Vegas III: Second Day - Zzzzz Timeshare Talk

For the second day, the main activity was going to listen in on some timeshare talk. The 'gift' for going was that they would comp us a $150 meal and a 3 nite 2 day stay at a hotel in Vegas.

Agreeing to it because the recruiter person asked ME to go (so long as I drag my parents along :P), we.. ahem I decided we should pay it a visit. So we went and sat in at the talk. Since this was my first time, I was pretty excited.

So what I originally thought was that you sit in a chair hours while some guy up at the front ramble on for 2 hours. Boy was I wrong! It turns out that for every person (pair) that shows up, they have one 'salesguy' allotted for you. Which to me meant I can't doze off like I do with lectures! Ohhhhh boy...

Service was anything but good. The 'free' lunch was just sandwiches.. bleh! And we actually had to wait 20 minutes or so for someone to attend to us. While that was going on, I did play with my camera and took a few pictures of a flower pot :)

So once they attended to us, after a good couple hours of showing us the place and random BS, another sales guy (known hereafter as 'hard sell' dude) came and started trying to sell us the place. Really didn't like this guy at all.

First he insulted what we have, didn't let me reply to what he was saying, and kept saying how it is such a great deal when after a brief series of number crunching in my head, doesn't really save me all that much (if at all). Not that I was considering buying anything in the first place, but he really made me NEVER wanna buy timeshare ever again.

Here are some items 'hard sell' dude pitched and disagreed with me:
1) Accommodations are expensive...
HS dude: How much do you think you spend on hotels on vacation
Me: err... $40 a nite.. since I probably share with others
HS dude: So do you expect to do this all your life... how much you think you will spend if you had to pay on your own...
(so already, this becomes a hypothetical situation that does not apply to me right now... and isn't $40 a very conservation budget anyway for me.. haha... )..
..blah blah
HS dude: So, say you spend $200 a nite at a hotel. 3 weeks of vacation = $3000. BAM.. you are saving money already (because monthly dues are $xxx, and interest is $xxx etc. etc.)...

He goes on to mention that over time, I may end up spending in the thousands range... That would be true in 10 years or so maybe. But right now, do I really live in style when I go on vacation? Let's recall my previous trips... Egypt... um.. hostel.. $40 EGP = $5 USD for one nite. Toronto.. accommodations = $0 USD...

2) For someone young wanting to buy timeshare, it's a no brainer. You save $xxxxx amount over 40 years...
HS dude: If you don't buy now, then 2 years from now you are gonna come back, and I will be charging you more. That's fine if you want, I will just take your money...

This argument is very strange I think. If I give him all this money up front, I save in the span of 40 years. This timeshare thing I buy never goes up or down, why would I want to 'invest' in that rather than stocks or heck, even a GIC? There's also monthly dues that need to be paid. An initial number crunching session using my head means that I am probably better off betting red on the roulette table with the money than coughing it up to them... (ok, maybe I am exaggerating here...)... but seriously, save $xxxxxx over 40 years... they must assume people put money under their bed or something...

3) Their whole gimmick of getting some points that you exchange in to get ur vacation. These points are good for airfare, food, etc. etc.
Sounds great. BUT, points are only give good deals for getting the accommodation. It drains ur points if you want to use it towards airfare, food, rental car etc. So you fork up $x amount of dollars and exchange it for these monopoly like points every year... which is only accepted at these resort places etc. I rather hold on to good ol' John A McDonald or my Jeffersons and give those when I go on vacation!

Anyway, I will stop bashing it now. Because timeshare I believe do have some nice advantages. But at this stage in my life, it was a fun experience to attend this and see a guy like this. But this package really does not benefit me. For someone who lives in 'cheap' accommodations, and probably won't be spending much time in a hotel during vacation... having money locked up just really doesn't seem logical.

But all in all, did get these coupons to go eat at the Rio buffet though... which had rock lobsters. shrimp, king crab, oysters, mussels, meat, etc. etc. It was sooo good. The lobsters were nice as well.. Having not heard lobsters in oh so long... ah.. how I missed it!

After the dinner, we were all exhausted and called it a night at 10:30pm. What a healthy day at LV! haha...

Note to self:
Unless they are giving something better, don't go to these talks ever again. The time you spent there is really NOT worth the 3 nite 2 day stay. I used to think my time is not worth much... but after this, my new base is that 4 hours of my time (x3 if including my parents) is worth more than 3 nite 2 day stay + $150 + 4 hours of listening to a guy BS.