Bluegreen Corp. Reviews

However we were not excited about the 2 hour presentation that we were required to attend our first morning after a 9 hour drive the previous day. I will say that it was very aggravating that the "120 minute" presentation turned out to be almost 5 hours start to finish. The sales pitch was good, but a little preachy but much too long! We then were assigned to a nice elder lady to complete the pitch process. I am a very upfront person and immediately told her we were interested and just wanted to know prices. I had to get very stern with her and insist that I did NOT want to sit through anymore sales pitch but just wanted prices. They were not pushy but definitely put on as to "how special your business is" when you know everyone around you is being offered the same thing.

They were very flexible and accommodated our budget with a very generous points package. By the end I was hungry, tired and really anxious to leave. But left feeling good about our purchase and they had already set up a return visit 1 month later, 4 nights/5 days in a cabin in Pigeon Forge. We arrived late, did an after hours check in (they had everything prepared and hassle-free). We arrived at our breathtaking cabin, and really was just beside ourselves! The only issue was the follow up appointment was at 8 AM the next morning! Not what you want to do your first day on vacation, especially when you have your 3 year old Tasmanian devil child with you lol. So we slumped out of bed at 7, got dressed and luckily drove the 2 miles to the resort.

We were a few minutes late but met with the most courteous and understanding people! They then handed us over to the nicest most knowledgeable sales rep named Beth. She took us to her private office that had a whole room connected filled with toys and snacks for kids and she spent over an hour chatting and answering all of our questions/concerns. They do try to have you upgrade your points package for a discounted rate which we did do -- we went from 7000 points to 15000 a year and it was too good to pass up. (but this vacation company will really only benefit people that have exponential money to spend...it doesn't guarantee free vacations). She showed us how to book online hassle-free and even walked us through our first vacation booking which took 7 minutes!! Awesome.

We left there and went to the original presentation area to redo the legal documents. Beth came with us and sat on the floor playing dinosaurs with our son for the hour we took there. She then recommended a fabulous restaurant and gave us her personal contact info for any questions. I honestly couldn't be any happier with our overall experience! We still have yet to experience the roll over points, bonus nights or paying the maintenance fees so I understand things could change, but so far I have 2 vacations planned, one for next month, and a family trip to Disney in September and couldn't be more excited!

I have read over 100 reviews so far and it all seems very shaky considering I just spent an exorbitant amount of money with this company so I'm hoping we fare better. I do think that a lot of people commit to these offers blindly by taking the "free deal" bait and are disappointed when it is too good to be true. But same as gambling the house always wins and if this company really gave away everything for free they would be bankrupt. You have to have enough money that it is a good deal compared to what you would normally spend on the same level vacation. You can't just expect that if you cannot afford to go to the Bahamas for a week normally, that buying this package will now magically allow you to go. It is to make vacationing less expensive and more realistic. Not just a lifetime of free vacations. Must go in with eyes wide open.

Anyway, for the uninitiated, here's a sales primer. The four basic sales objections are:

-- No trust

The salespeople at Bluegreen have crafted a sales process that seeks to dispel all of these. They already pre-qualified you by income when you signed up for your stay, so they feel the "no money" objection is pretty much off the table. They work hard to make themselves likable to you in the group and one-on-one presentations, hoping to eliminate the "no trust" objections. One of the ways they do this in the one-on-one is to play good cop/bad cop. The adviser is the good cop, while his/her sales manager is the bad cop. It's the good cop's job to soften you up, while it's the bad cop's job to close the sale. If you understand all this up front, your time with the sales team will be much less stressful.

The Bluegreen sales process comes down to crushing "no need" by extolling the virtues of vacationing, equating your love of vacations with your love for your family ("Think of the memories you'll make together!"), and "no hurry" by offering you an if-you-purchase-today offer. Your job, as a prospect, is to evaluate the offer. If it's for you, then sign up. If not, you need to create more sales resistance than they're willing to overcome. It's that simple. In actuality, it's a bit like fencing.

Personally, as a sales professional, I found the process to be too manipulative, filled with leading sales questions and other tactics. My wife and I dealt with the event by 1) declaring up front that we only had a fixed amount of time to spend with them before we had to leave for a scheduled appointment, and 2) connecting with the "good cop" salesman on a professional level, causing him to see me as a human being, not merely a "mark." It was fairly clear to them -- or ought to have been -- that we were not willing prospects. We were out of there in two hours, relatively unscathed.

Some other reviewers have complained that the sales session lasted several hours. I'll wager this happened because you made the mistake of offering some buying signals, such as asking about price or other details. If you offer these hard-closers any little hope of making a deal with you, they're going to run with it as long as they can. I'm not saying it's entirely your fault, should two hours turn into four or more, but you're not entirely faultless either. Be careful what signals you send these folks. They're very tuned in to any interest you show, much as a wolf is attuned to the movements of a young animal that's been separated from its herd. These are hard-closers, and will make use of ANY cues you send, be they intentional or otherwise. Don't be angry at the wolf; it's merely acting on its core impulses.

Lastly, there's an unspoken rule concerning objections among salespeople, which I'd like you to know. If I'm selling something, what I'm really trying to do is help my customer make the best decision for them. If I believe in my product, I'm justified in suspecting that their purchase of my product is the best choice they can make. (There are some salespeople who are honest enough to discern when a purchase is not warranted, and these folks are worth their weight in gold.) Naturally, customers have a few objections to buying, often because they simply don't have enough information. HOWEVER, if the customer understands the offer, and then *communicates the same objection more than once, using the same language*, that objection needs to be respected. It's the continual disputation after the second objection that gets customers angry. We've all been there.

The sales presentation I just lived through was literally filled with ignoring this principle, and would have been infuriating, had I not had the 25+ years of sales in my own professional background. To disregard a customer's legitimate objection is rude and unprofessional. I find it to be a hostile tactic. My response: after having my objection brushed aside for the fourth time, I angled my head down, staring fixedly at the center of the table. This was my hostile act, my statement that negotiations were done for good. From that moment on, it was over, and the Bluegreen folks knew it. I wasn't mad, but I wasn't happy either.

Anyway, I hope this review helps someone. Personally, I feel that the time-share offer from Bluegreen is oversold, meaning that they promise more than they can possibly deliver. The time-share idea is fine, provided you can accommodate the expectations of your owners. The fact that so many owners have trouble booking their trips is really all you need to know. The fact that you can buy someone else's Bluegreen deed for $10 or less on Ebay is the exclamation point.

After we saw John enter a office at the end of the big room we were in and laugh about what he was dealing with on as customers we heard the older man that was called Phil walk out and say "just do whatever it takes to get the deal and we will clean it up later." We later found out his name was Phil **. He had a red and frustrated face and was very shark like on the floor. He constantly seemed to be hovering over what he thought would be a sale for his managers. We asked to speak to Mr. ** and our manager John once again said he was not really needed for our presentation.

What really made me alarmed was when I heard Mr. ** tell John to express to another customer that they were approved for a Bluegreen credit card and that they would receive it in ten days. Then John said "yeah, but they were denied" and Mr. ** said "they won't know for ten days. Ask them to write a check for the down payment and tell them to pay themselves back when the credit card comes in." They actually laughed. OMG, this is criminal!

Ok, so we finally got suckered in and had been taken to a suite of nice rooms in the hotel where we were staying and shown what we could avail ourselves of should we pick Vegas. Really big, roomy, pool table, nice individual bedrooms and baths. Snazzy upscale kitchen with all the bells and whistles. We thought, "Wow, we could come here with two other couples and have a really nice place to crash!" Never happened. Never was available. Heard many times, "I'll try to see what we can get for you in Las Vegas". Never happened!

As with many of the complaints about Blue Green, whose reps promised to ALWAYS beat the prices we could find on any vacation, never happened! We have always been able to beat Blue Green prices on the internet or with local travel agencies. So, why are we staying with them you might say? Good question. Guess we were slow learners or just don't like confrontation. Have tried to use our points to no avail. Ever! Nothing is available....EVER! Or wrong dates, or "possibly" a waiting list which is later avoided or the next person they transfer you to says they didn't ever have a waiting list. All lies, it would seem!

Well, now we are 68 yo, retired, and you'd think we'd get smarter, right?? Been making the payments like good little consumers every month and the steadily increasing maintenance fees each year. Initially for weeks, then months, we would call them trying to just get the additional 10000 points that they had given us a numbered certificate for just by calling when we got home. Called and called and called and called, ad infinitum. Some of the reps said there was no way we were given a certificate for 10000 extra pts. Everyone had their stories down and said, "We don't give certificates for free points or any points!" Many got hateful when we would push THAT issue. A couple of times I even remarked to my wife, "If they are so hateful and negative, why even keep this job they have?"

So, since wife used to work for a huge law firm in Denver and (here we go, you'll enjoy this) I was an investigator for over 20 years with a local law enforcement agency (think we'd have figured this out, right?) HAS ANYONE EVER CONSIDERED A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST BLUEGREEN BEFORE we all get smart, take the credit hit and tell the collection agencies to buzz off??? We may check with another attorney or two but, gosh, think of all the folks out there who are good little consumers and paying ALL that they owe every month?!? Bluegreen HAS to be making a small fortune off the backs of these honest Americans. I'll admit, taking the credit hit is something I do not want to do but as one other person (so far) has said considering their age and all, basically, what have they got to lose. We don't want to die and get our kids stuck with these leeches, that's for sure.

As I said, we are retired and live off SS and one retirement fund so we could definitely the $200+/mo and over a $1000 (now) a month for the maintenance fees. If you take the time to read this lengthy tirade, PLEASE don't give a dime to BG and surely someone has a good attorney anywhere in this country that would consider the money they might make, let alone all the thanks from us little guys, for taking up a CLASS ACTION SUIT. Maybe you can't do that on a scam by a vacation/time share group, but it would sure make one wonder. Any attorneys got scammed by these smooth-talking liars? Help!!

We spoke with Bluegreen who said we would have to talk to Universal so we spoke to guest relations at the park who said they would be happy to refund our tickets. However, they were only able to refund us what they had received from Bluegreen. Universal did all they could do to correct the problem, ensuring their future business would not be impacted. But, Bluegreen, in a true show of corporate greed and profit-over-service, denied us any refund of their half of the profits. After months of trying to reconcile the issue through the Better Business Bureau and Bluegreen's corporate office, Bluegreen has still denied our request, an amount equal to two weeks of my salary but a grain of sand in their pockets.

I have been forced to contact a lawyer to fight for my money. Is it just greed or is there discrimination at play? I'm not sure, but a warning to any who intend to visit a Bluegreen resort: do not purchase attraction tickets! They want your money and care little to ensure your future business. This policy means no matter what extenuating circumstances arise, they will not help you if it means losing a dollar.

Before she transferred me over to verification, she gave me her number and extension for me to call her if I had any questions; then she switch me over to a woman name Kristen for verification. While I was asking questions to verify what I was told, Kristen was getting really irritated and impatient with me. Customer service is really important to me when I'm giving you my business, so I was turned off by her attitude. I asked again what if I changed my mind in the near future and she repeatedly told me that I have 30 days to cancel and get my refund back. I also asked her if I had to attend the 120 minutes presentation while I was on vacation and she said I HAD to because it came with the package and that it would be "fun". Sorry, but why would you want to attend a 120 minutes long presentation about their products on your vacation? When I got back to my hotel, I google Bluegreen Vacation because I never heard of them before and all I read was bad reviews and a lot of similar stories of what had just happened to me. That "120 minutes presentation" that they kept talking about was selling their timeshares to get more money out of you and could last 3+ hours long according to some customers who had already attend it.

