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Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

thehustle.co

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Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#201

Post by jetti »

acomjean wrote: post #198
jetti wrote: post #189

A few years ago my wife got a call about a free cruise but the catch was sitting through the timeshare sales pitch. We had no intention of buying in, especially since we couldn't afford it at the time, but we wanted the free cruise (well my wife did, I didn't want to go). Well we sat through the horrible sales pitch and then they put us in a room to get the cruise. We sat in the room for maybe 25 minutes before we ga…

My friend won a "dive trip" after entering a contest at a dive show. just sit through a timeshare pitch. I went with him, because my dad spent some times in car sales and I'm good at not buying things. Plus as his dive certified friend I could go too. We went to a rented conference room in a hotel for the pitch. It was agony.. High pressure sales (If they have to pressure you to buy, you probably don't want it) He go…

> It was agony.. High pressure sales (If they have to pressure you to buy, you probably don't want it)

It wasn't as bad for me. I spent most of the time in my own head pointing out all the flaws in their logic.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#202

Post by jfroma »

jetti wrote: post #189

A few years ago my wife got a call about a free cruise but the catch was sitting through the timeshare sales pitch. We had no intention of buying in, especially since we couldn't afford it at the time, but we wanted the free cruise (well my wife did, I didn't want to go). Well we sat through the horrible sales pitch and then they put us in a room to get the cruise. We sat in the room for maybe 25 minutes before we ga…

We had a similar experience 10 years ago. I got a call about free vacations or another prize, catch was sitting through 1h timeshare sales pitch. It was an horrible experience, everything was fake, there were actors in the back screaming "We are so HAPPY TO BUY THIS", etc. I don't remember the number for the timeshare but what I remember is that it was impossible for me to buy that, there wasn't anything I could do even if I wanted, but they insisted , insisted and insisted. We wanted to go away from that horrible place and we didn't care about the prize at that point but we felt like "politely" kidnapped. Is an horrible experience I never had in my entire live. Finally they gave me the prize, it was 7 days in a place I didn't care and it had a lot of blackout dates as well, tax not includes, and a lot of items "not included". Note: this was in Argentina, probably in the first world there are more strict rules.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#203

Post by macintux »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #179
jsjohnst wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NB in some countries landlines can remain on a call for several minutes after the call receiver has hung up. Source for this? I find it highly suspect from a technical perspective (1-3 seconds, maybe, but not several minutes) and nothing I can find online even remotely seems legitimate / real.

I’ve personally experienced this, probably 30 years ago, in Canada. I’d call a friend, we’d finish talking, then I’d hang up and as a joke he’d leave his phone off the hook. I couldn’t make another phone call until he hung up or some timeout of unknown length passed.

When I was younger in the US the situation was similar, but I thought it was up to the originator of the call to disconnect. Been too long to be certain of my recollection.

I never determined the timeout, and I haven't had a land line in at least 15 years to experiment with.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#204

Post by [deleted] »

polynomial wrote: post #178
analogmemory wrote: post #37

My dad signed up for one of those sweepstakes back in the '90s. They called and said he won a "prize" but he had to come into view a "presentation". Went to the "presentation" where they tried to hustle him to signup for a timeshare. He resisted and they gave him the "prize", which was a knockoff boombox. That boombox is still alive, my mom uses it in the garage when she's doing gardening. I'm pretty sure the company…

What's a boombox?

[deleted]

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#205

Post by macintux »

acomjean wrote: post #192
polynomial wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a boombox?

For those of a certain age (I guess).... Its a radio player with speakers. Usually battery powered. Usually with a cassette tape or two (for copying). They ended up getting pretty big in the 80s (large in size) with detachable speakers. We had the small yellow waterproof, sony sport model.[1] I think one even had a record player. At some point loud portable stereos migrated into cars. Now we just transmit audio to po…

I had one with a tiny b&w TV in addition to the stereo. Mediocre audio and video quality but it lasted for years.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#206

Post by athenot »

glenneroo wrote: post #114
rubzah wrote: post #81

Why is it always timeshares? What makes them so ideal to sucker people with? I've seen these scams all over the world.

I know a couple people who have timeshares in some prime vacation spots (island, ski/hiking areas in the mountains) and they are quite practical when you don't/can't buy/rent a property permanently, instead sharing it with 10+ other people, divvying up the weeks lottery-style and enjoying a few weekends a year. It's also a motivation to plan for taking weekends off to just relax, since you only get 1-2 windows of opp…

But how does the cost compare to a dozen hotel rooms per year?

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#207

Post by dvcrn »

My mom participated in one of these drawings at a mall in Germany. A few weeks later we received a call: we got randomly selected for the final 10-20 candidates (can’t remember the exact number) from which 5 will win a car and should come to the main event.

At the main event, believe or not, 5 people out of the 10-30 finalists actually won a car! My mom included! Of course they said it’s not the car that was at the mall because that was only for demo, but she received a brand new never used model roughly a month later after filling out the papers and still drives it today :)

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#208

Post by macintux »

dluan wrote: post #30

Back in the 90s there was a hilarious trend of winning the car in the mall by being the person to be in the car the longest. This was when SUVs were becoming a really big thing. People were sleeping in the car with 5 other strangers to see who could outlast the others, with only short bathroom breaks allowed. I'm not really sure what the advertisers/dealers won in that exchange.

That '70s Show had an episode based on that concept, so I assume it had been around for a while.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#209

Post by adrr »

glenneroo wrote: post #114
rubzah wrote: post #81

Why is it always timeshares? What makes them so ideal to sucker people with? I've seen these scams all over the world.

I know a couple people who have timeshares in some prime vacation spots (island, ski/hiking areas in the mountains) and they are quite practical when you don't/can't buy/rent a property permanently, instead sharing it with 10+ other people, divvying up the weeks lottery-style and enjoying a few weekends a year. It's also a motivation to plan for taking weekends off to just relax, since you only get 1-2 windows of opp…

You can rent people's timeshares usually for the maintenance fee. If you really want to own a timeshare, buy it on the secondary market for a fraction of the cost.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#210

Post by icebraining »

dxxvi wrote: post #166

Once, there was a telemarketer calling me and trying to persuade me to buy a home alarm system. All he wanted is to get my credit card #. I asked him to repeat himself 2-3 times for almost all of his sentences (not all, because that would make him hang up). After about 20 mins, he knew my game and said that I was wasting his time and I was not a good citizen of the U.S. I was sad because somebody said that but the wh…

"Sorry, I can barely hear you there." https://www.youtube.com/user/ToaoDotNet/videos
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