Hacker News Reader

> I was watching the gullible filling out their "loan applications" and setting themselves up for $500/month for the next ten to twenty years before they could pay off the 'loan'.

I presume that quite a few of these are actually timeshare employees playing the role of "conspicuously convinced punter"

View on HN

That is quite possible. I presumed the 'open plan sales room' was exactly to play on 'follow the herd' mentality. These guys were slick enough that they very well may have filled half or more of the room with plants to further fuel 'herd' mentality.

Interesting - the presentation I saw was careful to pitch each family separately and not even walk them past one another. I assume it was partly for the feeling of exclusivity, and partly to avoid letting any awkward questions like "don't those fees turn this into a total ripoff?" pollute multiple buyers.

I wonder which approach works best? (Though I guess if there are enough plants, you could get both effects going at once.)

Perhaps they were A/B testing the approaches?

let's hope.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com