Timeshares: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

It really is kind of amazing that in America you can get in trouble for so many little things but you can spend a lifetime swindling people out of timeshares and never face consequences

My mom and her first husband got a free weekend getaway in exchange for listening to a timeshare pitch. After listening for a few hours and not biting, they got moved into one of those car dealership style little rooms for the final pitch. They still didn't bite at which point the saleswoman flipped out and shouted: "YOU JUST CAME FOR THE FREE BUFFET!". My mom was totally nonplussed and just said: "Well, yeah".

Pro-tip: During the timeshare presentation, inform the salesperson that "my lawyer will need to look this over before I sign". Stay firm. They will quickly walk you over to the "gift area" then the "exit".

It's wild that a comedian on HBO is the new version of 60 minutes we needed.

Wife and I did a timeshare presentation while on a work "vacation" recently. The saleswoman quickly realized she got the worst couple: childless millennial civil servants with student loan debt from one of the poorest, most rural regions in the country who only ever "vacation" when its work-related (i.e. paid by employer). She literally couldn't contain her shock when we explained the different ways we're able to save costs and still have fun trips.
Got a free carriage ride, free expensive dinner, a tour ride, and tickets to a museum for 2 hours of saying "No" various ways and watching her eyes widen as we explained the monthly "costs" for the timeshare would be double our mortgage... Worth it.

A key sign of a scam is when they want you to commit on the spot - that rule applies to anything that someone is trying to sell you if they refuse for you to think it over and come back to them . Then it’s a scam.

It’s mind boggling that kids would be forced to take over the timeshare obligation from their parents.

One of the things I like most about Last Week Tonight on youtube is going to the comments and seeing people's personal experiences around this episode's subject matter. It's proof of how accurate and important the topic is.

My husband and I sat through a timeshare pitch to get a $100 gift card. That salesman was relentless after we said we couldn't afford it (we listened, heard the numbers and realized we really couldn't), No matter how many times we said it, he kept running back to his boss and coming back with "an even better deal that he couldn't believe he was allowed to offer." I finally had to say in so many words, "We don't want it." He very indignantly gave us the gift card, and it was not worth the time and anxiety. As we left we saw an elderly couple holding hands looking nervous. Just awful.

My wife and I stayed in a Hawaii timeshare around our 1 year anniversary. The stay was gifted to us by her parents, but we still had to attend a presentation. We went in knowing we weren't going to buy, and even made it abundantly clear to the salespeople we weren't buying because we were still in the phase of life where we had no extra income. They offered to give us the presentation anyway "just for practice" and I was still blown away at how effective the whole spiel was. I had to remind myself that we weren't buying anything. If we didn't go in with that resolve, we could've easily been pressured/guilted into buying SOMEthing.

Having read previous horror stories, my wife and I attended a sales pitch in Whistler, BC. The reward for the pitch was two days of $105 lift tickets. I told the sales guy we had 90 minutes, and wanted to get into the numbers right away. Had my laptop, built a simple spreadsheet with all of the costs, taxes, maintenance fees, club fees, and fees for basic stuff sold as options. (Towels for the pool, cleaning service for the units, high-cost laundry facilities etc. ) This was a Hilton deal that limited us to Hilton properties. When we worked it all out, the average cost per night in the timeshare was $866. (this was in 1998 dollars). We told the salesperson that $866 / night will buy us luxury accommodations anywhere in the world, without being limited to a relatively small number of Hilton resort properties, without all the hassles of making reservations a year in advance, without the problems of canceling when plans change etc. He kept trying to close, at which point I took out the Vancouver want-ads, where there were over two dozen Hilton memberships advertised for under 10% of the cost of a "new" membership.
We collected our lift tickets and enjoyed two days of free skiing.
With preparation like John Oliver's great segment here, you can turn the tide. Our 90 minute investment in time got us $420 in lift tickets on that trip. Occasionally we see a reward that's worth an hour of our time. It can be a game if you're into that kind of thing.

If you really want a timeshare, get your neighbors together and all pitch in 30k.
Buy a house as a trust or LLC.
Schedule your own stays and try to rent it out when not in use to help with costs.
If you don’t want to do that: just do the normal thing and get a hotel

When your industry has its own exit industry, it needs John Oliver's anti-entrance industry.

I'm morbidly curious just how much economic activity in our current economic system is based on grift, fraud, exploiting inelastic demand, monopolistic behavior, or any other behavior that is or should be illegal.
It's insane.

