If so, it is time to defend yourself.
This may not seem like a big deal to some people. But I believe that one’s privacy is important. I also believe that, if someone doesn’t want to receive telemarketing calls or solicitations by mail, he or she should speak up and let the solicitors know that they should stop.
For the last couple of years, I have received six or seven deceptive offers in the mail that said “Free Phones,” and “Activation Notice” from one of the big cellular telephone carriers. Each time I received one of these solicitations in the mail, I called the telephone number on the letter, navigated my way through the maze in their automated system, and asked a customer service representative to remove me from the company’s solicitation list. And, each time, I was given excuses as to why I was receiving the solicitations in the mail. But I was also told that they would remove my name and address from the company’s mailing list. Of course, three or four months later, I received an additional offer in the mail from the same company, and I repeated the process of calling the same company, and requesting that they no longer send me anything in the mail.
After about two years, and six or seven unwanted solicitations from the same company, after having requested that they no longer mail me offers for free telephones, I decided that there must be a better way to make the unwanted mail from this company stop. So, I did an internet search for “The name of the company,” “The CEO’s name,” and “Contact.” One of the results gave me the CEO’s e-mail address at the company. Another result showed that a consumer e-mailed this CEO, and an executive customer relations representative issued a cease and desist notification, which was retracted shortly thereafter.
So, I emailed the CEO with the details of their harassment of me, their inability to stop the solicitations, and a simple request to stop the letters offering free telephones. The next day, I was contacted by e-mail by an “office of the president” representative who assured me that he would do everything possible to assist me. After a couple of days, I was told that this person worked in the landline division of the company and that he would ask his counterpart in the company’s wireless division to get the job done. I thanked him. But I also asked him to contact me with confirmation when the job was done.
After patiently waiting for one week without having had received confirmation that I was removed from the company’s mailing list, I contacted the executive customer relations representative. And I asked him if my request had been completed yet. He said that he asked his counterpart in the wireless division to contact me when my request had been processed. But I advised him that I had not yet been contacted. So he had a woman call me later that day to complete the process.
But this woman seemed clueless. She was overly apologetic, which seemed to be getting in the way of obtaining the information that was necessary to getting the job done. When I gave her a website address for a scanned copy of their last letter to me, I asked her to read it back to me to ensure that she had recorded the information accurately. But she didn’t know the difference between a forward slash and a back slash. And she represents the office of the president?
After I was sure that she was able to see the copy of the last letter from them to me, I asked how long it would take to process my request. She said that she would call me in the following week. The following week? Shouldn’t someone representing the office of the president for a large company have the resources to handle any request in an efficient manner?
I was called the following week. And I was told that my request had been processed. But I was also told that I could possibly receive additional offers in the next thirty days. After that I should receive no more mail from the company. I told the woman in the office of the president that, if I receive additional solicitations from this company after thirty days from now, her CEO will be hearing from me again.
But shouldn’t big companies, like this, empower the first person who answers the telephone for them to do “the right thing” for the sake of the consumer and their company? And shouldn’t it take the office of the president of a big company less than two weeks to handle a request like this?
When dealing with the two representatives of the office of the president, I expected an attitude of confidence. But, instead, I was given an outlook of uncertainty.
We’ll see how it works out.
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The Deliberations Of Dane C Jorgensen. 