I don’t know anyone by the name of Rosalita, and I’m not sure that I ever have. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a lovely name. I even added it to Hunch’s name chooser for baby girls. Someday it would be nice to meet a Rosalita. One thing I’m sure of, though, is that there’s no Rosalita living in my apartment. But GE Money seems convinced of just the opposite.
Ok: admission. In a tip of the hat to nostalgia, I still have a landline in my apartment. Don’t call me crazy: there are portions of my abode (namely the 50% of the square footage that’s below street level) that even my beloved Verizon Wireless network can’t reach. So landline-tethered I remain. I’ve had the same number for 8 years.
GE Money’s robocallers have called that landline phone no fewer than 20 times in the last 15 days, and have done so repeatedly over the years. Occasionally the caller ID identifies them, but cleverly, they also use multiple numbers and area codes from several different states, several of which show no caller ID. Some of those numbers include 605-335-5648, 480-707-4006, and 937-534-2092.
I’m rarely home when these calls come in, but on several occasions I’ve attempted to call one of these numbers back. I’m greeted with a recording that this is a credit collection call, and I should hold. I’ve held anywhere from 2 to 8 minutes; in all cases I hung up before the call could be answered by a real person.
This morning I was actually at home when one of the calls came in; I answered and was STILL told to wait for an operator (which took 30 seconds). Now that’s gumption. You call me, and still try to make me wait. Tech guys: at least throttle the robocalls to coincide with operator availability. The operator asked to speak to my favorite non-resident, Rosalita, and when I explained that there had never been anyone here by that name and that they had best never call me again, they said “sorry” and hung up.
Poor Rosalita; maybe she was under crushing credit card debt (likely from a retail credit card managed by GE Capital/ GE Money) and probably defaulted. But damn that Rosalita: somewhere along the way she may have provided my landline phone number as hers.
But shame on GE Money: how hard would it have been to check phone records to see who my landline number was actually attributed to? If you type my landline number into Google, my name and address is right there in black and white.
More generally, GE, what a sleazy business to be in. Rather than tarnish your name, wouldn’t it be better to sell the collection records of your deadbeats to a third party who can collect under another name? These methods are beneath the name of General Electric.
I have an easy solution for robocalls, telemarketing calls, and any other uninvited calls. Any caller that’s not pre-approved by the call recipient pays $2.00 for the first ring for “disturbing the peace”. Then they pay $.25 for each additional ring. Think of it as the “pay per ring” model. The fees are shared between the call recipient and the telecom provider. This might cause predatory callers like GE Money to think hard (and at least do a little ROI analysis) about how much they really want to harass and reach the wrong person.
Kelly Ford writes random morsels about online marketing, business, economics, and life in NYC.
Kelly – I’m sorry for the difficulties you are experiencing. I’d like to help. Please email me your contact information and I will have our team resolve this issue.
Regards,
Nicole
GE Money
Update: Nicole and I corresponded and she says the calls should definitely stop now.
Boy – are you right about EVERYthing in this connection. I think I read somewhere that it’s not even the “real” GE that’s involved…. Since this operation is cockroach like – their robocalls will continue after armageddon – and your link DOES come up real high via Google – I wonder if you could/would post/share Nicole’s email.
And what’s the law re what sure strike you and me and quite a few others as junk/spam calls? Clearly, they’re out of control. Is it enough to say – “only a million of our calls are ‘inappropriate’ – we make over a trillion calls each year.”
I do have a GE card, but I pay it on time. Unfortunately, GE doesn’t seem to understand that, so I’m also getting these harassing calls.
I pay their bill through their website, but for some reason, my bank rejects the payment. I have no idea why. No one calls (from GE or the bank) to tell me that the money wasn’t sent. This has happened three times; If I pay it though my bank online pay system, it works fine, but it’s a longer lead time. These calls came because I forget to pay by the bank over a holiday weekend, so the payment would have been late. I thought, “okay, I’ll try to go through GE today”, but I should have just gone with the late bank payment, because now I’m getting fifteen to twenty calls a day, on both my landline and cell line! Even though I KNEW what had happened after the first call and made the payment immediately.
I think my bank must know something I don’t…either that, or GE wants to get that extra $30 for my payment being “late” because THEY don’t have good standing with my bank.
It’s all very sleazy and odd, but I do know one thing–after I pay this off, I will NEVER get another GE Care Credit card again!
I just happened across this blog and your post when I googled one of the phone numbers listed. I thought I was going crazy because my scheduled November payment doesn’t show up with GE and I have a late fee, but after reading this I think the same thing happened to me! I know I scheduled the November payment at the same time I scheduled by October payment. I have paid off the card and closed the account immediately. I will not work with them again.
Unfortunately, it looks like GE has taken over every single credit card / loan out there and they ONLY employ deadbeats and nasty people. I, just last week, hung up on one, who then proceeded to call at all hours from another number to call me names and harrass me! I have since sent letters, emails, and filed complaints with the original credit card holder. This isn’t the first time this has happened, so I’m assuming they are not given even the basic professional courtesy instructions that customer service representatives used to be given.
I received more than 20 calls this week from GE Capital (330-433-5833). I thought the calls were related to an Amazon credit account and reported them to Amazon and to the local district attorney’s office. When I answered one of the calls, the robo system asked me to wait. I did. When a person came on the phone, she asked for someone who does not live with me. Even if the calls stop, people should protest this practice. I closed the Amazon account and recommended that the company not continue to do business with GE Capital.