musictom
TUG Member
(Warning: this is a cross-posting I wrote in the Vidanta Owner's FB group with a minimal amount of editing. If you've read it there, please ignore. 
)
I wanted to share our experience with the owner's update tour at NV.
My wife and I initially agreed not to do an update, for all the reasons discussed here, on TUG, etc. So after our free welcome drink and offer, we politely declined.
The host came back with an offer of a 45 minute update, no credit card or ID needed, no breakfast. In addition to the 10% and Vida card, they also would upgrade us to a Grand Mayan (we own MP). We thought about it and decided to take the plunge, mainly so we could use the GM facilities (lazy river, pool, etc.)
I was armed and loaded for our presentation. Our facilitator was an older gentleman from Great Britain by the name of Martin. Like the other sales people, he was very cordial, and it was hard to not like him, haha. Martin took us through several of the GL models, and talked up the new theme park here at NV. We then watched a couple of videos and sat down for "the pitch".
He was astounded at the deal we worked out 17 years ago (I almost gagged, haha!) He showed us a paper that insinuated the MP contract we bought in 2002 NOW sells for $89K! Hah! He explained that if we were to sell our contract, it would cost us 10X maintenance fees, and I corrected him, that it would cost 10% of the original sales price, a difference of about $7K. That quieted him for a second. I also said I realized that our contract is worth about, um, NOTHING on the resale market, and that it would likely cost us $500-2000 were we to sell. He had no response.
After reassuring us that "well over 95% of our customers renew at the 25 year interval (our contract has a 5X maintenance fee renewal at 25 years), he asked us what we planned on doing. I said we are allowing our contract to expire, and when that time comes, we will simply rent from owners, avoiding the hassle of TS ownership. Again, we were greeted with somewhat stunned silence from his end.
He took about 2 minutes to attempt to explain the VIDA dollar concept, but at this point I'm pretty sure he was aware he wasn't getting anywhere with us. He said he would make some notes in our file so that we won't be bothered again with an update offer. He then said, "give me 2 minutes, and we'll get you on our way". This is when I assumed the next level sales person would appear. Within 2 minutes, he shook our hand, thanked us for our time, and told us how to redeem our gifts. I was stunned that we were actually done, having only spoken with one sales person!
Total time: 53 minutes.
Obviously, others' experiences vary, but we went in with a steel conviction, and armed to the teeth with information, again thanks to the number of online resources available. For us, it paid off.
Happy travels!!
)I wanted to share our experience with the owner's update tour at NV.
My wife and I initially agreed not to do an update, for all the reasons discussed here, on TUG, etc. So after our free welcome drink and offer, we politely declined.
The host came back with an offer of a 45 minute update, no credit card or ID needed, no breakfast. In addition to the 10% and Vida card, they also would upgrade us to a Grand Mayan (we own MP). We thought about it and decided to take the plunge, mainly so we could use the GM facilities (lazy river, pool, etc.)
I was armed and loaded for our presentation. Our facilitator was an older gentleman from Great Britain by the name of Martin. Like the other sales people, he was very cordial, and it was hard to not like him, haha. Martin took us through several of the GL models, and talked up the new theme park here at NV. We then watched a couple of videos and sat down for "the pitch".
He was astounded at the deal we worked out 17 years ago (I almost gagged, haha!) He showed us a paper that insinuated the MP contract we bought in 2002 NOW sells for $89K! Hah! He explained that if we were to sell our contract, it would cost us 10X maintenance fees, and I corrected him, that it would cost 10% of the original sales price, a difference of about $7K. That quieted him for a second. I also said I realized that our contract is worth about, um, NOTHING on the resale market, and that it would likely cost us $500-2000 were we to sell. He had no response.
After reassuring us that "well over 95% of our customers renew at the 25 year interval (our contract has a 5X maintenance fee renewal at 25 years), he asked us what we planned on doing. I said we are allowing our contract to expire, and when that time comes, we will simply rent from owners, avoiding the hassle of TS ownership. Again, we were greeted with somewhat stunned silence from his end.
He took about 2 minutes to attempt to explain the VIDA dollar concept, but at this point I'm pretty sure he was aware he wasn't getting anywhere with us. He said he would make some notes in our file so that we won't be bothered again with an update offer. He then said, "give me 2 minutes, and we'll get you on our way". This is when I assumed the next level sales person would appear. Within 2 minutes, he shook our hand, thanked us for our time, and told us how to redeem our gifts. I was stunned that we were actually done, having only spoken with one sales person!
Total time: 53 minutes.
Obviously, others' experiences vary, but we went in with a steel conviction, and armed to the teeth with information, again thanks to the number of online resources available. For us, it paid off.
Happy travels!!
