Dear Verizon: I Haven't Been An MCI Customer In Four Years
from the customer-service dept
About five or six years ago, I had landline phone service from MCI. In the age before VoIP was common, MCI had a service called "The Neighborhood" which was like many VoIP services today, but without the VoIP part. Unlimited calls for a single flat rate and such advanced (at the time!) features as emailing you your voicemails. It wasn't a bad deal, and I used it for a year or two, until I was getting ready to move. VoIP services had become popular, so I transferred that phone line to a VoIP account and canceled the MCI service in 2004. And that was that. Or so I thought. In 2006, Verizon bought what was left of a scandal-ridden MCI, and as far as I knew, the MCI brand had pretty much gone away.Yet, in the last couple of weeks, I've received a barrage of robocalls from MCI, letting me know that my credit card is expiring, and I need to log into mci.com to update the card. The call notes that my bill is automatically charged to this credit card and if I want to "continue enjoying this convenience" I need to update soon. The call is correct in that the credit card I used back when I had MCI expired this month, but is it that hard for Verizon (or whoever it is) to recognize that the very phone number they're calling me on hasn't been connected to MCI service in four years and that the company has not, in fact, billed me during that time? And, honestly, why did they hang onto my credit card info for so long? And, finally, why call me three times a day with no way for me to tell them to knock if off? I thought perhaps this was a new form of phishing, but the call directs you to log into mci.com itself, so it sounds like it's legit. Either way, it raises plenty of questions about MCI (and now Verizon's) data handling practices.
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Filed Under: credit cards, customer service, robocalls
Companies: mci, verizon
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Data and Marketing
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Info nevers dies
That's just part of the problem.
But this all goes back to business and it's laws.
If the law is good for business, it's good.
If the law is good for People, it's bad.
If the law is good for both, it's good.
This also works internationally, as you see we have just turned over the keys to the US Treasury to business.
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I agree
But the bigger question is WHY large companies insist on HARASSING CUSTOMERS BY PHONE WITH SEQUENTIAL DIALERS AND/OR ROBOTIC VOICES in an effort to try to get their business. Surely somebody in their company can understand that these intrusive and offensive tactics will drive even the most loyal customer or prospective customer away.
The tens of millions of dollars these companies spend on image building is torn asunder by the first robotic call, and their image is completely trampled by subsequent calls.
And if the party being harassed is also a stockholder, well there goes their confidence in the competence of the leadership of that company.
Remember when you were in elementary school and being pushed around by the school bully? Later on, when he came around selling candy or raffle tickets, would you buy from him? Certainly not. You'd buy from the girl who was NICE to you, not the idiot who harassed you. Elementary, Mr. Watson.
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Re: I agree
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I'm fairly certain that's a violation of PCI standards.
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Marketing Insanity
This is insane, the banks and credit card companies could easily prevent this security hole by simply not sending out these solicitations. The fact that they haven't stopped sending them implies that they must be making more money by "allowing" identity theft than in preventing the problem.
Furthermore, banks and credit card companies are obligated, to a degree, to make sure that transactions are valid. The identity theft protection programs really amounts to the banks and credit cards charging you for a service that they should be providing when you use your check or credit card.
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Phishing
If the domain name is no longer Verizon/the former MCI's, then it's quite possible some scammer bought it up, put up a fake MCI page, and started robo-calling to phish for credit-card numbers. As for where they might get MCI customer lists (and, if it's not just a coincidence, their cc expiry date info), dumpster-diving comes to mind. Disgruntled MCI ex-employees might have kept information or access codes. Etc.
According to WHOIS records, mci.com is held by Verizon, but WHOIS records can be spoofed. Registrars don't necessarily vet all of the WHOIS info -- the registering party's payment info and phone number might be all they check. In this case, the registrar is markmonitor.com -- I don't know how reliable or trustworthy that registrar is, but my not having ever heard of it before isn't very encouraging on that score.
Most likely, though, Verizon did indeed hold onto the domain, particularly given that the WHOIS records don't indicate otherwise.
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re:7
MarkMonitor is the global leader in Internet fraud prevention and brand protection.
(first hit on google)
They seem to be what they say.. a lure for idiots that cant be bothered to check their FICO Score/Credit reports.
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Re:
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Re:
He did. This is it - Techdirt is Mark's blog**. It is fairly successful, and tends to talk about "real things" instead of "update on my cat" nonsense, but it is nonetheless a blog. His blog. To post on as he sees fit.
And this, to me, seems appropriate. It's "this happened to me", but the implications are still of larger technology and privacy issues, which Techdirt has certainly established as within it's scope of interest.
** - though it has had other contributors over the years. I don't see posts from Carlos et. al. post anymore... are they still with you, Mike?
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Keeping credit card info
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Take a note from granny
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Dear Verizon
I am 100% with you on the subject of "robo calling" I hate it. Every evening around dinner time we get "robo calls" eventhough we are on the national do not call list. What a pain.
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Verizon does not know how to charge me
They also cannot charge my VISA card either, But when I force a payment, they then can accept a payment from ny bank (EFT) or my VISA credit card.
It takes 20 minutes or more on the phone until you get a "knowledgeable?" person who understands(/) the problem, but the idiots cannot/will not/and do not correct the problem that Verizon has!!!!!
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After we elected not to renew (this was not an early termination or anything; we just did not renew) our Sprint mobile service contract several years back, we continued receiving paper bills from them in the amount of $0.00. We ignored them, thinking it funny that we kept getting them... that is, until we noticed the late payment fees piling up on the subsequent statements. We called them up and, admittedly quite fortunately, only had to spend four hours of being transfered and refusing payment in order for the account to be cleared and purged.
So in addition to all the other possible scenarios, one must pay heed to Ockham's Razor and wonder, is it just that they're idiots? =)
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Re:
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Hmmm...
http://consumer.mci.com/TheNeighborhood/res_local_service/jsps/default.jsp
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Q: anyone know home phone #s of Verizon executives...?
Q: anyone know home phone #s of Verizon executives...?
if it is good for us, it is good enough for them...
...post them here, and we can try selling them on signing up with some other VOIP provide
...knuckleheads over in marketing will then get a wake up call
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Apropos to nothing...
Just out of inertia I did nothing. Guess what? It took over two and a half years for them to finally give up. Every week I got a notification that my account WOULD EXPIRE in TWO WEEKS.
Nothing ever expires; eventually they just misplace your data.
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ok, get this one
so get this one.
I had a bank account.
-I had moved, and my statement had been going to my new address for years.
-then that bank was bought by another bank.
-New checks were sent to my old address. (which someone wrote checks on, by the way)
-So I go to my bank, asking why did they send the checks to my old address. when my statements for years, were going to my new address.
-They said, they have 2 addresses in the system. one for statements and one for checks!
-oh, by the way. the cops would not go to my old address to find the check writer. because there was no proof!
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Re:
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That's a smart computer book keeping for you.
The punchline? The amount in a bill every time showed credit that the card actually owned me. Why would they remind me about it and include a return envelope? Beats me...
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no comunication
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