Tracking Down Auto Warranty Callers

On Sunday, Senator Charles E. Schumer held a news conference to complain about car warranty telemarketing calls.

Mr. Schumer said he had received several of these warranty renewal robo calls — the latest taking place last Wednesday.

“I’ve had enough,” Mr. Schumer said. “These are scam artists.”

Mr. Schumer is not alone. Consumers across the country are flooding Web sites with complaints about these calls and are looking for ways to stop them. Officials in 40 states are investigating the companies behind the calls, and the Better Business Bureau said it received more than 140,000 complaints about the car-warranty calls last year.

Mr. Schumer has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and put an end to the calls.

The warranty calls usually begin with an automated voice stating that your vehicle’s warranty has expired or is about to expire. The caller is next prompted to press 1 to speak with a representative or another number to be removed from the list. But consumers say that the calls — which are made to both land lines and cellphones — continue even after they’ve asked to be removed and that adding their names to the Do Not Call Registry hasn’t stopped the calls.

I received a warranty robo call last Thursday from a 989 area code. The automated voice told me that this was my final notice concerning my soon-to-expire auto warranty, which was news to me since I take public transportation and don’t own a car. A search on whocalled.us reveals similar complaints originating from other numbers.

Part of the difficulty in tracking down these companies is that they change their numbers and names often, and they use technology that prevents consumers from calling them back.

One phone number used to call New Yorkers was traced to a disconnected phone in Nebraska that belonged to an illegal immigrant who was arrested in a raid on a meatpacking plant and was deported.

A representative for the Better Business Bureau in St. Louis, where several of these companies are based, said that warranty marketers have been operating for the past five to 10 years. Because the bureau is neither a legal nor a government agency, it said it could not put the companies out of business. The representative suggested that in addition to filing a complaint with the bureau, consumers file one with their state attorney generals’ offices.

The bureau also flagged several Missouri-based companies. Out of all of them, U.S. Fidelis is considered to be among the largest and was the subject of a recent NBC “Today” show investigation. “Today” reported that there are attorneys general in 40 states investigating U.S. Fidelis for deceptive and unfair practices.

The company received an F rating from the Better Business Bureau and — along with Explicit Media — agreed to pay Verizon Wireless $50,000 as part of a settlement over allegations of illegal telemarketing.

William L. Brauch, a special assistant attorney general and director of the consumer protection division in Iowa, told The Times in November that consumers need to be wary of some warranty providers.

“A number of these companies tend to routinely deny paying, they come up with various interpretations, shall we say, of the agreements, which they say justify them not covering whatever the problem might be,” he said.

Verizon Wireless also sued Missouri-based Dealers Warranty (operating under Federal Auto Protection) and National Dealers Warranty, and Netherlands-based Tele Europe for using an auto dialer to reach its customers.

Missouri authorities also filed a lawsuit against U.S. Fidelis last month.

Ken Fields, a U.S. Fidelis spokesman, said in an e-mail message that his company was not making unsolicited phone calls.

“In fact, we applaud Senator Schumer’s request to investigate the manner in which some telemarketing companies are operating within our industry,” Mr. Fields said. “Our company has had to take various forms of legal action not only to stop misconception about who is making these calls, but also to correct negative impressions these calls leave.”

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/tracking-down-auto-warranty-callers/?hpw
For once I agree with Chuck.