She Tried to Sell Timeshares in Mexico, and the Job Nearly Killed Her John Johnson - Newser
go to original July 28, 2016

Rosie Campos may be the worst timeshare saleswoman in the history of timeshare sales, and she provides a blow-by-blow account of her hellish experience in an essay at narrative.ly.

Campos is American, but her husband is Mexican, and a few years back, they made the epic decision to move to Mexico with their two kids, ages 5 and 3, in the hope of a better life. They didn't have much money or even jobs lined up, and when Campos ran into a timeshare sales supervisor soon after their arrival, it seemed like a blessing when he told her she could make thousands of dollars a week getting tourists to sign up for a presentation. She signed on as an OPC, or Off Premises Contact, her pay contingent on luring couples to her kiosk, then getting them to travel an hour to a hotel and then sit through an even longer sales pitch.

On her first day, she shadowed a veteran and learned the secret: You have to lie. "I didn’t get any couples that day, or the next week, or month," writes Campos. "I hated lying, and as a consequence, over the next six months I learned that I sucked as an OPC." That led to unrelenting pressure from her boss: “You need to come in earlier and stay longer. No excuses. You want your kids to go hungry?” She went weeks at a time without a day off. Meanwhile, her kids were struggling with the transition and her husband was struggling to find work of his own.

"I could feel panic settle in my chest," recalls Campos. Money was tight, rent was due, and her kids were hungry. "This job would kill me. If my family didn’t starve to death first, I would most certainly have a heart attack." And thus came another big family decision: They moved back to the US.

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Image: narrative.ly

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