About 8 yrs ago my boyfriend & I were vacationing in Puerto Vallarta and, being bored after 10 days, agreed (after much pestering by agents on the street) to take a timeshare trip up the coast … we had a lovely ride in an air-conditioned coach, a beautiful lunch, tickets to an evening Las Vegas-type show, tour of the palatial new time-share units, and US $50 cash each - all just to “go look”. We thoroughly enjoyed all the salespeople bending over backwards trying to sell us a timeshare that we had absolutely NO intention of buying. Ever. We knew 100% before we signed up that we would NEVER buy a timeshare but we happily killed the day, saw a bit more of Mexico, ate & drank like celebrities and had $100 to buy dinner with. Man, those salespeople tried EVERYTHING to get us to buy. Finally in frustration handed us off to the big boss who had no better luck. They were PISSED. It was the most fun we had in Puerto Vallarta. Highly recommend.

I find it very depressing that this segment ended without any actual solution. I can't believe there's literally no course of action for victims except asking if the company will take it back

My grandparents were pros at this. She got a LOT of free stuff. Often jewelry if it was an option. We were surprised to find one necklace with a diamond appraised in 2011 for $800. I went with them a few times in the early '90s. My grandfather said to a salesman " I shot Nazis. I can certainly say no to you." It was priceless. Another time, they had me say "Grandma, I feel woozy, I need my insulin." They got a kick out of the free stuff and rarely spent more than an hour. I imagine the pressure is higher now.

A few years ago, my parents along with my siblings and I drove to Orlando for a small vacation, it was only like 2 days. There was a billboard on the road leading to Orlando that promised lower priced tickets for Universal Studios. Long story short, we got sucked into a Time-share presentation (which first it was supposed to be 2hrs to then almost 5hrs) my mom was amazed by the amenities but my dad continued to say No after they brought like 6 different people to convince them to have a contract signed. Thankfully my parents didn’t sign. However, I saw a lot of Spanish speakers being bamboozled. 😢
The Spanish speaking community will benefit from doing this segment in Spanish.

I love John Oliver’s ability to take a subject I’ve been aware of my whole life but haven’t been bothered to Google and make it interesting lol

I've gotten a lot of free stuff from presentations, you can't get me to buy something when I could barely afford rent. Watching the sales agents eyes fill with despair when you tell them you have .32 in savings but 45k in student loans was 🤩

I wish people that are on vacation would realize that getting sidetracked to a multi hour presentation is costing them their valuable vacation time which doesnt even closely add up to the Disney tickets or whatever free stuff the timeshare is offering them. Your time while at home might be worth going to a free gift seminar, but while on vacation that very limited time of yours is worth wayyyy much more

I wonder if owners could write their will to leave the timeshare to their favorite politician.

The sad part is that time shares on paper sound like a really good idea. I would totally split a beach house with a group of friends. But the scammers have ruined it in practice.

Wife and I actually went to one of these "tours" yesterday in Vegas for Wyndham. Luckily we'd seen this episode beforehand and quickly recognized what the "tour" really was. True to form, they began the presentation saying that it would be good for your health with statistics about how people who take regular vacations have less stress and live longer (duh). We were then passed through 3 different sales people. The "personable" sales people were first, either charismatic guys or hot women, the guy we talked to was actually a pretty cool dude, his job was to talk up the product (the resorts) and give a tour of one of the rooms. The "numbers" guy was next, and he gave us WAY different numbers than the "personable" guy, and was a bit of a jerk after finding out we couldn't afford even their lowest offer (so far). Then we were pushed off onto the closer, who was the epitome of the slimy salesman. The price got even lower, with 2 years, zero interest, free financing, blah blah blah. Once the 3rd guy saw we were a "no", he stood up, said "follow me" and showed us to the gift redemption desk and walked away without another word, I laughed at how fast he switched from nice to rude. Bright side is, we were only there for the required 2 hours and we got a 3 day hotel stay, a $25 gift card, and $150 in slot credits that turned into $75 real cash. If you got the time to kill, go in for the free gifts and try to get a few laughs out of it. I'm just glad John Oliver is around to spread the word about scams like this because it was a pretty convincing presentation for anyone who might not know anything about it. Unfortunately one couple fell for it and the whole room clapped and cheered when it was announced that they signed up.

When I was a kid I remember going to Orlando. My mom had a brain tumor and she wanted to go to Disney so bad "in case something happens" during the surgery she had to get. So my pretty poor family managed to go but our hotel made us do a time share presentation. My little sister and I went around going "this is a scam" to everyone until they let my family go because it was causing a scene and making people change their minds. This was like the early 2000s. Thanks for making me remember this, fuck the time share scam. It's not a business, it's a scam!

What I don't get these days is, why would you pay for a timeshare when you can literally just book the hotel once a year whenever you want to go? It's the very same room you get, at lower cost and no obligation.

