Newbie error? Sucked in?

Second day in Vegas at the Cosmo. First buffet this morning. First trip on the strip. This place is AMAZING AND MORE!
But..
Today, after leaving the Village buffet, we decided to explore the Paris, and inside, just between the Paris and the Bally's, a man stopped us to ask us where we are from.
A speech started to pretty much go to a show, with dinner for free in exchange of 2 hours of our time to visit a hotel.
We agreed to it, but now we're starting to regret it. We had to give a 40$ deposit, and had to give our names, but.. Did we get sucked in into something bad?
We avoided the ones outsides and the ones giving cards with girls on them. But we thought: Oh they're inside the Paris. They must be safe! But now, we're not so sure and I'd like your lovely Vegas goers your opinions about it.

Thank you!

 

sucked in!

Sounds like timeshare touts, they stand now inside the hotels smartly dressed and you think they are casino employees right...wrong!!! they want you to go and sit through 2/3hour high pressure sell.forget about it (unless you have a will of steel) I have known people to have signed up for the timeshare and lost thousands of dollars.

If anyone approachs you wanting to give you free stuff you have to smell a rat! Nobody gives nothing for nothing.

 

I have to ask: why would you give $40 to someone you don't know for something that's supposed to be free? A "deposit" in this scenario smells like a scam to me.

 

Yeah, it's a timeshare presentation. They say 2 hours, but when all is said and done it can take longer. I avoid them like the plague. If there is any way to go back, get your deposit back and cancel, I would do so.

 

I thought they worked at the casino when one tried to sell me up at the Excalibur bell desk as we walked in. He claimed it was a sister casino and they wanted my gf and I to go there for 2 hrs in exchange for any show we wanted to watch. Ofcourse we'd have to put down a deposit. We decided against it because we knew once we were drunk, schedules would fly out the window.

Later on we figured out these leeches are in every hotel and multiple locations. So yea I believe these are the time share guys trying to drum up business for the other location they plan on taking you do. Chalk it up as a $40 lesson. I wish half of my Vegas lessons were that cheap lol.

 

If you can justify some free tickets for 2-3 hrs of pressure selling that you know you can walk away from go for it. They can be bloody persistant and will want info on you and what your disposable income might be.
It's defo a time share, dodged enough of them in my time, :evillaugh or else you have been scammed.
Personaly for $40 I would write it off as a lesson learned ( never give anyone money unless they put something in your hand there and then, even then in Vegas be on your guard there are a lot of people that will want to part you with your cash ) and spend 2-3 hours doing something far more fun

Enjoy the rest of your trip

 

not a scam per say but is 2.5 hours of your time worth $40? I'd try to get it back but if you can't then just chalk it up as a lesson learned.

I've done a couple and never bought a timeshare but they are very high pressure and get pissed when you call them out on cheap sales tricks (I'm a salesman and know most of them)

 

I bought a wonderful baseball cap that says:

"Hi. I don't care. Thanks." I wear it specifically for those guys when I'm in Vegas. Sure they have a job to do, but some of their tactics are pretty iffy. I agree with the suggestion to blow off the 40 bucks and not even waste your time.

 

I'm ashamed to admit that we fell for this (partially) years back at PH. Just after we checked in we were approached. Same kind of idea for the PH condos but I think they were offering some kind of free play too. The wife wanted to go for it as it sounded easy enough. We gave $20 which we'd get back when we showed up at some designated time to get a tour.

All I can say is I'm glad we somehow got sidetracked and never showed up. I see it as an unfortunate $20 lesson. Given our likely imbibed state at the time it could have ended up much more expensive if we showed up!

 

Here is some helpful advice for first timers: These time share folks can be pretty persistant when they approach you, and don't always take "No" for an answer. Just tell them "We are flying out in a few hours", and they disappear quickly. It doesn't matter if we arrived that day, if someone approaches us, we tell them we are leaving soon, and they leave us alone.

