Ever since we moved, I’ve been getting junk mail from a company – SatelliteSales.com – wanting to sell us a satellite dish and Dish Network service. These things look loosely like checks sent in an open-front envelope and, well, annoy me in part because I’ve gotten 5 in a little over a month. Five! Same place!
I decided to call these jokers the other night when I got my fifth. I waited on hold and was connected to a person who wanted to sell me a dish (go fig), and instead I told her to remove me from her contact lists immediately. She put me on hold, came back to confirm my address, and that was that. Polite enough.
Last night when I walked in the door from work I got a call on my cell phone from an unknown person in Florida – 954.657.9922 if you’re keeping score. I decided to answer it.
Me: Hello? (noting silence typical of a marketing call) Hello. Hello. Hello.
Steven: Hi! Is this Paul?
Me: Yes.
Steven: This is Steven with SatelliteSales.com.
Me: (acting very friendly) Oh, hi Steven!
Steven: (buying it) Hi! I’m calling because you recently called us about getting satellite TV service!
Right here, I felt angry. I didn’t call to get service; I called to be left the hell alone. These jerks probably used the on-hold time to store my caller ID info in a database. Scruples, these.
Me: You know, Steven, that’s funny because I called yesterday not to get satellite TV service but to be removed from all of your contact lists because you’ve been sending me so much stuff!
Steven: Well, you’re on our call list now!
Stunned. What? If I say, “Don’t mail me stuff” that’s not like I’m saying, “But you can call me on the cell phone I pay for by the minute!”
Me: Then, Steven, I want you to remove me from your call list immediately.
Steven: Do you have a major credit or debit card handy?
Me: (my favorite line) I sure do! But you’re not going to get it! Why do you want it?
Steven: We charge a list management fee.
Here, I nearly fell out of the chair I wasn’t sitting in. Right… like they’re actually going to just charge me a fee even if they could. I just ramrodded over this guy at this point.
Me: Steven, you’re not going to charge me a fee. I want you to never mail me anything again, and never call me again. If you do I’ll charge you my normal rate of $100 per hour for my time. Have a nice day, Steven! (hangs up)
Riiidiculous. If Steven or anyone from this awesome company call me again, they’ll get a little more than Steven did.
Posted in Consumer Commentary
jk November 16, 2006, 1:27 pm
Whoa. That’s all I can say.
Ryan November 16, 2006, 2:48 pm
Holy crap, those are some balls on that company, charging to remove you from a list you didn’t ask to be on in the first place.
I think you need to add them to a few mailing lists yourself, if you get my drift.
Paul November 16, 2006, 3:23 pm
Thanks to the great site whocalled.us, I was able to determine that these people are enormous jerks.
http://whocalled.us/lookup/9546579922?r=1
I feel bad for the people who are mistaking these jokers for Dish Network, when they’re really just a shady reseller. These stories are amazing.
Joseph November 16, 2006, 5:52 pm
Good story, Paul. You handled that douchebag well. Can you imagine having his frigging job? Ya gotta hate life. Best keep making him feel like a douchebag. You’ll be doing him a favor by sending him on the job hunt for respectable employment.
Paul November 16, 2006, 6:55 pm
Joseph, I can’t read your sarcasm if it’s there.
Steve A November 16, 2006, 7:21 pm
It wasn’t me, I SWEAR!
Great story.
Paul November 17, 2006, 3:12 pm
PS: Now these guys are prank calling me (as I noted on the whocalled.us site). Got a call last night and it was someone on the other end making silly noises.
They can’t be a real business, right?
Merle November 17, 2006, 7:39 pm
Isn’t that, erm, illegal? I thought the FCC regulations stated that if you asked (using the right phrases) that they were obligated to remove you.
Paul November 20, 2006, 3:04 pm
For the record, I got another call from them yesterday. I’m contacting both my phone company and the police to see what I can do.
jk November 21, 2006, 12:54 am
That’s just plain harassment, no? Ugh.
Paul November 22, 2006, 7:20 pm
The FCC has been contacted, as has Sprint. We’ll see what happens.
Tonya December 19, 2006, 2:09 pm
Well this tells us alot. We have been getting the phone calls, but we just don’t answer them. They called last night 10:00 their time! We didn’t know how they got our number, we are unlisted and just changed the number not long ago, we are also on our states (Wisconsin) do not call list. So what do I have to do to get them to stop? Do they ever stop?
Paul December 19, 2006, 2:27 pm
Ultimately, Tonya, filing a complaint with the FCC (!) and ensuring I was on the Do Not Call list helped.
The FCC noted that they can’t respond to individual complaints, but did log it – that was a start.
Knock on wood these jokers haven’t called me in about 3-4 weeks.
eric January 20, 2007, 2:11 am
i did some digging and this is the work of a company called EBN Financial, and they do business under other names constantly. they are based in Tustin, CA. They operate this telemarketing through other companies for their dialers. the company number to the office is 8009422407. they do press one messages to keep from getting detected. they are secretive and only respond to District Atty complaints or Dish Network or Directv Complaints. send complaints to David.Moskowitz@echosphere.com
good luck. worth getting these junk calls to stop.
bob March 30, 2007, 11:41 pm
you suck at life. you have nuthing better to do then complain about people doing their job. get a life and move on.
Susan May 15, 2007, 8:32 pm
Paul, I know this is your site, but I have to respond to Bob. Bob, first of all, who says “suck at life” who is more than 15 years old? Second, put the number 954-657-9922 into the site http://www.whocalled.us, and read what sort of problems people have had from this company. It is not someone’s job to literally HARASS and prank people.
Marvin June 22, 2007, 8:42 pm
I’ve got to hang-ups from this number yeterday and today. Just bought a new house. I think they got my number off the MLS for my old house.