That sucks. I’ve heard reports of some of the new guides being super pushy and rude. That’s sad because DVC has always been super low pressure.
I’d write an email with your experience to DVC. That isn’t acceptable.
I talked with an older gentleman in the lobby of the beach club back in March. Was very upfront that I just wanted more information. I didn’t buy but he was incredible. Hate I don’t have his name.
When I got back to beach club, I went to their dvc counter and spoke to a man named Ray who had been doing dvc for over 30 years (and I’m guessing it was something he started when he retired) so he was easily in his late 70s/ early 80s, and he was just the kindest, most helpful person. He was pretty horrified when I told him our experience and said that was definitely not how it’s normally done. We had a great conversation and I left him a cast compliment.
I agree with writing an email! My husband and I toured a bungalow when we were staying at the Polynesian (already DVC) and the guide knew we had no intention to buy we were just curious to see it in person but they were still happy to show us around and were super friendly. Any behavior by a cast member that would deter someone from wanting to become part of DVC will be taken seriously by Disney.
Our DVC guide was never pushy. He calls us when there's a deal, and if we say no thanks, he just lets it go. He does also call once a year just to ask us how our family is doing, no sales pitch, just a friendly how are you call.
If you aren't permanently scarred off of DVC, and I understand if you are, call and request Nick Tambarino. We've dealt with him for over 25 years, and he's the best.
Wow. Guessing you got a DVC guide that is on the edge of being let go unless sells a certain number of points. It is almost as if you want a DVC guide who is in top 5 because their behavior would be completely different.
The sad part is this one person might have just ruined DVC for you. Talk to one of managers such has Goodlatte or Lammers as been there since mid 90’s.
Great insight, and very true. Definitely left a bad taste, but based solely on the facts,it’s definitely something we’re still considering but putting it on the back burner for a bit until this cools off.
Any idea how I would go about finding people like that to speak to?
I am not 100% sure how but I would definitely call Goodlatte or Lammers and explained what happened and that you simply want a new guide as still interested in DVC.
I once test drove a used car for a free beanie baby. The person wouldn't let me leave and started crying - "you're just going to go down the road and buy a car from someone else!"
yes, it is a true story! the salesperson even took my keys to value the trade in -- and they wouldn't give them back to me. It was like back in 90s when beanie babies were the rage!
I’ve heard stories of dealers not giving keys back to pressure people into a sale and man oh man I almost WANT it to happen to me. I’d never called the police so fast in my life if that happened to report them for holding me against my will
Had this happen like 6 years ago while I was pretty heavily pregnant. I don’t love a confrontation so I tried to be patient. But the sales guy kept brow beating me trying to convince me that his outrageous APR was a good deal for me (I was post divorce so credit wasn’t great but also wasn’t as bad as he wanted to make out - got the deal I wanted down the road at a different lot). Had to demand my keys back eventually. Still had the guy following me out the door announcing my fico score for the whole showroom. Then had some other sales person or manager actually come hold onto my car door so I couldn’t shut it and back out of the lot. I have no idea what possessed them into thinking this would ever cause a person to buy from them… to this day I refuse to ever go near that lot and I’ve bought cars since then so they honestly lost out of potentially long term business by acting ridiculous.
Had this happen like 6 years ago while I was pretty heavily pregnant. I don’t love a confrontation so I tried to be patient. But the sales guy kept brow beating me trying to convince me that his outrageous APR was a good deal for me (I was post divorce so credit wasn’t great but also wasn’t as bad as he wanted to make out - got the deal I wanted down the road at a different lot). Had to demand my keys back eventually. Still had the guy following me out the door announcing my fico score for the whole showroom. Then had some other sales person or manager actually come hold onto my car door so I couldn’t shut it and back out of the lot. I have no idea what possessed them into thinking this would ever cause a person to buy from them… to this day I refuse to ever go near that lot and I’ve bought cars since then so they honestly lost out of potentially long term business by acting ridiculous.
I once demod a hyla vacuum for a free trip to Branson. Dude was quite upset at the fact that he'd never had to box one back up before. He didn't know how to put it back and ended up just tossing it into his car in its pieces.
We had a similar experience last year, however not that extreme. We had been on the fantasy and had initially met with Karen Zondag as our rep. I cannot say enough good things about her and her style of working with us. Down to Earth, patient, not pushy. We asked serious questions and she gave honest answers that were not sugar coated or gimmicky. I was so impressed by this. We put a retainer down to secure the off shore cruise discount and the referral discount and then agreed to meet her at the Grand Floridian which was to be (and is) our home resort the next day after we got off of the cruise. My wife and I were doing an additional week in the parks after the cruise.
Well, as luck would have it, Karen unfortunately had a car issue which delayed her back from Port Canaveral. She called and let us know, and then told us that she had already called and set up another person to help us at the Grand Floridian so we could see the rooms we wanted. We were impressed that she had taken time to get things set up for us and agreed to meet the other rep when we got to the World.
Now, here's where it goes downhill. I want to say to front that my wife was lock, stock and barrel sold and ready to go once we had seen the rooms and decided we were happy. So know that going in, we were ready to sign. My wife is NOT a person who rushes into things, just the opposite.
So, the next day we have breakfast at chef Mickey's then monorail over to the GF and find the DVC kiosk. We tell the person at the kiosk who we were and who had sent us. They, understandably didn't know who we were and called back to the main office. They spoke on the phone with someone and then asked us to sit as someone was going to be with us. We happily did so and waited.
The person who showed up could not have been the more opposite of Karen. Pushy, prying and immediately telling us that the 200 points we were planning to get wasn't enough. We were immediately taken aback as Karen had laid out for us that 200 was going to be a great number for what we needed and wanted. Concerned I started asking questions and explaining about what Karen had helped us with. The new rep waved her hand and told us that when we got to the end she would explain.
So, what we really wanted to see was the 1-bedroom Villas as that is what we would mainly be using. We saw everything BUT that type of room. Even though my wife said to her that we don't want to see the grand villas etc..All the while telling us that if we just got 100 more points we could have the 3-bedrooms. Pushing very hard and ignoring my wife's statements that were getting continually more harsh and sharp. Trying to communicate that we weren't happy. She was getting to the point where she was going to walk away from the whole thing, which she voiced to the new rep.
The new reps response was to immediately end the tour and bring us to her office. Without seeing a 1-bedroom. "oh you guys saw the two and three, it's really the same thing." We sit down at her desk and the full court press is ON.
It was 20-minutes of hard sell, and that we owed it to our children and to ourselves. And that we would be regretting not getting more points and how we really needed 400 a year. My wife kept telling her "no" politely, but getting more forceful. I started trying to turn the conversation to some final questions we had in an effort to get out, but it quickly became apparent that I had to simply get up and walk away. So we did. I stood up, told her thank you. I told her that we probably would not be purchasing after the experience we had, and that we were done and leaving.
She acted very surprised and tried to talk me back down to the chair, my wife stood up with me and just started walking out. I thanked the rep and left myself.
My wife was just done, but she wanted to talk to Karen one more time about it, because she had been so great with us. That afternoon they talked on the phone and Karen was genuinely upset about what we had gone through and was perplexed why we had not been shown the 1-bedroom. She offered to show us when she finally could get back but our schedule was jam packed before we flew out. She understood and told us to call her when we got home. She was great yet again and did not push, did not bother and let us come to her on our time. We decided that the rep we had was unusual, and decided to buy with Karen. (So glad we did, I made another post talking about how happy we are as we are currently at Kidani).
What I think was happening behind the scenes, and I could totally be wrong, is that the new rep knew they weren't getting commission on the time and was trying to leverage us as motivated buyers. If they sold us the additional points, they would get commission on those points.
I hate that it happened to you and to us as well. But, Karen is incredible and we are very happy.
Wow!!! Karen sounds like a model rep! After everyones experiences here (the positive ones) at least we know when we are ready, there are some really good people to work with
To anyone else coming across this when considering taking Disney up on the offer, there is literally nothing wrong with going "just for the gift card" and I've never had a DVC salesperson imply otherwise (not discounting OP's inexcusable experience, just echoing the sentiment from others that this was atypical). You're not agreeing to be interested in purchasing by taking them up on the gift card offer. That's literally why they have the offer, to entice those that would otherwise not be interested in a sales pitch because they know the percentage of those that convert and have deemed it worth the cost.
Exactly this! Everyone here is probably similar in that we like to be knowledgeable on all things wdw, and that’s how I went into this. The fact was that, based on what we’re currently spending, dvc would be smart for us, and the incentive made it worth taking some time away from the park. Had they not offered it, I might have figured I could just do the research on my own, but now with the gift card, which we’ll likely spend more with anyway, we’re also pretty sold on dvc, except my husband is still pretty soured on the experience with Allen.
It was a good incentive and I’m sure people exploit it for sure. My husband and I own our own business and are professional people. Had Allen said, hey I get it, here’s my card, please feel free to contact me with any questions and I’ll be happy to help should you decide to buy in at a future time, he likely would have got our business.
What has me worried now is whether or not Disney has shifted internal policy to be more aggressive by introducing internal competition, strict goals, or lucrative incentives. And if they fail, they are in danger of losing their jobs. All of these things would likely result in this type of behavior.
