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Is Prudential Life using dirty tricks to lure people to buy their plans? Are Prudential Life Plans a scam?

Sparky here definitely thinks so. While here is a story of Prudential Life using the dead to trick people into buying their plans. There are also may instances where they try to find credit card holders to make them buy something most of us cannot afford.

I got into a similar situation.

I already forgot when, it was probably 2 months ago when someone sent my wife a text message. It said that because Prudential Life was having their anniversary, someone referred us to them and thus we had the privilege of getting a free insurance, free 2 year scholarship with Datamex and some raffle tickets. All we had to do was go to their office in Rada Branch, Makati. Since everything was free, it sounded like a good deal.

In short, we went to their office in Makati. Their office did not seem like an office. It was kind of dirty and unprofessional like. But hey, we are here for the free stuff so we did not mind. Strange thing though, they asked if I had a credit card for identification purposes. Real strange.

We are asked to go to a room where their potential clients are briefed. The agent who entertained us was cheerful and full of life. He said that we were fortunate since he was the manager (or officer or something in their office) and he never actually fronts clients but only this time because they were lacking employees that day since it was a Saturday. Okay good for us! Or so we thought.

First, he explained how the free stuff worked. He showed us the Datamex coupons that we would need to present to Datamex to avail of the free scholarship for any 2 year course. He also explained how we were to avail of the free insurance and then asked us to sign a form to formalize our ties with Prudential Life and avail the free insurance. Then he also gave us some raffle tickets. He said for every credit card that I have then and there with me, I would get 5 extra raffle tickets! I only had one so I only got 5 extra raffle tickets.

And then the ‘ugly’ part of the story came. After making us happy with all those free stuff and making us feel like the most fortunate couple in the world, he started pre-selling to us. He introduced us to their health plans. I am not going to go into detail but what I want to point here is this, we were somewhat tricked into buying their health plan. I had no intention of buying or availing of one but in the end we did and cost us 36,008 pesos. I believe this is what they call sales talk.

However, his sales talk wasn’t clean. He did not tell the complete truth which cost me another 6,000 pesos. You see he said that I can use my credit card to pay for the health plan. I brought a Citibank credit card that day. He said Citibank is one of their affiliates therefore I can use it to pay for the plan. I asked if the 36008 pesos can be paid monthly (divided into 12 months) without interest. He said yes. He also said that Citibank would call me after a few days to do arrange this. We signed the contract and then left.

A few days has passed and Citibank never called. We called Prudential Life and asked for the person who entertained us. He answered the phone. We asked why Citibank never called us. He said he never said anything like that. He is a liar. He even said that he cannot remember who we are. Certainly one of the worst customer service I have ever encountered (worst is Smart but that is another story…). He also said we cannot cancel the plan as it is already signed. Just great.

Thus, I had no choice but to call Citibank myself. I had them stagger the payments for the health plan but for a cost, around 6000 pesos (interest somewhere between 1% - 2%).

Another one of the promises the Prudential Life “officer” said was that the plan documents (or whatever you call it) will arrive at my house after 3 weeks. Did it? No it did not. The worse part it they never even bothered to call us that it would get delayed. Really bad service from Prudential Life. But we did get it maybe 2-3 weeks after the promised date.

So to answer the question above, is Prudential Life plans a scam? Probably not. We did actually get it (but yet to use it…). I think what destroys their reputation is their marketing side. They use dirty cheap tricks to lure clients into buying their plans. I think this is how it works:

1. Make potential client feel happy by letting them know that they can get free insurance.
2. Make sure potential client can pay by asking for a credit card.
3. Show potential client the free stuff to further lure them in.
4. When the timing is right, start pitching in the sales talk to the potential client.
5. Claim half truths as part of their sales pitch.
6. Hard-sell their products and make instant profits.

So there you have it. If you encounter the same marketing technique, be forewarned that it all boils down to them selling you their plans for a profit.

Make sure to check out the site for more related information about Prudential Life Scam? .

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