Many years ago I was approached on the beach in Fort Lauderdale and offered a “free camera”. Just had to go to the office to pick it up. I knew something was up but I had time and was curious. Time shares were pretty new then but already had a bad reputation, so I wanted to see if that was deserved. It was. Heavy pressure, using flattery, guilt, anger….a whole range of emotions. I was fascinated how I kind of felt like I really couldn’t leave. Fortunately I was in town on business (sales) so I spent the whole time analyzing the sales tactics, like we were colleagues. “Wow, I bet that really gets people’s attention.” “Good deflection”, “Do people really believe that?” Etc. That’s how we got to the anger part and when I finally said I want my camera now I’m leaving, we got to the guilt part for “wasting” the sales guy’s time. (The camera was like a child’s toy.) The worst part was a very young honeymooning couple from Ohio at the table next to me, clearly not affluent, trying to figure out what the could sell or who they could borrow from to buy the timeshare. Scraping the bottom of the barrel financially to buy something they totally didn’t need and couldn’t really afford. As I passed on my way out I just said “You don’t need that.”and scurried on out before I could get attacked. With the pressure they were under, I’m betting they signed the contract, and this was in the days before most states had an automatic regret period. So sad, and so disgusting.

I always knew timeshares were a scam, but what really hit home for me was working for a 5 star hotel that had full and fractional ownership units. During a company meeting about renovations we were doing, our residences manager, literally the lady in charge of overseeing all the timeshares on property, mentioned how much profit the full time owners had made, and how the timeshares had broken even, which is completely unheard of. She then paused, and went off on like a 10-15 minute tangent, explaining how awful timeshares are as investments, and how none of us should ever buy into one. And this is the lady in charge of the company's timeshares saying that!!

28 years ago or so my husband and I were invited to "an exciting vacation opportunity". Timeshares were in their infancy. We arrived at the event and someone asked the group what our vacation intentions were over the next 5 years. We frankly said we'd be camping. We were sorted into two groups. The "camping" group was led into a room. We were then told to go through a door....that led to the alley. I was at a time share about 3 years ago with a friend. We did the sales pitch and it was insane. One guy actually said to me, "Aren't you an empowered woman?" after I told him I didn't make ANY large purchases without talking to my husband (he doesn't make any unless he talks to me too). That comment got a giant eye roll from me and I left.

This show has been amazing since it got on air. Keep killing it OLIVER!👏🏻

My Dad was scammed into a timeshare nearly 20 years ago. It wasn't all bad in the end. He picked up a new hobby from it. Whenever he can, he goes into timeshare meetings to collect the incentives to go to the meeting. He's received broadway tickets, snorkeling trips, free nights at hotels, so so very many breakfasts. It's not just about the perks, though: you should see how giddy he gets when he explains that he goes in and loudly and covertly points out all the hidden costs for others to hear. Meanwhile, he is more than happy to stay for a 5 hour meeting: he considers it a sport to waste everyones time.

Just now I had to go through a time share presentation here Cabo Mexico. My partner has gone through it before, so she knows the entire process. The majority of the time she wasn’t putting any effort at all to engage the conversation with the sales person. The awkward silence at times were thick enough to cut it with a knife. It got to a point where the sales woman got sick of us. But one of the other sales man joined in and tried his best to give us a better deal. I should’ve said, “Sure! I would love to spend $300 - $500 a month on a resort where I’ll only come once every five years or never” 😂

My mom fell for one of these when I was a kid. She booked a vacation through one of those timeshare presentation deals because it was all she could afford at the time. They had us ride in a limo to the presentation and had free breakfast. My mom didn't plan on it but they wore her down with the fancy idea of being able to go on a vacation once a year. She regret it as soon as she got home within a week and it still took months of calls to finally get out of it. Not really sure what she said, but we were already going into harsh debt at the time so maybe filing for bankruptcy did something. Either way she finally got out of it but will sometimes think about doing one of those vacations again, thinking that "now she knows better" and I just keep begging her not to risk it.

This is really the must-watch video for everyone.
My parents end up making a contract with Hilton Timeshare in Hawaii in 2019, because they were festive and didn't think it over.
Then the pandemic happened and they could never used the property.
They had to release the property in 2023, as it costs too much to maintain and it's impossible to sell them out.
5-hour presentation resulted in losing $30,000 for nothing.
This type of sales should be regulated more and I hope no people become the victims any more.

I was half expecting the Time Share Exit companies to be *part* of the Time Share companies: they know where the potential victims are, and that they can be bullied / lured into signing contracts.

What's maddening is that not only is this scam legal but also the fact that largest resort chains are glad to scam people like this.

