do not buy a timeshare from Bluegreen
Complaint
Ben Travis
Country: United States
Do not...I repeat...do NOT buy a Bluegreen timeshare under any conditions. No matter how sweet it may sound, it is a rip-off. My wife and I bought one, and we are in a continual state of regret about it. It is virtually impossible to sell (the same amount of points we bought for $10,000 are selling for about $3,000 online), plus we have yearly fees of about $700 that must be paid for us to even be able to keep using it.
Here are some of the things you may not hear while you're in a Bluegreen presentation... we didn't:
-each year you will have to pay both "maintenance fees" and "club dues," which for us amount to over $700. If you don't pay, you can't use any of your points at all until you do pay.
-many of the resorts they tell you about can only be booked in 7-day increments, which means you'll take that trip and no others for two years because you'll use up all your points on that single trip.
-we just found this one out... if you don't have the points, you can't book a trip... for example, we get 12,000 new points in July, so I called to book something in August. Well, I can't do that until I "have the points." Of course, by the time the points actually show up, all the places will be booked for the summer. We're all paid up on maintenance fees and club dues, so we will definitely get the points, but too bad... we have to wait. The person on the phone even sympathized with me and said he understood what I was saying, but too bad.
-they say they will help you rent your timeshare, but this is a joke. Your timeshare will never rent for anything near what you need to maintain the fees on it, much less pay it off.
-take a look at this web site to see what points are actually worth if you buy them on eBay: http://popular.ebay.com/ns/Real-Estate/Bluegreen.html If you really desperately want Bluegreen points, don't buy them from Bluegreen.
-they tell you that you can book things just a day or two in advance, but this is almost never possible in real life. Things are booked up months in advance.
Owning a Bluegreen timeshare is like a weight that you have to drag around with you for the rest of your life. There are many places that will rent timeshares if you like that kind of thing, and you can usually get them fairly cheap and without any obligation for the future. When I imagine paying $700 a year for the rest of my life, it feels amazingly scary. Don't do it. You're locking yourself into something that will never end when there is absolutely no need to do so.
They give you the free trip, then take advantage of how little you've researched timeshares when you're in the presentation. They tell you this price can only be offered this one time, and that you can't take another trip. It's all cheap sales techniques, and they wouldn't be necessary if it were something people really benefited from.
We even looked on the internet during our sales presentation... if only I had come across a letter like this, we probably wouldn't have bought, and we'd be much better off. At least take a few days to think about it. If they can't give you that long to think, they're tricking you anyway.
Buying a Bluegreen timeshare is a terrible decision. They, like many salespeople, will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to buy, knowing that they will not personally be accountable for any misrepresentations of the truth later on.
One thing they promised us is that we could rent our timeshare. Now they've done away with that aspect as well, so you either use it, keep paying about $700 in fees each year along with whatever you paid originally, or you just lose the points. Every letter we receive is something else they're taking away from us.
The most recent thing that happened was that we had tried to rent ours out for 10,000 points (most of our points) before they decided to stop letting people do that. So I called today, 10 days in advance, to check and make sure it was rented, since this is the cut-off for when I can cancel without losing points. So the guy on the phone told me that yes, it is rented. And I asked, "Well, what happens if the people cancel sometime in the next 10 days?" He said, "We don't have any control over that, sir." And I said, "I understand that, but I don't either. So what happens to my points if they cancel?" And he said, "Well, you lose those points."
So some renter I don't even know can decide to back out at the last minute, and I lose 10,000 points and don't get to travel or make any money from my timeshare for 2 years! That seems fair...
Everything Bluegreen does seems to be a way to get themselves more money and screw over their "valued customers."
And Bluegreen, if you're reading this, don't bother calling me trying to get me to revoke the complaint... we're trying to sell our timeshare as quickly as we can and hopefully never have any interaction with you for as long as we live.
Here are some of the things you may not hear while you're in a Bluegreen presentation... we didn't:
-each year you will have to pay both "maintenance fees" and "club dues," which for us amount to over $700. If you don't pay, you can't use any of your points at all until you do pay.
-many of the resorts they tell you about can only be booked in 7-day increments, which means you'll take that trip and no others for two years because you'll use up all your points on that single trip.
-we just found this one out... if you don't have the points, you can't book a trip... for example, we get 12,000 new points in July, so I called to book something in August. Well, I can't do that until I "have the points." Of course, by the time the points actually show up, all the places will be booked for the summer. We're all paid up on maintenance fees and club dues, so we will definitely get the points, but too bad... we have to wait. The person on the phone even sympathized with me and said he understood what I was saying, but too bad.