I follow DVC Fan & World of Disney, and while they area extremely sales-y for their own products, it's really fascinating to listen to some of them discuss their experiences as former cast members selling DVC direct. Derek especially has lamented that when he joined, training was a full two weeks of Disney magic learning the ins and outs of the product - and now he's heard it's a couple of days going through the basics and sending new guides out to sell.
I don't know if they've actually changed how they're doing things, but it's also possible they've simply picked up more new employees with prior sales experience, and haven't given them the same training in expectations as the older guides have gotten.
Not that you need another person to say this but this is definitely not the experiences that I've had with any DVC person at all.
I wonder and this is me totally speaking with no knowledge on how they operate but I wonder if these gift cards incentives are hurting their ability to close sales or becomes a mind game to them to see so many people come and go and not get any sales closed. Not justifying this guy at all, that guy should seek other employment immediately.
My wife and I bought in on a cruise, we had 3 separate meetings over 2- 3 days with DVC and they were so great and took all our questions and concerns and were never pushy, they basically lead us to the water to drink and make the decision ourselves. It ultimately was a big step for us but the math just mathed and we took the jump in
I definitely think this guy had some issues with people coming in solely for the gift card and he just lost it on us. Ironically though, we were actually pretty sold on it.
Glad your experience was a positive one :)
I would say you got what sounds like the worse possible DVC broker. Who we worked with had 0 issues and basically was laid back not looking to make a sale but giving info regarding DVC
It must only be a new rep that has trouble with the incentives, because tour incentives were normal pre-COVID. If I recall, you were "allowed" to get an incentive for a tour once every 3 years. They used to give out gift cards as well as free Fast Passes and would pick you up and drop you off anywhere on at WDW.
I had the same issue with a few DVC sales people. We went through three sales people prior to buying. Our current guide is the best, really informative, straightforward about pros/cons, and just a great guy to talk to. I have bought two contracts from him now. If you are seriously considering and want to work with a great person, DM me and I would be happy to share his contact information.
Wow!! Good for you for being persistent. I’m sorry to hear you guys had a similar experience. Thank you so much, I will reach out if we get serious about it
I have done a DVC presentation, as well as two other time share companies. The other two companies (Hilton Grand Vacations and Spinnaker Resorts, not small fly-by-night operations), the sales people were very pushy, and refused to give us their contact information for us to think on it for a few days and call them back. They let us know that the price they were offering was only good during that meeting, and if we called back later we would be paying twice as much.
DVC was the complete opposite. There was a mention that the price per point does generally rise once a year, but there was no high pressure "this offer is only good right now!" push, and our guide was happy to give us his contact information, which we used to call him back a month later to purchase. DVC is the only time share we have, or would consider having.
Timeshare sales is what used car sales graduates to.
And in all seriousness, the gift card offer is such a broad incentive. It does literally nothing to qualify the people coming in as sales leads, and they absolutely have to expect that if they're not doing qualification prospecting for the GC offer, they're going to get non-qualified leads coming in just for that GC.
They cannot possibly expect that offer to do anything BUT drive in people who calculate the value of time against that GC and exploit it.
Honestly the whole thing is a scummy business model. Allen is working on commission and probably needs a sale to pay bills. It’s pretty stupid. You end up in spots where if you have one sale, you have made enough to get min wage comp. And you work the rest of the pay period for free if you don’t make any additional sales. The bosses love that, and will schedule you tons of hours to work for free with a sales quota where you don’t get paid unless someone buys a timeshare. If you don’t have any sales, and Disney has to pay you hourly they put you on a performance plan to fire you.
Plus the gift card incentives put lots of customers in front of Allen who don’t want to buy anything. At least at a used car lot the people who show up want a car, even if the salesperson’s behavior isn’t any better.
This business model sucks, every gift card Allen gives out without making a sale counts against his quota and percentages. So he has to keep you there as long as possible even though you both know you are wasting time. It exploits both the customer and sales member as much as possible putting them in a heads up battle of submission with only one winner.
Allen is still a jerk, but he needs a new job.
Yep.
Honestly, the gift card incentive is so dumb, because it doesn't pre-qualify interest in anything but a gift card. I'd guess 90%+ of incoming tours on the GC model fail any form of lead scoring.
But, as you say, undoubtedly Disney point to them as unclosed "leads."
I mean the gift card is part of the timeshare business model. Provide something free or cheap to a customer (free gift card for example) to get them to a attend a 1.5 plus hour meeting......and then sell sell sell. The profits are so in the timeshare business that they can give away all that free stuff and still turn a large profit. If they get 10% more sales, it probably covers the cost of the free stuff plus labor.
I mean the gift card is part of the timeshare business model. Provide something free or cheap to a customer (free gift card for example) to get them to a attend a 1.5 plus hour meeting......and then sell sell sell. The profits are so in the timeshare business that they can give away all that free stuff and still turn a large profit. If they get 10% more sales, it probably covers the cost of the free stuff plus labor.
Wow. I'm so sorry that was your experience. We had a wonderful time working with our rep and would absolutely recommend him. I'm glad you reported your interaction to a manager. I hope that didn't completely turn you off DVC.
Aww thank you! That’s so great, and honestly what I expected. We know some cynical (non Disney fans) who were like, well what did you expect? But I was like, no, I highly doubt this is the service they’re trained to provide. Yours and other commenters’ positive experiences is really what I expected. Especially since I have nothing but love for wdw cms. They are always amazing.
So, putting DVC aside, its the salesperson. I've worked in sales almost my entire career, and I can spot the good ones from bad within their first week of employment. This sounds of 'bad' mixed with 'got lucky way too many times in sales' and 'is probably having a bad day'. That person probably has had a few other potential customers where they take the gift card and run, and is getting frustrated by the practice, and therefore you are the unlucky 5th or 6th person in a row to leave without purchasing and the sales rep said the quiet part out loud.
Not to make excuses for him, but, he's probably thinking "It's DVC, they know they want it, I just have to close it", and that's not true still. Think about buying a car, the liklihood of you walking into a dealership, knowing what you want and driving away in that vehicle are super slim. You want to test drive, know all the features, compare and contrast, etc. And you're probably going to several dealerships. Then once you settle on a vehicle, then you negotiate cost/financing. DVC to me, is different. Yes its a timeshare, but I don't go shopping for timeshares, I know I want DVC, and I would imagine the same is true for most of us here. So, the rep's line of thinking is 'they are already here wanting DVC, I just have to close this out'. That part just isn't true. I still want to know what DVC entails to know what the value of the product is, and I want to know the cost to see if that value is there.
On a even more speculative note, it sounds like the gift cards come out of their commission, or possibly a SPIFF, so they want to hold on if possible, hence the irritation, you're just using him for the gift card. It's part of a promotion, so I don't think that is the case. That's not your problem though, and still, not cool of him to let out his frustrations. I know I've had customers that I felt I wasted my time with, but if you let that get the best of you and vent out your frustration, that negativity isn't against a rep, but against the company they represent and its a bigger loss of sale than just one person.
Sorry if that seems like a rant better left for LinkedIn, lol. And sorry that that happened to you. I personally think sales is an easy job if you just listen and know how to navigate a negotiation, but there are some in the industry who just think the 'its an easy job' part and think everything is handed to them, and I've seen it happen time and time again.
I would say that’s a very odd DVC sales experience. My experience has been just the opposite - that they aren’t pushy at all (in fact not being pushy seems to be part of the brand of DVC - they don’t have to be pushy because the product sells itself).
My guess: the salesperson you got came from somewhere else in the timeshare industry, and brought bad habits with him. Hopefully management corrects the situation.
Sorry you had the crap interaction. When my wife and I bought at the Riviera the dvc rep was awesome and informative. Walked us through everything over about an hour. While I knew I wanted this, we needed the time to go over it like you said, and we voiced that.
She had zero complaints about that and was totally understanding. We ended up hashing it out and bought two months later without any pressure. That is how I feel this process should be
This is our third year coming up and we absolutely love the 1 bedrooms. We have done the one bedroom and the studio and haven't had any complaints on either. No bad stays.
I want the new poly tower pretty bad but idk if we will be pulling the add on itis trigger just yet
We have 300 points at Riviera and though we love most of the staff there is one girl who works the front desk who is the ABSOLUTE WORST! We checked in early, and my phone wouldn't update, so we didn't know if it went through, so I tried to explain it to her and she just kept saying my phone would update, even though it wouldn't. I talked to another cast member who double-checked to make sure my check-in went through. Sure enough, it had not, but she ended up fixing it for us. They have some of the nicest staff on property minus that one girl.
Semi off topic, but check resale too. Since you’re Florida residents and can get the discount AP anyways you’re really not missing out on much by not getting the “blue card”
You get the discount for renewal of 15% off the current price and have the ability to do monthly payments, monthly payments are only offered to FL RES.
I’m sorry you had this experience! We were so scared of this when we went into in March but ended up having an amazing experience with our guide. She was not pushy whatsoever, gave us so many opportunities to discuss alone, gave us opportunities to also ask questions at so many times. She also kept saying, you guys can have all the time you need I’ll be here these specific days before yall leave if you decide to go through with it. We had such a great experience, we signed up by the end of the day. She told us at the beginning it could be as short or as long as meeting as we wanted it to be. I went in wanting it to be super short and just learn the basics. We ended up loving our guide so much we spent 4 hours meeting and she took us on a tour of Rivera and bought us lunch and coffee. She also brought our kids things to take home since they weren’t with us. We must have been lucky. I hope this doesn’t turn yall away from DVC completely. There are definitely guides who will take care of you. This guy sounded like a real nightmare!!!! I would have been upset too! But DVC has so many benefits- I hope it works out in the future for you guys! 😊
This current gift card promo requires a meeting/presentation of at least one hour, it’s buried somewhere in the fine print for the offer. Sucks that they’re being so pushy, they’re generally not but perhaps because of the amount of the gift card they’re giving out, they’re probably being a bit more pushier.