My dad told me he went to a presentation in the '70s. He asked the salesman if he could take the contract home and study it and the saleman said "no". My dad laughed in disbelief and walked away.

When I first got married, my husband and I were on our Honeymoon in the Caribbean and were approached for a free beach dinner in exchange for listening to their pitch on a time share. While they were giving us the hard sell, the woman of the two person crew asked to see my engagement ring(?!) She looked at it critically and I almost expected her to take out a jewelers' loupe to inspect it more closely. You could tell she was trying to value it and then handed it back without a word. We kept telling them no and they finally gave up and went away.

Back last century my wife and I got pressured into a time share scam. Once we realized our mistake we asked to get out of it. Initially the Company we were dealing with said no and tried to play their usual hard ball tactics. At that time I was the owner of a sign company and explained to them in no uncertain terms my capacity to blanket the whole area in the truth about them. In short order we were released from their clutches.

My ex and I got suckered into buying a timeshare 20yrs ago. We paid for about 4 months then just stopped. F them. Yes they called over and over again. Yes my credit took a hit for 7yrs but my overall credit prior was great so it wasn’t too terrible. Last time I heard anything from them was about 8-9yrs ago. With smartphones these days, it’s easy to block collectors.

True story. My (now ex) husband and I went on vacation to Las Vegas in 2007. He got scammed into a timeshare pitch for free show tickets, and insisted on going against my advice. They offered free transportation to and from our hotel and it was supposed to take an hour. They literally drove us 40 minutes into the desert, and held us hostage for SEVEN HOURS until I finally pretended to call 911 on my cellphone and they agreed to take us back to Vegas. The really scary part is that I didn't have any signal.. it was all a bluff. Nine hours of our day wasted. I swear they built that "conference center" themselves because it was just sitting in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it as far as the eye could see. The icing on the cake at the end was that the "celebrity impersonation show" they gave us tickets to was actually a drag show.. which I enjoyed greatly but he was absolutely horrified during, especially when one of them came out into the audience and serenaded him personally. It was almost worth spending an entire day of our vacation wondering if they were going to bury us in the desert if we didn't sign a contract.

I love that Leah Remini’s King of Queens character was warning about the danger of timeshares preying on people when at the time she was in a cult doing the exact same thing.

I was approached by a timeshare outfit. They claimed I had inherited a timeshare that my father purchased. Their beef was that I was currently $17,500 behind in maintenance fees and $30,000 in annual membership fees. I told them to submit everything to my attorney and we'd 'discuss' the matter further. Turns out that my father DID purchase a timeshare from this outfit and that they were, in fact, deducting $6,000 per year from his bank account, along with the additional $3,500 for 'property maintenance' fees.
Yeah, he signed their contract........18 months after he'd been diagnosed with Alzheimers and was suffering from dementia. He also died five years ago.
Anyway, they tried to sue me after my attorney told them they could take a long walk off a short pier and we filed counter-suit and the DA filed criminal charges against the company, the salespeople, and their management staff. I walked away with no 'inherited' timeshare and $218,000.
Oh, did I forget to mention that the timeshare property was a vacant lot? Yeah, the house that sat there was condemned and destroyed by the county it was located in.
F*ck these people!

Gilda Radner, Molly Shannon, and Rachel Dratch - the incomparable women of SNL. The more I see of Rachel, the more I miss her from the show, but the happier I am to see her still acting as fresh as when she first joined the cast.

Just here to say Rachel Dratch is a gem and I love that she's been on this show. Oh, and I've done three of these time share tours so far. One by accident, one on purpose for the discount on the hotel, and one with a friend group at a new resort where we got a huge discount. Took me 90 minutes one time and less than an hour for the other two. I just hate people who sell using gotchas and gimmicks and shut that stuff down immediately. No, I don't plan on doing one ever again. Never go alone, and be willing to disappoint people and you'll do fine.

My dad has a timeshare plan, he always told me to refuse it but I had no idea of the legal forms that needed to be filled out. My brother is the eldest child and he would've never known to go to court and would've inherited it even though he doesn't have an income.

This are the one that i love... educating people of scams... making fun of evil people, and giving hope to regular people. No agendas no, ideological stuff... just comedy and information.

The biggest shock to me was how it passes to your kids unless they take legal steps to refuse it. I don’t understand how that is even remotely legal.

