In August 2006, my husband was approached in a Bass Pro Shop sporting goods store in Orlando, FL about a wonderful vacation opportunity. We would just have to sit through a 90 minute sales pitch for the best timeshare in the world; he had to pay $59 (reservation fee), but we would get that back (if we called within 30 days to make reservation) and they would give us a $25 Bass Pro gift card, coupons and accommodations at a Bluegreen preferred partner hotel (supposedly valued at up to $175/night).
They gave us a list of resorts where we could go to hear the sales presentation and we chose to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee in June 2007. We had to provide our own transportation, pay the aforementioned $59 and they would give us 2 free coupons to get into the Ripley’s Aquarium, a Smokey Mountain coupon book, and put us up in what I was lead to believe would be a nice resort. When we got to Gatlinburg, we had to check in at an information center to get our hotel reservation. The hotel they sent us to turned out to be a gross, run down, dingy “roach” motel (a classic “bait and switch”). My husband called it a Motel 4 (not good enough to be a Motel 6).
The next night we went to the sales presentation. There they gave us a tour of where we could be staying if we were Bluegreen owners (instead of the nasty motel they put us in). After more than 4 hours of a very high pressure sales pitch of this wonderful “investment” opportunity, they got us—they kept pushing and eventually wore us down.
We kept telling them we couldn’t afford it because we had plans to send our 5 year-old daughter to private school. They said that this would be an “asset” we could pass down to her, enjoy with her, an “investment”. We also kept telling them that it wouldn’t work for us because they didn’t have any resorts close to where we live, Washington State, or in any of our neighboring states. Most of the Bluegreen Resorts are in the eastern United States; they said that they were building resorts out west. (That turned out to be a lie. They told us a bunch of lies which I detail below.)
I admit we were stupid—we were hungry; it was dinner time and they had our 5 year-old locked in a room with another kid. We wanted to get our daughter, get out of there and go to dinner. We make a down payment of $2, 001.34 with a credit card, financed the balance $15, 103.56 through them at 15.9% interest. We had excellent credit, but they would not allow us to look for our own financing. Everything had to be done that day because they said they were giving us such a good deal. They said that the high interest would be an excellent tax write off and that we could refinance later. Finally, away we went with promises of grandeur (the lies they told us).
I had immediate buyer’s remorse. I wasn’t proud of the decision we made. We never told our parents or anyone else—we felt stupid right away. We were in Tennessee, a foreign state to us. We are residents of Washington and have never lived in Tennessee. We didn’t know we had a small window of time when we could have gotten the contract cancelled. They never told us. In Washington State, you are always told about your right to cancel and you have to initial next to it on the contract, so there is no disputing whether or not you were told. I assumed Tennessee didn’t have such a law or cancellation period because they never one vacation in 3 and a half years. Every year we’ve paid over thousands of dollars mortgage, in maintenance fees and dues for nothing. We have never, in 3 ½ years been able to use Bluegreen.
The following are two examples of when we tried to use it.
(1.) We have tried to book a family vacation in Hawaii, but there are not any condo units for 5 people available to Bluegreen Owners and this is supposed to be a Bluegreen resort. The bigger units are reserved for cash paying customers. A family Hawaii vacation was a selling point for us and I wish they had been up front with us.
(2.) I tried to book in Montana, but the smallest unit available at that resort is for 8 people and requires a week stay, because of that I don’t have enough points to book there (Bluegreen sells points not weeks). I expressed an interest in Montana during the sales presentation because it is the only place we could possibly drive to from Washington. Again, it would have been nice to know these things from the salesperson before we bought it.
We feel trapped (we are trapped), we were lied to and we cannot afford it any longer. We want out of this and all our money back. This is the biggest financial mistake of our life. Before we got mixed up with them we had excellent credit (700-800 range). Since signing up with them we always paid on time and paid our maintenance fees and dues. We have had to refinance our house twice to pay the Bluegreen maintenance fees and all our other obligations (that we struggle with because of the Bluegreen burden).
We cannot afford to pay Bluegreen any longer, so we stopped paying in September 2010. Now our credit is ruined and we can’t get a loan. Plus, we wasted a major portion of our hard-earned dollars that could have otherwise gone to our daughter’s college fund and our retirement fund. Bluegreen lied to us and has been a huge financial burden. We can’t afford it, can’t sell it, can’t rent it out and can’t get a reservation--we have never used it. Now they are ruining our credit and are planning on foreclosing on us.
Here is the list of false promises and lies from Bluegreen timeshare salespeople:
1. We could sell our points (i.e. timeshare weeks) that we were unable to use back to them, but then they stopped that program.
2. If we wanted to get rid of it, we had to offer it to them first because they have a waiting list of people wanting to buy. Huge lie.
3. The timeshare would be an investment and a tax write-off. I’ve since found out that timeshares are extremely hard to sell and only worth a small fraction of what we bought it for (worth just 25% or less of what we bought it for). Timeshares don’t increase in value like they told us. They say buy now because the price will be “locked in” for the rest of our life.
4. We could carry our points forward if we don’t use them, but didn’t tell us that they expire after 2 years. (Not only do they expire after 2 years, after the 1st year the points are worth less; you can no longer use them for 'hot' seasons.)
5. We told them it wouldn’t work for us because we live out west, in Washington State. They said no problem because they were building out west. They have nothing in Washington State or any of the neighboring states.
6. They told us we could exchange our points with RCI (another timeshare company). However, they didn’t tell us that we would have to pay a yearly RCI dues and pay $75 when booking with RCI.
7. They never, not once informed us about "Club Dues". They told us there were yearly maintenance fees, but failed to tell us that the maintenance fee was over $800 per year and that there would be additional club dues for Bluegreen, for RCI and for the Yacht Club (which were separate from the maintenance fees).
8. They told us we would have a great tax write off. That was their way of justifying to us, who had excellent credit at the time, why we should be okay with 15.9% interest. They don’t give you time to shop for other financing—it is all so rushed. You have to take the “great” deal that day or you won’t get it again.
9. One head salesperson said his sister is a Bluegreen owner and she vacations all over the world for free and pays her Bluegreen fees by selling her points back. (See false promise #1—they no longer buy points back or help owners sell their points.)
10. They never explained our right to cancel.