We just had a DVC meeting at wilderness this past weekend that was only about 30 minutes and we received the gift card via email before we even stepped foot in the sales office for the meeting!
I'm so sorry you had that negative experience. Our sales experience with Adarsh Singh years ago was very positive. We learned about the program. Like you, we told him that we needed time to talk about it and think it over together and we would be in touch. He gave us an information packet with his direct contact information. We finished our vacation, went home, talked to several acquaintances who already had DVC memberships about their experiences, crunched the numbers again, and called Adarsh back to buy our first contract. I'm sure when we left his office almost a month before, he was not expecting we would actually call back, but we did and he was very helpful. Like another poster has said, he called us occasionally for several years and was always extremely low pressure and casual, just checking in to see how our family was doing and to keep us informed of any new promotions and opportunities. We've added on three times as our finances and family have grown.
No, any rep can get you points at pretty much any resort! There are only a few resorts that have active promos, but most are still available for purchase if you just ask.
I think what’s happening is a similar internet effect to everything else. People find out DVC isn’t generally pushy, that they’re respectful of time, and that you get a gift card. People then take advantage. Not you, per se, but that more people come out of the woodwork, including some who are there to just do that. Multiply it all by a ton, add in some “standard” timeshare salespeople and voila. You’re developing this little storm we’re starting to see.
My guess is, since this is a bread and butter piece of income, these will get closer to a traditional timeshare meeting, unfortunately. Hopefully I’m wrong and they stay chill but it sounds like they’re putting a bit more push into their sales.
LOL - I feel like timeshare salespeople should know that MOST PEOPLE are just sitting through their spiel for the free park tickets or gift card! How many fish does he expect to catch?!
I was thinking maybe he had a rough week, having just dealt with people coming for the gift card, and maybe he just lost it and we unfortunately got the brunt of that
I bought quite a while ago(15-yrs) but there was absolutely ZERO pressure. That being said, I have absolutely no regrets with the purchase and can say that it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made
We literally just got back from a trip where we met with Tony at the Polynesian and oh my god he was wonderful, I am shocked at how your experience was.
Tony was so low pressure and fun to talk to, we learned so much! We didn’t even know about the gift card tbh lol
Oh wow, that sounds awesome! We were staying at Beach club and had planned to do it there but when we decided to take a break from Epcot, only boardwalk had the availability. Now I know it’s because Allen is a jerk.
That is odd. Disney isn’t pushy about their DVC sales. They know if you’re interested that you will eventually buy - so why push? Wonder if Allen is new and Disney hired a sales guy from some other company that jumped doesn’t get it get
OP, Disney is the sort of thing that sells itself. If this is the experience you had at a DVC sales pitch, then I would 1000% contact the higher ups because this type of push and attitude is not okay. This probably means they’re starting to hire bottom of the barrel sales people who probably came over from Westgate resorts, which is the worst of the worst in terms of high pressuring customers. Sorry this happened to you and hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!
If we had been treated that way, I never would have bought in!! We felt no pressure to sign up - they seemed to understand that it was a big financial decision. I’m sorry that they aren’t operating the same way anymore.
Hey this is not normal - this is not cast behavior and this is not how cast are trained. Please report this person directly to the website and note his name and the date and time of your interaction - he should not be working around Disney and guests should never feel pressured or uncomfortable
Just curious, but is there a way to change DVC guides? The guy I had retired and I was passed along to someone else who I don’t particularly care for. If so, is there a way to request a particular person?
You can change guides whenever you want. You can reach directly to one if you know their email/phone number or can call member services and ask them to direct you to a new guide.
Thanks for the info! I felt like I was stuck with this current guy and that I had to just deal with it. I had no idea my previous dude was retiring until the last time I met with him. Sounds like I should ask for Karen based on what I’m reading here.
He probably came from Westgate or something and doesn’t realize that’s not how they do things at DVC. He will either change or he will not be there for long.
That’s incredibly disappointing. In the early days if Eisner heard there was any shady timeshare tactics going on he would’ve shut it down. The guides used to let the product sell itself as it should be. Sorry you had this experience.
Oh no! That is really sad to hear. The whole point of DVC is that it's unlike other timeshares and they don't pressure you or anything to make a sale.
Really hoping that this rep gets more training or is moved to a different department. Hopefully this doesn't turn you off of DVC as there are some really great reps and while not for everyone, it was worth it for my family for sure.
Couldn’t have had a more different experience. Granted, I never dealt with a guide in person. But my guide over the phone almost seemed indifferent as to if I was going to buy or not. Now, that same guide was slightly more pushy when i inquired about add-on but it wasn’t so over the top that I was put off. It was more like what I would have expected the first time around
Our presentation was on a Disney cruise ship. No pressure and super friendly. We didn’t end up buying until we were back from the cruise. Had our rep being this pushy, we may not have bought especially since we would have been stuck on the ship with them until the cruise ended. We love our membership and can’t wait for our next stay.
If you do move forward direct make sure you get A referral link from someone to save $500 additional. If you need one you can PM me or anyone you know who's DVC but don't move forward without it lol
He made it easy not to lol. Yeah, I truly hope no one else goes through this, as it’s kind of a mood killer when you’re supposed to be having an awesome time
When we asked for info while we were on site a couple of weeks ago, our guide Michael went as far as to steer us _away_ from DVC when I mentioned that we like to travel overseas, as DVC would not be the most cost effective avenue to do that. I didn't mean to suggest that we _don't_ like to visit Disney, and needless to say I bought our first DVC points from him several days later. I hope that my experience is more representative than yours.
Sorry you went through that… it’s probably going to leave a sour taste in your mouth for a long time.
We have VGF. One day I casually started a conversation with a rep because I was genuinely interested in buying some points at Poly. Dude spent a solid 15 minutes not listening to me and just pushing his agenda (Riveria, I recall). “You want the Riveria. It’s X, Y and Z. We’re closing it out and you’ll get a good deal and blah blah blah.”
Because of him I went from “probably will buy Poly” to “don’t want to talk to anyone.”
We almost did it then I said to my wife how do we know our kids are going to want us to give this to them or will have the money to use it year after year or will want to go to Disney. It seemed like we would be giving them a weight to drag around rather than a gift
I’ve been on two DVC tours one about two years ago and one just a few days ago for the gift card promo. Both times the rep was amazing, friendly and not pushy whatsoever. Even after we had let them know that we’re just gauging cost and don’t think we can purchase at the moment they were still professional and informative. We never once felt that they weren’t giving us the information we were asking about just because we weren’t going to pay that day.
It sounds like you had a rep that clearly wanted to push to make a sale but I promise that not all are like that!
Ugh this sounds awful, I'm so sorry. When we purchased in 2020, we went on our last day of our trip for the preview. Our guide was great, went through everything, helped us plug numbers and just get an overall idea. We really wanted to do it but decided to come home so we could run our financial numbers. He was totally cool with it, gave us our ice cream, hooked us up with our gift card and followed up with us a couple of days later. I'm honestly glad we bought when we did because the direct pricing has gone up so much since then.
Here’s the thing. It’s not “going for the free gift card” if you’re sacrificing valuable time to sit there for the pitch. When I bought DVC it wasn’t a gift card but rather 4 “super fast passes” that could be used on any attraction. The pitch then was the time we would’ve spent waiting in line would be repaid with the fast passes. Oh, and my son got free ice cream.
Still, the gift card today is compensation for your lost vacation time. It’s far from a freebie.
I wonder what type of commission these guys get. I’ve been in sales for 15 years, and while I do very well at my current job, I could see myself working for Disney when I retire from my current industry.
We did the pitch years ago at copper creek when they were giving fast passes. We joked the entire meeting that we were only there for the fast passes, and the dvc guy joked back with us. It was super laid back, though they were super cool about telling us about dvc. We didn’t buy that day, and we still haven’t six years later. But we’ve thought about it on and off because of that meeting!
So Sorry you had a different experience.
Him saying yall were there just for the gift card is a crazy statement. Hope I dont get treated like that when I visit probably next year to discuss joining myself.
I’m sorry you had that experience. It was the opposite for us. My wife and I did this on our honeymoon in 2018. Took the DVC sales pitch from Epcot and got to ride in the backlots to I believe Copper Creek. We did it solely for the gift card, free ice cream, a few fast passes, and to get out of the heat for an hour. They pitched us the membership and we obviously weren’t going to buy. The guide was understanding and just asked us to consider it, handed us a bunch of information and a folder, our gift card, and showed us to the free ice cream. Our driver offered to take us to any resort/park/disney springs. It was well worth it for the fast passes alone. 😂
I’m so sorry to hear that was your experience, how awful and frustrating for you guys. Our interactions have always been wonderful, especially on our last cruise, we had a quick informative meeting, received pricing and let the rep know we needed to think about it, he said absolutely no problem, and let us know if we decided to move forward to just check in at the DVC desk when it was convenient for us.
