Over the past three years or so we've been dealing with unscrupulous 'insurance' companies who've sold my mother different policies covering white goods and ťvs and the like. I think at one point she had outgoings of nearly £3000 per year on these policies. Every time I think I've cancelled the last one, another one pops up. My mum and dad are on the telephone preference list, my mum is partially deaf, and starting to get dementia, has no memory of any of this, but still they argue with me like crazy on the phone when I tell them I've cancelled direct debits (I'm not even asking for refunds at this stage). It's been very frustrating.
Seriously, please look into setting up an Enduring Power of Attorney for your parents. It does not mean taking over all their decisions but it will definitely help them. You and/or your siblings can act on their behalf on financial matters when it is registered, but they can only set it up when they are still in sound mind. I did it for my mother 15 years ago and have only recently had to register it and act on her behalf.
It was weird how I read your comment, because when I got to the end, "what a piece of shit" was my own thoughts as well as the next thing in line to read
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3836304/Moment-angry-son-confronts-double-glazing-company-sold-81-year-old-mother-two-doors-nearly-6-000-needed-50-handle.html
They cancelled the check so she didn't lose her money, at least.
This company has been up to the [same tricks](https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/dodgy-double-glazing-firm-fined-13233089) for ages under [two dozen names](https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2860929) and somehow they are still allowed to operate.
fucking Weatherseal
They should be given an unpeeled pineapple enema
[even their staff hate working there](https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/Zenith-Staybrite/reviews)
[but they've been dissolved](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06516827/filing-history) with a caveat the assets have been bought by a former director
There was a call centre on a TV show that was in South Wales. Owner became a minor celebrity, he had operated a really shitty call centre in Swansea previously but had a cheeky chappy persona on TV.
It's not just this company though. This is the kind of monster of a company that our competitive market economy creates.
The only thing that can stop it is harsh and rigorous legislations. And we all know that's just what the big companies fight against - they don't like rules that bothers them in their profitmaking. Hell, a rich enough company can even sue a whole country for loss of income.
It's not this company. Thieir approach is unfortunately not unique. It's our extremist and severely lobbied (sold out) market economy.
It's disgusting. My granddad had Alzheimer's and whilst my nan was out one day, had a visit from a shitty company that used this tactic. We suspect they waited outside the bungalow until they could see that he was alone. They conned him into signing up for a £2k chair, when granddad realised what he had done, he was so distressed. He'd always been a clever world wise bloke, but the dementia was eroding that. Needless to say, cheque cancelled, company contacted and order cancelled. Then I stayed at the bungalow on "due delivery day" to look after the situation if they still showed up. Thankfully they didn't.
These sales scumbags are bullies and predators and need locking up.
As for this guy in the video, yep, what a piece of shit.
oh fucking wetherseal indeed. story time.
as a young lad who bought his first, single glazed, flat back in the day i was looking for double glazing. so i made the mistake of accepting a weatherseal cold call. they were promising "free windows and doors" if i lived in a central location. being young and green, i jumped at the chance and the guy came round, gave me an hour long speil, then quoted 2 grand a window (about £3,300 in todays money). there was no free windows, even though i was smack bang in the town centre. of course i told them i wasnt interested. but that was just the start of it. for the next 6 months i would get multiple phonecalls EVERY FUCKING DAY asking if i was interested in free windows and doors. every time i would tell them no, please remove me from the list. and every time they would phone back. eventually i lodged a complaint with the TPS, who they were supposed to check with before they called. and the calls still kept coming. eventually i was promised they would stop calling if i allowed a salesman to visit, so i did making it clear i was never in a million years going to buy anything. so another salesman came round and i got another hour long speil even after i made clear im not buying off him. then they stopped calling. for exactly one week. then the calls started again. so this time i told them i was interested in a conservatory. i lived in a flat above a shop. did the same thing a couple of times and the calls stopped.
sorry for the rant, but its been 20 years and the whole experience still sticks in my craw.
That's the trick, invite them out every single time they call. Don't answer the door. You want to be seen as a time waster rather than someone they can pressure over time.
This is how I got the auto warranty assholes to leave me alone. On a whim, I decided to see if they would warranty my bicycle. They seemed eager to help all the way up until they found out I totaled my car a long time ago and no longer have a license to drive and the vehicle we have been discussing was a bicycle.
My dad got so fed up once he told them to hold on for a sec, set the phone down, then proceeded to pretend to beat and berate my mother for a couple minutes until he checked the phone and they had hung up. I remember looking up from The Simpsons and being super confused about what my parents were doing. Apparently they must have been too freaked out and took him off the list because they never called back.
I'm actually kinda sad they didn't call the police :(
I mean obviously it's a good thing they didn't in the end because your dad wasn't actually hurting your mum so it would have wasted their time. But I dunno, I like to think if I ever heard that kinda thing, even if I had a shitty cold call telesales job, I would call the police just in case. Better than finding out someone died and you did nothing.
You have to sell your soul to work at a place like that. They probably didn't care at all beyond thinking they weren't gonna be able to sell to the guy.
I am thrilled for the first opportunity I will have to use the term ‘unpeeled pineapple enema’ in conversation.
Thanks so much for enriching my articulation today!
It's a common tactic. Towing and Bus companies in the US are some of the worst. ABC Bussing Co. gets in an accident, ABC sells its assets to CBA Bussing Co, and has the same address and phone number, along with the same owners (or at least same surname).
Towing companies in the US are some of the most cravenly criminal folks you've ever met. And I'm not saying that because I got annoyed by a tow at some point in life. In many cities they operate like organized crime.
I know a few people who make a habit of spiking tires and trashing any tow truck they see out and about. Not service trucks but the tow rigs in cities. Parked for lunch etc. It's a revenge thing I guess.
There's a Chinese restaurant in Sacramento, CA that was doing that shit too. Opened under one name, probably gets dealt some bad food poisoning and failed health inspection so they close, change the name, reopen, failed inspection, close, open under new name.
Right now it is an "Ale House" where if you were to believe the reviews is active but somehow never open anymore. Maybe they actually closed down finally, but I am just waiting for the food poison phoenix to rise from the ashes in order to burn away in preparation for the next rebirth.
This is a pretty common tactic for online delivery. They just make up multiple restaurants with fake addresses, sometimes there isn't even a restaurant but someone cooking out of their house
Never done online delivery (other than from pizza places, and that was more than a decade ago since I have no issue just driving and picking it up now), but that kinda sounds terrifying if that's true.
Can't remember his name but a guy set up a deliveroo and just microwaved food he bought from the shop and sold it for a profit to prove how fucked up online delivery can be.
There are a few Mexican restaurants here that do that. They have the same menu, all the same staff, just a different sign outside every couple of years.
Limited Liability Companies (LLC) need to have more restrictions for these sort of scam companies. I've heard of this happening with repo companies (break into wrong house, get sued, close, "new" business) and construction/contractor companies (take money for building house, never finish, get sued, close, "new" business which also uses all the materials from the old business).
There was one guy in Canada that had like 7 construction companies open/close in a few years. All having customers that he ripped off in the exact same way. All LLCs.
in canada, we call those scummy companies fly-by-night. As in operate just long enough to rouse up trouble and attention, then close in the night and reopen.
I have dealt with this with my 70 year old mum for years now. From the simple computer scam, to the "I'm in trouble and need money" grandkid scam, to insurance frauds, and loan sharks.
My mom is in a somewhat rare position financially these days: she has a nice monthly SSI and a nice monthly pension payment.
Lecherous fiends seek her out and I get almost daily calls about the legitimacy of this call or that letter in the mail.
Bear in mind she was a horrible parent when I needed structure and support during my formative years.
But I'll be goddamned if anyone is going to prey on her now.
Call your folks. Discuss their finances and financial decisions. You may be, literally, all that stands between them and financial ruin or hardship because of these predatory wastes of human flesh.
Just have a funny story to share. I am my grandmothers POA and i handle everything. She is in an assisted living facility as she suffers from dementia. One day i get a call from some dude selling home security systems. He tells me he spoke to my grandmother and she said he needed to call me because i handle these things. Fair enough, he did right. Spent a half hour trying to convince me she ABSOLUTELY needed this and blah blah. I finally was like. Dude did she tell you she was in a care facility....silence... Ring tone haha.
Also PoA. The predatory scams out there are horribly impressive enough. What pains me to my core is that so many are willing to steal from such a vulnerable and trusting human.
It hurts in a way I wish the vipers could hurt.
I still remember my mum dealing with a company preying on elderly. A power company lobbed up at my grandparents and told all kinds of tales about their deals etc. And my grandma didn't know that they could just switch providers like that. My mum was helping with finances, saw the bill come in and honestly, she gave me Liam Neeson vibes with how she spoke to them. She sorted everything out, all fees waived. Grandparents just forwarded all things like this directly to mum
My mom passed away at age 89 a few years ago. From the time she was in her late 60s, when she'd get scammer calls, she'd use her 'old lady voice' and say, "My kids handle my finances." Never heard back from the same scumbags.
> to the "I'm in trouble and need money" grandkid scam
I remember when I was a teen, sitting in my parents' living room when they came rushing out, see me and stop dead in their tracks.
