Keen.com Keen Live Psychic Readings Cha Ching Rip Off Fees from Keen's Psychic Advisors San Francisco California Internet
I used Keen's live psychic reading services on January 9, 2009, and just opened my credit card bill to find 100 dollars worth of charges for a 50 minute chat. That's two dollars per minute. I was totally confused about how much each additional 3 minutes of my "reading" would cost because each time 3 minutes went by, a recorded voice interrupted the call to say it will cost you $3.00 or some other amount to continue the reading.
The psychics can join Keen just by signing an agreement. These "advisors" are good conversationalists and have learned how to get to an important point and blip . . . in comes the recording saying: just pay this to return to your reading. Of course, you want to hear what the psychic has to say because you have called this service, sometimes in despair, hoping to hear that things will work out in your life. Some of the psychic advisors may have talent, but most of these people have learned how to time the conversation to manipulate the unwary listener into spending more money.
Keen's website makes it clear that they have tried to cover all their legal bases. That's how I learned that their psychics can just sign up at will and that fees can be changed without notice. It is this kind of super tight legal documentation that should tip off consumers to steer clear.
The woman I talked to didn't have a clue, but she was encouraging and kept hinting that she was getting more vibes, so that if I stayed on the phone, she'd figure out my future. No, what she was doing was stringing me on so that she'd rack up more money. Please don't waste your money unless you get face to face with a psychic who has a set fee and a recommendation from a reliable source. I could have had the same answers for free from my best friends, pastor or a licensed therapist.
Jane
Manassas, Virginia
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Helene
Elgin,Illinois,
U.S.A.
THIS IS VERY EXPENSIVE CONVERSATION --DON'T EXPECT REAL PSYCHICS ON THE OTHER END, THOUGH.
#2Consumer Comment
Sat, January 24, 2009
Most people do not consult telephone psychics.
I think this is because the three psychics I have consulted in my life wanted to see me in person. They wanted to get my aura and to see me for their own reasons so they can read me better, I guess. Their readings were spot on and their price was reasonable --$20 for an hour consultation.
Fastforward to the so-called Psychic Hotlines where people who do not know me, can not see me and have only what I tell them about myself try to make a reading off of this. These guys are going to HAVE to be psychics to know anything about me that is TRUE. That is when my cousin Joe 's friends tell me how it really works because they worked for one of the most popular PSYCHIC HOTLINES which I will not name here. It was one of those that started in the late 1970s and went out of business sometime in the 1980s. I am not naming the celebrity either. I don't know what sort of payment they may or may not have received for lending their name to the venture. One thing for sure, there was no way in hell that you were going to speak to that celebrity....
The people were hired based on an initial telephone interview to see if their voices sounded good on the telephone and they did not appear to have many moral scruples about conning money out of people. I don't know how that went because I only know what I heard. They were then called in to sign the paperwork including a non-compete agreement, etc. but they went on ahead and installed a second line in their home where they did in fact give readings to people beyond the ones they did under the auspices of the main psychic hotline.
They told me that sometimes, the paperwork was mailed to people and when they returned it, they would receive instructions on how to proceed.
All of the hires would receive scripts to read to the persons who called. The scripts were written to be read to people of certain ages and certain genders. The idea was that the telephone talkers would then attempt to engage the callers in extended conversation about what the script said. The script was a bunch of generalities about what would concern people in certain ages and gender groups.
For instance, a young person would want to know about their romantic relationships, which career path to take, where to go to school, etc. and an older person would want to know about retirement, if their spouse/partner was cheating on them, how to get a straying lover back, money, etc.
The idea was indeed to keep the caller/victim on the line until he or she decided he had spent enough for that call and the calltaker on the other end would suddenly have a tremendous revelation and then hang up leaving the victim/ caller wanting more.
Some of the hotlines would give a bonus to a "calltakers" if they developed a following of people who would call and keep requesting "readings" from them.
After all, everybody gets a lucky guess once or twice and some of these people wanted very hard to believe. Some of them had no life and lived vicariously through what the psychics told them...Most of them are going to be women.
The idea is the longer the calltakers kept the callers/victims on the phone and the more the billable minutes added up, the more the calltakers would get from their percentage of the call, thus the incentive to keep the person calling. People are not used to billable minutes and tend to forget about how the time goes by and how the meters is running. Unpleasant surprise when it is time to pay up.
Some of these poor callers think they calltakers are their freinds. They are heartbroken when they think they will be without these calls so they will pay anything to keep talking. They become addicted. Too bad.
There was a legal disclaimer on this defunct psychic hotline that read: "Callers have to be over 18 years old" and " These calls are for entertainment purposes only." If this is just for entertainment, then WHY are these hotlines claiming that their calltakers are "psychics"? Some even claim to test their calltakers for proven, guaranteed results for "psychic powers." I don't know what their criteria is for this... somehow, I am disinclined to believe that a stranger on the phone will be able to predict much of anything with more than a 50-50 accuracy. How can you check somebody's id on the phone anyway? The ladies confided that they would take the calls from everybody who had the money to pay.
The ladies would sometimes manage to con the credit card number and other financial information about of the callers above and beyond the initial call charge.
And they would have shopping sprees etc. on the caller.... That happened years ago so the statute of limitations is long expired.
If there was a way these ladies could figure out way to con something out of the callers, they would. They would tell them anything just to keep them on the line.
They are no longer working for any hotline. One received a call on her second line from a relative of a woman who killed herself because she lost everything on the psychic hotline and had nothing left. The relative wanted to know why the woman had the telephone number. The calltaker had the number disconnected and quite the same day and the other two women had similar experiences. The hotline was sued in a class action, I believe and several of the really BIG ONES went out of business, I heard but do not remember reading any newspaper stories or seeing anything about it. I guess the only reason these three women escaped being subpoenaed is they never gave their real names to start with.
I sense that there may be the possibility for a class action suit against hotlines of this type. The hotlines that shut down were based in the USA so I don't know about these others that are based offshore or in foreign countries.
You have the general idea how it works.
What you got is what there is. Don't call back because it will just be more of the same.
You were right. It is a scam IF you are calling expecting a real PSYCHIC reading.
But if you are immature, inexperienced, wanting adventure and some excitement, wanting Occult experimentation,lonely and YOU JUST WANT SOMEONE TO TALK TO --AND YOU KNOW THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT REALLY PSYCHICS AND IT DOESN'T MATTER AND YOU CAN AFFORD TO PAY $2.00 PER MINUTE AND UP FOR SOME REAL EXPENSIVE CONVERSATION, THEN THIS IS FOR YOU.
Are these "PSYCHIC HOTLINES" run along the lines of the old Celebrity - endorsed Psychic hotlines?
Sure sounds like it.
I have NO intention of finding out.