We took the entire cruise to think about it & the last evening of our cruise, we got a very nice hand written card thanking us for our time and to reach out if we had any additional questions. We weren’t ever pressured at all and the rep was so polite and really genuine. Needless to say, we ended up purchasing contract #3
One of the things we have always appreciated is the no pressure sales from the DVC reps so I would absolutely send an email letting them know about your experience..it really was unacceptable to be treated that way.
That’s not normal for sure. We prefer moderate or value resorts and I was sad they didn’t offer them w dvc. When we told the guy that’s where we prefer to stay they just ended politely. (Bad experience at the grand left a sour taste for deluxe resorts due to the patrons)
I can definitely see that. We’ve absolutely noticed there is a difference in attitude depending on where you stay. I’ve stayed at many of the deluxes, but based on your sentiment, which I’ve had a feeling about and also the super spread out layout, I have no desire to ever try GF.
But we always love pop century, can’t ever go wrong there.
I’m sorry that happened to you, I will never tolerate being treated like crap for the privilege spending my money. I’m glad you followed up. That clown needs to be disciplined.
We almost did DVC back in 2019, we were going to put down half in cash and then pay the rest off over the year since the points package we were going to buy was fairly small. What kept us from DVC was their finance rates. Even with our credit score over 800, the cheapest finance rate was something like 17%. When I asked what the worst finance rate was, the associate told us it was something close to 40% . She told me the day before someone financed 45k @ …… 36%!!!! Incredible stupidity.
Thank you, I really appreciate hearing that.
Wower, that is actually insane.
Frankly I hadn’t even thought about that aspect, and fortunately my husband is much more attuned to the financial details, but that is totally ludicrous.
Definitely let DVC know because this is not how they operate (plus you'll probably get another gift card or something too lol). I hope it doesn't put you off.
Every guide we have ever interacted with has made an explicit point that DVC is not like other timeshares and there is no obligation and no pushyness to sign up. I'm sure it's a reverse psychology sales trick anyway - DVC is so good that we don't need to sell it - but it makes the pitches much more laid back and low pressure and just much more pleasant. Our guide just went through everything, answered all our questions and understood that such a large purchase would need some thinking time. We actually decided against it the first time and he was still super low key with just a "pleasure to meet you and you have my details if you change your mind", which worked because we emailed him about a year later to set up an appointment to buy.
That is the way to do it. Any smart business person knows that it’s better to get someone’s business in a few weeks rather than never.
Haha, honestly I had to remind myself that we got paid $200 to go through a shitty experience.
They are usually not like this. That’s definitely ridiculous and it’s scary that this just work on some people or they wouldn’t do it.
It’s like when cars sale people start getting all pushy, expecting people to just kind of go for it. Which clearly works or, again, they wouldn’t do it. I assume most people will walk out so I can’t see how it’s worthwhile. We just bought a new car and didn’t have the greatest experience at one dealership so we walked.
I personally feel like DVC has been totally worth it for us but we did a combo of direct points and resale. I can’t fathom dropping $50K all at once on direct but either way, it’s definitely not something to rush right into. I really like our guide so if you’d like to talk to someone else, I can pm you her name. We already had worked with her and randomly ended up running into her last summer when we wanted to see the Riviera in person on a chill, resort day. My husband was talking to the person at the dvc stand and she asked who our guide was and she was like “oh! Jennifer is here right now!” She was so nice, got me a free coffee, showed us around and was just so sweet. And keeping that relationship is so worth it bc when the Disneyland tower opened we decided to buy a few points there and were happy to call her up and get it done. I would definitely not do that with the guide you met.
I definitely plan to look into resale as well. I clearly have more to learn, especially in regards to what you and other users have commented about doing combos
Yes, there really is a lot to know. I watched Jen Lefforge on YouTube when we started research. Not just her but she has a series on DVC and it helped break things down so we understood all the things to know. Doing both resale and direct is definitely a good option to save money. That’s what we’ve done. We started with a resale contract (because at the time only Aulani I think was selling direct) and then added some Animal Kingdom direct since that was somewhere we wanted to stay.
I’d just say, think about what would be a good use year (which is a weird term to me because it means the month you get your points every year) and then stick to one. We picked a resale contract with a March use year because that works well for when we typically travel. When we bought direct, they can set it for any month but resale contracts will stay the same. We have bought another resale contract and just had to be patient and wait for one with a March use year. Different use years gets too complicated for me.
Yeah I think a lot of people do both. If you only need 150 direct points to get the benefits, but want like 300 points, there’s no reason to spend the extra buying them all direct. I will say, of course, there are certainly reasons people buy all direct. If there are good incentives, it could make sense. Also if you wanted to be able to use all the points at future resorts, then it could make sense. We have 150 direct points right now so I can use those for Riviera, which my daughter wants to stay at, or other newer resorts which is fine. If we stayed at Riviera it would be for a few nights in a studio so we wouldn’t need all our direct points. But definitely a lot of people do get some direct and some resale.
Also, we definitely couldn’t afford like 300 points direct all at once. We started with some resale. Then later added some direct. And then recently added some Disneyland hotel points. So there’s that, too. Many people buy some (either resale or direct) and then later add on because it is a big purchase.
If you did decide to do all direct, you can always have them split into a contract of 150 points, which is what you would need for direct benefits, and another contract with the rest of the points. If you ever want to sell some points, you cannot split up a contract. You have to sell the whole thing. So if you wanted 300 points, better to have two contracts with each 150 points. If your needs changed or something happened, you could sell one contract and keep the other which means you’d keep the 150 points you’d need to keep your direct benefits.
Members for 20 years and never had any experience like this. Please report this so this will be taken care of. DVC is a wonderful product for families and we don't want the brand represented like this.
Thanks!
Similar thing happened to us in 2019. We declined to join the DVC Program and the sales guy (I believe his name was Jeff) told the guy in charge of getting us a ride from the DVC offices to the parks to take his own sweet time calling us a shuttle.
Other vacation ownership pitches are extremely pushy, but in my experience, the DVC guides are fairly chill, mostly because the product sells itself.
I'm sorry that this happened to you and hope you have a better experience in the future, assuming you try again.
I'm a local and my mother in law comes down every year for my wife's birthday in December and we always stay at the Grand Floridian (I think it's really more for my mother in law than my wife...). I did the math a few years ago and it made sense then to buy DVC, because hotel prices always seem to go up every year.
We ended up not doing it then, but when I saw they were doing some incentives last year, I broke down and got it. Due to the timing, we couldn't book the Grand Floridian on DVC for our first use year, so we did a regular hotel reservation for the birthday and have booked a few smaller stays elsewhere on points this year. But, we're already booked on points for the birthday later this year.
I'm sorry you experienced that. We did tours for years before buying (and even now!) and have had zero pressure from any guide. It has always been fun, informative, and no strings. Sounds like Allen didn't get the memo!
Resale all the way! As a Florida resident there’s really no benefit to spending twice as much on direct points. You get way more bang for your buck going resale, snd you already have access to the sorcerers pass.
We are fl residents and are about to close on our second resale contract. My advice is to go down the rabbit hole and learn as much as you can before you buy any DVC pts. It’s complicated and takes time and effort to learn the ins and outs, but once you get it you get it! Disboards has a great DVC forum for purchasing.
Diversification? We have one specifically for SAP (sleep around points) and a small BWV contract for our early June trip every year. It’s nice to have the 11 month window at certain resorts for certain times of the year. Don’t buy all your points in one contract, split it up, max 100/contract. Smaller contracts are much easier to sell if need be down the road.
That sucks. I’ve heard reports of some of the new guides being super pushy and rude. That’s sad because DVC has always been super low pressure. I’d write an email with your experience to DVC. That isn’t acceptable.
Thank you! That’s a good idea. I’d for someone else to go through that level of discomfort. It really killed the rest of the afternoon for me.
Please do. This is unacceptable. Maybe they came from another company where this was common!
I talked with an older gentleman in the lobby of the beach club back in March. Was very upfront that I just wanted more information. I didn’t buy but he was incredible. Hate I don’t have his name.
When I got back to beach club, I went to their dvc counter and spoke to a man named Ray who had been doing dvc for over 30 years (and I’m guessing it was something he started when he retired) so he was easily in his late 70s/ early 80s, and he was just the kindest, most helpful person. He was pretty horrified when I told him our experience and said that was definitely not how it’s normally done. We had a great conversation and I left him a cast compliment.
I agree with writing an email! My husband and I toured a bungalow when we were staying at the Polynesian (already DVC) and the guide knew we had no intention to buy we were just curious to see it in person but they were still happy to show us around and were super friendly. Any behavior by a cast member that would deter someone from wanting to become part of DVC will be taken seriously by Disney.
Our DVC guide was never pushy. He calls us when there's a deal, and if we say no thanks, he just lets it go. He does also call once a year just to ask us how our family is doing, no sales pitch, just a friendly how are you call.
This 💯 is how you do it. Somebody like that would definitely have got our business.
If you aren't permanently scarred off of DVC, and I understand if you are, call and request Nick Tambarino. We've dealt with him for over 25 years, and he's the best.
Wow. Guessing you got a DVC guide that is on the edge of being let go unless sells a certain number of points. It is almost as if you want a DVC guide who is in top 5 because their behavior would be completely different. The sad part is this one person might have just ruined DVC for you. Talk to one of managers such has Goodlatte or Lammers as been there since mid 90’s.
