Press 1 to Speak to Someone Regarding Your Extended Warranty

Extended warranty robocalls are out of control, and we're going to do our part to expose the scammers

Posted by Tony Russell

June 15, 2020

Saturdays and Sundays are, for the most part peaceful. "Why," you ask, "my weekends are insane. There's never enough time to get everything done, and the next thing you know, it 9 o'clock on Sunday night."

Agreed.

The thing that makes the weekend peaceful for me is that my phone doesn't ring that much. Sure, it rings a little on Saturday mornings, but Sunday, nothing.

But this morning, it started again.

Ring.

"Hello?"

Awkward silence, then "Hello, this is your final call before we close your file. Press 1 to speak to someone regarding your vehicle's extended warranty before it's too late."

Another extended warranty robocall.

Sometimes there's an option to press 2 or another number to be "removed from the list." But pressing 2 doesn't remove you from the list. I'm pretty sure it just makes the dialing machine angrier.

Sometimes they call my cell phone. Sometimes it's my home phone. Or my wife's phone. Or my kids' phones. And sometimes it's all of them.

It's always from a vaguely familiar number. Usually the same area code, or if not, a nearby one. I could go on, but you know exactly what I would say if I did, because you get them too.

Seems to me if you knew my warranty was gasping for it's final breath before descending into eternal expiration, you would know what I drive.

All of our phones are on the do-not-call list, and we don't opt in to anything, yet we keep getting these calls to extend our warranties, which are sure to expire soon if they haven't already, but the thing is, every time they call, I have to tell them what car I own. Seems to me if you knew my warranty was gasping for it's final breath before descending into eternal expiration, you would know what I drive.

Most people just hang up on them.

Not me, because I used to work in some of these places. Instead, sometimes I try to make it to the end so I can buy a warranty, then figure out who sold it to me and what other companies have chosen to do business with them. Then I let them all know, because I know all of them. Like I said, I used to work in some of these places.

The thing is, though, it's difficult for me to make it all the way to the end--the point where they email me the paperwork. It's difficult, because I know to much, and if I happen to say the wrong thing: click. Silence.

You see, they are smart enough to know that I know, but they aren't smart enough to quit calling me.

And the people who work with them are making too much money off of those calls to stop. When people get exposed internally in the industry, everyone says they are going to do something about it. But nothing happens. Because money.

So we're doing this instead.

We're writing about it.

We're getting copies of the lawsuits that have been filed against you, and we're posting them. They're public record.

When activity happens in those lawsuits, we're getting those documents as well, and we're re-upping the stories and we're posting the new documents.

If you're doing business with the people who are scamming your parents and our parents out of retirement money, you're getting free publicity as well.

Chances are, if you have an elderly parent with a phone, they've been scammed as well.

We set up a tips page where people can submit information regarding these bad actors privately. You can even contact us or send us documents anonymously and securely via Signal at 779-717-2763. We encourage anyone who has information on those doing illegal warranty scam robocalls to send that information on to us.

Hopefully, if we write about it enough, the weekdays will be as peaceful as the weekends.