| ProspectMatch |
| ProspectMatch unethical advertising and selling practices, fraud, threats, deception, Internet, California |
| 21st of May, 2011 by User881460 |
The company Prospectmatch.com is
advertising itself as a provider of prospect leads for financial industry. I
contacted the company with the purpose of purchasing leads from the companys
database. My initial conversation was with the companys sales person who
assured me of the following:
I can quit my subscriptionanytime
Leads are legitimate and
collected as a result of financial marketing surveys
Bad leads are replaced with
new leads free of charge as the company doesnt issue credit
Leads would be directed to
me based on the radius around the selected zip code. Based on the information provided
to me by the salesperson, I took the following steps:
Paid the set up fee of $149
Paid $126 for the first
seven leads As per companys requirement I viewed the suggested training videos and participated in orientation call. The videos and the orientation call were focused on how to use companys selling resources (for additional price) and spoke very little on the companys billing practices
or my rights as a user of the companys services. I took the time to familiarize with the options available to me by visiting different parts of the companys website and to my surprise learned the following information:
New members could only put service on hold after 1 month
The company automatically
bills its members once a month, or, the billing is triggered automatically if
the amount of leads delivered reaches $200
Members could only change
the zip code once a month at the beginning of a billing cycle
The radius could be
adjusted at anytime, but could not be adjusted to zero. None of the above was clearly explained to me during my initial conversation with the salesperson. The website is password protected and only gives a minimum amount information on how
subscription works. As a result from in a matter of 13 days I received a total of 38 leads out of which 24
leads had incorrect information. 18 leads were sent to me in a period of less than 24 hours. I was alarmed at the amount of leads coming my way and attempted to reduce the geographic radius from 12 miles to 0 miles. THE SYSTEM WOULD NOT LET ME DO THAT! The only option was to reduce the area coverage to 1 mile. And even after that the leads kept coming my way. Upset and unable to control the lead flow through adjusting the mile radius to 1 mile, I contacted the salesperson with the request of shutting off the lead flow. The salesperson recommended that I went back and watched more training videos. At that point I realized that I would get no help from the company and I needed to protect myself against what finally looked like unethical business practices and financial fraud. I notified my bank and put the credit card on hold waiting to see if the company would be willing to work out the arrangement where it credits me for the leads I didnt requested. The company denied any kind of wrongdoing on its part and forwarded my bill to collection services. And here, again, they lied - the bill, according to the bill collector, was 3x what I allegedly owed them for the contacts. Outraged I filed a complaint with the BBB and a week later received a phone call from the same salesperson who talked me into using the service. He offered me 100 free contacts if I opened a new account with the company and provided it with a new credit card. Needless to say that I refused the offer. That was my last contact with the company - after that it unleashed a shady bill collector.
ProspectMatch is rotten to the core: on top of financial and advertising fraud it engages in vicious retaliation methods against individuals who stand up to them. If there is a class action suite against them please let me know - I will join it just to put them out of business. |
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