The devil's in the details, The Lord is in the Light

I want to pass along some very important advice!!! Everyone knows to read all the fine print when you are agreeing to something, right? Well, the outcome of not being aware of the fine print can be devastating. Have you heard about the new movie, "Stop Loss". It's all about that. Check it out. I learned all about it from watching CMT.

On a more personal level, I learned that I should have read my new house insurance before I called the service man. Lessons learned are like bridges burned, you only have to cross them but once........right?

However, I dealt with a very high pressure company called Bluegreen Resorts recently and they sent us lots of information regarding a trip we agreed to take. The salesman had pressured Mark, while shopping in Nashville at Bass Pro Shops at that big mall, into filling out a card for a "free trip". Having the card in hand, the telemarketing salesmen called me over and over til I agreed to this trip ( I was gonna teach Mark a lesson for filling out the card. ) Well, when I told the salesman that we did not travel without dogs, he said "no problem", so I proceeded over the next weeks to plan a trip to Gatlinburg just prior to our Florida spring break to visit Mark's family.

One week before departure, the company representative called to remind me of the trip and I said that we were looking forward to it and asked, before hanging up if all the arrangements had been made for the dogs. Well, the whole attitude of the rep changed. She talked to me as if I had done something wrong. To make a long story short, after many long conversations and several days, the company finally agreed to refund my money, but Mark and I had to drive straight through to Florida for our 30th wedding anniversary visit.

I did read all the fine print from every letter we received from the company. I learned that had we simply been no shows, we would have been charged the regular price for the rooms and been charged an extra $75 for their inconvenience. They insisted that it stated clearly in the fine print, no dogs. I never could find that, just a lot of fine print about what they were gonna charge us if we didn't follow all their rules to the letter. Wow, it was enlightening how these companies work.

I also checked onto the company's website to get an address for their Arkansas office, which was the office with which I was dealing. I could only find their Boca Raton headquarters address. But, while reading about the company on their website, I learned how they stressed how not only should people take part in their timeshares, but also, should invest in this very profitable company with extremely high sales. Wow, now I know how they have high sales. Most people don't have the time to argue with four different company representatives on the phone......easier to just not show up.

Please, learn from our mistake in having anything to do with a timeshare type company. Please advise everyone you know about these high pressure tactics and the consequences of signing up when the salespeople promise anything and then the follow up reps make you feel like you've done something wrong when you don't fall in line with their "fine print rules" to the letter.

Ya'll have a great day, I'm gonna go visit some friends, the most important part of my day. luv, Susan ps, sorry for this being so long, but I felt I needed to say it. Also, Mark and I joined our little country church yesterday.......Praise God!!!