Hard sell from activation people

cos_2

Shaza - what you plan to do makes a lot of sense. YOU phone and explain your OH's issues and pass the phone to him when he needs to take part. Any company woth their salt will work with you on this.

In retrospect (I've had problems with these guys pushing 'extras') I think the call centre staff will be able to listen to your particular requirements and try to adapt.

Best wishes.

Shaza40

Update: Spoke to them today and explained the situation with my husband. I had written a little note for him with all the details on it (his memory isn't good - like us all) as suggest by Kavanne (thanks for this). They were sympathetic to a point although it did seem like they didn't believe it was him as he was reading it and was answering their questions slowly but then started bombarding him with the hard sell on identity theft etc at which point my husband got totally freaked, got very stuttery and couldn't asnwer any more questions and put the phone down. Cannot believe they would do this! Not sure if they actually activate the card either.

Im really upset by this and will be making a complain. Are they all like this? Surely people with speech impairments or deafness can get credit cards via an automation system that they can confirm their details without having to talk to people (a step backwards probably).

Rant over, thanks for your help anyway.

elfen

Am so glad I already have identity theft bundled in with my phone insurance. Seems worth paying the tenner a month for both now...Only did it cos I'm likely to lose/break the phone and I can't afford to replace it

izools

My new Barclaycard wasn't activated on the activation line. I called customer services to find out what limit I'd been approved for as it didn't say online, so the chap said "I'll have to activate your card tell you the limit" so I said "OK", he said "£1,150" and that was that.

Had to speak to Barclays Bank yesterday, too, and the lady mentioned something about a special offer on a savings account, I just said "is there a reason I should move my savings into a lower interest account then?", she swiftly moved on and that was that!

laurenjs88

How do i get out of this CPP? A&L activation line basically sold it to me without me saying yes, im feeling a little bit confused as to whats just happened! i dont want to pay £35 a year for this?

td_007

laurenjs88 wrote: »

How do i get out of this CPP? A&L activation line basically sold it to me without me saying yes, im feeling a little bit confused as to whats just happened! i dont want to pay £35 a year for this?

When did this happen? You should have a cooling off period - if you are within in that time frame you can always cancel. If not, look at your t&c re canceling the policy and refunds.

PurpleJellyFish

I just received my new Bank of Ireland card today. I was surprised it didn't have a sticker on with the usual call to activate so I called customer services and it is apparently ready to use straight away and no attempt was made to foist PPI or ID protection on me. I'm impressed so far with the service from BOI.

In response to others facing the hard sell, I've found that calling the usual customer services number is better. They can activate the cards and aren't usually targeted on selling the insurances.

Shaza40

Does anyone know of a CC company that only have an automated service for customers like my husband?

johnt22

I was surprised that the activation number on the new card put me through to CPP, even more surprised to get a hard sell about identity protection. I put him off with some stuff about protection from my existing bank - the cheeky !!!*** even questioned which scheme this was. I am aware that the T's and C's protect me from fraud anyway, and I think this is part of the Consumer Credit acts anyway, so I wasn't interested.

The odd thing is that at one time I had been conned into paying fees for a similar service - probably from the same company. At that time it was for a different primary scam - "we'll keep details on all your cards and sort it all out for you if they're lost".

After years of paying the fees my cards were stolen so I got in touch. As far as I recall they said I would have to contact half the organisations myself and I am pretty sure that for the important ones - i.e. bank cards - I had to contact the banks myself. They even contacted me to question whether I was sure I wanted to cancel the service!

If I offered you some old rope for a tenner a month would you complain? I guess these services involve small monthly amounts so they sit below the radar of the regulators. Do the "reputable" banks get a nice tidy kick-back for referrals?

Compared to the value of the service - i.e. nothing, zero, no value at all - these services make 6000% interest payments to a loan shark look cheap.

(Something divided by nothing is of course equal to infinity percent!)

Chadsman

The last time I called an activation number I did what someone on here suggested. Every time they tried to suggest I opt for this and point out how many wonderful benefits there were I said "I'm not interested in that thanks"
It was very satisfying when they gave up!