If it sounds too good to be true, guess what?
I explained that I didn’t see how Hilton was going to benefit me, but I was open to suggestions and explanations. Mona asked what was my next cruise. I gave her the info and while she looked it up on the computer she asked how much the wellhello real cruise was costing me. Well I only put down a down payment and didn’t have the specific numbers with me, so I gave her a number that I had in my head. Unfortunately, the number in my head was for the total trip: the airfare, the hotel for the night before (I like to arrive a day early when travelling outside the US, just in case, I do not want to miss the boat!), the taxes, gratuities and the cruise. She showed me where it would cost me 2500 points and $ per person for the deeply discounted cruise using my points.
Well, 2 times $2300 is $4600 and that’s a lot less than I’d be paying on my own. I had various other questions, which were all answered. Then we went to the closing. Signed my life away and am now an “owner”. All in all, I was there for just over 4 hours. I’m detailed and I like to ask questions. Leave Vegas and fly back home and decide to look at my cruise info. The price I’m paying is $2300 per person. How is this benefiting me?? Let me call and ask. In all the 5 reams of paperwork that I have, I do not have a business card from Michael, nor Mona nor any contact numbers for customer service. How odd. But miraculously I did have a phone call from Roma, who did the closing, on my answering machine asking me to sign and return a form that she emailed me, because she neglected to have me sign it at the closing.
Well I went crazy with Roma’s number and talked to several people, including Human Resources, leaving various messages
No one ever got back to me, but I’m persistent. I kept calling and hitting “0” for immediate assistance, driving a good portion of the HGVClub phone center crazy. I finally was transferred to Michael’s voice mail and left a message for him. Haven’t heard back from him yet, but he may be off. I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I finally did get a hold of Roma, poor thing, and asked about cancelling. Since I’m within my 5-day Right to Rescind period, she helped me find the form, complete it and gave me the necessary instructions.
I overnighted it this morning and am now a happy former owner. No one got back to me – and I did NOT leave any angry messages – they were very pleasant and calm messages. No reason to “lose” them. I’m sure this a great way to vacation for some people. I just didn’t get how this would benefit me. I did get the feeling that Michael was not pushy and would have been okay with me no matter what I decided. Mona basically lied to me for the sake of a sale. If she was really a cruiser, then she knew that it was not deeply discounted. I should have known better, but with all this information and numbers coming at me, I failed myself. I do think that they use all the information to overwhelm people. I can’t imagine that after spending a large chunk of money that they “forgot” to include business cards. What were they thinking? That I might have a question and call them up? Duh. Isn’t that customer service? Buyer beware. If you have to sign today and today only, guess what? I really was open to suggestions and was willing to see how a timeshare at Hilton could benefit me. Maybe that is my problem – I wanted it to work. Lesson learned.