| Progressive Business Publications |
| Dishonesty toward customers |
| 30th of May, 2011 by Wunderkind |
Let me preface my report by saying all the complaints you may have read prior to coming here about PBP are not from whiny little monkeys with nothing better to do. Those complaints are very real and were made for very good reasons. This company carries out some very carefully scripted, very carefully practiced, and very carefully monitored business tactics; methods that are established and presented in such a way that they can skirt around the truth just enough to sink their claws into you. This way, when you call to complain about something you didn't buy, they will have all kinds of alleged proof of your agreement to a verbal contract.
I regrettably worked for these swindlers for a short while, and it was more than long enough to get a glimpse into just how they conduct their pathetic, thieving excuse for a business. And not only do they royally screw the customers over, but they even lie to their employees starting with their job ads.
Here are some of the things you will hear from a Progressive Business Publications sales representative as they try to get you to agree to a subscription.
1. Secretaries. Sales reps are required to tell as little as possible to the secretaries and operators because often times, these folks are told by their bosses to say, "No thanks" to telemarketers.And the people who run PBP know this, so there is a lot of scripted evasion when speaking with non-managers. An operator may hear something like, "I need to speak with (boss). I'm calling from (name of newsletter). It's regarding some questions about (department)." If the operator or secretary or whomever picks up just ends the call, they WILL be called back, usually at a rate of twice a day. Reps are even encouraged to lie sometimes. "Why yes, Mr. Smith IS expecting my call."
2. Urgency. These newsletter slingers are taught that they must sound urgent when speaking to those who are not managers. Basically, the reps will try to sound like there is an emergency and they need to talk to the manager right that second. They do this not because of any real urgency, but so the secretaries and operators believe there is an actual emergency and will try their best to transfer the rep to the manager.
3. Low-level management. First things first, the sales reps will NOT want to speak to the highest authority at a company. They are not interested in corporate, they don't want the CEO, CFO, president, owner...not unless it's a company with just a couple people. Nope, they want the managers in customer service, human resources, quality, credit, marketing, sales, and so forth at individual branches. Even if that manager has to check with corporate first, the rep will still try their hardest to sell you something.
4. Free Trials. This is what they're going to tell you with their heart and soul (or lack thereof)...that they don't want you to commit to buy (a lie), but that they just want you to TRY their newsletter or slideshow for free and if you don't like it, just cancel before the trial period is over. Here's the catch: The trial period lasts for 30 days, but you can only cancel the trial with the invoice they send. The invoice arrives after 35 days at the very earliest. So there is absolutely no way to look at their stuff for free.
5. Interrogations. The sales rep will often present you with a series of questions that sounds like a survey, and it won't matter what your answer is because the scripted response to anything you say is the same. Basically, they are trying to make it seem like they care about your business and what you do in order to get on your good side.
6. Fast talking, slow talking. A sales rep is instructed to speak very passionately about the newsletter, the content within it, and the company in general. This is done to get you excited about the newsletter and to make you want to buy it. The word FREE is emphasized. But the part of the rep's script where they tell you about the invoice and the cost, they will speak very apathetically and/or quickly. This is done in order to not draw your attention to dollar amounts and thus make you realize it's not as free as you may think.
7. Birth date as signature. You will not get asked for a credit card number, and this will probably put you at ease and make you think this company is not a scam. Do not be fooled. You will be asked for your email address or fax number, and then your birth date as a means of "signing" this verbal contract. You can refuse to give these, but all it takes is a supervisor to override the missing details and the sale can still go through. As long as they read that final "invoice" art of their script verbatim, the sale is official.
8. All calls are recorded. This is not only to prove to unknowing customers that they did buy something,but also to scrutinize the sales reps and make sure they are being passionate enough and reading the script word for word. You are never told that you're being recorded either, and as far as I know, it is not legal to record someone without their permission.
9. Collections. You may get a bill and choose to not pay it because you never agreed to a bill. You may never even get your newsletters for the free trial. You may not even get a bill either. Sometimes the only way you know you've had any sort of communication with PBP is when their cute little collection agency called International Credit Recovery in Vestal, New York calls you because you owe anywhere from $90 to $700 for a subscription. Don't be fooled - ICR is just as much of a scam as PBP - they aren't even recognized by the American Creditors Association. The company has been considered "inactive" since 2004.
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And here are some other cute little things these liars will say or do:
- You can look up Progressive on the BBB's website and see they have an F rating due to having over 1000 complaints. PBP will tell you this is a negligible number of complaints compared to how many other customers have not complained or who are satisfied (allegedly) with their purchase.
- This might just have been the particular branch I worked at, but most of the people in that office had criminal records. Including the boss! She had been in prison because she stole over $120,000 from her previous employer. It makes sense that such a rotten, scamming company would hire criminals to sell their publications. Just remember that when you buy something from PBP, you are putting money in a felon's pocket.
- Often times, the rep will not say they are calling from Progressive Business. This is because they have rightfully earned themselves a reputation as being a bunch of scammers. Instead, they will say they are calling from something like "TMR", which is short for "The Marketing Report" - one of their newsletter titles. They will say they are calling from whatever the title of the publication is so you don't automatically hang up on them in the event you have heard of or been robbed by them before. Watch out for three-letter acronyms like QMA, TSA, etc. It's Progressive calling.
- There is a scripted rebuttal for absolutely ANY reason you have to refuse their crap. Not interested, don't have the budget, not enough time to read, worried you'll lose the invoice, already using another source of information. Anything you say, they will try to sway you and convince you their products are better. If you still say "no," they will try to sign you up for an email newsletter that will show up once a month.
- People who work for the company will go onto sites where there are complaints regarding PBP and tell everyone how easy it is to cancel and how they are not scammers. If it was so easy to cancel, maybe they wouldn't have such a bad reputation and so many complaints to begin with.
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In short, try your best to not get involved with this company. Your absolute best bet is to make it so blocked numbers will not go through. PBP doesn't want anyone calling their branches, so they block their numbers. Make it so your phone lines won't accept blocked numbers and PBP will never bother you. This is the only thing I have personally seen that seems to actually work. |
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I would like to point out that the information about ICR was something I read from another article, and that the information goes as follows: ICR is considered in active and was "dissolved" in 2004. It is not recognized by the American Creditors Association. This information comes from the following source and I cannot take credit for it:
http://failuremag.com/index.php/failure_analysis/article/progressive_business_publications_and_international_credit_recovery/ |
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