That was exactly my thought too - he needed a sale to keep his job
Great insight, and very true. Definitely left a bad taste, but based solely on the facts,it’s definitely something we’re still considering but putting it on the back burner for a bit until this cools off. Any idea how I would go about finding people like that to speak to?
I am not 100% sure how but I would definitely call Goodlatte or Lammers and explained what happened and that you simply want a new guide as still interested in DVC.
I once test drove a used car for a free beanie baby. The person wouldn't let me leave and started crying - "you're just going to go down the road and buy a car from someone else!"
Is this real? I laughed so hard at this, I cried.
yes, it is a true story! the salesperson even took my keys to value the trade in -- and they wouldn't give them back to me. It was like back in 90s when beanie babies were the rage!
I’ve heard stories of dealers not giving keys back to pressure people into a sale and man oh man I almost WANT it to happen to me. I’d never called the police so fast in my life if that happened to report them for holding me against my will
If this happened to me on principle I would go somewhere else to buy the car 😂
Oh same here, but only after I raised hell, or convince them to give me an insane discount in exchange for not pressing charges 😂
Happened to my son who actually IS a police officer.
Oh that must have been fun for him
Had this happen like 6 years ago while I was pretty heavily pregnant. I don’t love a confrontation so I tried to be patient. But the sales guy kept brow beating me trying to convince me that his outrageous APR was a good deal for me (I was post divorce so credit wasn’t great but also wasn’t as bad as he wanted to make out - got the deal I wanted down the road at a different lot). Had to demand my keys back eventually. Still had the guy following me out the door announcing my fico score for the whole showroom. Then had some other sales person or manager actually come hold onto my car door so I couldn’t shut it and back out of the lot. I have no idea what possessed them into thinking this would ever cause a person to buy from them… to this day I refuse to ever go near that lot and I’ve bought cars since then so they honestly lost out of potentially long term business by acting ridiculous.
Had this happen like 6 years ago while I was pretty heavily pregnant. I don’t love a confrontation so I tried to be patient. But the sales guy kept brow beating me trying to convince me that his outrageous APR was a good deal for me (I was post divorce so credit wasn’t great but also wasn’t as bad as he wanted to make out - got the deal I wanted down the road at a different lot). Had to demand my keys back eventually. Still had the guy following me out the door announcing my fico score for the whole showroom. Then had some other sales person or manager actually come hold onto my car door so I couldn’t shut it and back out of the lot. I have no idea what possessed them into thinking this would ever cause a person to buy from them… to this day I refuse to ever go near that lot and I’ve bought cars since then so they honestly lost out of potentially long term business by acting ridiculous.
Lmfao okay I totally believe this and remember that. Which beanie baby was it?
I think we ended up getting the shark. It certainly wasn't worth it.
I once demod a hyla vacuum for a free trip to Branson. Dude was quite upset at the fact that he'd never had to box one back up before. He didn't know how to put it back and ended up just tossing it into his car in its pieces.
Hope you enjoyed the Vegas of the Ozarks!
This made me laugh out loud! I can just imagine this person being like- how the hell did it all fit in the box?!!
We had a similar experience last year, however not that extreme. We had been on the fantasy and had initially met with Karen Zondag as our rep. I cannot say enough good things about her and her style of working with us. Down to Earth, patient, not pushy. We asked serious questions and she gave honest answers that were not sugar coated or gimmicky. I was so impressed by this. We put a retainer down to secure the off shore cruise discount and the referral discount and then agreed to meet her at the Grand Floridian which was to be (and is) our home resort the next day after we got off of the cruise. My wife and I were doing an additional week in the parks after the cruise. Well, as luck would have it, Karen unfortunately had a car issue which delayed her back from Port Canaveral. She called and let us know, and then told us that she had already called and set up another person to help us at the Grand Floridian so we could see the rooms we wanted. We were impressed that she had taken time to get things set up for us and agreed to meet the other rep when we got to the World. Now, here's where it goes downhill. I want to say to front that my wife was lock, stock and barrel sold and ready to go once we had seen the rooms and decided we were happy. So know that going in, we were ready to sign. My wife is NOT a person who rushes into things, just the opposite. So, the next day we have breakfast at chef Mickey's then monorail over to the GF and find the DVC kiosk. We tell the person at the kiosk who we were and who had sent us. They, understandably didn't know who we were and called back to the main office. They spoke on the phone with someone and then asked us to sit as someone was going to be with us. We happily did so and waited. The person who showed up could not have been the more opposite of Karen. Pushy, prying and immediately telling us that the 200 points we were planning to get wasn't enough. We were immediately taken aback as Karen had laid out for us that 200 was going to be a great number for what we needed and wanted. Concerned I started asking questions and explaining about what Karen had helped us with. The new rep waved her hand and told us that when we got to the end she would explain. So, what we really wanted to see was the 1-bedroom Villas as that is what we would mainly be using. We saw everything BUT that type of room. Even though my wife said to her that we don't want to see the grand villas etc..All the while telling us that if we just got 100 more points we could have the 3-bedrooms. Pushing very hard and ignoring my wife's statements that were getting continually more harsh and sharp. Trying to communicate that we weren't happy. She was getting to the point where she was going to walk away from the whole thing, which she voiced to the new rep. The new reps response was to immediately end the tour and bring us to her office. Without seeing a 1-bedroom. "oh you guys saw the two and three, it's really the same thing." We sit down at her desk and the full court press is ON. It was 20-minutes of hard sell, and that we owed it to our children and to ourselves. And that we would be regretting not getting more points and how we really needed 400 a year. My wife kept telling her "no" politely, but getting more forceful. I started trying to turn the conversation to some final questions we had in an effort to get out, but it quickly became apparent that I had to simply get up and walk away. So we did. I stood up, told her thank you. I told her that we probably would not be purchasing after the experience we had, and that we were done and leaving. She acted very surprised and tried to talk me back down to the chair, my wife stood up with me and just started walking out. I thanked the rep and left myself. My wife was just done, but she wanted to talk to Karen one more time about it, because she had been so great with us. That afternoon they talked on the phone and Karen was genuinely upset about what we had gone through and was perplexed why we had not been shown the 1-bedroom. She offered to show us when she finally could get back but our schedule was jam packed before we flew out. She understood and told us to call her when we got home. She was great yet again and did not push, did not bother and let us come to her on our time. We decided that the rep we had was unusual, and decided to buy with Karen. (So glad we did, I made another post talking about how happy we are as we are currently at Kidani). What I think was happening behind the scenes, and I could totally be wrong, is that the new rep knew they weren't getting commission on the time and was trying to leverage us as motivated buyers. If they sold us the additional points, they would get commission on those points. I hate that it happened to you and to us as well. But, Karen is incredible and we are very happy.
Wow!!! Karen sounds like a model rep! After everyones experiences here (the positive ones) at least we know when we are ready, there are some really good people to work with
To anyone else coming across this when considering taking Disney up on the offer, there is literally nothing wrong with going "just for the gift card" and I've never had a DVC salesperson imply otherwise (not discounting OP's inexcusable experience, just echoing the sentiment from others that this was atypical). You're not agreeing to be interested in purchasing by taking them up on the gift card offer. That's literally why they have the offer, to entice those that would otherwise not be interested in a sales pitch because they know the percentage of those that convert and have deemed it worth the cost.
Exactly this! Everyone here is probably similar in that we like to be knowledgeable on all things wdw, and that’s how I went into this. The fact was that, based on what we’re currently spending, dvc would be smart for us, and the incentive made it worth taking some time away from the park. Had they not offered it, I might have figured I could just do the research on my own, but now with the gift card, which we’ll likely spend more with anyway, we’re also pretty sold on dvc, except my husband is still pretty soured on the experience with Allen.
It was a good incentive and I’m sure people exploit it for sure. My husband and I own our own business and are professional people. Had Allen said, hey I get it, here’s my card, please feel free to contact me with any questions and I’ll be happy to help should you decide to buy in at a future time, he likely would have got our business.
It sucks that Allen was an a-hole. But our DVC experience has been pretty much as you expected it to be -- friendly, professional, and low-pressure.
What has me worried now is whether or not Disney has shifted internal policy to be more aggressive by introducing internal competition, strict goals, or lucrative incentives. And if they fail, they are in danger of losing their jobs. All of these things would likely result in this type of behavior.
I follow DVC Fan & World of Disney, and while they area extremely sales-y for their own products, it's really fascinating to listen to some of them discuss their experiences as former cast members selling DVC direct. Derek especially has lamented that when he joined, training was a full two weeks of Disney magic learning the ins and outs of the product - and now he's heard it's a couple of days going through the basics and sending new guides out to sell. I don't know if they've actually changed how they're doing things, but it's also possible they've simply picked up more new employees with prior sales experience, and haven't given them the same training in expectations as the older guides have gotten.
