Complaint Review: Bluegreen Vacation Club - Nationwide

What happened to the people who filed the August 2016 report is basically what happened to us back in 2013.  My husband bought a $99 'weekend' at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield for us to go to Wisconsin and visit some friends.  We checked into the location where they told us our hotel reservation would be and it turned out to be filled with screaming kids because it had an indoor water park.  We went to the presentation and listened to a man who was a talented motivational speaker.  Then we were escorted to a cubicle in a large room where the sales pitch took place. When I asked for the restroom, the woman, instead of giving me directions, walked me down the hall, waited outside the door, and walked me back to the cubicle.  I didn't reqlize it until much later, but neither of the two salespeople assigned to us had any intention of letting us out of their sight. 

There was no explanation of how the program really worked, we merely told we be invited to an update in 3 months, implying it would be a training session.  We were rushed into closing, had about 3 minutes to glance over the contract with no mention of how it could be cancelled.  I was pushed into taking a Bluegreen credit card (mistake)putting the down payment on that and putting the traveler's plus membership on automatic renewal (mistake). After all this was done, they graciously showed us a unit.  Even though it was by now afternoon and there was a restaurant on the property, we were offered only popcorn.  Then we were given an armload of material and shooed out the door.  We purchased in good faith but have not been treated that way.

All this took place in late summer early fall.  It was the next March when we went to the so-called 'update training'.  It was nothing but another sales pitch which stupidly we fell for and bought more points.  When I asked for some training on how to use the program, I was shown to a large monitor and shown how to bring up the website. Period. That was it.  When we left the next day I read the contract throughly and discovered the cancellation instructions at the very bottom.  Fortunately we got home in plenty of time to write and mail (certified with signed return receipt) our letter within the time frame specified and that contract was cancelled.

We have used points once only because we had to or they would expire.  We had to transfer points to RCI in order to get some place we could go last minute.  You see, they failed to tell us that we had to have the trip completed (not just a reservation made) before the expiration date and you had to reserve with Bluegreen at least 6 months out.  This involved a transfer fee to Bluegreen and one to RCI as well, plus taxes and resort fees (if any).  We checked in Saturday and left on Wednesday because we were just miserable.

This month we had to pay a $35 fee to save the points that were about to expire, renew the Traveler's Plus membership, and pay the maintenence fee.

We have paid two companies to sell our points; Pinnacle (useless) which is recommended by Bluegreen and Corporate Timeshare Network (also useless).  Now we're getting telemarketing calls from numerous so-called resale companies and it's extremely annoying.  They all want their commission up front and they're expensive.

We tried talking to several of Bluegreen's customer service reps but all they tell us is to use the resale companies or default on the maintenance agreement which would ruin our credit. It means nothing to them that we are both over 70, retired, and on fixed income.  That's another thing which was not discussed during the sale and closing; that buyers are committed to this until they die.  So we're looking for some means of getting out of this.  The original contract amount has been paid so now we have to worry about the maintenance fees.