Resale Timeshare Tricks and How to Dodge Them

If you’ve lived anywhere in civilization in the last couple of years, no doubt you’ve heard horror stories about resale timeshare scams. You’re ushered into a room, and companies do everything they can bordering on keeping you hostage to make you buy. In general, the public impressions of the industry are resoundingly negative. How can you avoid getting taken advantage of in the timeshare industry?

The best way is to not even get involved in the first place. Timeshare companies will make promises galore to try and lure you to their lair. “Get free tickets to Disney World and you’ll also receive three days and two nights at our beautiful resort. All that’s required of you is a short 90 minute tour of our resort. We’d just like your feedback on our resort.”

Sound familiar? Most of us have heard something like this over the years.

However, what you usually don’t hear is that the person you’re talking to is going to be taking your money and selling the rights your tour to some other company, thus “stealing” from you. In addition, you may very well not get some or even any of the things you were promised, including a reservation.

Hotel room? Not likely. Yes, you paid for it, but it’s not likely to be there once you get there.

Then you get to the 90 minute “tour” portion of your “vacation”. What they forgot to mention is that the 90 minutes really turns into 6 hours and it’s not so much a tour as it is a negotiating room.

They’ll start out by telling you how much money you’re wasting by not owning a timeshare. They position it as you’d have to be some kind of an idiot to not buy the timeshare immediately.

If you work up the courage to say “no” the first time, they aren’t can let you go at that. Instead, they’ll press harder and bring in someone called a “closer.” This “closer” is going to throw in a price that’s less than half of that quoted in the first offer, to try to make you think you’re getting a deal.

If you muster up enough courage to tell the first salesman “no”, they’ll look at you like you’re stupid and bring in a “closer”. The closer will then throw another offer at you that is usually less than half the price of the first offer to make you think you’re getting a deal.

If you somehow are brave enough to tell them both no, another person will then be sent to the table to take a “survey” of how you were treated. Part of the “survey” is to offer you another price that’s like a third of the first price you saw.

Of course, not all companies that participate in timeshares are “shady,” but most of them are. The smartest thing to do is not to take advantage of the so-called “tours” they offer, because most of them aren’t a good deal and are a lot of trouble. If you do happen to go on one, though, make sure you stand your ground. Don’t let us know you and if you don’t want to buy, don’t. If they pressure you into buying, they’ll have won and you’ll have lost. You’ll feel terrible if this happens, so save yourself the trouble and just don’t go in the first place.