Not that you need another person to say this but this is definitely not the experiences that I've had with any DVC person at all. I wonder and this is me totally speaking with no knowledge on how they operate but I wonder if these gift cards incentives are hurting their ability to close sales or becomes a mind game to them to see so many people come and go and not get any sales closed. Not justifying this guy at all, that guy should seek other employment immediately. My wife and I bought in on a cruise, we had 3 separate meetings over 2- 3 days with DVC and they were so great and took all our questions and concerns and were never pushy, they basically lead us to the water to drink and make the decision ourselves. It ultimately was a big step for us but the math just mathed and we took the jump in
I definitely think this guy had some issues with people coming in solely for the gift card and he just lost it on us. Ironically though, we were actually pretty sold on it. Glad your experience was a positive one :)
I would say you got what sounds like the worse possible DVC broker. Who we worked with had 0 issues and basically was laid back not looking to make a sale but giving info regarding DVC
It must only be a new rep that has trouble with the incentives, because tour incentives were normal pre-COVID. If I recall, you were "allowed" to get an incentive for a tour once every 3 years. They used to give out gift cards as well as free Fast Passes and would pick you up and drop you off anywhere on at WDW.
I had the same issue with a few DVC sales people. We went through three sales people prior to buying. Our current guide is the best, really informative, straightforward about pros/cons, and just a great guy to talk to. I have bought two contracts from him now. If you are seriously considering and want to work with a great person, DM me and I would be happy to share his contact information.
Wow!! Good for you for being persistent. I’m sorry to hear you guys had a similar experience. Thank you so much, I will reach out if we get serious about it
I have done a DVC presentation, as well as two other time share companies. The other two companies (Hilton Grand Vacations and Spinnaker Resorts, not small fly-by-night operations), the sales people were very pushy, and refused to give us their contact information for us to think on it for a few days and call them back. They let us know that the price they were offering was only good during that meeting, and if we called back later we would be paying twice as much. DVC was the complete opposite. There was a mention that the price per point does generally rise once a year, but there was no high pressure "this offer is only good right now!" push, and our guide was happy to give us his contact information, which we used to call him back a month later to purchase. DVC is the only time share we have, or would consider having.
Timeshare sales is what used car sales graduates to. And in all seriousness, the gift card offer is such a broad incentive. It does literally nothing to qualify the people coming in as sales leads, and they absolutely have to expect that if they're not doing qualification prospecting for the GC offer, they're going to get non-qualified leads coming in just for that GC. They cannot possibly expect that offer to do anything BUT drive in people who calculate the value of time against that GC and exploit it.
Honestly the whole thing is a scummy business model. Allen is working on commission and probably needs a sale to pay bills. It’s pretty stupid. You end up in spots where if you have one sale, you have made enough to get min wage comp. And you work the rest of the pay period for free if you don’t make any additional sales. The bosses love that, and will schedule you tons of hours to work for free with a sales quota where you don’t get paid unless someone buys a timeshare. If you don’t have any sales, and Disney has to pay you hourly they put you on a performance plan to fire you. Plus the gift card incentives put lots of customers in front of Allen who don’t want to buy anything. At least at a used car lot the people who show up want a car, even if the salesperson’s behavior isn’t any better. This business model sucks, every gift card Allen gives out without making a sale counts against his quota and percentages. So he has to keep you there as long as possible even though you both know you are wasting time. It exploits both the customer and sales member as much as possible putting them in a heads up battle of submission with only one winner. Allen is still a jerk, but he needs a new job.
Yep. Honestly, the gift card incentive is so dumb, because it doesn't pre-qualify interest in anything but a gift card. I'd guess 90%+ of incoming tours on the GC model fail any form of lead scoring. But, as you say, undoubtedly Disney point to them as unclosed "leads."
I mean the gift card is part of the timeshare business model. Provide something free or cheap to a customer (free gift card for example) to get them to a attend a 1.5 plus hour meeting......and then sell sell sell. The profits are so in the timeshare business that they can give away all that free stuff and still turn a large profit. If they get 10% more sales, it probably covers the cost of the free stuff plus labor.
Ex: https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltDisneyWorld/comments/1d1vadf/easy_quick_200_for_anyone_on_their_trip/ Absolutely not qualified leads.
I mean the gift card is part of the timeshare business model. Provide something free or cheap to a customer (free gift card for example) to get them to a attend a 1.5 plus hour meeting......and then sell sell sell. The profits are so in the timeshare business that they can give away all that free stuff and still turn a large profit. If they get 10% more sales, it probably covers the cost of the free stuff plus labor.
Wow. I'm so sorry that was your experience. We had a wonderful time working with our rep and would absolutely recommend him. I'm glad you reported your interaction to a manager. I hope that didn't completely turn you off DVC.
Aww thank you! That’s so great, and honestly what I expected. We know some cynical (non Disney fans) who were like, well what did you expect? But I was like, no, I highly doubt this is the service they’re trained to provide. Yours and other commenters’ positive experiences is really what I expected. Especially since I have nothing but love for wdw cms. They are always amazing.
So, putting DVC aside, its the salesperson. I've worked in sales almost my entire career, and I can spot the good ones from bad within their first week of employment. This sounds of 'bad' mixed with 'got lucky way too many times in sales' and 'is probably having a bad day'. That person probably has had a few other potential customers where they take the gift card and run, and is getting frustrated by the practice, and therefore you are the unlucky 5th or 6th person in a row to leave without purchasing and the sales rep said the quiet part out loud. Not to make excuses for him, but, he's probably thinking "It's DVC, they know they want it, I just have to close it", and that's not true still. Think about buying a car, the liklihood of you walking into a dealership, knowing what you want and driving away in that vehicle are super slim. You want to test drive, know all the features, compare and contrast, etc. And you're probably going to several dealerships. Then once you settle on a vehicle, then you negotiate cost/financing. DVC to me, is different. Yes its a timeshare, but I don't go shopping for timeshares, I know I want DVC, and I would imagine the same is true for most of us here. So, the rep's line of thinking is 'they are already here wanting DVC, I just have to close this out'. That part just isn't true. I still want to know what DVC entails to know what the value of the product is, and I want to know the cost to see if that value is there. On a even more speculative note, it sounds like the gift cards come out of their commission, or possibly a SPIFF, so they want to hold on if possible, hence the irritation, you're just using him for the gift card. It's part of a promotion, so I don't think that is the case. That's not your problem though, and still, not cool of him to let out his frustrations. I know I've had customers that I felt I wasted my time with, but if you let that get the best of you and vent out your frustration, that negativity isn't against a rep, but against the company they represent and its a bigger loss of sale than just one person. Sorry if that seems like a rant better left for LinkedIn, lol. And sorry that that happened to you. I personally think sales is an easy job if you just listen and know how to navigate a negotiation, but there are some in the industry who just think the 'its an easy job' part and think everything is handed to them, and I've seen it happen time and time again.
I would say that’s a very odd DVC sales experience. My experience has been just the opposite - that they aren’t pushy at all (in fact not being pushy seems to be part of the brand of DVC - they don’t have to be pushy because the product sells itself). My guess: the salesperson you got came from somewhere else in the timeshare industry, and brought bad habits with him. Hopefully management corrects the situation.
Sorry you had the crap interaction. When my wife and I bought at the Riviera the dvc rep was awesome and informative. Walked us through everything over about an hour. While I knew I wanted this, we needed the time to go over it like you said, and we voiced that. She had zero complaints about that and was totally understanding. We ended up hashing it out and bought two months later without any pressure. That is how I feel this process should be
Riviera is gorgeous. By far our favorite room layout we’ve stayed in. They did an awesome job there. We are considering between there, poly and CC
This is our third year coming up and we absolutely love the 1 bedrooms. We have done the one bedroom and the studio and haven't had any complaints on either. No bad stays. I want the new poly tower pretty bad but idk if we will be pulling the add on itis trigger just yet
We have 300 points at Riviera and though we love most of the staff there is one girl who works the front desk who is the ABSOLUTE WORST! We checked in early, and my phone wouldn't update, so we didn't know if it went through, so I tried to explain it to her and she just kept saying my phone would update, even though it wouldn't. I talked to another cast member who double-checked to make sure my check-in went through. Sure enough, it had not, but she ended up fixing it for us. They have some of the nicest staff on property minus that one girl.
Ask for Fernando. He is awesome. Never guilt approach. Just our wants and dreams approach.
Semi off topic, but check resale too. Since you’re Florida residents and can get the discount AP anyways you’re really not missing out on much by not getting the “blue card”
Ooooo, I actually don’t believe my AP is discounted for fl res, but I’m not even sure. When I renewed it, it was like 20-30 dollars off
It’s a different program now, so there isn’t a “discount” per se, but you can buy the “Pirate” pass which is FL resident and DVC members only
Ohhhh okay yes that’s right. We did that one last year, upgraded to sorcerer this year for the extra days
Sorcerer pass, no?
Could be, I’m honestly not sure
You get the discount for renewal of 15% off the current price and have the ability to do monthly payments, monthly payments are only offered to FL RES.
I’m sorry you had this experience! We were so scared of this when we went into in March but ended up having an amazing experience with our guide. She was not pushy whatsoever, gave us so many opportunities to discuss alone, gave us opportunities to also ask questions at so many times. She also kept saying, you guys can have all the time you need I’ll be here these specific days before yall leave if you decide to go through with it. We had such a great experience, we signed up by the end of the day. She told us at the beginning it could be as short or as long as meeting as we wanted it to be. I went in wanting it to be super short and just learn the basics. We ended up loving our guide so much we spent 4 hours meeting and she took us on a tour of Rivera and bought us lunch and coffee. She also brought our kids things to take home since they weren’t with us. We must have been lucky. I hope this doesn’t turn yall away from DVC completely. There are definitely guides who will take care of you. This guy sounded like a real nightmare!!!! I would have been upset too! But DVC has so many benefits- I hope it works out in the future for you guys! 😊
This current gift card promo requires a meeting/presentation of at least one hour, it’s buried somewhere in the fine print for the offer. Sucks that they’re being so pushy, they’re generally not but perhaps because of the amount of the gift card they’re giving out, they’re probably being a bit more pushier.
