I got saddled with this outfit when a loan I had with Bank of New York was sold to to them a year or so ago. A few days ago I get a call from one of their telemarketers. Clearly reading from a script, he states “we’re just calling to let you know that we’re going to be mailing you some information about a credit protection plan”. Yeah, right. He goes through a whole load of crap about how it’s so wonderful that they’re gonna let me slide on a year’s worth of payments if I’m out a job or disabled, all for the low rate of 13.5% of my existing monthly payment.
At no point during the monologue does he say anything concerning my signing up, and at no point do I commit to signing up for anything. He closes by saying, “so, do I have your permission to send you this information?” Yeah, whatever, I say.
After hanging up and thinking for a few minutes, I say to myself, “Wait a mo. Why would anyone call just to let you know that they’re sending you junk mail?” Now I know y’all are much more worldly than I, but it was only at that point that I begin thinking, “I bet they enroll you on saying you’ll accept the mailing”.
Sure enough, a few days later, an envelope arrives containing a cheery letter that begins, “Thanks for enrolling in our credit protection plan…”. Steamed, I call the toll-free number on the letter and get told, “Oh, yes, you are enrolled on a provisional basis whenever your accept the mailing”. I of course immediately canceled the thing, politely suggested that in future they instruct their telemarketers to provide the significant information that apparently you get signed up simply by not hanging the phone up on them (I don’t shout and scream at people who are just doing their jobs, even when said job is defrauding customers), and then came here to tell the world (or at least a small piece of it) what utter shyster pricks they are.
Next stop: State Attorney General. Hey, maybe nothing comes of it, but we’ll see. Asshats.
Good luck. Attorneys general love this sort of thing. Gets them in the papers whenever they go after big financial institutions. Just make sure the AG isn’t spending half his salary on hookers.
Whenever someone calls from a company with which I have a financial relationship, I cut them off mid-script and ask “Is there something wrong with my account?” When they answer in the negative, I simply hang up the phone.
I run a marketing agency. We’re not specifically in the telemarketing business, but I know enough people who are in it to understand how telemarketers have a funny definition of “consent.” Sit in enough meetings where terms like "negative option " and “conversion rate” are thrown around and you’ll understand that the nimrods who run these programs are always looking for some tactic that will make all the numbers on their Excel spreadsheets look better.
I don’t buy this notion of “they’re just doing their job” when talking about telemarketers, either. If you’re doing something deceptive and you don’t have the sense to listen to your conscience telling you that you’re deceiving people, you deserve no sympathy in my book. YMMV.
Oh, I agree, but I couldn’t call back the person who read the script, and it’s his bosses that approved the deceptive practice anyway. I may be reading more into it than warrented, but when I called them back to cancel (and complain) I think from the tone of her voice the young lady on the line was personally embarrassed and felt worse that I wasn’t going all medieval on her ass. I hope after few mor such calls she might consider finding work with a more ethical outfit.
Which is the other thing that nags me. Despite decades of exposure to corporate greed and venality, it still shocks me a bit when a supposedly legitimate company resorts to outright fraud to pad its bottom line. CIT, AFAIK a relatively large banking institution, is basically phoning up their customers to announce that they will happily fuck them blind in whatever way they can. Not a viable long-term strategy for growth, seems to me.
I don’t remember if it was CIT, but I used to get offers in the mail for credit protection services from one of my credit cards followed a week or two later by phone calls that started out with some variation of “Did you receive the mailing we sent you? We were wondering if you were interested in signing up…”
If I were interested in signing up, I would have called the number on the mailing, or sent back the enclosed card, dipshit. No, I don’t need to hear you explain the benefits of the program over the phone; I’ve been literate for some years now and am quite capable of reading and understanding what you mailed to me. No, it’s none of your damn business why I’m not interested in signing up. <slam!>
On a related rant, I recently received a call from one of my credit card companies trying to get me to open a second credit card account with them. Why do I need two accounts with the same bank?