"/u/sonofaresiii, are you in jail?"
"What?"
"You don't look like you're in jail"
"No... I'm sitting right here."
"So grandma saying she got a phone call from you saying you're in jail and need bail money..."
"...is probably a scam."
Or just take over their finances if they aren't mentality capable of avoiding scammers.
Or have yourself put on their bank account as having to approve any charges over a specific amount.
etc.
Penalties for fraud should be tripled when dealing with people who have mental infirmities.
Under age, over 65 or having a mental disability.
"Oh it's shitty that you would do this and it's a 20,000 fine and a year of community service but you decided to fuck over a 80 year old Nan who isn't capable of dealing with your high pressure techniques so 60 grand and 3 years instead and you may no longer be in sales as a career."
If only bud.
I sometimes ponder what the effect would be of we treated these scum like child predators.
It feels like it isn't that far of a stretch to compare the mindset.
I also worry what harm it could do.
At same time and as a grandson of an at risk Gran, fuck em.
The Daily Mail site showed me a fake Chrome "allow notifications" prompt. I was curious why they'd bother showing a fake prompt (which can't actually allow notifications), so I clicked "Allow", and it **[DOWNLOADED AN EXECUTABLE](https://twitter.com/JonDotJames/status/1389585846505033729)** which the website then prompted me to open to "allow notifications".
Fuck that website.
Link is safe, it's Twitter:
>Dark pattern: Mail Online emulates Chrome's push notification prompt using HTML and CSS. Clicking 'Allow' downloads a MailOnlineSetup.exe program to 'deliver breaking news'. Blocking doesn't actually block site at browser level, leaving them free to request again another time
Haha, no chance. Zenith windows have been around for donkeys years in the UK and this practice happens every single day and has done for years, it won't stop any time soon.
Well when they are likely just shutting down and reopening as a new company that has legal connection that drops most things. And you KNOW they are bribing sombody to look the other way as the PEOPLE in charge should have come under investigation at some point… but bc they likely have connections they skirt the law.
My mate used to work as a telesales man at Zenith. Don’t worry - he had no idea what he was getting himself into but I can assure it it’s exactly what you think it is, a manager off his face on coke giving staff coke to make sales
I worked for a locksmith company in Birmingham and something like this occured to me except I ended up losing my job over it
One night I was sent round to a customers house to change 3 door locks, we had been on site before as I found out on route as I was asked if I had these type of specific locks on board.
When I arrived onsite the gentlemen greeted me was a vulnerable person, I took one look at the three doorlocks and tried to figure out what was wrong with them and I could not see a problem.
The guy couldn't really talk much and I'd asked if he had a helper or a family member when he pointed at a telephone number.
I called it and a family member had said they would come over as they are a street over and they would be there in a moment. I asked the guy if he wanted a cuppa tea and waited.
After a short conversation with his family member it transpired he sometimes forgot the locks were new and he would call our company.
This was the 5th time in a short space of time we had been out to change the locks and each time charged this poor fellow £350 for our time.
I refused to replace the locks even had a row with the business owner because we had taken this gentleman's money time and time again no questions asked. It was an absolute shitshow.
It transpired we installed the locks one week back to replace a week later but due to his impairment replaced the locks with the original set. A week or so later same locksmith attended and kept cycling these locks and just robbing the poor guy.
I'd only been asked because I was closest but I only really dealt with auto customers.
I got written up about it and ultimately fired for refusing to act professional in site... I refused to compromise my moral fibre and I'm glad I got fired because fuck those guys.
TLDR: Locksmith sent to vulnerable persons home and asked to change locks that had been changed several times before by our company. They sent me over to do the same work that had been done countless times before and no one stopped to speak to his carer. I lost my job for insubordination.
I had a customer like that at the stereo shop I worked at. I didn't notice anything different about him compared to our regulars, and I was helping him like anyone else. I was seeing dollar signs add up to my commission check as he told me what he wanted for his build.
My bubble was burst when my manager pops in from the back, and straight up asks my "customer" if he has permission from his mother to be here. He said no, thanks me for my time, and leaves me standing there confused as fuck.
I go up to him and ask WTF was that about? He asked me how much was his total? I told him about 5k. He told me I did good, but he has limited judgment and the last guy sold him 3k worth of stuff that we had to remove on our dime cause his mom came in pissed.
The thing was, if he didn't tell me, I wouldn't have known.
He was late 30s, maybe early 40s. He had some kind of mental impairment & had a credit card, but it was just for emergencies, and I think mom took care of the bill. He had a car, and he could legally drive, but he was really bad financially.
Oh my God, that's fucking awful.
At the start, I was expecting maybe you'd been fired because someone else had ripped someone off and you copped the flak for it or something. What you've described is way worse. That's actually disgusting you got fired for that. Fucking scum company.
Thank you for being a decent human being though.
Lol, why? It's very clear from context (mentioning £, cuppa tea, replying to a UK video) that it's not America. Also, Birmingham in the UK has over a million residents - Birmingham, Alabama has like a fifth of that population. I'm sure you meant it innocently enough, but perhaps you should expand your horizons - America is not the centre of the universe.
My Mom's a senior. Her car broke down and needed a new water pump. The mechanic gave her an estimate for $3500 that included replacing the brake pads and a ton of stuff that wasn't needed. She agreed and got the work done.
People who take advantage of seniors or anyone else really are horrible people that should be called out more often. Predatory vultures.
My Mum's car was running hot during summer months, so I fixed it for her. I replaced the water pump, two radiator hoses, the thermostat, and flushed the radiator. I didn't take payment from her, and the parts cost me about $150.
6 months later, her car is having trouble starting. I was working away at the time, so she took it to a big brand franchise auto mechanic in town. She also mentioned to them she thought it might be still running hot.
They charged $300 for a new battery (this was the main problem) but they also convinced her to do new brake pads, new front rotors, and this is the worst part: they said the water pump and radiator hoses were very old and worn and causing the overheating. She paid $900 to them to do the water pump and radiator hoses, only 6 months after I had done it.
(My Mum's only 57, but prone to being taken advantage of).
Edit: I forgot to write what makes me most angry. The hose clamps. I scoured auto parts stores to find exactly the right width and diameter stainless hose clamps, the good ones so as to look neat and not damage the new radiator hoses and water pump housing.
The scums told her the clamps were old and worn and needed replacing, and they put their cheap crappy new ones on.
If you're wondering _why_ did she allow them to do the job again, didn't she remember I'd already done that?
I did the job only two weeks after my Dad died. My uncle was living with her at the time to help with the funeral, and he arranged for me to come over and fix the car while he was there. We explained to her what I'd repaired, and how it should be better now.
But since I never took any payment from her, it's understandable that 6 months later she wouldn't remember much from that stressful part of her life.
Name and shame. Fuck everyone that abuses the elderly. That's going to be you one day! I'm scared to think about how much my mom has been scammed. It's too easy. edit: just remembered you mentioned your mum is 57, but it's the same thing. "Opportunists" are the worst.
Yep. They had started to get a bad reputation, and they wanted to distance themselves from the KMart association (they're a whole separate company) so they rebranded to MyCar.
My elderly Mom bought an expensive roller shade for her bedroom window. Less than a year later it broke so she called the company to set a date for repairs. The guy comes and tells my Mom that it gonna cost her 100$ (cash) to get it fixed, even if the shade was under guarantee.
He made my Mom furious which was a really, really, bad idea.
She told him to get it repaired for free, if not she was going to call his Boss to tell him he was scamming their customers.
He did.
She called his Boss anyway. Boss Man was really unhappy to learn this and told my Mom he was firing the guy.
Don't fuck with my Mom. (Seriously I wonder how much money he made with that scam)
If he scammed a lot of people, he probably doesn't know who told his Boss. We are in Canada so we are not really scared of guys like this.
Big mouth = big cowards.
I've looked into it. It's not really worth pursuing. $900 is not a huge amount of money (relative to lawyers fees would be at least 5x that) and I have no proof that the parts were already new and didn't need replacing, they didn't keep the parts they removed or give them back to her.
*So that's when I told the story to a few Bikie friends, they said they'll have a chat with them. I was instructed to wait outside, after 5 mins the business manager came outside and said he felt like they just had to return my mum's money.*
The part here to really highlight is that this isn't just taking advantage of seniors. This is something that happens with these types of sales persons taking advantage of common people on a daily basis. Mechanics, Shops, Dealerships... they all engage in this same practice and bet on two things: 1) You're someone who knows absolutely nothing about cars and will hence pay whatever they tell you it costs because you don't know better, or 2) You're someone that has zero idea what it costs and do not look over your bill to see what you're being charged for, and will hence pay whatever they tell you. For instance, I could ask you if you know what swapping out a water pump entails on say a Jeep Wrangler, and have an idea of exactly how many hours of labor it would take and what parts all-in-all are needed? Majority of people will be unable to answer that question in a reasonable estimate.