I knew that I had to cancel right away and get my money back. I had to call the next day (Sunday) since it was after hours. At first I called the number Kelly gave me, but it was wrong. I waited for five minutes on the phone and at the end, the operator told me to hang up. Not surprising after I read the reviews about how their agents treat their customers when they want to cancel and get their refund back. So, I called their customer service number and I reached an agent name Ebony. She was really nice and I told her I wanted to cancel. She asked me why and I told her I changed my mind then she told me she's going to transfer me to another agent, so we can get this taken care of. I was on the line for less than five minutes and Ebony came back on saying that all the agents were busy and she will have an agent call me later on the day. I asked her why couldn't she just do it, but she told me that she didn't have the authorization to do it. So, I told her I'll call back later if I don't hear from them. She said okay and we hung up. I was really skeptical at this point since I had read some reviews where the customers was told the same thing, but no agents ever called them back.

At this point, I really thought my $200 went down the drain. Well, my luck changed in less than ten minutes. An agent did call back and we did cancel my "vacation package" that was free. She told me the money will be refunded back in 3-5 business day and I also requested her to send me an email confirmation that it was indeed cancel. Within 3-5 days, I did receive my refund back and I also got the email confirmation later on the day. Please read this before you decide to pursue your "free" vacation package: http://www.bluegreengetaways.com/details-of-participation. It's not really free and any information that you list for drawings could be use.

I telephoned the customer service department at 800 567-5877 to inquire about the address. I discovered it was still wrong. I have been reading the reviews on this forum regarding the address on the driver's license not matching the original data and the denial of the vouchers at the upcoming presentation. I informed the customer service representative that being a seasoned professional and natural skeptic; I expected the address on the application to be consistent with my Identification. I want no surprises or any drama upon my site visit to the resort. My review is part testimonial, part validation, to document my concerns. I have no interest in owning a "timeshare" and have expressed my thoughts to Mr. ** . As a contractual obligation, I agreed to hone my listening skills by attending the upcoming 90 minute presentation. My response will be "no thank you".....Been a business owner for a long time, lot of experiences, and no interest in purchasing a time share. I will enjoy my short four night stay, with the hotel being paid by Bluegreen Corp.

My financial obligations will be the taxes and incidentals at the hotel and obtaining my vouchers for two person Carnival Cruise to be scheduled within 18 months of my site visit to your resort. Thank you for the hotel stay and my tickets to Carnival Cruise lines; my relative is an entertainer on this cruise line and look forward to seeing her performance. My current review is 3 stars. Should the expectation be met after the "time share" meeting, the review will be modified accordingly.

I persisted, so they said they would work on it and call me back. Several times, over several phone calls, over several weeks, "We're working on it and we will call you back." I understood they were blowing me off, but I was determined to get an answer. Finally they told me there was no way I was getting a refund. Rules are rules, no refund after 30-days. They are a heartless company with aggressive sales tactics and they have iron-clad policies in place to work against you.

I would NOT recommend this to anyone. Not even my enemies. Finally sold it back to Blue Green just to get out of it and like I said never used our points for any trip and they cancelled my reservations for the one that took me 1 1/2 hours to book. So with our $15,000 plus dollars they wouldn't even let us go on the only trip we finally could get booked!! I hope anyone that is thinking about Blue Green will take my experience and loss of $15,000 plus and run the other way.

I finally got in touch with someone at the Bluegreen Corporation Shenandoah Crossing Resort. Well after she spoke with the Director of Sales she emailed me back to tell me these exact words "He remains firm on the fact that there wasn't misrepresentation here as when you were advised that you were upgrading your deed, you were in fact doing so and that terminology didn't have any ties to the financial aspect of the contract. Because you did agree to line 11 of your owner confirmation agreement and there was no question during the recording regarding your prior payment, we are unable to cancel the contract due to it being out of rescission." How it is possible for the Director of Sales to tell me that terminology didn't have any ties to the financial aspect of the contract? The upgrade was sold to us under false pretense and I don't even know how to go about getting out of contract at this point. I am very disappointed and will not use their vacation resorts ever again.

Reservations: Every time I call to make a reservation, they are booked. Every time, everywhere, never fails.

The Latest: For a 1 bedroom in Las Vegas for 2 nights (because you cannot just stay for 1 night) is 4,000 points. I just tried to make reservations for 2 nights in Las Vegas where our friends are getting married next year and they explained to me that even though we have 7,000 points right now, 3,500 will expire in March so when we go in May, we cannot use our points.

Rolling over points: **. They told us we could do this when we bought it. You can't. Well, you can, they just charge you $35.

Interest Paid: $1,147.22.

So, as you can see we have paid $844.91 towards the principal balance in over 2 years.

Staying somewhere else: We tried to use our 'free' weeks somewhere else and of course there was a maintenance fee for that too, it was over $100. Needless to say, we never used our free weeks. We've only used this timeshare for 2 nights, the room was so small and uncomfortable, it was miserable.

They have an answer to every timeshare negative that you have ever heard. They say you are buying real property that allows you to visit any of their resorts based upon a point system which you may purchase points for a fee. You will get a property deed, but that is not defined, only implied. You will get to visit any of their resorts, but that is based upon availability and nothing is committed in writing. You will have maintenance and club fees but they don't like to mention that.

The real bait they get you with is their "BONUS" package that they admit is to get you to commit "today" because such a great offer can never be offered again in accordance with Tennessee real estate law, or so they say. The bonus package gives you discounts on cruises, motels, hotels, and many other vacation purchases. The bonus package has no intrinsic value of its own. You must purchase things so that you can get a discounted price. I suspect that you will always spend much more than you save.

Each time you decline an offer, in accordance with their "low pressure" promise, they feign taking you to collect your free gifts but they get side-tracked with "one last thought" of one better offer that breaks their hearts to give away since the previous offer was at their break-even point. Part of our "free gifts for visiting Bluegreen Resort" included discounts at Bass Pro Shop. Again, got to "spend money to save money" even when it’s free! If you like this concept, this is for you!

As for me, I am having second thoughts of ever going back to Bass Pro Shop. One last thing, visit this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegreen_Corporation - I have a feeling their future will be similar to their past. This economy is getting so shaky that this corporation has to be operating on some thin margins after the chief executives get their generous cuts. We met many wonderful nice people working with Bluegreen at the service level. Bluegreen has exceptional people putting the best foot forward for them. They know how to make a good impression. If you have some money to burn, I can't think of a better group of people to benefit from it by investing in a Bluegreen vacation.

The actual room that they showed us was different than the pamphlet. It was no bigger than the rooms at an Embassy Suites. I was thoroughly unimpressed. To be fair, the opportunity is rather grand. If your job allows you to travel or you don't mind having to pay attention to points and "extras" that they offer and you have lots of cash in your bank account, then this is for you. Also I warn you, be prepared to spend a good amount of green if you decide to take the offer. By the end of the presentation, it would cost us nearly $10,000 to be able to venture their resorts. However, they are willing to finance. Furthermore, they do throw in a free guilt trip if you don't take the offer, topped with a "your loss" cherry on top.

I will say the stay wasn't too bad and we received two 4-Day Cruise vouchers for completing the presentation. It was worth the time but not my money.

We talked to another Bluegreen owner, and learned how hard it was to get vacation dates that you wanted, as well as the type of accommodations you desired (even if you scheduled 13 months in advance.) That's when we started exploring sites, such as this one. We read where everyone was sharing similar grief. We started to realize that once you're 'in' with the company, there is no getting out, so therefore, customer service lacks because there's nothing you can do about it. According to Missouri state law (all states are different), we had five days to withdraw our contract. We withdrew on day 4. Maybe we just got cold feet, but there's something about not having control of our investment that scared us. I wish we would have read reviews prior to signing up, but I'm glad that we got out of the contract just in the nick of time.

Also, we have since gotten a dog and the resorts are not pet friendly. We've had our resort listed for years and no bites, except from scam artists trying to get us to list thru their company with an exorbitant upfront fee (usually $1400... sometimes they already "have a buyer"). This is our last summer to list it. We will be donating it to charity, although I feel guilty because I know it's a waste of money.

We did understand about the maintenance fees etc...with this one HUGE exception. Our understanding from the saleslady was that when the Timeshare was paid in full...and if for some reason we got behind on the MF, our account would simply be put into a state of "suspension or limbo" so as not to be able to book any reservations, etc. until such time as it was brought current. This seemed reasonable to us. However, when I got home, something was nagging at me about what we had just signed up for...so I started digging. I came upon this website. THANK GOD!

What I found out...and what ended up being the deal breaker was that if you go into arrears on your MF, Bluegreen treats those MF exactly like a mortgage...and they WILL FORECLOSE on you with the same force and with all the same ramifications as if it were your actual home. THIS IS NOT GOOD! So, I immediately researched and discovered that in Missouri, I have 5 CALENDAR DAYS...NOT BUSINESS days to rescind and get out of the contract...via written request to Bluegreen in Boca Raton, Florida.

I was on day # 4 on a Friday at about 430pm... I immediately wrote my letter and rushed to the Post Office to get it postmarked in time with a return receipt requested. So we barely made the deadline. So relieved to know we have dodged this huge bullet which would've hung around our necks like a millstone forever. LESSON LEARNED!! BUYER BEWARE OF BLUEGREEN!!! RUN RUN RUN! Be afraid...be very, very afraid!!

Every time I would get up to go, they would offer a free vacation or a free cruise, never telling me that these "free" incentives had hidden fees and regulations that would prevent us from ever using them. We were told that it was such a good investment, that we could sell or even rent it out to make extra money. Again, a lie. If you look on eBay, you will see people trying to sell their timeshares for a penny, or just give them away because even after you pay for the mortgage in full, you will still be responsible for the $800+ maintenance fees every year! AND we have never ever been able to use this company. We have called and tried to book online and every time they say that there is "nothing available". We even asked, "When will there be ANYTHING available?" and they couldn't answer us. We saved up "points" for three years so we could take our daughter to Disney World.

Our daughter has medical problems and she was in the hospital for a month, and the thing that she was looking forward to was this big Disney Resort (that the sellers really pushed during our long presentation). Well, come to find out, points aren't good after each year for any of the resorts like Disney, but they had told us we could save up for this! And when we were told our saved points wouldn't work, we asked where could we go for those points, and they couldn't tell us. Bluegreen should be ashamed of themselves for making money on the backs of hard working people. I don't know how they sleep at night knowing that they are crooks that have found a way to "legally", and I use that word loosely here, swindle people out of their money. I am making it my mission to let as many people as possible know about Bluegreen Resorts so they will not make the same mistake as my family.

My first trip was at Grand Villas in St. Augustine. We did arrive 2 hours early and was told our rooms were not ready. NP, we had shopping to do and they would call when ready. We received our call and checked in. I was told a room number (which I repeated) and off to our room we went. Much to my surprise the housekeeper was not finished and it was a 2 bedroom and not a one bedroom. I thought, my lucky day. They upgraded us... extra rooms?? Whatever... Upgrades are great and putting a good foot forward with this first visit...

I was impressed. I was in a foot cast, very tired after 700 miles of driving, and was ready to unpack and settle down. Sent the hubby and kiddos to pool while I worked and then sat. AAAHHH at last. The phone rang as I was in the process of sitting and guess what?? I was in the wrong room. I stated I was very tired and did not feel that I could repack everything at the moment. I needed to rest (I am old...a senior citizen with a young heart).

NP, they said they would send someone to help, but I must move because the guests for the room are on their way. The maintenance man came and just STOOD and watched me load 3 long carts. He did wheel the cart to the new room. GREAT help!! Later that evening after dinner, I opened the dishwasher and it was nasty. Caked up detergent and some running down the inside front door. That told me the dishes we just used were not clean. The same maintenance man came and said it did not work and could not have another until next day. GREAT!!

I asked for another set of dishes and was told I would have to call front desk and good luck. GREAT!! I did get more dishes and wasted time I could have used to enjoy my vacation. Is that not what I paid for???? Next day I received a new dishwasher and wasted the morning waiting on that. Then off to the required presentation. I called to ask where to go for this presentation, but no answer and finally voice mail. Hey, I only have 30 minutes to deadline!! Finally, a return call and was told to meet in the lobby.

