So irked by my latest Marriott presentation

So I always go to the presentations because I want the points. And I always get irked. This guy at Lakeshore Reserve really irked me. He was a know it all about the DC, but knew nothing about II. Whenever I mentioned how great II was, he discounted me.

He didn't know about the quality filter and he didn't know about the Marriott preference. He was trying to tell me I was competing against 3 million people for a Marriott exchange and I tried to tell him no....there is a quality filter so not everyone sees the Marriotts, plus there is a preference period. He basically laughed at me.

If you are going to try to sell to me, atleast know as much as I do about what you are selling. UGH!!!!!!

He also tried to tell me that if I enrolled my week the yearly fee would cover Marriott exchanges through II. I told him I don't think so, go ask. He came back and said no, that I was right. Again, UGH!

I feel bad that others go to him not knowing what is correct.

If there is anything worse than a salesperson who doesn't know what he/she is selling, it's someone who goes to a sales presentation with no intention to buy, simply to get the Reward points. If I were a sales person, I would find that irksome.

Do yourself a favor -- stop going to presentations and enjoy your vacation. There are better/easier ways to earn points.

Better yet, if you're just going for the points anyway and not to buy, look at these presentations as entertainment!

But then again, I could see being irked when I think of the thousands of rubes who do end up buying an expensive millstone off of bogus claims and fuzzy math.

DB-Wis said:

If there is anything worse than a salesperson who doesn't know what he/she is selling, it's someone who goes to a sales presentation with no intention to buy, simply to get the Reward points. If I were a sales person, I would find that irksome.

Do yourself a favor -- stop going to presentations and enjoy your vacation. There are better/easier ways to earn points.

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Is there actually someone out there who went into a presentation with the express intention of buying? I've purchased at three of them and each time I had no intention of buying anything.

I go to the presentations and I'm completely upfront about doing it for the points and to enhance my knowledge of how to use the system and that I have no intention of purchasing anything. I really don't see anything wrong with that. Marriott doesn't either as they keep inviting me.

If you had bought from me three times...

I would keep inviting you, too! Great pics on your Flickr site, by the way.

vacationlover2 said:

He also tried to tell me that if I enrolled my week the yearly fee would cover Marriott exchanges through II. I told him I don't think so, go ask. He came back and said no, that I was right. Again, UGH!

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I need a little clarification here. When you join the DC don't you have an ability to see into II for exchanging like we do now? Is it just Marriotts that we see? Except with the DC we don't pay the exchange fee which have been when going through II? Am I understanding this correctly or am I misunderstanding it?

Thanks!

dmharris said:

I need a little clarification here. When you join the DC don't you have an ability to see into II for exchanging like we do now? Is it just Marriotts that we see? Except with the DC we don't pay the exchange fee which have been when going through II? Am I understanding this correctly or am I misunderstanding it?

Thanks!

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With II it works just like before except no Marriott to Marriott fee but you can see everything just the same.

I check both my pre-DC and post-DC II accounts, see the exact same thing.
I even do "fake res#" pulls from both and get same results

jimf41 said:

Is there actually someone out there who went into a presentation with the express intention of buying? I've purchased at three of them and each time I had no intention of buying anything.

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I hate to admit it, but yes, we did, at the Aruba Surf Club. We had no intention of buying at our very first presentation, taken to get a free weekend getaway to Palm Desert. We loved the program so much we bought two . We don't regret it, except for buying 2 rather than 1 unit. Had we decided to research the resale market, we would still be doing that and never have experienced our wonderful timeshare vacations during the past 10 years. We bought pre-construction and received a certificate for a week anywhere and airline points.

Went to Aruba on the certificate and loved it so much we went back the following year. Towards the end of the trip we knew we would be coming back yearly and decided that if we felt the same the following year, we would buy at the Surf Club which we did. The Surf Club had just opened there weren't any resales yet, so we bought from the developer as we were unwilling to wait the year or 2 for resales to come on the market. Our second, Oceanfront unit, at the Surf Club was purchased on the resale market.

Ingrid

vacationlover2 said:

He also tried to tell me that if I enrolled my week the yearly fee would cover Marriott exchanges through II. I told him I don't think so, go ask. He came back and said no, that I was right. Again, UGH!

I feel bad that others go to him not knowing what is correct.

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The DC membership fee of $169/$199 DOES cover II exchange fees for Marriott to Marriott exchanges, so the salesperson was correct on this point.

