I was contacted by telephone from a man who said he got my name as being someone interested in earning some extra money. He said his company worked with Mastercard/Visa and they tried to help small businesses get the best rate when processing credit card charges.
The man told me that I could become an affiliate with the company for only $495.00 and that I would email to their company the names and phone numbers of small businesses in the area where I lived. He said that for every business that converted over to their system, I would receive a certain % of every card that was swiped.
He asked for 5 businesses and said that someone would be calling the next day to talk with me further. I e-mailed 24 businesses and their phone numbers because I have lived in this area for a long time and know lots of people.
I asked for an e-mail confirmation to confirm that the company received my e-mails with the business names and phone numbers. I did not receive this and was concerned that they may not have received my e-mail.
The next day a man by the name of Michael Blanchard called me and said he was the chief operating affiliate director and that he would be my coach. I asked him about my e-mail and he assured me verbally that it was received.
He continued to tell me that their company was rated an A with the Better Business Bureau which I found out later was not true at all. Mr. Blanchard proceeded to tell me that after my initial investment, I would need to make a "surge" to push my business a little and that I would need to make a payment for either a platinum membership, a gold, silver, or bronze membership depending on how much money I wanted to invest, the lowest being $7500.00.
I told him I was not interested in making a further investment and would just stick with the merchant card services. He seemed quite annoyed and was beligerent in his tone with me. After that, I had no idea where I stood and if I was still considered an affiliate or what. There would also be a recurring monthly hosting fee of 24.99 which would be charged to my credit card. I have had no success in reaching the company to answer my questions. At this point, I realized I was dealing with what I considered to be a dishonest business and do not want to be a part of this type of team.
0 comments