The joys of Ownership

[Solumina]

I had a nice long list all typed up but a power outage ate it so you just get two from yesterday that both involve some pretty typical suck from our lovely owners. For the record we are one of the timeshares that also rents rooms like a hotel in addition to having owners and exchangers (people who own with a different company and traded through RCI or Interval International) we also rent rooms like a hotel. As is typical of EWs some of our owners feel that they deserve more than renters and to a lesser extent our exchangers.

What the am I paying for?
O: We’d like to play some putt-putt. (Two adults, four children)
Me: Okay it is $3 for adults and $2 for children, or you can get a weekly pass for unlimited play for everyone in your unit, which is $25.
O: Well I’m an owner *expectant look*
Me: Sorry but those are the prices for owners as well.
O: You have got to be kidding me! We pay a lot of money for our ownership and you all are still going to charge us to play your games!?! Well then what the am I paying for?????
Me: If you want to play something that in included for no additional fees you could play racquetball, tennis, basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, or shuffleboard, use either our indoor or outdoor pools, or choose one of our board games to sign out. There are also a number of area attractions that are free of charge if you are interested.
O: I don’t care because I’m cheap, I care because owners shouldn’t have to pay for these things (No you care because you are an EW and just think that the people we charge an arm an a leg to stay one night deserve less than you).
Me: As I said there are a number of onsite activates that are free to use…
O: No! We want to play putt-putt, we came here because you all said that you had putt-putt!
(we have much cheaper resorts with putt-putt but okay)
Me: Well the best price that I can give you for putt-putt is our special one week pass, which is $25 for unlimited play for everyone in your unit, which will more than pay for itself if you come back at least three times.
O: Oh so there is a special for owners. Why didn’t you say so in the first place? We’ll do that then.
(Right, in the future I’ll remember to lie and tell you that our prices are special for owners and that we gouge everyone else)


Owners are Speshul
(note: the rec desk is situated near the indoor pool, if someone says “the pool” and doesn’t specify then it is a safe bet they are talking about that one)
O: Is there a time when the pool is only open to owners?
Me: All of our pools are open to all types of guests during their operating hours, the only restrictions we have is that once both of our outdoor pools are open one of them will be for adults only.
O: *sigh* But it’s so crowded in there. Don’t you want to make sure that your owners get the full privileges that they pay for?
(Wtf lady, there are six people in there, you could swim laps if you wanted)
Me: I’m sorry, if you would like I could tell you what times are best to use the pool and just to be safe you could always give me a call here at the desk and I could tell you how busy we are before you walk all the way down here.
O: *extraheavysigh* I guess…since that’s the best you can do. Boy ownership doesn't mean much here does it?
(Nope, just that you can stay here and enjoy all sorts of free crap, plus you get discounts at tons of local places...oh wait we only tell those to the guests we like, including renters )

[Kristev]

Excuse me, but he's the owner of what, exactly? Aside from a strong sense of entitlement?

[Zellie Crescent]

Excuse me, but he's the owner of what, exactly? Aside from a strong sense of entitlement?

I believe it's a timeshare as well as a sh!ty attitude.

[Darkforge]

I think that timeshares get a large amount of EW's mostly because of the sales techniques involved.

Salesmen will often appeal to the EW with just how much they can get because they are an owner, and how many privelages they will have over normal renters in order to get the sale.

Unfortunately the EW's don't realise that just because they have some privelages doesn't mean they own the place.

[sirwired]

I went to a timeshare sales thing once (long story)... and my reaction was: WTF? Since the sales staff seemed to assume I was a brain-dead gullible idiot, I can only imagine the sort of customers such a place would tend to attract.

SirWired

[Lachrymose]

Is your name Dave by any chance?

[Magpie]

I went to a timeshare sales thing once (long story)... and my reaction was: WTF?

My uncle went to a timeshare sales thing once. The guy who invited him in got chewed out by his boss. Apparently engineers are the sort of people they try to actively discourage from showing up at those.

