They come at you with a toothy smile a mile wide, and with friendly—too-friendly—eyes. Immediately they start asking you about yourself—where you’re from (“Oh! I know someone who lives there!” they say), how many children or grandchildren you have, whether you’re enjoying your stay in the resort. “How was the food?” they ask about that free meal you just ate. They lay it on thick—which some people like. All of this is an act. They don’t like you, and they don’t want to know about you because they care. They are trying to establish what salespeople cold-bloodedly refer to as “rapport.” And they are willing to say absolutely anything to get you to trust them enough to buy a timeshare from them.
Most timeshare sales floors hire as their salespeople attractive individuals who are willing to use their appearance to get what they want, and who other people will be glad to have paying attention to them. This is just par for the course. People who want to get rich in sales could do worse for themselves than getting involved in timeshare sales. The scruples of those who own these companies are as low as is legally permissible—and always pushing right up against the edge, even crossing that line when they can get away with it. Which is as often as possible.
After all, they know that someone who has been through a timeshare presentation can’t prove what they were told in the course of the ordeal—only what the contract says. So salespeople make all sorts of verbal promises, implications, and outright falsifications, about what a given resort will provide for you if only you will purchase, if only you will sign the dottedline on that pre-drafted contract. No need to read it, they say. It just says you agree to whatever.
Any lawyer with your interests at heart will tell you—you should ALWAYS read a contract before signing it. And anything not in the contract the timeshare company will not ever provide to you. Ever.
But that doesn’t keep them from saying they will—or you, inclined to trust in the truthfulness of others, from believing them.
At The People’s Advocate, we are passionate about standing up for the victims of these deceptive, criminal practices. Attorney Joe Brien has decades of experience at confronting these doers of ill deeds. Contact us if you’ve fallen prey to these tactics and found yourself down thousands of dollars as a result—we can try to get that contract annulled. But (and this is no sales tactic): act fast! The time you have to rescind these contracts is distressingly limited by law.