From the LA Times this morning:
Satellite television provider DirecTV Inc. agreed to pay $2.31 million to settle charges that it made more than 1 million calls to its customers who had — as was their right — placed themselves on a Do Not Call list, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday.
And why did the company make the calls? To ask the customers to remove themselves from the list, the agency said.
I’ve been getting daily recorded calls for the past couple of months telling me that THIS IS MY LAST CHANCE to reduce my credit card interest rates. Finally, instead of hanging up immediately, I decided to listen to the whole spiel and get through to an operator to ask to be taken off their list. The first one hung up on me. The next day I tried again. The operator said “Thank you sir” and then hung up. The next day I tried yet again. Finally, I got an operator who actually acknowledged my existence. And the calls stopped.
That was two weeks ago. Yesterday the calls started again, though I haven’t gotten one yet today. Apparently, then, the lesson is that it takes three tries to get credit card companies to leave you alone, and even at that they only leave you alone for two weeks. $2.31 million is too good for these people.
(And anyway, as my credit card company ought to know, I don’t carry a balance on my card. So I don’t care about my interest rate anyway. Idiots.)