Since you are deliberately wasting someone's time that makes his/her liviing with these promotions, you should not feel too bad about the techniques that the person is using.

DB-Wis said:

If there is anything worse than a salesperson who doesn't know what he/she is selling, it's someone who goes to a sales presentation with no intention to buy, simply to get the Reward points. If I were a sales person, I would find that irksome.

Do yourself a favor -- stop going to presentations and enjoy your vacation. There are better/easier ways to earn points.

Click to expand...

Nobody goes to a TS presentation with the intentiontion of buying. Most people don't even know that they are going to a sales presentation. People sign-up and go to the Enjoying and Making the Best of Vacations Presentation is to get their free gift. In return for our free gift, the sales staff have the opportunity to close on us. Don't feel sorry for the sales staff, it's a numbers game and we earned our free gift.

That said, I look forward to attending a few Marriott sales presentations and getting some MRP's also.

jimf41 said:

Is there actually someone out there who went into a presentation with the express intention of buying?

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Yes, at Ocean Pointe in 2001.

vacationlover2 said:

... He also tried to tell me that if I enrolled my week the yearly fee would cover Marriott exchanges through II. I told him I don't think so, go ask. He came back and said no, that I was right. Again, UGH!

I feel bad that others go to him not knowing what is correct.

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I also feel badly that so much misinformation exists about enrolling Week(s) in Marriott's new system, especially when it's perpetuated by Marriott representatives, but they're not alone.

Others have already said this but if you enroll your Week(s) in the DC, the Club Dues fee WILL cover Marriott-to-Marriott exchanges within your new/corporate II account (which will work exactly the same as your old/individual II account,) as well as the II membership fee for that account. They'll also cover the fees to convert your Week(s) to Marriott Rewards Points, the fees to cancel and re-book a home resort reservation, the fees to split a lock-off, and the fees to use a Split-Week option (where it exists.) Many Week(s) owners have compared the fees for their historical usage and determined that it will be cost effective for them to enroll in the DC and use their Week(s) the same way they always have. And regardless of what a sales rep says, it works that way without having to purchase DC Points in addition to enrollment.

Ron98GT said:

Nobody goes to a TS presentation with the intentiontion of buying. Most people don't even know that they are going to a sales presentation. People sign-up and go to the Enjoying and Making the Best of Vacations Presentation is to get their free gift. In return for our free gift, the sales staff have the opportunity to close on us. Don't feel sorry for the sales staff, it's a numbers game and we earned our free gift.

That said, I look forward to attending a few Marriott sales presentations and getting some MRP's also.

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We did.

At the time we were comparing the costs of an oceanfront condo in a complex with resort-like amenities, to the oceanfront timeshares that were available. Buying the timeshares was more cost-effective for what we wanted, which was and still is a few weeks at a nice place on the ocean. We didn't want to be landlords of rental property, we didn't want to have to pay maintenance and management fees for a year-round second property that we wouldn't be able to use for more than one month in a year. Timeshares fit our vacation lifestyle perfectly, and at the time we purchased them the intervals we bought direct weren't available at a deep discount on the external resale market.

As crazy as it may seem, sometimes developer purchases are the option that works best. (Granted, though, current economic conditions and stagnant development of new timeshare resorts make it more difficult to reach that conclusion.)

wvacations said:

The DC membership fee of $169/$199 DOES cover II exchange fees for Marriott to Marriott exchanges, so the salesperson was correct on this point.

Since you are deliberately wasting someone's time that makes his/her liviing with these promotions, you should not feel too bad about the techniques that the person is using.

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Whoa! Really? Shoddy tactics are OK if the attendee is only there for points? As you should know, most folks attend thinking they're only there for the goodies. A predictable minority of them end up buying. And you think it's OK for the salesperson to misrepresent the product to these folks?

SueDonJ said:

We did.

At the time we were comparing the costs of an oceanfront condo in a complex with resort-like amenities, to the oceanfront timeshares that were available. Buying the timeshares was more cost-effective for what we wanted, which was and still is a few weeks at a nice place on the ocean. We didn't want to be landlords of rental property, we didn't want to have to pay maintenance and management fees for a year-round second property that we wouldn't be able to use for more than one month in a year. Timeshares fit our vacation lifestyle perfectly, and at the time we purchased them the intervals we bought direct weren't available at a deep discount on the external resale market.

