Even though I am on the Do Not Call List, I received a telemarketing call from Advance Benefits, Inc., and they already knew my credit card number in which to bill me. The sales person told me that I would receive a free gift for just trying out their services on a 30-day trial basis. He said the gift would be a $100 Walmart gift card for one of the services, and $1,000 in grocery coupons for the other. The two services were a discount program for prescriptions and pharmacies, and the other was a "family protection plan" for discounted legal services and consultations.
When I got the information in the mail, there was no information about the $100 Walmart gift card, and there was only information about the grocery coupons, which was only "up to" a possible $1,000 worth and required me to pay an upfront processing fee and shipment fee (not worth a damn). I called the company to tell them I did not get information on the $100 Walmart card, and everyone I spoke with was from India. The phone rep told me she would send me a "package" about the $100 Walmart card, and she volunteered to extend my trial period.
A couple weeks went by without anything in the mail about the $100 Walmart card, and I also was charged full price for the two services before the "free trial" ended, so I called again to get the erroneous charges taken off my credit card, and the phone rep AGAIN said he/she would send me a "package" in the mail. At this point, no one i spoke to ever denied that such a gift was ever offered to me. Finally, after not getting anything again, I called back to cancel ONE of the services, and this time I asked to speak to a supervisor about the elusive Walmart offer. Frank (again, all phone personnel are from India) came on the phone and said they had tried to mail it to me twice, so he didn't know what else to do, and then after I became upset, he said that I already cancelled the services and I was refunded the money charged on my credit card already, so that was it — no more discussion.
What a nightmare! I told him the $100 gift card was offered for just trying out the services and that he needed to listen to the recording of the sales pitch and agreement I had with the first salesman that called me. (He was just acting dumb I'm sure.) I also told him that I had called to cancel only ONE service, and if he is now claiming that I have cancelled both services, then that was his own doing because obviously he did not want to deal with me anymore. After a heated discussion, he told me he would listen to the recording of the $100 offer and call me back, which, of course, he did not.
So I called back a couple days later and asked Frank if he listened to the recording. He did not and again tried to convince me that since I have already cancelled both services, they were under no more obligation to me! I was furious. Trying to talk sense to these people gets one nowhere! I asked to speak to his boss, a manager he called Jessica Smith. He said she would telephone me. Of course, no call came from her, so I called back, and told another person from India that I would like to speak to Jessica Smith. The phone rep put me on hold and said that she talked to Jessica, and she said there was nothing more she could do because I already cancelled my services and was refunded the money on my credit card. These people can't get it through their heads that what they keep telling me has nothing to do with the verbal contract I was promised by the first contact with one of their solicitors, which, by the way, DID NOT have an accent from India — I don't think any of the people calling to first SELL the services have accents — they all speak clear English to lure you to try the services, and then, after that, you have to deal with only foreigners that are difficult to understand and act like they don't understand YOU!!!
I don't give up easy, and I would like to pursue this to get these scammers out of business. I would like to hear from anyone else who has had a similar experience with these airheads and file a class action suit for deceit and consumer fraud. They shouldn't get away with this. Isn't there a law that says they must record and save all the recordings of offers and verbal agreements —or is that evidence only made available to cover themselves, but never the innocent consumer?
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