Oh my god, they got the red sticker!!

[Celephais]

So I put my name in this drawing thingie and I just got a phonecall and I won, 4 roundtrip tickets (several location choices). The only caveat is I have to attend a 90 minute vacation seminar in order to get the tickets. They weren't just giving it to everyone (because a few other people I know signed up and didn't get the offer), but I'm wondering if anyone else has done any of these time share/vacation property seminars and if they really are as bad as that south park (Asspen, the one that has the whole Better Off Dead theme).

[Bobmuhthol]

Never ever ever ever ever involve yourself in a time share.

[FinallyDomesticated]

Maybe you'll be lucky and it will be great and amazing and all that. I hope so. We had a similiar deal with a contest which involved a huge name in time share/vacations. It really wasn't worth the trouble.

Soo.. we figured it would be a great idea. I mean, hello? A weekend at a resort of our choosing, $100 in free local gift certificates, and if we acted now we could get a free cruise and accomodations at a luxury resort. All we had to do was attend a 90 minute presentation during which we'd receive a gourmet breakfast and a no pressure tour.

A. They scheduled our appointment at 11:30, which happened to be when they stopped serving the gourmet breakfast (we never actually saw any evidence this breakfast existed). So we were directed to get a bite of lunch instead aka room temperature hot dogs, Ruffles, soda and a very hard chocolate chip cookie.

B. We were still saying "No." 2 hours in but afraid to be too firm for fear we'd lose the prizes which are given out at the end.

C. In the beginning, they told us we would get an amazing deal for $18,000. After they realized we meant no, there was a sudden incredible deal available so instead of 18k, it was now 4k. They felt we should feel lucky. We pondered how pissed off we'd be had we actually purchased at 18k.

D. Yes, we got the free trips - with their time restrictions and the 'reservation fee' of $50ish each (more if you wanted a bigger, more decent place). They shoved the certificates toward us with an obvious look of 'I hope your plane crashes for wasting my time to just get a free trip.' Their idea of a luxury resort differed greatly from ours. Yes, there was a resort and yes it looked luxurious. We stayed in a tiny one bedroom condo on the outskirts of the luxury.

[Sean of the Thread]

So I put my name in this drawing thingie and I just got a phonecall and I won, 4 roundtrip tickets (several location choices). The only caveat is I have to attend a 90 minute vacation seminar in order to get the tickets. They weren't just giving it to everyone (because a few other people I know signed up and didn't get the offer), but I'm wondering if anyone else has done any of these time share/vacation property seminars and if they really are as bad as that south park (Asspen, the one that has the whole Better Off Dead theme).

Everyone that puts their name in those buckets gets a call back saying they've won. It is basically lead generation for time shares and telemarketing. The info you also put on that card will be sold to other telemarketers.

NEVER submit to that shit again. They do like it when you write nasty things on the cards and dump them in however.

[Drew2]

On a more legitimate note, I was selected as a finalist to win a free car from a local radio station here.

[HarmNone]

Good luck, Tayre! I hope you win the car. :)

As for the time-share debacle, stay as far away from those things as possible. Xyelin is right. All they want is your information to sell. Of course, if they can also sell you a time-share, they're golden, eh?

[Alfster]

Xyelin is right.

hehe

[Jazuela]

A long time ago I "won" a free TV, and the only rule was, I had to go a couple of towns away to pick it up. When I got there I learned it was a time share thing and I had to listen for around 2 hours to some guy telling me how awesome timeshare is.

At the end of the 2 hours, the people who were actually interested (4 out of the dozen in this stupid looking "classroom" in the building) were taken out of the group and the rest of us were told there was a delivery mixup and the TVs hadn't arrived. They apologized, gave us a $20 voucher toward the purchase of a $400 TV set that could only be ordered over the phone, and sent us on our way.

I worked, very briefly, for a food service that got its clients from telemarketing. Near the end of my work there, they were giving away free airfare to anywhere in the continental USA, round trip, for 4. And all the target had to do, was allow one of our salespeople into their house to explain about the food service. That was the truth too, though it was a high-pressure salesman who went, they weren't obligated to buy into the service, and they really did get the trip vouchers. The only drawback, the vouchers had to be used within the next 90 days (we had to date them upon presentation), there was a $20 surcharge, there were blackout periods, it had to be with the specific airline listed on the voucher, it had to be round trip with no more than a half-day layover between stops, and it was based strictly on availability of seats. So if four people wanted to go somewhere (per the voucher) and the airline only reserved 3 seats for that flight for that type of ticket, the group couldn't go. Typically the airline only reserved 2-3 seats per flight for the rates paid by the telemarketer group. One of the worst jobs I've ever had. I couldn't stomach it after just a couple of weeks.

