I was contacted by this DMS after I'd been appointed to sell life insurance for a company that will go unnamed. Apparently the insurance company posted my name on their website as a new agent and Direct Marketing Surveys used that information to contact me.
Anyway, I got a series of calls from Paul Gettis, who gave me a nice pitch about leads his company generates by putting 'ride-along' offers in Mastercard and Visa solicitations. These offers were for insurance and other financial services; my particular interest was for whole life insurance leads.
Gettis wanted me to buy $500 worth of leads at a pretty good price, but because I didn't know him or his company I countered that I'd buy $125 first to test them. If they were as good as he said, I'd then buy the rest and continue doing business with him.
Once I paid for them, he would email me a spreadsheet of the leads—by the way, the leads were guaranteed to produce at least 10% appointments, a terrific response for my business—and then it was up to me to make them work.
"OK", says I, "here's my credit card information." " Oh, no", says he, "we only take credit cards on subsequent orders, the first order needs to be paid by check. We'll pay for the overnight envelope" says he.
"No need for that", says I, "I don't need to have the leads right away. I'll mail you the check and you can email me the leads once you get it."
"OK", says he, "I'll call you when we get the check and send them right out."
I sent the check July 9 and called on the 11th to see if it had been received. I had to leave a message because, of course, all reps were busy, including the apparently overburdened receptionist.
I did get a call back from Mr. Gettis the next day, however, telling me that they did in fact receive the check (which got cashed immediately) and I should get my leads the following Wednesday, July 18.
"What?!" says I. "You told me these got sent out electronically! What's this BS about waiting another week?" "Blah-blah-blah", says he, "I'll put a note in to get them sent sooner."
Today is July 27. Of course I've never seen the leads and don't expect to. I've left six messages so far with them... Because they're so busy they can't answer the phone... And I'm still waiting for a return call.
I did send Mr. Gettis an email expressing my disappointment with both he and his firm; more because I was trying to help the guy out to make an initial sale and maybe open up a nice account with me, less because the $125 isn't going to kill me.
But that $125 sure puts a price on someone's integrity. If I were he, I'd be feeling worse about selling myself for so little. Meantime, avoid Direct Marketing Survey Stuffers of Ft. Lauderdale, FL at all costs.
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