When you get robocalls from your wireless carrier telling you to call customer service regarding your account, and the calls aren’t a scam, someone at customer service should know what the hell the robocalls were about. Not necessarily. This week, some mysterious force within the AT&T customer service system was desperate to get in touch with Rohit, but no one could tell him why. [More]
robocalls
Comcast Is Hounding Me With Comcastic Sales Robocalls
By 3.22.11
Parker is a reluctant Comcast customer. Comcast would like Parker, and many other companies, to upgrade their service. Unfortunately, someone at Comcast believes that the way to convince customers to do this is to robocall them daily: even if they ask to be taken off the list. [More]
Election Day Robocall Barrage Takes Out Comcast Phone Service In New England
By 11.3.10
Political robocalls annoy the hell out of just about everyone, but on Election Day Eve this year in New England, things somehow got even worse. A barrage of last-minute automated calls to voters in New Hampshire and part of Massachusetts actually took down Comcast’s phone network. “Between 5:30 pm and 7pm, whenever I tried to call out on Comcast VOIP the phone either would not dial or there would be a message saying all circuits were busy,” writes David, who lives in the affected area. “I know – I should cancel the landline!” Only if the robocallers have your number. [More]
Verizon's Robots Won't Stop Trying To Get Me To Pay For Bulk Text Messaging
By 4.8.10
Matt isn’t big on text messaging, which is why he says Verizon has assaulted him with robocalls to get him to get in on the labor-intensive, thumb-cramping, erratic driver-inspiring phenomenon. [More]
Domino's, Feel Free Not To Robocall Me
By 2.23.10
Domino’s new pizza recipe is such an improvement, even robots are getting excited. Joel says he got a robocall with a “special offer” from Domino’s. He writes: [More]
Dell, I Do Not Appreciate Your 5 AM Wakeup Robocalls
By 2.6.10
A few years ago, Kate made a horrible mistake. As the IT contact for her employer, she gave Dell her cell phone number. She tells Consumerist that apparently this gave the company license to give her status updates on the company’s Dell orders between 5 and 6 A.M. Pacific time. Even after she no longer worked in that position. Even after repeated phone calls and e-mails begging Dell to stop calling her. The worst part? Kate isn’t the only one. [More]
FTC Sues "Interest-Reduction" Robocallers
By 12.9.09
So, all telemarketing robocalls magically vanished a few months ago when the FTC banned them, right? Um, not quite. There are still companies out there exploiting their metallic minions in the name of feeding deceptive information to consumers. This month, the FTC filed suit against three companies that were pumping out “hundreds of thousands or even millions” of calls offering questionable interest-rate reduction services. [More]
Robocalls Banned!
By 8.28.09
Today the FTC banned pretty much all telemarketing-based robocalls starting Tuesday, September 1st, 2009. At that point, “violators will face penalties up to $16,000 per call,” notes the Los Angeles Times.
"Why Is CVS Automatically Refilling My Prescriptions?"
By 6.1.09
It took three calls from CVS’ automated reminder service for me to realize what was going on: CVS Pharmacy was refilling our prescriptions without our asking for them to be refilled, and then their automated dialer was calling us to notify us that we had a prescription waiting. Nobody in my family requested to have a prescription refilled, yet three times CVS called us to tell us to come and pick up our prescription.
Watch Out For Health Insurance Robocallers
By 5.29.09
Spammy “discount health care” pitches are hated by anyone who owns a fax machine, but now scammy health insurance vendors have taken to robocalling people, too. Reader Dustin was annoyed enough that he decided to track the calls to their source.
Federal Judge Shuts Down Car Warranty Robocallers
By 5.16.09
“Oh hell no!” Federal District Judge John F. Grady told a marauding group of car warranty robocallers who managed to annoy pretty much everyone over the past few months. The judge slapped two Florida companies with an immediate restraining order and froze their assets, which should be enough to finally end those maddening robocalls.
FTC To Investigate Car Warranty Robocallers
By 5.13.09
You knew it was imminent: after the “your car warranty is about to expire” robocallers pissed off the internet and the government within a matter of days, it was just a question of who would take them down first. Surprisingly, it looks like it’s going to be the government.
Congressman Mike Doyle Is Pretty Much Done With These Auto Warranty Calls
By 5.8.09
Our favorite congressman, Mike Doyle (D-PA), is also fed up with the robocalls telling him his car warranty is about to expire. For those keeping track, that’s two elected officials that these robocalllers have illegally called recently. If the internet doesn’t take them out first, hopefully our public servants will. Thanks, Kenneth!
Here Are Some Of The Companies Behind The Car Warranty Robocalls
By 4.29.09
Verizon continues its recent campaign of turning robocallers into charitable contributions, this time by settling a lawsuit against two of the companies behind those awful car warranty calls. Last time it was for $25,000; this time it’s for $50,000, all of which is being donated to the Joyful Heart Foundation, which Wireless Week describes as “a nonprofit devoted to empowering survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.”
"Velveteen Rabbit" Robocallers Pay $25,000 To Settle Lawsuit
By 3.27.09
Verizon Wireless has settled its lawsuit against those telemarketers who were phonespamming thousands of people back in February to promote a kids’ movie. Feature Films For Families has agreed to pay $25,000 to Verizon, which will be donated to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH).
Give Robocallers A Silent Ringtone And A Funny Name
By 3.16.09
You know those car warranty robocallers calling your cellphone? Of course you do, you hate them. This how reader Eyebrow McGee deals with them, and gets to have a little laugh at the same time:
Who The Hell Are These People Calling My Cellphone About A Car Warranty?
By 3.5.09
We’ve been getting a lot of emails from people saying that a company is using a robocaller to call their cellphones and pretend that their car warranty is expiring. Too bad that some of these readers don’t even have a car. Has happened to you? Do you know who is behind it?
AT&T Mobility Sues Over Auto Warranty Robocalls
By 2.5.09
You know those annoying robocalls on your mobile phone about renewing your car warranty? The companies behind the calls use spoofing to remain hidden, but AT&T Mobility just filed suit in federal court to track down the culprits, then hopefully make them stop. This is great news, because judging from the quotes given to RCR Wireless, the FTC and FCC both don’t seem too concerned about the matter.