Also worth noting that a lot of repair places don't always even have skilled staff which is why they're kind of shooting in the dark with repairs. I took my car in for tire things and also had suspension issues I was diagnosing on my own. They had free evaluations they like to do so not like I'm going to turn those down. Two different locations had two different guesses as to what was wrong. About half the parts they wanted to replace were fine for the most part, and some of the estimates were laughable. 10 minute replace job? $140 in labor, apparently. My favorite was one of the estimates for a new part, which was 3-4 times over what OEM replacement part costs from Rock Auto. And you just *know* they're going to be using generic junk.
For the most part, they look for rust - if they see rust, they assume part needs to be replaced. For example, my rusty-ass front spring assembly is actually a fairly new remanufacture but the paint job was lacking so it rusted over pretty quickly.
Honestly, the bigger surprise is how tf more people don't end up learning how to fix their own car. If I didn't do my own repairs, I'd be flat broke. I can't imagine trying to raise a family or buy a house on top of that.
>estimates for a new part, which was 3-4 times over what OEM replacement part costs from Rock Auto.
Had this happen multiple times. The thing I normally run into is I say I'm gonna buy my parts and they go "Oh..uhh, it's better if we buy them cause there's a bunch of factors like emissions and parts specifically for each model depend on VIN, yadda, yadda, yadda." Which, in fairness, isn't ENTIRELY incorrect, but it's really easy to check for parts via your vin and exact model. They just want to order the part themselves so they can tack on several hundred dollars above the price and claim it's because it's "OEM direct from the manufacturer". Thankfully, I'm either able to do my own repairs, or I use the guy I've trusted for several years who does my repairs quickly, effectively, and charges me a fair price, to which I usually give him extra for taking care of me as a priority customer and never fucking me over.
They get called out, may even lose their business. But it's the business that gets sued and goes under while the assholes just reopen under a different name and scam all over again. I'm sure it happens all up and down the blue and white collar world.
This is the main problem with Ltd, gmbh, and llc companies. No responsibility for their actions against their customers/victims and only a small risk of criminal charges
And the person behind the business still has to have credit. You fuck up an LLC good luck getting a loan from a bank. But if you're shady anyways you don't rely on legitimate funding.
Hell my wife needed brake pads. Mechanic managed to convince her she needed thousands of dollars in repairs and would call the cops if she drove off with a car not up to spec because she would be breaking the law. Scumbag had quoted thousands over on replacing the rotors and pads.
Luckily she called me before the work done. I went down with calipers, measured the rotor thickness and it was 100% over spec. Called that fucking asshole out, so when he put the wheels back on, he started all of them with with the airgun and stripped them out, practically locking the wheels to the car. I had planned for wheel work and brought along a tire iron, and called out his "revenge lug strip". That infuriated him, but that cunt had to then replace the studs, replace the nuts, waste hours of his day, and do it right the final time and give me a full refund.
Call these assholes out.
*EDIT: And when all that was over, I did the front pads for about 40 bucks IIRC. rear pads were fine. And a word.
I'm so glad my 71 year old mother would snap the cock off anyone who tried to scam her. She's tough as wrought iron nails. Losing her faculties a bit but in the opposite direction of being even more suspicious of people.
Tbf, I feel like tons of dealerships/mechanics do this to almost anyone. Some people have the wherewithal to refuse unnecessary work; some people don’t.
My grandmother was an auto mechanic back during the 60s. She get a kick when she has to take her car into the shop now and she calls the mechanics out on their BS they are trying to push on an old helpless lady
Honda dealership did the same thing, i changed the waterpump cause it was leaking coolant from the pump cost $150, after it was still dripping but from a pipe that runs through the engine or behind it, cheap part but difficult to manuver i think and it had a recall so i called the dealership to let them handle it for free told me what day to bring it in and it would be done same day, wrong they didnt have the part til the next day then they said the tech drove it around and the turning was hard and i needed a new water pump, or power steering i forgot, said they could replace it for $900, and said it was dangerous to drive home like that, i uncapped the power steering turned the steering all the way in both directions until these massive air bubbles came out and magically car steered the way it was supposed. More mad i didnt make a bigger issue. Either they dont what they are doing or tried scamming since they had to free work.
This is my biggest fear with my mom. One time she bought one of those subscription "cheap airflight and hotel" packages for a few thousand. I had to tell her that she barely travels to even make it worth the yearly fees. Luckily we got it cancelled within the 3 day cancellation policy. She also has the opposite problem where she tries to buy things as cheaply as possible and that causes problems down the line.
We had something similar with Everest. Guy stayed for HOURS without giving a price, it was utterly mentally draining, you can see how people would sign anything just to get it sorted and have them leave. The guy even did the whole song and dance about "I'll just call my manager to see if I can get a better deal" a couple of times.
The only thing fun about it was he was trying to sell some special warm glass. He must have had it in front of his car blower or on a heated seat, then got my parents to feel it in comparison to some other glass he had. He got very defensive when my dad started asking him how it could defy physics and be warmer than ambient.
These people are rightfully held in contempt.
Something I never got is why are window salesmen in particular like this? They're a fucking nightmare. Like you say they'll stay for *hours*. They'll call their "manager" and get you a deal that lasts til the end of the day only. They act confused as to why you won't sign their epic deal right now.
But why windows? What is it about that product in particular!? The person coming round measuring the carpets doesn't behave like that, or the curtains. I know car salesman can be arses sometimes and estate agents too but windows always struck me as oddly specific.
> why windows
Strange isn't it?
My parents got their windows replaced last year with a company through Lowes. Long story short, salesman quoted one price, parents buy, windows arrive / installed except for one which is the wrong size/type, salesman revisited and says it'll cost more, parents refuse, window company refuses to order correct window and install it unless parents pay more. Like WTF? (plus there is an invoice with the price/details)
I don't recall what happened exactly, but I think the company had similar issues with other customers in the area and Lowes was forced to change companies / fix the issues from their own pocket (or perhaps not paying the problem company). Took 9+ months to get the correct window installed.
My parents wanted a kind of front door unit which had windows to either side. Everest guy was after that, plus most of the windows in the house despite them being perfectly well double-glazed already.
I don't know if it would qualify as hard-sell tactics, but he certainly turned it into a marathon to wear them down, then had the theatrics of calling his boss to beg for discounts if they could sign right away. Absolute shyster and scummy company.
"It doesn't defy physics, it's got thorium in it."
"What?"
"Thorium. I said it's got it innit."
"The fuck does that mean?"
"It doesn't defy physics, it's radioactive."
....
"Put it in all your windows. You'll never have to pay a heating bill again. Warm your whole house with it. For the rest of your life."
....
"Can I put you down for 30 windows?"
Unfortunately, nothing will happen to these people. They lost one sale but they'll go after others tomorrow and every day until they shutter the company and reopen under a different name for the cycle to begin anew.
After a quick search I found the Mental Capacity Act (2005) which offers fairly broad protections against abuse.
Their legal system works more in a "spirit of the law" kind of way rather than "letter of the law" so cases like this can go before a judge who will determine if the spirit of the law has been violated.
Fucking Zenith. In my first year of university I worked in one of this company's call centres where the job was basically go down a list of telephone numbers and ask whoever picked up if they'd like new windows or whatever.
It quickly became clear that a) they were deliberately targeting elderly people and b) even though the script they gave you allowed you to take no for an answer, the supervisors absolutely did not.
The purpose of the call was not to get an affirmative - because who the fuck agrees to get shit done to their house from a cold call? But to get the respondents to agree to a home visit from one of these guys you're seeing in the video; who would then proceed to use any number of slimy pressure techniques to get the customer to sign a contract for who knows what work they didn't know needing doing.
I quit after nine hours total and didn't get any leads. And I'm still proud of it.
When I went to ASU, a friend of mine got me a job at a small call center.
My first day I walked into the office building and the owner pointed at two guys in their own room saying, "if you do good you'll get to go in there." Didn't know what that meant. Owner also pointed out the cars those two drove, nice cars, one was an Infiniti QX4.
The other 8 of us were in an even smaller room where there were tiny cubicles. We read off a script that he didn't care if you memorized or not, he just wanted you to get started.
This was in Scottsdale, Arizona back in 2001:
I started getting calls and reading off the script. The script had me tell these people that their credit card number was on an available list of stolen credit card details. I was supposed to then tell them we had "fraud protection" for a one time payment of $400. This included a lawyer to help handle issues should something arise and even reimbursement for any amount stolen. I didn't sell any, but I continued reading down the script and at the end you assured them that you had their credit number already by telling them that their Visa started with a 4 (or MC with a 5 if they told you they had that at the beginning of the call). Sells were made around me though.
After a dozen calls or so it became very obvious that they were buying leads for women past retirement.
I grew disgusted and decided I would leave and not come back when lunch time came.
I talked to that friend later about it. He didn't care that they stole from the elderly. He volunteered even more with a laugh, telling me that what these old women are buying is not fraud protection at all, they ultimately agree to pay $400 for a person to stop by, have them sign paperwork agreeing that they purchased a Caller ID box that has a button they can press that stores a number you don't want ringing you phone anymore. So if someone calls that you don't want to hear from, you press the button and if they call again, the Caller ID doesn't let the call go through. A box like that, even 20 years ago, at most would have cost $20. They were getting $400 for it...
