In Which I React Badly to High-Pressure Sales

[lydy]

So, I called Hilton to double-check on which days I had a reservation for at the Doubletree this weekend, as this weekend is Fourth Street.  (Yay, Fourth Street!)  The person on the other end of the line was a lovely woman who kept on calling me Miss Lydia.  I asked her if she was in the South, she said she lived in North Carolina, and we had a pleasant, short chat.  She asked me if I would be wiling to listen to a presentation for an additional 500 Hilton points, and because she had been so nice, and I know that they use these sorts of metrics to judge their customer help people, I said yes.

The next woman was...nice?  I think?  So, it starts in media res, with her assuming a bunch of things about what I am there for, and I am starting to worry a bit.  I answer a lot of questions, allow as how I might like to go to Las Vegas, and decide that "single" rather than "cohabitation" is the useful category, since I don't usually travel with David.  Then it starts going faster and faster.  Because I don't want to investigate a Carribean cruise, they will refund the $200 that they are going to charge me for the 4 nights 3 days in Las Vegas that I am going to get to  go to in the next year if I book in the next 45 days, but I will still have to pay taxes, but that's only twenty odd bucks and as a special something I didn't quite follow they are now going to give me 5000 Hilton points, which would take me some amazing amount of time or money to accumulate and it's going too fast and I am not following it.  At some point, I give them my credit card number, since yes, I do want to go to Las Vegas, and am pretty sure Beth will go with me, because I really want to see O at some point, and it really does sound like a good deal.  Then the person tells me that she needs to reconfirm everything, and starts saying things, and one of them is that I agree to go to a two hour presentation and that if I have a spouse or co-habitor they will have to attend with me, and I say, "No way in hell am I sitting through a two hour presentation."

So then, the nice? lady explains that she had already told me that, and I had already agreed.  I think this was meant to be reassuring, with a bit of blackmail along the lines of "you already agreed to this."  I start to panic, thinking if I missed that, what else did I miss in the initial conversation.  Also, I think about sitting through a two hour presentation, and have flash backs to church.  (Ok, I had a really weird childhood, so sue me.)  I get more stressed.  She starts going on about how somehow I'm going to be posting a picture of a place that i go on some sort of social media, not Instagram but some travel place or something, and how this is how they generate buzz and of course I do want to tell the world how wonderful they are, and I have lost the thread and can't tell how this connects to the two hour presentation that I apparently agreed to, and I tell her to stop, don't process the money on the card, just let me out of this.  It's all moving too fast, and I'm starting to have a panic attack, and I do not agree to anything.

She then says something about her manager, who is apparently listening in, as per the disclaimer up front, has decided that she can also offer me an additional $200 for something and I am now really, really panicked, because every time I say no to something, it changes.  I cannot keep track of anything.  My stomach hurts and I feel like crying.  She starts asking me questions, and I tell her that I can't, just can't, I really want her to stop, now. and she says that she just wants to ask me if this doesn't sound like a good value, and I'm saying you need to stop, and then she says that her  manager has said that she can offer me an upgrade to a private apartment, and doesn't that sound nice, and I hear myself saying, "No, no, no, no, no, just stop, I said no. Do not charge, just stop."  And she's still trying to sell me, and I said, "I really need you to agree that you heard me say no, and that you won't charge my credit card" and she says, that she did hear me say no, but she just wants to ask me and I interrupt, "I am going to hang up the phone now, you need to not charge my card, I do not consent to anything."  

And hung up the phone.

Hilton is a reasonably respected brand.  I assume that I just passed up on a really good deal.  And, honestly, if she had slowed down, not constantly changed the terms, explained more slowly, been much more understanding when I told her I was having a panic attack, maybe she could have made the sale.  It really seems unlikely that it was a scam.  But it felt exactly, exactly like a scam.  

So, guess I don't have this great hotel deal for Las Vegas after all.  

Fuck Hilton.  I consider it a major victory that I neither dissolved in hysterical tears nor yelled at anyone after I hung up.  But it was a near thing.  
 

Comments

[ckd]

Sounds like Hilton Grand Vacations, which is no longer part of Hilton but still has a licensing agreement for the name, agreements that let them cross-sell via Hilton's customer service line, etc.

Based on this review you didn't actually miss out on a good deal.

[lydy]

I would probably not have noticed the difference between "Hilton" and "Hilton Grand Vacations" but, yes, I expect you are correct.

[lydy]

Points for correctly identifying Hilton Grand Vacations. I got a response from Hilton Hotels on Twitter saying that they have referred my issue to HGV, who have like 3 days or something to respond.

[matt_doyle]

That might not be a scam in substance, but it certainly has the style down. I'm infuriated on your behalf; my anxiety would have had much the same spikes but would have left me snarling profanities (which is no more congenial a reaction, it's just how my brain reacts to that category of threat).