All they want is to make a sale and get your money—they say anything. Looking back I realize that none of the salespeople handed out business cards. I wish I had their names. I believe that most of this sales process was illegal. (Pennsylvania’s Attorney General sued Bluegreen because of their unscrupulous sales practices.) I think the timeshare business should be made to be more up front with full disclosure (for instance, disclose the timeshare resale market, disclose the right to cancel). However, if they were honest and truthful, they would never make a sale.

My family went to a timeshare meeting at Christmas Mtn in Wisc Dells. Everything sounded great, we bought a 10, 000 point package, but after we got back to the hotel room, something just bothered me all night about getting excited and signing without even thinking about our decision. I, like many others, checked online and looked at some of the reviews, which were mostly negative. We decided to send a certified and registered letter (we sent both, just in case) stating we want to cancel our contract and wanted a refund 2 days later.

I have to admit I was very nervous during the next couple of weeks waiting for a response. I did call a contract attorney just in case. I called them 10 days after I sent the letter and they were actually very nice, stating they had received my letter and had processed the refund. I received it a week later, with no problems.

Today my husband answered a call from Christmas Mtn. asking why we changed our minds (we did this at the end of July, by the way), he told them the truth and again they were very nice.

Just thought I would post this because I could never find anyone who had received a refund, only people who had cancelled their contract.

I am a Bluegreen owner and was sold a bill of goods that never came to fruition. Dealing with them is very frustrating and most recently they made promises to set up a Traveler Plus account and never did it and i have to keep calling back.

Being a Bluegreen owner is one of the worst experinece of my life. Many of the properties are usb standard and i have been trying to sell my ownership for 3 years and no one will even consider it.

I was told i could use my points to find renters and that never happened either. Sooner or later businesses need to start operating with integrity.

Here's the basic run down of what my husband and I were told during our Bluegreen presentation. (If you can believe it, I've shortened this by a lot)

We were told how Bluegreen was a great investment. (A timeshare cannot be legally advertised as an investment). We were also told that a their timeshare was a tax write off, because we were owning actual property and paying taxes on the property. (Timeshares and all expenses can not be used for tax purposes).

The "deal" was only good for that day. That we wouldn't be allowed to come back for a few years using this example, "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." (Hey guess what, they can't do this either)

(Anything to make a sale), We were also told that the points never expired.We were told this lie because our dream vacation was to take a cruise but couldn't afford 18k points a year to go on one. (Not only do they expire after 2 years, after the 1st year the points are worth less. You can no longer use them for 'hot' seasons)

Maintenace fees are based on the number of points we have, so they will never raise. Saying, "If we paid $400.00 in fees, than our children would only pay $400.00 when we passed it on to them." (Another blatant lie. They are raised yearly.)

They didn't give us any time to review the contracts which they are obligated to do. Lied how much our monthly payments would be, and never, not once informed us about "Club Dues". (Which by omitting the information, puts them in the wrong.)

Bluegreen is a member of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA)We have filed a complaint with them, which I encourage everyone else who has been lied to by this company to do as well. Here is a list of codes the Bluegreen broke 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

We are currently in dispute over our contract and are working very hard to get it canceled.

Bluegreen's main line for everything that happened to us is, either "The contract says ..." or they "deny any verbal ...". However, they're mortgage department called us, and wondered why we were unhappy. And after telling the lady some of the lies, she interrupted me to say, "That's just the 'Sales Pitch'." Proving that it's a widespread, acceptable practice among Bluegreen.

If you are happy with them, I'm happy for you. I understand we signed a contract, however when fraud is used to trick a person into signing a contract, we can dispute it, which we are doing wholeheartedly. I will say the resort we stayed at was very nice. Clean, comfortable and large.

We joined Bluegreen while subjected to the immense sales pressures... they are so good at that.

We joined a trial membership called a sampler package. This package cost us $90.00 per month for 1 year.
Now when you go to use the points you have enough for approximately two weekend stays...figure it out...that is about $500. per stay...what were we thinking???
Anyway, we figured we better use it. So we booked a weekend in Gatlinburg TN. Living space was small as were the beds. My wheel chair barely fit through the hall in teh room.

We were told we had to go through another sales meeting with them at our first stay...I guess so that we can get pressured some more...no problem.

That night it snowed...alot. We were ok as we really were not driving anywhere. Our meeting was set for Sunday morning. Sunday morning we had more snow and ice. We thought it best to head home as we had to drive through the Smokey mountain park and feared worse driving conditions.

We did the right thing by calling the front desk to let them know we would be checking out early (due to weather) she said she understood and would inform them of us not attending.

A few days later I get a debit in my checking account (the same account set for our $90.00 monthly payments) The debit was for $150.00. I called the resort immediately only for them to say they did not charge it, to call Bluegereen. In calling Bluegreen I got a run around for weeks...from 12/17 to today, 12/30.
Finally today, some rude manager told me my contract states we are responsible and they would not refund it. He said the resort was opened so we needed to attend...regardless of what kind of hazardous driving conditions existed.

I have since put a stop on the auto debit...I'm sure they will try to collect...but they did not care about our welfare, I don't care about theirs.

DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THIS COMPANY...you will regret it as we are now doing.