The sales pitch is indeed surprisingly effective. I eventually calculated it wasn't worth it after a long presentation and discussion, but I can see why some people fall for it. As I was leaving, I asked one of the reps what the close rate was, and he said around 0.5%.

i think that there is a subtle joke in this program, where every time John's wife appears her hair get slightly bigger than last time, and i absolutely love it

my family got a few free vacations and some other free vacation stuff from these people, we also figured out if you basically tell them your in dire financial straights and about to be foreclosed on then they basically leave you alone.
they will try every sales pitch to try and get you to sign. the ones I saw, but were limited to:
-crowding you with multiple people so you felt cornered
-ringing a bell/ alarm when you sign so it feels like a good thing
- telling you about how much of a good deal it is
- telling you that every bad thing about it is just media hype
- telling you your helping them out
- talking about their "awesome" time shares
- wasting your time till they got you to sign ( I think we were there for like 2 hours)
- highfiving and hugging when someone bought one
if I remember right the time shares weren't even built yet, they took us out to them and it was a feild and it was like "imagine this and that"

One of my old bosses left and got a job where she was suddenly making a ton of money off of these easy too good to be true condo sales. She tried to recruit one of the employees from her former job who didn't follow through. I lived in a tourist heavy beach town at the time....just now realizing she was selling timeshares.
Edit: omfg it was Wyndham

My grandparents were suckered in. We begged them to get rid of it, the whole family said we'd pay the penalties or whatever but they refused. These companies are horrible.

As a lawyer from Austria i am shocked that something like this is legal and seemingly a booming business model in America. Almost everything John said would be illegal in Austria and wouldn't hold up in court for a second.

I have a friend that dragged me to a timeshare seminar. I talked him out of it, and I was very vocal about it being a scam as I walked out an hour into their pitch. I couldn't believe how many people came for the free junk they were offering. He later screwed me over, and now I wish I would have talked him into signing up.

Ramsey has just been sued for $150 million based on his endorsement of the company he recommended in the video.
John Oliver has just turned Dave Ramsey life upside down. This will probably even lead to some legislature. I think people saw this piece and especially Dave Ramsey's attitude and realized they've been scammed. Cheers John!!!

My best timeshare story is where we regularly went to timeshare presentations at Disney, enjoyed their complementary drinks and candy, told them we'd think about it, collect our $50 giftcard each. And left. Worked it into a half hour break in the AC in florida.

My sister and her husband just bought into a timeshare. I’m not sure how to deal with it. I’d just tell them to lawyer up and try to get rid of it asap even if it ends up costing 10k.
But timeshares are like pyramid schemes. You risk destroying your relationship with your loved ones by trying to help them.

My grandmother and grandfather had a timeshare they loved, but my mom and aunt had a hard time getting it sold after they both died. They need proof that they both had died and get a lawyer from the timeshare country to get it all canceled took them more than a year to get out of any obligations.

My wife and myself ended up getting swooped up for a timeshare presentation on our honeymoon. Once we realized what was happening we lied and said I had lost my job and the only reason we were still on vacation is because we would lose our deposit. They gave us a free lunch and sent us on our way. One of the best quick thinking moves we have ever made

When my husband and I went on our honeymoon to Maui we went to two time share pitches. One was a wonderful breakfast with a gift of luau tickets and the second was a dinner and we walked out with a scuba adventure. We had to sit through their bs pitch but we had a good time on their dime!

How do they lock you in a 7-hour sales pitch? At some point, I'd just get up and leave as it'd be illegal to hold you against your will.

Fun thing: you can markup a timeshare contract, and as long as all parties sign & initial along the way: your markups are legit! So cross-out that License to Lie clause, write in that they owe you $10,000 cash, and require that they donate $500,000 to a charity of your choosing. The companies rarely watch out for it aaaand it's a fun way to scam the scammers

My parents got a timeshare in the 90s, and they still use it to travel every summer. The hotel they registered their timeshare in is in terrible conditions, they even had a fire and the timeshare company didn’t notify my parents about it. So they mostly use it to exchange their week and go on vacation once a year. They’re happy with that, thought in fairness they are not people who want to deal with changes at their ages.

That's honestly one of the scariest things I've seen on this show. Every parent's dream is to help their children lead a better life than they had. Seeing that these contracts can suck your children in... That's a nightmare. A generational scam

I once went to a timeshare sales meeting where they offered me $100 to attend. I asked the salesman how much he pays for his timeshare and how often he uses it to go on vacation. I did the calculations in front of him to show him that he pays something like $1000 per vacation for just the place to stay but I could just get a hotel for $100. I didn't buy anything and left with the $100.

I honestly love that every time we see wanda, her hair just get's bigger and bigger. soon it'll take over the whole studio. amazing.

My parents bought a couple of timeshares after they retired. They did get to use them for a few years before my dad passed. My mother continued to use them, and they still sold a widow a second contract, the bastards. It took over a year to cancel the contracts with a fee under the company's own exit program. At least we are legally out. She did also get scammed at least twice by timeshare exit companies. Seemed like legalized fraud.

