"Trick you into agreeing" scams

[dullard]

That wasn't Discover. That was an insurance company that offers insurance on Discover cards. They may or may not have had a contract with Discover to provide such insurance. If they did have a contract, I'm sure Discover would have appreciated if you had called and told them about the problem.

Doesn't matter in my mind. If Discover is willing to work with such a terrible insurance company, then I still don't want Discover to have any of my business.

Companies love to say "it wasn't me, it was the contractor" as an excuse for many offenses (hiring illegals, avoiding taxes, avoiding liability, avoiding insurance or other payroll costs, etc). That might be a valid legal excuse, but I personally see right through it. Why? Because that company chose the contractor, paid their bills, saw the outcomes, and still kept them.

 

[pontifex]

turns out it was Directv. got an email this morning that my account was updated. looked and saw HBO and Showtime listed. Called them up and asked if it was free for a month or if I had to pay. They said it was not free, so I told them I was lied to and did not agree to pay for the channels. they are removing it from my account and will credit me the cost.

what a bunch of a-holes.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Do you mean to say that the difference between you signing up for both HBO and Showtime was a single free month? LOL. Good excuse for getting out of it, anyway. Buyer's remorse.

 

[Cozarkian]

Doesn't matter in my mind. If Discover is willing to work with such a terrible insurance company, then I still don't want Discover to have any of my business.

Companies love to say "it wasn't me, it was the contractor" as an excuse for many offenses (hiring illegals, avoiding taxes, avoiding liability, avoiding insurance or other payroll costs, etc). That might be a valid legal excuse, but I personally see right through it. Why? Because that company chose the contractor, paid their bills, saw the outcomes, and still kept them.

My point is if you didn't tell Discover about the terrible insurance company then you can't assume Discover knows it is working with a terrible insurance company.

Discover only gets the information about who signed up for insurance, it doesn't get transcripts of the calls so it doesn't know the company is scamming people until it gets complaints.

If you had called Discover, who knows, maybe they would have apologized, indicated they had received several similar complaints and explained that they have terminated their contract with that company.

 

[pontifex]

Do you mean to say that the difference between you signing up for both HBO and Showtime was a single free month? LOL. Good excuse for getting out of it, anyway. Buyer's remorse.

They said it was free for a month as a trial. Of I didn't want it I had to cancel it before the end of the month. I figured why not? When I found out it wasn't free, I didn't want it. I don't know why you think I'm being less than honest or having buyer's remorse. Sounds like you have some personal issues to work through by posting stuff like that about a person you know nothing about. Unless you're just a troll, which wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Cozarkian]

turns out it was Directv. got an email this morning that my account was updated. looked and saw HBO and Showtime listed. Called them up and asked if it was free for a month or if I had to pay. They said it was not free, so I told them I was lied to and did not agree to pay for the channels. they are removing it from my account and will credit me the cost.

what a bunch of a-holes.

I'm not surprised. The call was probably from an authorized, commissioned sales agent that hadn't reported the subscription yet so DirecTV didn't see it in their system when you first called. As a former subscriber to several services in the past, my experience is in that DirecTV is the worst with pestering you with new offers.

 

[dullard]

My point is if you didn't tell Discover about the terrible insurance company then you can't assume Discover knows it is working with a terrible insurance company.

Discover only gets the information about who signed up for insurance, it doesn't get transcripts of the calls so it doesn't know the company is scamming people until it gets complaints.

If you had called Discover, who knows, maybe they would have apologized, indicated they had received several similar complaints and explained that they have terminated their contract with that company.

Even if it was a terrible insurance company, why was Discover pushing an insurance product where I pay the premium and Discover gets the payout if something bad happens? This was admittedly many years ago when that was more of a fad. But, no matter what insurance company they use, it is a bad idea for consumers.

 

[Cozarkian]

Even if it was a terrible insurance company, why was Discover pushing an insurance product where I pay the premium and Discover gets the payout if something bad happens? This was admittedly many years ago when that was more of a fad. But, no matter what insurance company they use, it is a bad idea for consumers.

I agree it is a bad idea, but you pay the premiums because it pays off your debt so you don't have to worry about going bankrupt because of old bills you can no longer afford. FYI - I've had this type of insurance offered on a MasterCard before and I'd be surprised if VISA and AMEX don't have similar programs. They all like free money from people signing up for bad ideas.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I'm betting the CSR you spoke with had no clue whether or not you were to receiver a one free month promo, same as the other one who claimed that it wasn't DirecTV who contacted you and got your very confused self thinking you'd been scammed.

 

[local]

I have seen it where those channels are "free" for the first month but that only means you get a one month credit after paying for three months. And I hate those damn calls.

 

[Red Squirrel]

On sorta similar topic what is it with ISPs and advertising their plans and then in fine print "for the first 6 months". I hate that BS. No, I want to know how much it's actually going to cost me in the long run, if you want to make it cheaper for 6 months that's great, but I want to know the real price! I guess that's their way of getting you into a contract and then once you find out the real price it will cost too much to cancel.