The New Business Model

Montreal telemarketing outfit accused of fraud still calls

"When the phone rings I actually get nervous. Because I don't like to get yelled at," said Unruh.

Unruh said ETS sent her dramatically overpriced cash register paper that she never ordered.

She said the company refused to take the product back, and has been harassing her for a year and a half to pay for it, sometimes calling five or six times a day.

"Very rude and very insistent that I get it together and pay my bill," said Unruh.

Welcome to the new century.

Today we will discuss the new business model made popular in this age of the internet due to the ability to buy phone numbers in bulk online.

It's basically phoning people up and yelling at them. Several times a day.

Phone you up and demand you pay for something you didn't order. Something you didn't receive. Maybe you declared bankruptcy and they're still harrassing you about stuff that was actually covered by the bankruptcy , and they don't care.

Bell Canada sent me a dsl modem. They'd phoned me up and asked if I wanted the free 90 day trial, I said no , and the modem arrived anyways. I refused to accept the modem (it had been the second time around and the first time cost a number of hours work and a lot of running around to return it) . It was still two hours on the phone cancelling it.

Question : Do you have two hours to spend cancelling something you didn't order ? What happens if this practice becomes wide spread ? Do you have four or eight hours or more , a day , to spend on hold with various cancellation departments , cancelling stuff you never asked for. You understand cancellation departments don't want you to cancel. Making you wait an hour on hold is only the beginning of the dirty tricks they will play on you.

Did I mention Bell Canada already had my credit card information when they sent me the modem ? Dell gave it to them when I bought a computer off of them. So I had no choice but to waste two hours on hold with their cancellation department, or they would have signed me up with a three year contract for a service I had no use for and no desire for , and actually said no to.

Welcome to the new century.