Thursday, December 11, 2008

Telemarking That Has Gone Too Far - Fighting Back Against (304) 369-0968

The calls are to consistently remind me that my vehicle warranty will expire and in order to, well you can guess the rest and it involves money. I’m flipping beyond mad about this phone spam. Now by the time this is posted the phone number and area code will probably be changed. I don’t care.

(304) 369-0968 Do not call me. I am to the bone serious. You see, I don't have a car. I don’t have an auto warranty, whatever that is so there is no reason for you to have my contact information. None. There is no relationship. Zilch.

Which has not stopped this company located somewhere in West Virginia (and it isn't that hard to find out where) from calling me and a few thousand other people repeatedly.

I'm not the only one having a problem with this particular phone number. Over at Caller Complaints there is a growing list of folks that are testifying that this phone number is one toke over the line. 458 at the time of this post and many more checking out the action.

Time for a review of the Federal "Do Not Call List" If you have a land line or cell phone, iPhone or whatever you are yakking on you are protected. If you haven’t you might want to register your cell phone number, PDQ (pretty darn quick).

Per the Do Not Call web site:

Yes, you may place your personal cell phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. The registry has accepted cell phone numbers since it opened for registrations in June 2003. There is no deadline to register a home or cell phone number on the Registry.

You may have received an email telling you that your cell phone is about to be assaulted by telemarketing calls as a result of a new cell phone number database; however, that is not the case. FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers don’t call consumers on their cell phones without their consent.

This company did not get the message. I will help translate. “You do not and never had my consent. Do not call me!”

If Both Your Land and Cell Phone Are On The Do Not Call List

Swing on over to the Do Not Call complaint page. You can also call toll-free number at 1-888-382-1222 (TTY: 1-866-290-4236). Per the FTC to file a complaint, you must know either the name or telephone number of the company that called you, and the date the company called you. Your phone number must be in the system for 31 days before they can take action.

If You Are Not On The List You Still Have Rights

You can tell the company representative or salesperson to remove your name. In this case of this company and from what I learned at Caller Complaints, they are hanging up on people before they can say the magic words “Remove my phone number from your call list.”

And another thing, besides trying to get people to re-up their warranties look at how much money, time and lost opportunities for good will you have deliberately ground in the dirt. If you were a legit company, and I’m not saying that you are not because I HAVE NO NEED OF YOUR SERVICES, why do you want to engender this much documented bad will?

There are reasons for the Do Not Call list and it does work. I will get my other phone protected. Make sure you do likewise.

No comments:

Post a Comment