Complaint Review: Bluegreen Resorts Florida - St. Petersburg Florida

Timeshares are a joke and this company that sells them called Bluegreen is a joke!  Avoid Bluegreen Resorts Florida at the Tradewinds Resort on St. Pete Beach unless you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time.  They WILL waste your time!

I am an experienced paralegal.  Yesterday I answered an ad on the St. Petersburg, FL area Craig's List for a job that was listed under "paralegal" and it turned out to be a job as a CLOSER on timeshare sales paying a what I assume is a low base salary + commission with Bluegreen.  Their ad said you could make up to $17 per hour and mentioned nothing about sales or commissions.  I already make more than this, so I would have never wasted my time if they were honest about what they are looking for.  Today I attended this "meeting" which was really a cattle call job interview held at their offices inside the Tradewinds Resort on St. Pete Beach that was so ridiculous that I feel compelled to share it.  Maybe they will see this and change their ways .... (one can hope).  HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY, right??????

First of all, let me explain that I have ZERO sales experience and did not list "sales" as one of my qualifications on my resume.  Nontheless I was called about 2 hours after sending my resume and asked if I would like to come to a "group meeting" about the job the following day.  After arriving promptly for a 2:00 pm meeting, I waited in a presentation/podium style conference room while being video and voice recorded (without knowing it) for 20 minutes until some woman named Francesca arrived and started her presentation.  Francesca did not reveal her last name but she did tell the group of 8 or 10 people about her brilliant history (graduating high school at age 16, two Bachelor's degrees by age 19 and lots of law firm experience.  Sure, hon). 

After 10 minutes spent telling us things I did not understand like how much of a "budget" Bluegreen had for Tradewinds, and how quickly the company is growing and how fast you can "move up" in the ranks, Francesca revealed that she is an Associate Director who has been offered the Director's job 5 or 6 times in the past year, but that she has refused it because she has a 2-year old child and her husband has a decent job, so she doesn't "need" it.  Okkkkkkkkaaaay.  Sure, everybody turns down job advancement, right?  LOL.

Then we were all handed a piece of paper listing several resorts purported to be part of the vacation plan/timeshares.  We were told that she would take us one by one individually and hear us read aloud (I guess to weed out the inarticulate marblemouths).  I did not jump up immediately to be the first person to have a one-on-one with Francesca.  I had about 40 minutes to sit there with nothing to do, so I decided to pull out my IPhone and see what their website looked like and try to find out more about the company.

Giant red flags went off when I saw that after several of their own corporate sites, the next popular search to pop up on Google was ripoffreport.com which said it had approximately 98 complaints about Bluegreen!  I read a few and was horrified to see they engage in what appears to be a basic high-pressure scam with no way for buyers to back out.  I then checked the Better Business Bureau website and there are over 550 country-wide complaints lodged against them for deceptive practices, outright lies and horrible accomodations for the people who do jump through their hoops and comply with their rules in order to take a vacation.  Sounds like their properties are pieces of s**t, too, with broken down rooms.  Many people have reported terrible experiences all over the United States where Bluegreen does business.

Fortunatley I did have time to check out this information and I grabbed my stuff, told the girl next to me what I read on ripoffreport.com and split.  I can only assume that a company that is so shady about HIRING people is going to be horrible to have as an employer and I feel terrible for people gullible enough to buy into their scams.  If you want to take a vacation, take a vacation on your own and never, never believe in "group resort" timeshares.  They give you a deed so you feel like you own something but really it is non-transferable b******* which ropes you into years of maintenance fees and the like.  So glad I decided to take the afternoon off without pay so I could sit there.  Thanks!  I will be sure to spead the word!