Sneaky Telemarketer Strikes Again

In one of my previous job, I was a telemarketer selling a vacation club membership exclusively on through the phone. That was one of my most challenging job that I will never forget. That was also one of the most valuable exposures in the world of direct sales since I had to deal with rejections.

Earlier today, I mysteriously got a phone call by someone who didn’t even bother to introduce himself properly. I think one of the reasons he got my contact detail is because I recently collected my brand new CIMB Petronas Credit Card:


My Brand New Petronas CIMB Bank Credit Card 

One of my reasons to apply the card was to enjoy the 2% rebate every time I pump my car with Petronas fuel. One thing that bugs me is I can’t apply my Kad Mesra to collect points at the machine itself. I wonder why? The other thing is, I suspect the credit card collection agent themselves is selling their database to these people. If not, how on earth did these people got my phone number, right? Anyway, back to my story.

The telemarketing guy then kept on talking and talking and talking and selling. I was very skeptical as always since I did this job before asked a few key questions. Since I was online that time, I did a quick search and found out about the company. They seem quite legitimate since at least they got a website eventhough the guy didn’t tell me their URL.


Sri Vacations Club
 

The most annoying part is, if you try to tell them that you’ll consider about it and get back to them later, they will always insist on the one time offer and you will not be eligible over the offered price later on. It would definitely scare someone who hasn’t been approached by these salespeople but it doesn’t scare me at all because I know that is just one of their persuading techniques.

Another part is they will always assume you are already sold so they keep on asking you to feed all the necessary information right up to your credit card number and ultimately, your 3 digit security number on the back of your credit card. I didn’t even bother to take my credit card out from my wallet and gave the guy a phony expiry number.

In the end, I got fed up with the guy who didn’t even gave me a chance to think for even one second and disconnected the call after almost half an hour on the line. I immediately switched off my handphone to prevent him from calling me back, at least temporarily. I’m sorry, I don’t think I am in need for a discount card or any holiday package which I have to pay RM488 upfront. If I am interested to buy, I’ll find and persuade one of you guys that I really like to give me the same price so that you can earn your commission. A trick I learned after becoming a telemarketer myself.

Update: My brother who holds a CIMB Credit Card earlier than me told me that he also received similar calls like I did twice. This is an indication that the bank themselves are selling leads for these direct sales company to gain more businesses.