Consumerist
lawsuits
Posts Tagged “
Salesmen
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lawsuits
videos
Dateline Investigates Shady Annuity Salesmen Targeting Seniors
Dateline did a hidden camera investigation into the world of shady annuity salesmen targeting seniors and playing on their emotions to lock their life savings away in funds they may never live to receive the benefit from, or pay stiff penalties, not disclosed in the sales pitch, for early withdrawal. In this clip, Dateline producers attended "Annuity University," a two-day session run by Tyrone Clark to teach them how to sell to elders. He settled with the state of Massachusetts after he published a sales pamphlet that told salespeople to treat seniors "like they were selling to a twelve year old" and to hit their "fear, anger, and greed buttons" to make the sale. He also sells questionable self-promotional tools and services. In one of them, a fake radio guy will call up the salesperson and interview them like they're a financial expert on the radio. The session is recorded and the salesman gets CDs to pass out, so they can pass themselves off as legitimate financial advisers. Video, inside...
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business scams
Redzee Won't Stop Trying To Scam Charlie's Boss
Charlie has had it with the sleazy hard sell from a Redzee sales guy—after bugging her daily for a month, he started urging her to log in to "her account" on Redzee so she could see the amazingly valuable traffic he was generating for her site. "He kept saying that he had clients waiting out the door for the opportunity that he was offering us, and I quite bluntly told him that he should then answer their calls and accept their business because I was not interested." So what the heck is Redzee? More »
customer service
Top 10 Complaints Keeping Shoppers From Returning (It's The Sales Staff)
Smartypants at the Wharton School of Business surveyed shoppers to find out what pissed them off most about the in-store experience, and it turns out it's mainly the sales staff. Here's the top 10 problems that shoppers said bothered them to the point that they wouldn't go back to the store.
10. Sales Associate (SA) A ignored you - did not say hello, smile, make eye contact 21
9. SA didn't listen when explaining what you wanted 22
8. Product/item was out of stock 22
7. SA not very polite, courteous 24
6. SA not interested in helping you find what looking for 27
5. SA insensitive to long check-out lines 27
4. SA acted like you were intruding on their time/conversations 29
3. SA followed, pestered when you wanted to browse on own 30
2. Could not find anyone when needed help 31
1. SA had 'that's not my department' attitude 32
Does this hold true for you? What most turns you off when you go out shopping?
Shopper Research Pinpoints Loyalty, Problems [ifoAppleStore] (Thanks to Jgodsey!)
What Customers Expect Sales Associates To Contribute Toward The In-Store Experience (Powerpoint)
(Photo: Getty)
scams
Traveling Gas Sellers Rip Off Homeowners In Michigan
Universal Gas & Electric, a Canadian company, sends out door-to-door salesmen who lie to homeowners about the imaginary "savings" they'll enjoy if they switch gas suppliers, when in reality Universal is currently about 50% higher than the default supplier. One former Universal employee says, "I'd have people ask, 'What am I paying now?' and they'd look at the bill and it's right there in front of them and they don't know where to look and I would avoid telling them that." More »
insider advice
7 Lies You'll Hear From Salesmen At Electronics Stores
Future Shop is a Canadian consumer electronics retail chain. Charlie used to work there, and has now passed along the 7 most common lies he heard salesmen use on unsuspecting customers. Whether you have a Future Shop in your area or not, you'll find these lies familiar. (We ran into a lot of them back when The Wiz was still in NYC, in fact.)More »
deals
3 Negotiation Techniques For Scoring Better Deals
Moneycrashers shares three methods for getting better deals in sales situations:
1. Silence.
2. Say, "That's not good enough."
3. Request a combo deal, then, if it's refused, say, "well if you're not going to give me that, the price needs to come down," thereby creating a push-pull price dynamic the salesmen must either pivot out of or deal with.
Negotiation Techniques To Score a Great Deal [Money Crashers]
rapists
UPDATE: RCN Sales Harasser Actually A Known Rapist?
UPDATE: We just called the Lakeview PD and they said that this story, "wasn't true. If it was, we would've heard about it." More »
shopping
How To Avoid The Upsell
It's easier to make additional money off existing customers than to find new ones. Most companies have standard procedures to get us to buy just a bit more every time we make a purchase. From the, "would you like fries with that?" at McDonald's to "would you like to sign up for an extended warranty?" at Best Buy to the endless pitches we have to endure just to activate a credit card, upsells are everywhere.But we don't have to take it. These companies take our valuable time and energy trying to get us to buy one more thing. Instead of simply grinning and bearing it, here's some advice to help us avoid the upsell: More »
automobiles
UPDATE: Consumer Takes Sleazy Prius Salesman To Court
Angela Weeble writes in what's new with her case against a dirtbag Prius salesman, James Gentile. This was a guy who, after the deal went raw, left multiple harassing phone messages daily, called Angela a "whore" and put her phone number on online escort websites. More »
automobiles
UPDATE: Consumer Takes Sleazy Prius Salesman To Court
Angela Weeble writes in what's new with her case against a dirtbag Prius salesman. This was a guy who, after the deal went raw, left multiple harassing phone messages daily, called Angela a "whore" and put her phone number on online escort websites: More »
automobiles
Consumer Takes Sleazy Prius Salesman To Court
An update on the Weingolds who are suing a Prius salesman, claiming he screwed them over on a sale and then proceeded to leave threatening messages on their answering machine. More »
machete
Car Salesmean Wields Machete On Customer
A machete is good for chopping melons and catfish, not so much for resolving customer service disputes. Verily, there's the soft sale, the hard sale, and then this: More »
ameren
Ameren, the Used Car Salesmen of Energy
Reader Bill is moving, and called local atom mill Ameren to get his electric service hooked up. All well and good, until they transferred him over to another outfit for his "confirmation." More »
vw
The Art of The Buy: Hide Your Time Wisely
In an ideal world, the salesman is a doctor diagnosing your problems and needs and prescribing remedies. But let's talk about the real world and the need to keep your timeline for buying a secret. More »
automobiles
UPDATE: Sleazy Prius Deal Ends in Salesman's Arrest Warrant
In the case of Prius sale gone wrong, Mark tells us that he met with a lawyer this weekend. The lawyer agreed to help sue
complaints
UPDATE: Sleazy Prius Deal Ends in Warrant For Saleman's Arrest
On Monday, we posted part of Mark's story about how he tried to return a Toyota Prius and ended up incurring the wrath of vengeful salesman who placed obscene phone calls at all hours to his wife. A warrant is now out for the salesman's arrest. More »
automobiles