 

First time at Ph,first time in LV we got stopped at a desk next to the check in. Guy started offering tickets, I thought it was just a sales desk, we wanted cirque tix, took me a few to figure out the hook. It happens, I have heard horror stories about being stuck 4 to 6 hrs off strip for the presentation. I would chalk the $40 up as experience and move on.

 

have they always made people put down a deposit? I don't recall ever being asked that

 

Timeshare

They started taking the deposits so people would come back. they fooled my wife once at PH, but I was able to save her before she agreed to anything and explained what they were doing. Now we just ignore them and have had them follow us, and call us names for ignoring him. I almost turned around and cock punched the guy, but didn't want to ruin my vacation.

I have done presentations in the past and there is nothing they could offer me under 6 figures that would have me spend any time doing it again. Even if you are strong and continue to say NO, it is still an unpleasant experience and takes way longer then the 90-120 minutes quoted.

 

They are at a Booth in Paris/Bally's because it's a wonderful spot to grab some unsuspecting tourists into their Lair. This location has many people walking to/from Paris/Bally's and also the parking garage as well as the convention halls. They are not doing anything "illegal", just looking for "newbies".
I normally travel solo so i don't get the "presentation" every time i walk by here and everywhere else on the Strip. The "tourist trap" in this case is not as bad as some others, but i would suggest the next time just keep walking by (this goes to all time share people throughout the Strip). They look for the right tourists by asking something like "hi, how long are you people in town for"? If you answer that they then try to move in with the "kill".
You can alleviate this by just keeping walking and not acknowledging them.........or, when you are getting close to being "harassed", walk separately from the other person you're with to look like you're solo until the "threat" is gone.

 

The strategy makes little sense to me anyway.

I personally wouldn't be willing to waste 3 hours of my vacation in exchange for show tickets. Suppose the tickets are $150 each, so we come up $300. We each wasted 3 hours (6 hours combined) for a benefit of $300. That's $50 an hour. That's around what I make at my job.

I took time off work to go on vacation, so I am essentially forgoing my $50 an hour by choosing to cash in a PTO day instead of coming into the office.

So best case scenario is, I sold 3 hours of my vacation for nothing?

The reason I say the strategy makes little sense to me is that the timeshare company needs qualified buyers - people who can afford what they're selling. It occurs to me that people who are willing to sacrifice a big chunk of vacation time to get something for free are less likely to be able to afford the product in the first place. It amounts to an angle-shot against an angle-shot.

The moral of the story though, for newbies especially, is that your vacation is time for you and you alone. Anyone who tries to steal some of your vacation time deserves a boot in the butt!

 

Chalk it up as a $40 loss and no-show on them, otherwise you're going to be subject to a high pressure close, complete with "getting the manager involved" who's going to "offer you a special deal he's never offered anyone before" and when you try to actually get any tickets offered, it becomes a struggle because they'll keep selling as long as you keep asking, eventually to the point where you're more than willing to walk up and forget the tickets promised.

You gambled, you lost.
Walk away

 

If you are getting dinner and show out of it...and your $40 back then it might not be too bad of a deal...If you can decline the sale of the timeshare.

I do these quite often and after the preso I just tell them I dont think it is a good deal...they usually ask me if I have any friends or family that I can refer and I tell them no...they ask why...and I say because its not a good deal.

Then I take my gifts and leave.

 

This technique works well. Since they primarily want couples there is another technique I dont dare try, but heard it works. When they ask, say OMG, thats not my wife, she is a hooker I picked up....Do you really think I could get a woman that hot......In theory, (1) the timeshare snake slithers away; (2) You get to call your wife a hooker....lol; and (3) you compliment your wife by saying she is hot.......Sounds like a win, win........but, I dont dare try....lol

 

I can't really add much...other than saying "don't buy anything from them" if you do decided to go back for your $40 and show tix. Even if you think a timeshare is something you'd like, this isn't the place to buy one.

Like the others have said, I'd just call it a $40 newbie lesson learned. It happens to plenty of people, don't sweat it. Enjoy the rest of your trip!