Complaint Review: Continental Who's Who

 Problem description:
I received an unsolicited phone Call from Continental Who’s Who on 11/20/14 at 10:49 AM. A Sandra Dennis (516-825-5634) called to tell me and my company (LJL) has been nominated to become a member of Continental Who’s Who and she called to congratulate me.

She said before she went further, she needed to confirm some information. She said she needed to ask me some biographical questions to qualify me for this huge honor (AT NOT POINT SHE DID NOT INDICATE THE PHONE CALL WAS BEING RECORDED). I corrected her and told her my business was LJL Seminars and not LJL. After Sandra verified some information she then began her sales pitch and said I qualified to become a Lifetime Platinum Member at $ 849. I immediately told here I was not interested and (1) will not make any commitments until I do my due diligence and check out the website and BBB website.

She said Continental Whos Who has a A+ rating and I indicated I do also. I also said, I have had ZERO complaints since I have been in business for over 23 years and before I agree to do business with someone else, I check them out. She said she could give me a username and password to check out www.continentalwhoswho.com for more information. I also told her I AM NOT agreeing to any membership and I will NOT provide ANY CREDIT CARD information over the phone to someone who called me since I do not know who they are.

She then said is it the money and I said NO. I am NOT agreeing to sign up for anything until I review the information first. Is there any information she can send me and she said I could look at the website. She then said, “if you are not comfortable with the platinum package she could offer me the Gold package for only $ 589. I AGAIN said I am NOT agreeing to any package until I check out the website and BBB site and other sites. She went onto explain why this is an honor and you have to be invited and she needed to send me a form to capture by bio. She said they were associated with Forbes Magazine and CNN and before thre information could be made public she needed to have completed bio for the press release.

I again told her I AM NOT agreeing to purchase anything. She then offered me a 3yr membership for $ 349. I again, said I am NOT AGREEING to any membership and why does she keep asking me. I said she was NOT listening to me. She then offered me again another membership for $ 189. I again said NO,..I need to review information before I make ANY decision. She finally offered me a 1 year introductory offer for only $ 99 and I said I AGAIN do not commit to ANY membership until I do my review. She said the 1 year would only be $ 99 + taxes for a total of $ 108.50 and I said I need to do my review and would get to her at 2:00 PM with my decision. I was in a meeting at 3:03 when she called and left me a message and said she had not heard from me a assumed I was a man of my word and I would honor my agreement. When I heard the message, after leaving my meeting at 3:17 I immediately called Sandra back and told her I completed my review and I was NOT interested in becoming a member.

She asked me why and I told her I had reviewed the BBB website and other websites and did not like what I saw regarding Continential Business practices and she said she also reviews their BBB listing and only saw and she said I should not be looking at blogs for reviews. I told her I did not look at blogs but other review sites and I WAS NOT interested in any member. I also checked out their other other website www.continentalwhoswho.net and did not recognize ANY of the members. I would guess the only people who see this list and those who were tricked into joining this membership. As part of my due diligence, I sent some of these people an email asking them about their experience. The gentlemen at Continental Who’s Who called me before I received any email replies. When I do receive theses replies and have a chance to speak with some of these people, I may amend this complaint.

I did notice that this business is NOT BBB accredited. She tried again to change my mind and I again told her NO. I AM NOT interested. Sandrda ended the call by saying, “Well have a successful career” and we ended the call. About 15 minutes later I received a call from a gentleman (I did not remember his name) and he immediate said, we have a recorded phone call of me agreeing to a membership. When the gentleman called me and again implied I agreed to a membership. I cut him off and told him I DID NOT. He said he has the phone recording and did I want to hear the call played back. I immediately cut him off and told him I DID NOT agree to any membership, I did not care how he was interpreted the phone call with Sandrda and I said I just called and spoke with Sandra and told her I was NOT interested and I did not appreciate the high pressure sales pitch and return phone call and hung up on him.

He said they are a publishing firm and have already incurred costs. My review of the BBB website and other sites, such as this site www.ripoffreport.com showed many other similar experiences from Continental Who’s Who going back to 2010 with similar phone calls. I am so glad I did NOT provide any credit information (as I also never do for any inbound calls), they probably would have charged my credit card. I am filing this complaint before I receive any additional correspondence from them. During my return phone call, I repeatedly told them I WAS NOT interested in any membership. I do not care how Continental Who’s Who wants to imply I agreed to any membership during the unsolicited call, I told them enough times, I need to review information BEFORE making any decision.

I gave them my NO decision very clearly when I called Sandra back. When the gentleman called me and again implied I agreed to a membership. I cut him off and told him I DID NOT. He said he has the phone recording and did I want to hear the call played back. My complaints: (1) The business practices of this company is very deceptive and high pressure and harassing (2) The record calls without telling you they are recording calls and this is against the law since I did NOT give them permission to record my call. (3) I called Sandra back after my review, as promised, and told her that I was NOT interested in the membership and I did not sign anything and did NOT agree to ANY membership level (4) The gentlemen (I think was a senior member of the organization) called me back and threatened that he had a recording where I agreed. I guess my call to Sandra when I explicitly told her I WAS NOT interested was not recorded, but maybe it was since they seem to record all their calls with notifying people.