[Midorikawa]

Apparently engineers are the sort of people they try to actively discourage from showing up at those.

I think that's proof right there. I've always seen timeshares as a bad investment, but I've never been near one or had the opportunity to look into it for myself. Just the bit about paying a mortgage on a hotel room you don't *ACTUALLY* own, but share with others seems...fishy. Again, I'm not speaking from experience with them, but still. :-/

[Exaspera]

Mr. E and his 1st wife bought one on Hilton Head about 28 years ago because they really loved going there. Now we go every other year as does ex. I really like it, it has very good maintenance and Mr. E loves to just lay on the beach for a week. But he sure didn't buy it for an investment.

Frankly, I wouldn't want to be stuck going to the same place at the same time every year, but I can do a week every other year. I know we can trade locations, but it's a bit of a hassle.

[ZumZum]

Is your name Dave by any chance?

I was thinking the same thing! We have our new VRS!!!

[Geek King]

I have heard of some folks who really like the timeshare thing--trading weeks at their place for weeks elsewhere, owning vacation property they don't have to keep up, ect.--but they bought from the resale market. Those things can be had for 1/10 to 1/4 of the first sale value from people looking to get out of the yearly maintenance fees.

[Solumina]

Some people really do like it, I know my mother loves hers because it allows her to rollover as many unused points as she wants so she can bank them for a few years and then get enough for her whole family (our “family vacations” usually involve about 20 people but have gone up to 30 so it is pretty hard for us to all get in one place). It is nicer than a hotel because you get a whole unit (usually two bedrooms, two full baths, a full kitchen, living room, and dining nook) instead of just a bedroom plus the maintenance fees are way less than you would pay to stay at a comparable hotel so if you are going to continue using it for years (or transferring the deed to your kids) then it is actually pretty cost effective (although an actually vacation house would be better but most people can't begin to afford one of those).

Different places cost different amounts, I think a traditional week type ownership is around $30,000 here, but it is kind of hard to say as they really like to push "the club" which is our points based option (mainly because they only allow you to rollover a certain amount of points so a lot of people end up not being able to use all of them) as I think I only saw one or two come up in the system back when I worked concierge (which really should be “tour booker” as that is what we were actually paid to do) and those were both for our other (and slightly more expensive) property.

Also I have to say that I am quite flattered by the comparisons to Dave, I only hope I can be that amusing, especially since I am lucky enough not to work in reservations.

[RetailWorkhorse]

My only problem with Timeshares is I always want to live in the bloody unit all year long.

Suffice to say I don't do timeshares anymore (Never liked Fontana Lake anyhow).

[Solumina]

My only problem with Timeshares is I always want to live in the bloody unit all year long.

I totally know what you mean. A couple of months back we had a nasty ice storm so some of us employees got put up on property until things cleared up (no charge but we had to be willing to cover the shifts of people who couldn't come in, which is plenty fair), when things had cleared up a bit I still didn't want to go home *sigh* if only I could afford one of the ultra comfy beds they have.

[sirwired]

I have no beef with the timeshare concept in general, especially the systems where you can trade in vacation points.

However, the worthless trolls at this place absolutely refused to let me study the rules for the whole points trading thing ahead of time. As in, they would not give me a copy of the whole worldwide points-trading-catalog-thing (which had all the rules in it) until after purchase. This was an insult to my intelligence.

After it should have been pretty clear I was not going to buy, they introduce a guy who "normally works customer service phones" that was going to give me a survey. After a couple of stupid questions, he asks the immortal: "What can we do to get you to buy today?" "Customer Service" ?!?!?! He's a "closer" of the worst sort that populate your stereotypical used car dealership.

My response to this was: "I would not buy deeded real estate after a two-hour presentation even if it was a dollar."

I wanted to take a shower afterwards, these clowns made me feel so covered in slime.

SirWired