TIMESHARE GIFTS: A GARAGE SALE FOR IDIOTS

I am blown away by the fact that timeshare presentations are still happening, even in 2020, with all of the resources that we have available to us. Although not as popular as the past few decades, people are STILL to this day, sitting through 90 minute sales pitches to win a DVD player. One of the biggest pieces of leverage that salespeople have over the average customer is information. They can make you feel like you’ll never get a better deal than a timeshare, but with the access we all have to reviews and hotel booking apps, and Airbnb, you’d think we’d know better. Yet people are still showing up in droves.

Today, I want to spend some time making fun of the items that these timeshare presentations are offering, because maybe… just maybe I can convince people to stop going, and then they’ll stop happening.

  • DVD Players: In writing this article, I did some research and found that there are a number of timeshare presentations still offering DVD players to people. Not only are we almost an entire decade past DVD players, but most everything is streaming this day, and a DVD player literally costs $20 dollars at a gas station in 2020.
  • WiFi Hotspot: I should say that this one is slightly unfair because WiFi hotspots are actually pretty useful pieces of technology, HOWEVER the one you’re getting at a timeshare presentation is NOT the one you want. The ones they’ll give you are usually severely underpowered and come with plans that are too expensive for what you get. There are other options, like this that are much more intelligent, if you even need a hotspot when your cellphone can just make one.
  • Bluetooth Speaker: Another great example of a garage sale item that these vultures are posing as real tech gifts for people. If you open Amazon or Ebay, you will notice immediately not only how many bluetooth speakers are out there, but how cheap they’ve gotten. The other thing you’ll notice is the cheaper the speaker the worse the reviews. Obviously, but with something this common, it’s worth noting. The speaker they’ll give you won’t be one of the good ones, I promise. It’ll be the bottom of the barrel, and once again you can spend $10 and get probably a better one that you at least get to pick out.
  • Projector: This one is misleading because projectors are actually a really fun piece of tech nobody thinks to buy themselves, so I can absolutely see the interest in sitting through 90 minutes of a presentation just to get a projector. In doing some research, I have found that projectors have some of the greatest disparity of any other tech item when it comes to quality. The difference is massive. The one you’ll get at this meeting will barely be able to connect to any device, will have a lamp life of 15 minutes, and can probably only do 5 colors and they’re all green. If that’s what you want, go for it. Otherwise spend even $150 and get something that you can actually watch.
  • A Free Trip: I saved this one for the end, because it’s the hardest to refute. Of course, a free trip anywhere outside of Branson, Missouri is worth jumping on, but I wanted to clue you in to the small print. When you win a free trip anywhere from anyone, you don’t get to pick when you take this trip. Most of the time, these trips are in the off-season (that’s why they can afford to give it to you for free) and they have specific weeks for you to choose from. You also don’t get to pick your lodging or anything else, unless you are willing to pay for the upgrade, and by that point you’re just spending slightly less to go on a trip at a time you probably wouldn’t have anyway… that doesn’t sound like a gift, it sounds like a chore.

In the end, your time is valuable, those 90 minutes could be spent doing so much more than sitting through their drivel and walking away with that plastic doorway pull up bar. Most of the gifts are worth nothing, which is already worth less than your time. Don’t do it. Don’t go to timeshare meetings, you lose more than you gain.

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