| The Prospecting Department |
| The Prospecting Department Prospecting Department, TPD, Lead Scam Longmont, Colorado |
| 15th of Mar, 2011 by User180549 |
I have been bombarded with emails by this company from several sales associates even after I already purchased an “exclusive” list. I was already a bit hesitant of them but followed through because my company spotted the expense for me. This was possibly the worst business decision I have made in my career. After several phone calls over a few days time I realized it was bogus. I lost both time and money from working this list and gained nothing but a headache. I was going to cut my losses and write this experience up as a lesson learned, but just yesterday I received another email proposing the same list, so I decided to head warning to everyone else being solicited by them. These leads were supposed to be self reported by the consumer & scrubbed for DNC & our existing account holders. THEY WERE NOT!!! After sending the list to my compliance department, they informed me that 30% of the list came back as already having some sort of account with us. One of them happened to be my own client whom I just obtained a month prior and who claims to have never filled out any type of mailer or spoken to any one regarding moving his account besides for myself. A majority of these individuals had no knowledge of why I was contacting them, did not have the accounts described, nor did they have an interest in speaking to anyone regarding their accounts. They did offer me replacements upon purchase in case of any bad information I encountered, but why would I waste more of my time with leads that were incorrect the first time around? All in all this list was just garbage, filled with disconnects, faxes, wrong numbers, and mostly lies.
I could have found better prospects by pulling public real estate and tax records for free. I would strongly suggest doing your homework before purchasing leads from this company. There is hardly any information available about them, & they are not registered with the BBB. I have bought leads in the past, some good, some bad, and these were by far the worst!! |
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I used this report as the tipping scale to buy a couple of lists from The Prospecting Department. I wish I wouldn't had bought anything from this company. Not one person on my lists of life and rollover leads remembered doing any survey whatsoever, and the information was not accurate. I would say the information was from a site such as Infoseek, but that information is more accurate than what I got.
I had gotten an email from Ryan Moses about three different lists he had in my area. I should have known when he had over 1000 people in my area looking for some different kind of "help" (LTC, Life and Rollover) that it was BS. I was looking for the easy way to a big paycheck. After talking to Ryan on the phone, I was skeptical as it sounded like something that was too good to be true. I looked up the company on the internet through google and came across this report. Not everyone looking for a phone call I could live with, but this report was the report that I decided to go off to buy the lists. Well that and the 90 day money back guarantee which I will discuss later. There was a lot of bad press, but some good press as well. Looking back now, I realize that I was told these people had responded to a telephone call, and this report is telling us that these are cold calls!! Why are the sales agents at this company telling us these are going to be warm leads???? I received the leads and they were crap!!
I called through the life leads and not one person, that I actually talked to, was interested in life insurance. The life leads were suppose to be people that didn't have life insurance at work. This was found out by someone calling these folks and verifying their interest. How did someone at this company get a hold of almost 400 people, with 200 disconnects and fax lines????? The rollover leads weren't at all better. These were suppose to be folks that were retired (not one that I talked to was retired and three were actually dead) that had 401ks that need to be rolled over. I found a few that actually had 401k plans, but not one of them wanted to touch or were able to move them.
Needless to say I didn't "make a profit" on the lists so I called up to get my money back. I have been trying to get that money back for 29 days now and counting. I have left Ryan numerous messages and sent him 7 emails which I still have in my sent folder. I have not received a call back
or an email back. I have started the process of reversing my credit card that was used but they want a written letter why I am reversing the charges. This report is serving as that letter, also. The leads were not any good and this sales agent doesn't stand behind his money back guarantee. I should have tricked him into calling me back by telling him that I wanted to buy another list, but I am not going to stoop his level of lying.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!! WHOEVER WROTE THIS REPORT IS LYING AND SO IS THE AGENT YOU ARE GOING TO CALL!! |
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| I had the same experience as the agent above. When I had my Attorney write a letter is was returned! That prompted some research and I found no such address. The company does not exist according to the Longmont, CO BBB and the only address was close on Google Maps is a Cemetery! THIS IS DEFIANTLY A SCAM!!! I'm out my money and could have been in deeper trouble by calling DNC consumers! |
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I think it is sad that people can sleep at night doing these sort of things to us. I just started in the business not to long ago, so it's not like I had the extra money to just waste on phone book names. It would have been one thing to actually have someone that was interested, or to have a 401k, but they didn't!! Let me revise my statement, it would have been one thing to actually have a right number!! I would say approximately 35% of the numbers were bad, and only 4% of all the consumers were reachable. I tried to contact the attorney general in CO on Friday, and am still awaiting a call back. If they don't do anything, then I am going to bring suit against this company and put my attorney fees onto the running total. We need to stand up as Financial Advisors and let them know that we are not going to be scammed.
I talked to an attorney that is going to take the case should I decide to move forward. I almost would prefer doing this way as I can include my hours working the lists, costs on the list, loss of revenue from deceptive practices, etc. I will keep all informed about what the CO state's attorney says. I will be posting on the other sites too, so I can at least possibly deter anyone else being out their money. Wish they just gave me my money back, but they messed with the wrong advisor!! |
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