They called to let me know that I had been selected to be featured in their famous Who's Who directory. I had recently appreared in several business journals so I thought the "nomination" as a successful business woman came from a real source. I asked a few questions about the directory and I have to say that the sales person was good because she managed to dance around each question without answering it and without me realizing it until later. I was then told that there was a fee for being in this directory but that it was an elite networking tool and that the fee was just a one time thing.
She chatted me up for a while about it and I eventually gave her my credit card number but then realized she hadn't given me the information I had asked for earlier in the call so I called her back about 10 seconds after hanging up the phone with her and she admitted she did not know the member information I was asking. I told her I no longer wanted to apply for membership. She proceeded to tell me that all the paperwork was already "personalized" because this was about 1 min in total since I had given her my credit card number, I asked her in shock if she really wanted me to believe that they had printed this directory of 250,000 members in the last minute.
She admitted that no and said that in order to get the charge reversed, she had to get credit involved and asked if she could call me back. I agreed, but again, insisted that I did not want to be a member. About 4 days later, I got a call from a guy named Craig Berns who basically yelled at me, said all sales were final and offered me a $300 discount (original fee was $689.) When I said no, that I did not want to be charged at all, he said that all sales were final. I told him that I had already called American Express to contest the charge which had not hit yet. He said he would just give my recording of the conversation with the sales reap (Betty Anne Healy) to American Express. Then he stated again that I was warned that all sales were final. I tried to tell him that the sales rep never said any such thing and in fact, said that she needed to get credit involved to stop the process, if the sale was final, why wouldn't she just say so? I'm sure he couldn't hear me though because he just started yelling over my voice at me and then hung up on me!
I called him back and then tried several other people at the company (from their website) but what a surprise, I got nothing but voicemails. I left messages with everyone with my name and number but so far, no one has called back.
Their original mailing to me said that they were not affiliated with any other Who's Who but when you visit their website, they claim to be the result of Empire Who's Who and Manchester Who's Who. Both of those companies have complaints against them but there are not many against Cambridge who's who since that is a new name they are using. If they end up charging me, I intend to fight this all the way with them, through American Express, Attorneys or any other means. It is not about money it is about righting things with the scum of the earth.
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