I love how Timeshares are escentially like a leech that latches onto you and starts sucking you dry, and no matter how hard you try, you can't get off. Then when you eventually die, it starts trying to attach itsself to your children...

First time we visited Vegas, we hadn't even checked in the resort that we were accosted by one of the time sharks, er, I mean Timeshare reps. Not knowing what it was, we were lured in with the promise of free buffet tickets for a free presentation so we agreed to be there.
Next day, we were bussed from the Stratosphere all the way to the place near the Tropicana where they owned the building which was part of the time share network.
The guy doing the presentation was very amicable. He was joking with me as if I was his long time lost friend that we had finally met again after all these years. The presentation done, now came the paperwork. But before that step, they showed us how clean the rooms were in the building. Of course compared to the rooms we usually get at Comfort Inn or any places that we stay according to what is available when we go on vacation, these rooms are like the ones you would see on the old show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", back in the day.
So we are sat at a table, guy starts plotting a plan that we can pay this or that, according to our finances, fees here, fees there, holy shit it starts adding up pretty quick. I am starting to lose interest. Guy says I'll let you think about it and walks away.
At that point, I call friends of ours that we affectionately call our parents number 2 since they have been there before. They tell us EXACTLY what will happen next, as if they had a camera looking at us at that moment. They said someone else will come after that guy, look over our papers, will offer a better deal, if we refuse, there will be a THIRD person that will offer even a better deal. Even at that point, they told us to walk, no better than that. RUN as fast as we can out of there!!!!
Well they were right. ALL OF IT!!!
As soon as we hung up, another person comes and sits with us, looks at our papers, says there are corrections that can be done. He starts scratching this and that, asks me what price I would feel comfortable paying and when I tell him, he says that kinda low. I tell him that's what I can afford being a militaire, not millionaire!!! lol
He gets up, looks across the room, like a mafioso, gives a nod to yet another person across the room and he leaves. The next and last guy comes over, asks us why we don't want to accept the latest offer and I tell him I feel like I'm being taken for a ride. He tries to make one final push with lower price but still my answer is no. He gets up, squares the papers and says nothing and leaves. I ask him where can I get my buffet tickets and he points somewhere in thin air.
So we had to search for the place to get them ourselves and eventually found it. When we asked where the bus to bring us back to our hotel, no one knew where it was, finally to be told the driver had started his lunch hour. Talk about good service, says no one. Fuck you very much.
Oh and remember my long lost friendly guy that was joking with me during the presentation? When I crossed him in the hall after the presentation, I don't think he would EVEN pissed on me if I caught on fire. I was not his friend anymore cause I didn't buy any time share packages. None.
So that day, I lost half a day, got 3 buffet, got lost not knowing my way out of where we were. Thank goodness to my army days, I know how to orient myself using reference points and we found our way back to the strip and hopped on the Deuce and back to the Strat.
For the rest of the trip, when these time sharks would ask me where I was from, I'd say "From my mother!"

In my twenties, I was a timeshare telemarketer. I was making 3500 a week, but I'd go home, and just sit, and replay each and every person I had screwed over. Started drinking heavily. Started having panic attacks getting ready for work. Burned out after 4 months. Swore I'd only make an honest buck from now on, and went back to day labor. I been doing construction and restaurant work for the last twenty years, and I am a happy, satisfied man.

This was by far the scariest episode I watched. And I am a lucky survivor of one such presentation where my wife and I were held hostage for about 4 hours. Years later I was able to warn a friend and his wife. My friend actually asked me to go to the session with his wife (which I would not do if he gave me a million dollars), they ended up going and surviving it.

We bought a vacation package and then had someone tell us they could sell that. We ended up losing over 3k on the thing. We still occasionally get a bill for maintenance fees, they go into the trash or under the litter box.

That was a really good episode. Now I understand why that one time on that "free" vacation, my dad seemed like he was ready to punch the other guy in the face. The other guy was the timeshare salesman who kept not taking "no" for an answer. FWIW, we did *not* end up purchasing a timeshare.
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Also ty for the Dave Ramsey part. That salves my soul a bit.
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And the SNL style sketch at the end was the best.

Love the segment. Years ago when these things became popular my husband and I went for a presentation. We realized that the scam wasn't in our best interest and decided to leave as the presenter tried to force us to stay until the end. We had enough of the pressure and told him to keep whatever the "gift" was because we were leaving and did! It was the best decision we made that day. My advice to anyone considering time share property is to NOT go for any presentation.

