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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

#281

Post by bluGill »

pwg wrote: post #99
quickthrower2 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the scam? "Free flight" if you buy the timeshare or something?

Roping the unsuspecting into an incredibly expensive time-share using hard-sell boiler-room tactics without ever being up-front about the true costs. I sat through one of these once, curious about how it was going to go, and with the intent going in of not ever buying anything anyway. They present the timeshare as if it costs only pennies a day, and never admit to the true cost unless pressed very hard (and even then…

Hint if you ever attend one: turn to your partner after the introduction and say "I don't know honey, we would have to sell the RV". They know that people with a RV rarely buy so they are much more willing to stop wasting their time.

The other option is go on vacation, send your parents to the presentation, and you take the freebies. This worked for a friend of mine- his parents old/disabled enough that they couldn't enjoy scuba diving and the like anyway, they were mentally competent enough to not sign anything, and they enjoyed the presentation better than the other tourist traps in the area.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#283

Post by pwg »

Rjevski wrote: post #238
NLips wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telecoms + networking software engineer here: 'tis true - the caller has call release control on the PSTN i.e. the call doesn't end until the caller puts down the phone. There's special handling for e.g. 911 calls so that call release control is given to the callee i.e. the PSAP. This doesn't work for e.g. SIP because the SIP client is not a dumb slave to the network. If I click end call, even if the network doesn't…

This used to be true but I really doubt it’s the case anymore. Most of the “PSTN” nowadays has a bunch of SIP or other digital stuff in the middle, so this breaks down. Not to mention, this was never possible for mobiles to begin with.

It is how the old copper PSTN network worked, and if you are lucky enough to still have an actual copper PSTN phone line it is still true.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#284

Post by theobon »

birdman3131 wrote: post #265
gregpilling wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real scam is the ongoing, monthly, maintenance fees on your 'timeshare'. Worldmark wanted $100 per month, per week of ownership, in a presentation I saw in Vegas. Which means that 52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in 'maintenance' on each unit. So even if you paid cash, they still get $62K per year in addition. This was Worldmark Vegas, buying a 'week' in a townhouse complex of $150,000 units. The mo…

52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 is wrong. The 52 weeks means the 12 months should not be there. 52 weeks x $100 = $52,00

The maintenance fee is $100 a month for each week of timeshare you own. So if you want to use the time share 4 weeks a year you pay $400 a month. After selling all 52 weeks the company is collecting $62,400 a year.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#285

Post by detritus »

pwg wrote: post #99
quickthrower2 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the scam? "Free flight" if you buy the timeshare or something?

Roping the unsuspecting into an incredibly expensive time-share using hard-sell boiler-room tactics without ever being up-front about the true costs. I sat through one of these once, curious about how it was going to go, and with the intent going in of not ever buying anything anyway. They present the timeshare as if it costs only pennies a day, and never admit to the true cost unless pressed very hard (and even then…

I have vague memories of Father dragging us along to timeshare presentations each holiday or so, purely so we could get a family ticket to the local water park or whatever.

I don't think I've thought about his for years, so thanks. I think. I didn't recall how cheap Pa was.. :)

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#286

Post by cschneid »

birdman3131 wrote: post #265
gregpilling wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real scam is the ongoing, monthly, maintenance fees on your 'timeshare'. Worldmark wanted $100 per month, per week of ownership, in a presentation I saw in Vegas. Which means that 52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in 'maintenance' on each unit. So even if you paid cash, they still get $62K per year in addition. This was Worldmark Vegas, buying a 'week' in a townhouse complex of $150,000 units. The mo…

52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 is wrong. The 52 weeks means the 12 months should not be there. 52 weeks x $100 = $52,00

He means in aggregate of the people.

52 people each buy a week share.

Each person gets charged $100 / month.

So 52 people each pay $1200 / year, which is the $62,400. Which I'm guessing is a bit more than the cost of maintenance

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#287

Post by bluGill »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #38
coldtea wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prohibited: "Failing to award and distribute all prizes of the value and type represented." They can't mock-award it to someone of their own?

I'm fairly sure there's federal laws that forbid that. Of course, it's not a crime if you don't get caught. Plus there's a small sub-story in the article about someone that did win a Tesla, but couldn't afford the taxes they had to pay to actually get it. You can win a car but you have to be able to pay taxes and insurance for it, too.

The fine print where there actually is a car awarded generally says something like taxes are the responsibility of the winner. In the ones I've seen if you cannot pay the taxes you will be awarded the cash value instead. (I suspect there is a state law in place)

The real contests are generally run by a third party firm that has no interest in the winners. They are payed to pick someone at random and deliver the prize and paperwork.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#288

Post by andromeduck »

strictnein wrote: post #264
gregpilling wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real scam is the ongoing, monthly, maintenance fees on your 'timeshare'. Worldmark wanted $100 per month, per week of ownership, in a presentation I saw in Vegas. Which means that 52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in 'maintenance' on each unit. So even if you paid cash, they still get $62K per year in addition. This was Worldmark Vegas, buying a 'week' in a townhouse complex of $150,000 units. The mo…

52 weeks x 12 months?

It's $1200 per year for every week of timeshare you own split evenly into $100 monthly payments.

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#289

Post by andromeduck »

birdman3131 wrote: post #265
gregpilling wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real scam is the ongoing, monthly, maintenance fees on your 'timeshare'. Worldmark wanted $100 per month, per week of ownership, in a presentation I saw in Vegas. Which means that 52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 per year in 'maintenance' on each unit. So even if you paid cash, they still get $62K per year in addition. This was Worldmark Vegas, buying a 'week' in a townhouse complex of $150,000 units. The mo…

52 weeks x $100 x 12 months = $62,400 is wrong. The 52 weeks means the 12 months should not be there. 52 weeks x $100 = $52,00

You would be making monthly payments of $5200

Re: Why nobody ever wins the car at the mall

#290

Post by uniformlyrandom »

freehunter wrote: post #139
pc86 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mall operator, really? They're renting space in the mall out, that's it.

It's illegal to rent space to businesses you know to be conducting illegal activities. The mall operator can't rent space to a drug dealer or arms dealer, they can't rent a brothel, they can't rent space to human traffickers. Mall operators are not common carriers.

>illegal activities

> arms dealer

I appreciate your political views, but this one is perfectly legal in United States, and will hopefully stay this way.

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