All from the same IP address sent on August 6, between 10:19 am to 11:15 am.

This says a lot about how things work in your organization. It is reflective of what your vision and mission is based on.  If you at PPLIC just wanted to silence me, all you could have done was write me an apology email saying you promise to mend your ways and I could have posted it here for you. A simple email that explained why your agents have become deceitful and have promised prizes and all just to compel them to buy insurance.

There is such a thing as soft sell and that is usually more effective than what PPLIC agents are doing now. You might want to look in on that. Because of the subtlety of soft sell, my whole family got ALL their insurance needs from Philam Life. And we were spending load to call the agent. Their insurance plans sell themselves, as it is also with other reputable insurance companies like Sunlife, Insular Life, Ayala Life, etc.

To PPLIC people, DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME SPAMMING MY INBOX! You have a lot of brainstorming and LEGITIMATE SELLING to do.

1. That PPLIC is a legitimate insurance company, complete with licenses and legalities in place.
2. That because they are a legitimate company, their insurance policies are backed up with the necessary funds and that they do have some satisfied customers.

I have published part of their letter below.

Two years ago, when you wrote your post about Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Company, Inc. (PPLIC), you probably did not realize that PPLIC agents are not employees of our Company; they are independent contractors. This does not excuse unfair sales practices, however, and so as a result of your blog post, we began to regulate the agents more closely. We now have customer service staff (full time employees of our Company) stationed at all of our retail sales offices. Their job is to interview every customer before they purchase insurance to ensure that the sales presentation was fair to them and that they are not asked to do anything against their will.

Given that life insurance is not something that most people think about when visiting a shopping mall, we do approach potential customers and ask them if they would like to be entered into a raffle draw to win a car or other big-ticket prizes (e.g., cash and trips abroad). By simply attending the presentation, they are entered in the raffle. No purchase is required. Interestingly, many of our actual raffle winners did not purchase insurance from PPLIC. While most of the winners do not wish to be identified or publicized (for personal safety/security reasons), we do have a couple of individuals who are willing to speak to you about their experience, should you wish.

Another major customer service innovation that sets PPLIC apart is that, while most life insurance companies only offer a three-to-five day “free look period,” as sanctioned by the Insurance Commission of the Philippines, PPLIC offers a 15-day free look period, during which time a customer may cancel his/her policy and request a full refund. As such, we ensure that our customers are fully satisfied.

Also, and unfortunately for us, there are a number of companies that have similar names to ours, including Prudential Life Plans and PruLife UK . These companies have no affiliation with ours. Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Company, Inc. has never had its license revoked, and does not market and sell pre-need plans. We would thus appreciate your deletion of the links to such stories on the other companies from your post.

Regarding the “XXX” telecast late last year, the customer initially asked for her money to be returned immediately. However, credit card reversals have to go through the customer’s banking institution, and this takes time. Dissatisfied with waiting, she next went directly to the Insurance Commission and the media. We processed her refund as soon as we could, and regret that the financial institutions do not process this much faster. Under the current system, it generally takes four to six weeks to process a refund after a cancellation.

Should you have any other concerns or need additional information, please feel free to contact us. Current clients may reach us via our Customer Hotline at (02) 902-2300 or visit any of our offices nationwide where a Customer Service Representative can readily assist them.

Thank you again and best regards.

Sincerely,

RODOLFO C. ESTRERA
Assistant Vice President and Head
Corporate Communication and Planning Office

I am hoping that the thousands of comments in this post will now call PPLIC directly for their concerns and that they will be properly answered and refunded, if need be. Like I mentioned in the original post, I will continue to

UPDATE: Finally the media has seen this post and have investigated the matter. The TV show XXX by ABS-CBN has raised awareness about the deceptive marketing insurance fraud. See whole episode as pasted in Carlo Ople’s blog.

Just now I received a nasty call from the number 0920-9705881, a post-paid number no less. Some lady named Carla said my name was selected from an SM raffle because I won a brand new Honda City. Luckily for me, I wasn’t at all swayed by all her babble about winning, winning, winning!!! Firstly, I NEVER shop at SM Megamall because it’s far from my residence. There’s a Super 8 Club next door and I have no need to travel when doing groceries.

Then Carla says the call is recorded along with all the spiels that the call is legitimate. Even gave me her office number, complete with extension (755-1562 local 4018). I was asked what sort of IDs I have and when I said I have SSS and a passport, she goes on to say that it’s not the ID they need. She says I NEED A CHECKING ACCOUNT OR A CREDIT CARD as their ID of choice. TALAGA LANG HA?

When I said that only my wife has a checking account, all of a sudden, SYA NA DAW YUNG REPRESENTATIVE! All I need to do daw is call them back and they will make me come to their office to spin some dastardly wheel, claim a premium gift and bring home the blasted car. People who know me are well aware that I WILL NEVER BUY A HONDA because you can’t use it as a taxi cab and my loyalty to NISSAN and MITSUBISHI is way past my financial capabilities.

These people at Philippine Prudential have learned atrocities of these independent sales agents. It destroys their business and dupes hapless consumers into putting their life savings into products beyond their budget simply because they are out to make a quick buck. Shame on them! should be sued or something. They dupe people into thinking they won something only to make them waste their time and sit through a presentation then force-sell their products to people who really can’t afford it. Hey, there has got to be a better, effective and legitimate way to sell insurance! They’re behaving like Family First and all those other scammers who cheat us out of our life savings.

And I told Karla that if she wanted to sell me insurance, she should have just told me flat out. I might consider buying but I will never go through an unscrupulous agent.  I WILL NEVER BUY FROM PHILIPPINE PRUDENTIAL LIFE.

If Philippine Prudential DOES make someone win just to prove it’s not a scam, think again. There’s a multitude of people out there that you’ve already duped. If you need to prove something, return THEIR money AND CHANGE YOUR MARKETING STRATEGIES! It’s insulting! Your methods only show what you really think of your clients.   It’s OK to be forthcoming when selling insurance, your new set of agents must realize that.