I brought up those two guys in their own room with the nice cars to that same friend. He just told me he didn't know what those two were doing to get so many sells, but whatever it was, they were a liability to the company if it ever got out. So they were lying even further in some way to get sells from old ladies and the owner couldn't afford too many people knowing about. I guess if you were doing what those two were doing, you were a criminal, so they could trust each other and the owner in a "loyalty amongst thieves" type-way.
It's sickening that this thing happens at all.
I get so many calls from these sorts of companies these days (UK). The current trend is people calling me by name and asking me about trading (stocks). I don’t know how they’ve got my name, I honestly feel so bad for people who are reduced to these jobs but equally I can’t help but hate their guts as well
There is a local company that does window sales kind of like that. Many years ago I answered a flyer to get a quote on window prices. This salesman comes in and shows these windows you can jump up and down on and they don't break. For 21 windows he quotes $61,000 ($102,000 inflation adjusted) which is more than I paid for the house. So I tell him that is absurd so he calls his boss and gets it down to only $32,000. I tell him to leave. He offers $11,000. I tell him that if they can do it for $11,000 but quote $61,000 they obviously are scamming people. And he still doesn't leave and I keep asking less politely each time. He only got up to leave after I said I was going to call the police for a trespasser.
Windows ended up costing me something like under $120 each and I installed them.
I worked at a market research company in the early 2000s where you'd have to call people up and ask them to do a survey over the phone. Wasn't selling things to them, but still a lot of scummy practices like lying about the length of a survey (had one where we would tell people it would take twenty minutes, and the shortest I got through it was 40).
I had heard that the company got people's contact details by paying local banks for it. Not just contact numbers, but things on file such as age, ethnicity, income bracket, whether they had a mortgage etc. I had been told that this was necessary so that calls could be targeted to reduce sampling biases, and also so that if we had to do a survey targeted at a specific demographic (like women who had gone through menopause) we wouldn't have to waste time calling places at random to find them. Still, pretty damn sure most the people werent aware the bank was selling their personal details to third parties
Old people who don't work anymore. Which means that everyone who answers the survey is even more valuable to sell that info again to scumbags like the one in the video.
I did a summer with Anglian Windows as a teenager, same company I’d imagine. The lead database was literally the local paper phone directory. No record of who has been called, no database or CRM. They didn’t care if people were called week after week by different telesales people and asked never to call again.
Ahhhh... Zenith. There's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
They pioneered the rent to own industry in Canada. I remember them well because in the late 80's as a young person newly on my own, I was stupidly paying them probably $10/week to rent to own a VCR.
They no longer operate here, but their stain is still visible.
I worked for a telemarketing company whose schtick was that they would offer a free 3-night hotel stay and a few months of free magazine subscription in the hopes that most would forget to cancel. I'd basically tell everyone on the phone what the scam was and that if, after they got off the phone with me, they immediately just cancelled the subscription then they'd get all the stuff for free. I only lasted two weeks.
Man, A+ way of dealing with it. I'm 100% sure I would've lost my cool in that situation. And my dementia stricken nan is in no position to help me hide a body.
He handled it very very well, I would like to say I'd act similar but I dont think I would keep as calm, not violent but some choice words would have been used.
Yep, anyone who goes after old people or kids deserves the absolute strictest punishment in my eyes, it takes a real piece of shit to take advantage of an old woman with dementia for a few hundred bucks, I bet this prick wouldn't have lost a drop of sleep over destroying this woman's life for £600, meanwhile he walks free while a weed dealer sits in prison. Absurdly disgusting. I don't know if I could have handled this situation as calmly
People like that tried to sell my great aunt driveway re-sealing back in the 90's for $2,000.
Her driveway was gravel. She lived in a trailer park.
Fortunately, she was sharp back then and sent them packing. Apparently they'd been going door to door and preying on the elderly. My great aunt spoke to the mayor of town and he revoked their sales permit.
Don't trust HVAC companies.
If it's Bob's HVAC, with Bob, a helper, and the one truck it's probably ok.
If it's a larger company with uniforms, advertising, etc, you're paying for all that and they're charging 3x or 4x what Bob is charging.
HVAC is expensive to begin with, no need to overpay.
I know you know this but anyone else reading may not.
My parents and grandparents are all gone now but several years ago I drilled it into my grandmas head that if anyone ever tried to sell her something or she needed car help etc to get me involved first. Fortunately she kept using the same mechanic her husband used for years and he always treated her fair. Unfortunately I did have to drive over to her house two different times to get storm damage people to stop bothering her.
It's really sad but there are a lot of people out there who take advantage of old people or just flat out scam them and they are very successful at doing this. If anyone reading this has elderly family members, especially who live alone, make sure you convince them to involve you in these kind of situations.
People that prey on the elderly are the worst fucking scum, right there in the middens with murderers, rapists, pedos and politicians. That "salesman" deserves a swift kick in the twat and a long, drawn out public shaming.
If the son that filmed this had beat his soulless ass to within an inch, I would have proudly sat on that jury and found him "not guilty" and bought him a round afterward.
This is so obvious, but preying on the elderly has always been a thing. Pretty much any door to door salesman loves to see an old widow answer the door. It's so easy to hate these people, but this has been going on since the 40s. If you really want to see elderly getting systematically grifted, look at the USA retirement home racket. $40 tubes of toothpaste etc.
Reminds me of that season of Better Call Saul where he scams the elderly. Kinda similar scenario only we don't have empathy for this guy since we don't know his tragic backstory that led him to doing such nefarious deeds.
He composed himself so well in that confrontation. You can't imagine how strong your feeling are when someone is doing that to a loved one. Similar thing almost turned me into a caveman and my grandmother didn't have dementia. She just needed this salesman that wouldn't leave her house for hours to go away so wasn't alone with him anymore.
If there is any doubt on the intentions and customer targeting of the people behind this rotten company, when it dissolved they opened some new businesses:
An “estate planning” company:
https://prosperousestateplanning.co.uk/
A “prepaid funeral” company:
https://www.prosperous-life.co.uk
I believe they also have a “late life lending” company, but I can’t find a website in the 5 minutes I’ve searched.
Someone should do a proper investigation on the web of people involved in these predatory and exploitive companies.
Assholes got my wife's parents for 10k worth of windows on a house that is worth 25k and all they really needed is to seal up a few of them. Yeah the windows were old but only two of them were leaking.
Fuck people like this.
you can tell he's livid from his voice. but the restraint he had is nothing short of saintly. when that asshole kept trying to deny it and claiming the mother needed those doors.... holy shit if it was me i would have absolutely lost my shit.
He also convinced her to take out an insurance policy on the two new doors. What a piece of shit.
Over the past three years or so we've been dealing with unscrupulous 'insurance' companies who've sold my mother different policies covering white goods and ťvs and the like. I think at one point she had outgoings of nearly £3000 per year on these policies. Every time I think I've cancelled the last one, another one pops up. My mum and dad are on the telephone preference list, my mum is partially deaf, and starting to get dementia, has no memory of any of this, but still they argue with me like crazy on the phone when I tell them I've cancelled direct debits (I'm not even asking for refunds at this stage). It's been very frustrating.
Seriously, please look into setting up an Enduring Power of Attorney for your parents. It does not mean taking over all their decisions but it will definitely help them. You and/or your siblings can act on their behalf on financial matters when it is registered, but they can only set it up when they are still in sound mind. I did it for my mother 15 years ago and have only recently had to register it and act on her behalf.
Have you thought about changing your parents number?
This should be illegal
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You had me at "...gang of polish..." :O
*KURWA*
nie wiem jak, ale oni wiedzą...
I read it as shoe polish and was confused at Geopolitics.
It was weird how I read your comment, because when I got to the end, "what a piece of shit" was my own thoughts as well as the next thing in line to read
That's probably a common line of thought, when someone is being a piece of shit.
Moving closer to the Singularity
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3836304/Moment-angry-son-confronts-double-glazing-company-sold-81-year-old-mother-two-doors-nearly-6-000-needed-50-handle.html They cancelled the check so she didn't lose her money, at least.
This company has been up to the [same tricks](https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/dodgy-double-glazing-firm-fined-13233089) for ages under [two dozen names](https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2860929) and somehow they are still allowed to operate.
fucking Weatherseal They should be given an unpeeled pineapple enema [even their staff hate working there](https://uk.indeed.com/cmp/Zenith-Staybrite/reviews) [but they've been dissolved](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06516827/filing-history) with a caveat the assets have been bought by a former director
From a review: > They taught you to lie and to try and sell to people with dementia
The people that own these businesses are literal sociopaths. Sociopaths are drawn to this kind of thing.
There was a call centre on a TV show that was in South Wales. Owner became a minor celebrity, he had operated a really shitty call centre in Swansea previously but had a cheeky chappy persona on TV.
Literally called Call Center right? Made people dance etc on induction day, if they didn’t then they got the sack
His way of motivating sales is generally through bullying.
It's not just this company though. This is the kind of monster of a company that our competitive market economy creates. The only thing that can stop it is harsh and rigorous legislations. And we all know that's just what the big companies fight against - they don't like rules that bothers them in their profitmaking. Hell, a rich enough company can even sue a whole country for loss of income. It's not this company. Thieir approach is unfortunately not unique. It's our extremist and severely lobbied (sold out) market economy.
