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Note that their caller ID doesn't properly report the name of the company....
The come-on: A misleading automatic message tells you that your new car's warrantee is about to expire. Press 1 to extend the warrantee, press some other key to terminate any change to extend your new car's warrantee.
The first person you talk to, "isabell" claims to work for "auto warrantee specialists", and wants to know what kind of vehicle do you have.
- Of course their message lead you to believe they already knew all about you and your cars and their warrantees.
Isabell will demand to know the make and model of at least one of your cars, your number, and your name.
Then she transfers you to a "specialist".
I was transfered to "Scott", who claims he works for "Automotive Protection Services", in St. Louis Missouri. He doesn't really work for a one of the automotive warrantee companies, he's just trying to figure out who to place you with. He claims to work for the top 5 awarrantee companies, such as MBPI, royal, gold key, the choice, etc.
He says their number is 800-913-4558, ext 2323. Isabell works for the "screening crew".
Then he asks you for the info about your car and looks up a quote. He claimed for California only one of the companies would offer coverage. Approximately $2000 to cover a 2006 Toyota Corolla LE for 100K mile or 5 year warrantee.
They have a one month grace period where you aren't allowed to use the coverage, to try and prevent you ffrom using it for any kind of pre-existing condition. He was also happy to sell the coverage even over the top of the coverage you may already have by your unexpired warrantee.
At the point he told me the price, I asked "Uh, so you want me to give you a credit card number now?"
He then started explaining to me that I was protected from fraudulent use of my card. I acted like I didn't know anything about credit card fraud, and I asked him what was that. After he gave me a long explanation of how someone could misuse my card, I asked him why don't they just fire the person at his company who is misuising the credit card numbers. He explained that no one at his company was misusing the credit card numbers. Then he starts telling me how some people have credit card scanners, and I asked "You mean they scan my credit card number as I walk by?"
He told me, no not that, it was that places like restaurants have scanners for the cards, and they can steal your card number and your identity... "You mean that thing they put my card in could be stealing my number? Oh my gosh!" He explains some more, and I ask him if I can buy some credit card fraud protection from him. Well he doesn't sell that.
At one point I told him I'd never heard of this fraud thing, but then later I asked him if this credit card fraud was related to that whole thing called, um, what was it, um, "Enron?" He was an expert about it, said they were trading things around... "You mean they were trading people's credit card numbers?" He assured me that they were.
Of course then I asked him if I could buy this credit card protection from him. But he doesn't sell credit card protection.
Then I asked him if his warrantee plan could be used to repair some damage that had already been done to my car, do I need to have my car inspected first? Then he starts telling me about their grace period, and how most health insurance has a grace period. "I never heard of that? I just started a new job last week, and I went to the doctor yesterday. Do you mean that my insurance won't cover that doctor visit? Can you check for me? It's Aetna insurance...."
I thanked him for calling me, and told him how impressed I was with his knowledge of insurance and how credit card fraud works. Told him it gave me a lot to think about, I'll get back with him later.
Total time wasted: 20 minutes! A new record!