Sounds like he is as relentless as those Mary Kay ladies and their "makeover" fish bowl giveaways.

Well since you posted his phone number we could take care of this internet style right?

The time shares pitches are the worst. But I survived one. I had a similar deal of prizes thrust upon me. So, my wife and I went to the pitch, took the tour, all that good stuff.

Then the VERY HARD sales pitch. We were steadfast in our refusals (no way we could afford it). About the 10th time we said no, the sales guy got incredibly rude - how dare someone say no to a time share sales pitch!

Well, we got our prizes. I'd do it again...

These are pretty standard. Just read the fine print. You should always read the fine print of any contest you enter, more often than not you are signing away your right to be contacted regardless of your status on the Do Not Call list.

My wife got me to do a timeshare thing on our vacation to the beach last year. We got about a $100 dinner out of it (medieval times or something). She said we would be in and out in about an hour and a half. Needless to say, we had to get up early to be there...waited about 20 minutes for it to start, spent about 1.5 hours with the presentation, then about 2 hours being grilled repeatedly by different salesmen. It ran from 9 am to 12:30 all said and done. We were basically held hostage until we wasted so much time of the salesmen, they just gave up. Honestly, I'd rather of paid for the $100 dinner than have 1/2 of a a vacation day at the beach wasted and me end up all stressed out.

@youbastid: yup, between those and 'free gym membership', they've been around forever.

Those little drop boxes have been around for years for time shares.

You spend more money getting there if it far away. If you ever get into one of the "sales" presentations it is surreal- you're surrounded by 50 other people listening to the exact same loud pitch over a table the size of a bar stool.

My ex-wife and I did hook up with one about 3 hours away from where we lived. We did this only because she got a "recommendation" from an actual owner of one of the time shares so we received the "gold package" of crappy hotel room stay,free breakfasts, and $50 in credit at the company owned strip mall. Funny thing was that the ex-wife was 8 months pregnant with #1 child and the sales lady tried to tire the ex out by walking the property. It didn't work as it just p-o'ed the ex.

@Sheila Cook: Yep, I now have the Mary Kay lady saved in my phone under a not so nice name.

@Saboth:

What in blue blazes could they possibly ask you for two hours after you tell them "I'm not interested" in the first two minutes? Aren't you permitted to just walk away?

@Galactica: My ex and I even had the "close out survey" presented to us which would have signed us up for one. We were supposed to finish the survey to get our free stuff vouchers.

I looked at her and said " Look if we fully complete this survey they still sign us up for a timeshare." We laughed and made big X's across the sales contract portion of the "survey".

@ekthesy:

No, you had to wait until one of them gave you some kind of voucher to be redeemed at the "prizes" counter. I think we went through about 3 salesmen, each one presenting a different pitch, and each one taking about 35-40 minutes. "Ok, what if I said I could get you this many points, at this price?" "Hmm, looks nice and all, but we can't afford that." "Ok, let me go find another deal." He leaves and comes back 10 minutes later. This was repeated probably 3-4 times. We could have left at any time, but until someone gave us a voucher, we would have spend 2 hours and got nothing out of it.

Anyone know what "attending" means when referring to the 90-minute sales pitch? Do you have to pay attention or your name gets written on the board? If "sitting in a chair" is all that's required, sign me up. I could get through 3 tournament events on Tiger Woods 08 on my PSP in 90 minutes.

I am not sure if this company was sold my information, or stole the information.

Actually, I think you just gave it to them.

@Galactica: What did you "win"?

@Segador: The last one I attended it was one-on-one with a salesman. And if you were married your spouse had to come with you or you didn't get your reward.

It lasted about an hour and we got a $50 restaurant gift card out of it.

I bought a timeshare a few years back as a result of one of these type presentations - I had been looking to buy one, so it wasn't a surprise. When I went back the next year, they offered me the same deal - free breakfast for the family, free tickets to a local attraction, etc.. I signed up, got the free meal and as soon as it was over the sales guy asked if I wanted to buy a second week, I said "no" and then we chatted for about 20 minutes showing each other pictures of our family pets and there was zero pressure to talk sales.

Since then, any time someone tries to sell me a timeshare, I tell them "I already own one, I love it, and I don't need another, thanks", and that stops them right away. I assume that line will work whether or not you actually own a timeshare or not.

