Pushy Sales People near Magnum

These people are at every Paramount park too! It annoying

really. 

^Not to stop the CF bashing, but...

Is there a chance that the deal with the Paramount Parks was worded in such a way that when CF took over they had to let them in?

Just a thought.

"Pushy sales people" isn't that redundant?

Here's an idear, ask them where they like to go for fun and/or vacation and then tell them you will be honding them when they are out on their vacation/day out.

tambo said:
I think it just reinforces the idea that CP has turned into the money-grubbing corporate entity that everyone said they were turning into.

That's not a fair statement at all. Disney is making a killing, and people gladly hand over their money for the experience. You can make a killing and deliver a top notch experience and have both the customer and the company benefit.

loneranger7281 said:
I get taken in by them coming back from challenge park. I filled out the paper to win something (probably a mistake). He would not let it go. I told him no like 6 times and he still pushed while i filled out the paper. I only filled it out to entertain him, but sheesh.

be strong just say no

Disney is making money hand over fist on their own properties (the timeshares) and they do it with the exact opposite of today's standard for the timeshare business. There is no hard sell at all. It is very passive.

I haven't heard a lot about this Cedar Point "pitch" but it sounds to me like an unrelated company that owns timeshares giving a hard sell to passers-by in the park. I can only assume Cedar Fair granted permission for that and has some type of contract in place whereby they are making some money. To me that does smack a little of "money-grubbing".

Put some 15 year old foreign girls on the beach with the pitch "braid your hair pretty lady?" along with the timeshare pitches in the park and suddenly the Peninsula has become Cancun.

Very true, Disney offers a wide variety of options for almost everything you would expect from a park, and at just high enough prices that you don't feel guilty paying for it and they still have a healthy profit margin. The trick is being consistent, and having the quality be such that you don't mind the cost. The food prices at CP might slip by if the whole experience was quality. $14 for a Subway is ridiculous when you have to stand in line, put your order together, tell them 3 times what kind of chips you want, fight a line for a refill, etc.,like at any other Subway, but if you get to sit down, have someone give you your drink and chips first while you wait for your sandwich, get free refills on the drink, then they serve you your sub in something other than a plastic bag while you sit and relax in some A/C, it's not as bad. I had a hard time supporting Disney for a while because I felt it was a rip-off, especially when I had friends working there and Eisner was laying people off right and left, but when you go to the parks and experience what they offer with theming, housing and food, really the whole experience, they put out a great product for the price. It makes it feel worth it, is my point.

Here is a way to get at the timeshare hucksters: Just tell them you spent $50 on cold cuts and chips for the family and that unbudgeted expense means you have no money for timeshares after all.

I don't mean this to turn into a CP vs Disney thread. I'm just saying I don't have a problem with Disney trying to sell Disney timeshares (that pretty much sell themselves) in Disney parks. Again, I've gone through the process of almost buying a Disney timeshare and even when it got down to the wire I never felt pressured into signing on the dotted line. In fact, I'm sure I'm still in their system but I don't get calls or mailings from them.

You cannot compare that process to what seems to be occuring at Cedar Point, at least from the sound of it.

I was very bothered by these "salespeople" this weekend. I have encountered timeshare sales at other parks, but the employees at CP seem incredibly more pushy than the others I have encountered. We would purposefully try to walk on the other side of the midway, and they would still talk to us until we got far enough away that they would turn around. One man, even approached us twice within five minutes.

If Cedar Fair wants to have these people there... fine... but please, don't let them harass us more than the Games staff already does.

To avoid these people, would pretending to speak a different language help? My boyfriend is pretty fluent in Spanish.

Supposedly there is some sort of invisible circle that they can not leave so if you walk outside of that, they can't bother you. I don't know exactly where it is. I think people marathoning Magnum might be safe if they stay close to the fence and cut back behind the pretzel place.

I agree these people are annoying and I think it sort of speaks to how desperate Cedar Fair is for cash - especially in the short term - because I can't see how selling vacation packages to other destinations on your property can be a great long term business strategy.

Or appear to be in a no position to be able to afford a timeshare, ie. look like a college/grad student :).

^^ - doesn't necessarily mean they are desperate. For all we know, this company approached Cedar Point about setting up there.

Just need to sprinkle some Liquid Ass around their stand.

I don't think the company is "desperate" for cash. It doesn't mean they don't want more of it though. This, however, isn't the way to do it at the expense of guest impressions.

LiquidAss looked funny until I saw Howard "I invented everything tell em fred" Stern on there. Wouldn't buy ever.

They use it for some Producer Joe's stunts on Free Beer and Hotwings. Can't imagine that the Liquid Ass Barf Scarf stunt was much fun (he had to go to stores while wearing a scarf, wrapped around his neck, with this stuff in it).

*EDIT - fixed link *

Why not let Visa, MasterCard, Discover et al put tables on the midways and offer a free coolie bag with every credit card sign up?

This is just tacky. I expect it at the Geauga County Fair...not at Cedar Point or any other amusement park for that matter.

Now again, if this is some type of new Cedar Fair business venture then I will withhold judgment. But, as far as I know they have not built any timeshare units. And frankly, who would want to own a timeshare in Sandusky, Ohio? What...Scranton wasn't available?

ladyjerrico said:
To avoid these people, would pretending to speak a different language help? My boyfriend is pretty fluent in Spanish.

I do the same thing, but I'm fluent in Spanish, however none of my friends are so they just pretend to speak it. Its rather funny.

Jeff said:

tambo said:
I think it just reinforces the idea that CP has turned into the money-grubbing corporate entity that everyone said they were turning into.

That's not a fair statement at all. Disney is making a killing, and people gladly hand over their money for the experience. You can make a killing and deliver a top notch experience and have both the customer and the company benefit.

But you have to agree the experience at CP is not in the same ballpark as Disney. That is why people gladly hand over their money to Disney. But when I'm at CP being raped for low-grade dog food on top of lousy service, to me, it makes things like sales people on the midways, look like a money-grab. I'm pretty sure Kinzel would rather not have his vacation disturbed by sales people just like most of us.

In this game, right or wrong, perception is reality, and sales people intruding on your vacation at an amusement park just gives the wrong perception of the park, imho.

-Tambo

What is it with people giving CP a free pass because "they're not Disney?" Who cares? It's where I'm plopping down a lot more money these days, because I feel like I'm getting more value out of what I'm paying for. Let's do the math here... Cedar Fair has flat or decreasing attendance while "offset by slightly higher per cap" year after year, while Disney keeps seeing attendance and revenue going up. I don't have to agree with you because I think ignoring what Disney does is like burying your head in the sand.

And for the record, I wasn't defending Cedar Fair for these slugs on the midway. I took issue with you describing them as "money grubbing" which is silly because every business exists to make as much money as possible. Those that don't are something we call "bankrupt."