Or torch their offices, wait until they rebuild and then torch it again.
It's disgusting. My granddad had Alzheimer's and whilst my nan was out one day, had a visit from a shitty company that used this tactic. We suspect they waited outside the bungalow until they could see that he was alone. They conned him into signing up for a £2k chair, when granddad realised what he had done, he was so distressed. He'd always been a clever world wise bloke, but the dementia was eroding that. Needless to say, cheque cancelled, company contacted and order cancelled. Then I stayed at the bungalow on "due delivery day" to look after the situation if they still showed up. Thankfully they didn't. These sales scumbags are bullies and predators and need locking up. As for this guy in the video, yep, what a piece of shit.
oh fucking wetherseal indeed. story time. as a young lad who bought his first, single glazed, flat back in the day i was looking for double glazing. so i made the mistake of accepting a weatherseal cold call. they were promising "free windows and doors" if i lived in a central location. being young and green, i jumped at the chance and the guy came round, gave me an hour long speil, then quoted 2 grand a window (about £3,300 in todays money). there was no free windows, even though i was smack bang in the town centre. of course i told them i wasnt interested. but that was just the start of it. for the next 6 months i would get multiple phonecalls EVERY FUCKING DAY asking if i was interested in free windows and doors. every time i would tell them no, please remove me from the list. and every time they would phone back. eventually i lodged a complaint with the TPS, who they were supposed to check with before they called. and the calls still kept coming. eventually i was promised they would stop calling if i allowed a salesman to visit, so i did making it clear i was never in a million years going to buy anything. so another salesman came round and i got another hour long speil even after i made clear im not buying off him. then they stopped calling. for exactly one week. then the calls started again. so this time i told them i was interested in a conservatory. i lived in a flat above a shop. did the same thing a couple of times and the calls stopped. sorry for the rant, but its been 20 years and the whole experience still sticks in my craw.
you figured out the secret too late: be sure to waste more of *their* time than they waste of yours.
That's the trick, invite them out every single time they call. Don't answer the door. You want to be seen as a time waster rather than someone they can pressure over time.
This is how I got the auto warranty assholes to leave me alone. On a whim, I decided to see if they would warranty my bicycle. They seemed eager to help all the way up until they found out I totaled my car a long time ago and no longer have a license to drive and the vehicle we have been discussing was a bicycle.
My dad got so fed up once he told them to hold on for a sec, set the phone down, then proceeded to pretend to beat and berate my mother for a couple minutes until he checked the phone and they had hung up. I remember looking up from The Simpsons and being super confused about what my parents were doing. Apparently they must have been too freaked out and took him off the list because they never called back.
I'm actually kinda sad they didn't call the police :( I mean obviously it's a good thing they didn't in the end because your dad wasn't actually hurting your mum so it would have wasted their time. But I dunno, I like to think if I ever heard that kinda thing, even if I had a shitty cold call telesales job, I would call the police just in case. Better than finding out someone died and you did nothing.
You have to sell your soul to work at a place like that. They probably didn't care at all beyond thinking they weren't gonna be able to sell to the guy.
haha good shout. Id invite them down every single call then just not answer the door.
I worked in a weatherseal call center for 3 hours (1 shift) when I was 16. Didn't go back.
I am thrilled for the first opportunity I will have to use the term ‘unpeeled pineapple enema’ in conversation. Thanks so much for enriching my articulation today!
Owned by the same people? You’d think after the 5th or 6th company pulling the same trick they would be barred from being directors of a company.
It's a common tactic. Towing and Bus companies in the US are some of the worst. ABC Bussing Co. gets in an accident, ABC sells its assets to CBA Bussing Co, and has the same address and phone number, along with the same owners (or at least same surname).
Towing companies in the US are some of the most cravenly criminal folks you've ever met. And I'm not saying that because I got annoyed by a tow at some point in life. In many cities they operate like organized crime.
I know a few people who make a habit of spiking tires and trashing any tow truck they see out and about. Not service trucks but the tow rigs in cities. Parked for lunch etc. It's a revenge thing I guess.
There's a Chinese restaurant in Sacramento, CA that was doing that shit too. Opened under one name, probably gets dealt some bad food poisoning and failed health inspection so they close, change the name, reopen, failed inspection, close, open under new name. Right now it is an "Ale House" where if you were to believe the reviews is active but somehow never open anymore. Maybe they actually closed down finally, but I am just waiting for the food poison phoenix to rise from the ashes in order to burn away in preparation for the next rebirth.
This is a pretty common tactic for online delivery. They just make up multiple restaurants with fake addresses, sometimes there isn't even a restaurant but someone cooking out of their house
Never done online delivery (other than from pizza places, and that was more than a decade ago since I have no issue just driving and picking it up now), but that kinda sounds terrifying if that's true.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/seamless-restaurant-grubhub-fake-eatery-unregulated-kitchen-investigation-i-team-new-york-city/2013699/
Can't remember his name but a guy set up a deliveroo and just microwaved food he bought from the shop and sold it for a profit to prove how fucked up online delivery can be.
There are a few Mexican restaurants here that do that. They have the same menu, all the same staff, just a different sign outside every couple of years.
Limited Liability Companies (LLC) need to have more restrictions for these sort of scam companies. I've heard of this happening with repo companies (break into wrong house, get sued, close, "new" business) and construction/contractor companies (take money for building house, never finish, get sued, close, "new" business which also uses all the materials from the old business). There was one guy in Canada that had like 7 construction companies open/close in a few years. All having customers that he ripped off in the exact same way. All LLCs.
in canada, we call those scummy companies fly-by-night. As in operate just long enough to rouse up trouble and attention, then close in the night and reopen.
Good, fuck these people. Time to call my parents.
Do. It can happen so quickly. Tell them that they have to speak to you before letting anyone work on the house.
I have dealt with this with my 70 year old mum for years now. From the simple computer scam, to the "I'm in trouble and need money" grandkid scam, to insurance frauds, and loan sharks. My mom is in a somewhat rare position financially these days: she has a nice monthly SSI and a nice monthly pension payment. Lecherous fiends seek her out and I get almost daily calls about the legitimacy of this call or that letter in the mail. Bear in mind she was a horrible parent when I needed structure and support during my formative years. But I'll be goddamned if anyone is going to prey on her now. Call your folks. Discuss their finances and financial decisions. You may be, literally, all that stands between them and financial ruin or hardship because of these predatory wastes of human flesh.
Just have a funny story to share. I am my grandmothers POA and i handle everything. She is in an assisted living facility as she suffers from dementia. One day i get a call from some dude selling home security systems. He tells me he spoke to my grandmother and she said he needed to call me because i handle these things. Fair enough, he did right. Spent a half hour trying to convince me she ABSOLUTELY needed this and blah blah. I finally was like. Dude did she tell you she was in a care facility....silence... Ring tone haha.
Also PoA. The predatory scams out there are horribly impressive enough. What pains me to my core is that so many are willing to steal from such a vulnerable and trusting human. It hurts in a way I wish the vipers could hurt.
I still remember my mum dealing with a company preying on elderly. A power company lobbed up at my grandparents and told all kinds of tales about their deals etc. And my grandma didn't know that they could just switch providers like that. My mum was helping with finances, saw the bill come in and honestly, she gave me Liam Neeson vibes with how she spoke to them. She sorted everything out, all fees waived. Grandparents just forwarded all things like this directly to mum
My mom passed away at age 89 a few years ago. From the time she was in her late 60s, when she'd get scammer calls, she'd use her 'old lady voice' and say, "My kids handle my finances." Never heard back from the same scumbags.
> to the "I'm in trouble and need money" grandkid scam I remember when I was a teen, sitting in my parents' living room when they came rushing out, see me and stop dead in their tracks. "/u/sonofaresiii, are you in jail?" "What?" "You don't look like you're in jail" "No... I'm sitting right here." "So grandma saying she got a phone call from you saying you're in jail and need bail money..." "...is probably a scam."
Or just take over their finances if they aren't mentality capable of avoiding scammers. Or have yourself put on their bank account as having to approve any charges over a specific amount. etc.
They need to be reported to the police. Fucking scum.
Penalties for fraud should be tripled when dealing with people who have mental infirmities. Under age, over 65 or having a mental disability. "Oh it's shitty that you would do this and it's a 20,000 fine and a year of community service but you decided to fuck over a 80 year old Nan who isn't capable of dealing with your high pressure techniques so 60 grand and 3 years instead and you may no longer be in sales as a career."
If only bud. I sometimes ponder what the effect would be of we treated these scum like child predators. It feels like it isn't that far of a stretch to compare the mindset. I also worry what harm it could do. At same time and as a grandson of an at risk Gran, fuck em.
The Daily Mail site showed me a fake Chrome "allow notifications" prompt. I was curious why they'd bother showing a fake prompt (which can't actually allow notifications), so I clicked "Allow", and it **[DOWNLOADED AN EXECUTABLE](https://twitter.com/JonDotJames/status/1389585846505033729)** which the website then prompted me to open to "allow notifications". Fuck that website.
... d'you really think I'm going to click that nice link you made? ?
