Ender, that’s gotta be the company I used to work for! I used to sell that exact same bullshit. Except I actually made sure the person understood beforehand that they were getting a free trial and then would be billed instead of saying they just were going to be receiving information. This is why I was lucky if I got one sale a day.
…the person you were talking to, for the record, was being totally dishonest. Because if you aren’t, you basically lose your job or quit in disgust (I did the latter). After the purge at the company a few months ago, I’m guessing only the people who really hustle and cheat people are going to be still there.
For the record, hardygrrl is right; this service is done through a third party company (which is actually in the same town that she and I live in if I remember where hardy lives correctly). Chase Manhattan really has nothing to do with the way the individual telemarketers act, seeing as they aren’t present.
The sad thing is, though, skata like the person who called you are the people that get something like 3 sales an hour, get commended and stuff like that. Those of them who’re honest basically drown.
I have a credit card with the same company, and got the same call a few weeks ago, only they told me that due to problems with fraud they were having, they wanted to send me a copy of my credit report so I could look it over and make sure everything was ok. I asked if this was a service, she said no, they just wanted me to make sure everything was ok. She then “verified” my info and proceeded to talk 10 times faster and I barely heard the part about “you can cancel at any time.” I was so pissed, I asked her if she had just lied about this being a monthly service, she said no, the first month was free and the credit report was free. I told her “I don’t want anything, do not send me anything, I will not pay for any service, I do not give you permission to do anything, goodbye.”
They are really starting to piss me off, Look on your bill for late fees, they have been charging me huge late fees all of a sudden, mysteriously for bills that I send way ahead of time, same time as I have every month, suddenly now are late. I tried to sign up for their online billing so I could make sure my payment went through on time, their website keeps crashing, and is about the stupidest set-up for online billing I have ever experienced. It’s like they tried to make the process as frustrating as possible. After I finally got a confirmation e-mail with my user id, it won’t accept it. I would be afraid to pay online now anyway.
I have my own reasons for hating Chase Manhattan, one of them being that they have been calling my number, i.e. the WRONG number, trying to collect someone else’s bad debt for the past FOUR MONTHS. No matter who I talk to to or how irritated I sound, they always call back…
Also, it doesn’t matter who is doing the calling, they’re selling a service for a company, presumably with that company’s knowledge & permission. If Chase starts losing customers because of it, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Velma, regarding the issue of paying bills on-line, you can also pay them through your bank if it’s got one of those info-line things (where you call in, input your account number, and you can check your balance and whether certain checks have gone through and such). Usually there’s a function on there that lets you pay a credit-card bill; might be worth looking into.
jackelope,I bank with a local credit union that is wonderful, but does not have on-line services yet. Supposed to get them w/in the next year. On the plus side, there are no crazy fees and they know me by name, even when I call them on the phone. They even covered me once on a little overdraw I wasn’t aware of and didn’t charge me!
We got a telemarketer call the other day asking us if we wanted a Capitol One card. When my husband asked them why they were calling, since the commercials say no telemarketing, she told him that’s only certain cards, and only after you get the card. Not Impressed.
I used to be employed at a telemarketing firm as both a telemarketer and subsequently as a Supervisor. Its sounds to me like the “Hase Manhattan” caller was employed by one of the aforementioned third party vendors like the one I worked for because no self respecting fortune 500 company would condone that type of deceptive sales practice. The industry term for what the telemarketer attempted to do is “slamming” and is very common. Simply put, “slamming” takes place when a customer is lied to. The most common form of slam is the classic “lie by omission” where the telemarketer neglects to tell a customer the full details of whatever transaction in effort to push (or slam) the sale through. I personally have disciplined several telemarketers for slamming sales. Sadly, many slams go undetected and unsuspecting customers learn after the fact that “if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is”.
