Timeshare Presentation In Australia
While this reporter decided that a timeshare was appropriate for her family, they could have gotten the same thing 8and saved $10,000) if they had purchased through the resale market instead of directly from the company. Plus, the sales tactics were pretty seedy...
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"Despite the hard sell on vacation clubs, Lucinda Schmidt signed up anyway.
The letter arrived looking much like many other pieces of junk mail: "Congratulations! You are in a very select group! You have been selected to receive one of the following gifts with a retail VALUE OF UP TO $800."
For details on how to receive "this exciting package", which promised one, two or four nights' free accommodation in various hotels owned by the Accor group, we were urged to call a free number "within 72 hours of receipt of this letter!"
In the fine print on the back, the letter disclosed that the promotion was designed for couples or singles earning more than $50,000 a year and you had to attend a 90-minute timeshare ownership presentation to get the gift.
Which was how, a few weeks later, my husband, our four-year-old daughter and I ended up in a suite in Melbourne's Mercure Grand Hotel, listening to a young saleswoman preach the virtues of Accor Premiere Vacation Club (APVC), a joint venture between the global Accor hotel group and Melbourne's Becton property development group.
In essence, what she was promising was one week's holiday each year, until 2080, at 12 club-owned properties in Australia, for a capital outlay of about $20,000 and an annual maintenance fee of about $500.
Our plan was to listen to the compulsory sales spiel, then bolt with our voucher for four nights in Noumea. Three hours later, when we finally escaped to pick up our other daughter, we had signed up and paid a $2000 deposit.
How did this happen? Partly, it was the high-pressure sales tactics. Rather than sitting back in a room full of people and snoozing through a general presentation, the five couples at our seminar each had their own club salesman taking them through how often they went on holidays, where, why, how much it cost, how much they thought holidays for 80 years would cost and, finally, how the club worked (see panel).
There was a video of delighted members extolling the virtues of the club, a whiteboard with photos of the club's resorts around Australia, vouchers for free meals and - most worrying of all - a "special deal" with extra benefits and a reduced price if we signed up on the spot..."
Entire Article
"Despite the hard sell on vacation clubs, Lucinda Schmidt signed up anyway.
The letter arrived looking much like many other pieces of junk mail: "Congratulations! You are in a very select group! You have been selected to receive one of the following gifts with a retail VALUE OF UP TO $800."
For details on how to receive "this exciting package", which promised one, two or four nights' free accommodation in various hotels owned by the Accor group, we were urged to call a free number "within 72 hours of receipt of this letter!"
In the fine print on the back, the letter disclosed that the promotion was designed for couples or singles earning more than $50,000 a year and you had to attend a 90-minute timeshare ownership presentation to get the gift.
Which was how, a few weeks later, my husband, our four-year-old daughter and I ended up in a suite in Melbourne's Mercure Grand Hotel, listening to a young saleswoman preach the virtues of Accor Premiere Vacation Club (APVC), a joint venture between the global Accor hotel group and Melbourne's Becton property development group.
In essence, what she was promising was one week's holiday each year, until 2080, at 12 club-owned properties in Australia, for a capital outlay of about $20,000 and an annual maintenance fee of about $500.
Our plan was to listen to the compulsory sales spiel, then bolt with our voucher for four nights in Noumea. Three hours later, when we finally escaped to pick up our other daughter, we had signed up and paid a $2000 deposit.
How did this happen? Partly, it was the high-pressure sales tactics. Rather than sitting back in a room full of people and snoozing through a general presentation, the five couples at our seminar each had their own club salesman taking them through how often they went on holidays, where, why, how much it cost, how much they thought holidays for 80 years would cost and, finally, how the club worked (see panel).
There was a video of delighted members extolling the virtues of the club, a whiteboard with photos of the club's resorts around Australia, vouchers for free meals and - most worrying of all - a "special deal" with extra benefits and a reduced price if we signed up on the spot..."
Entire Article
posted by savingadvice @ 6:51 AM
1 Comments:
At 5:50 AM,
Unknown said…
Lets get one thing straight, people who accept to go to a timeshare presentation go because of 'greed',for a cheap holiday or freebie. If people are so adament that timeshare is a scam why would you sit through a 90 minute presentation just for a freeby. Its quite sad, people get a great incentive to attend yet many still whinge and are sour faced when they arrive at the presentation.
People pre-judge and hear only what they want to hear,generally the bad. Yes some timeshare companys in the past were shonky,however,dont forget there were not the same laws and regulations as today. My daughter works for accor,one of the worlds largest hotel chains, and we bought this membership 5 years ago. Its one of the best things we have done for ourselves, we have saved so far at least 3 times what it cost us. More importantly itd encouraged us to holiday instead of spending our retirement at home. I love paying $0 for my luxury accommodation, without this we would never holiday as often and in this quality. We will never worry about inflation and rising costs.
My point to all is unless you know what this product can do for u in this day an age, dont be so quick to call it a scam,my daughter is so proud to be selling this product. She is providing people with a better lifestyle, and she is genuinely interested in the people she speaks to, she doesnt need to do the hard sell because as you all will see the product sells itself.
Its simple if your going to go to a presentation and are planning to sulk the whole time, just dont go at all(is it worth it for a free gift?)
If you do go,especially to accor keep an open mind and you never know u could be pleasantly suprised.
From a happy accor memeber
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