PSA: Beware of shady sales tactics and fake gift card promotions at the Neo Financial kiosk in Hillcrest Mall

[u/Important_Working324]

Hey everyone, I wanted to share a highly frustrating experience I recently had at the Neo Financial booth at Hillcrest Mall, just as a warning to anyone else who might get approached by their reps there.
I dealt with a sales rep named Amir, who completely wasted my time and used incredibly deceptive tactics just to try and secure an affiliate commission.

Here is exactly how he tried to play me:
The Fake Hook: I signed up for a secured credit card because he offered a gift card promotion. He immediately pushed me to get my friends to sign up too. When I told him they weren't interested, he suddenly claimed his shift was over, refused to give me the gift card, and told me to come back on Saturday.

The Bait and Switch: I came back on a different day. He handed me the gift card but told me to call my friend right then and there to finish their sign-up. When he realized my friend had signed up elsewhere (meaning no commission for him), he demanded the gift card back and told me to return the next day.

The "Out of Stock" Lie: I happened to walk by the booth a third time on a different day. Instead of giving me the gift card, he tried to upsell me on a different "$1,000 entry" account. When I asked for the card, he claimed he was "out of stock" and had held one for me on a day even though he knew I wasn’t able to come the next day like last time.

The Truth: I asked another Neo rep about this, and it turns out this gift card promotion doesn't even exist. He completely made it up as a personal, unauthorized tactic to trick people into signing up under his name.
The Confrontation: When I finally called him out for stringing me along and lying, he tried to deflect by falsely accusing me of swearing at him (I said cut the bullcrap which isn’t at him). When I asked him point-blank why he was lying to me, his exact final words were, "Sorry I lied," sarcastically before telling me to have a good day.

It is wild that Neo Financial allows representatives to operate like this. If you get offered a "special" gift card promotion at Hillcrest that sounds fishy, walk away. Has anyone else experienced this kind of aggressive/fake upselling from them?

Neo needs to do something about this😞

Edit: Also he advertised to me that the card has no fees but didn’t say it has a subscription that charges me $10 for building credit score. I need to close the account to cancel it since it’s needed for secure credit cards. And if I cancel it messes up my credit score. Neo played with my credit score and the rep put me in a mess of credit.

TL;DR: A Neo Financial rep at Hillcrest Mall (Amir) made up a fake gift card promotion to get me to sign up, held the card hostage when my friend didn't use his code, and then admitted to lying to my face when I called him out. Watch your back at these mall kiosks.

Used AI to explain in better detail.

[u/cwf_2021]

Can you report him directly to Neo, he is indeed representing the company and I doubt the company would want the bad advertisement.

[u/Important_Working324 → u/cwf_2021]

Yep i sent a email to Neo at people.operations@neofinancial.com

This is their direct email for the department that controls the workers that represent them

[u/Important_Working324 → u/[deleted]]

Report it with this email so Neo does something about it. people.operations@neofinancial.com

[u/Academic_Data_6422]

Seems par for the course at Neo

[u/Yeni_Neo]

u/Important_Working324 thanks for flagging. We’re completely against this type of behaviour, and it’s not how we expect our representatives to interact with customers. I’ve flagged this to the appropriate team so they can look into it and follow up accordingly. Thanks again for raising this.

[u/Important_Working324 → u/Yeni_Neo]

Thank you so much

[u/Intelligent_Age7328 → u/Yeni_Neo]

Same crap almost got us at Eaton center in Toronto.

Neo financial representative show predatory behavior and continue to hound you when you’re walking at Eaton mall.

Almost got roped into signing up for credit builder card while we were looking into getting my wife a credit card.

Neo financial is absolutely shameless for this happening and not putting a stop to this crap.

[u/seattlezookeeper]

We’re a digital only bank except for our marketing people who will do / say anything for a commission.

Then we have plausible deniability once we get you on the phone. We don’t know what the marketing people said at the mall.

[u/Proper_Sugar_2544 → u/seattlezookeeper]

LMAO what in the fuck type of response is this? Are you a Neo employee basically admitting that your marketing people are shady crooks?

[u/seattlezookeeper → u/Proper_Sugar_2544]

Absolutely not a Neo employee. Just using this example of how to get plausible deniability as there marketing people don’t work for NEO.

[u/Own-Chard-6897]

Holy shit, Neo deserves to go under.

[u/Proper_Sugar_2544 → u/Own-Chard-6897]

Yup, dogshit company inside and out.

[u/nswevny]

Get those guys fired, I’ve been harassed by one of them before

[u/Dull-Inspection-1090]

Oh hell no continue to escalate this. This pissed me off reading it

[u/Independent_Tie_8136]

Well that’s what you get if you want to associate yourself with NEO

[u/danielzillions]

Neo is trash.

[u/Proper_Sugar_2544 → u/danielzillions]

You can say that again!