Greetings,
My wife and I have attended two different Silverleaf presentations. The first for a free cruise (through spirit incentives ) and a $40 Visa, and the second for a 2 night stay at a New Braunfels, TX hotel + $40 Visa.
On the first the cruise offer seemed nice, but we were completely strapped and had zero intention of ever purchasing from them. Getting the cruise actually booked (4 night) took a little going out on a limb - i.e. sending a $100 reservation check to somewhere unknown, providing three travel date options, realizing it would only be an interior room, etc. However, we did end up going on a 4 night cruise through Carnival and it cost us $280 total (which the $100 went towards) for the additional port taxes / fees / etc. (Didn't upgrade room). I've looked on Carnival a few times and found 4 night cruises as low as $250/person after taxes and fees, so I don't feel like our first presentation was for naught.
After explaining to the first set of sales people that $15,500 + $900/yr maintenance was too much and not going to happen for us at the time since we didn't have that kind of additional income after being just married, they came back with "owner inventory" of bought back deeds. Starting with a $9000 offer that had free bonus time during the weekdays and $50 Fri/Sat. After telling the second pitch no for the same reason (while being slightly interested) we were offered a third which was $6k with free bonus time all days of the week (endless escapes)
None of the offers in the first pitch included a "week" conversation or much information about RCI. Most offers were likely white season, but nonetheless they called us back a couple months ago and asked us to go again to their Hill Country Resort on Canyon Lake. Since my wife's family travels to New Braunfels every year and the timing worked out, we went ahead with it. We pretty much know every thing there is to do in New Braunfels, how to get to it, when to go, etc even though it's about four hours away The trip ended up being a great way for us to stay there on the cheap and still go with her family to schlitterbahn and float the river, but of course we had to attend the sales presentation again. This time around the sales guy really pushed RCI and how much money he makes (as an owner) renting out his "bonus time" to friends and random people from craigslist. He supposedly pays his maintenance fees and paid off his deed by requesting bonus times 5-6 weekends a year and renting it. RCI is something I knew very little about, but I tried several ways to ask what you get with RCI in terms of trading in your "white" week from the hill country for an international resort. Of course terms like "TPU" were never explained or offered . . .
In any case, I wouldn't agree to our offer (which my wife and I thought was a good deal) without knowing it contained some option to cancel. Apparently to tugbbs this is common knowledge that developers have to include a cancellation policy of some sort, but without ever seeing the closing documents on a timeshare before (ever in life) it takes a lot of signatures before you get to the page that explains your offers to cancel. Surely knowing that I was still skeptical had to be some kind of red flag? Why would they pursue our signature so much? Surely they knew we would eventually find our way to the resale market and cancel? My wife and I were the short-term owners of a week 7 Silverleaf Hill Country Resort deed with free bonus time through the week and $50 Fri/Sat all for $9k and $900/yr MF.
Thanks to you folks, we rescinded. Hopefully we are on our way to a more successful *first* purchase now. Onto that note . . .
My wife and I have attended two different Silverleaf presentations. The first for a free cruise (through spirit incentives ) and a $40 Visa, and the second for a 2 night stay at a New Braunfels, TX hotel + $40 Visa.
On the first the cruise offer seemed nice, but we were completely strapped and had zero intention of ever purchasing from them. Getting the cruise actually booked (4 night) took a little going out on a limb - i.e. sending a $100 reservation check to somewhere unknown, providing three travel date options, realizing it would only be an interior room, etc. However, we did end up going on a 4 night cruise through Carnival and it cost us $280 total (which the $100 went towards) for the additional port taxes / fees / etc. (Didn't upgrade room). I've looked on Carnival a few times and found 4 night cruises as low as $250/person after taxes and fees, so I don't feel like our first presentation was for naught.
After explaining to the first set of sales people that $15,500 + $900/yr maintenance was too much and not going to happen for us at the time since we didn't have that kind of additional income after being just married, they came back with "owner inventory" of bought back deeds. Starting with a $9000 offer that had free bonus time during the weekdays and $50 Fri/Sat. After telling the second pitch no for the same reason (while being slightly interested) we were offered a third which was $6k with free bonus time all days of the week (endless escapes)
None of the offers in the first pitch included a "week" conversation or much information about RCI. Most offers were likely white season, but nonetheless they called us back a couple months ago and asked us to go again to their Hill Country Resort on Canyon Lake. Since my wife's family travels to New Braunfels every year and the timing worked out, we went ahead with it. We pretty much know every thing there is to do in New Braunfels, how to get to it, when to go, etc even though it's about four hours away The trip ended up being a great way for us to stay there on the cheap and still go with her family to schlitterbahn and float the river, but of course we had to attend the sales presentation again. This time around the sales guy really pushed RCI and how much money he makes (as an owner) renting out his "bonus time" to friends and random people from craigslist. He supposedly pays his maintenance fees and paid off his deed by requesting bonus times 5-6 weekends a year and renting it. RCI is something I knew very little about, but I tried several ways to ask what you get with RCI in terms of trading in your "white" week from the hill country for an international resort. Of course terms like "TPU" were never explained or offered . . .
In any case, I wouldn't agree to our offer (which my wife and I thought was a good deal) without knowing it contained some option to cancel. Apparently to tugbbs this is common knowledge that developers have to include a cancellation policy of some sort, but without ever seeing the closing documents on a timeshare before (ever in life) it takes a lot of signatures before you get to the page that explains your offers to cancel. Surely knowing that I was still skeptical had to be some kind of red flag? Why would they pursue our signature so much? Surely they knew we would eventually find our way to the resale market and cancel? My wife and I were the short-term owners of a week 7 Silverleaf Hill Country Resort deed with free bonus time through the week and $50 Fri/Sat all for $9k and $900/yr MF.
Thanks to you folks, we rescinded. Hopefully we are on our way to a more successful *first* purchase now. Onto that note . . .