Well, that was not so lovely. I just got a call on my cell from a strange person who sort of spoke something that sounded almost like English with a very very heavy accent. If I were going to guess, I'd say she was from India. I understand enough to know that it was Providian bank (with whom I do have a credit card). So why was this person from a corporation I formerly thought was an American company calling me?

She said their records reflected I had been paying all my bills on time (yes), my account is in good standing, and would I like to get a discount of 20% on future purchases relating to something-or-other? (A lot of it was mumbling on top of the accent.)

"Oh sure, why not?" (But of course, at this point, the scam flags in my brain were blinking bright red.)

So she went babbling on and on in a sing-songy, partially understandable voice. Somewhere in there, I caught the words "60 days to cancel", "No fee for the first 30 days", and "if you decide you don't want it, call to cancel and we will refund you", and "$9.95 per month". Or something like that.

And on and on.

Eventually, I decided I was tired of wasting my minutes on this foolishness, said, "Um, no thanks", and hung up before listening to any more of it.

I'm now thinking maybe I'll cancel that credit card, if for no other reason than to avoid having it happen again in the future.

It's wrong on so many levels, I'm not even sure where to begin. Off the top of my head...

1. Though I did have an existing business relationship with the company, the call itself amounted to nothing more than pure advertising. i.e. telemarkiting in all its evilness.
2. This telemarketing call was placed to a cell phone, which, last time I checked, was illegal long before the federal do not call list existed. (Though there's probably a loophole for companies with whom you are already a customer.)
3. So I'm a "customer in good standing?" What a great way to reward your good customers! When you can't send in a collections agency, find other ways to annoy them instead.
4. Ignoring the spam aspect of it, it's bad in a customer relations sense to hire people who can't speak clear English to be talking on the phone to American customers for any type of transaction, be it sales, tech support, or anything else.
5. Odds are 999 to 1 that the call originated from overseas. (Although, had it not been for the extreme accent, the tipoff wouldn't have been so obvious.) Way to support the struggling U.S. economy by sending money off to foreign shores to do work that could better be done here, even if it is just stupid telemarketing. (And with that, out the window goes the last remnants of the pitiful argument by telemarketers that they help our economy by employing people.)

Guess what? I think my pre-existing business relationship with that particular company is about to come to an end.