Car Warranty Telemarketers

Jack Scott: I'm sure that I'm not the only one who gets phone calls on a regular basis warning me that the warranty on my car is about to expire or has already expired. Every time they call, they tell me that they are going to offer me one last opportunity before they permanently close my file. I didn't know that I had a "file" somewhere in this corporation that doesn't even know who I am, where I live, or what kind of car I own. Nevertheless, I guess at this point I'm supposed to say, "NOOOO! WAIT! PLEASE HELP ME!" but I simply tell them that they'll just have to close my file... and they DON'T do it.

No matter how many times I tell them to "close my file" or "take me off of your list" they keep calling me. So as of late, I've been talking to them and doing the "carrot in front of the horse" thing where I keep agreeing and asking questions to take up as much of their time as I possibly can only to say, "hmmm.. I'll think about it" which makes them go through an entire series of rebuttals and hard selling. And I just keep stringing them along until they hang up on me and/or they figure out that I'm just screwing around with them. It's not that I don't have better things to occupy my day but this is more or less an experiment to figure out how I can get them to stop calling me.

I'm guessing that there are different companies using the same contact list and going after the same pool of potential customers. Otherwise it would seem like someone would be smart enough to flag my phone number as someone that's a waste of time. In fact the other day I was stringing along someone and they said, "Let me put you on the line with my manager." When the woman got on the phone, she berated me for screwing around with them. She said, "I'm looking at your file and I see that we talked to you last week! Are you just playing around with us?" and I said, "Well you called ME. It's your dime. I'm just very lonely and happy to talk to somebody!" while trying hard not to laugh.

briansmythe: Have you got a phone that Screens calls like that , Blocks them

Jack Scott: What makes it tricky is that they spoof the caller ID with random local telephone numbers and use a different number every time they call. I use my phone to conduct business with the general public and so blocking these numbers would be counter productive.

briansmythe: Oh I see , yeah there got all the bases covered , Legal harassment

Fog Swept Glade: Both warranty calls & Geico mailings. I never owned a car.