Is it typical to receive high pressure, derision, and hostility from DRI

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

I have friends who went to Scottsdale Villa Mirage and upon check in they were given such pressure to attend a sales tour that they folded and accepted the appointment. (These are not weak minded people, just exceptionally nice and their several refusals to go were walked over and derided by the "concierege", embarrassed and exhausted from 10 hours of travel, they just gave in.)

Then, at the 90 minute presentation, they continued to say "no" but the sales agent refused to let them leave. Again, their own upbringing played in here, as they had committed to 90 minutes, and also, once past the 90, they kept saying "we have to leave, we have given you our time, but no thanks." Of course, the agent refused to let them leave: and then as they insisted to leave, they were insulted repeatedly.

Finally, the wife decided to challenge the agent and started to get up from the table, at which point the agent called in the closer. And then the real fire started. The closer was derisive, insulting, taunting, and belligerent.


My poor friends got away without purchasing, but DRI now has made such intense enemies of this couple that they tell everyone they can how badly they were treated.

I have heard such types of stories before, but when it is a couple one knows, I really have a new understanding of the pressure tactics and despicable way that sales agents will behave.

I have personally seen a "concierge" at Polo Towers in operation, but since I have more experience with this form of greeting, I was able to rebuff all efforts without feeling abused.

My question is this: is DRI entirely filled with agents such as our friends met? Is it just a shark infested tank of agents who thrive on dehumanizing people?


Also... if this is the "first full contact" a potential buyer has, doesn't DRI risk having people distrust the entire operation? Aren't bad impressions worth anything to a company?

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

I experienced similar tactics at Powhatan this June. They must be really hurting for sales. My friends who came with us as potential buyers said they would NEVER even consider a DRI purchase - or anything to do with DRI after that treatment. The only thing sales people care about is making their quotas. They have nothing to do with the customers after that, so don't care what happens after the purchase.
Owners must stand up and say they will not attend another update until sales staff backs down on their aggressive presentations.

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

Salesmen of act this way are doing their company and it's members a disservice.

Who would send relatives or friends to a presentation knowing salesmen act this way? It's like recommending an ill-mannered friend to a job interview - your own reputation gets tarnished.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Pattern is there

Unfortunately there seems to be a distinct pattern of this at many DRI sites. They naturally deny it but it is seen in resort "report cards" turned in by guests, emails and simple hand written notes to the resorts over and over again from my limited exposure as an owner/Board member.

It is too bad as the product is good enough to sell itself with a fair presentation. We actually approached TEHM to buy both our original week (not DRI back then) as well as the membership to what is now called THE Club. But the need to make money causes people to do things that maybe they wouldn't otherwise do and the pressure of timeshare sales in particular seems to bring out the worst. It does appear that DRI sales has stepped into very high pressure tactics and it is not good. I hope they rein it in - soon.

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

A few of us (friends) also agree DRI is good enough to sell itself. In this economy when people are very cautious with discretionary spending (timeshares and expensive vacations are included) is the new fad, DRI would be not-so-smart to alienate potential future customers with these rude salesman. I can tell you one thing, it took many presentations before we purchased our timeshares. The ONE company we did NOT want to even seriously consider when our money was ready was Westgate - and it was due mainly to a very poor, high-pressure sales full of BS we experienced in Orlando several years prior. That sour taste left in people's mouths courtesy of unprofessional sales staff is great if you wish to kill any potential future customers and/or good word-of-mouth advertisement.

I do believe DRI's top management wishes to have their sales staff maintain a decent degree of professionalism, but at the sales level, the "we do what we like to make a buck" mentality still exists.

I recommend customers continue to point out (surveys, letters to management, etc) areas where sales staff could improve (e.g. if salesmen are not telling the truth, exercising unprofessional behavior, etc.) - we all win in the long term (i.e. DRI makes money when the economy gets better, owners/members have a pride of ownership in a high-quality product they are proud to tell family/friends about, and current salesman NOT up to the task find better-suited employment elsewhere).

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Having owned with DRI since 1998, I would say this is NOT typical DRI style. We've been through several presentations and only once had a salesman show us his back sides. That one time cost him a sale as my FIL was ready to buy before he showed his backside when a couple of questions were asked. There's one in every crowd no matter how hard you try.

DRI recently purchased Sunterra (maybe 2 years ago now). Sunterra wasn't known for their sales staff. In fact, there had been a lot of issues over their sales staff. It takes a lot of effort to turn a big ship around and DRI has been working hard at it. I would assume that with so many sales offices, it's going to take some time to weed out those that don't want to do it the DRI way.

Take a moment to let DRI know how you were treated and, if you remember their name, who they were and what you remember them saying/doing that made you feel this way. DRI does act on consumer/customer concerns and I would imagine that this problem would be addressed quickly. Especially if it's a common complaint.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

Diamond does have a good product to market and I feel Diamond wants better customer relation ship between referrals from current owners to prospect new buyers.

I also hope Diamond is monitoring this post.

[Carlos Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carlos]

My Experiences Have Been Positive

I went on an update with DRI this week at KBC. The saleswoman was very pleasant the whole time even though I would not budge on buying more points. I have been to several presentations and never have I experienced rudeness or mistreatment. Now they do have difficulty with the answer of no, but hey they are salespeople.

I like DRI's product and there are others. DRI needs to let the product and service do their talking.

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

I like DRI's product and there are others. DRI needs to let the product and service do their talking.

