| It’s not often that you find someone who actually wants to go to a timeshare sales presentation After all, they are notorious for aggressive agents, hardball sales pitches and, above all, the tendency to run for hoooouuuurs, despite promises to the contrary. So, we were intrigued when we came across the case of Kelly and Roland from Needville, Texas among the thousands of complaints against Bluegreen Vacations in the Florida Attorney General’s office. You see, Kelly and Roland had so much trouble using the starter package they had purchased from Bluegreen that they thought they might learn something from an owner’s update. And boy, did they learn a lesson! Just not the one they had hoped. “[W]e decided to use our starter package and traveled to a Bluegreen Resort in Surfside, Florida from our home in Texas. As we were checking into the resort, Bluegreen agents informed us that we were required to attend a ninety-minute owner update presentation. “As we found it very difficult to utilize our points from our starter pack, we agreed to attend the presentation thinking we would learn how to better use our points.” BIIIIIIIG MISTAKE! “Bluegreen agents soon shuttled us off to a new location for the owner update meeting and we left our children back in the room. The owner update meeting presentation quickly evolved into a high-pressure sales pitch.” “What was promised to be ninety minutes, ended up lasting almost six hours, during which we were not provided a single break.” SIX HOURS! Of course, they were given the usual line about how buying a bigger timeshare package would be a good investment and easy to resell. And then they learned something special – or so they thought. “Bluegreen agents even told us we were receiving a special discount because my wife was a nurse.” Wasn’t that nice? It was so nice that Roland and Kelly wanted to make sure they got a copy of the offer. “There was so much information to absorb that we tried to take a picture, but Bluegreen agents refused to allow us to take a picture or receive a copy of all the information and discounts we were presented. We were told that other timeshare owners would be upset if they saw the nursing discount we received.” Are you serious? “Exhausted and needing to return to our children after six hours of separation, we agreed to sign the contract. While the presentation lasted close to six hours, the closing process was completed in under fifteen minutes.” And what did Roland and Kelly learn from all of this? “We have now learned the true reason Bluegreen sales agents would not let us take pictures during the sales presentation. Despite being promised the ability to be able to enjoy our timeshare any time of the year, except holidays, we have still found it extremely difficult to make reservations as many dates are not available.” A valuable lesson, for sure, but not the one Roland and Kelly signed up for. You know who needs to be taught a lesson? Bluegreen president and CEO Alan Levan. Let’s send him an email at alan.levan@bluegreenvacations.com and tell him Bluegreen’s fake “owners’ updates” need to stop. We should also educate Jason Gamel, the President and CEO of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), which represents the timeshare industry in Washington. Let’s see if he’s willing to teach Bluegreen how to treat its owners better. Jason’s email is jgamel@arda.org It might be instructive for your timeshare company’s leaders to know what they’re doing wrong. Use this list of timeshare VIPs published by ARDA to contact them. Have you learned a timeshare lesson the hard way? Let us know at info@timesharefacts.com PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
