Interesting story. I've always avoided these, since the drain on my time isn't worth the freebie to me.
Other thoughts:
1) Signing a contract that you intend to cancel later, sounds like a really bad idea. Even if by law you have a few days to cancel it, there's always the possibility of something going awry in the process.
2) Not sure why you didn't just take your wife aside and explain what was going on, especially the part about being able to buy shares on the secondary market for much cheaper. She still gets her nice vacations and you get to save a lot of money.
3) No pics of the "closer" = fail.