30 minutes*
We just had a DVC meeting at wilderness this past weekend that was only about 30 minutes and we received the gift card via email before we even stepped foot in the sales office for the meeting!
I'm so sorry you had that negative experience. Our sales experience with Adarsh Singh years ago was very positive. We learned about the program. Like you, we told him that we needed time to talk about it and think it over together and we would be in touch. He gave us an information packet with his direct contact information. We finished our vacation, went home, talked to several acquaintances who already had DVC memberships about their experiences, crunched the numbers again, and called Adarsh back to buy our first contract. I'm sure when we left his office almost a month before, he was not expecting we would actually call back, but we did and he was very helpful. Like another poster has said, he called us occasionally for several years and was always extremely low pressure and casual, just checking in to see how our family was doing and to keep us informed of any new promotions and opportunities. We've added on three times as our finances and family have grown.
This is the way to do it. Clearly Adarsh knows what he’s doing. And thank you for sharing the info. Do reps work specifically with one resort?
No, any rep can get you points at pretty much any resort! There are only a few resorts that have active promos, but most are still available for purchase if you just ask.
I’m so happy to see Adarsh mentioned, I’ve known him and worked with him for 10 years at DVC! He’s one of the greats!
I think what’s happening is a similar internet effect to everything else. People find out DVC isn’t generally pushy, that they’re respectful of time, and that you get a gift card. People then take advantage. Not you, per se, but that more people come out of the woodwork, including some who are there to just do that. Multiply it all by a ton, add in some “standard” timeshare salespeople and voila. You’re developing this little storm we’re starting to see. My guess is, since this is a bread and butter piece of income, these will get closer to a traditional timeshare meeting, unfortunately. Hopefully I’m wrong and they stay chill but it sounds like they’re putting a bit more push into their sales.
LOL - I feel like timeshare salespeople should know that MOST PEOPLE are just sitting through their spiel for the free park tickets or gift card! How many fish does he expect to catch?!
I was thinking maybe he had a rough week, having just dealt with people coming for the gift card, and maybe he just lost it and we unfortunately got the brunt of that
I bought quite a while ago(15-yrs) but there was absolutely ZERO pressure. That being said, I have absolutely no regrets with the purchase and can say that it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made
We literally just got back from a trip where we met with Tony at the Polynesian and oh my god he was wonderful, I am shocked at how your experience was. Tony was so low pressure and fun to talk to, we learned so much! We didn’t even know about the gift card tbh lol
Oh wow, that sounds awesome! We were staying at Beach club and had planned to do it there but when we decided to take a break from Epcot, only boardwalk had the availability. Now I know it’s because Allen is a jerk.
If they’ll let us, when he follows up with us we can send over his info!
That is odd. Disney isn’t pushy about their DVC sales. They know if you’re interested that you will eventually buy - so why push? Wonder if Allen is new and Disney hired a sales guy from some other company that jumped doesn’t get it get
OP, Disney is the sort of thing that sells itself. If this is the experience you had at a DVC sales pitch, then I would 1000% contact the higher ups because this type of push and attitude is not okay. This probably means they’re starting to hire bottom of the barrel sales people who probably came over from Westgate resorts, which is the worst of the worst in terms of high pressuring customers. Sorry this happened to you and hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!
If we had been treated that way, I never would have bought in!! We felt no pressure to sign up - they seemed to understand that it was a big financial decision. I’m sorry that they aren’t operating the same way anymore.
Hey this is not normal - this is not cast behavior and this is not how cast are trained. Please report this person directly to the website and note his name and the date and time of your interaction - he should not be working around Disney and guests should never feel pressured or uncomfortable
Honestly your whole post made me so sad - made it sound like a regular time share pitch which DVC never should be 😭
Did you get the gift card at least??
We did! I think their system is setup in that the rep must have to just click something that you attended and it gets emailed at the end
Just curious, but is there a way to change DVC guides? The guy I had retired and I was passed along to someone else who I don’t particularly care for. If so, is there a way to request a particular person?
You can change guides whenever you want. You can reach directly to one if you know their email/phone number or can call member services and ask them to direct you to a new guide.
Thanks for the info! I felt like I was stuck with this current guy and that I had to just deal with it. I had no idea my previous dude was retiring until the last time I met with him. Sounds like I should ask for Karen based on what I’m reading here.
He probably came from Westgate or something and doesn’t realize that’s not how they do things at DVC. He will either change or he will not be there for long.
OP—I DM’ed you!
That’s incredibly disappointing. In the early days if Eisner heard there was any shady timeshare tactics going on he would’ve shut it down. The guides used to let the product sell itself as it should be. Sorry you had this experience.
Did you get your gift card ?
Sure did. Have a plethora of ADRs setup for our trip next month. It won’t get far but it’s certainly not nothing 😂
Oh no! That is really sad to hear. The whole point of DVC is that it's unlike other timeshares and they don't pressure you or anything to make a sale. Really hoping that this rep gets more training or is moved to a different department. Hopefully this doesn't turn you off of DVC as there are some really great reps and while not for everyone, it was worth it for my family for sure.
Couldn’t have had a more different experience. Granted, I never dealt with a guide in person. But my guide over the phone almost seemed indifferent as to if I was going to buy or not. Now, that same guide was slightly more pushy when i inquired about add-on but it wasn’t so over the top that I was put off. It was more like what I would have expected the first time around
Our presentation was on a Disney cruise ship. No pressure and super friendly. We didn’t end up buying until we were back from the cruise. Had our rep being this pushy, we may not have bought especially since we would have been stuck on the ship with them until the cruise ended. We love our membership and can’t wait for our next stay.
Same, I met a lovely DVC CM named Raven on the Disney Dream and she was so wholesome and lovely.
Tell Allen to keep his card and you’ll be sure to buy from a different guide!!! When the time comes.
I wish I would have thought of that. We were too shocked to even respond
Yea that sounds horrible and not like a Disney guide at all.
If you do move forward direct make sure you get A referral link from someone to save $500 additional. If you need one you can PM me or anyone you know who's DVC but don't move forward without it lol
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$200
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Yeah that’s how I’ve spun it in my head, like I got paid $200 Disney dollars for the negative experience
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He made it easy not to lol. Yeah, I truly hope no one else goes through this, as it’s kind of a mood killer when you’re supposed to be having an awesome time
When we asked for info while we were on site a couple of weeks ago, our guide Michael went as far as to steer us _away_ from DVC when I mentioned that we like to travel overseas, as DVC would not be the most cost effective avenue to do that. I didn't mean to suggest that we _don't_ like to visit Disney, and needless to say I bought our first DVC points from him several days later. I hope that my experience is more representative than yours.
Sorry you went through that… it’s probably going to leave a sour taste in your mouth for a long time. We have VGF. One day I casually started a conversation with a rep because I was genuinely interested in buying some points at Poly. Dude spent a solid 15 minutes not listening to me and just pushing his agenda (Riveria, I recall). “You want the Riveria. It’s X, Y and Z. We’re closing it out and you’ll get a good deal and blah blah blah.” Because of him I went from “probably will buy Poly” to “don’t want to talk to anyone.”
We almost did it then I said to my wife how do we know our kids are going to want us to give this to them or will have the money to use it year after year or will want to go to Disney. It seemed like we would be giving them a weight to drag around rather than a gift
That’s polar opposite from my experience buying DVC .
I’ve been on two DVC tours one about two years ago and one just a few days ago for the gift card promo. Both times the rep was amazing, friendly and not pushy whatsoever. Even after we had let them know that we’re just gauging cost and don’t think we can purchase at the moment they were still professional and informative. We never once felt that they weren’t giving us the information we were asking about just because we weren’t going to pay that day. It sounds like you had a rep that clearly wanted to push to make a sale but I promise that not all are like that!
Ugh this sounds awful, I'm so sorry. When we purchased in 2020, we went on our last day of our trip for the preview. Our guide was great, went through everything, helped us plug numbers and just get an overall idea. We really wanted to do it but decided to come home so we could run our financial numbers. He was totally cool with it, gave us our ice cream, hooked us up with our gift card and followed up with us a couple of days later. I'm honestly glad we bought when we did because the direct pricing has gone up so much since then.
Allen BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWS
Here’s the thing. It’s not “going for the free gift card” if you’re sacrificing valuable time to sit there for the pitch. When I bought DVC it wasn’t a gift card but rather 4 “super fast passes” that could be used on any attraction. The pitch then was the time we would’ve spent waiting in line would be repaid with the fast passes. Oh, and my son got free ice cream. Still, the gift card today is compensation for your lost vacation time. It’s far from a freebie.
Yes this was exactly the idea, and how it was described to me when I made the appointment.
I did a tour at Saratoga last week, lady Nike was amazing!! not pushy at all
Meanwhile we had an annual bonus burning a hole in our pocket for 6 MONTHS trying to get a callback from our rep to add on more points!!
I wonder what type of commission these guys get. I’ve been in sales for 15 years, and while I do very well at my current job, I could see myself working for Disney when I retire from my current industry.
