Tracking the call: Advice for you.
Yesterday National Auto Warranty Services, one of the companies that sells warranties through telemarketing (also known as US Fidelis), settled a lawsuit with Verizon for $50,000 and a promise to stop calling Verizon customers. Some news outlets are suggesting this will put an end to the calls. It will not. As I showed on this blog, companies other than NAWS/Fidelis are behind the calls.
Because of that story, I was on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, talking about my story, along with a rep from Verizon.
I thought that by telling my story, other people would be able to track down the calls and file a complaint once they could prove which company it was. But I realize it’s not easy to get the information you need to file a complaint, so I figured I’d post this advice.
When you get the call,
1) Press 1 to speak to a representative.
2) This representative is unlikely to give any info about the company, so just tell them you are interested in the warranty. If they ask for a make and a model of a vehicle, give them one.
3) You will be transferred to a person who can give information about the company, so do whatever you can to get his phone number. I told them I had to call back with the mileage of the car and that my battery was dying. Only then did he give me his number.
4) Google the number. It should lead you to a website for one of the companies.
Now you should have the info you need. If you’re unsure of which company it really is, post it here and I will help (I’ve done lots of research into the various company names).
Explore posts in the same categories: UncategorizedTags: advice, brian lehrer show, car, factory warranty, fidelis, national auto warranty services, phone, robodialing, spam, telemarketer, telemarketing, vehicle, wnyc
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May 4, 2009 at 15:49
Is there any way to block these calls? Everytime I get them they seem to be from different numbers and today I tried calling the number back only to receive a “call cannot be complete as dialed” message. So are they spoofing the number it’s actually coming from too?
May 4, 2009 at 16:19
Unfortunately no, it’s not possible to block the calls. They deliberately send an incorrect caller ID so that you can’t do that. They appear to give you the option to get taken off their list, but I haven’t heard one report of this working.
May 9, 2009 at 15:03
Today I was told I was talking to “Warranty Solutions” based out of Atlanta GA. Was this one involved in the Verizon settlement?
May 9, 2009 at 17:45
There is a website for a company called Warranty Solutions, but it doesn’t say it’s based out of Atlanta. A search on the Better Business Bureau comes up with a few companies with the same name, but again, none out of Atlanta. I wonder if it’s just a generic name the recorded message gives. At what point in the call did you find out the name?
May 9, 2009 at 18:50
After I said I had a car and started making up info about it, I asked what the company was and where it was. He then transferred me to a second guy, who seemed fairly unconnected to the first. My impression is that people may work out of their homes doing the initial solicitations and then hand us off to some other company/person. Only my first attempt to keep them talking, I could do better next time (which will likely be soon!).
May 9, 2009 at 15:08
Also, I have a growing list of the numbers that call me (although I haven’t yet gotten the number of the second speaker). Are these completely worthless or is it worth recording these? Googling one of them actually came up with what looked to be a name and address of a Colorado resident.
May 9, 2009 at 17:46
The numbers most likely are completely irrelevant. None of these companies seem to use real caller ID information and so cannot be tracked based on the number.
May 18, 2009 at 18:13
Is US Fidelis a complete scam?
May 18, 2009 at 18:14
is US Fidelis complete fraud?