@youbastid: Yep...it only took me one time of *almost* dropping an entry into the box to "WIN THIS SHINY NEW BMW OR $50,000 CASH!!!!" I'm forever grateful that I read the fine print, since we get enough scammy telemarketers and collections people calling our place multiple times a day as it is. I don't need to help them out by signing away my rights.

@Segador: I did that once - me and my mom - ages and ages ago. We went to one of the 1,000 trails (I think) presentations, and when the Welcome guy said if we were interested in buying, we both said "No, we're just here for the free stuff", sat in the chair for an hour and a half doing our own thing and got our swag. Man-o-man did it piss off the salesman, but we still got the swag. I guess he didnt want to raise a big stink or anything.

I like to use Tyra Banks when someone needs a little phone harassment: [dev.topmodel.varitalk.com]

A few years back I worked for a call center contacting people in the same position. In our case we called people who filled out vacation ballots and door prize ballots from trade and consumer shows.

Essentially any time you're filling these out to win something, you're handing all your contact info and giving permission for the marketing company to call you. Check the back of the ballots your filling out and you should see the fine print specifying you're releasing your contact info to the company to contact you with their promotions.

Even if there is a legitimate door prize on offer for these ballots, after the prize has been awarded the ballots are packed up and shipped off to the call center to get to work in signing people up for these time share vacations which is where the real bread and butter is for the company.

My Mom and Dad, in their eighties did a weekend thing at a resort once. They explained that they were retired and lived off social security and would not be able to get the financing. The sales people knew it was useless to try a sales so they said thanks and gave the voucher. Dad says it's nice that credit reports don't show assets because that sales force would still be after them to sign.

@chucklebuck: LOL, I didn't notice that last line. OP is a little naive, I think. I don't say that maliciously.

My mom sat through a time-share kind of presentation once to get me a stereo when I was little (we were poor). And when on vacation in Mexico, we sat through one so that we could get a much-reduced price on a tour package we wanted.

@Segador:

I'm not sure how they would take that. I think if they feel you are just sitting there, you won't get your little voucher thing. You have a salesman at your desk kind of prodding you through the slideshows and making jokes and all. Kind of like if you went to buy a car and sat there pretending you wanted it, and after 2 hours, the salesman figured out you were just stringing him along, and he might have lost out on that nice sale that was made to the other couple that came in to actually buy a car.

@Galactica: My in-laws do this all the time. They go to these sales pitches, ignore them, and collect their free gifts. They've become experts at scamming the time share people. I should ask them how they do it and follow their lead.

@post_break: Maybe if HIS number got dropped in those boxes all across the US...

@NYGal81: If you really want to be an asshole, you can put other people's information on the entry forms. Make somebody's day.

@Nogard13:

First, I think it's a big no-no to promote the idea of customers pulling a "scam" on companies here.

But in this case, I don't think scame is the appropriate word. I think it's "getting what you are offered".

They offer you free items if you sit through a high pressure sales environment. Both parties completed the deal!

@Cletus: What if you never mentioned a spouse? How would they know if you showed up and happened to have your wedding ring in your pocket?

I've done these things. They aren't really a "scam", they are just annoying. If you're willing to pay $75 for a 5 day vacation, and give up 2 hours of your time for it, then it's not bad.

They will seriously haunt you while you're there though. They purposely put you near the sales office so that each time you come out they can pitch you.

Still worth it, though. I've stayed in Vegas and the Cape Cod area for almost nothing

@outoftheblew: I'm not saying it maliciously, either, and I'm glad his mind did send up red flags - eventually. I wouldn't have put my name into any of these drawings to begin with, and certainly wouldn't have thought "what are the odds? I'm lucky!" when I got that first set of phone calls.

The reason they will spend hours after you say no is because they've learned that most people will relent and pay up just to end the headache. Then the salesperson has made his quota. I'm sure it's worth quite a lot of money for them.

@pecan 3.14159265: Usually the one on one thing is a tactic to prevent you from ignoring the pitch. I don't think they'd sit idly by while you play your PSP for an hour and half.

@vastrightwing: Seriously? People give up their money just so they can stop answering the phone? Why don't they just..you know, stop answering the phone when a weird number comes up? Or save the original number and mark it "do not answer" or "mf'er who won't stop calling"?

@Segador: They actually walk you around, show you the property, things like that. They spent a lot of time talking to us about our family so they could then sell it as making memories and stuff like that.

Dad says it's nice that credit reports don't show assets

@themrdee: Don't give them any ideas!!

