Customer must shop in any Walter Mart Supermarket branch on a minimum single-receipt of P5,000 using your BPI Express Credit card to avail of free holiday ham.

Here are the rest of the mechanics:

* Promo is applicable for credit card transactions only.
* Promo duration is from Oct 15 to Nov 15, 2010.
* Customer may only redeem one (1) ham per day at any Walter Mart Supermarket branch.
* Ham must be redeemed on the branch where purchase was made.
* To redeem, customer must present Walter Mart receipt with qualifying amount and credit card charge slip to the service counter. Customer service representative will stamp “claimed” on the receipt upon release of premium item.
* Premium is not convertible to cash or changeable to any item.
* Redemption of prizes is valid up to sixty (60) days after the promo period.

For as low as P500 a year, you can avail of Yellow Membership. This includes unlimited primary doctor consultation, 10% discount on specialist consultations, laboratory and diagnostics, and medical house call service.

For P1,200 a year, you can avail of Pink Membership. This consists of one free annual physical exam with laboratory and x-ray plus ECG for 40 years old and above. Also included are unlimited primary doctor consultation, 20% discount on specialist consultations, laboratory and diagnostics, and 15% discount on medical house call service.

I personally got a Pink Membership for my mom’s household help. She has been a part of our family for the 30 years and we treat her as a family member. I give her the Pink Membership as her health benefit since she’s hypertensive and is under maintenance meds (which I also pay for).

Do check this great service. You can visit the HealthFirst website for more details.

From Dec. 1, 2010 to Jan. 7, 2010, Sparxx will raffle off 12 iPads. For a minimum purchase of two Sparxx Max insurance, you secure a raffle entry for the promo. If you want to get more entry, you just simply buy more Sparxx Max insurance for your family and friends.

Sparxx Max is “bite-sized insurance and savings.” For just the low price of P550, Sparxx Max is an insurance plan that offers PHP100,000 for personal accident insurance coverage, PHP50,000 for cash burial assistance benefit–all good for an entire year, plus PHP300 start-up savings with guaranteed interest.

Where do you sign for Sparxx Max? You  can go to Sparxx Max website and Pioneer Life website. Sparxx is also on Facebook.

You can also call 750-5433 (Globelines) for inquiries and toll-free number 1-800-10-750- 5433.

Credit: www.financefull.com

I’m quite sure you have encountered rude sales people? And when I mean sales people, these include call center agents, account executives, agents, company representatives or even company owners.

You know the type. The cosmetics saleslady whose heart is really not into selling her wares and secretly waiting for her shift to be over. Or the account executive who obviously doesn’t like her work and treats her customers–clients, contest winners, potential business partners–shabbily and disrespectfully.

But as customers, do you have to take all these without complaint? So what do you when you encounter rude, disrespectful and incompetent sales people?

1. Know your right as a consumer. The Consumer Act of the Philippines provides protection for its consumer so it pays to know what’s written there. Whether it’s a defective product, deceptive advertisements or fraudulent contests, you need to know how this piece of law has for you.

2. Complain. You as customer HAS EVERY RIGHT TO COMPLAIN. Whether it’s because of defective product or rude sales people, you must complain. Take it up with the manager of that person or, if needed, the owner of the company. However, there are company owners who are just as rude as his/her people. If you encounter that, then you realize why the staff is just as rude. The apple doesn’t fall far from that tree.

If you happen to encounter such people, do other customers like us a favor. Spread the word about such behavior so that others may be warned. This kind of companies is all about making money without regard whether they have satisfied their customers. Don’t bother patronizing them again.

3. Report it to the Department of Trade and Industry. Aside from product defects and rude personnel, you’ve also heard of people getting scammed. Whatever the situation may be, you can file a complaint to DTI Consumer Center.

Most Filipinos are kind and would rather ignore these deceptive and rude practices instead of doing something. Don’t be a doormat. If you see something wrong, do something. Remember what Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.”

The modus operandi is simple. Someone will call you, sounding urgent, and asking you to share your cell phone load. The caller will introduce himself as your officemate or one of your company executives. He’ll say that it’s an emergency so he needs to cell phone load right away and that he will pay you back later.

When this happens, pause for a few seconds and gather your thoughts first. Ask why are you being approached for this? If it’s an officemate who’s not close to you, why would he suddenly ask for a load? If it’s a company executive, can’t he afford to pay for his own load? Or better yet, doesn’t the executive have a secretary/admin assistant that he can approach?

Be very careful. Just recently, someone impersonated one of our company laywers. The caller called two people in HR and pretended to be our lawyer and asking for load. We were able to stop one of the two employees. Unfortunately, the second employee was scammed of P300-worth of load. The employee also didn’t realize that all office-issued cell phones are post-paid lines and therefore, didn’t need load.

The person who called our office uses the landline 701-0134. We are fortunate to have a called ID so we recorded this number. We are still in the process of tracing this landline.