-they say they will help you rent your timeshare, but this is a joke. Your timeshare will never rent for anything near what you need to maintain the fees on it, much less pay it off.
-take a look at this web site to see what points are actually worth if you buy them on eBay: http://popular.ebay.com/ns/Real-Estate/Bluegreen.html If you really desperately want Bluegreen points, don't buy them from Bluegreen.
-they tell you that you can book things just a day or two in advance, but this is almost never possible in real life. Things are booked up months in advance.
Owning a Bluegreen timeshare is like a weight that you have to drag around with you for the rest of your life. There are many places that will rent timeshares if you like that kind of thing, and you can usually get them fairly cheap and without any obligation for the future. When I imagine paying $700 a year for the rest of my life, it feels amazingly scary. Don't do it. You're locking yourself into something that will never end when there is absolutely no need to do so.
They give you the free trip, then take advantage of how little you've researched timeshares when you're in the presentation. They tell you this price can only be offered this one time, and that you can't take another trip. It's all cheap sales techniques, and they wouldn't be necessary if it were something people really benefited from.
We even looked on the internet during our sales presentation... if only I had come across a letter like this, we probably wouldn't have bought, and we'd be much better off. At least take a few days to think about it. If they can't give you that long to think, they're tricking you anyway.
Buying a Bluegreen timeshare is a terrible decision. They, like many salespeople, will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to buy, knowing that they will not personally be accountable for any misrepresentations of the truth later on.
One thing they promised us is that we could rent our timeshare. Now they've done away with that aspect as well, so you either use it, keep paying about $700 in fees each year along with whatever you paid originally, or you just lose the points. Every letter we receive is something else they're taking away from us.
The most recent thing that happened was that we had tried to rent ours out for 10,000 points (most of our points) before they decided to stop letting people do that. So I called today, 10 days in advance, to check and make sure it was rented, since this is the cut-off for when I can cancel without losing points. So the guy on the phone told me that yes, it is rented. And I asked, "Well, what happens if the people cancel sometime in the next 10 days?" He said, "We don't have any control over that, sir." And I said, "I understand that, but I don't either. So what happens to my points if they cancel?" And he said, "Well, you lose those points."
So some renter I don't even know can decide to back out at the last minute, and I lose 10,000 points and don't get to travel or make any money from my timeshare for 2 years! That seems fair...
Everything Bluegreen does seems to be a way to get themselves more money and screw over their "valued customers."
And Bluegreen, if you're reading this, don't bother calling me trying to get me to revoke the complaint... we're trying to sell our timeshare as quickly as we can and hopefully never have any interaction with you for as long as we live.
Comments
I tried calling you today and no luck, i'll testify against them, they scewed us over pretty bad too. PLase give e a call at 518 636 6114 or email me at: ariptt@msn.com
I'm looking inot suing them as well.
Thank you
I then proceeded to sell my 2 timeshares to another owner for 1,000 each...yes that's right because no one wants a timeshare...they are a dime a dozen. Well we started the process in May and here it is October and they still haven't transferred the title. They told me it would take 60 working days and it would be in the mail...they lied!
Never used PRICELESS. I going to go fix myself a drink now! Good luck BG owners, hopefully this time next year I can take my little check from the sale and the drinks are on me.
Latter, post with any news.
We were young and trusting, just what they were looking for. Now we have started a Christian nonprofit daycamp for foster children. I just can't help but think what we would be able to do for these kids with all the money that we foolishly paid and ARE STLL PAYING to this scheming corporation.
Thank God they were asking for an absolutely ridiculous down-payment of $2700! I had been to a Uniway presentation in my early twenties, so I was already kind of expecting something like this. But had it been something more affordable on our budget, we would have been one of the sad souls buying in to it. Then, because of my Uniway experience, I expected them to pull out the financing application after we told them we didn't have that kind of money to put down. So basically, had we applied for financing (which we didn't), we would be making payments to BlueGreen for the down-payment ON TOP OF the payments for the points (plus any other fees we didn't really investigate). I'm glad my husband and I learned from our financial mistakes we made in our twenties and finally snapped out of their "dream vacation world" before it was too late. Too bad I'll never get those 2.5+ hours back in my life. I am surprised we got our $20 back...well, it's a check we haven't tried to deposit yet. And I'm glad they upheld their end of the deal, giving us a sweet $75 visa gift card...but then again, we haven't tried to use it yet.
Geez, I really think this crap should be illegal. I think Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge should protect their patrons and start banning these vultures. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! BEWARE!
tfarris@2jdda.org