I used to work with grant instructor before, one of the account of mediaLink Contact Solution that is based here in Manila, Philippines. I worked there for about eight months and guess, I was considered as one of the Best Top Seller in my time. In all the account they have, Grant Instructor was considered as the Medialink's "bread and butter" why? simply because getting a credit card information and promised that you will be charge only for $2.95 cents is just an easy task. Here is how it goes... As an outbound company we will call the potential customer and informed them that the reason why we are calling is because we received an information on line that the customer is looking for a federal grant and the customer is looking for money. If the customer said they did not, we have a lot of rebuttals that we can use to convince the customer to apply for a grant since the information that we will be sending to them is for free, all they have to do is to pay for the S&H fee which only cost for $2.95 and we will be sending them the information on how to create proposals and also the link to the website wherein you will have a chance to talk to a grant specialist who will walk you through the process, and it will be free for 7days and if the customer chose to continue using the website after the seven days free trial period, they will be charge for a monthly membership fee of $59.61 but if they dont want to continue using the service, they can call and cancel to their 1-800 toll free. Now here is the trick : First of all, if you are using a credit card which has a balance below $62.00 the card will not go trough., why? first, it is not only $2.95 S$H that will be charge to you once you provide your credit card info, the $59.61 monthly charge will be charge to you as well so how come that it will go through if they need to charge you like $62.56 total . But you might wonder why those who have used their gift card and prepaid card who has only balance such as $3.00 go through., that is because it depends on the skill of the agent on how will it works. Actually, gift cards and prepaid cards are not accepted in this company, why? simply because it doesn't have the name printed on the card and definitely, possibility is that the customer will not be charge for the monthly membership fee that is why it is prohibited to the company to get gift card, walmart and prepaid cards. Once the agent has been caught by their QA definitely, the agent might be terminated on the spot. But again how come that the agent was able to process the gift card since it has only like $3.00 balance? The answer is... $3.00 is enough to cover the $2.95 S&H so since all call are being monitored by the QA, and since it is a must to make a seven sales/day as a quota, the agent will get the info first, email add, billing add and most importantly the phone number and the wise agent will disconnect the call so that he will be safe from the QA that he/she did not push through the call and since the the line has been disconnected there is no way that he can monitor that agent.
After a couple of minutes, the agent will then call back the customer coz he have all the information . And the beginning of the call will be apology.. " Mr. Smith I'm sorry the line has been disconnected, just to make sure that everything will be fine and you will receive the information at the right time, I will need to verify again the credit card info you have provided to me and then the agent will make a recap about the credit card info.. and the agent needs to be more careful in doing this, he needs to convince the new QA that the card that is using onset of the call is a credit or a debit card not a prepaid or gift card so... the agent will speak like this .. and the "name printed on the card is Norman Smith, right? And since the customer is eager to get information about the grant, eventhough there is no name printed on the card they will say yes! and for that the agent will be safe from the QA. But the thing is the last centavos of the customer using the gift card/prepaid card will be hacked by the agent/company, but he will definitely not receive any information at all on how to create grant proposal .
Second trick... if you have been charge for the S&H coz you paid for it using a credit card or debit card, and you have a lot of money on that card.. the only information that you will receive is just a blank CD and you'll find out it was too late to cancel that subscription why? because if you will try to cancel it... then you will not be able to reach any agent since the cancellation number is also Bogous. And since there is no way you can cancel it, you will be charge every month automatically since your credit card info is stored in their system.
My reminder is... If you dont want to be charge for all of these.. contact your bank immediately and request them to cancel your account and open a new account instead. Don't be fooled by this kind of company.
I am telling this to all because, I felt very much regretful in working on that said company. I believe in what we called "Karma" and I'm afraid that this might victimize a lot of people again. I am a Filipino and I want to inform anyone that your fellow Americans there who owns the account are the real culprit because he had these ideas, it just so happened that we really need job and we don't have option sometimes but to earn money to live. Anyway, if you would like me to answer all of your concern, I am willing to answer and help you.
I want this kind of bogous operation be stopped now. please always remember. if you did not inquire/subscribe to any promo's and someone called you, get your attention and making such promises and they sound very persistent., then be AWARE. Dont believe in a saying "It Takes money to earn Money".. Thanks and God Bless Philippines and USA!