Off we go (GREAT vacation so far... ha). We sit in the only lobby we know of and no one shows, so I go to desk and they tell me, "O, it is in another lobby." Was I supposed to know this???? Nice sales rep, Luis. Apologizes and tells me he will make it up to me for all our disappointments. Don't tell anyone... Sshhh... It is our secret. RED FLAGS!!!! I was so frustrated with all the poor quality, inefficient staff, and dishonesty that I wanted to walk out and lick my wounds. But I paid for this and I WILL HAVE A GOOD VACATION in spite of the circumstances. Did we get anything from Louis???? No. Did we buy??? NO. NO. NO. This was a sampler pkg. To try it out, see how it works, test drive. No thanks. BTW, BlueGreen, we had been interested. That is why we wanted to try it out!!!

More drama... The new dishwasher leaked. I had to keep a towel on the floor. I locked myself out when I stepped outside to look at something. Hubby and kiddos were fishing in the deep blue sea so I had to hobble over to the front desk (I had taken my foot cast off to air the tootsies. Sshhh. don't tell my Doc). I asked for a shuttle back and RELUCTANTLY the security guard lady got stuck with me. Her attitude left me feeling as though I interrupted her cell phone time. GREAT!! Seriously, I am very disappointed with the quality, efficiency, and dishonest tactics.

I am sure this is not the norm for most people. It did happen to me and my family and I hold BlueGreen responsible and liable to make amends. I have been reading the reviews and see that there is a lot of lies and deceptions to sell their product. I have experienced this, so, I would not consider BlueGreen as a vacation choice anymore. Let's hope the next few vacations I have booked will go better than St.Augustine. BTW... St. Augustine is a very interesting and lovely city.

I really don't care about the 7 nights vacation but wanted the Visa card, so my husband and I attended the 90 minutes presentation which lasted 3 hours!! Presentation was not bad at all. They have a great program and good benefits; however, because of our previous experience with timeshare scams, we went knowing we weren't going go purchase anything!! Salesperson was not that pushy. We told him we have a lot of kids and can't travel much and some other stories about unstable work. After several offers (20,000 pts for $35,000 with a $7500 down payment and $530/monthly payment), they knew we weren't interested and sent us on our way.

When you arrive, you must register with them to get your hotel voucher. They also check IDs and verify you have a major credit card. I gave them one with a very low limit to protect myself. They warn you if you do not show up, you are liable for 100% of the total cost of your stay and forfeit your gifts. The next day, we arrived for our presentation. The assign one escort (I use the term salesman) who calls your name and escorts you to the presentation room. After had all gathered, the presenter a guy named Freddy came in, cranked the a/c way down and began the presentation. To my Northern ear, this good old boy reminded me of a cross between an aggressive Joel Osteen and the cartoon character Bobby Hill.

The whole presentation felt a little like a church service, in fact when he wanted to emphasis a point he literally held up a TN real estate regulation book to the audience like a bible and would quote from it. "It is written...., therefore it is TN law" He also invoked religion several times as a reason to buy. "Imagine giving this vacation to someone in your church who cannot afford to vacation? Imagine being able to use this to fulfill your tithe (his words, I swear) to send your preacher on a golf vacation"?

They will present financial numbers that are questionable at best regarding your current vacation budgets. They count on being vague enough to not blatantly lie, while allowing the listener to fill in the gaps and hear what they want. One interesting point Freddy tried to make, he explained they are not allowed to discriminate (which of course is true) but said that was also the reason why they could only offer the deal that day one time. If they allowed people to come back, that would be a form of discrimination, if they offered people different incentives (which we learned for a fact they do) that would also be discrimination. And according to TN real estate law (he holds up book again at this point) that is illegal.

Another interesting point, Freddy will trash all the non BG hotels you could stay at as Roach Motels (funny they put us up in one to sell us BG) and claim they only wash the comforters once a year (I swear this is exactly what he said). Also if you pay less than $100 a night, he says you're in a roach motel. We later learned most of the hotels in Pidgeon Forge go for less than $100 a night rack rate.

So after 90 minutes in the presentation room, we are freezing. The door opens and a line of salesmen enter calling out people one by one by name. This person engages you in conversation to qualify you, show you the models that are representative of where you 'll be staying (you do not see the actual local property) and then sits you down and the hard sell starts. Now they claim there will be no hard sell, but truth is unless you are blunt and direct like I am, coming from New Jersey, they will see your indecision as an opportunity to keep selling and keep pushing you on any indecisiveness. They will raise their hand and call in additional closers who will come over and keep pushing you to buy.

They will make a big deal of you being a "charter" prospect (if you listen close, everyone around you is being told the same thing), and therefore are qualified for all the special inducements such as RCI, yacht club, Hertz Gold, etc, etc.. They made a big deal of me being a veteran and said this would mean I could get a better deal. In fact it was rhetoric, I was being offered the same deal as everyone around me.

I am already a Disney Vacation Club member so I understand how points based vacation clubs work. They tried to tell me things about DVC, I know are completely wrong and untrue such as the deed is only good for 15 years and all points are used as peak season throughout the year. That is just wrong for DVC, but I eventually got them to admit it is true for them to use DVC through another company, RCI. They even tried to tell me I could stay at the same Disney properties with their program, but when asked they could not tell me how many points it would take to equal what I now have with DVC. They got real vague and never answered. They would not show me a points chart although I asked several times.

They initially try to sell you a 20,000 points package for about $30K, if you do not bite on that, they offer smaller points packages. I said no to all. Our salesman called for Freddy who did the initial presentation to come over, but he was indisposed (he was coming nowhere near me), instead they sent over another guy who happened to be from New York who was their DVC "expert". He also tried to tell us things that were untrue and frankly, I called him on his BS right then and there.

He tried to offer us less points at less money. I just kept saying I am not interested. So they let us go, sort of. Now your salesman leads you out of the room to another room where he asks you to sit again and now pitches a sampler membership for $795 which lets you try BG for one year. if you decide to buy they claim the entire $795 is applied to the cost of the new points.

I said no thanks and we were walked to the final stop to get our $25 BassPro Gift card. At this point we got the salesman to go off script and he admitted while we were in a motel, we were there because we came in from BassPro. Other people in our presentation were being allowed to stay on property. That was the last straw.

I took my card and got the hell out.

Read and take all these postings about BG to heart. Some folks might be guilty of hearing what they want to hear, but this BG is shady at best in their sales practices and frankly not a good company to deal with.

I'm sticking with Disney.

This cooled them out and they backed off being so high pressure and agreed I could call back the following week which I did. I investigated and found several site with a large number of complaints against this company and their PR editorial practices. I got a phone call offering me an upgrade to a cabin, I ignored it. I got an email last night telling me I had to call today to confirm my trip which I did. Someone called me back and was fairly rude detailing all the rules and conditions of my trip. My thought was, "You plan to try and sell me something, and you're already treating me this badly?" I can't imagine how much worse you treat me if I actually bought something?

We are still going in a couple of weeks. We plan to try and make a decent trip out of it by staying a few extra days so we get to see everything we want to see. The trip they offer is not free, you do not stay on property, and it is set up such that they monopolize the one full day you have in Pigeon Forge, meaning you see nothing. Since we have not attended the presentation yet, would appreciate any insights from anyone who has sat through it as to what to expect? I assume they will be high pressure, which is fine. I can deal with high pressure sales. I have no intention of buying now given all the bad reviews I've read and the lies I've already caught their representatives in.

Without going into much detail, DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY or you will be truly sorry. All they have to do is give what they promise in the sales pitch and you will have happy OWNERS. Instead, you are lied to and think you are buying a lifetime of happy vacations for your family. Add it all up. You are paying more! It is like the Hotel California, you can check in, but you will never check out. I am contacting the attorney general, a lawyer, and no matter what, I will just keep spreading the word. I will use my mistake as a valuable lesson to help others. Just do your research on BlueGreen. There are not that many unhappy owners for NO reason.

Well, at day 3 I had to call, only to find out that a request could not be processed and we would still be staying at the Holiday Inn in Gretna. I cancelled the trip and told them to never contact us again. They had advertised a New Orleans vacation, that's like saying you have great accommodations in Boston and then putting you up in Jamaica Plains. I had read previous complaints about this company and now it all makes sense. I would highly recommend whoever is thinking about doing this to think twice. It was a wasted $200. And now we had already purchased our airline tickets, so add that to the wasted total.

Other legitimate vacation sources are known to do quit claim deeds for those that want out, BUT not Bluegreen. We were told that even if we went and used the points, as long as we still had the "deed", we would be responsible for the maintenance fee. Beware of this organization, and make sure that you can get out with a quit claim deed wherever you contact other than Bluegreen!

I told him I had specifically told the salesman at Bass Pro Shops that I was not interested. He was very pushy and engaged me for 30 minutes after which I became extremely frustrated and told him that I was not interested now nor would I be at any time in the future. I requested he never call me again regarding this issue. He still would not hang up and I finally had to hang up on him because he would not quit harassing me. I do not recall his name.

Approximately a month later my home was called again by another salesman. My wife who knew nothing about my original dealings with this group was misled by them. She was made to believe that I had agreed to this trip and paid them $149 to go on this "free vacation". They promised her a cabin in the mountains surrounding Pigeon Forge at their lodge, Laurel Crest. She informed them that that there would be two adults and three children needing accommodations with my youngest daughter having cerebral palsy who would need her own bed. They assured her that they would take care of this. They also promised her a three night stay for the price of $149.

When she told me of this incident I must say I was very upset but she was so excited about the trip that I conceded to her wishes to go. She told me she really wanted to take the trip because due to my health issues and disability, we have not been able to take our children on a family vacation in many years and due to my health I may not get another opportunity to spend quality time with them. When she told me she had been promised a cabin in the mountains surrounding Pigeon Forge for three nights for $149.00, it sounded like a reasonable deal. I later called Bluegreenvacations to verify the trip and was told that we only had a two night stay and not the three nights promised. This was upsetting but I thought that a lodge in the mountains would be nice for the children and I agreed to pay an extra $82 for an extra night at the cabin. They would not tell me the name of the resort even though I asked several times. They said that I would be told as the trip neared.

We were scheduled to check in on March 21, 2014. On March 20, 2014 I contacted them again and they said they had no record of promising us a cabin at a lodge but promised a "fine hotel" in Pigeon Forge that we could stay in. They also guaranteed us a cot in a Suite large enough for five people. When we arrived we found that we had been allotted a smaller room with two queen beds and when I inquired about the extra cot, the hotel informed me that they don't have any cots for their guests. I must tell you that my children were tremendously disappointed as they thought they were to be staying in a cabin in the mountains. Instead, we had a small room not a suite as promised and two of them had to sleep on the floor.

I must say I think this is highly unethical and sad to get young children's hopes up and then not fulfill a promise. Not to mention what that teaches them about the world. HOW SAD!!! This of course ruined our trip but at this point I was trying to salvage things in some way to protect my children who were so looking forward to this trip. The next morning we were called by Larry with Bluegreenvacations who told us to go to the Tennessee Tourist Information Center in Kodak, Tennessee to the presentation we had "signed up" for. He told us to be there at 9:30 AM. We arrived at 9:25 AM and were told we couldn't attend that meeting because it started at 8:30 AM and Larry had given us the wrong time.

This ruined our plans for the day as we were hoping to take the children out early in the morning to view the sites of Pigeon Forge. Instead, we had to come back at 10:30 AM for the next meeting which kept us occupied until 2 PM that day. (I mistakenly thought that the Tennessee Tourist Information Center was a Department of the Tennessee government and that I would voice my complaints to them upon my arrival. To my dismay, I found out that they are not associated in any way with the Tennessee government. What a nefarious group I was dealing with.)

This left our kids stranded in the room all day with nothing to do. The hotel had no amenities and my children were too young to explore on their own. After the presentation we met with a salesman, Jim **, and told him about our problems. He said that he was surprised and wanted to take care of the issue. He asked David ** to come and discuss this with us. We explained the situation and they had us fill out a complaint form which he said he would take care of immediately. He said that he would get us the promised accommodations that day. He also promised we should hear back from them within the hour.

