Selling practice

Selling practice

As frequent visitors to Indonesia over the past 15 years, we have been increasingly impressed by the improvement in the standard of living of the average Indonesian. To a large degree, this has been the result of the government's economic policies and the exercise of tight controls over foreign investment and direct participation in business activities within Indonesia.

However, we have recently discovered an enterprise in Bali that appears to offer no tangible benefits to the Indonesian economy. This involves the sale of timeshares to mostly English tourists on behalf of a Singapore based company.

While visiting the new Matahari department store in Jl. Pantai Kuta on Jan. 15, 1996, we were approached by a pleasant Balinese man on the steps and asked if we would mind completing a tourist survey. This lasted a few minutes and we were invited to draw a prize from a large envelope he was carrying. I won the first prize, seven nights free accommodation in a five star hotel, and my wife won a Bali T-shirt.

We were then led to a quiet corner office some 100 meters from the store to claim our prizes. To our surprise the office was occupied by a young English girl who explained that to receive our prices we must attend a one hour presentation on the hotel chain she represented.

We agreed and were led upstairs to a large room with many tables and chairs and attended by a purported Balinese named Wawan -- a most unusual Balinese name! Other tables were also occupied by tourists, but were attended by Englishmen.

It was clear from the presentation that this was indeed a timeshare proposition. And this method of selling has had considerable bad publicity in Australia, we explained that we were not interested in committing to any further obligations at this stage. At the end of the hour and after completing a further questionnaire, we were taken back downstairs and told by another lady that our prizes were no longer available to us.

Feeling somewhat foolish, but determined not to let these people win, we teamed up with a bunch of English people and sought out the original English girl to remind her of her previous commitment.

Eventually we were told that we could have one of the prizes and received a voucher for the free accommodation. The conditions on claiming the prize were very restrictive, and made it unlikely that we would ever take it up.

This is a business being conducted in Bali. But except for a few Indonesians employed to lure tourists to the office, it involves tourists and a Singaporean company staffed by English people. We can only ask how this benefits Indonesia and how these foreigners obtained work permits, if they did!

LYN and BARRY FOX

Victoria, Australia