down with a sales person to get the more in-depth look at the deal, and when it came time to say no and get the hell out of there, there we still sat. I couldn’t believe we were actually sitting there seriously considering buying into this deal – a timeshare of all things.

As it turns out, I ended up having to be the strong one and resist it in the end. Troy was hooked just enough that he was on the verge of saying yes, but then the sales guy did something that completely pissed me off and turned me off to the idea.

We’d already taken two different moments to have a couple minutes to talk about the deal, and we asked for one more to talk over the logistics and make a final decision. The guy basically said he didn’t have time to do that since they had another room full of people to talk to, and we just had to make a decision.

I’ll tell you right now, the last thing you want to do if you’re trying to sell me something is pressure me like that. You’ll get a no every time. I’m told I take after my Dad that way – no bargaining, no pressure, if I’m going to buy it I will, if I’m not I’m not.

We left with our free trip in hand, and I was irritated at the sales guy for being such a jerk at the end. It felt pretty much like a useless evening for me, but my husband actually enjoyed himself. He had fun learning about their business model and analyzing the sales guy’s technique and figuring out what was working for him and not working for him.

He would actually do it again.

I on the other hand, plan to avoid ever having to do that again. Good idea or not, I just can’t imagine waking up the next day and thinking, “I just bought into a timeshare.”

- Sarah L. Polson

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Tags: humor, time share

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