I had mentioned a few posts back that we had agreed to a 90 minute presentation for a time share called Sedona Pines Resort. Part of the RCI time share network. In exchange for our time we received some pretty significant discounts to the Verde Canyon Railway and the Safari Jeep tour.
We were reluctant as we had done something like this years ago in Vegas and the experience was painful. At that time we were promised free tickets to a show in exchange for our time to sit in on a presentation on a new resort that was being built on the outskirts of Vegas. We met at a designated location with a number of other prospective investors, or as I prefer to call us, suckers. We boarded a bus for the trip out of town to the resort, which was still under construction.
First lesson, never rely on their transportation as we were totally at their mercy to get back to town.
Everyone was very friendly and we sat through a group presentation at the end of which I thought we would be free to board the bus and get back to our vacation. Wrong!. They broke us up into couples and we got our own personal consultant. This is where the brow beating began. I have never seen anyone talk so fast or so long without ever taking a breath. Perhaps he had gills behind his ears cause I never saw him inhale. As it became evident that we were not interesting the price began to drop. Pretty soon he brought over the sales manager to provide a fresh perspective on the opportunity that we were missing out on. We kept telling them that we just wanted our free tickets and a bus ride back to town. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity they showed us out to a hallway which we thought was the route to our freedom. Not so fast. We first had to pass one more individual who was supposed to give us our tickets but not before another sales pitch. And guess what, the price had dropped again. By this time they could have paid us and I wouldn’t have been interested. Finally, tickets in hand, we opened one more door and we broke for daylight. Our bus was parked waiting for more “catch and release” survivors to appear. Finally the bus departed.
Keep in mind this was one of those 3 day, 4 night Vegas trips so an afternoon of our time was a significant commitment which really ticked us off. Never again we said.
On the positive side the show, which took place in the back of some building which we entered off a side door, not a promising start we thought, was one of the best shows we saw in Vegas so not all was lost.
Keeping in mind our history of time share presentations we were very reluctant to commit to another painful experience. This time we drove to the Resort so at least we knew we had an escape should it come to that. Our appointed consultant took us into a large room set up with small tables with 3 chairs at each table. Very cosy. This time the presentation was much more low key and involved more of a conversation. At one point he even acknowledged that given our lifestyle a time share was probably not suitable for us. He was actually listening to us, Wow.
We took a tour of the facility which was quite nice. It actually had RV spots which we could book free of charge for up to 26 weeks a year. Now we began to start to get interested. Finally, well after the 90 minutes had come and gone, we started to talk about price. Their modus operandi is to first establish value, link it to our lifestyle and then finally after all other questions tell us the price which by now will sound like a real deal to us. Funny thing is it worked.
While we weren’t sure we would fully utilize the 40,000 points we were buying, which could be converted into 4-5 weeks per year, but we figured our son and daughter-in-law, who travel frequently with their 3 sons, would be able to utilize what we wouldn’t.
Enter the sales manager who offered us a reduced price from about $20k down to $15k.
I never buy stuff on the spur of the moment however I knew we had a 7 day “cooling off period” (they didn’t tell us that but I noticed it in the documents we had to review) so we decided to proceed.
Everyone was so happy. They brought over little bottles of champagne which Delmar, our sales guy, proceeded to pop. The corks shot across the room making sure all the other prospects saw. All the other sales consultants cheered. We felt so special.
Anyway we finally got out of their with a s__t load of documents for me to peruse in the next 7 days. We felt pretty good about our purchase for a day or so and then I started doing dome research on the internet. That’s when “buyers remorse” started to kick in. I know that it is very difficult to find positive customer experiences on the internet for almost anything but the customer experience for RCI was almost 100% negative. Then I started reading the legal documents I had been provided with. The rules and previously undisclosed fees made us cringe. What had we done.
We had provided a deposit of $1600, charged to our Visa, with the balance to be paid on the following Monday. This would allow me time to transfer some funds over to our US account and pay the balance. We went to the Resort on Monday at the appointed time to meet with the Sales Manager, who had become our best friend, and had been so happy to have us as part of their family. He came out from the back where they were hosting another sales presentation and he couldn’t remember who we were or why we were there. Guess we didn’t leave as much of an impression as we thought or perhaps he has a really big family and couldn't quite place us. Anyway after a few minutes it came back to him and he smiled and prepared to get the rest of our money from us. That’s when I broke the new to him that we had changed our mind. He tried a couple more sales pitches but when he realized our resolve the smile disappeared and he almost recoiled like perhaps we had some communicable disease. I could almost feel the chill in the air. He said he would send someone from “Corporate” to take care of us. It had a bit of an ominous sound to it. Shortly a lady came from the back all smiles and confirmed our decision. Then she made another sales pitch. When we turned her down that cold front came back in the room. She confirmed we had all the documents they had given us, took our letter advising we were cancelling the deal and started to leave. I asked about our deposit that was charged to our Visa and she curtly advised that it would be about a week to process and our Visa would be credited. Funny, it took seconds to charge our Visa but yet it was going to take a week to give us our money back. Them Corporate people just don’t understand customer service. But then again we weren’t customers anymore and it was clear all the niceties were over with and we should clear out.
We now await our credit to our Visa and chalk this up to another one of those life experiences that will make us so much wiser in the future. In the grand scheme of things the deal was probably not that bad and could have been beneficial longer term. The main roadblock was the fact that we travel with a four legged furry companion and pet friendly accommodation would restrict availability of accommodations. We also have a lot going on right now with our new home under construction and want to keep things simple. This seemed like it could complicate our lives more than we want.
Anyway that’s enough for this story. Its been almost a week and we are happy with our decision. I have a few more hiking posts to come for Sedona and on Dec 1 we are off to Gold Canyon for a month. More posts from there as we have fast Wifi so fewer trips to Starbucks.
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