Has anyone every shopped a time share shop for T**?

Has anyone every shopped a time share shop for T**? It seems to good to be true, I just want to know if there are any catches?

Thanks

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They are a quite decent company to work with. I have never done their time shares but years ago did a number of restaurant shops for them. Their instructions were clear and well written and their reports straightforward. I occasionally do a job or two for them and the pay has been timely.

I love this company. I have done a couple of them. They are excellent to interface with, have reasonable expectations, pay fairly, and despite the bore of sitting through a timeshare presentation, you still make out with the hotel stay and the free gifts, plus pay and parking, etc. One time, my husband threw out the parking receipt, and I told them that (it was almost $100) but I also said I knew I would not be reimbursed. Without telling me, they contacted the client, and the client paid for the parking, too. :-)

The last time I did one, I went home and looked up the place on eBay. I put in a bid and won...I got double the number of points that they were trying to sell me for a $30,000 investment for less than $1000. The maintenance fees are less than we can rent it for if we don't use it (since it is a HI property, and they are very tradeable and rentable.) Unfortunately, as an owner, I can no longer do the shops except the rare one for owners.

I would work for this company any day I could.

:-)

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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton

I have done four of their timeshare stays. I have really come to loath the sales pitches, but the locations have been interesting and useful for access to shops in locations outside of my ordinary travel routes. Shoppers who take friends and/or family with them will probably get more than their money's worth out of these. For solo shoppers who do not swim or ski (depending on location, lol) they may be less pleasant.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I've checked their site for over a year now and I've never seen a single job posting. Do they ever post jobs? Do you get these offers through email?

Also, I have links for a sassie site and a clientsmart site for them. I am not sure which one is used or if they use both.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2010 05:31AM by shopperbright.

They use clientsmart for Timeshares.

I did a Timeshare 90 minute presention only for the folks that do Ikea, a long time ago. Extremely boring, would do one if a Timeshare stay was included. I check out TNS, and have applied, but the distance doesn't warrent the airline fee, as I'd have to rent a car and on and on....the problem is, you have to have done a Timeshare to get one, another catch 22.

Live consciously....

You have to bide your time and wait for the right timeshare to get started. They have ones for first-timers as well and some more local locations, Irene.

I've done 3 timeshare presentations (not for the the company in question) this year and need a bit more time off before sitting through one again. They're excruciating!!

Irene, the one I did first was for a shopper who had shopped previously so they could have purchased a "discovery" membership. But they gave it to me and fixed it up on the client end so that I had the "membership." In the end, the only difference, I felt, was that they put a stronger, slicker salesperson on that one than on the others, where I was a passerby or a first time visitor. That was because I guess they felt that since they had hooked you in once, they had a better shot of closing you. It only meant the badgering took lots longer.

Dee has hit the nail on the head!

I also had to wait until there was an assignment available for someone who had not done a shop (and gotten on the client's record system thereby) so that I could take what amount to "follow-up" shops for people who supposedly have "joined" with a trial package.

The pitches are excruciating, yes! The actually make me angry.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I was never offered anything but movie checks (which I never accepted from TNS). I also never see any jobs in my state on the board.

I've seen very little in my area (if anything). Someone I know did a movie theatre for them and said that the form was absolutely horrific. I'm wondering if anyone here has done one of those for this company -- I guess what I'm really wondering is if this person (a relatively inexperienced shopper) had unrealistic expectations as to what is reasonable!

Back to the subject of time shares, I'd do a shop if the fee was good. I endured a presentation once, not as a shopper, and the guy got VERY nasty toward the end. Actually, I think the ONLY way I might do this again is AS a shopper! Oh, if I only had that opportunity then...

nicely,
The fee is okay for the report. Mostly the "pay" is in the value of the hotel room and amenities for you and your family, and/or because the room makes it convenient to schedule a ton of other shops away from your home base. The survey is a snap.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

The report for the TNS timeshares is a nothing, a real nothing. They want the digital recording. The tape ends up getting played to the agent 6 months after the shop (yes, I know this for a fact, as I have a relative who works as a clerk in the sales offices at that timeshare company.) In my opinion, the pay is "battle pay" for the pain of dealing with the presentation. :-)

"Battle Pay." So true. So true. I was fuming for days after the sales pitch in Atlantic city. BUT, that 3 night stay enabled me to do some $75-100 video shops without paying for hotel. (But getting a travel allowance.)

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I can't seem to find the sign up area for this company. Anyone care to help me find it...I found their website.

They actually have two websites. [tns.clientsmart.com] you will see the little 'click here to register as a shopper'. This seems to be the active site these days. They also still have a SASSIE site, but I don't see a link there to become a shopper and have not seen jobs posted there in more than a year.

I just did their grocery store, so, maybe I'll get a Timeshare through that. I did apply for a Timeshare in Atlantic City (where my boyfried and I could meet, he's in New York), bur alas, didn't get it.

Live consciously....

Oh you cougar you

How do you know his age???? I'll tell you, a mere 10yrs. younger, I wouldn't call him a teenie bopper, maybe in his dreams. When there's no one alive or without a walker, go younger baby!!

Live consciously....

You had told us he was younger sometime back. :-)

Doubt that since he's always been his age. You called me a Cougar, so I probably played along.

Live consciously....

Yes I am sure he has always been his age. Haven't we all?

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