Hard sell from activation people

GeorgeUK

When i activated my cards, i did so at work so didn't need to worry about the phone bill.

Next time i'm activating a card and get a hard sell:
Them: What will you do if you lose your job?
Me: God will save me, and you.
Them: Umm...
Me: I encourage people to read the Bible. The answers it gives to important questions are often surprising.
Them: Look, i only want to know if you want the insurance.
Me: Do you mean that you are not interested in the Bible, or is it religion in general that does not interest you?
Them: Oh look, your card is now activated. Have a nice day. Goodbye.

It's going to be ages before i can call a bank
Hope i remember.

AHAR

I received a replacement card from Barclaycard at least a month ago. The sticker on the front asked me to call immediately to confirm safe receipt of the card. Well, I didn't get around to it. If Barclaycard were so concerned about the safety of the card they'd soon have called me to check I'd received it right?;). They didn't of course.
Then I saw this topic and it reminded me of the annoying sales tactics I've encountered in the past. I wondered if the card would work anyway, and judging by the payment I've just made via PayPal for an eBay item, it does...

Should I be glad I didn't have to call them or disappointed the card works without confirming I've received it? Maybe they'll redeem themselves and contact me to query it.

cos_2

cos wrote: »

I was accepted for Virgin's 0% card online a few days ago. Got a call last Friday welcoming me to the world of Virgin and then had a good old chinwag about the weather and jobs. Then it moved on to payment protection and fraud protection and passport replacement and who knows what. Politely, I declined them all and parted on good terms with the rep.

Card arrived yesterday.

I called to activate (in the old days this was all automatic) and was put through to a rep. She verified who I was and then launched into a chinwag about how much frost there was in the west coast of Irelend... I politely reminded her that I was simply calling to activate the card and she told me "it will take a few moments to go through".

I replied I was in no hurry and wouldn't use the card for the next "few moments", said cheerio and hung up.

So, yes, of course it's all designed to get you to buy additional products, and it can be quite irritating to be subjected to it every time they talk with you. But the moral of the story is to be polite and calm and insistent that you do not want to be persuaded to buy products you don't need.

P.S. According to my online account the card is NOT activated. Ho hum...

Sorry to quote my own post but a quick update. I called yesterday morning to check on balance transfers, entered my number and date of birth and got an automated response, "Your card has been activated"!!! :T

So my advice is to call on a Tuesday morning at about half past nine.:rotfl:

Kavanne

Did you take PPI already though, cos?

dancingwedger

Man I am so glad to have found this post. I have just spent 10 mins on the phone to Barclaycard after almost a month of arguing with CPP. And I'm so angry........:mad:

I too rang to activate my new Goldfish Barclaycard only to be given the same hard sell Identity Theft Protection speel......i've worked in call centres before and know that people are just doing their jobs so sat through it and said that I wasn't going to agree to anything just now but if they could send me some info that would be great. So provided an e-mail address for the info to be sent to. Well apparently that's all it takes. I check my credit card statement a week or so later and 69.99 had been taken off as payment for the policy.

I have been arguing with CPP and Barclaycard and it doesn't look like i'm going to get my money back but can cancel the policy on it's expiry after a year - well gee thanks. Barclaycard are no more helpful, because the policy was taken out on the 22 October and Barclaycard only took over on 28th it's not their responsibility, it's Goldfish - my arguement was that they are Goldfish.....the guy says they are but they weren't on the 22nd October so therefore they can't get my money back - what a croc of !!!!!

Needless to say i've started looking at other credit cards to transfer my balances to. I will never touch Barclaycard again.

But it's nice to know i'm not the only one.:T

GeorgeUK

Dancingwedger - i'd phone again and request a copy of their official complaints procedure if they don't remove it. There's no way you should be paying for someone elses mistake.

cos_2

Kavanne wrote: »

Did you take PPI already though, cos?

Eeek! No!

PPI would repay the minimum amount for just 12 months subject to all sorts of conditions that made it useless for me. There's a PPI thread so I won't rant here.:p

I didn't take out any of their additional products.

benmooe

best thing ive found in these circumstances is to say one of the following

"i work for privacyguard"
"i work for sentinel"
"i get it free with my lloyds bank account"

they wont try and question it as sentinel/privacyguard are their main competitor and have exactly the same product base.

allh2k

I got the same but just said I don't care and would deal with it when it happened...

confused the poor lad!

I also got 2 cards exactly the same ?!?! and both were usable so I gave it to the kids to play with their shop games!

simli20

Ok luckily enough for you all i actually work for a "company" that does card activation as part of the business and heres the facts:

CARDS THAT DON'T NEED ACTIVATING TO BE ABLE TO USE (NOTE THE TERM "SAFE RECEIPT" INSTED) -

Barclaycard / Morgan Stanley / Goldfish
Mint/RBS/Natwest/Tesco
Ulster Bank

You dont need to bother with the "call now to prevent fraud" sticker on the front of your card, you cards always been active and ready to use, you basically ringing up to get the ID or Card Protection sales pitch.

CARDS THAT DO NEED ACTIVATING:

Alliance & Leciester

These cards are always not ready to use, a different system is used to activate these cards.

Although you will still get the sales pitch.

HOW TO STOP THE SALES PITCH IN ITS PATH:

"I have a Natwest Black Card" - entitles them to privacy guard / card protection
"I am with / work for CPP or Sentinal"
"I am a branch manager of xxxxx bank"
"I work for Privacy Guard"
"I am a solicitor"

theres many different ones you could make up...........

What i hear all the time is "I need to think about it" insted of "NO"

The trouble is with all the misselling scnario and the pressure is because the call centres are putting so much pressure on the agents that have unrealistic targets to meet ie by saying jobs will be lost if you dont reach such or such percentage and also if you dont meet the sales your not getting bonus, depending on your end of month coversion you can come out with anything from £2 per sale to £12 per sale so there going to give it there best shot.

I hope this helps someone anyway!