We were told our biennial vacation points would not expire if not used; they would keep rolling over into coming years. They even assured us those practices of expiring points would cease even though it was detailed in the contracts we signed (a main factor in us deciding to buy). They told us it was okay, they wouldn't expire. We didn't use our points for 2006 & in our family suffered an awful car accident so we didn't use it then either. Thinking we had them for use this year, we were told they expired last year. When we called them about the issue, they told us it's in our contract. My timeshare is paid & now I'm looking to sell it which has to be done through a 3rd-party, not Bluegreen as they had promised.
They promised many, many things that weren't in the contract and we were told to ignore the contract wording that indicated our points would expire after the second year. Even after a tape-recorded phone interview where they "explained" the contract wording and asked us to confirm that we understood, we were REPEATEDLY told it was okay, that wasn't going to happen. They cleverly take you to a computer that computes the cost of inflation and what your vacations would cost in coming years and say you will be saving because you won't be paying for inflation, yet their maintenance fees continue to increase. They didn't even tell us about the Vacation Club dues that are $100 per year. So I pay $600 a year in fees to get 7,000 points EVERY OTHER YEAR and those 7,000 points won't even cover a week's vacation in the summer. (That's in addition to the $7,700 I paid for the timeshare "privilege.")
I filed a complaint with the BBB and Bluegreen's response was to cite all the places where it is stated in the contract all the things I was complaining about.
P.S. For those of you who wish to write a rebuttal about me signing the contract and not having read it, I don't want to hear it. I know damn well that I made the mistake of believing the words told to me and not paying full attention to the wording of a contract. It's the oldest trick in the book; they tell you one thing, but have you sign another. I take full responsibility for my naivety, but that doesn't negate the fact that Bluegreen engages in deceptive practices when selling their timeshares.
As we have learned courtesy of Bernard Madoff, a little charm goes a long way when you're trying to con people out of their money. Highly intelligent people were taken for a ride by him. Why is it so unbelievable that I was taken for a ride by Bluegreen? Just look at all the complaints on this site. It doesn't speak very well of this company's integrity... Or lack thereof!
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