Have you seen the latest CBC Marketplace investigation?
SDI Marketing is under scrutiny for their unethical and misleading tactics to get grocery shoppers to sign up for their credit cards. Those people selling cards in the store are often not well-trained and are told to do anything to get the sale.
These SDI employees were told to target ‘low income shoppers’ and that they needed to make a daily quota when signing others up for President’s Choice Financial MasterCards. Two former employees revealed they would tell people they were getting free bags of cookies on “customer appreciation day” – when they were really submitting applications for credit cards with a 19.97 per cent interest rate. The deception was condoned by SDI management.
Deceptive marketing tactics have got to go. Tell Loblaws and PC Financial to drop SDI Marketing for their unethical practices.
Current and former employees of SDI told the CBC about their approach – target poor, young people. Employees were told this demographic is “much more susceptible to slick-talking salespeople”. People thought they were signing up for PC points cards to be told later they were getting MasterCards.
The “anything goes” approach to marketing also led multiple employees to commit fraud, faking customer’s signatures on credit card applications. The approach was encouraged by their managers.
Vulnerable sectors of our population aren’t to be preyed upon. Deception and greed from unethical marketing firms like SDI can’t be dismissed.
Can you tell Loblaws and PC Financial that SDI Marketing’s got to go?