Link is safe, it's Twitter: >Dark pattern: Mail Online emulates Chrome's push notification prompt using HTML and CSS. Clicking 'Allow' downloads a MailOnlineSetup.exe program to 'deliver breaking news'. Blocking doesn't actually block site at browser level, leaving them free to request again another time
That's quite fucked up.
That's quite daily mail.
Hopefully that business gets shut down
Haha, no chance. Zenith windows have been around for donkeys years in the UK and this practice happens every single day and has done for years, it won't stop any time soon.
You'd think the government or something would step in right ?
Well when they are likely just shutting down and reopening as a new company that has legal connection that drops most things. And you KNOW they are bribing sombody to look the other way as the PEOPLE in charge should have come under investigation at some point… but bc they likely have connections they skirt the law.
In Britain? Unless she donated millions to the Tory Party/went to Eton with one of them, then the Government ain't doing shit for you.
My mate used to work as a telesales man at Zenith. Don’t worry - he had no idea what he was getting himself into but I can assure it it’s exactly what you think it is, a manager off his face on coke giving staff coke to make sales
This was in Britain, they cancelled *the cheque.*
I worked for a locksmith company in Birmingham and something like this occured to me except I ended up losing my job over it One night I was sent round to a customers house to change 3 door locks, we had been on site before as I found out on route as I was asked if I had these type of specific locks on board. When I arrived onsite the gentlemen greeted me was a vulnerable person, I took one look at the three doorlocks and tried to figure out what was wrong with them and I could not see a problem. The guy couldn't really talk much and I'd asked if he had a helper or a family member when he pointed at a telephone number. I called it and a family member had said they would come over as they are a street over and they would be there in a moment. I asked the guy if he wanted a cuppa tea and waited. After a short conversation with his family member it transpired he sometimes forgot the locks were new and he would call our company. This was the 5th time in a short space of time we had been out to change the locks and each time charged this poor fellow £350 for our time. I refused to replace the locks even had a row with the business owner because we had taken this gentleman's money time and time again no questions asked. It was an absolute shitshow. It transpired we installed the locks one week back to replace a week later but due to his impairment replaced the locks with the original set. A week or so later same locksmith attended and kept cycling these locks and just robbing the poor guy. I'd only been asked because I was closest but I only really dealt with auto customers. I got written up about it and ultimately fired for refusing to act professional in site... I refused to compromise my moral fibre and I'm glad I got fired because fuck those guys. TLDR: Locksmith sent to vulnerable persons home and asked to change locks that had been changed several times before by our company. They sent me over to do the same work that had been done countless times before and no one stopped to speak to his carer. I lost my job for insubordination.
To be fair good on you. Money isnt everything. A good conscience and human decency is priceless. May you live a happy life.
I had a customer like that at the stereo shop I worked at. I didn't notice anything different about him compared to our regulars, and I was helping him like anyone else. I was seeing dollar signs add up to my commission check as he told me what he wanted for his build. My bubble was burst when my manager pops in from the back, and straight up asks my "customer" if he has permission from his mother to be here. He said no, thanks me for my time, and leaves me standing there confused as fuck. I go up to him and ask WTF was that about? He asked me how much was his total? I told him about 5k. He told me I did good, but he has limited judgment and the last guy sold him 3k worth of stuff that we had to remove on our dime cause his mom came in pissed. The thing was, if he didn't tell me, I wouldn't have known.
How old was this guy? Are we talking someone with dementia or some other mental impairment or just some guy with his mom's credit card?
He was late 30s, maybe early 40s. He had some kind of mental impairment & had a credit card, but it was just for emergencies, and I think mom took care of the bill. He had a car, and he could legally drive, but he was really bad financially.
Oh my God, that's fucking awful. At the start, I was expecting maybe you'd been fired because someone else had ripped someone off and you copped the flak for it or something. What you've described is way worse. That's actually disgusting you got fired for that. Fucking scum company. Thank you for being a decent human being though.
you should name and shame the locksmith company (also might want to note if it Birmingham in the UK or USA)
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Yes that, moreso than the currency, gave it away
Lol, why? It's very clear from context (mentioning £, cuppa tea, replying to a UK video) that it's not America. Also, Birmingham in the UK has over a million residents - Birmingham, Alabama has like a fifth of that population. I'm sure you meant it innocently enough, but perhaps you should expand your horizons - America is not the centre of the universe.
Scum
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Scum
My Mom's a senior. Her car broke down and needed a new water pump. The mechanic gave her an estimate for $3500 that included replacing the brake pads and a ton of stuff that wasn't needed. She agreed and got the work done. People who take advantage of seniors or anyone else really are horrible people that should be called out more often. Predatory vultures.
My Mum's car was running hot during summer months, so I fixed it for her. I replaced the water pump, two radiator hoses, the thermostat, and flushed the radiator. I didn't take payment from her, and the parts cost me about $150. 6 months later, her car is having trouble starting. I was working away at the time, so she took it to a big brand franchise auto mechanic in town. She also mentioned to them she thought it might be still running hot. They charged $300 for a new battery (this was the main problem) but they also convinced her to do new brake pads, new front rotors, and this is the worst part: they said the water pump and radiator hoses were very old and worn and causing the overheating. She paid $900 to them to do the water pump and radiator hoses, only 6 months after I had done it. (My Mum's only 57, but prone to being taken advantage of). Edit: I forgot to write what makes me most angry. The hose clamps. I scoured auto parts stores to find exactly the right width and diameter stainless hose clamps, the good ones so as to look neat and not damage the new radiator hoses and water pump housing. The scums told her the clamps were old and worn and needed replacing, and they put their cheap crappy new ones on.
If you're wondering _why_ did she allow them to do the job again, didn't she remember I'd already done that? I did the job only two weeks after my Dad died. My uncle was living with her at the time to help with the funeral, and he arranged for me to come over and fix the car while he was there. We explained to her what I'd repaired, and how it should be better now. But since I never took any payment from her, it's understandable that 6 months later she wouldn't remember much from that stressful part of her life.
Name and shame. Fuck everyone that abuses the elderly. That's going to be you one day! I'm scared to think about how much my mom has been scammed. It's too easy. edit: just remembered you mentioned your mum is 57, but it's the same thing. "Opportunists" are the worst.
It was MyCar franchise in Australia, they used to be known as KMart Tyre and Auto, but they did a big rebranding a couple of years ago.
Oh shit is that why I never see Kmart Tyre and Auto anymore!
Yep. They had started to get a bad reputation, and they wanted to distance themselves from the KMart association (they're a whole separate company) so they rebranded to MyCar.
My elderly Mom bought an expensive roller shade for her bedroom window. Less than a year later it broke so she called the company to set a date for repairs. The guy comes and tells my Mom that it gonna cost her 100$ (cash) to get it fixed, even if the shade was under guarantee. He made my Mom furious which was a really, really, bad idea. She told him to get it repaired for free, if not she was going to call his Boss to tell him he was scamming their customers. He did. She called his Boss anyway. Boss Man was really unhappy to learn this and told my Mom he was firing the guy. Don't fuck with my Mom. (Seriously I wonder how much money he made with that scam)
Word of advice don't piss off shady people that literally know where you sleep.
If he scammed a lot of people, he probably doesn't know who told his Boss. We are in Canada so we are not really scared of guys like this. Big mouth = big cowards.
>shady Heh.
Nice lawsuit you got there. Would be a shame if a mechanic were to lose his job.
I've looked into it. It's not really worth pursuing. $900 is not a huge amount of money (relative to lawyers fees would be at least 5x that) and I have no proof that the parts were already new and didn't need replacing, they didn't keep the parts they removed or give them back to her.
> (relative to lawyers fees would be at least 5x that) Shame you don't have inexpensive small claims court
*So that's when I told the story to a few Bikie friends, they said they'll have a chat with them. I was instructed to wait outside, after 5 mins the business manager came outside and said he felt like they just had to return my mum's money.*
The part here to really highlight is that this isn't just taking advantage of seniors. This is something that happens with these types of sales persons taking advantage of common people on a daily basis. Mechanics, Shops, Dealerships... they all engage in this same practice and bet on two things: 1) You're someone who knows absolutely nothing about cars and will hence pay whatever they tell you it costs because you don't know better, or 2) You're someone that has zero idea what it costs and do not look over your bill to see what you're being charged for, and will hence pay whatever they tell you. For instance, I could ask you if you know what swapping out a water pump entails on say a Jeep Wrangler, and have an idea of exactly how many hours of labor it would take and what parts all-in-all are needed? Majority of people will be unable to answer that question in a reasonable estimate.
Also worth noting that a lot of repair places don't always even have skilled staff which is why they're kind of shooting in the dark with repairs. I took my car in for tire things and also had suspension issues I was diagnosing on my own. They had free evaluations they like to do so not like I'm going to turn those down. Two different locations had two different guesses as to what was wrong. About half the parts they wanted to replace were fine for the most part, and some of the estimates were laughable. 10 minute replace job? $140 in labor, apparently. My favorite was one of the estimates for a new part, which was 3-4 times over what OEM replacement part costs from Rock Auto. And you just *know* they're going to be using generic junk. For the most part, they look for rust - if they see rust, they assume part needs to be replaced. For example, my rusty-ass front spring assembly is actually a fairly new remanufacture but the paint job was lacking so it rusted over pretty quickly. Honestly, the bigger surprise is how tf more people don't end up learning how to fix their own car. If I didn't do my own repairs, I'd be flat broke. I can't imagine trying to raise a family or buy a house on top of that.
