Warranties

I brought my car in for some work last year that was covered under a recall. The manager of the garage was thrilled to tell me I still qualified for an extended warranty with the manufacturer. My last car lasted a very long time and a lot of miles. Like most cars, it needed more work as it got older so I figured I would spend the extra money and pick up the extended warranty.

Apparently the warranty I got wasn't enough. As soon as I gave out my information, I started getting phone calls from the factory to try to get me to upgrade this fabulous purchase everyone was congratulating me on. Salesmen were trying to get in on this. Not only were they happy that I decided to get a warranty but they also thought I should get a new car to go along with it. They seem to think "No" means, "We can sell a new car if we get someone else to call." They tried this four times in two hours since I drove the car off the lot.

You hear a lot of stories about people doing a lot of nasty things in order to make a buck. Those stories seem to get magnified during these economic struggles. I'm sure everyone has a story to tell about car salesmen.

I couldn't explain why I was suddenly getting all these calls. I just bought something and they are trying to sell me the same thing again? That didn't seem right. Then someone showed me a story about people who were running a scam. They were pretending to sell extended warranties but were really just getting credit card information so they could commit fraud. That would explain why the line would suddenly go dead when I asked to speak to their supervisor.

Aol.com is reporting on a story that involves robocalls and the nuisance they cause to the public. I can attest to this. Fortunately, I haven't had a meal interrupted by one of these "services" that seem to know just what I need and has something that's good for what ails you.

According to the article ("Annoying Car Warranty Robocalls Blocked by a Judge" can be found here), Transcontinental Warranty, Inc. was served with a temporary restraining order last week. I'm sure this news was met with the joy of many people who got to experience the sounds of silience for a couple of days.

If a human calls me, I am annoyed but I remind myself it's just someone who's trying to make an honest buck. There is no way I can justify a computer calling me. I still don't know how people get this information. I am inundated with courtesy calls and junk mail within weeks of moving to a new address. I politely ask the operator to remove my name from their list. They do and they get a new list with my name and phone number on it and we start over again.

I don't have any answers for this. I try being nice. I try laughing hysterically into the phone for a few seconds and then hanging up. I try talking to their supervisor. Nothing seems to get my point across.

I'm really not sure what to do about this. People love to hide behind technology and it can get aggravating. I'm open to any answers or solutions.