My sister just attended a Wyndham presentation. Help me with a great comeback.

This was at Bali Hai, and they are selling 77K points for $13K. They told her owning in Hawaii would give her great exchange power. I told her they are lying, and she said it makes sense, though, because it's Hawaii. I see her point, but I told her not internally in the Wyndham points system. I told her they are trying to sell her something of little value, because a point is a point in Wyndham, and with 77K points, she would have zero benefits, so buying resale would be exactly the same at that level.

(FYI: I had an aunt buy Wyndham Branson Meadows because her son owned Worldmark and loved it so much, plus she knew how much we liked Wyndham Shearwater. She figured Wyndham would the just as good as Worldmark (same parent company). She didn't talk to me first, and I was so disappointed for her, because she paid SO much for 168K points EOY. No benefits, and she could buy the same thing on eBay for $1.00. She had no idea Worldmark was so inexpensive on eBay and would have purchased those points instead. She has been so sorry she bought from Wyndham. I cannot let my sister make a mistake and buy from these scammers.)

I told my sister if she had weeks to convert, or if she already had points, she would do better, but you can buy 1 million points UDI at LaBelle Maison on eBay right now, Buy It Now, for $6K, so it would be wiser to buy those points and use them, rather than buying more to get Platinum. That many points would be a great package for her. Unless Wyndham corporate would let her convert those million to Platinum for a bargain price.

The salesman told her if she wanted to go to Shearwater every year, she needed to own Hawaii. 77K points? That salesman is such a liar. It takes 400K points to go to Shearwater with no VIP benefits and 200K with the PLATINUM benefits, but only at <60 days. She planned her current trip months ahead of time!

She and her best friend and their husbands had to leave the presentation at the time it was supposed to end , because they had reservations on Captain Andy's this afternoon. Now she has to go back tomorrow morning and sit with this salesman again, but at least she is now armed with this information.

Here is my question to all of you, when the salesperson says, "Those points on eBay aren't Hawaii points, they aren't ever going to get you to Hawaii," or "Hope you like going to New Orleans every year, because you will only be allowed to use the points there,"

We know what kinds of things they say during a sales presentation. What should be her (their) wise and succinct comeback to this obviously rude and incorrect statement?

Give me your ideas, and I will have my sister watch this thread tonight, when she gets back from her wonderful boat trip.

BTW, this is her first trip to Hawaii, and today is her best friend's 50th birthday, and the 23rd is my sister's 50th birthday (they will be on Maui starting Saturday). They have been friends since they were 4 years old. They are staying at Shearwater this week, and their second week is at Maui Beach Vacation Club (best I could get with an ongoing search, trying for MONTHS to get something at the Westin or elsewhere near Lahaina).

Also, I doubt my sister has ever been on any timeshare presentation in her life.

rickandcindy23 said:

Here is my question to all of you, when the salesperson says, "Those points on eBay aren't Hawaii points, they aren't ever going to get you to Hawaii," or "Hope you like going to New Orleans every year, because you will only be allowed to use the points there,"

We know what kinds of things they say during a sales presentation. What should be her (their) wise and succinct comeback to this obviously rude and incorrect statement?

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What's wrong with New Orleans? They just won a superbowel.

If they (sales) don't know it is a lie, they just follow whatever their training guide told them, why need to confrontation? I don't think anyone pay your sister to teach / train their sales are they? The gift is for sitting there listen. If your sister willing to teach and believe she know it, that is fine. If not why bother?

If they know what they say is lie, than do you care to figure out who is right? Your sister will not going to pay those money even if they say, "look I lie to you, I am sorry, now, pay us those money to buy this much point". Will she?

Your sister just change her heart about buying, that is it, just sit there, drink some coffee, and tell the sale they have to go, but they need to collect the gift.

I don't own any point in Hawaii, I bought resale, and I did visit Hawaii, if that can make her feel a little bit confident about her own sister's word.

Jya-Ning

hey, if you don't have Hawaii points Wyndham won't verify your TPI deposit! Your sister must really know her stuff, the apples never fall far from the tree. I know my siblings would never fall for any of that stuff.

Jya-Ning said:

What's wrong with New Orleans? They just won a superbowel. Jya-Ning

Click to expand...

cool, what's a superbowel, don't answer that, your answer might stink.