I truly wonder if once we told them we were not interested in buying a timeshare that their interest in our well-being "mysteriously disappeared". We heard from nobody regarding our complaint that day or since. I called and spoke to several people with "Bluegreenvacations", "Vacation, Tour and Travel", and "Tennessee Tourist Information Center". They each referred me to the other groups saying that our issue was not their responsibility but that of one of the other involved parties. Nothing was resolved.

I spoke with Keith ** that day, March 21, 2014, who I think was an employee of Vacation, Tour and Travel. He referred me to a number which I called but got no answer. I then acquired the number to Bluegreenvacations and spoke with Ashanda who hung up on me. I then called Tennessee Tourist Information Center who connected me with Larry, who I think is a Bluegreenvacation employee but he never clarified this. He was the original contact who gave us the wrong time for the presentation. He referred me to Barbara, a Bluegreenvacation representative, at 3:29 PM who transferred me to Mariah, a Bluegreenvacation representative, who supposedly was trying to find us our originally promised accommodations.

At the end of our conversation she said no appropriate accommodations were available and that she was sorry. We then called Jerry ** with Vacation, Tour and Travel who referred me back to Bluegreenvacations. At this point, I was tremendously disappointed and exacerbated and decided to call the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism to ask them how I should proceed in this case. I was told that Rita would email me a complaint form and contact me later on how to proceed. I did not receive the promised email nor did Rita contact me. Finally, knowing of no other alternative to resolve my issue, I contacted the Tennessee Department of Tourism and spoke with Laura **. She contacted Jane ** on March 29, 2014 at the Department of Consumer Affairs.

I have to say that this was not a pleasant experience for my family or myself. I am now left trying to explain to my children why the trip they had looked so forward to did not "pan out" as promised. I will assist in any way possible if it can save another family from having to endure the tribulations my family suffered. Thank you for your time and consideration. Please feel free to contact me at any time.

It was a bit of a pain, but I believe it produced results. Shortly after I did that, Bluegreen officials called me and told me that my account would be credited with the 70,000 encore points (and it was) I felt I was entitled to for my 7 referrals (as their website clearly stated). They have since removed the website wording of owners receiving any compensation simply for a referral attending one of their presentations.

Referrals must now buy into the timeshare in order for an owner to receive any sort of compensation for referrals. I can understand that and accept it (unfortunate for the policy change, however), as long as they follow through with whatever they promise, either by mouth, written word, or website. Thank you, GW

Original Review: April 17, 2014

I referred a couple to attend a Bluegreen Club Sales presentation on February 2, 2014. I referred 6 more couples during this past week of April 12-17, 2014. All 7 couples attended and completed the presentation. I "thought" I was entitled to $100 (in Encore dividends), because I am a Platinum owner, for each qualified referral who attended and completed such a presentation. It clearly states this on the owners' website (www.bluegreenonline.com - put there by Bluegreen and still stating it as of April 17, 2014).

I checked my account for the February couple to see if it had been credited with the $100. It had not occurred. I called the Bluegreen service center and explained this to the phone receptionist. She asked me if the referral "bought" into Bluegreen. I said "No, they did not." She proceeded to explain that Bluegreen changed the policy on September 17 (I believe), 2013. The new policy is that anyone who refers another and that referral "buys" then the referring owner is entitled to $1500 (if Platinum) but is not entitled to anything if the referral does not buy. They have advertised on the website the information about the $1500, but nowhere have I seen on the website nor have I been told by email or otherwise that the $100 appreciation gift had been discontinued, and as I mentioned earlier, their website makes it clear that the $100 gift is still in effect.

I asked the phone receptionist to put me on with a manager. I discussed this situation with him and he echoed what his subordinate had said. I asked if the phone conversation was being recorded, and he said "Yes." I then asked him to admit to me (for the purpose of it being taped) that the website says nothing about the policy ending and that it clearly states that an owner referring someone else is due the money. He admitted the website clearly states this but said that I will not receive $100 for any of my qualified referrals. I asked him if there is anyone superior to him and he said there was but he was not there now. He took my number and told me that he would make sure his superior would contact me. I have heard nothing at this point.

Now you being held hostage and pressured to buy this package or that package, which include you paying a monthly fee, monthly maintenance fee and then between $209 and $250 when you book. Mmmm, then what is the benefit!!! That is what you can pay for a mid-economy hotel for 3 or 4 nights. They promise you whatever to get you there and sign on. When you don't, they make you feel as if you owe them something. I PAID for my room with the $199 and then found out I could have booked it myself for $140.

I was promised $50 in Bass Pro Shop Gift cards and $75 if I can Monday-Thursday. All I got free was a $25 gift card.....that was likely bought with the other $59 extra I paid from the $199. The free cruise ain't free. You have to pay some fees which would have added up to what I could have booked an A1 room for. By the way, these are cramped little closets which the cruise ship sells cheap. They ain't GIVING you anything!!!! You paid for it all. Also do not book to see the attraction through them. They lie about the regular price and I really only saved $3 and not the $30 they make it out to be. Bass Pro Shop needs to watch out being affiliated with Bluegreen. It is a scam!!!!

So we claimed our cruise voucher which is one of the items they try and hook you with and since we enjoy cruising that was what we chose and fully expected the accommodations to be in the low category cabins. You SUPPOSEDLY have one year to claim your cruise so in March of 2014 we decided to go forward with booking our cruise and contacted the department which is the Bluegreen vacation department, the same one they want you to spend a lot of money in purchasing the vacation deal with.

The agent explained that there was only one cruise available for us to take and it would be in October of 2014 and that there was no other options. The wonderful polite agent decided he needed to read me the details of our cruise certificate so that I would UNDERSTAND why there was only one option for us over the next 7 months and he stated that in Line 1 of the terms and conditions of the certificate, it says "Certain travel dates may apply".

Are you kidding me!. These crooks should not be allowed to have a business license to operate and believe me I am so glad we decided not to do business with anyone that operates in this type of shady business. I understand you are in the business to make money, but your professionalism is a reflection of your character as a business and should not depend on a dollar. I can assure you that anyone that asks me about a Bluegreen vacation opportunity I will be more than happy to make sure they understand the real truth of how they operate.

We should of known that this timeshare was not a good idea because nothing as great as they say that are would take hours of intense argument, discussion, and debate to prove their greatness. We are at the point where we want to sell our timeshare and were referred by Bluegreen to contact Pinnacle to help us do that. I am skeptical about using this company because it is associated with Bluegreen. I doubt we'll make a profit, I hope we break even, and a reality is, we might just have to take a loss. Have anyone been successful with selling their Bluegreen timeshare? If so, some of us out here would love some feedback regarding your experience and steps taken to do so.

1) There is no maintenance fees or a contract with your yearly spending nor customer service issues.

2) EXAMPLE: If your monthly payment is let say 125.00 monthly. Only 35.00 is going toward your payment and the rest is paid toward your interest. (Bad move) you will be paying three times the cost of your timeshare after it’s all said and done. (That's with any loan) Those who know interest earn it, those who don't pay it.

3) If maintenance fees are not paid. Your privileges are suspended and interest is added until the unpaid balance is paid and it is reported to the credit bureau affecting your credit and score. There is only one advantage to buying if you do buy, and you have fair credit. (You can receive a credit score boost, because your credit report will show a mortgage being paid on your credit report. (That's it).

4) Bonus points and regular points are usually mixed when they are used by you. EXAMPLE: They will pull from your new points earned instead of using points that are about to expire. When this happen you could lose your expired points along with your newly earned points. Make sure you are sure which stockpile of points they are applying to your vacation and check your account monthly.

5) Unless you buy their high end package you will rarely get your dates and a resort where you want to spend your vacation. Eventually, they herd you into a lane as a non-user stuck with a timeshare you cannot use and you end up upside down when you try to sell, settling for pennies on the dollar if you are lucky enough to sell and you will still owe them money that you will pay or ruin your credit. Interest is also charged on the unpaid balance. TRANSLATED: You will still have paid them what they wanted for the timeshare and they still retain possession of the asset.

In addition, during each presentation, we were told lies and given false promises with sales incentives such as free vacation points certificates which have very limited points utilization (blue or white points only), while we were initially told that there were no usage limitations. Also, we have found in our experience that many of the resorts have very limited availability, and you must plan your vacation up to several months in advance - and lately the booking website has been down for a couple of days at a time.

In addition, during some of our resort stays, we've found the accommodations were nothing more than cheaply renovated low - end hotels, with rooms and common areas very much out-dated or in poor condition. The accommodations at many of the resorts are mediocre at best. In other cases, some resorts were undergoing renovation during our stay, and we had not been notified of construction inconveniences. Another concern includes incompetency with resort check-in procedures at some locations, such as St. Pete Beach, FL and Aruba. Except for the aforementioned, overall, we have generally enjoyed our resort stays, although the company and accommodations are not well suited for the reasonably discriminating traveller.

There was a fitness room only in the same building. The pool was next door but was closed. Gatlinburg was a separate chalet and had a lot of room for family. The couches and chairs were not comfortable or new... It seems we did not purchase enough points initially to enjoy the resorts at any season and were not told this until two years later. We could not roll over the points for three years to afford a decent vacation time or location. It has not been a satisfying ownership experience.

The A+ rating they boasted about turns out to be a D rating with BBB. Maybe if all the dissatisfied owners would join forces, there could be a class action suit against Bluegreen for false promotions. The saddest dissatisfaction is that we stayed at equal places for lots less money booking online with discount travel sites to Hawaii and New England for much less than Bluegreen offers.

An hour later, we went into another room to complete the sale. We were first asked to put $6000.00 down, finance the rest at 16.99%, $400.00 monthly for a total sale of 30,000.00 plus maintenance fees. I was then asked about my credit. I told her NO! I refuse to borrow money and pay interest on future vacations. This conversation turned into an argument very quickly. The sales rep then went and asked another sales lady to come in with a better deal. Again, we told them both "it's not happening!" After a good hour of them trying to talk us into making this purchase, the sales lady got very irritated and threw our paper in the trash and told me how much she was hurt that we wouldn't buy. She got very loud and very upset with us.

I made it clear that if I can't sleep on it and research it, I will not make a spontaneous purchase. I was so mad that I walked out and got in the car while my husband got his "not so free gift cards" from Bass Pro. I waited another 30 minutes for him in the car. They made him wait even longer to get those. This is such a scam and it is so unfair to the people that can't say no. You really do get to the point to where you want to sign to get the heck out of there. No way they were going to sucker me into a lifetime of vacation payments. Please beware!!!

It was supposed to be easy to book a vacation, that our package was plenty of points, that we could refinance easily once we got home, that the maintenance fees were low and would never go up. That's just a few of the problems from the beginning we had. We were never told we had a rescission period (time you can cancel without penalty). They told us we had 30 days to use it and if we didn't use it, we would lose our down payment. We were only told this as we were leaving. The contracts were shuffled and covered up in front of us when we signed. I tried to grab them and read them and they kept taking them from me. Their "contract" even managed to cover for all their lies they told me. Seems like Bluegreen trains their employees to lie and cheat people.

I contacted customer services and they were completely rude. I have been yelled at, cussed out, laughed at, and had the phone slammed down in my ear. I have since then attempted to get them to cancel my contract for numerous reasons and they only want to give me additional points for my trouble. Can't use them, if you can't schedule a vacation because there is no availability. Keep in mind, I have NEVER used this nightmare. I attempted to keep up with maintenance fees for fear that my credit would suffer. I have since given up that task. I was contacted by Pinnacle Recovery and they were just as bad as Bluegreen. I was called names, yelled at, cussed out, threatened and harassed. I filed a complaint with the BBB and they are no longer allowed to contact me. I was contacted by Pinnacle Vacations to sell it but they are scammers too. I believe that Bluegreen owns those companies.

