Unauthorised debit orders

After receiving a call from a personal number, I took the call. It was an agent from Platinum Life telling me that I had not received my free gift. I said I still had not selected one, but apparently the courier companies are telling Platinum Life that they cannot reach me. Why would the couriers contact me if they don't know what to send me? That's the least of my worries from this call.

So, the agent says she will send me a message and then says that with the gift, there will be a form to sign up for insurance or confirmation of a free R50,000 accident benefit. She then says that they can increase this cover at a reduced fee and all the while she hasn't asked me if I even want this product. At this point I am not thinking clearly as I was working very late the night before. She confirms my bank details, etc, then says she will send the policy things in 2-3 weeks via email where I can read through and decide if I want it or not. The default from no response is to activate the product - which is ****** stupid! She forwards me to her colleague who will activate the debit order.

I start speaking to the other agent, but still cannot get my head around what is going on. I'm supposed to receive a free gift but now I'm signing up for an insurance policy??? I hang up to clear my mind. In the mean time I get a debit order mandate. I reject it. I get a call a little later from the second agent and then explain that her colleague blind-sided me and that I don't want this insurance policy. She says she understands. I think all is fine and everything is cancelled.

Today, I see that I have 3 emails from yesterday evening, all with unique policy reference numbers indicating that I have new registered debit order mandates.

How and why did this happen? My bank app is supposed to notify me of pending debit order mandates which I can reject or accept. I only got a notification for one during my call with the second agent! Now 3 separate debit orders are linked to my account. What the hell? I cancelled all 3 through my app now.

Please tell your employees not to shove down insurance into a potential client's throat ESPECIALLY if you are just offering them a "free gift." This is precisely why I still have not accepted the gift, because there's always a catch or alterior motive as can be clearly seen here. You all have so much data on your potential clients regardless of POPIA so you probably already know what products we have in place, yet you don't care to ask if we even have need for yours or give a reason why we should use your products. Just numbers and figures and sounding excited. Rather educate your clients first and give them a reason to trust and buy into your business... not these random telemarketing calls.

Please cancel all policies you have in my name and delete my details from your database. I don't want to see a single cent going off my account in August. Thank you.