My wife filled out this form to win a car at a Phillies baseball game. A few days later we got a call telling us that we could get a free six day, five night cruise to Bermuda if we came into the King of Prussia or Princeton office for an one hour tour.
Since my wife wanted to go on a cruise before she dies (she's terminal with stage four breast cancer), I agreed to go. Since we've been to a few timeshare tours, we knew what we were getting into. So, I set my alarm on my phone for an hour and we informed the salesman of this shortly after he started with his tour. We didn't get the normal presentation because we were the first group in and there weren't that many of us for that presentation.
We had a very nice young man. From our discussions he knew that we owned two red weeks in Virginia Beach and we used one of those weeks every year for Virginia Beach's American Music Festival. The other week we used to trade in to RCI to go where every we wanted (so far RCI has got us in all the resorts we have requested except The Manhatten Club). He also knew that we got comped down Atlantic City frequently. So, we weren't in the market for anymore vacation time.
He told us that he still had to show us his offers, because it was part of his job. We understood but reiterated that he was being timed. When my alarmed rang, he had shown us two offers... The original one that we could get at anytime ($15,000 for 25 weeks). However, if we signed up today we could get 5 additional weeks for $3,000 less. This is exactly what every one on these pages has explained so far.
We told him we weren't interested. He told us that he needed his supervisor to sign off on his attempt. Within a couple of minutes his supervisor came out and told us that there was a special offer for timeshare owners like us. His offer was for 12 weeks for $3,600. We tried to get him to do 6 weeks for $1,800, but he said this was the best he could do. He also reiterated that there was a $329 yearly fee that covers taxes and things like that (RCI calls it a maintenance fee, but they assured us that this fee was different even though it appeared to have the same purpose). He also told us that there was a $30 fee to get a unit during peak time or to do a room upgrade. At this point I went for the offer. We were really interested in going to Wildwood during the Summer as this is a place we can not go with RCI. They also had an offer that if we banked our Four Sails week with them, they'd give us two weeks and there would be no deadline to use the trade ins (RCI's expire after three years. If you don't use it with RCI, you lose it). Sundance claimed that we would never lose a traded week.
All this sounded great. Getting a week in Wildwood during peak would cost way over a thousand dollars. So, I was ready to sign. I even gave them my Discover Card for the payment because I wasn't going to pay 16.9% interest. Then, when I read the contract I saw that I didn't understand that $30 fee for peak time or room upgrade. It wasn't $30 for the week; it was $30 per day. At this time, I told them I changed my mind.
The young man told me that he understood. He went and told his supervisor. He didn't completely understand how I could let $210 stop me from making this deal, but he'd destroy all the stuff I signed. Since they were being so nice (there was no high pressure selling going on here), I compared his offer to the deal I have with the Four Sails. I told him that having a deeded property is more appealing that just getting vacation time and that they both ran about the same price in the end.
Because the cruise was combined with the sale, our order got a little complicated. And there was one more step before we could leave. I think this is one of the top bosses. He asked why we changed our mind, then he gave us one more deal.
I'm not going to divulge my final cost, but I will tell you that Sundance has a very good price to go on vacation. What concerns me is: how are they going to stay in business making these kinds of deals. I really believe that they will eventually be in financial trouble. I know I will get my money's worth by doing two trips to Wildwood.
I'm sure every salesman is different, and we were very lucky to get one who truly believes he is offering a great deal that should sell itself. If you aren't interested in a reasonably priced vacation, then you are there for the free gift. And even if you weren't interested, the price of the product should be good enough for you to buy something. And as long as they don't go bankrupt, they are offering a great deal!
I would bet that those of you who are complaining have never been to a timeshare presentation. If you had, you would have known what you were getting yourself into. And if you think this is high pressure, I would bet you've never had a Craftmatic Bed, swimming pool salesman or a Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman knock on your door. If you had one of these three salesman come to your house, then you would truly understand what high pressure really is. Granted, we were there for three hours; but I believe that is because they had grabbed my attention and they saw a deal getting done. If I would have stuck to my guns and told them no-way no matter what the cost, I could have been out in 1 1/2 hours.
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