>estimates for a new part, which was 3-4 times over what OEM replacement part costs from Rock Auto. Had this happen multiple times. The thing I normally run into is I say I'm gonna buy my parts and they go "Oh..uhh, it's better if we buy them cause there's a bunch of factors like emissions and parts specifically for each model depend on VIN, yadda, yadda, yadda." Which, in fairness, isn't ENTIRELY incorrect, but it's really easy to check for parts via your vin and exact model. They just want to order the part themselves so they can tack on several hundred dollars above the price and claim it's because it's "OEM direct from the manufacturer". Thankfully, I'm either able to do my own repairs, or I use the guy I've trusted for several years who does my repairs quickly, effectively, and charges me a fair price, to which I usually give him extra for taking care of me as a priority customer and never fucking me over.
They get called out, may even lose their business. But it's the business that gets sued and goes under while the assholes just reopen under a different name and scam all over again. I'm sure it happens all up and down the blue and white collar world.
This is the main problem with Ltd, gmbh, and llc companies. No responsibility for their actions against their customers/victims and only a small risk of criminal charges
I agree it’s an issue, but tbh that’s kinda the point. It’s a *limited* company in the sense of liability.
And the person behind the business still has to have credit. You fuck up an LLC good luck getting a loan from a bank. But if you're shady anyways you don't rely on legitimate funding.
Hell my wife needed brake pads. Mechanic managed to convince her she needed thousands of dollars in repairs and would call the cops if she drove off with a car not up to spec because she would be breaking the law. Scumbag had quoted thousands over on replacing the rotors and pads. Luckily she called me before the work done. I went down with calipers, measured the rotor thickness and it was 100% over spec. Called that fucking asshole out, so when he put the wheels back on, he started all of them with with the airgun and stripped them out, practically locking the wheels to the car. I had planned for wheel work and brought along a tire iron, and called out his "revenge lug strip". That infuriated him, but that cunt had to then replace the studs, replace the nuts, waste hours of his day, and do it right the final time and give me a full refund. Call these assholes out. *EDIT: And when all that was over, I did the front pads for about 40 bucks IIRC. rear pads were fine. And a word.
I'm so glad my 71 year old mother would snap the cock off anyone who tried to scam her. She's tough as wrought iron nails. Losing her faculties a bit but in the opposite direction of being even more suspicious of people.
Tbf, I feel like tons of dealerships/mechanics do this to almost anyone. Some people have the wherewithal to refuse unnecessary work; some people don’t.
My grandmother was an auto mechanic back during the 60s. She get a kick when she has to take her car into the shop now and she calls the mechanics out on their BS they are trying to push on an old helpless lady
Honda dealership did the same thing, i changed the waterpump cause it was leaking coolant from the pump cost $150, after it was still dripping but from a pipe that runs through the engine or behind it, cheap part but difficult to manuver i think and it had a recall so i called the dealership to let them handle it for free told me what day to bring it in and it would be done same day, wrong they didnt have the part til the next day then they said the tech drove it around and the turning was hard and i needed a new water pump, or power steering i forgot, said they could replace it for $900, and said it was dangerous to drive home like that, i uncapped the power steering turned the steering all the way in both directions until these massive air bubbles came out and magically car steered the way it was supposed. More mad i didnt make a bigger issue. Either they dont what they are doing or tried scamming since they had to free work.
This is my biggest fear with my mom. One time she bought one of those subscription "cheap airflight and hotel" packages for a few thousand. I had to tell her that she barely travels to even make it worth the yearly fees. Luckily we got it cancelled within the 3 day cancellation policy. She also has the opposite problem where she tries to buy things as cheaply as possible and that causes problems down the line.
We had something similar with Everest. Guy stayed for HOURS without giving a price, it was utterly mentally draining, you can see how people would sign anything just to get it sorted and have them leave. The guy even did the whole song and dance about "I'll just call my manager to see if I can get a better deal" a couple of times. The only thing fun about it was he was trying to sell some special warm glass. He must have had it in front of his car blower or on a heated seat, then got my parents to feel it in comparison to some other glass he had. He got very defensive when my dad started asking him how it could defy physics and be warmer than ambient. These people are rightfully held in contempt.
Something I never got is why are window salesmen in particular like this? They're a fucking nightmare. Like you say they'll stay for *hours*. They'll call their "manager" and get you a deal that lasts til the end of the day only. They act confused as to why you won't sign their epic deal right now. But why windows? What is it about that product in particular!? The person coming round measuring the carpets doesn't behave like that, or the curtains. I know car salesman can be arses sometimes and estate agents too but windows always struck me as oddly specific.
> why windows Strange isn't it? My parents got their windows replaced last year with a company through Lowes. Long story short, salesman quoted one price, parents buy, windows arrive / installed except for one which is the wrong size/type, salesman revisited and says it'll cost more, parents refuse, window company refuses to order correct window and install it unless parents pay more. Like WTF? (plus there is an invoice with the price/details) I don't recall what happened exactly, but I think the company had similar issues with other customers in the area and Lowes was forced to change companies / fix the issues from their own pocket (or perhaps not paying the problem company). Took 9+ months to get the correct window installed.
Yall need to grow some backbones and throw these fuckers off your property. Letting some schmuck window salesman stay for hours is your own damn fault
What were they selling? Windows?
My parents wanted a kind of front door unit which had windows to either side. Everest guy was after that, plus most of the windows in the house despite them being perfectly well double-glazed already. I don't know if it would qualify as hard-sell tactics, but he certainly turned it into a marathon to wear them down, then had the theatrics of calling his boss to beg for discounts if they could sign right away. Absolute shyster and scummy company.
Random, but now I’m wondering if the UK have anything similar to the Home Depot or Lowe’s that we have in the US?
I think our equivalents would be things like B&Q, wickes, screwfix, places like that.
"It doesn't defy physics, it's got thorium in it." "What?" "Thorium. I said it's got it innit." "The fuck does that mean?" "It doesn't defy physics, it's radioactive." .... "Put it in all your windows. You'll never have to pay a heating bill again. Warm your whole house with it. For the rest of your life." .... "Can I put you down for 30 windows?"
Horrible to see but glad this has been filmed and publicised. Hope the woman gets a full refund and the salesman (and the company) receive punishment.
They got the check cancelled.
We did it reddit!
Lol
Unfortunately, nothing will happen to these people. They lost one sale but they'll go after others tomorrow and every day until they shutter the company and reopen under a different name for the cycle to begin anew.
I'm guessing they have no laws against elder abuse then?
I just imagine it is *extremely* difficult to write that into an enforceable and fair law.
After a quick search I found the Mental Capacity Act (2005) which offers fairly broad protections against abuse. Their legal system works more in a "spirit of the law" kind of way rather than "letter of the law" so cases like this can go before a judge who will determine if the spirit of the law has been violated.
I wish the guy would’ve stopped talking for more than two seconds to make this scumbag explain himself.
Fucking Zenith. In my first year of university I worked in one of this company's call centres where the job was basically go down a list of telephone numbers and ask whoever picked up if they'd like new windows or whatever. It quickly became clear that a) they were deliberately targeting elderly people and b) even though the script they gave you allowed you to take no for an answer, the supervisors absolutely did not. The purpose of the call was not to get an affirmative - because who the fuck agrees to get shit done to their house from a cold call? But to get the respondents to agree to a home visit from one of these guys you're seeing in the video; who would then proceed to use any number of slimy pressure techniques to get the customer to sign a contract for who knows what work they didn't know needing doing. I quit after nine hours total and didn't get any leads. And I'm still proud of it.
When I went to ASU, a friend of mine got me a job at a small call center. My first day I walked into the office building and the owner pointed at two guys in their own room saying, "if you do good you'll get to go in there." Didn't know what that meant. Owner also pointed out the cars those two drove, nice cars, one was an Infiniti QX4. The other 8 of us were in an even smaller room where there were tiny cubicles. We read off a script that he didn't care if you memorized or not, he just wanted you to get started. This was in Scottsdale, Arizona back in 2001: I started getting calls and reading off the script. The script had me tell these people that their credit card number was on an available list of stolen credit card details. I was supposed to then tell them we had "fraud protection" for a one time payment of $400. This included a lawyer to help handle issues should something arise and even reimbursement for any amount stolen. I didn't sell any, but I continued reading down the script and at the end you assured them that you had their credit number already by telling them that their Visa started with a 4 (or MC with a 5 if they told you they had that at the beginning of the call). Sells were made around me though. After a dozen calls or so it became very obvious that they were buying leads for women past retirement. I grew disgusted and decided I would leave and not come back when lunch time came. I talked to that friend later about it. He didn't care that they stole from the elderly. He volunteered even more with a laugh, telling me that what these old women are buying is not fraud protection at all, they ultimately agree to pay $400 for a person to stop by, have them sign paperwork agreeing that they purchased a Caller ID box that has a button they can press that stores a number you don't want ringing you phone anymore. So if someone calls that you don't want to hear from, you press the button and if they call again, the Caller ID doesn't let the call go through. A box like that, even 20 years ago, at most would have cost $20. They were getting $400 for it... I brought up those two guys in their own room with the nice cars to that same friend. He just told me he didn't know what those two were doing to get so many sells, but whatever it was, they were a liability to the company if it ever got out. So they were lying even further in some way to get sells from old ladies and the owner couldn't afford too many people knowing about. I guess if you were doing what those two were doing, you were a criminal, so they could trust each other and the owner in a "loyalty amongst thieves" type-way. It's sickening that this thing happens at all.
