I received a call on 1/17/05 from some travel service agent called Tina King (1.800.853.9982) offering me 2 free roundtrip tickets good for anywhere in the US if I'm willing to try their travel services/membership for 2 weeks. At first I said NO, I never believed this kind of things.
I've received many many similar offer/certificate for free travel / cruise on the mail and I never believed any of them. But she's very persuasive and friendly and she said I could just cancel it the day I got the package, just for the free tickets. "That's what I did too", she said. She assured me that the free trial wouldn't start until I received the package in the mail.
Now, I can't believe myself for buying that!
Anyway she said that she need my checking account number just to verify that I will be able to pay the membership. What surprised me is that she'd already known the routing number of my bank. I just need to tell her my account number, and it's recorded. And then afterwards she started speaking very fast, I couldn't catch everything she said. But I remember hearing something about a free phone card, that also will come in the mail. But I was busy and I thought I'll just call back later and cancel everything.
Duh, i still can't believe myself for buying into this and giving her my account number.
So, I received a booklet from AGENTS TRAVEL NETWORK on 1/25/05. It comes with a book containing $25 airfare rebate coupons and some vacation packages ads. There's no airtickets certificates or anything else. And my "membership card" which said that my free trial will end on 2/1/05 and if I do not cancel by that date I will be charged $59.99 and $19.95 each month thereafter. It said that I would need to mail back this membership card to cancel.
The next day, 1/26/05 I decided to try the 1-800 number of the booklet, which is 1-800-432-6350 and it's all automated, and it detected the phone number I'm calling from. There's no option to speak to a customer service rep, but there's an option to "Press 1 for Cancel or Continue your free trial membership" WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? Cancel or continue? I pressed that option, and I only got "Thank you. Your request has been accepted" I didn't know whether my request to CANCEL or to CONTINUE has been accepted.
So I called the other number that I had. 1-800-853-9982, which I got from "Tina King" and this time there's no automated response, but I spoke to a customer service rep. She asked me what I got in the mail. I said something from Agents Travel Network, and I wish to cancel. So she did and gave me a confirmation number. I asked her whether there's anything else I would need to cancel. Was I signed up for any long distance / calling plan that supposed to come with that free phone card I never got? She said, I need to call TELEFLEX 1-866-821-8674,3303 SEFFMER DR. HOLIDAY, FL or teleflex.com. But when I went to that website I looked like a totally different company.
So I called 1-866-821-8674. It's automated again and very generic and very similar to the Agents Travel Network automated response. It detected my phone number but this time I could just Press 1 to cancel my free trial. I did that and ended the call. I called again the 2nd time to talk to a rep, and cancel again, and this time I got a confirmation number.
I checked my checking account activity. There wasn't any suspicious withdrawal. I planned to go to the bank in a couple of days so I thought I'll just report this to my bank later just in case. Anyway I still got several days until my free trial period ends (2/1/05).
This morning (1/28/05), I received an email notification from my bank that my checking account balance has falled below the limit that I set. So I logged in and found out that a check withdrawal has been made on 1/26/05 for $149! ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE BUCKS BY FLORIDA PASSPORT. The check of course has my name, address and phone number, and my correct checking account routing number. There's a phone number on that check. I could view this online from my bank online services. It's 1-888-612-2894.
Ok so just now I tried that number. Surprise, Surprise! The automated response machine sounded awfully familiar. Even the options were exactly the same. So I chose to talk to a rep and was held for more than 5 mins. Finally it looked like somebody picked up, but I WAS DISCONNECTED!!! I called again the 2nd time, after the same amount of waiting I talked to a guy this time and he said they're experiencing technical difficulties and will call me back asap. I waited about half an hour and called back and this time another guy anwered the phone. He asked for my phone number to pull my records and I was put on hold. AND I WAS DISCONNECTED AGAIN!
THIS IS SCAM! I felt so stupid for buying this in the first place. Only if I just searched google or something while I was offered this services the first time! I use the internet very extensively everyday. I didn't know why I didn't that day.
I called back the Tina King number. The original number that I got. 1-800-853-9982. This time another female answered and she said this is just a sales dept. If I need to talk about my membership I need to contact the agency directly, she could supply me with the phone numbers. She asked which agency I wish to call. This time I said "FLORIDA PASSPORT", and she gave me the same phone number listed on the electronic check. 1-888-612-2894
By the way, each of those different numbers that I've called, whenever somebody picked up, they always said "Customer satisfaction is my goal. How can I help you today?"
Gosh, what else was I signed up for? I do not know how many more "services and free trials" I would need to cancel.
I will contact my bank now.
I will post more updates later.
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