Complaint Review: Dial America Marketing - Nationwide

Indeed, you may very well see multiple calls from DialAmerica on your caller ID or answering machine.  The main reason for this is people either not answering the phone when they see us calling, or letting the call go into their voice mail or answering machine rather than picking up.  We disposition these calls as either "Not Home" or "Answering Machine" and the predictive dialer will call them again at whatever interval the programmer has set up.

The second cause, (not so common, but it does happen) is that you may have ordered many different magazines or other products from us over the years, and your name and phone number is retained in each of those separate databases.  So if you ordered Sirius last year and purchased 3 different magazines for a couple of different causes over the years, your number is included on 4 different campaigns and you will get a call for each.

Worst case scenario?  You are getting multiple calls from several different campaigns simultaneously, AND you are refusing to answer the phone so the autodialer just keeps trying your number until we actually speak to someone there, at which point we can dispose of the call properly.

The solution is pretty simple.  Answer the phone.

Smilin' and dialin'....

A current employee

That's absolutely not true, Dial America definitely takes credit card information. I worked at their inbound call center in Athens, Georgia for 3 months and it made me sick. The majority of our calls we're transferred from either a bank or from the haband clothing company. if theor call was transferred from a bank a script would appear prompting us to sell them identity theft protection, a service that would probably never be used that cost either $29.99/month or $129.99/year. If theit call was transferred from Haband, we were prompted to sell some "Haband privileges plus" or somethibig like that. the script made the service sound like it offered a lot discounts on clothing for elderly people, although to get the discounts the customers had to jump through hoops. By the way, similar rates applied for that service too - rip off. The worst part is, we had to collect every bit of personal information from these old people (most of them didn't have anyone around to tell them not too), I'm talking name, address, birthday, credit card number, expiration, and some programs even required a social security number. I can remember having to spend 20-30 minutes on the phone trying to convince these people to buy, while my "sales coach" hovered over my shoulder.

I hated working there, but I was so desparate for work that I had no choice. It was hard to wake up most mornings because it felt terrible knowing I had to go sit at a plain looking cubicle to take advantage of people for 8 hours, but it was $200 a week plus commission if your reached your sales incentives. I didn't once reach my daily quota. They tried and tried to make me a better sales person but it wasn't for me. The sad thing is that the managers all know how shady it is, but their job is to defend it and keep the unemployed funneling in and out of the building, because desperate workers and uninformed customers are the only things keeping that place going. I feel sorry for anyone who makes a career out of working in that place.

They paid people on time alright, but you need to check to see if they paid you what you earned.  I have seen many sales agents from the Rochester NY office complain that Dial America cheated them out of pay.  Who the hell wants to go through that?  I heard one agent, who kills in sales say "I'm tired of going through this sh*t almost every week.  Give me what I earned!"

Dial America is for anyone who can't get a decent job doing nothing else.  You won't make 15 dollars an hour today!!  Your lucky if you can make 2.00 on each sale.  In some cases, you're only making .89 a sale.  Really???  Let's face it...what it was it no longer is!  They hire people with nothing between their ears and if you fall into that category, you probably been a sales agent for two or more years not getting any more than what you already got.  Such a high turnover rate and will fire you at the drop of hat if sales aren't up.  I made sales, but it wasn't worth it.  What the best sales agents make in one week, I make in two days.  Team leaders are smokin' dope, as well as those they hire.  Really? Professionalism is a lacking thing at this company. Dial America isn't for everybody.  I made my way, but I thought myself better than this and jumped at an opportunity that was worth its weight in gold.
Dial America is ok for awhile (if you have to make ends meet), but not worth staying there.

I'm currently employed at dial america in SanDiego. I do professional fundraising for MAAD and Special Olympics. I also activate credit cards and sell credit defense. 

The numbers we have we actually get from various consumer companies. We will never sell personal information to anyone. In fact we are not even allowed to bring phones into the building so all information will stay confidential. 

Their are a few reasons way only 12 1/2 percent of the proceeds goes to MAAD/SO. First off you do have to pay for the magazine subscription. Now the distributors do help with discounts on the magazines. This is one of the main ways we get people excited about the cause. Also some of the money goes to the company (its how we get payed). But despite what may seem like a small 12% we raised over 38 million dollars for MAAD.

As for if the company treats its employees well. Absolutely! I work the phones. The lowest and most popular position in the company. It works on a base vs. com pay system. My base rate is 8 dollars an hour but i normally end each week making about 14 an hour for that week. Also the only hire from within. So therre is tons of room for growth. Every manager their started on the phones like me. They also have tons of bonuses that are easy to acquire. Last but not least your guaranteed 30 hours a week of work at my branch.