Usually if someone tries to pressure me into filling out one of these, my phone number becomes a Rejection Hotline number

[www.rejectionhotline.com]

@AlteredBeast: Actually, good stuff: A $200 visa gift card and other stuff like that. At the time, that $200 went a long way.

I remember my freshman year of college, our dorm rooms each had a "coupon" for a free Subway sub about a half-mile down the road.

A few days later, we found out that in order to get the free sub, you had to sign up for a Discover card.

@AlteredBeast:"I don't think scame is the appropriate word."

Agreed, only because "scame" isn't a real word.

However, this was a real scam because the contest did not exit. When you claim that there is a contest, where none exist. That someone won a contest, who did not win a contest. And when you use the aforementioned contest as a guise to sell your product, you are committing a scam.

If timeshares are so popular, simply have a "sign-up to learn about time-shares" kiosk. Then people can freely and knowledgeably sign-up, without being scammed.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the "free trip to Aspen" episode of Southpark... Where even the police can't believe that you want to pass up on this GREAT deal.

yeah i had a similar experience when i stupidly put my name in for a draw to win $25000 or a 2 year lease on a new Hummer (for the record i wanted the money). I was called a few days later telling me i had won a trip and was short listed for the draw for the money.(a quick google search turned up the company as some sort of timeshare pyramid combo scam) After declining to proceed any further it thought that was the end of it. But apparently i am a very lucky man because every year or so i get a call from the same company telling me that i have won again. WOW 3 wins off of the same ballet. I had to get pretty forceful to get my name take out of their system. and i am still expecting another call. Needless to say I have learned my lesson.

I will add my anecdotal experience that time shares are some of the most relentless sales pitches you will ever encounter. My S.O.'s parents actually own a time share and once gifted us a week to use where we could. When we checked in at the resort the clerk was very insistent on signing us up for a 'seminar' even though we made it very clear we were just guests of the actual owners.

I think the enticement they were offering was a $50 gas card and a $50 voucher good at a couple of local restaurants, which looked lame. We knew perfectly well that we can't afford and don't want to purchase our own time share. We also didn't feel that scheduling one of our vacation days around a 2-hour high pressure sales pitch was worth $100 to us.

Nonetheless, we had to tell the clerk 'no' five different ways. He wouldn't really acknowledge a polite rejection, so we basically had to get rude/angry so he would STFU and give us our keys. He was quite insolent about the whole thing. I almost felt bad about it because I'm sure the guy is under intense pressure to sign people up for this stuff but he was such a prick about it.

Oh, and his last mistake was handing my girlfriend a form with a space for 'comments about your stay.' Hoo boy.

@RudeandRude: "They aren't really a "scam""

No, this was a real real scam, because the contest did not exit. When you claim that there is a contest, where none exists. That someone won a contest, who did not win a contest. And when you use the aforementioned contest and win as a guise to sell your product, you are committing a scam.

If timeshares are so popular, simply have a "sign-up to learn about time-shares" kiosk. Then people can freely and knowledgeably sign-up, without being scammed.

@GMFish: I didn't mean what the company is doing is a scam. I meant that consumers going to these events w/ no intention of buying a timeshare (just for the "prizes") is not a scam.

A consumer who goes to one of these events, sits through the whole thing, doesn't get a time share, and gets the "prizes" didn't pull a scam on the company.

I am sure I don't have to put it in print here, but "There's no such thing as a "free lunch""

@vastrightwing: My guess is they are paid on commission. So they probably get nothing if you don't buy.

@Ragman: i would sign him into those free trips on the internet with the phone number and email, then id sign him up to the nastiest porn newsletters and blogs i could find, THEN i would sign him up to those PHONE company promotions that actually cost you 15 bucks a piece that only require a phone number and name. Then id consider my self barely even

@pecan 3.14159265: I don't know how they would enforce that rule. Since we were on vacation at the time they would probably think it was odd if I was alone.

The worst part was that since we were both there we had to bring our toddler daughter with us and she doesn't sit still under normal circumstances, let alone a sales pitch. And the salesman didn't know how to interact with kids at all.

Like others have said, if I could do it over again I would have just paid for dinner and spent that extra time on the beach.

My Dad and Mom sat through a timeshare sales pitch to get a free 9 inch television once (this was a long time ago and it was actually worth something). At the end Dad realized that no one had given him his TV yet and he didn't want to sit through a one on one sales pitch so he just grabbed the floor model TV they had sitting out and left... about two weeks later their TV showed up in the mail. :-)