E-dreamz Company Blog

Recently, I took a trip to Las Vegas.

We got in pretty late Thursday, and couldn't do anything that night.  On Friday morning, we (by we I mean my girlfriend and myself) were on our way to get something to eat from one of the restaurants in the Luxor where we were staying.  We were approached by a pleasant woman who asked us if we planned on seeing any shows while we were in town.  We were, so she asked us if we'd like to find out how we could get free tickets for a show.  Free shows in Vegas? Of course we were interested.

We were escorted over to a counter where another gentleman was standing, who started explaining how to get the free tickets.  They represented a company (which I won't name here, maybe on a personal blog I would) who was building a new resort on the Las Vegas strip, and wanted to get people into the building, give them free show and dinner tickets, and all they wanted in return was some positive word of mouth marketing, or so they wanted us to believe (lie #1). Maybe I was still jet-lagged and groggy.  I actually thought someone had a smart marketing campaign in place.  I knew it would be a little salesy, but thought it might be worth a listen for the 2-3 hours they told us (lie #2).  

The specifics of the deal: we would pay them $50, we would get two show tickets, $50 in gambling money, and two tickets to the buffet at the hotel.  Sounded like a great deal for the 2-3 hours of time they asked us for.  We agreed, paid, and went to wait for the bus to take us to the resort.

That's where the fun ended.

We got to the resort and sat in the waiting area until we were paired with the representative who would take us through the presentation.  We were paired with a seemingly nice man who took us into the presentation room.  They had sandwiches and coffee, but we weren't allowed to take them ourselves.  Our representative insisted on getting our coffee and sandwiches, and wouldn't even let one of us get up and help ourselves.  Come on, I'm a big boy, I can get my own coffee and sandwich.  Nice? Maybe. Uncomfortable? Sure was.

The presentation was as to be expected. Boring, uneventful, and was sure as heck developed to sink its claws into the older crowd who "didn't want to lose time with their kids, and to start developing great vacation memories with them." To those of us who have an IQ higher than a cockroach, we knew exactly what they were trying to do to us.  And yes, they got a couple of the older women crying.

Elapsed time, 1.5 hours.

After the presentation, we were escorted by our companion to a room full of couples just like us.  We sat down at a table and this time were allowed to get our own coffee, or watered down lemonade/iced tea.  At the table, we were shown vacation magazines, other destinations we could go with our purchase, and other things that I eventually zoned out on.  When asked how much they wanted for such an amazing deal, I was told that was coming and that he couldn't legally tell me until he showed us the resort.  After a few other magazines, and unbeatable destinations, he got up to start the tour.

Total elapsed time, 3 hours.  When asked if we could hurry along to finish our vacation, we were told of course we could (lie #3).

(Insert boring tour here) Total elapsed time, 3.5 hours. Remember. They promised us the total tour would be 2-3 hours TOPS.

Back at the same table from earlier.  Our once pleasant companion instantly transformed into a used car salesman.  He started with the incredibly affordable price of $41,000, but if we signed today, he'd bring it down to only $39,000 and even cut the down payment! We would even qualify for an incredible 17% interest rate!

We of course said no, he cut the price even more, cut the other "management" fees even more, bla bla bla, typical used car salesman stuff.

After a few more turn downs on our end, he seemingly admitted defeat to get his supervisor to get do an exit interview to make sure he did his job right (lie #4).

His supervisor took things to another level of sales.  Instead of the used car salesman, she played hard ball.  I kindly asked her not to waste her (or my) time since we had already made up our mind not to purchase at this time.  We said we needed to consider the purchase, budget our money, and then come back at another time to finalize the purchase. To that, she responded "Well when you're ready to let me do my job, I'll come back and finish my presentation" and promptly stormed off from our table.

Our companion seemed mildly shocked, and just continued where she left off, accusing me of not being spontaneous, saying I should know something good when it's staring me in the face, and shouldn't analyze everything so much.  Not only that, but if we denied his offer today, we could never again qualify for such an amazing deal from the company (lie #5, we can qualify for the discounted rate next year).

His supervisor came back, we denied them a few more times, then were finally led downstairs to do an official exit interview (lie #6).  This time, we met someone from corporate who hid under the cover of a grayed old man, who was completely on our side for being bullied by aggressive sales people.  He then offered to cut their amazing offer in half to only $5000 today, but again we wouldn't qualify for the offer if we didn't sign today (lie #7).  At that point, we were so burned we would never want to purchase anything from this company.  Before the harassment, we actually were considering making a purchase from them next year.

We finished his survey, got our free gifts, waited another 15 minutes, and were finally dropped off back at the Luxor.

Total elapsed time, 5 hours.

We complained to management, got a couple free tickets (not our intention from complaining), and were assured they would take the complaint seriously.  Seven previous lies tell me I'm wrong.

So much for positive word of mouth marketing.

Moral of the story: If you want positive word of mouth marketing, be sure to follow through and make it a pleasant experience for your prospects.

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