Mastercard and Visa rules allow a person 14 days to get out of a timeshare regardless of the cancelation timeframes outlined in the contract. However, you really should cancel within the timeframe of the contract you signed because if you utilize the protection of your credit card after that time (usually 3-10 days) they will try to intimidate you by suing you anyway for breach of contract. Another important detail to note is the last page of most 12-15 page contracts. It is an attestation that the sales person did not promise anything not listed in the paperwork at any time during their presentation. That is how they avoid being sued for outright fraud.

When I was young and poor I got offered a small portable gas grill and 8 frozen strip steaks to listen to a presentation. I found creative ways to say that I had to wait a day to get back to them. By the time I left I did have my grill and steaks, but they were actively insulting me as I left.
But I did leave, and I really, truly, madly, deeply enjoyed those steaks and that little grill.

I enjoy my neighbors’ timeshare whenever they invite me. It’s awful that they’ll have a hard time getting rid of it and they are already in their 70s.

Happy to say that my family and I have only been in one of these timeshare pitch in our lives. This was just to get a free lobster buffet dinner. We were in our vacation in Hawaii when we were approached by these people. We agreed and went in at 2pm, but didn't leave until 8pm. Luckily my mom had a bunch of snacks, that we ate just to survive through that. Then we got the vouchers for the dinner but it was only valid for that very night. The a-holes just left them on their table for us to grab then ghosted; we couldn't talk to them about it.
So we hurried to the restaurant, waited for more than an hour to get a table. When we finally sat down only had just over half an hour before they would close the buffet. It was our server who covertly told us this, so we rushed to stack our table with as much food as possible. Atleast we still had access to the fountain drinks and what remains in the desert freezer, and they still served (and charged) alcoholic drinks which my parents appreciated.
My family and I learn early on to never go to these timeshare meetings, let alone buy anything there.

As someone who isn't from the us I still can't understand how blatant scams like this are even legal in your country.

My wife and her friend got talked into going to a "vacation ownership" presentation when they were at a wedding expo. They offered a free flight or something. I said I would go with them to prevent them from buying anything. We left the presentation and I was saying, "it doesn't sound bad at all! I think we can afford it..." I was so excited that the salesman offered me a job. The story ends well as my wife and her friend were determined to get the flight minus buying anything. We got our flight to our honeymoon paid for. We also escaped owning our vacations...haha...

my math teacher recently told our class about how she and her husband got scammed into a timeshare with hilton honors fifteen or so years ago. they are german immigrants whose english was much worse back then (five or so years in the US vs. twenty) and just nearly got scammed into someone buying out their timeshare when they realized how clear the scam was. it was truly wild, and i could not stop thinking about this story.

My husband is a very kind person and he struggles to say no. One day he told me that we are going to this time share pitch. I was not happy and my face showed it. This guy came out and started talking and then he asked a question to the group: " Do you know why you are here?" So I put my hand up, he smiled and I said: "We are here because you want to sell us something that we don't want or need." His smile dissapeared and we went home. I had so much fun!🤣🤣

I was traveling in the Philippines years ago and got dragged into a sales pitch for a timeshare in Boracay. It was the same scam that they run in the states. They even had a list of places “world wide” that you could “trade” visits with (whatever that means). My wife was just about talked into it while I was wandering around at the buffet. It’s not an American scam, it’s a world wide scam.

If anyone is crazy enough to still want to entertain buying a time share, make them put whatever they say in writing and sign it. If they won’t or “can’t” you know you’re being lied to. It’s that simple.

I got hired out of highschool for some 'phone work'. Turns out it was telemarketing giving away free vacations in exchange for attending a 90 minute timeshare presentation. I got fired after a month. Only time I've been proud to suck at something.

My wife and I were given the opportunity to have our tickets for various activities at a holiday location in Australia reduced to $20 each from $200 each.
All we had to do was show up to a 1 hour presentation.
That afternoon, we were huddled into a Wyndham Resort sales pitch office.
After the 4 hour presentation, we were sat with a young girl who attempted to finalize the sale.
Being in the sales game, I mentioned to the salesperson that there is a cooling-off period for any financial sign-ups that include leasing.
She begrudgingly acknowledged the fact.
They asked us for a $5000 card payment, which we refused.
We paid $100 deposit in cash, took our discounted tickets, went back to our hotel room, had a glass of wine and after 1 hour, I walked straight back in and asked for my deposit back.
They said they'd need to confer with the salesperson.
I said "I'd like to exercise my right to my cooling-off period." and walked out with my $100, 2 minutes later.