I totally agree. IMO, DRI is a great product. Word of mouth from satisfied owners could bring a lot more sales than high-pressure sales tactics. Those efforts may line the pockets of the sales staff, but only increase the number of disgruntled owners, bringing down the intergrity of the whole system.
The one thing that DRI (and probably most TS) is lacking is owner education. It's a shame that there's no one who can help new owners learn how to make the most of their purchase. I helped one friend learn how to use their points (it was a small package, so we had to get creative). She had previously regretted the purchase and hadn't used her TS in years. Now she loves it! She has learned to book vacations in the off season, take advantage of the point saver option and bank points for nicer vacations every other year.

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

I went on an update with DRI this week at KBC. The saleswoman was very pleasant ....

Carlos, I guess you got a taste of the real 'Aloha spirit' . I agree, there is NO need for sales reps to be disrespectful and rude (pressuring customers is being rude IMO) to customers IF the product is good enough to sell itself. Unfortunately, with the current economy and sales reps' need to put food on the table for the family, you see two opposing forces at work. I do not know what the answer is, but I am getting the feeling the past couple of years of experiencing the new DRI and the CLUB, I do believe there are good things about being a member. Especially the debacle occurring over in the Marriott system with their new 'points system', I feel lucky to have become a DRI/the CLUB member and not given my DRI deeded weeks away a couple of years ago.

I totally agree. IMO, DRI is a great product. Word of mouth from satisfied owners could bring a lot more sales than high-pressure sales tactics. Those efforts may line the pockets of the sales staff, but only increase the number of disgruntled owners, bringing down the intergrity of the whole system.
The one thing that DRI (and probably most TS) is lacking is owner education. It's a shame that there's no one who can help new owners learn how to make the most of their purchase. I helped one friend learn how to use their points (it was a small package, so we had to get creative). She had previously regretted the purchase and hadn't used her TS in years. Now she loves it! She has learned to book vacations in the off season, take advantage of the point saver option and bank points for nicer vacations every other year.

Good job, longtimer!

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Carlos, I guess you got a taste of the real 'Aloha spirit' . I agree, there is NO need for sales reps to be disrespectful and rude (pressuring customers is being rude IMO) to customers IF the product is good enough to sell itself. Unfortunately, with the current economy and sales reps' need to put food on the table for the family, you see two opposing forces at work. I do not know what the answer is, but I am getting the feeling the past couple of years of experiencing the new DRI and the CLUB, I do believe there are good things about being a member. Especially the debacle occurring over in the Marriott system with their new 'points system', I feel lucky to have become a DRI/the CLUB member and not given my DRI deeded weeks away a couple of years ago.


Good job, longtimer!

I also like the DRI Club system but would NEVER sign away my deeded rights of ownership to become a mere member of the Trust/Club. The best world, IMO, is holding the deed and joining the Club to gain access to that very friendly system and the free (except for the ridiculous and unnecessary "Gold" membership level I wish they would drop as its money wasted for nothing IMO) II membership. You only pay the annual club fee, you have your original deed & owner rights at the resort and can opt out at anytime. The buy in is a little too high at $2900 but competitive with others such as Wyndham. But Wyndham can be resold while DI Club cannot.

Overall the DRI system has worked for us but again we hold our deed and did not join any of the Trust based systems there.

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

I also like the DRI Club system but would NEVER sign away my deeded rights of ownership ....

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

What I meant was a few years ago at the same time DRI purchased Sunterra, we were on the verge of giving away our Polo Towers deed to a relative because we were getting tired of having yet another week-based timeshare. We were looking to replace Polo Towers with a points-based system to supplement our Marriott timeshare and I had a friend and relative interested in taking our Polo Towers deed.

I called Polo Towers to discuss the process of gifting our deed away and some how I ended up speaking to the sales manager on that call. He informed me DRI had just purchased Sunterra and since we had a planned trip to Polo in about a month's time, the rest is history. I kept my PLT deed and am now a happy deeded, the CLUB member!

...

Overall the DRI system has worked for us but again we hold our deed and did not join any of the Trust based systems there.

Same here.

[Tommyboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tommyboy]

We purchased a deed from Sunterra about 6 years ago at Kaanapali. Later we purchased a deed at San Luis Bay Inn which we folded into points in the Calif. collection. We just use the points and have no trouble using all of them. I am glad we didn't exchange out KBC deed for points, at least it has some value. We are very happy with Diamond as long as the maint fees do not go too much higher. I wish we had known about this site and resale purchases earlier. I have learned a lot by just reading and experimenting.

[Jr94 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jr94]

We just came back from 2 weeks at Cypresse Point Resorts. Our mistake was saying that maybe we would talk to them the second week.

We were woke up 3 out of 4 mornings with questions like is your unit OK? Do you need anything? Oh, by the way when can we sign you up for the presentation?

We said "no" put us on the do not call list, etc. They still called. The resort said that they were sorry, but that the developer had access to all of the resort phones and can call people and the resort has no say. We finally had to literally shut down the phones, so nobody could use them to call in (including our family). When I went to the manager of the sales staff and asked them how they were going to reimburse us for the lost minutes on our cellphones (we use a prepaid plan), she real quick said that we would get no more calls and we could use the unit phones.

Really ticks me off.........No reason somebody should have to waste their time dealing with these people. They hand out this "your rights" thing about what a wonderful experience you will have. Problem is they do not understand the word "no".

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

Well, we have decided to see for ourselves.....probably the stupidest thing to do, but we booked a week at the Scottsdale Villa Mirage next month, and are hoping that we don't get assaulted like our friends did.

We have no intention of taking any TS tour, and will make it perfectly clear upfront......if they don't leave us alone, I will be back here to report the behavior.