Dealing with Bluegreen has been a nightmare. I have filed complaints with the Attorney Generals in 5 states, the BBB, the FTC, and made complaints on numerous complaint sites. I have written letters to both their corporate offices and the ARDA. I contacted their lawyers and they never returned my calls. I am sick of this. It's getting to the point that I cannot maintain the mortgage. I have talked to many in my situation. Most quit paying the mortgage and suffer the consequences on their credit. I considered refinancing my home and adding that to it and then giving it away but I can't stand the thought of adding that to my mortgage. I was advised by my mortgage person that this would be my best option but the truth is it's not. I just want out of this nightmare. I am sure everyone in my situation would just walk away if they could and let what they have in it go. I would love to do this. I would advise that NO ONE buy into this. Walk away while you can...

We purchased 3 days/2 nights for $149.00 at the kiosk. Within a few weeks I received phone calls reminding me to book our trip, and if we did it within 30 days we would get an additional $150.00 in Bass Pro Shop gift cards if we booked soon. The Labor Day weekend was coming up soon so we booked the trip to Cedar Lodge in Branson, MO. I have always wanted to see the area and it seemed a great opportunity to visit Branson.

We took a few days on the way up, since it is a 10 hour drive from Houston. It was made very clear to us that we would be staying at the Radisson in Branson, which was great with us. A few days before the trip we received a phone call offering us an upgrade to stay at the Lodge, but we turned it down. The check-in at the Radisson was quick and easy, and it is a very nice hotel.

We enjoyed our Saturday and Sunday in Branson, then drove to the Sales Pitch Center at 8:00 Monday morning. We had to be back home asap because we both had work the next day. And, it was that 10 hour drive. The man who was assigned to us took us to a round table, and asked us questions about our life, and if we traveled and took vacations. We do, and nothing about the Blue Green package interested us. He began to tell us we were really sad inside because we didn't take fabulous vacations on a regular basis, and we were really suffering and unhappy because of this. Also, we were not kind enough to ourselves because we really needed to get into this "program" in order to be happy and complete. Not in those exact words, but very close. It was like a counseling session.

We transitioned from the round table to a tour of the grounds, back to a round table in a different little room. The entire time we were saying we did not want to buy into this program. He then began to show us enormous figures of $28K, with about $6100 down and payments of only $400/month, to buy into a timeshare. We very nicely said for about the 10th time we were not going to buy anything. He then asked us our credit score. Oh my, red alarms went off then!

Then he got his supervisor to come offer us a slightly better deal. We told the second salesman no. He left. The first salesman asked us to sign this one simple piece of paper saying we had turned down the program. My alarms were still flashing, and I said, "No, we are not signing anything." He stared at me in shock. He said, "Why not?" I said, "Because we are not signing anything." He said let's walk to the checkout center to get our "benefits". We said "it's okay", "we are done" and sorry we took his time, and we did not need the "benefits".

We walked up to a counter with a nice lady, and he said very loudly, "These people want to leave without signing this paper. AND, they do not want their 'benefits'! What do we do?" The nice lady said, "I don't know, I just work here. You have to call someone higher for that." The salesman then said, "Well, you came all the way up here so at least you can have your 'benefits' [which were the $150 in Bass Pro Gift cards]." The lady gave us the gift cards and put another form on the counter for us to sign, a statement that we had received the Gift cards. Hubby signed it. We were ushered out the back door, and that was it.

Then all the way home we worried that hubby's signature they got at the last minute was going to be used to rook us into a contract with these people!

Never again, never, never, never. The trip was nice, but for only $50 more we could have had two nights at the Radisson with no pressure. We still have the gift cards stuck away in an envelope, irrationally imagining that using them will trigger a secret code that will enroll us in a $28,000.00 Blue Green timeshare membership!

Don't do it, it's not worth it. I have 2 family members that bought into timeshares years ago, and they regretted it.

Well, this year they got slick with their antics. They reminded us that we were part of the 1% that was still using a fixed week, for which I explained to them the reason why we were still part of the 1%. My wife and I told the sales representative that we didn't want to lose our deeded property. The sales representative said, "Oh no, we no longer require you to do that." They asked if we pay maintenance fees for the even numbered year that we didn't use our timeshare for which I replied, "Yes, we do pay maintenance fees". The representative replied, "Oh I wouldn't want to pay fees for the year that I wasn't using". She then told us that we could upgrade and still have our fixed week. I ask her again if she was sure that we would not lose our fixed week and again she replied, "No, you would not lose you fixed week".

Several times my wife and I ask the representative if she was telling us the truth, and again she replied, "No, you will not lose your fixed week property". So we purchase the upgrade in order to have vacation points for the even number years also. At least that's what we thought that we had purchased. For one month, our property still showed up on the Bluegreen Website as having our deeded property along with the purchased points vacation time. When it was time for our first payment to come out of my checking account on 6/13/2013, the pay was not taken out.

I called the Bluegreen Mortgage and I was told that the payment would take another five days or so, and that they were not finished updating our information. When the payment was taken out of my checking account and our information upgraded, I then realized that we had lost our fixed week for which we paid our hard-earned money for over a seven (7) year period. I called the sales representative and asked her what happened to our fixed week. She pretended to act as if she didn't know and was as surprised as we were about it. She said that she was going to check and that she would call me back. We haven't received that call yet.

I wrote the sales representative a letter on July 9, 2013 and told her exactly what my wife and I thought of her tactics and lies. I also reminded her of everything that she told us to our face, yet they were all lies. It's a shame that they can get away with this sort of business, but it happens and now we are stuck with something with maintenance fees that have doubled from $300 a year to $897.70 per year.

After tour was over, we were taken to a large room with many cubicles with more sales people. We sat through the whole pitch and said, "No, we really can't afford this at this time." Then the sales person went and got someone else to start pressuring us more with how great an opportunity this was and how we just shouldn't pass up this deal & that it was only being offered that day only. We were told if we didn't want it later, we could it back with no problems. After realizing the only way we were going to get out of this room & the constant sales pressure was to sign, we figured we would cancel it right away and be done with it. WRONG !

After trying to cancel this purchase, we were told it was too late and that we would have to sell it ourselves. Oh but wait, they have a company that, for a fee, would sell it for us. We contacted Pinnacle Vacations to have them sell this for us after paying a fee to them. I sent them a check, which they promptly cashed and we waited & waited & waited. To this day, we have not heard anything from these people or has the timeshare been sold. We have never used anything nor do we intend to since we really can't afford this junk. They continue to take payments out of our checking account monthly, and now we are being harassed several times a day from Pinnacle Agency for maintenance fees, fees that we were not made clear of at time of sales pitch.

My husband was diagnosed with cancer last year and with mounting hospital bills, not to mention he was injured at work in January and has been out of work since. We cannot afford this timeshare. I was called again last week by Pinnacle and after trying to explain to this woman that we just don't have the money, she started threatening me with lawsuits. She was very rude and hateful, so after trying several times to explain our situation, I hung up on her. Bluegreen should be ashamed by their way of pressuring people into buying into something that they know full well the customer cannot afford, not to mention they don't understand most of what they are agreeing to. These people are Fast Talking and know that most of us don't understand what the ** they're getting themselves into. As of right now, we are trying to find someone that can help us out of this mess.

Another interesting fact that I found out at about the same time is that they had failed to follow through with our cc application that would help us reduce our maintenance fees. At this point, I decided I wanted nothing to do with Bluegreen as they absolutely are a company that lacks any integrity. I have served my country 3 times and have a 0 tolerance for people who say one thing and do the opposite. I decided that our account was buffooned enough that I would take it up the ladder and see if they would do the right thing.

So I started with Sales. Sales told me that I had to deal with owner services, owner services told me I needed to deal with sales and round and round I have gone. Along the way, I have found out that their "Customer Relations" people can't receive e-mails, that certain people don't have bosses that can be talked to. I was promised phone calls from Pablo within a few days, and was promised follow up by Autumn "as soon as she got a response from sales" and then nothing for a month. When Pablo did finally call me, he had the nerve to tell me that he hadn't gotten a hold of me because there wasn't anything he could do for me so why bother (ugh). So it was back to Autumn ** who assured me I would get a phone call from Troy (the regional sales manager within a day or two) and it took 10 days.

Apparently, the Corporate executives don't have phones or computers so if they aren't in (like Troy supposedly wasn't even though Autumn says he was), they can't address customers' concerns in any kind of timely manner. In the meantime, Autumn kept promising me to put a hold on my account until this got resolved so that I wouldn't be taken to Collections. She said she put a note in the computer system for the mortgage department to see. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Mortgage department can't see anything that the Owner Services writes in their system as "they are different".

So I was dealing with Andrew from the mortgage department and he said the mortgage department absolutely cannot put a hold on my account ever, and I would end up in collections in 2 days if I didn't give this guy the information he needed (mind you, this is the information that Daniel ** was supposed to call and get); he insisted he was trying to help. I made the payment because my credit is very important to me. Not 10 minutes later, I get a call from Autumn ** saying she talked to Andrew's boss and a hold (that's right that thing that the mortgage department "absolutely cannot do") was put on my account. And the worst person of all within Bluegreen is a super tie between Wanda, Pablo, and Troy. I didn't mention Wanda in here because she was absolutely ridiculous to deal with. She was the one who lied and said she did not have a boss. UGH. I hate Bluegreen. There isn't a single honest person in the entire company that I found.

Next thing I know, I received another letter threatening action if I didn't pay the fees. I wrote back and advised that I could not pay and wanted to cancel my membership. Within a few weeks, Pinnacle Collections called and wanted to collect. I think it's important to note that my Bluegreen purchase was for points only and not for a physical unit. It's not a sure thing that you will be able to book where you want to go, just a chance. Bluegreen made many promises during the sales pitch that they since have retracted or never provided.

I hired Pinnacle early on, paying them a fee, to sell my timeshare. I never heard from them again after that. It's interesting that the same company offers to sell your timeshare, with big promises, and then turns around and is a collection agent for Bluegreen. Bluegreen had suggested Pinnacle as the only legit entity to deal with for selling. On one of our trips, we had to go to a sales program. The Bluegreen sales rep made my wife cry when we didn't want to buy extra points and suggested we were poor financial planners. The high pressure and arrogant attitude when we didn't buy ruined the timeshare for us and made my wife physically ill.

There is much more to say but I'll leave it at this: unless you're rich and money is flowing in your life, you better leave timeshares alone. If you buy a Bluegreen timeshare, they consider you hooked for life on the maintenance fees no matter what. If you can't pay your maintenance fees, you can't get out of the contract as far as they are concerned. They begin harassing phone calls and threats of ruining your credit rating with no regard to personal problems. Pinnacle Collections is calling me daily trying to collect for Bluegreen. If you don't pay, you're locked out of using the facilities but still expected to pay the fees. They also added several hundred dollars to my $700 plus maintenance fees as a punishment for not paying. There are hundreds if not thousands of Bluegreen timeshares on eBay, etc that the owners are unable to sell. I was scammed twice trying to sell mine. If you buy a Bluegreen, understand that they will hound you to buy extra points and they will never let you cancel. I've had to hire a legal team to help me even though I can't afford it. Beware. There are better ways to vacation. It looks good at first but no mercy.

They want to set the times on your only full day there to convenience themselves. So my husband told him there is no way he is going to use the one full day he has there with the kids to do an update that we did not need to do in the first place as this was the first time we had even used it. So they set it up for Sunday morning at 9:30am. Now, think about this 9:30am, 2 kids, check out time is at 10am. You have to be there 20 to 30 minutes before the time. How do you get out loaded up to leave and do an update? Once again, Bluegreen doesn't think of the customers, just themselves. Check out time is at 10am. I showed up Sunday at 10:40am to surprise my kids because I did not get to spend the weekend with them only to find out that my mother had come down to help my husband, so he could do the update on the timeshare and the kids would not have to be there.

She only lives 45 minutes away. So I went in, asked what room he is in and went up only to receive a call note that they did allow my mom to stay in the room with the kids until 11am until he could get back, pack up and leave. So at this point, my husband has been in the update for 40 minutes or more and the resort called up the road to tell them I just walked in. They stopped the update and made me go up the road to the update and I never spent the night on site. I have no idea how they liked anything. So a 1-hour update turned in to almost 3 hours total. Then the amount of disrespect and all we got because my husband threw a fit, first, because he did not know I was coming; two, I did not stay there, 10 minutes total walk in up to the room and then they called that I had to do the update or pay full price for the weekend.