[lydy]

It was remarkably upsetting. It was disorienting, and designed to be so. I am reminded of the change for a 20 scam that I was warned about, when I first was a cashier. Each transaction seems perfectly reasonable, but it goes really fast, and the scammer walks away with way more money than the twenty he started with, basically by swamping the cashier with series of escalating proposals.

[jack]

Urgh, that sounds awful. Yes, I would have thought a mainstream brand would not have been so openly pushy: even if not everyone is as panicked, it's unpleasant for most people, and isn't going to help them get consensual customers. I'm really impressed you managed to get out of the conversation when you were already panicked.

I think you were really sensible, and didn't miss out on anything good! If they're using that sort of tactic, they're relying on pressuring people into buying things, which probably means they're NOT good things for the customer, or they'd just tell you openly what they are and not deliberately garble the message.

I tend to just hide from overly confusing offers, which isn't good either as it does mean I sometimes pay full price when I don't need to. There definitely are special offers which are good AND confusing. But (a) I think probably NOT when they're trying to steamroller you like that and (b) only if the offer actually seems cheaper when you compare it fairly to a regular price.

[lydy]

I don't really have an opinion on the deal being offered. But I would bet you dollars to donuts that 1) the lady was following a script, 2) there was no manager, this was just the escalation they normally use for reluctant purchasers and 3) the work environment is horrific and predatory.

[green_knight]

I consider it a major victory that I neither dissolved in hysterical tears nor yelled at anyone after I hung up.

Go you! (I'm not sure I would have managed.)

"I really need you to agree that you heard me say no, and that you won't charge my credit card"

Those are the magic words (assuming that the call WILL be recorded, but I'd think that Hilton will be in a lot of trouble if they don't listen). Well done for having the presence of mind to say things so clearly that there is absolutely NO doubt that no, you do not want their offer and no, you do not want to give them any money at all.

And the weird pyramid scheme holiday they're selling does NOT sound like a bargain: if you have to drag your partner to a two-hour presentation and post things on social media, that's not a holiday and you should not pay for it.

This may not be legally a scam, but they know exactly what they're doing in flooding people with information where it's difficult to process, pretending you've agreed when you've merely not disagreed loudly and repeatedly, and trying to shame you into going along rather than making a fuss and insisting that no, you did not agree. And I can see parallels to other areas of life, and I do not like this culture one little bit.

[lydy]

It was touch an go. I really, really do not like being non-consensually disoriented. And I hate hate hate being gaslit, and that is what this felt like.

[womzilla]

Bam. Booz. Led.

It sounded like a truly horrific experience and I'm sorry it attacked you.

[ambyr]

This is an attempt to get you to buy into a timeshare. All the major hotel chains have timeshare companies they're associated with (Hilton Grand Vacations Company, Marriott Vacation Club, Hyatt Residence Club, Holiday Inn Club Vacations), all of them use high-pressure sales tactics, and all of them are extraordinarily bad deals from a financial perspective. You did good to opt out as soon as you did.

[lydy]

A TIMESHARE!

FUCK NO 1000 times.

Although...that 2 hour presentation thing did sound suspiciously like a timeshare sales pitch I've seen go by.

Once upon a once upon, I worked for a mortgage company, and before that an abstract company. Near as I can tell, timeshares lie when they claim they are selling you real property. (Real as in real estate, but also as an ontological category.)

[julian]

I once got offered a brief vacation to somewhere I kind of wanted to go (I forget where, honestly), as long as I listened to the 2 hour sales pitch once I got there, oh and also bought things from this specific list of things, and...

I eventually (after I examined the specific list of things, all of which were useless or too expensive for me) decided I could go to that specific place on my own sometime. Or not.

But if I hadn't actually looked at the list of things... I might've gone.

[calimac]

They gamed you by offering something you actually wanted (i.e. the trip to Las Vegas). How ironic that pressure, which they use to try to push people into the sale, instead lost them a sale they might already have had.

I would advise checking with your credit card issuer to make sure they didn't go ahead and charge it anyway.

[thewayne]

Wow. Yeah, I can see how it would be a near thing.

[hrj]

Wow. Yeah, good call. This sort of thing is why I try to avoid any sort of "great deal" that's going to come with all sorts of strings. Especially because if you are actually given the opportunity to review and consider the "bargain" on your own time, I suspect that any monetary savings is cancelled out by the time and emotional energy spent making sure you aren't getting scammed.

I have a friend who decided to get in on a vacation time-share thing--she's a very careful, money-savvy person--and at some point realized that she'd been bamboozled into doubling her commitment. The entire industry is built on that sort of thing.

[carbonel]

Yes, I will be happy to go to Las Vegas with you sometime, but this is definitely not the best way to do it, and I am glad you escaped -- and sorry that it was so stressful. I know the feeling exactly, since I have also got myself into this situation, though quite a while ago.