Welcome to Your Vacation, Suckers!

My wife and I have been at Wyndham-Kingsgate in Williamsburg, VA since Saturday, pretty much just trying to get away from everyday life and not be bothered by anybody. We own a timeshare in Myrtle Beach, but decided as an owner and an RCI member, we’d take advantage of a bargain vacation deal.

But RCI should have had a disclaimer on their Web site: “Warning – by agreeing to a bargain vacation, you are subjecting yourself to a daily ‘oh, no, this is not a sales call’ marketing push, because if you’re dumb enough to buy a timeshare in the first place, you’re dumb enough to buy another one.”

Nothing worse than being woken up today at 10 a.m. by my third push marketing call in as many days. Worse, the caller had no clue who we are, and no cut-to-the-chase opening. The woman in each case sounded like she had the wrong number.

And in each case, she did: She thought she was calling a sucker. Come get your gift basket, tour the facilities, and BAM, you bought at Wyndham-Kingsgate!

Here’s the deal, Wyndham, RCI, etc.: When people go on vacation, they don’t want to be bothered. And when the vacationer tells the sales caller (or henchman) “please stop calling us,” the caller should respect that.

OK, why do we have a timeshare in the first place? Because we played the game. Starting 12 years ago when we were on our honeymoon in Aruba, we learned to take advantage of the free gift you’d receive for checking these places out.

And in Myrtle Beach in 2002 (Plantation Resort), the salesperson was so desperate in a post-9-11 travel era that we were offered our unit every other year at half an already discounted price. So every other year we could take advantage of discount vacations and not have to stay at a dive hotel.

So, yeah, we have no need for another timeshare. And I’m unplugging my phone…Now back to my vacation.