I’ve just received a call on my mobile that I thought I’d share with everyone rather than complain to the TIO and ACCC.
The phone rings, I answer it.
There is silence, then a foreign ring tone….a sure sign I’m about to talk to an Indian Call Centre.
Me: Duncan Riley Speaking
Call Centre: I’m calling from Primus Telecom and am calling to say that we will be sending you a free phone
Me: OK……., so it’s totally free
CC: Yes
Me: free calls?
CC: You get $29 worth of calls a month
Me: so I get $29 worth of completely free calls
CC: We are sending you a completely free Nokia 53XX
Me: ok, so what is the catch
CC: We are sending you the phone today
Me: I still don’t understand, will the calls be free
CC: you will have $29 worth of calls a month
Me: but will I pay for those calls
CC: $29 a month
Me: so it’s not free
CC: we are sending you a free Nokia 53xx
Me: But I already have a phone
CC: We are sending you a new phone sir.
Me: But I didn’t ask for a new phone
CC: We are sending you a new phone sir.
Me: but I’ll have to pay $29 a month to use it
CC: That includes $29 worth of calls
Me: but I don’t won’t a new phone
CC: you don’t wont a free phone sir?
Me: no, I don’t.
CC: Good bye Sir. (Hangs up).
The worst thing: if I hadn’t asked questions and just listened to “we are sending you a free phone” and thought “you ripper, a free phone” I would probably have agreed to accept the phone, which would have then locked me in to some sort of Primus Plan without knowing it; after all, they would have a voice recording of me saying that I am accepting the phone.
To say this is an appalling scam would be an understatement. I wonder how many unsuspecting Australian’s have received “free” phones from Primus to only discover a month later that they are stuck on a $29/ month plan. Lets hope someone important (ie: in the relevant Commonwealth Statutory Body) reads this and takes action.
We have a similar problem in the UK – at least sounds similar.
Offering a free phone and such. I don’t want a phone, and if I did I’d go to a reputable dealer, or website, not some unsolicited caller.
I used to get SMS texts about similar, until I managed to block most of them.
Irritating.
Primus telecom are totally incompetent,after being stufted around for 3 weeks to get broadband on.the best they could manage was a dial up connection whitch i explained was useless to me.But tried to work with them to resolve the problem.Intern by the end of that week i had enough ,&told them to cancell the service i would go elsewhere.2 weeks later,Primus telecom are driveing me nuts,they have been contacted on 3 more sepate occasions to get the codes taken of the line so the new Isp can connect & they still couldn t get that write . The best part for the 2 days of dial up whitch i never wanted value all of $10 a month they shaft me $49.95 .So at the end of the day if you deal with primus telecom be well & truely ready to be shafted..
I”m in Canada. Got a $20 bill from Primus after we requested long distance service and then never received it. They called us a few days later to advise that our business line was not eligible for their service and then they billed me anyway. Now they are sending me to collections for a service we never got. Almost as bad as Bell, who never issued the refund cheque for a discontinued service. Sent out a credit statement one month for $43, then a nil balance the next month.
I”m in Canada. Got a $20 bill from Primus after we requested long distance service and then never received it. They called us a few days later to advise that our business line was not eligible for their service and then they billed me anyway. Now they are sending me to collections for a service we never got. Almost as bad as Bell, who never issued the refund cheque for a discontinued service. Sent out a credit statement one month for $43, then a nil balance the next month.
Hi there.
Try Pulse Telecom Canada. I'm with them and it's OK: good connection, low rates and no hidden fees. I think I signed 2-3 years ago for LD and International Calls and their rates for Europe are still the cheapest.
https://www.pulsetele.com/Main/
Hi there.
Try Pulse Telecom Canada. I'm with them and it's OK: good connection, low rates and no hidden fees. I think I signed 2-3 years ago for LD and International Calls and their rates for Europe are still the cheapest.
https://www.pulsetele.com/Main/
Dude, are you dumb? For only $29/month you can make UNLIMITED FREE CALLS, you can talk 24h/day that month. So the calls are free, you moron! What do u want, to give you money for using our services?
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I'm with Pulse Telecom since 6 months ago and I have their $24.95 plan for free unlimited phone calls to USA & Canada and for 16 European countries. My bill is never higher than $30.00 (with taxes) and I talk with my friends in UK, Netherlands and Belgium for hours everyday. Same for US and Canada.
Tough economic times are the time to go hard with your sales and marketing! The meek dont survive. we continue to grow extremely fast – 50% per year by constantly marketing. This doesnt hae to be expensive, even email marketing keeps you in a clients mind.