I've been receiving calls from this company for about three years and up until the last year I would simply hang up after the automated voice told me to press 1 to speak to a customer service representative (CSR). At the time I did have a vehicle who's warranty was about to expire and I wasn't interested in renewing. Just last year I sold that car and have been riding a motorcycle, but I still kept receiving the calls, and at greater frequency. That's when I decided to connect to one of their CSRs to inform them that I no longer owned my car and that they could stop calling. When I was connected the CSR, they asked what make and model my car was. Whoa, red flag. Didn't they say that their records indicated that my warranty was expiring? Wouldn't they already know the make and model of my car? Then they asked me for my name and home address to "verify their records" so I told them my name and since I was growing skeptical I asked them to tell me what my middle initial was to verify their legitimacy. That's when they hung up on me. I don't know what kind of legitimate business would hang up on a potential client just because they asked a simple question; hence non-legit. Since then I've been answering every call and connecting with a CSR to try and get more information out of them. Every time, I've used a pretend car and pretend name to test just how much they actually know about me. One time I asked if they were referred to me by the dealership that I purchased my vehicle from and they said yes, but when I asked if they could give me the name of the dealership, they hung up on me. Then I hit the jackpot.By being very polite and reasonable I got one of their CSRs to spill the beans. I don't know if he was disgruntled or about to quit or what but he told me that they don't even know what your name is or if you even still have a car, they simply have an automated dialer with a list of thousands of numbers provided at cost by major auto dealerships of people who have purchased vehicles in the past 3-8 years. Since most manufacturers warranties only last 3 years or 100,000 miles, the chances are that quite a few people on that list are worried about their expiring/expired warranty. Those people hang on the line and are patched through to CSRs who get all of your information and then connect you to a "Warranty Specialist" to facilitate the purchase of an extended warranty. The CSRs work on commission only for customers that fully commit to purchasing a warranty. He said that he doesn't know what happens after than, and I myself haven't made it that far into the scam to find out if they're offering an actual warranty. Even if the product is legit then the process by which they draw people to their product makes me seriously doubt the integrity of this business. Also, think about this, their product (an auto warranty) is one that is easily fraudulent: you pay a large sum up front and are only rewarded with a promise that they'll be there for you in the future; a promise from a company that's already lied to you to get your business. Maybe they will be there for you, I don't really know, but do you want to find out? Not me.
Furthermore, I was just doing a google search for the company's name and I found a job recruitment add that, from what I can tell, is even lying to future employees. Here's the ad:
[BEGIN AD]
Company: GENERAL WARRANTY SERVICES
Location: SALEM, NH 03079
Status: Full Time, Employee
Job Category: Sales/Retail/Business Development
Industry: General/Other: Sales/Business Development
Job Description
$100k Per Year Salem, NH? Inside Sales, NO COLD CALLING ever! Plenty of leads with endless closing opportunities per day. Our closers earn no less then $1500 per week. Paid training. First and Second Shifts available. No experience required. Call Mr. Anderson @ 603-685-6250 option 4.
[END AD]
Lets see, $100k/year with no experience required seems a little too good to be true.inside sales and no cold calling is exactly the opposite of what they do which is OUTSIDE sales and nothing but cold calling. It is true that they have plenty of leads and endless closing opportunities per day... Gotta love that auto-dialer. Closers earn no less than $1500/week, but the CSRs don't actually close any deals, they just take down information. It's the "Warranty Specialists" that close the deals and how long do you have to work there before they promote you to one of those... They probably only need 1 or 2 anyway. Paid training is probably the first ten minutes of the job where they show you how to answer the phone, read a card, and type information into the required fields.
If you would like to see the ad for yourself, just go to www.monster.com and search "General Warranty Services" in Salem, New Hampshire and make sure to un-click the "Search job title only" box. They should be the first search result you get, unless they change it after this article spreads.
If they call you, and you connect to a CSR and express displeasure with being called, they will offer to put your name on the Do Not Call List (DNC list). I haven't yet, because I'm still playing my spy game with them, but eventually I'll ask to be removed... Plus the CSRs really get angry when you waste a lot of their time. I ask a lot of general questions and pretend to rummage through my files looking for my auto info only to tell them, 5 minutes into the call, that name name is "Homer Simpson" or "Jerry Seinfeld". I love the sound of them slamming the phone down.
Anyway, it's real shady and I won't be doing any business with them and I suggest anyone who's reading this refrain from it as well. It's just bad business!
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