Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – trip report part 3 – Wyndham timeshare sales pitch

As it was mentioned in the previous article, after we arrived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and checked into our hotel, we went across the street to check out The Island.

Before we left, we looked online and saw a few places that we wanted to visit.  We thought that one of the places was at The Island, but when we got there we couldn’t find it.  We then went over to an information stand and inquired about it to one of the workers.  The worker was unfamiliar for this particular place were were looking for (it turns out that it was a few miles away — our mistake!), but she did start asking us about our trip in general, and if we already had tickets to attractions.

Okay, no big deal.  Obviously she’s able to sell us tickets if we wanted to purchase any.  What she asked next took us by surprise.

The worker asked something similar to, “Would you like to go to a dinner show for free?”

What’s the catch? we wondered.  She informed us all we had to do was attend a timeshare presentation for Wyndham, and then we’ll be awarded with two tickets to basically any dinner show of our choosing.  We don’t particularly care for dinner shows, so we asked if we could instead get free tickets for local attractions instead.  She said sure, that wouldn’t be a problem.  As long as the total cost was less than $100, then she could make it happen.

Long story short, we were reserved for a timeshare presentation the next morning, and in exchange we’d receive two tickets for the Titanic museum as well as Alcatraz East crime museum.  After signing the paperwork we headed back across the street, had some dinner, and then relaxed in the swimming pool and hot tub.

WYNDHAM TIMESHARE PRESENTATION

Early the next morning (after a great continental breakfast at our hotel), we drove across to The Island and went to the Wyndham office (it looked like it was in the same building for the Margaritaville Island Hotel) for our timeshare presentation.  Our plan was to do the presentation and then drive up to Sevierville for lunch, and then check out the Titanic and then Alcatraz museums.  After waiting a few minutes we were introduced to our sales rep, and then we took an elevator upstairs to sit down and “chat” for a few minutes.

Upstairs was a very large room filled with lots of little tables, probably enough tables for there to be twenty or so simultaneous presentations at one time.  Sure enough, the room quickly filled as other couples sat down and began talking with the other Wyndham sales reps.  What was a little odd was that in this room they were playing Jimmy Buffett music.  And it was VERY LOUD.

Anyway, after a few minutes of the usual “getting to know you” talk, we were taken back downstairs to a room filled with chairs all facing a podium and a large screen on the wall.  After waiting a little while, the sales manager stepped up to the podium and talked for a bit about the vacation opportunities through Wyndham.  This was then followed by a short video presentation filled with shining examples of people who were thrilled to vacation with Wyndham.  Nothing special.  It was typical high-energy stuff designed to get you pumped up and excited.

After the video presentation our sales rep took us on a short walking tour in the Margaritaville Island Hotel, and we were able to go inside of a couple of the condos.  The rooms looked nice and classy, just as you would expect for something with Jimmy Buffett’s company.  A few minutes later we were being escorted back to the Wyndham office and then upstairs to the large room with all the tables and chairs.

Now it was time to talk some numbers.

Without going into all of the technical details, the basic sales push for getting a timeshare is by having people compare what they usually spend for vacations, and then showing them how that same amount of money can get them a kick-ass condo through a timeshare.  Or something of that nature.  We ran the numbers for what my wife and I spend for vacation lodgings each year, multiplied it by 20 (as they instructed), and for us it was way below the cost of a basic membership with Wyndham, not including the yearly maintenance fees.

For us, obviously it wasn’t in our best interest to join Wyndham.  My wife and I are very diligent with finding vacation deals, and with places like Groupon and hotel comparison websites, it’s pretty easy these days to find some really affordable hotels as well as attraction tickets.  It takes a little Internet work, but it’s quite reliable.  Plus, we already own a timeshare and we’re happy with it.  While it was great seeing what Wyndham had to offer, it was clear to us that we’re best off staying with the timeshare that we already own.

The sales rep saw the numbers and agreed with our reasoning, though he still pushed us for the sale a few more times.  After that his manager (the same person who did the presentation to the group earlier) sat down with us and did the usual double-talk and trying to show how joining with Wyndham was still really awesome.  We kept saying no, and after reducing the cost a couple of times, the manager finally let us go.  But first we had to sit down with yet another person for basically an “exit interview.”

As expected, the “exit interview” was a final, final, final, final, final, FINAL sales push to join Wyndham.  This person offered us a really low price to basically join Wyndham for like a year or two, with all of the perks, and we’d be allowed to leave at the end of that agreement period if we didn’t like it.  While that final offer was actually quite tempting, we still ultimately declined it.  The whole experience had left a sour impression on us, so we didn’t commit to anything with them.

Almost three hours after starting the Wyndham presentation, we were finally finished.  We stopped by the check-out desk, received our free attraction tickets, and then we headed out for some lunch and entertainment.

FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT WYNDHAM

To us, the timeshare sales experience was what we expected, complete with a few of the expected cliches.  For starters, our sales rep was a fast talking young man (he claimed to be either a student or former student from the nearby University of Tennessee) with the sharp yet slimy personality of a used car salesman.  When asked where we were from, he replied with an, “Oh, yeah.  I bought a car there a few years ago,” answer.

Ha, ha, ha.  Yeah, right.  Sure you did, buddy.  We all know you’ve never been to our town, and you’d have a hard enough time finding it on a map.

Naturally, he thought that Wyndham was fantastic, every level of membership was simply an amazingly affordable deal, and that we could even use “under the table” methods of booking trips for our friends, charging them full price and then pocketing the difference to help cover our expenses such as the annual maintenance fee.  This sales rep gave the impression that we could do this a few times a year and basically get our friends to pay for all of our expenses and then some, and we could even make an annual profit this way.  We could end up vacationing with Wyndham completely “free,” or something of that nature.  Gee, why does that sound wrong yet the sales rep pushed it as such an awesome idea?

That was just one issue that we had with Wyndham.

My other major problem was that the presentation was extremely flashy with a very “Rah! Rah! Rah!” mentality designed for imbeciles.  They didn’t want you to actually think about what you were buying into.  They just wanted you to focus on being able to have lots of fun and enjoyment without worrying about the small stuff.  We’re not talking about buying something relatively inexpensive like a new phone or video game console here, but rather a MAJOR expense that can rival the cost and ownership of a fancy sports car.

Earlier I mentioned that the main meeting room was practically blasting Jimmy Buffett music the whole time we were there.  My theories about this are that, A) It forced you to sit closer and stay more focused on what the sales rep had to say, and, B) It didn’t allow you to hear the conversations at nearby tables and listening to other people’s objections.  They wanted you to stay focused and happy (it was good music), and to keep thinking about the fun of vacationing with Wyndham.

All of this combined, including the high-pressure sales tactics at the end, easily turned us away from Wyndham.

If it’s such a great company and experience, why do they have to pressure people so hard to join it?  It’s quite cheap for them to basically pay people up to $100 (not in cash but rewards such as a dinner show or local attraction tickets, which I’d easily guess that Wyndham acquired at a discount anyway) for us to give you a couple hours of our time.  Hell, Diamond Resorts gave us so much more than that in exchange for going to their sales pitch.

It was interesting seeing Wyndham’s presentation, but I doubt we’ll give them a second chance in the future.  We quickly put that experience behind us and focused on the rest of our day in Pigeon Forge, which turned out to be quite fascinating and a lot of fun.