Anyone Have Any Experience with Silverleaf's Award Verification Center Time Share Pitch?

vanity ^ | 05-16-2012 | aruanan

[aruanan]

Is the kid’s name Borat?

No, Borat was the guy doing the scamming.

[aruanan]

I’ve read about this bogus check, please return a money order scam. As many creative ways that people have of doing good, there are probably double that for doing evil.

[aruanan]

Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.

That's good. I'll tell him.

[aruanan]

Yes, I've read of people who've been told they could get a loan for purchasing their time share at almost 20% APR. Gee, what a bargain! "You want me to buy it and you're willing to offer me a loan to buy it?" Truly one stop shopping.

[GeronL]

Oh and don’t forget the “Your child is a star, let them be Ambassadors to DC or Australia” scams

[aruanan]

Our file experience shows that this company has been the subject of complaints alleging misleading or high pressure selling tactics or dissatisfaction with the free award received at sales presentations. Complaints from timeshare owners primarily allege difficulties cancelling contracts, difficulties making reservations for specific dates, or dissatisfaction with resort services. Most complaints have been answered, however customers have not always been satisfied with the company's response.

Thanks for the link. I've seen much the same reading various blogs online, but I asked here on FR because I believed I could get a sense of confirmation of what I've already read by folks I generally have come to trust over the past 13 or so years.

[aruanan]

Liberals fall for the same scam every time they vote.

Politicians are always offering them a “bright shiny object”...

Well, there's certainly a Venn diagram aspect to Democrat politics and time share scams.

[aruanan]

Signing up for free stuff is an invitation for junk mail and phone calls.

Somehow I thought he had already learned that several years ago. I guess techno-lust in the form of a car overwhelmed anything he may have learned previously.

[aruanan]

You are just mean...what do you do for fun? Tear wings off of Fly’s?

I put the brakes on things. That's why I'm called Dr. No.

[Noob1999]

................... If you have helpful suggestions, such as your own experience with this brand of marketing, or this specific business, or with how to help dispel the delusions of loot these a-holes engender by their calculated appeal to greed, please respond..................

Sure, I’ve been subjected to this type of a pitch.

A few years ago it was called “Hope and Change” today it’s called “Forward”

Take one half the population that sucks off the teat of the other half, and you’ve set up the perfect lack of mentality that fails to respond to their possible contribution to society.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Tell him that Time Shares are impossible to get rid of. I knew a couple who had on, they eventually donated it to charity because there is no market for used time shares.

[aruanan]

Oh and don’t forget the “Your child is a star, let them be Ambassadors to DC or Australia” scams

Funny you should mention that because another refugee family I know showed me a letter for something just like that. I asked the mom how this place would even know about her kid to begin with and, if they were truly interested in kids with such great potential and had been doing it through the school, how did they happen to overlook her other three kids who were just as outstanding academically as the first one and in the same school. I said it probably had to do with something peculiar to him that she had done in his school and I reminded her of her having rented an instrument from a local music company and suggested that either their contact info had been hacked or that they had sold it to some company.

[aruanan]

A few years ago it was called “Hope and Change” today it’s called “Forward”

Take one half the population that sucks off the teat of the other half, and you’ve set up the perfect lack of mentality that fails to respond to their possible contribution to society.

Exactly.

[aruanan]

Horse pucky. Is it too good to be true?? There’s your answer..

Possibly, though there are a lot of things that appear too good to be true, though they are, such as being born in the United States, in spite of such groups as purveyors of time shares who use devious methods to rope people in, or Free Republic, where most of the time you see nothing demented like you see at D.U. or other such sites.

[GeronL]

It’s called a mailing list.

They are not affiliated with the schools. They charge huge prices for a bargain basement travel-tour package where the kids will learn nada.

Trips they could have done for a third of the price or less and without being treated like sardines.

[Cyber Liberty]

You don’t have to drive him to heck, but you can wish him a nice trip and a welcome home after.

[Smokin' Joe]

We won a used car once. Drove 200 miles to pick it up, and it didn't make it back. I paid the local mechanic/tow truck operator/fire chief (actually a reputable guy) for the tow, and after figuring out it would cost more to fix the car than it was worth, gave him the title and keys (I only had $65.00 in the car at that point), and the car.

You see, I was given a free dog once. A foundling, by the time I had paid vet bills and the numerous fines for 'dog at large' (never could stop it from bolting for the door any time someone opened it, to go for a run--even if it had just come back from a walk), the free dog cost me over $1000.00.

The car was another 'free dog'.

Be careful what you wish for, FRiend.

[Skepolitic]

Friends don’t let friends buy timeshares.

I have a Silverleaf timeshare, and am satisfied. BUT — and this is a very big BUT — I bought it independently from Silverleaf for about a nickel on the dollar from an acquaintance who couldn’t afford to keep up the annual maintenance fee.

Don’t do it if you have a hard time saying No to a hard sell. Because that’s what you’re going to get, and they will make it sound like you’re getting a good deal. But you most certainly are overpaying, grossly overpaying, if you sign on the dotted line.

[zeugma]

I have a silverleaf timeshare that I will sell to you (or anyone who wants it) for the cost of making the transfer. Some people like these things, and can make effective use of them. At this point in my life, I’d just rather not.

[aruanan]

It’s called a mailing list.

They are not affiliated with the schools. They charge huge prices for a bargain basement travel-tour package where the kids will learn nada.

I'm sure it was a mailing list, but the way that particular son got on it would only have been through something particular to him; and the only thing at that time would have been the instrument rental.

There was another time a year ago or so she called me saying that someone claiming to be from the payroll department of the Chicago Public Schools was coming to her house to check over her information and that of her family. I said that people in the bureaucracy are not going to waste their time making house calls out of the blue and than if someone does show up, don't let the person into the house or show him any sort of personal information: if the caller was really from the payroll department, he would already have all the relevant information such as SS numbers, etc., as required by the department for purposes of paying her.

As an aside, after the Newsweek mag came out naming Obama the first gay president, this woman's husband told me that if that had happened in Iraq during the time of Saddam, the person writing the article, the one publishing it, their families, relatives, and friends would all have been killed by Saddam. I guess after a life like that it could be hard to distinguish between actual authority and someone claiming authority and to say "screw you" to the latter.