Do you sucumb under pressure?

there really is not free lunch - But sometimes we can snack for free :)
@arkaf61 (10881)
Canada
July 3, 2009 4:32pm CST
Two weekends ago I was at a nice hotel with hubby. We had received a call saying that we had won a two night stay at that hotel. We usually say bye right after that first sentence, but they mentioned the weekend in question and it was our anniversary, so I listened a bit more. We didn't have to pay anything but we would have to attend a presentation that would be no more than 90minutes. Ah!aH! I knew what it was. Time sharing sales. Some years back I would feel uncomfortable would those high pressured sales and would have refused, but presently I feel confident and don't crumble under pressure. ALso I am older and wiser LOL So, after thinking fast, realizing we didn't really have money for anything else special and that it would be nice I accepted after asking " is this a time share sale? " to which I was answered" we just want to have a chance to present our hotel and if you like it we would appreciate you would recommend us to your friends" - are you tapping this? you're lying.....:) - So we went. It was nice and we enjoyed ourselves. On Sunday, though we had the "in"famous presentation. We were presented to a lady that would be our "guide" for the day. She was friendly - which doesn't always happen - and started by wanting to know a little bit about our vacation preferences and tastes. Oh don't get me going lady LOL Me and hubby started talking about preferences that were so far from what we were having there it was incredible. We didn't exactly lied, but exaggerated a lot about our camping preferences, and how we always have a tent in our car, and how we like things unplanned. Flip a coin to see which direction to go and then go from there in an adventure with no plans or maps. Oops... she realized things weren't going to be easy. But wouldn't it be nice to know that we could always have a place that would save us a lot of money? Money... we don't discuss money, lady. Money is not a problem - we can lie too LOL Yes.. we travel outside the country. We go to the places where our families are, we have no need for hotels. Then they took us to a room with a big tv showing up the highlights of the bargain, and how we would save so much, and how nice the places were - which was true, don't get me wrong. And then they took us on a tour to the parts of the hotel where the people that had the membership stayed. Nice.... minimum one bedroom living room and kitchen. nicely furnished and decorated. Hubby and I walked without showing any specific interest. She was getting worried by now. so when we got back she knew she didn't have a sale. We talked a bit more. Specially focusing on the financial aspect. Rule number 1, never tell them that you like it but you can't afford it. This will only get them to keep coming with someone else and someone else always lowering the fees and the length of membership until you feel so pressured you might fall for it. Since we had told her that money was not the problem, she didn't have any loose end to pull up for us. Then she tried the a nice place for a vacation approach.|We killed her with.. it's not really us.. when I think of something like this, the only thing that comes to mind is my mom. She's 86, I'm sure she would like it ...But us..we want to sleep under the starts, canoe from island to island.... this is too restricting, too planed....( ok so we were lying, that would be absolutely perfect, but not that perfect that we would give over $50.000 for it for 50 years even if we had them or even if we were to live that long LOL) My philosophy is the following: if I have the money, I don't need to worry about finding where to save or to be limiting my options by something like this. If I don't have the money, I can't afford it, and I will not get in debt just to be a part of it. So this kind of thing does not attract my attention that much. Only to the extent that I got two free nights at a nice hotel:) She knew she has lost us when we mentioned it would be nice for old mom. She bowed gracefully - which is rare in these kind of pressure sales - accepted that " I can see you guys are not really into it, I have to respect that. I'll call my manager"|The manager was a bit nastier, but we were prepared. In the end our 90 minute tour lasted less than one hour and that was all we had to do for our free stay. Not to bad. But I know of people that ended up being sucked in something like this because of the high pressure type of sales, the you have to make the decision today or you won't be able to do it later, and the way sales people treat them. Have you had any similar experience like this lately? - not only vacation time shares, but other selected groups that try to make us believe it is in our benefit to belong to, like factory direct and others like that -. DId you feel tempted? Were you able to resist? What strategies did you use?
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