Your phone rings. You check your caller ID and the number is "blocked" or "unavailable" but your curious mind picks up anyway. The sales rep comes off very personable and casual; which is apart of their marketing plan. The point is to "build rapport". They are taught this during training.
"Hello Susan? Hi, this is bob from National Readers Service!" This is a sales call (the MUST tell you this is a sales call. It is a requirement by law so I was told) to inform you that you have been entered into the Dream of a Lifetime Sweepstakes so congratulations! Now, the sweepstakes is held every year for customers of Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover and you do still carry one of these cards, correct? (they ask this because they intend on charging you and you MUST have a credit/debit/prepay card)
NOTE: Sometime they ask for a different person because their info in there database is incorrect or that person isn't home. The sales reps are trained to sell it to you instead!
NOTE: your credit or bank card has nothing to do with the sweepstakes!
If you say no, they will rebuttal you to see if you have a debit or check card. If you say no, they say thank you and hang up.
Once you confirm you have one of these card they will continue to lure you in by telling you what you can win. "You are in the running for a brand new mustang convertible, $25, 000 in cash, or a trip for 4 to Australia! plus hundreds of other valuable prizes." [they will discontinue the call if you do not have a credit/debit card]
The rep then continues and explains that no purchase is necessary, however they talk so fast that all you hear are the prizes! After telling you the prizes, they start asking you a "survey" This survey is to pick out your magazines. They ask if you are in-between the ages of 18-20, 21-35, 36-60 or 60 and over (or something close to those brackets) The rule is that they can't sell to people under 18 or over 65. Again, legal restrictions. Also, age will help this rep determine which magazine will suit you better. They are not going to sell a Woman's Day magazine to an 18 year old female. They would more likely sell her Glamour or Cosmopolitan.
Next they go on by telling you that you also won free mags for the price of one. There are 3 magazines that are picked out based on your survey (age, marriage, hobbies, ect:) They then thank you for completing the survey and say they will give you a diamond watch and 3 free mags for the cost of one weekly magazine (either Rolling Stone, ESPN, or one other magazine which is the most expensive bi-weekly magazine. ) The cost for all this is just $4.99 a week which is guaranteed to not increase for a full 60 months!
This is where the trouble begins for the sales rep because once someone hears a price, they hang up. For the rest $4.99 doesn't sound that bad...
So once they rebut the customer as many times as needed (company policy is at least 3-5 rebuttals per call) the sales rep keeps the customer on the phone until their "supervisor" is available for the transfer. The sales rep will establish small talk with you to get you comfortable and conditioned to say yes because the next step is to get your personal information.
You are then transfered to the reps supervisor in which this person isn't their supervisor at all. They are what is called a "Closer." A closer's job is to close the deal. Secure it and make you want to buy it. They get you to "verify" all you personal information. What I don't like is that they mislead you into thinking that they already have your information in their system when really all they have is your name, address, and telephone which they get from some type of lead generator/merchant. So, after you "verified" all your info (reference numbers, business numbers, place of employment, email, social security numbers, ect) they then go into pricing of the magazines.
The price is $4.99 per week for 5 years or $1297.32. They break that into payments of either:
$68.28 x 19 months
$49.90 x 25 months
$39.93 / $39.31 x 34 months
$29.41 x 43 months
They mislead you by saying that you will only pay $68.28 for the first 19 months and the rest are payment free. So it sounds like one payment of $68 but really its once per month for the first 19 months. the remaining 3 and 1/2 years are payment free.
You then go through a recording where you repeat the terms. Here are some of the questions:
1. How much are you monthly payments?
2. How many monthly payments?
3. Do you understand these payments are consecutive? (some people don't know what consecutive means)
4. How many titles are you receiving?
5. Do you give us permission to process your order and at this time and initial payment will be processed?
The customer must give yes or no answers very loud and clear. The supervisor/closer tells the customer what to say in most cases (to say yes to all questions!) If the customer says no during the recording; the closer (supervisor) will stop the recording and rebuttal the customer until they say yes. These professionals are trained very well!
They go on to explain third party offers they one (like a gas card for example) for accepting a 15-day trial with UBA aka UBS (united benefits association/service).
So by the time the call is over they have a charge for $68.28 for magazines, 39.99 from UBS and another for 29.99 for identity theft package for example. The strange thing that the customer doesn't understand is their bank statement says that all these charges came from the same merchant number---meaning the same company charged them for all three services! So when the customer calls into customer service to cancel its a HUGE MESS and they are given the run around.
A welcome package is sent to the customers address (or is supposed to). This agreement goes over all the details the customer agreed to during the recording. i was told by a manager that the company doesn't always mail out these letters because it leads to cancellation. The company purposely DOESN'T mail it! All customer service members know that if a customer calls in and they tell you they received a letter--that is an automatic letter. (I will post a copy of one of the letters -- they are different depending on your state)
There is a release form located in the welcome package that the customer should fill out and mail back to the company. Once this is done they will mail you your $5 diamond watch. This welcome package takes 10 business days to arrive after the order is placed. The company only mails it once and will never resend it; even upon your request. (they don't want you to see this letter because it is totally contrary to what is said to you when you call in and cancel)
The watch takes 7-10 business days to arrive to you after you mail in the release form or call in and request them to mail it to you. You account is sent to periodical publishers to be entered with the publishers.
