We went to a presentation at Christmas Mountain Village, in Wisconsin Dells, WI. While there we sat for a 1 hour presentation and half hour tour of the resort. During that presentation the speaker, Blake K., said several things that made buying their timeshare sound very appealing. He said what a great investment it would be because it was something that would increase in value as the years passed, because as the years went by it would cost more for new people to buy their timeshare, increasing our points value. That it was something we could proudly pass on to our children.

He also said we would only be allowed to buy the timeshare that day because it cost Bluegreen around $500.00 every time they had people come for their presentation. He gave an example saying “Imagine you were selling a car, and you paid potential buyers $50 dollars to test drive it. You wouldn’t want someone coming back again and again just test driving your car and you having to pay $50.00 over and over again.”

At the time we did not know that these were lies. It had made sense to us at the time. We did not know it was illegal to claim a timeshare as an investment, nor did we know that they couldn’t force a limited time offer on their timeshare as they had led us to believe.

After the presentation and tour we had a sit down with the speaker Blake K. and his sales manager Mark Halfpenny. During this sit down, even more lies were told to us.

We had told them we would want enough points to be able to take 2-3 long weekends a year. (Thursday night though Sunday morning or a Friday night to Monday morning). Mainly during Spring and Fall. We understood that summer would cost more points and we had no desire to travel during winter. They told us that 7, 000 points every other year would be plenty, since we didn’t want to travel during the “red” season.

Also we had recently purchased a house, and were concerned about having another payment. We were told that owning a timeshare is a tax write off, because we were buying actual property, and paying taxes on the property. We were given 6 months of no interest and after the APR kicked in the payments would be no higher that $150.00.

We were asked what kind of dream vacation we had wanted. And we replied “A week long cruise in the Caribbean”. These vacations started at 18, 000 points. We knew 7, 000 points every other year wouldn’t be enough to take our dream vacation. Mark Halfpenny said, “You can just save your points till you have enough to go.” I then specifically asked, “Do the points ever expire?” He replied; “No. You can save them for 6 years without a worry.”

Never once were Club Dues mentioned. Not during the presentation, tour or sit down. We were told about maintenance fees, but never about Club Dues. Blake K. said that Maintenance fees covered the taxes on our property and the upkeep of the resorts. And that they were based on how many points we have, so that they would never raise. His example was “If we paid $400.00 in fees, than our children would only pay $400.00 when we passed it on to them.”

We decided at the time that $150.00 a month for a few years, and than lifelong vacations for a small maintenance fee was great. We could stay at wonderful hotels that would normally cost closer to $250.00 a night for a fraction of the cost, eventually. A lot upfront, but in the long term a great asset to our family.

We agreed and went to sign contracts. At this point we had been there for over 4 hours. Our then 2½ year old son was with us, and he did not want to be with their staff any longer. We were tired and hungry. Our son was tired, hungry, and very irritable. We had to wait around another half hour while they prepared the paper work. By the time we actually sat down with the lady who prepared our paper work we were just ready to go. The only reason we were still there was because we believed what we were told. We honestly felt we were doing something good for our future and our son’s future.

The contract was so big. The lady said she would summarize everything for us. We were under the impression it had to be done that day. We weren’t given the option to sign them later. It was so hard to concentrate on the paperwork by this point. It’s hard enough to understand most legal documents at the best of times. We were tired, hungry, and trying to keep a toddler happy.

In January we scheduled a vacation with Bluegreen, to Christmas Mountain Village for the following June. During that scheduling is when we discovered that the points couldn’t be saved indefinitely. We tried booking online, and though it said we had plenty of points, we were not able to schedule our vacation. We were confused and called Bluegreen, and that’s when they told us we had to use them by a certain point or else they expired. And not only did they expire, points saved for a year, lose value. (Meaning, we could only use saved points for a “low” or “blue/white” season.) So we made the appointment, using as many points as we could so that they would not be wasted.

That February while doing our taxes our tax consultant had no idea what we were talking about, in regards to getting a ‘tax write off’. We have since learned that timeshares and expenses relating to them cannot be used on our taxes.

About a week before our trip we than received a bill for “Club Dues, ” and were bewildered as to what they were. We looked on-line at the Bluegreen website, and found out there was another fee on top of the maintenance fees. We decided to bring the bill with us, to talk with the employees at Christmas Mountain Village.

We have discovered that Bluegreen is a member of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) and that they agree to abide by ARDA’s code of ethics. The following are codes that Bluegreens employees have broken with us.

Code of Ethics III.C.1-2 - 1. Must not convey false, untrue, deceptive, or misleading information
through statements, testimonials, photographs, graphics, or other means; and
2. Must not omit material information without which the solicitations or sales
information would be deceptive or misleading, or which would affect consumer decision making.
Code of Ethics V.B.4 - 4. Limited Time Offers. Representations must not be made that the current terms of an offer will not be available at a future time unless those representations are factual.
Code of Ethics V.B.5.b-c. - b. Must be consistent with information and disclosures provided in
the Sales Information; and c. The consumer must be provided with a reasonable opportunity to
review the contract documents in writing at time of sale before signing.
Code of Ethics V.B.9.- 9. Sales Presentation. Verbal representations must be consistent with
information contained in sales documents, contracts and written disclosures.

The only good thing I can say about this company is the town home we stayed in was fabulous. The bed was comfortable and clean, the room big and comfy. Doesn't negate the swarm of lies they used. Stay away from them.

If you really want a Bluegreen timeshare, just buy it from one of the hundreds of people trying to get rid of theirs. You can get 11, 000 points for less than 8k.