Complaint Review: Go Shop and Save

 Today, I attempted to call my health insurance company to provide them with some information that they requested. This health insurance company is MVP. The first time I called, I got routed to a health survey, which I didn't think much about, i'm calling a health care company after all. After the survey, they hung up on me. So I called the number again. Mind you, this is the number that is on the letter from the insurance company, and the number on my insurance card. The second time, I was connected with someone named Sebastian. He did not say what company he was from, I said I wanted to provide the information my insurance company had requested, he said "oh, yes, I can connect you with someone to help you with that, but first we have a promotion going on where you are eligible for a $100 card that can be used in any store, no strings attached, nothing to sign up for, etc." I immediately knew that this was wrong.

I asked if they were aligned with MVP, and he said "we're a company that is doing a promotion! You can get $100 gift card," so, he really glossed over whether or not there was any collusion between his company and MVP. Anyway, he gives me this whole spiel, and then asks for a $4.95 shipping and handling fee and I balked and asked why I now needed to pay $4.95 for the privilege of talking to my insurance company. He gave me his name and employee ID number, I guess thinking that that would make me feel better, but still I had to really ask several times to get the name of the company he worked for which he finally told me was Go Shop and Save. I immediately looked online (while still talking to him - aren't smart phones amazing?) for the company and the 3rd hit on Google was this complaint website. I told him I would not give him my credit card number, I did not want to do that, and he immediately got very snippy with me, saying "we're just trying to give you $100 and I told you there were no strings attached, but if you don't want it, well then too bad for you."

I told him that I was just trying to call my insurance company and I didn't think this was right, why I should be put onto a phone call with another business that essentially wants me to pay them money for an unknown reason. So, he hung up on me. The third time I called the number from my insurance company, I actually got through to MVP, and when I got someone on the phone there, I asked them if they knew that this Go Shop and Save was hijacking their number to get people to sign up for their program with promises of $100 gift cards or whatever it is. They had no knowledge of this. I'm currently waiting for a call back from a supervisor from MVP to report this to someone.