My parents went to a timeshare pitch in South Lake Tahoe when we were all on vacation together. They were gone for hours. They went thinking they were doing me a favor by getting the family free perks. They got three free perks:
1. $25 gift card to a local ski shop. I went to it and everything was twice as expensive as an REI, so it wasn’t worth it.
2. $100 coupon for a local restaurant. I checked and it was only valid Monday to Thursday, couldn’t be used for tips, taxes, drinks, etc. and the restaurant reviews online were pretty terrible so we never used it.
3. Free gondola passes that my parents never used.

I used to go to Timeshare presentations for the free gifts. When they find out you are just there for the gift, they make you wait after you are done. Then I learned if you start making noise, like yelling in the room "I WANT MY GIFT NOW! PLEASE", they get your gift to get your disturbing ass out of there. Works every time.

The first and only timeshare experience I have ever had was on my first international holiday in Indonesia with my boyfriend. We were walking around looking for breakfast when we got scooped up by a paid messenger who delivered us to the timeshare offices. Six or seven hours later, we finally gave in and signed the contract thinking that it was an alright idea. We ended up missing a really cool paid for event and group dinner from the travel agency we booked with. We then spent the night in our hotel arguing about the timeshare contract we had signed because we realized we couldn’t afford it and we were scared. Luckily for us, the timeshare agent ended up getting in touch with us in the morning, saying there was a problem with my boyfriend’s credit card and they weren’t able to process some required deposit. We immediately told her we were not interested and we were not going ahead with the “deal”. And that was that - we got out of our contract scott-free. I still don’t fully understand what happened, but I like to believe someone was looking out for us because we would’ve been severely screwed to this day otherwise.
Even the “free gifts” they offered were just not worth the time.

Was a foreign tourist visiting Orlando for a conference and went to a timeshare meeting in exchange for a ticket to seaworld. The agents tried hard to even show what properties they had in my country but I am a simple public teacher so i walked out with a ticket and nothing else :)

Sir.. this has been horrible and awesome. Please keep up the awesome work 👏 I have laughed and cried and got aggravated 😑.. and now I know more about ducks

I have this sinking fear that my in-laws have been roped into one of those scam club programs. Their "big present" for their four kids' families last Christmas was something they had us all open together, and they were all excited to see us open it. It was a piece of paper with login credentials for this "VIP-Travellers" club they had purchased membership in, for who knows how much money. They were super thrilled, telling us all about how it worked and how we could all plan vacations together and stuff while they would pay for the membership fees. After watching this video, I get the feeling they were roped into a meeting somewhere and sold something terrible. It's gonna be tough but we're gonna have to investigate and probably give them some bad news.

My Mother bought a timeshare around 1999. we stopped using it in 2007, before the great recession started, and we spent 12 years trying to get rid of it. We stopped paying all payments for it in 2012 upon advisement of a lawyer. That ended up helping us, as She died in 2020 (not of Covid, she had MS), and I Outright rejected it and had them file that with the courts immediately, as that unpaid debt could have affected her estate; of which I was the sole beneficiary. the windows for the timeshare to in any way respond expired, as they expected me to take it up immediately, but MY name was not in the paperwork, so they had no way to legally tie me to it as I did not claim it and in writing rejected ownership. And since the timeshare tried going after me for the debt (Which they legally could not) Instead of my mother's estate, they missed the timing to file the unpaid money as debt against the estate, and I slipped out debt-free and without any responsibilities to that ridiculous scam that I told my mom in 1999 was a bad Idea since we didn't even GO where the timeshare was every year. The Downside of this is my Mom's estate is still not settled due to how many extensions this caused us to file, so I'm still probably going to be waiting until the end of 2023 to get what should have been handed over years ago.

As European I swear - seeing fragments of everyday American TV is like looking through a peephole into different reality.

I sat through a time share in Vegas, and buddy told me he could get me cheaper airfare than I could. I looked at him and said "No you can't, I work for the airline. No one can get cheaper airfare other than MAYBE other employees". Needless to say I didn't budge, but I got my 2 free shows

If you suspect your child is trying to kill you, buy a timeshare and put them as the heir. Your child will do the impossible to keep you safe.

My parents bought a UK based timeshare and had some really good holidays off it. Then a US company bought their company. In theory this added a whole lot of new places they could stay, but most of these were just complexes in Nowheresville in the US and all the US timeshare owners just booked the European destinations. It got so that you had to ring at precisely 8am 1 year before you wanted a holiday and just keep dialling and hope. Then my Dad died and the fees kept going up. Luckily the contract said you could walk away at 76, which Mum did. Absolute scam.

Thank you for producing this episode. Im a victim of 2 timeshares. My parents purchased them. Now the whole family's burdened by them.

watching this video reminded me of why I got out of sales - I was too honest to be among the consistent top sellers. Commission is nice but once I realized being too honest was a negative trait, I never looked back.