So over all its one of the most caring companies that I have ever worked for and I suggest any one who loves talking to people or has a knack for sales. Thanks for your time

Dial America called to ask if I would like to order some magazines... blah, blah, blah. I waited for the person to finish reading the script and replied, "No thank you."

The telemarketer continued with the sales pitch and I waited until given an opportunity to answer. Again I said, "No thank you."

I was asked if I wanted to make a contribution to MADD. I said I couldn't at this time.

I was then told "Oh I see, you don't want to help others. That's nice." I am/was so offended that under NO conditions will I ever deal with this company again.

Seriously? Keep it real. Dialamerica didn't have computerized dialing in the 70's. I don't know what your story is, but if you have something critical to say, instead of making up complete lies, simply talk about your problem rather than making up things that are completely fabricated. I worked for this company when they first started implementing the computer system. It wasn't until the 90's. Also, for someone like yourself who worked for the company for 2 weeks (?), you seem to infer that you have a very polished understanding of how their dialing patterns work---not so much. My guess is if (as you stated) you only brought home $15 for 2 weeks work, that you worked about one day. You see, they paid a guaranteed salary to people even for training, and my recollection was that it was more than 74 cents/ per hour. Its laughable how sites like these bring out some wacky people with a hidden, goofball agenda. Furthermore, when someone says "no", unless the sales rep purposely leaves the lead in the system, the lead is resolved. They don't keep calling the person over and over again. Maybe you missed that fact in that one day you worked 30 years ago? Bottom line is this company always paid people on time for what they did and is by far the most ethical teleservices company in business today. It was a great part-time job.

Dial America, contracted by Sirius Radio, continues to call me, 3 - 4 times a week and now 4 times in 3 days, in an attempt to have me re-subscribe to Sirius Radio. On my last call, I asked Dial America if they keep track of the person they have called and the answer was that they do not. Thus, it is easy to determine that Dial America does not do the one simple thing that they could with a computer - KEEP TRACK OF WHO THEY HAVE CALLED.

I worked there for about 7 weeks. At first I was told there were no quotas and only light pressure sales were wanted because we were calling existing customers. Also hints were made at making full time pay for a part time job. After about 4 weeks when I was starting to do good the managers decided to switch to a new program that was cold calls and sales per hour driven. All of a sudden it became high pressure sales with a quota of 1.2 sales an hour. Since I'm a low pressure kind of guy I of course did not do good at that. So after 3 more weeks I got called into the manager's office on a Thursday and was told to get 20 sales by Friday. Yeah right like that was even possible. So I left and of course they didn't have to say I was fired. They do send a few peanuts, a "full 12 1/2%" to various charities. And we're supposed to think that is a HUGE FULL BIG AMOUNT OF 12 1/2 %! Well the bottom line is that in my opinion DialAmerica is a scam for workers. First they lie to get you in the door and then they kick you out after their bait and switch scam. Watch out because that comes from the upper management not from the local managers who are just peons. They rely on an endless stream of unemployed workers who are desperate for a job and only need two pieces of identification to get hired. The more desperate you are the better because more people will feel sorry for you and maybe buy a magazine from your poor soul.

Dial America is the ONLY telemarketer I have ever done business with. First off, they work with charities (offering a percentage of the subscription to an approved list of charities, of which you choose one). So before you say, "Yeah, right"... After my first subscription with Dial America and after selecting Mothers Against Drunk Drivers as the charity, I contacted MADD to find out about proceeds given to them from D.A. As it turned out, MADD has given D.A. *awards* for the revunue D.A. has generated for them. After learning that, I've done business with them every time they call -- which is only about once a year.

I worked for DialAmerica a little over 2 years ago. They do not call random households to sell magazines. What they do is call lists of current subscribers and offer to RENEW their subscriptions, usually at the same rate as a renewal card in the magazine and sometimes better. Many people were glad for the call because it saved them the time to fill one out and send it in and they knew that their subscriptions wouldn't lapse. Another good thing about this company is that they never take credit card information over the telephone, customers received an invoice in about two weeks time that also includes a telephone number to call in case they had changed their mind. I eventually quit because I found the work to be very monotonous but as far as a direct sales company goes they really seemed to be serious about staying within all of the laws and bounds of good business.

You say that you worked for DialAmerica in 1970. That was so very long ago. I work for them now, and we don't even use cards. We use computers, and strive to always be the better person. If a customer says no, we might make a rebuttel, but if they say no again we say okay. We realize that not everyone can help all the time. Next time you right a report on a company you might want to update yourself on the company before you sling accusations! As for the money, I am also an honest person, and I made about $15 an hour while on the phones. Thats pretty good for any job these days!! In Fact I would go as far to say it is the best part time job i have ever had!