If you are looking to buy a timeshare, never consider Bluegreen. They are very dishonest people. Cheap rooms, broken appliances, not enough water to take a Jacuzzi bath, loud elevators and of course, they don't care about you, just your money. I will buy off of eBay and get the same thing for pennies on the dollar and yeah, I do own a Wyndham Property. I never had a problem there. I bout it off of eBay and I love it. And that is right, I did not stay there. I'm just going on what my husband and his nephew and wife told me. The whole presentation turned out to be one sugar coated lie after another just to get people to sign up. I am disgusted with them and all the other scam artists out there preying after hard working people. I am even more disgusted with myself for letting myself be conned. I thought I was more aware than that but I guess I am not. Needless to say, I will use the remainder of my points because I paid for them but when done, screw Bluegreen. I will post on every blog I can find to help everyone out. Please stay away from the BS place.

When I would not budge, he transferred me to his manager. "I understand you have questions", was his first statement. I responded that, "No, I don't have any questions. I just stated that I am going to do some background information on your company with the Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce at the state level, and Consumer Affair.'' His response was that I had signed up at the Cooking Show. That was supposed to make them legitimate. I responded that the Cooking Show is not responsible for verifying the business conduct of every participant, and it was up to us as individuals to protect our own finances.

The bottom line was that I was not going to give over any information to a company I was not familiar with before doing my research. The manager hung up on me at that point. People, never give any financial or personal information to anyone. Legitimate companies will never ask you for this. Always do your homework before a scam artist like this company asks you for money. If they are persistent, let them know it is not going to work for you. After reading all these negative reviews, I am glad I listened to the horror stories my mom sees at work everyday! Bottom line is that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

I informed Blue Green Customer Service that the salesman never notified me that there would be a penalty. I did not receive a copy of my signature or the disclosure agreement. I only received a copy of the receipt. BlueGreen then said that during my booking confirmation phone call, I was notified of the possibility of penalty. One of their sales associates told me that this phone call did not in fact notify me of this penalty. I ended up paying $150 for the hotel, $100 penalty, and lost $100 in gift cards, totaling $350 for a 2-night stay in a run-down hotel.

I am trying to block this charge through my bank account for fraud. I recommend staying away from not only the timeshare portion of BlueGreen, but also the weekend get-away promotions that BlueGreen is offering. My complaint is only one of thousands regarding BlueGreen. I wish I would have had prior knowledge of this company and their shady sales and business practices, because I would never had talked to them.

I was laid off from my job 9/2010 and am on social security which barely covers my normal monthly bills. I emailed Bluegreen and asked about their buyback program and I was told my problems are my problems and they do not buy back. I would just have to suck it up. I have had to stop paying my bill because I cannot pay it. I am being driven crazy by Bluegreen’s collection company (Pinnacle) and I know that my credit is going to be ruined. I do not see any way out. Beware!

I should have told him to give me a copyright then and there! I called the company to tell them that we would like to sell our points to them. We were told that they do not buy points back. Our contract states that if it is not in writing in the contract, it is not legal and binding; it also states that nothing your salesperson tells you is legal and binding either if it is not in the contract. I looked through all my papers and I was not given a copy of anything he had us sign in his office, only what we signed with the underwriter (what she is called). These salespeople are taught to make you feel comfortable about taking on this financial burden! We were told other lies as well, but that one really shocked us.

Finally, we booked for Orlando in March of this year. First, they called to tell us that the resort which we were promised was overbooked and that the only way we would be able to stay at the resort was if we agree to spending an additional $75.00 per night to stay there in addition to what we have already paid. When we rejected the extra payment, we were told that we would be staying in one of their "offsite" hotels. With our plans to leave Friday of this week, we came in to see voicemail on the phone with an urgent message to call. Before we had a chance to call, Nathan (night manager) called us back again. It seems that they wanted our credit card number. We once again told them we do not use credit cards and offered up our debit card, to which we were told would not work. This Nathan also told us that if we didn't have a credit card, he was going to have to cancel our booking and not refund our money.

I told Nathan that I had told the first lady that I didn't have a credit card, only a debit card and that we had been contacted numerous times and that no one else had asked for a credit card, why did it matter? He began to get smart and insinuated that my wife and I were lying. I told Nathan that I was going to post this and use his name so all could see what a sorry ** he really was.

The sales presentation was done in a closed room and was followed by a tour with an overworked, tired and apparently indifferent salesman who didn't have authority to do much of anything. No explanations were offered at any time, and then we were led back to the sales closing area. A fellow named Ivan gave us a high pressure pitch with several pages of handwritten figures, most of which we couldn't decipher and we were told that this "offer" was available only today.

Yes, we could have left at any time but my wife and I, after traveling the previous 3 days were tired & overwhelmed and when we were told that this vacation offer was affordable at only $43.00 a month, we thought it was too good to pass up. We learned after arriving home that we had signed up for a Barclays credit card that had already been spent to the tune of $10,000 dollars. At the closing, we signed so many papers and had so little time to sit, read and comprehend what was being passed to us to sign. We honestly didn't realize what was truly happening.

Now we're being inundated with telephone calls from Barclay Bank for maintenance fees of over $390 and I'm not working as frequently as I had hoped due to the economy and being medically retired after a transplant and a heart attack. My medical costs are soaring and I'm on so many medications and have been recently hospitalized. We're swamped and don't know where to go for help, if any help exists. We're both 62 and have never been in any financial trouble until now. I'm learning that we were scammed by Blue Green/Barclay Bank.

During the presentation, we fell victim to a variety of material misrepresentations, which we only later found to be false. We were told that we would receive 20,000 points a year that could be used at RCI as well and that our timeshare was a real estate investment, which would appreciate in value over time. We were also told that new nearby developments would drive up the price of our timeshare in the near future, and that we could easily sell (or rent) our timeshare for a profit. We were also told that we would be able to exchange our property location and go anywhere without paying any fees other than the $169 booking fee. The sales representatives told us that Bluegreen representatives would act as our travel agents, and that they had monitors which displayed specific client travel times and potential airline accommodations as well as car rentals. We were told that Bluegreen agents would also have all of our offers loaded into a database profile, which would allow them to choose the best offer for us to use for a specific trip.

We were also told that we would be able to refinance our timeshare at a local bank, but we later discovered that banks don’t refinance timeshare loans. We were also told that we would be able to write off timeshare interest or the timeshare itself on our taxes, but we later discovered that this is an exception only made for vacation homes and that timeshares don’t belong to this classification. We were told that our 20,000 point plan would grant us far more amenities than it actually did. The sales representatives claimed that resorts were available al the time, and that we didn’t need to plan our vacations more than two-three months in advance for any resort. The representatives also claimed that we would be granted three extra two-week vacations for free, one of which was a yacht vacation. These vacations never materialized.

We told the representatives that we wanted to take a group with us in 2010 to Mexico or Hawaii for Scott’s 40th birthday. They assured us this was definitely going to happen; that we would have no waiting period and the timeframe was long enough. So I called after I got my ID number to book this trip and the representatives I talked to at Bluegreen laughed when I repeated what I was told would happen at the presentation—that they had my profile and could tell me what was the best to use and that there were big screens in the office showing all of the various flights and vacation areas available to me. There was no availability at any Hawaii resort for 1.5 years and if I booked it, I had to use it or lose the points. This was in stark contrast to the specific promise made by the sales representatives at the time of sale. We were told that Bluegreen representatives would aid us in booking a vacation that was guaranteed to be available, yet there was no availability and we were laughed at by representatives over the phone.

I decided to transfer 8,000 points to RCI so we could go to Mexico with our friends as planned. When I tried to book this trip, I was told that the all inclusive resort would cost $1500-$3500 per person per week! The cost to book the trip was $169. After three days, if we decided that we couldn’t go, we would lose the $169! None of the resorts that were affordable were even available for a year. We had been told at the presentation that the only cost for a week at any resort would be the $169 booking fee. We had been told that there would be no other fees. We would never have purchased this timeshare if we had known that we would not be able to book reservations at any time we wanted, and that we would be subject to fees far beyond what we were told we would be responsible for paying per vacation.

I’ve contacted all Attorney General’s Office associated with this company and contract, only to have all of them point the finger in all other directions. I want to be part of a class action law suit! My credit has been hit with a foreclosure!

They almost caused a split-up between me and my companion/spouse. They have caused me countless nights of sleep. They have rising non-disclosed fees/costs.

I made it very clear, upfront and on numerous occasions, that we could afford either the monthly payments to upgrade or the annual maintenance fees but not both. They promised that by upgrading to Silver, we would never have to worry about coming up with cash to pay our maintenance fees. We could pay them with our points. It took, at the time of our closing, 18,000 points to pay $1200.00 in maintenance fees. I stopped our closing three times and asked both Melissa and Ian, the closing agents, if in fact we could pay our fees with our points and never have to pay out-of-pocket ever again and each time I was promised that was in fact the truth. So, we signed the agreement. After we got back home, I went to rescind the agreement. I didn't trust them.

We had no rescission letter in our packet so I went online only to find out that we were locked out of Bluegreen while they were doing title work, etc. So I began calling. We have three business days to cancel our agreement with them. I could never talk with a person and each time, I was placed on hold until I would get frustrated and just hang up. This is exactly what they want. They don't want you to rescind the agreement. They need your cash and all that they can squeeze out of you. I was unable to rescind it, so game on.

In October, we got our bill for the maintenance fees. It was slightly over 1200.00. So I went online to pay with my points; it would take 18,000. We had just purchased 22,000 annual points but it wouldn't let me pay the fees. It kept telling me that I didn't have enough points to pay the bill but I sure did. I had 22,000 and it only took 18,000. I should have had plenty enough points to pay it. I finally got through via telephone to a Bluegreen ownership representative and I was told that I didn't have enough points and to check out the new rate schedule. I did just that. It had changed and it now took 80,000 points to pay the same $1200.00 that it only took 18,000 points two months prior. I still maintain that this was a case of fraud. Those people had to know at the time of our upgrade and closing that these changes were going to soon take effect yet they claimed that they didn't know.

These people will lie to you and they will use any and all sales tactics to sell you a useless time share. This is why they should be called crimeshares, not timeshares. And the maintenance that you pay for is virtually non-existent.

I am a disabled former residential contractor and I can tell what has been maintained and what has not. I have pictures taken on every trip and to different properties. Our maintenance fees have since risen to $1310.00 annually and it is taking food off of my table, medications from me that I need daily.

Bluegreen doesn't care. All they want to know is when and how you're going to pay the fees; nothing else matters. We have paid thousands of dollars to re-sale companies to try to rid ourselves of this cancer. There are over 6,000 timeshare resellers in Florida alone. Never pay an upfront fee people. I still don't understand why there hasn't been a class action lawsuit brought against this leech of a company and put them out of business.

Stop the bleeding of the consumers who were lied to. If they lie to you it's called business but if you lie to them, it's called fraud.

In any event we felt that it would still be a good investment for our vacationing future. The following year (2005) my wife was diagnosed with stage three throat cancer, so our vacation time was a bit limited. Knowing this, we tried to alter our commitment to Bluegreen. Even after explaining the situation to them, they only wanted one thing, the money! Now here it is 2010 and we have reached the end of our rope with this commitment. Even though my wife has been cancer-free for the last five years, the downturn in the economy and the loss of our business have left us unable to continue making the required payments for this vacation that we don't use.

So, we decided to ask Bluegreeen to release us from the obligation and simply keep the money that we had already spent and let us go on our merry way. Their response was, as before, no way. Show us the money or we will foreclose. Now it seems to us that if someone were to give us $23,000 and not expect anything in return that we would be foolish to turn them away, especially when we would incur no further expense by doing so. Not Bluegreen. No sir. They are going to hire some fancy lawyer and foreclose on our vacation points just because they can. They don't have any regard for what that will do to our credit rating (which we have worked very hard to maintain).