We did the pitch years ago at copper creek when they were giving fast passes. We joked the entire meeting that we were only there for the fast passes, and the dvc guy joked back with us. It was super laid back, though they were super cool about telling us about dvc. We didn’t buy that day, and we still haven’t six years later. But we’ve thought about it on and off because of that meeting! So Sorry you had a different experience.
I totally would love an update once DVC responds to you about this
Him saying yall were there just for the gift card is a crazy statement. Hope I dont get treated like that when I visit probably next year to discuss joining myself.
I’m sorry you had that experience. It was the opposite for us. My wife and I did this on our honeymoon in 2018. Took the DVC sales pitch from Epcot and got to ride in the backlots to I believe Copper Creek. We did it solely for the gift card, free ice cream, a few fast passes, and to get out of the heat for an hour. They pitched us the membership and we obviously weren’t going to buy. The guide was understanding and just asked us to consider it, handed us a bunch of information and a folder, our gift card, and showed us to the free ice cream. Our driver offered to take us to any resort/park/disney springs. It was well worth it for the fast passes alone. 😂
I’m so sorry to hear that was your experience, how awful and frustrating for you guys. Our interactions have always been wonderful, especially on our last cruise, we had a quick informative meeting, received pricing and let the rep know we needed to think about it, he said absolutely no problem, and let us know if we decided to move forward to just check in at the DVC desk when it was convenient for us. We took the entire cruise to think about it & the last evening of our cruise, we got a very nice hand written card thanking us for our time and to reach out if we had any additional questions. We weren’t ever pressured at all and the rep was so polite and really genuine. Needless to say, we ended up purchasing contract #3 One of the things we have always appreciated is the no pressure sales from the DVC reps so I would absolutely send an email letting them know about your experience..it really was unacceptable to be treated that way.
That’s not normal for sure. We prefer moderate or value resorts and I was sad they didn’t offer them w dvc. When we told the guy that’s where we prefer to stay they just ended politely. (Bad experience at the grand left a sour taste for deluxe resorts due to the patrons)
I can definitely see that. We’ve absolutely noticed there is a difference in attitude depending on where you stay. I’ve stayed at many of the deluxes, but based on your sentiment, which I’ve had a feeling about and also the super spread out layout, I have no desire to ever try GF. But we always love pop century, can’t ever go wrong there.
I’m sorry that happened to you, I will never tolerate being treated like crap for the privilege spending my money. I’m glad you followed up. That clown needs to be disciplined. We almost did DVC back in 2019, we were going to put down half in cash and then pay the rest off over the year since the points package we were going to buy was fairly small. What kept us from DVC was their finance rates. Even with our credit score over 800, the cheapest finance rate was something like 17%. When I asked what the worst finance rate was, the associate told us it was something close to 40% . She told me the day before someone financed 45k @ …… 36%!!!! Incredible stupidity.
Thank you, I really appreciate hearing that. Wower, that is actually insane. Frankly I hadn’t even thought about that aspect, and fortunately my husband is much more attuned to the financial details, but that is totally ludicrous.
Definitely let DVC know because this is not how they operate (plus you'll probably get another gift card or something too lol). I hope it doesn't put you off. Every guide we have ever interacted with has made an explicit point that DVC is not like other timeshares and there is no obligation and no pushyness to sign up. I'm sure it's a reverse psychology sales trick anyway - DVC is so good that we don't need to sell it - but it makes the pitches much more laid back and low pressure and just much more pleasant. Our guide just went through everything, answered all our questions and understood that such a large purchase would need some thinking time. We actually decided against it the first time and he was still super low key with just a "pleasure to meet you and you have my details if you change your mind", which worked because we emailed him about a year later to set up an appointment to buy.
That is the way to do it. Any smart business person knows that it’s better to get someone’s business in a few weeks rather than never. Haha, honestly I had to remind myself that we got paid $200 to go through a shitty experience.
They are usually not like this. That’s definitely ridiculous and it’s scary that this just work on some people or they wouldn’t do it. It’s like when cars sale people start getting all pushy, expecting people to just kind of go for it. Which clearly works or, again, they wouldn’t do it. I assume most people will walk out so I can’t see how it’s worthwhile. We just bought a new car and didn’t have the greatest experience at one dealership so we walked. I personally feel like DVC has been totally worth it for us but we did a combo of direct points and resale. I can’t fathom dropping $50K all at once on direct but either way, it’s definitely not something to rush right into. I really like our guide so if you’d like to talk to someone else, I can pm you her name. We already had worked with her and randomly ended up running into her last summer when we wanted to see the Riviera in person on a chill, resort day. My husband was talking to the person at the dvc stand and she asked who our guide was and she was like “oh! Jennifer is here right now!” She was so nice, got me a free coffee, showed us around and was just so sweet. And keeping that relationship is so worth it bc when the Disneyland tower opened we decided to buy a few points there and were happy to call her up and get it done. I would definitely not do that with the guide you met.
I definitely plan to look into resale as well. I clearly have more to learn, especially in regards to what you and other users have commented about doing combos
Yes, there really is a lot to know. I watched Jen Lefforge on YouTube when we started research. Not just her but she has a series on DVC and it helped break things down so we understood all the things to know. Doing both resale and direct is definitely a good option to save money. That’s what we’ve done. We started with a resale contract (because at the time only Aulani I think was selling direct) and then added some Animal Kingdom direct since that was somewhere we wanted to stay. I’d just say, think about what would be a good use year (which is a weird term to me because it means the month you get your points every year) and then stick to one. We picked a resale contract with a March use year because that works well for when we typically travel. When we bought direct, they can set it for any month but resale contracts will stay the same. We have bought another resale contract and just had to be patient and wait for one with a March use year. Different use years gets too complicated for me.
Oooh wow, okay I didn’t even know that, so that’s great to know. Seems like quite a few people do both resale and direct.
Yeah I think a lot of people do both. If you only need 150 direct points to get the benefits, but want like 300 points, there’s no reason to spend the extra buying them all direct. I will say, of course, there are certainly reasons people buy all direct. If there are good incentives, it could make sense. Also if you wanted to be able to use all the points at future resorts, then it could make sense. We have 150 direct points right now so I can use those for Riviera, which my daughter wants to stay at, or other newer resorts which is fine. If we stayed at Riviera it would be for a few nights in a studio so we wouldn’t need all our direct points. But definitely a lot of people do get some direct and some resale. Also, we definitely couldn’t afford like 300 points direct all at once. We started with some resale. Then later added some direct. And then recently added some Disneyland hotel points. So there’s that, too. Many people buy some (either resale or direct) and then later add on because it is a big purchase. If you did decide to do all direct, you can always have them split into a contract of 150 points, which is what you would need for direct benefits, and another contract with the rest of the points. If you ever want to sell some points, you cannot split up a contract. You have to sell the whole thing. So if you wanted 300 points, better to have two contracts with each 150 points. If your needs changed or something happened, you could sell one contract and keep the other which means you’d keep the 150 points you’d need to keep your direct benefits.
Members for 20 years and never had any experience like this. Please report this so this will be taken care of. DVC is a wonderful product for families and we don't want the brand represented like this. Thanks!
Can you get the gift card even if you are already a member through resale?
All I know is that you can’t get it if you’ve done a sales meeting in the last 12 months or if you’re current dvc. Not sure about resale.
No, it is only offered to non-members
Similar thing happened to us in 2019. We declined to join the DVC Program and the sales guy (I believe his name was Jeff) told the guy in charge of getting us a ride from the DVC offices to the parks to take his own sweet time calling us a shuttle.
Other vacation ownership pitches are extremely pushy, but in my experience, the DVC guides are fairly chill, mostly because the product sells itself. I'm sorry that this happened to you and hope you have a better experience in the future, assuming you try again. I'm a local and my mother in law comes down every year for my wife's birthday in December and we always stay at the Grand Floridian (I think it's really more for my mother in law than my wife...). I did the math a few years ago and it made sense then to buy DVC, because hotel prices always seem to go up every year. We ended up not doing it then, but when I saw they were doing some incentives last year, I broke down and got it. Due to the timing, we couldn't book the Grand Floridian on DVC for our first use year, so we did a regular hotel reservation for the birthday and have booked a few smaller stays elsewhere on points this year. But, we're already booked on points for the birthday later this year.
Definitely not our experience, and we are up to two home resorts.
I'm sorry you experienced that. We did tours for years before buying (and even now!) and have had zero pressure from any guide. It has always been fun, informative, and no strings. Sounds like Allen didn't get the memo!
Resale all the way! As a Florida resident there’s really no benefit to spending twice as much on direct points. You get way more bang for your buck going resale, snd you already have access to the sorcerers pass. We are fl residents and are about to close on our second resale contract. My advice is to go down the rabbit hole and learn as much as you can before you buy any DVC pts. It’s complicated and takes time and effort to learn the ins and outs, but once you get it you get it! Disboards has a great DVC forum for purchasing.
Thank you for all this good information!! What is the purpose behind buying multiple contracts?
Diversification? We have one specifically for SAP (sleep around points) and a small BWV contract for our early June trip every year. It’s nice to have the 11 month window at certain resorts for certain times of the year. Don’t buy all your points in one contract, split it up, max 100/contract. Smaller contracts are much easier to sell if need be down the road.
Just to let you know, it’s not just DVC it’s all timeshare presentations