[Celephais]

2 years to use the tickets, fully transferable, can be used in sets of two (which is what I'd do), to several locations (including european destinations), blackout dates are the two weeks around easter/christmas and race week if you're going to daytona (fuck that). All other flight related costs are covered. And as I mentioned a few other people I know entered and didn't "win".

I can sit through a 90 min seminar, so long as they don't dick me around after the fact (I'll just play games on my phone, they didn't say I had to pay attention)

I'll let you guys know how it turned out if I do go. Normally I don't fall for any of these marketting things, but I figured I'm moving soon so giving them my current address wouldn't matter.

[Sean of the Thread]

Good Luck.

Whoever actually "scheduled" your visit over the phone probally got around $35-150 to do so.

Just out of curiousity would you mind giving me the number?

[Celephais]

Don't have it on hand, when I get home I'll give it to you. Going to see if they'll "offer" you a free flight as well?

[Sean of the Thread]

Don't have it on hand, when I get home I'll give it to you. Going to see if they'll "offer" you a free flight as well?

No was going to see if it's an operation I'm familiar with.

[Numbers]

99.9% says it's a scam.

[Sean of the Thread]

99.9% says it's a scam.

100%

Already got scammed by his info being sold to other marketers and lead providers.

[StrayRogue]

If he goes he might be offered the mystery box. You never know.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

Eh, I hope it goes alright but I agree with Xyelin on this one. Now your shit has willfully been sold to other telemarketers and people you DON'T want calling you/bugging you.

I personally never agree to those timeshare things where you have to listen to a seminar or something.. as for free airfare, there are other ways to go about getting it. You can get an airfare rewards credit card and rack up milage with the same blackout restrictions but less time constraints, AND they're transferable to first class. And if you're flying to Europe from the US, First Class makes a difference. Of course, my trick for going first class is I schedule my flight earlier than I really want to arrive, and now almost always the flight is overbooked and needs people to opt onto the next flight. You get a 200 dollar voucher usually, which is generally enough to bump you up to First Class on the next flight. Anywho, there are tons of tricks to saving money without subjecting yourself to the possibility of the scams and crap. Like I said before though, I hope it goes alright.

[The Ponzzz]

These 'vacations' are not vacations. You are going to the area to be part of their survey. Granted you get to go somewhere a time share would be really nice, coastal areas come to mind. You will have time to do things, but not much time at all. You will havta DO certain things and you will sign a form stating you will do that. Remember it's all expense paid as long as you do what they tell you to.

If for some reason it isn't that, then I would be sketched out by it.

[Celephais]

No it's not that, I am not winning a vacation to stay at their resort, I "won" the airline tickets only... so I can go stay at a Mariot if I want (I made sure of this), but that bill is on me. And I get my choice of where I want to go. The tickets are unassosiated with the timeshare.

InnSeasons is the name of the timeshare company.

[StrayRogue]

Take the mystery box.

[Stanley Burrell]

I think that I can buy anything this world can afford... Twice, what with the collective amount of solicitations that have been baleeted via my answering machine.

Um. Ever since I set up my high technical caller ID line with migs and megs of storage space for the plentiful amount of groupy bitches I just seem to be naturally savvy to, every single time I've been selected to win another million dollars (amidst the groupy bitch savviness) has been sent in an unfathomable influx via my snail mail, instead :(

[Krendeli]

I did sit through a time share presentation. At the end, they gave us $50 in casino chips (which we just cashed in) and a pamphlet with a number to call. The pamphlet had a list of 10 locations to which we had to choose 1 .

We choose the Las Vegas destination. All we paid for was the round trip tickets. We choose a March time and book 6 months ahead.

The tickets cost $400 (2 people round trip) and the room didn't cost us a thing.

When we got out there, they had a check-in at a strip casino (I think Harrah's). When we got there, they tried like hell to sell us on this presentation and that presentation and we said no to everything. They got us our room at a very nice hotel right off the strip(1 block).

We had a blast and haven't heard from them or anyone else since.