As crazy as it may seem, sometimes developer purchases are the option that works best. (Granted, though, current economic conditions and stagnant development of new timeshare resorts make it more difficult to reach that conclusion.)

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Susan, I love your talent for understatement. I'm tempted to call you a radical moderate. Still, I agree that it is "more difficult" to argue that developer purchases are the option that works best.

I did the craziest thing! I bought 2 Frenchman's Cove units online from their e-lead salesperson in California, sight unseen. I knew my annual family Christmas trips were getting more and more expensive and the numbers worked for me so I contacted MVC corporate. He was an excellent representative. We communicated for a couple months on-line before he asked permission to call me. I'm a sales manager and I've used his methods as training for my salespeople.

That being said, I am leaving for Oceana Palms next week and I know the harassment will begin. I have only gone to 1 presentation at Frenchman's Cove and there was no pressure to buy, but the last time I was there I was inundated. Meals were interrupted, phone calls were coming. They showed up at the door in the middle of breakfast. I believe that if we tell them we aren't going to buy, but we will go to the presentation, it is fair. After all, it usually becomes a contest of wills at those things. They are betting that they are stronger than we are. If they lose a few points in the process, I'm not going to feel guilty. I imagine that the "concierges" get paid for selling us the idea of attending and then the sales rep job is to sell us on the program. For myself, I'm just not interested in taking 2 hours out of my vacation for the points, though I would be interested in a valid owner update with no pressure and no points.

OldPantry said:

Susan, I love your talent for understatement. I'm tempted to call you a radical moderate. Still, I agree that it is "more difficult" to argue that developer purchases are the option that works best.

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Sometimes Don calls me a hippie socialist so you're in good company. :rofl:

OldPantry said:

Whoa! Really? Shoddy tactics are OK if the attendee is only there for points? As you should know, most folks attend thinking they're only there for the goodies. A predictable minority of them end up buying. And you think it's OK for the salesperson to misrepresent the product to these folks?

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I did not see any "shady tatics" list in OP post. You are competing in interval with other members and the enrolled yearly fee does cover Marriott Exchanges. Where was the shaddu part again?

Fair game

Don't beg me and bribe me to take the tour and then berate me for taking the free gifts and simple saying "no."

wvacations said:

I did not see any "shady tatics" list in OP post. You are competing in interval with other members and the enrolled yearly fee does cover Marriott Exchanges. Where was the shaddu part again?

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The OP was complaining about his salesperson's apparent ignorance regarding key features of the VC plan. His ignorance, if such, is sloppy. But it could easily have been deliberate misrepresentation. We hear tons of stories about how the "facts" change, once a salesperson is challenged. Either way, you criticized the OP for wasting the poor man's time, suggesting he deserves what he got. I don't think so.

wvacations said:

Since you are deliberately wasting someone's time that makes his/her liviing with these promotions, you should not feel too bad about the techniques that the person is using.

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On many, many occasions the person trying to get me to attend a sales session has told me even if I have no interest in buying that I should attend to learn the latest information about the program. Even my original salesman have suggested attending on subsequent visits just to chat.

piper_chuck said:

On many, many occasions the person trying to get me to attend a sales session has told me even if I have no interest in buying that I should attend to learn the latest information about the program. Even my original salesman have suggested attending on subsequent visits just to chat.

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Exactly! From the developer's perspective, the whole idea is to get you in the room so there is a CHANCE that a sale will be made, and they offer various incentives to encourage you to walk into that room. As another poster already stated, some predictable number of those walk into the room will indeed purchase. If this strategy didn't work well overall, if it weren't profitable overall, Marriott and the other timeshare sellers would find another way to get the opportunity to sell you their TSs...but this has been the approach for a long time, and I don't see it changing.

DB-Wis said:

If there is anything worse than a salesperson who doesn't know what he/she is selling, it's someone who goes to a sales presentation with no intention to buy, simply to get the Reward points.

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Hmmm. That might be just a tad judgmental ---

On two occasions I went into the sales office unannounced to buy an EOY MGC three bedroom unit from Marriott. I had purchased a two bedroom prior to that time. All the units had tremendous pre-construction incentives unseen in today's market. We took three overseas vacations with the incentives and still had points left over. It probably amounted to over $60,000+ in travel costs that we didn't have to pay. Had fun on those trips and currently having fun using the timeshares. No regrets here.

I think those days are gone forever. My next three purchases were all resales. That's certainly the way to go in today's market.