[c1000]

I received a promotional offer from my Standard Chartered Platinum credit card saying that I can receive a free night's stay at the Marriott or a $1000 Seibu gift certificate if I attend a 90 minute presentation about the Marriott Vacation Club. Has anyone done this? Any catch?

[Bella728]

I actually work for the Marriott, it's true it's not a scam. If you attend, they give u free things like free stay for a night or gift certificates for buffet or whatever. If you need more information, my friend works for them too so just PM if you like. It's a great deal, it's just a promotion they are doing to let people know that the Marriott Vacation Club is out there. Asian people aren't really aware that's all.

[KnowItAll]

Not a scam, but be prepared for high pressure sales tactics.

Took us a while to get the guy from their Phuket location to stop calling us (we made the mistake of accepting a free ride to the hotel as the cab driver said, if you tell them blah blah, I wont charge you..). Incidentally all the time share pitches start sounding the same.

Make sure you REALLY know how to say NO before you get into one of these meetings.

Bella ... sorry, but I am a cynic when it comes to these sort of things - you HAVE to follow the money and think why they someone would think that spending $125US to get a weak lead is worth it ....

[KnowItAll]

Ok, on re-reading... perhaps it came out a bit harsh.

All I can say, is practice saying NO before you head into the presentation, if you're not actively in the market for a timeshare.

[jgl]

I know several people who've gone to these sessions- they were fine. Typical sales tactics, but if you know how to say "no" you should be fine.

I almost went to a session, but before the presentation their telesales staff managed to botch up the process and wasted so much of my fiance's time with incompetent phone calls that we told them to get stuffed.

[KnowItAll]

JGL - Agree about the telesales thing.

The weird thing about the Marriot Phuket thing was .. the consultant kept emailing us from his Yahoo address, insisting that their corporate email was not working.

[Bella728]

haha no hard feelings. I agree if you're not interested you have to learn how to say NO. it's like when we were in Vegas and they wanted us to buy timeshare. I'm not offended I work for the Marriott but I would say no too if I wasn't interested. I think it's good for some people if they vacation alot.. I think. I have girlfriends that have bought into timeshares and they love it. Be prepared to say no if you're not interested.

[Sleuth]

We attended one and you do have to be ready to say, "No". Unless, of course, you have the $$ to lay out for the plan.
If we had the $$ we would have signed up because we vacation as often as we can (and at least a couple times a year).
And we received a Marriott gift certificate, no hassle for saying, "No".

[LA Bliss]

we attended one @ times square. it turned out to be a great deal actually... although we didn't sign up (can't remember the reason). we also received a $1000 gift certificate for marriott so had a lovely lunch at the hotel. not a bad payoff for spending a couple of hours looking at beautiful hotel brochures.