Firstly let me tell you a little bit of the history about how we came to own a timeshare with a US company called Bluegreen.
We purchased it back in 2000 when Airtours originally built the resort but a few years later Airtours sold up/went bust and we found ourselves dealing with the US company. We have three weeks of deeded ownership, one which falls on week 10, early march, and then two that are first two weeks of November. Deeded means they are ours, for life, and when we pass on they become our children's and so on. Airtours were very clever to protect uk citizens in the minefield of timeshare ownership.
Now the minute you mention timeshare most people take a sharp intake of breath and believe you have been suckered in during a very hard sales meeting. I suppose we were drawn in by the sales pitch all those years ago, but two adults and three kids in a single motel room isn't exactly the perfect holiday experience. To then walk into an apartment on a beautiful complex, with separate bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and lounge it was perfect. So we did the deal and have never regretted it.
We travel there twice a year and can't imagine a time when we don't go "home". Generally as soon as I land in the UK from the previous holiday I am booking if not researching flights for my trip back. Hence we arrived home mid November 2011 and by the end of November our flights were booked :-) this makes me happy.
So anyway back to my blog ..... Sorry for rambling :-) Our maintenance fees are paid every January and as soon as we are sure payment has cleared we speak to reservations and confirm we are coming for "our" time. Anyway yesterday I finally made the call to the US. First call I explained what
I wanted and was abruptly told there was no way we could be accommodated .... Not good !! I asked about alternate travel dates and hung up stating I would call back once I had spoken to hubby. I called again once I had reviewed all options and this time the chap on the phone appeared to be complete inflexible, I was willing to move to another unit, building or amend our check in as although we are on due to stay at the resort for one week, we are actually in Florida for two weeks. Nothing no matter how nice and flexible i tried to be, the more stubborn the chap on the phone became. I got exasperated and just said i couldnt make a reservation and ended the call.
I text hubby and told him how upset i was and then posted on twitter just how upset i was. Within an hour i had received a DM from Bluegreen, they already knew who i was as they had looked me up on the customer database. I was amazed, my last message from them last night was to "Hang fire and they would get back to me today" At 4pm UK time today (therefore 11am their time) I received my reservation number from Jimmy who had been DMing me. I was staggered!! I had posted one tweet with the exact wording of
really upset and angry with @bluegreentweets ....... #beingavaluedcustomerdoesntcount
— Sarah Webb (@all4aquietlife) January 25, 2012
Now i dont perceive this tweet to be OTT but obviously something struck a chord with Bluegreen, maybe they had seen the LA Fitness debacle this week, which managed to go viral worldwide. Whatever it was, it made Bluegreen sit up and listen to me, their customer.
I am so pleased they have gone totally out of their way to help us. We are now really excited to be arriving at The Fountains on 10th March and I will be writing a review for the blog on our Bluegreen experience for my followers .
Thank you Bluegreen and Twitter for giving the customer the power back to ensure we get what we pay for.
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