Monday, November 03, 2008

do not call.... PLEASE

Rob and I recently changed over to cable phone and since then have been the butt of every single telemarketer call across the country. While we were away this weekend (friday evening to Sunday), we recieved telemarketing calls from 12 different phone numbers.

12 DIFFERENT NUMBERS!!!!

One in particular has been a bothersome and rather annoying experience. A company called General Warranty Services based out of Massachusetts and New Hampshire has been calling us continually every other day with an automated voice message.

In typical fashion, we hang up before even listening to the whole message, but lately it's gotten so bad that i waited on the line for a live representative to find out what the deal was. When a girl came on the phone I immediately began to request to be removed from the call list and that i was very agrevated about the number of calls we are receiving. She hung up on me mid-sentence. I was FURIOUS! Nevermind that i thought it was my husband and ran down the hall butt naked and searched frantically through a pile of stuff to find the phone!! (sorry for the visual! LOL)

So i vowed the next time they called that I would try and weasel my way in by playing along and giving them fake information.

My plan worked.

I now have the name of the company and the phone number. I looked them up on Better Business Bureau website and just as I suspected, they have had several complaints lodged against them. I am considering filing a formal complaint but when the guy on the other line was far more cooperative and polite and apologetic about our request, i decided against it an to wait and see if they actually call again.

Has anyone gotten any calls from a company called General Warranty Services (781)569-1000? Just curious. http://www.generalwarrantyservices.com/ is their website.

The other thing I looked up was the official DO NOT CALL list registration. Senator LaValle announced it a few years back and so I knew it was official. It's also regulated by the FTC (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt107.shtm).

If anyone is interested in registering their phone number (INCLUDING CELL PHONE NUMBERS), visit www.donotcall.gov

3 comments:

meliss said...

We get the warranty company calling ALL the time. Somehow they even have our cell phone numbers as well as our house number!! I will have to check out their number next time they call to see if it is the same company. I HATE them!!! I always wait on the line to press #2 to "not receive any more phone calls", but it doesn't work. Without fail they call back.

Anonymous Mommy Blogger said...

You know I had this problem a few weeks back, so upon further investigation, I found out if you had put your name on the NYS Do Not Call List years ago, it probably expired and you needed to do it again. This time, if you put your name and number down, it is permanent, for life and a national thing. The reason why I was suddenly getting all the calls was that my number had expired. I put all my numbers (cell phones too), on the list again. I think it takes 31 days to go into effect, but the last week I haven't received any calls.

Natasha Beccaria said...

actually if you go to that Do Not Call website it says you are covered for up to 5 years. After that you will have to sign up again. But you are right..it takes 31 days to take effect.

I am very curious to see if they call me back AGAIN after i spoke to that gentleman last night.