Well, sure enough the timeshare sales meeting was torture, not the most torturous that we have experienced in the past but certainly time consuming and it took all my patience to sit quietly and come out at the finish with dignity. We were picked up at 10.15am by Stuart the mains salesman for Silverpoint and Julie who was on the tour as she was in training. I thought great, double sales tactics and from the onset, I didn’t have a great impression. Stuart was in his 60’s; he was a big bloke with grey, thinning long hair. Julie was around the same age as me and seemed nice enough. They explained that they first would be taking us to a café for coffee but on the way there we had to stop off at the dry cleaners to pick up Stuart’s wine drenched suit. We sat in the café for a whole hour whilst Stuart & Julie did their best at finding out all about us. Phil & I both sat there with our arms crossed, determined not to give anything away but it’s not in our characters to withhold, so in the end we answered all of their questions. I had to laugh, because by the end of the hour Stuart said that we were nothing like their usual timeshare owners! We could have told him that in the beginning but at least he worked out for himself.
After the café they drove us to Palm Beach to look at at a studio apartment, having ascertained that we if we were going to buy a timeshare it would be at the cheap end. The studio was okay, nice enough with a good position, right by the beach and in the middle of town. Julie then showed us a penthouse apartment on the top floor whilst Stuart went down to the lobby to chain smoke. The penthouse was fabulous, I cannot lie. It had a superb private terrace with great views of the island. It also had views of the sea from all of the rooms. Oh, if I had a big pot of money going spare then I would be tempted. After the viewings we had more small talk and then we were driven to the Silverpoint headquarters for the hard sell.
The sales room was packed with couples just like ourselves, sat in front of a big flat screen Apple laptop and a salesman. We were given coffee and then sat while Stuart went in for the sell, which I have to say, he mostly directed at Phil. I won’t bore you with all the details but suffice to say there was lots of pressure. In the end Stuart said we could go for option a) sign up there and then or b) go away without a hard contract but a 12 month offer to buy in the future. Phil said we’d go with option b because he wanted to get his cancer treatment out of the way and get the all clear before signing up for anything. Stuart said he believed him about the cancer, why on earth would he think we would lie? He said that normally he had to keep us there for half a day but he got permission from the top man to release us. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to be free to leave! Three and a half hours was about as much as I could take, plus it was way past our lunch time. These time share promotion holidays have worked for us this year, but be warned, they are not for the faint hearted.
I had the laptop in my bag so as soon as we came out of headquarters; we headed straight to Manhattan’s for lunch and internet access. Actually Phil did think the points based timeshare scheme was attractive but I had to talk him down over lunch; it’s not the right thing for us at the moment and after hearing Dave & Eva’s timeshare hell story I am not convinced. Dave & Eva can’t give their 2 week timeshare away for love nor money. As they can’t sell they are stuck with the £800 yearly maintenance charge forever. If they cancel the direct debit they will be taken to court and when they die their children then become responsible for the maintenance payments. So beware, timeshare is for life!
The timeshare sales pitch pretty much took up most of our Wednesday and after lunch we just went back to our apartment and chilled out until bedtime. On Thursday we met up with Dave & Eva and walked down to the beach for lunch. We had planned to take them to La Taverna but as it was shut down for some kind of holiday, we found a lovely little Spanish restaurant inland. And actually, it turned out to be the right decision; we went for the cheap menu and not the al a carte but it was still very nice. The boys had the kebabs and Eva and I choose the fish. Eva and I shared a bottle of house white and I have to say this was the nicest white wine that I have tasted in Tenerife. Dave & Eva are great company, of course we have quite a few travel stories to tell, but they in turn, have quite a few of their own. After lunch we walked up the hill back to our apartments and somehow, we ended up having drinks at the Beverley Hills Club. It wasn’t happy hour but what the heck, it was our last day and Phil was rocking and rolling, it’s nice for him to let his hair down now and then. It was gone six by the time we got back to ours, so it turned to be a very long lunch indeed but what a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
This morning we packed our cases and checked out of Beverley Hills Heights and got a taxi to Albatros in Golf del Sol which is where we stayed in January. I tried to book an extra night so we didn’t have to move but they said they were fully booked. I find this hard to believe because the complex has been virtually deserted this week. But I don’t suppose it matters much. Luckily we were able to get into our room straight away which was a nice surprise because check-in isn’t until 4pm. The good thing about Albatros is that it’s close to the airport and they have an internet connection on site. We don’t get it in our room which is a shame but I guess you can’t have everything. So home James for us tomorrow which is a little sad, but hey we’ve still got the rest of the day, so I shall sign off now, grab some lunch and then relax and bare my body to the sun for one last time.
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