What should be her (their) wise and succinct comeback to this obviously rude and incorrect statement?

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Don't even bother. Just nod, and smile.

Points are points. I own resale-only points, have used them for several bookings, none at my home resort.

That said, there is one situation in which owning @ HI matters---the Outrigger resorts. I forget the details on this; the directory lays it out.

Bnoble

Can you direct me to the directory regard use of Hawaii points for outrigger properties? What if I got wyndham waikiki points resale? Can I use them for outrigger properties at Hawaii? thanks

My only come back would be that I get to Hawaii as often as I want using my fixed week exchanges through RCI . . . generally worth 77k points. This proves you do not need to OWN Hawaii (and pay high Hawaii MF's) to go/stay Hawaii.

RickandCindy23

Hi Cindy,

Tell your sister to contact me, to find out "how many times" I've stayed at/in Hawaii timeshares in the last 10 years. I would be "more than happy" to "inform" her how and where I usually get the Hawaii timeshare units. ("YOU" know that this last January was "not normal"---at least for me---so I won't count staying at the Shearwater a month ago.)

Does anybody really want to know how much time I spend in Hawaii timeshares each year??? Maybe your sister should have the salesperson contact me, to get the "correct" answers !!!

Tony

The biggest problem with the sales presention was the insinuation that Shearwater would be possible for a 77K point purchase.

400K points is the minimum cost of Shearwater through Wyndham. :annoyed:

RCI Points are still the best way to get Shearwater. I would buy a fixed week to exchange, but almost certainly the exchange power would drop suddenly, and then I would be stuck with another poorly trading week. UGH! It's very difficult to sell any week, no matter how good it is.

Here is the directory:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/wyndham/memberdirectory0910/

Page 348 talks about it. I don't know that any of the hotels are a good deal, but the 25% of villas in reserve might or might not matter. I suspect resale points work for this, but I have no idea for sure. You'd want to research this carefully to see if being "in Outrigger" even really matters. It might not.

Outrigger

bnoble said:

I don't know that any of the hotels are a good deal, but the 25% of villas in reserve might or might not matter. I suspect resale points work for this, but I have no idea for sure. You'd want to research this carefully to see if being "in Outrigger" even really matters. It might not.

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Don't think the 25% reserve is a big deal. P.R. has a 75% reserve 10mo - 30days vs. the Outrigger @ 25% 10mo - 90days in advance of check in. The language of both leaves it pretty wide-open for the exclusive inventories to fall off easily.

"XX% of unreserved [insert program here] inventory may be held for the exclusive access of [program members]."

If anyone in either of these programs makes an reservation on a unit during the "exclusive" period, and then CANCELS it, the inventory is no long considered "exclusive." It becomes fully available inventory to everyone! All it takes is a couple of Outrigger or P.R. members with a lot of points that do a renting in and out of the reservation system. The exclusivity carrot is an illusion IMO.

Also, the 12-month ARP for Outrigger... VIP Platinums can INVOKE 2 additional RARP's at 11 months (including Hawaii resorts). So the 12 months isn't that much farther out than the Plats. Still not worth the price of the carrot.

RCI / Bali Hai Points

I'll start with, I own a 2bdrm Every year at Bali Hai. I bought it on the secondary market several years ago.

We went to a presentation at Bali Hai several years ago, and the guy lied through his teeth, there's just no way around it. It wasn't a mistake. He lied. We didn't know fact from fiction until several years into ownership. I would have been REALLY angry had we bought from Pahio Bali Hai at the time.

The only bonus that I know of for owning points with Hawaii as the home resort, is that supposedly the number of points the ownership week is valued at in comparison to the same size / time week in another state.

As I said we own a week in Hawaii, but that doesn't get us any benefit in exchanging when using RCI.

My advice,for what it's worth, only buy at a location that you want to visit yearly (or bi-annual) with an eye on the maintenance fees. Don't buy for resale or rental down the road. Management companies are making that virtually impossible so that they have a lock on the market.

My Bali Hai 2 bdrm mf are just under $1000.

Last year we bought points from a TUG member to stay an extra night at Bali Hai. My recollection is that Wyndham's rate was 90,000 points for the one night in a 2brdrm (off season - October).

Best of luck