One of our prized clients at the telemarketing firm I worked for was also a major credit card company (MBNA America Bank). MBNA was very clear about how they wanted their credit card products sold to the potential customers in an up-and-up manner. While our telemarketers were encouraged to be assumptive and persistent within reason there were some non-negotiable rules that had to be abided by at all times. For example, at the end of the application the telemarketer had to disclose “Regulation Z”, an agonizingly long 3 page script outlining the credit card’s terms & conditions and ending with a request for the customer’s verbal authorization to submit the credit card application to a credit analyst. MBNA insisted this lengthy script had to be read WORD FOR WORD. As you probably guessed, many sales were lost when potential customers lost interest and hung up mid way through the lengthy script or were spooked by some of the credit card’s less attractive traits that weren’t mentioned in the opening script such as the high APR or annual fee. So you see where the temptation to slam comes in, most telemarketers don’t take their jobs seriously (I sure as heck didn’t, even when I was foolishly promoted). The pay is commission based and the work is grueling so as you may expect most telemarketers take the gig as a temporary measure to hold them over until they can land a credible job. The view is why not slam the sale and make a couple extra bucks, the worst that can happen is you lose your job
Perhaps, as some of you have suggested, this is the work of a Ronin. A telemarketer without a master. She called up attempting to trick me but this wasn’t the policy of Hase Manhattan Bank (not to be confused with any other similarly named multi national lending institution located within the 5 borroughs). I believe I will write a letter, as ladyfoxfyre suggested, and inform them of what happened to me.
If this was done with Hase’s knowledge and encouragement (though how I’d find that out short of them telling me I’m not exactly sure), I will be pissed.
I once got a notice that one of my credit card companies was increasing it’s ATM transaction fee or its interest rate on such transactions some god-awfully high amount.
Then in the fine print I happened to notice I could opt out of allowing this increase on my account if I sent a card with certain information to such-and-such address.
Bastiges!
I read “junk” mail a bit more carefully now, before auto-trashing, if it’s a company I already do business with.
I’ve recommended this repeatedly on this board, but you could hardly call me a “telemarketing defender” or “apologist.” Just the opposite. I am vigorously opposed to telemarketing. I think it should be outlawed immediately, and if anyone is discovered engaging in it, they should be punished in cruel and unusual ways.
I have the same protection on my debit card that I have on my credit card. I have had issues where I have called the bank to dispute a charge and they have been more than happy and willing to accomodate me. You need to research your bank’s policies. If they don’t have similar protection on your debit card, take your business elsewhere. (Although that may be state specific.)
Heck, my bank sent me a notice of a cash back program if I use my debit card as a credit card (meaning no PIN usage – ATM or at a store) and I get money back next November. I only thought that was for actual credit cards, not for debit cards. Note the glee in my voice. Everything possible is being charged on my debit card (as a credit card) so that I come next November I have some money for the holidays. This costs me nothing and my bank fees remain the same as they were 12 years ago.
It took about three months to get that $200 back whereas both of my credit card chargebacks were credited to me within a couple of days. I still use my debit card for day-to-day purchases, but I use a credit card for online purchase and to pay my monthly DSL charge.
Regarding the cash back program: how does it deal with those store machines that even if you hit the Credit button, it stills reads the card as a Debit card? (My guess is the stores do that because they save on charges to Visa and Mastercard).
PhiloVance: I’m not sure I understand your confusion. I thought Critical1 was implying that all credit card use was bad. Perhaps I was overreacting.
Somehow my TN seems to be leaking out to the telemarketing weasels. Somebody wanted me to buy gold the other day and got rather snitty when I instructed him not to call me and remove me from his calling list. Well, sorry Mister Telemarketer Sir, I understand that it’s your shitty job to call people all day trying to get them to buy pretty pretty coins and what-not, but you went into the job knowing that it would put you into the only group of people in the world that Americans hate more than Al Quaeda so kindly don’t get pissy with me when I ask you to leave me alone.
I just opened a new credit card account and called to “activate” it (meaning I called to give the credit monkeys their one free shot) and when I said I wasn’t interested in hearing about any offers ever by phone, mail or email the girl-monkey actually had to read me a disclaimer filled with dire warnings of the wondrous offers I’ll miss out on by denying my humble credit card servants the opportunity to even share them with me. Somehow I’ll live.
Wrong. The call to activate is to ensure you received the card. That’s why it asks you to call from the home phone. If you call from another phone number, there’s a good chance you’ll end up talking to someone in my department (fraud).
