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Report: #225784

Complaint Review: Distinct Advantage - Freedom GLD - Largo Florida

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  • Reported By: SF Bay Area California
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  • Distinct Advantage - Freedom GLD 10500 Ulmerton Rd Largo, Florida U.S.A.

Distinct Advantage - Freedom GLD - Teliflex - Suntasia Many Other Aliases Total scam unauthorized charges they keep calling until you pick up the phone ripoff Largo Florida

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For the previous month or so, I have received calls on my cell phone from this number: 727-683-1138. I kept ignoring the calls until 11/29/06 I was so annoyed that I stupidly picked up the phone. This person started talking from their script which everyone has heard: because your checking account is in good standing, you are entitled to receive $100 in gas vouchers and $400 in airline rebates, blah blah blah. They proceeded to "verify" information for my checking account. I had a gut feeling that something was off so I asked why they need me to tell them my numbers if they already had information on my account. Of course, they said that they had to make sure it was me otherwise someone else would receive my vouchers inadvertently.

They had my banking routing number, which I found out after the fact that this was easy to obtain. They just needed to verify my checking account number. After I verified this number, they started talking about how I will receive a package for a trial period and I can cancel within 2 weeks and not get charged. After arguing about not wanting this trial and not wanting to get charged, a manager came on the phone to reassure me that I can cancel the service and not get charged.

Then came the part where the conversation was recorded where I had to confirm the information that I provided. They also introduced two other services that I qualified for. I didn't remember that it was Freedom Gold (or GLD) and Teliflex until I found an unauthorized charge by Freedom Gold the other day.

This phone call on 11/29 lasted 15 minutes. The following week I received the package from Distinct Advantage which contained the airline rebate and gas vouchers as a crappy gift because you cannot use the vouchers all at once. For the gas vouchers, you can only get rebates $10 at a time and once a month, so that would take 10 months to get the full rebate. The airline vouchers were a lot worse: the ticket amount has to be $200 to get a $25 rebate and up to $500 for a $100 rebate.

A day or two after I received this package, I called 866-545-5486 to change my mailing address (so I could get more gas vouchers) and to cancel the service. The guy on the phone sounded like he couldn't understand why I would call to do this; he actually said something like "So you're calling to change your address and also to cancel the service..." with a what-you're-doing-sounds-really-stupid tone of voice. I told him that I don't need the service that I would have to pay for but I still wanted the gas vouchers. He canceled the service and gave me a cancellation number and that was the end of that.

On 12/15/06, I was looking at my checking account activity online and noticed a charge posted on 12/14 from a weird check number paid to FreedomGLD. I never received a package from Freedom Gold and I didn't remember that this was related to Distinct Advantage so I searched online and finally found the rip-off report website. After reading a ton of reports, I was getting really angry and worried that I would get more unauthorized charges from this fraudulent company and its affiliates/aliases in the future.

On 12/16/06, I called my bank to claim fraudulent activity on my checking account in the amount of $149. I was ready to request to file the Federal Regulation E dispute form, but the bank had already reversed the charge on 12/15, which I didn't see yesterday. So I didn't even have to go through a long explanation or anything with my bank. I told the bank claims representative that I was concerned that the companies affiliated with Freedom Gold would be able to make future unauthorized charges to my account. The lady said I had two options: just monitor my account activity (and report unauthorized activity when it happens) or change my checking account number. She offered to transfer me to the department to change my checking account number or give me the phone number.

After reading multiple reports on this website, I realized that the second service that I qualified and would receive a packet for was Teliflex, the calling card service. Since I never received the Freedom Gold packet before getting charged and I never received anything from Teliflex, I called the Teliflex number (866-821-8674) to cancel the service. The automated menu allowed me to cancel my calling card service. I don't know if that really does anything, but I will continue to monitor my checking account for unauthorized charges.

another victim
SF Bay Area, California
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/16/2006 02:00 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/distinct-advantage-freedom-gld/largo-florida-33771/distinct-advantage-freedom-gld-teliflex-suntasia-many-other-aliases-total-scam-unaut-225784. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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