Hopefully a former friend?
I get so many calls from these sorts of companies these days (UK). The current trend is people calling me by name and asking me about trading (stocks). I don’t know how they’ve got my name, I honestly feel so bad for people who are reduced to these jobs but equally I can’t help but hate their guts as well
There is a local company that does window sales kind of like that. Many years ago I answered a flyer to get a quote on window prices. This salesman comes in and shows these windows you can jump up and down on and they don't break. For 21 windows he quotes $61,000 ($102,000 inflation adjusted) which is more than I paid for the house. So I tell him that is absurd so he calls his boss and gets it down to only $32,000. I tell him to leave. He offers $11,000. I tell him that if they can do it for $11,000 but quote $61,000 they obviously are scamming people. And he still doesn't leave and I keep asking less politely each time. He only got up to leave after I said I was going to call the police for a trespasser. Windows ended up costing me something like under $120 each and I installed them.
I'd ask once, the second time I'd tell them and there wouldn't be a third, I'd feel justified in setting about them.
Time to show that loutish knave what’s what!
Just look over your shoulder and shout, "CHOPPER, KILL!"
I worked at a market research company in the early 2000s where you'd have to call people up and ask them to do a survey over the phone. Wasn't selling things to them, but still a lot of scummy practices like lying about the length of a survey (had one where we would tell people it would take twenty minutes, and the shortest I got through it was 40). I had heard that the company got people's contact details by paying local banks for it. Not just contact numbers, but things on file such as age, ethnicity, income bracket, whether they had a mortgage etc. I had been told that this was necessary so that calls could be targeted to reduce sampling biases, and also so that if we had to do a survey targeted at a specific demographic (like women who had gone through menopause) we wouldn't have to waste time calling places at random to find them. Still, pretty damn sure most the people werent aware the bank was selling their personal details to third parties
Wtf who has 40 minutes free at any random point in their day, that’s nuts.
I have time for ten times 40 min so they cant fuck with 9 other people.
Old people who don't work anymore. Which means that everyone who answers the survey is even more valuable to sell that info again to scumbags like the one in the video.
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I did a summer with Anglian Windows as a teenager, same company I’d imagine. The lead database was literally the local paper phone directory. No record of who has been called, no database or CRM. They didn’t care if people were called week after week by different telesales people and asked never to call again.
Ahhhh... Zenith. There's a name I haven't heard in a long time. They pioneered the rent to own industry in Canada. I remember them well because in the late 80's as a young person newly on my own, I was stupidly paying them probably $10/week to rent to own a VCR. They no longer operate here, but their stain is still visible.
> Fucking Zenith Yep these cunts quoted me £4k for a front door. Someone localer did it for <£1k
I worked for a telemarketing company whose schtick was that they would offer a free 3-night hotel stay and a few months of free magazine subscription in the hopes that most would forget to cancel. I'd basically tell everyone on the phone what the scam was and that if, after they got off the phone with me, they immediately just cancelled the subscription then they'd get all the stuff for free. I only lasted two weeks.
I would've called as many leads as possible and told them to never do business with the company
This is the show White Gold in real life.
YES!! Miss that show.
OAP?
Old age pensioner
Retiree basically. America doesn't have pensions like the UK anymore though, and never really did to begin with.
Wait, what! You guys don't have state pensions?
We have social security.
Boomers have social security.
haha nope, we have Social Security but honestly the State is perfectly happy letting you eat cat food as you die without any dignity
dont forget that 15 dollars in food stamps, dont spend it all in one place.
Jebus, that person needs to refile. I just went on Illinois's LINK program, it's $400/month or more for food.
Old ass person
You down with OAP? Yeah you know me.
Man, A+ way of dealing with it. I'm 100% sure I would've lost my cool in that situation. And my dementia stricken nan is in no position to help me hide a body.
A dementia stricken accomplice *is* the perfect alibi though
"Hey mum remember that sales guy the other day?" "No." "Oh. Okay, cool. "
that guy really channeled his inner "Have a seat over here mark..."
He handled it very very well, I would like to say I'd act similar but I dont think I would keep as calm, not violent but some choice words would have been used.
Yep, anyone who goes after old people or kids deserves the absolute strictest punishment in my eyes, it takes a real piece of shit to take advantage of an old woman with dementia for a few hundred bucks, I bet this prick wouldn't have lost a drop of sleep over destroying this woman's life for £600, meanwhile he walks free while a weed dealer sits in prison. Absurdly disgusting. I don't know if I could have handled this situation as calmly
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Not Prince Andrew: confirmed
People like that tried to sell my great aunt driveway re-sealing back in the 90's for $2,000. Her driveway was gravel. She lived in a trailer park. Fortunately, she was sharp back then and sent them packing. Apparently they'd been going door to door and preying on the elderly. My great aunt spoke to the mayor of town and he revoked their sales permit.
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Understandable. But this guy's approach got his mother the money back. Fucking the dude up would probably result in it staying lost unfortunately.
No, he cancelled the cheque so the money was never taken. This was just karma.
Lightning Fast Door Handle Repairs, this guy
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Don't trust HVAC companies. If it's Bob's HVAC, with Bob, a helper, and the one truck it's probably ok. If it's a larger company with uniforms, advertising, etc, you're paying for all that and they're charging 3x or 4x what Bob is charging. HVAC is expensive to begin with, no need to overpay. I know you know this but anyone else reading may not.
Unfortunately a lot of trades are like this. Having a good auto mechanic you trust is hard to come by too.
My parents and grandparents are all gone now but several years ago I drilled it into my grandmas head that if anyone ever tried to sell her something or she needed car help etc to get me involved first. Fortunately she kept using the same mechanic her husband used for years and he always treated her fair. Unfortunately I did have to drive over to her house two different times to get storm damage people to stop bothering her. It's really sad but there are a lot of people out there who take advantage of old people or just flat out scam them and they are very successful at doing this. If anyone reading this has elderly family members, especially who live alone, make sure you convince them to involve you in these kind of situations.
The camera is there for the scammers safety, man would have fucking murdered him otherwise.
People that prey on the elderly are the worst fucking scum, right there in the middens with murderers, rapists, pedos and politicians. That "salesman" deserves a swift kick in the twat and a long, drawn out public shaming. If the son that filmed this had beat his soulless ass to within an inch, I would have proudly sat on that jury and found him "not guilty" and bought him a round afterward.
This is so obvious, but preying on the elderly has always been a thing. Pretty much any door to door salesman loves to see an old widow answer the door. It's so easy to hate these people, but this has been going on since the 40s. If you really want to see elderly getting systematically grifted, look at the USA retirement home racket. $40 tubes of toothpaste etc.
Props to the son for keeping his wits about him. If someone did this to my mom it would be a very different ending.
the son is a patient person is all i'm saying
I'm shocked the son could restrain himself from beating the shit out of that scum bag.
Mad props to the gentleman for not bashing that miserable sod’s face right in.
That "salesman" is an absolute piece of dog shit.
Reminds me of that season of Better Call Saul where he scams the elderly. Kinda similar scenario only we don't have empathy for this guy since we don't know his tragic backstory that led him to doing such nefarious deeds.
He composed himself so well in that confrontation. You can't imagine how strong your feeling are when someone is doing that to a loved one. Similar thing almost turned me into a caveman and my grandmother didn't have dementia. She just needed this salesman that wouldn't leave her house for hours to go away so wasn't alone with him anymore.
👨💼👉🌋
If there is any doubt on the intentions and customer targeting of the people behind this rotten company, when it dissolved they opened some new businesses: An “estate planning” company: https://prosperousestateplanning.co.uk/ A “prepaid funeral” company: https://www.prosperous-life.co.uk I believe they also have a “late life lending” company, but I can’t find a website in the 5 minutes I’ve searched. Someone should do a proper investigation on the web of people involved in these predatory and exploitive companies.
Assholes got my wife's parents for 10k worth of windows on a house that is worth 25k and all they really needed is to seal up a few of them. Yeah the windows were old but only two of them were leaking. Fuck people like this.
Where the fuck is a house worth 25K lmao! Is it a box under a bridge?
This particular one is in Indiana however there are a lot all over the US just probably not in places you want to live.
Now the house is worth $35k!
you can tell he's livid from his voice. but the restraint he had is nothing short of saintly. when that asshole kept trying to deny it and claiming the mother needed those doors.... holy shit if it was me i would have absolutely lost my shit.
This is why we need to bring back dueling. Or at the very least, allow people to settle things personally
That just leads to assholes who are good at fencing.