What is it about certain products, like time shares, that seems to require special selling tactics, like 'gifts' to attend a presentation? Holidays don't require any special sales techniques, so why do time shares and similar products?
I went to a 'presentation' once trying to sell me discount holiday hotels. You had to sign up for years, obviously. I managed to get out of it (I don't know how I was persuaded to attend in the first place) by pointing out that I didn't want to go to any of the destinations they had on their books! It wasn't just a ploy, I really am that awkward. So, having survived the presentation to the end, I was due a prize! Surprise, surprise, the prize was a discount at a particular hotel, hedged around with so many conditions that it was almost impossible to go. Plus, I didn't want to go there anyway. I think I'm starting to answer my own question ...
It's very similar to Multi Level Marketing. They're pushing really bad deals and ideas, so to get you involved they need to create a hook. Something that appeals to anything other than your common sense - like appeals to greed, wishes, desires, etc.
I suppose this sort of selling is a telltale sign of a bad deal.
It's really just a form of bait and switch: enticing you with one thing whilst really pushing another.
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Many of the methods often used in these sorts of sales are now defined as "Commercial practices which are in all circumstances considered unfair" by The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Practices Regulations, for example:6. Making an invitation to purchase products at a specified price and then—
(a) refusing to show the advertised item to consumers,
(b) refusing to take orders for it or deliver it within a reasonable time, or
(c) demonstrating a defective sample of it,
with the intention of promoting a different product (bait and switch).
7. Falsely stating that a product will only be available for a very limited time, or that it will only be available on particular terms for a very limited time, in order to elicit an immediate decision and deprive consumers of sufficient opportunity or time to make an informed choice.
...
24. Creating the impression that the consumer cannot leave the premises until a contract is formed.
"You got to use your brain." - McKinley Morganfield
I keep getting this terrible feeling of deja woo.
Wouldn't this count as false imprisonment anyway?Originally Posted by Mojo
Defendants might as well have said: Beneficent creatures from the 17th dimension use this bracelet as a beacon to locate people who need pain relief and whisk them off to their home world every night to provide help in ways unknown to our science.
Judge Frank Easterbrook commenting on the Q-Ray bracelet
"For Gods sake you're an American! Stop thinking of the consequences and blow something up" - Stan Smith, American Dad!
Only if escape was completely impossible.
"You got to use your brain." - McKinley Morganfield
I keep getting this terrible feeling of deja woo.
Another product that gets "special" marketing is Double Glazing.
I'm looking to replace my back door. If I want a wooden one there are various ways I could purchase one and have it fitted. If I want a white plastic double glazed door I have to have someone come around to my house and give me a presentation; if I say "no" he'll half the price he is asking for. Why? Other products don't have this strange purchasing requirement, how did one product become so difficult to buy?
'Croydon' Bob Newman. The ladies call him "Thrush" - as he's an irritating cunt.
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