Car Warranty

Back in the fall I received a bunch of phone calls about car warranties. I never actually answered the phone since every time it was from a restricted number. It was a recording and each time it would leave a voicemail that sounded something like:

This is the second and last warning that the warranty on your car is about to expire, press 1 to speak to a representative about possible options...

They never left a callback number so I never actually got a chance to talk to anyone. But recently I got a couple of similar calls on my work cell phone. The first one again had no Caller-ID info, but I did answer it because I was expecting a call. I heard that familiar message and hit 1 to talk to someone. A very large sounding woman got on the other end and started talking quickly asking me the year, make and model of my car. The first thing out of my mouth was, "What company are you calling on behalf of?" She then started talking very quickly again essentially thanking me for my time and hanging up on me. A few days later my work cell phone rang again, but this time there was Caller-ID info: 949-256-9108! Same spiel, I hit 1 and a guy with a very deep voice came on. This time I decided to play along a little. The guy asked me for the info on my car and I told him I have an 1986 Cherokee. He stuttered and said, "Did you say 86?" After I confirmed he said their service would only cover cars going as far back as 1995. Then I asked him why and how he has my work cell number when my car hasn't had a warranty on it since I was in I was in fourth grade. He said there obviously was some mistake and that he would remove my number from his list.

I'm sure I'll get another one of these calls sometime soon and when I do I want to play along with a different tactic: I'm going to make up a bunch of info that they want to hear. I'll say I have a 2004 or 2005 Toyota or something and give them all bogus info to see how this works. I'm assuming they would want to send me something in the mail, in which case I'll give them my work mailing address, but maybe they'll want a credit card over the phone. I can't imagine what idiot is going to give their credit card number to some guy that calls them out of the blue, but I'm sure it happens.