Shell Game

That's right: we engaged in a shell game in Puerto Vallarta, but not the fun kind. This shell game has another name: Time Share Presentation.

As with other Mexican airports located in resort areas, we were first approached when we arrived at the Puerto Vallarta airport. A man asked Trent if we needed transportation, and I said, "No way, time share." "No," the man replied, this is not time share. Only transportation," and Trent believed him. Wrong. The man at the counter attempted to pressure us into attending a time share presentation. After several minutes, we moved on to the next section of the airport. Again, we were approached by a man offering transportation. Again, I said no, but Trent thought no way could they be located in yet another area of the airport, so we duplicated the first experience. Once we managed to extract ourselves without committing to a presentation, we caught a cab to the hotel.

Once at the hotel, we thought we were safe, as we have never stayed at a hotel where we were approached for a time share presentation. Except this time. Turns out the "Information Desk" at the hotel was, in reality, staffed with time share salespeople. Well, sort of. Here's how it worked: The desk was located at the base of the stairs to the guest rooms, and, therefore, unavoidable. It was staffed with people who greeted us each time we went by and offered helpful information about the hotel. In our case, it was a young lady named Selene, and on our second day, she mentioned that we could, in exchange for 90 minutes of our time, earn some free activities and credits at the hotel.

Having been to Mexico a number of times, and also having received time share offers over the phone, Trent and I decided it might be interesting to learn more. After all, we theorized, there are many people employed in this business, so it must have some value, if not specifically for us. Since we prefer to own the property we purchase, the time share model doesn't fit us, but the experience would certainly make a good blog posting.

The following morning, we met with Eddy, the time share representative, for breakfast, and then he took us on a brief tour of the time share area of the resort. Now here's where it became less fun. Following the tour, we sat with Eddy to learn the pricing, which is when the shell game began. We started at $40,000 for a 25-year membership, but before I knew it, we had miraculously earned multiple credits and the price became about $9,500. Trent took pictures of everything Eddy wrote down, and I am including it here for your reading pleasure (and confusion). We told Eddy we were not interested, and thought that would be the end of it. Again, wrong. Eddy said he needed to get his boss, who would ask us if he had treated us well -- quality control, essentially. Extremely pushy and arrogant, the boss was a German man who mistakenly believed that the best way to close a sale was to try to make us feel stupid. We repeatedly told him no, and finally he called another man over who would take us to claim our "gifts". Man #3 took us to a lady who asked us to take a survey. NO WAY. She attempted to convince us briefly until she realized we were DONE. Now, on to Lady #2 for our "gifts". Five people and four hours later, we finally made our escape.

A final note on our "gifts":

1. Five tickets for the City Tour, which we didn't have time to do.
2. Three nights and four days at the hotel for free, which had so many stipulations we would never use it.
3. A free massage at the hotel, which I used. Nice massage -- not great, but ok.

Result: A $55 massage for four hours of our time and plenty of aggravation. That is, except that I get the pleasure of sharing it with all of you right here.