They simply don't care. They suggest that we sell, rent, or give the points to someone but they control all the companies that you need to utilize to do that and no one wants them. So in closing, I must say to anyone reading this: Beware of Bluegreen. Don't believe for one second that they are in this to do anything but line their pockets. Once they have you signed you might as well forget any deviations from what they want. Not only have we spent $23,000 on vacations that we will never have, but this Bluegreen Corp. intends to ruin our credit with a foreclosure on points that have no value at this point in time.

Ed ** recommended I pay a fee of $913 to have this company rent us out. Resort equity marketing ripped us off, never renting one week. They are now defunct, won't return calls. As of December 3, 2010 we received a certified letter to both my husband and another to myself letting us know we can no longer book reservations and all future reservations will be cancelled until we pay full payment of $17,057.09 representing principal, interest, and late fees within 30 days or they will terminate our membership and retain "all" fees that we have paid thus far to purchase and maintain our membership. Our story has all the headaches and disappointments of every testimony you have read thus far. We are average people with hopes and dreams of a nice retirement. We have drained our assets and now have bad credit because of this fraud which needs to be stopped. We live from my part time paychecks and my husband's social security to get by. Who will stand for us against a big organization taking advantage of people, painting a picture of nice resorts and happy retirements?

We started to use our points to pay the maintenance as we were no longer using them, however, Bluegreen reduced the amount of money that they were worth and they no longer pay for the maintenance. They also increased the maintenance every year way beyond what is acceptable. We have been in touch with them on several occasions regarding this with no acceptable outcome.

We are in a situation where we can no longer afford to pay for this. We paid $46,000 dollars for the timeshare as well as the ever increasing maintenance fees. It is now three years since we last used the timeshare. We have contacted them on several occasions regarding our financial situation with no outcome.

We had trouble with the maintenance fee and Bluegreen says until we’re squared with the maintenance fee, we can't use the club. Well, in the process of making our mortgage payment, it got behind because it was being sent to the collection agency for the maintenance fee. The company is called Pinnacle which is not affiliated to Bluegreen, so I was told. Now, this went back and forth for a few months. Pinnacle is saying they couldn't take our payments to the mortgage because they weren't affiliated with Bluegreen but in the end, that's exactly what was going on. To me, it seemed as though they were trying to get us late on our mortgage payment on purpose.

Well, after fines and penalties of over $500.00, our 2010 maintenance fee got squared up. Now for 2011, I have set up a payment plan for the maintenance fee and guess what? We can’t use any points at all until all 2011 maintenance fees are paid. After we paid over $500.00 extra and a total of $1,795.00 for 2010, to get our 2010 points cleared, now they are frozen until we pay the 2011 maintenance fee. We have over 16,000 points from 2010 and we can't use these until our maintenance fee for 2011 is paid in full. How the **** does this work? Please explain this to me, something bought and paid for but you can't use it. Ah yes, here we go again, the **** fine print got you again.

When I finally did get to speak with someone, I was directed to call another number, a mortgage company, I was unable to speak with anyone so I left a detailed message. Several days passed and I still had not received a call back. I tried again, again, and again for 6 months. Finally I gave up. Bluegreen never contacted us and I just recently found out they have ruined our credit, by listing this as foreclosure.

My husband and I have worked for 20+ years to develop a credit history to the scores of 700 - 800. Now Bluegreen has ruined us. We can not get a loan for anything! I want this business to be held accountable for ruining our credit and I want them to restore this by removing foreclosure from our report. The government should shut this company down and pay restitution to all the people they have done this to. The consequences is that it has ruined our credit that we have taken 20+ years to develop. We can not refinance our home, get a loan for a car, buy a new home, etc.

In 2009, we decided to upgrade to "Bronze" - after bribes and pressure. We got 2 certificates to be used within 1 year for a 7 night stay "anywhere." However, when you look at the back, it is only good for some resorts and certain times--far from what Gabe promised. We were also given 4,000 bonus points which we were unable to use and they will not roll over for us. I also feel it is wrong for them to remove unused points if they are not used within 2 years. You pay for them; they should be good for something.

On June 22, 2010, we had our "update meeting." I wanted answers to my issues--2 accounts and expiring points. I was told that the 2 accounts was no big deal as everything was charged as one. Charlie kept trying to get us to upgrade to gold in order to get all these extra benefits. We kept telling him that due to past experiences, we would never buy another blue green point or recommend them. He kept trying to entice us by mentioning various benefits and how would we like them. I said they are fine but I need to upgrade to receive them and I told him I would not buy anything else. We were "held hostage" as we were unable to leave until he was done.

When I had talked to Patty back in April/May, she said that we have 2 accounts because I demanded Gabe to set us up with a deeded property in Myrtle Beach. I said it would be nice but I do not recall demanding any such thing. I did question as to why they kept moving the deed whenever we did do any upgrading. She said she went to a corporate manager and he said nothing could be done without us buying more points!

They do promise you great meal deal coupons when you go through these meetings but all it is are buy one get one free to expensive restaurants that you can get out of the local books. Nothing special!

When we bought the time share 3 years ago the yearly maintenance fee was around $300. It's soared to $900/year. I tried to get this off of our credit and was still getting one line replies. "Thank you for contacting BlueGreen Corporation. Unfortunately, we are unable to assist you as your ownership has been terminated due to non-payment of your loan. “I told this Jamie S. that I was trying to take care of this matter because we didn't need this on our credit. He was anything but helpful. I'm sure they sold the air we bought to someone else. I told him if I had known they were going to cancel our membership we would not have sent them $1032! We could have used that money to put on other bills.

In three years we used their services one time and we had always paid as per required by our loan. I told Jamie we pay $365 a year home owners fees and we live here! We didn't even use their facilities and were required to pay $900 a year and it was increased at their discretion. I kept all of our correspondence with Mr. Jamie for the record. I even challenged it on our credit report to no avail. They just didn't want to talk about any kind of a settlement. Just that we had no further financial obligation to them, and that it would be on our credit for 7 years. I checked our credit and it is showing up as a foreclosure. So if we wanted to refinance our home it will be 5 years before it is removed according to our bank. Our credit has been compromised for 5-7 years. 7 years per BlueGreen 5 years per our bank or FannieMae. Not sure what would happen if we wanted to buy a car. I'm sure the interest rate would be excessive.

Petit Crest is in a gated community known as Big Canoe. When we bought it, we were told that all the locations had similar layouts, the only thing is that the topic of motorcycle exclusions never came up. Arriving at the main gate, we were informed that we were not allowed to enter Big Canoe. After waiting 1/2 hour for a guy to answer our call, I really found out the value of Bluegreen support.

I cannot remember how many different ways I explained that Big Canoe would not let us into the resort; the phone rep had only one response, "Did the resort give you after hours check-in instructions?" After 45 minutes of hearing the same thing (which now made it after hours), I thanked him for his ability to understand our situation and he responded with an amazing, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" I chose to just hang up.

Then, an amazing thing happened. The security guard had called the owners of Petit Crest. They opened up a spot in the storage area at the gate and Charlie, the security officer, took us to the resort. The next day, Chris shuttled us to and from the gate so we could get groceries. On Sunday, Charlie picked us up early, as we had tickets to the NASCAR race in Atlanta, but we did not get back until 10:30 pm. Chris came in from 25 miles away to get us back to the cabin. I can't say enough about the resorts and especially the folks at Petit Crest, but the folks at Bluegreen have a deaf ear when it comes to situations that arise.

I have not had problems getting reservations (not always where I want to go) and have only lost over 4,000 points due to unavailability within their time use (yes, you lose the points, even if they can't place you in a resort). If the maintenance fees are not paid in time, it is painful, and they have no tolerance. Since we do not have access to transportation, we do not have the ability to enjoy the countryside. Since I have no feeling in my legs due to diabetes, walking the trails near the cabin in my boots has had its effect. We are at the mercy of Bluegreen since all is paid off and no way to get out of the yearly payments.

Five months after purchasing this package, we tried to schedule our vacation for Orlando and were told that we could only have 2 children and that there was nothing that they could do for us. I was told to contact Bluegreen Resorts, which I did, and they wanted an extra $50 per night for the vacation. For this price, we could have stayed on a Disney Property and got all of us into a room. I couldn't believe that they had lied to us just to get $249 out of an unsuspecting family. Due to the recent economic recession, our family is a one income household now and we have a tight budget. I don't know how we will tell our children that we cannot take the vacation now because we have lost our $249, because Vacation Tour and Travel refused to refund the money, and will not allow all the children to come with us. This is not right and companies like this should not be allowed to get away with lying to consumers.

On December 17 or 18, 2009, we received a bill for higher than normal maintenance fees, real estate tax, and finance charges and late fees based not only on the first two items, but on a "voluntary" ARDA, which we told them to remove the last time it appeared on our bill. They did so the first time, but the charge appears again this time. Since our bill is normally due in May, this entire bill is fraudulent, especially since nobody notified us of a change in due date.

9 months later, we have still not received this information. I called Vacation Tour and Travel on 6/12/09 to try to get a refund of the $249.00 due to their "mistake" and not following through with what they promised. I was told that I only had 30 days from the date of purchase to get a refund. She said that the information was mailed out in September 2008. It was never received by my boyfriend. The person that I spoke with there said they would re-mail the information. To date, I have received nothing. Do you have any other complaints for these companies for a similar incident?

I did book my vacations and didn't have any problems. The woman on the phone was very pleasant and helpful. I was told that we could not book beach front at the Shore Crest resort because we had purchased the sampler package. We were told this prior to purchasing. But because we were not beach front on that vacation, on our second vacation we wanted to be beach front anywhere in the southeast areas from North Carolina as far down as Daytona and on into the Pan Handle for any week in May. Now in my mind, that left it very easy for her to book us somewhere beach front. When she booked us Beach Front she said that it was at the Seaglass Towers and went on to tell me how nice it was. I asked her again, “Is it beach front,” and she said yes. I told her to book it. She sent me a confirmation. It didn't say where it was. But I was very clear I wanted beach front.

Well when we got there, we were not beach front. We were not even beach view. We were city view! I complained the moment I walked in. I called down to the front desk and the rude woman told me there was nothing she could do and I needed to call this 800 number. When I did, they went on to explain to me that some resorts you have to pay extra points in order to guarantee beach front and other resorts are automatic beach front. I had points left over. We went during non-peak season. So when I booked, she could have told me that. Not only were we dissatisfied, but the resort was crappy too. The rooms were too small, there were no activities for the kids (like other resorts), there was no outdoor pool, we had to park across 2 streets and walk our kids (2 and 7 mo.) across 2 busy streets. You have 15 minutes to unload or they will tow your car. And trust me they will. There were only 2 elevators for 20 floors! You could spend 10 minutes waiting on an elevator. When I finished unloading, it was 25 minutes later (and I was going as fast as I could). I came down and they had put a warning on my car and were on the phone calling a tow truck.

I was mad already when I saw my room. When I checked out, I was asked to fill out a comment card, and I gladly obliged. While I was filling it out, the same rude fat ** lady sitting at the desk was being rude to someone else. There was an owner sitting who was wanted to book an additional night. She promptly told her that they had to call the 800 number. She didn't even look to see if they had availability but she told him they didn't. When she hung up with him, she told another guy they had availability but it was for walk-ins only. I was like, what the? Apparently they are only interested in potential new suckers (I mean owners). That is how they do business. If you want to purchase something, I suggest you save your money and purchase a physical piece of property like a condo where you can rent it out yourself and you can go whenever you want to. Then if you want to go somewhere else, look at swapping time with another property owner. That is what we plan on doing. Save your money and don't invest in this rip off scheme.

They've basically sold 500 shiny toys to 50,000 people so that means 49,500 people will be tough out of luck when they try to collect their shiny purchase. Of course this is figuratively speaking but you get my point - they are rude, pushy, condescending and high pressure beyond belief. We need help to get away from them. We are paying about $200 a month for something that we can rarely ever use. And the few times we have used it , it was not where we originally wanted to go. So now we have to spend our money to go on vacations and pay for hotels in addition to the wasted money that we are paying Bluegreen each month. I feel so violated and used and want to warn others so they don't get ripped off too.

