Complaint Review: Longwood Industries

Shortly after I placed an online advertisement for my car, I began receiving annoying hang up calls on my home phone between 9:30am and 9:50am every week day. The caller ID was blocked. When I would answer, the phone line would be quiet and eventually disconnect. The consistency of the time frames of the calls strongly suggested an automated dialer system. Since my number is on the national do not call registry, I rarely get solicitation calls.

After more than a week of this behavior I finally forwarded my home phone to my cell phone and let my cell phone's voicemail answer the daily annoying morning phone call. Then I got a message left by Alan with Longwood Industries offering so kindly to sell my car for me and that he had interested buyers. Seeing as my car sold a week ago and considering my Craigslist online ad stated, "it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests," I was less than thrilled.

When I returned the call to ask to be removed from their system and to confirm about the automated calls, the representative at extension 129 would tell me nothing about the automated calls. When I told her that clearly the system wasn't working correctly, she continued to try to make sure I understood that their *selling* systems definitely work (as if that were my concern). I reiterated my concerns regards the automated calls and hang ups. Shortly after, we got disconnected.

I called back and spoke to another female representative and inquired as to how they got my number in the first place. She confirmed it was an online ad (but supposedly didn't know the source) and started reading it to me. When I indicated the ad said I was not to be called for other services, she said no it didn't and that it wasn't in what she was reading. Although she said she didn't know the source, so consequently she couldn't have been reading it from the source web site, she insisted she had the *full* ad on her notes.

I asked to speak to a manager. I was refused this courtesy and was told that there was no one else I could talk to. A direct question of, "Are you telling me that there is no one that you report to, or that your manager reports to on site?" She refused to answer that and simply repeated like an robot, "there is no one else you can speak to ma'am." The next person I called and spoke with said the same thing but with a slight variation: "My manager isn't available right now, but I'll be sure to put you on our do not call list."

By this time, I was fed up. I did a search on the company name and called directly to 540-586-1430. The receptionist said there was no one who could take my call, but she would give my name and number to the director and ask her to call me regarding my complaint about the solicitation phone calls and the fact that these customer service representatives are either completely unsupervised (unlikely) or are instructed to never transfer a call to a manager.

The service is clearly unprofessional. I have no idea if they can or can't sell cars effectively, and I don't care. My complaint is about the blatant disregard for the no solicitation statement in my online ad (NOT placed through them), the automated hang up calls, and the shoddy methodologies of their supposed customer service call center.

Roseanne
los angeles, California
U.S.A.