Well, I lost my job, making above-minimum wage. I tried to contact Bluegreen and was told that I had to contact Pinnacle vacations and sell this through them, which I did, and has been for sale for some time now. I keep trying to contact someone at Bluegreen but never get a return call.

I have tried to make reservations with Bluegreen (since I'm paying for this, I should be able to use this). I was told they are booked and that I needed to be more flexible on when and where I can go. We also told the salesman that my husband gets one week off a year and we planned on taking vacation the same time every year. Sure, no problem, is what Fred ** told us, but our reservations have been moved from one hotel on the beach to a hotel in the middle of town. I cancelled. I have tried to email Bluegreen several times but get no reply from them.

Nothing said to us during this presentations were true. It was all a lie to get their sales numbers up and get their bonus.

We refused, salesperson got the manager, William, who made it sound like he was making us a very good deal - sales price about $16,000, of course for less points, and they will buy it back when we don't want it anymore. The salesperson (do not remember gentleman's name) was telling us about the resort in Key West, where he was taking his mom and dad in a couple of weeks, that he was very happy with his points (apparently he can buy them for the discount as an employee). We told them we were not interested, it was still out of our price range, we were interfered in investments. The last thing we had to do to get that $100 check was to take a tour to check the hotel out. We were brought to one of the rooms, which was nice. We told to salesperson and sales manager that we were not interested in taking our vacation that way.

Once again, Sales Manager William ** (we still have his card) came to us and was telling what a great investment it was, that they would actually rent our points. He said that lots of people buy it as an investment, that he would rent our points during important events and then resell the hotel rooms and he would collect 30% as a commission. We got interested, investment, making money - renting our points, money would cover maintenance fees (they forgot to mention that they reserve the right to increase every year) and monthly loan payments, and within couple of years we would be able to make some profit. But it was way too expensive. They reduced the price a couple more times till we got offered 8,000 points every other year for 9,350 dollars, but we had to give them, I believe it was an $800 check the same day.

Unfortunately, it was affordable and we gave in, when instead, we should have run away. We gave them $800 check. The closing process took about 10 minutes. We were rushed through everything. The lady asked us and gave something to sign, that buying it doesn't put financial burden on us. At the time, it didn't. Anyway, we were told they will buy it back, when we don't want it anymore. We signed for automatic monthly payment debit because sending payment by mail would cost us more. They never told us that we have 5 days to look it over and void the whole thing. We left happy. We made a good investment in our future and that $100 check. Later that year, I found out we were expecting so we needed the money. We decided to sell our time share. I emailed them asking them what we have to do to sell our time share.

The response was that they don't offer resale program and we should contact Pinnacle Vacation; they would sell it for us. We did contact Pinnacle Vacation and we have our timeshare for sale almost 2 years. Besides, Pinnacle Vacation is the only company that Bluegreen authorized to sell through, are able to transfer certain benefits, are personal to each owner, namely membership in the Bluegreen VIP Program, including Basic membership (Bonus Time and Day Use at Club Component Sites). I paid over six hundred dollars to a company called Resale by Owner.com to sell our timeshare while we were arguing with Bluegreen. They don't even call us back. They took our money but we got nothing in return. I filed a report with the Better Business Bureau, but due to the contract where the promise of buying back our time share obviously was not included, they refuse to do anything for us. I started doing some research. There are lots of complaints in ** about the way Bluegreen Corporation's sales people trick unknowing customers into buying their time shares.

I read numerous complaints online about Bluegreen. It turns out lots of people are going. One gentleman mentioned that disappointed customers should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. I called them and reported the unfair sales tactics and lies they say to customers. FTC told me I should file a complaint with Consumer Protection Agency, so that's what I'm doing. I don't care if we have signed the contract, but we signed it under duress. What we were told we were buying and what we got is not the same thing. We bought because salespeople told us Bluegreen will buy it back. They used unfair tactics and misled us. I'm not sure I found the resolution but as more people complain to authorities, the better investigation will be done. Salesperson promised to buy it back and now they're blowing us off, because it doesn't say in the contract.

This makes me so mad, I'm kicking myself in the ** for believing. You need to file a report with Better Business Bureau. Then you should call Fair Trade Commission and tell them about your problem. Call them at 22216606, or go online. This is one important government agency. The more people complain, the faster investigation will be done. Then I did file a complaint with the Attorney General of Florida as well as online. And the last company you should file a complaint with is Consumer Protection Agency in Florida. Please do. I'm incredibly aggravated with these big companies taking advantage of simple consumers.

I stopped payment on both checks and turned around and went back to Bluegreen. I asked to speak to the rep, the finance manager and the site director. In the meeting I told them they could have their property and vacation program and I would like my checks back. They denied me. So upon going home I went mailed Bluegreen in Boca Raton, Florida and cancelled everything. To this day I still have not received my 3000.00 dollars back. I have told all my friends and family about Bluegreen and continue to spread the word about their business practices.

Last year we received a bill with no due date on it so I called in late January to find out how long I had before a late fee was imposed. I was prepared to give a credit card number if it was due right away. The Bluegreen representative told me not to worry, I had at least another couple of weeks and that mailing my payment would be fine. A few weeks later, I was sent a bill for a late fee so I called and explained the situation. That person told me not to worry, it would be removed. I heard nothing else and thought all was fine until this year when I received my invoice for the new maintenance fees. There was a late fee with interest added.

I called and was transferred to another department but got a message saying that all representatives were in a meeting. So I sent an e-mail. That was a week ago. Still no response. Calling again has resulted in being put on hold so long that I have had to hang up. I have mailed payment for my 2009 dues but did not pay this late fee as I feel I do not owe it. According to their rules, I cannot make a reservation and use my timeshare unless my account is up to date yet efforts to get this resolved go unanswered. I obviously need outside help but do not know where to turn. Consequence: Not able to use a timeshare for which I have been paying for many years (a member since 1989).

Now for the good news, I am a very happy Bluegreen owner. In December, I scheduled 5 vacation trips for this year using roll over points. Currently, we have points to travel for several more weeks. Two things you must understand to use the system are very important. Plan trips 12-13 months in advance - 99% of the time you will get your request. Short term, look at the HOT WEEKS. This feature is for open time 2 to 10 days in the future for RCI and cost only 3,000 points. Short notice, but if you can use it, the world is yours!! Really hope these folks do not go bankrupt...

We just received a letter today saying that we have been foreclosed and that it has gone on our credit rating. We have always had perfect credit and have the money to pay it but refused to pay on something we canceled and they couldn't get straightened out. HELP! I keep meeting dead ends. Twice now since Dec. 23 I was told to call where we bought the points and get it straightened out. That would be ok if they were still open!!!

I tried calling Joe ** who worked there and had given us his personal cell # but he said the site was closed, resorts were closing and he was pounding the pavement 2 days before Christmas to find a job since they were ALL let go from the Bloomington, MN site. A very Merry Christmas from Bluegreen to all of them and now me. I have a call saved on my answering machine with Joe ** stating he was getting it taken care of and he had talked to corporate and it was being resolved.

I have spent no less than 10 hours on the phone to people trying to get this matter resolved. The letter I received on Dec. 23 said it was going to go on our record on Dec. 25! I have PTSD from a car/semi accident and am on disability and can't handle the stress caused. Phone calls are not returned and staff have been rude. My husband buy and sell properties and with this on our credit record will translate into a lot of extra dollars in interest or even getting turned down for a loan because of a foreclosure.

Economic damage; general emotional frustration.

We tried to get a home loan to get a house and were told that our credit score was too low. I talked to a guy named Jamie at Bluegreen's corporate office. Told him we just wanted out of the contract and explained what went on. He said they never make deals like the woman made (who has since retired) and that I had been lied to. We continually tried to get out of the contract since we have paid thousands and never went on a vacation. He said if we paid up to date they would fix our credit but that we couldn't get out the contract. I paid them a $1000, and they started taking money out monthly. They stopped taking the money out in May; I haven't seen any withdrawals, and our credit was never fixed. Our credit scores of above 700 are now 560. We were aware of the Bluegreen maintenance fees but weren't aware of the yearly fee. Our credit is so destroyed!

I did not read all of the contract, there were so many pages and it was getting very late. The saleman promised me that he was telling me everything that was in the contract and all I had to do was sign, give him a deposit and read the contract when I got home as I had three days to cancel if I did not like anything about the contract. I did as he suggested and became very alarmed at what i read. Much of what he was was a lie or was not mentioned to me at all.

I called the Schaumburg office on the Business Card he gave me and got only voice mail. I called the second day as well. Both times I left a message telling him to cancel my contract. I finally got him on the phone the 3rd day and told him that I did not want the timeshare that I could not afford this. He told me there was nothing he could do, that I had to send a written notice to Bluegreen Boca Raton, Fl to cancel and I had only three days to do that. He did not mention that at the presentation. I sent a written notice to cancel the very next day and sent it Federal Express.

I called Bluegreen aprox. 3 days later to make certain they received it and they informed me that I could not cancel the contract as the 3 day limit had expired. I told them my story above and told them that I had told their representative I was cancelling. I also sent the Federal Express notice as soon as possible after he told me this. ( The next day). They told me I could not cancel and that if I did not make the payments that I was bound by the contract and would turn it over to collections which would affect my credit, so I have been paying on this timeshare, I have paid three companies to try and sell it for me and I am at my wits end now because I have lost my savings by doing this along with the down payment and cannot afford to pay for this.

I am the only wage earner for a household of 4. It was 5 until 2 mos. ago. I have suffered a great deal of stress over this and can find no one to assist me in getting this company to cancel this contract. I am having difficulty feeding my family, I have to run up my charge cards for gas to get to work as I cannot afford to pay cash. The stress has affected my health to the point that I am seeing a Mental Health Doctor and am on anti-depressants.

In 1991, maintenance fees were low, in the $200.00 dollar range. The escalating cost of the annual maintenance fees is probably the greatest contributing factor to the Resorts depreciating resale value. The second greatest contributing factor to it's depreciating resale value is the recent buy out of Shenandoah Crossing to Bluegreen Corporation.

Let me explain. In 1991, we bought an undivided one-six thousandth (1/6000) interest in Shenandoah Crossing Resort & Country Club. We are owners. We own a deeded property located in the resort section in the Green Springs Magisterial District in Louisa County of Shenandoah Crossing and recorded in Deed Book 407 , Page 229 , of the Clerk's Office of Louisa County, Virginia. The Undivided Interest conveyed is Unit No. 4649D. Several years ago, the Resort was bought by the Bluegreen Corporation located in Boca Raton, Florida. When this happened, the UDI (Undivided Interest) type of ownership, like the one we own, took a back seat, so to speak, to the Vacation Points system being introduced by the new owner, Bluegreen Corporation.

And so, here we are. stuck somewhere in the middle with a piece of property that has no resale value because the new owner of the resort no longer sells this type, the (UDI). Year after year, we will have to pay maintenance fees to Bluegreen, till the day we die. Is this really legal? We have tried in vain to sell our Undivided Interest , on our own, and have learned in our efforts that there just isn't anyone interested.

And so, we wrote a letter to the top CEO of Bluegreen Corporation, Mr. George Donavan, asking him if he could take back the property for free. He gave the letter to his owner services manager, Ms Lorie A. Trauscht. She wrote back to us saying that there was quote simply no way that Bluegreen could take back your ownership. She also reminded us that our agreement with Bluegreen remains active and that we are still financially responsible. We can't even give it away! We've also sought legal advice and haven't found an attorney who's interested in or even knows how, to resolve our dilemma.

We are currently members in good standing with Bluegreen Corporation, the parent company of Shenandoah Crossing Resort. Our property is paid in full and there are no outstanding maintenance fees due. Filing this complaint is in essence a last ditch effort on our part, to avoid future financial disparity and hopefully, find a solution to our plight.