Original posting followed by response:
Subject: CDL-PROBLEM COMPANY
From: Mary-Bess Halford <mhalford_at_bethanywv.edu>
I am having a problem with a very pushy company called IT DataDirect which
claims that I have signed on for a number of its products when I am quite
sure that I have not. The procedure is that the item has been on back
order and is now winging its way to me attached to a very hefty price
tag. Has anybody else had trouble with them? How do I get them to
stop? Or am I just developing a persecution complex? Thanks for any
insight you can give.
Mary-Bess Halford
Library Director
T. W. Phillips Memorial Library
Bethany College
Bethany, WV 26032
===Response #2===
From: "Noel, Michelle" <mnoel_at_cumberland.edu>
They may be the same company (using a different name) that has been
harassing libraries in middle TN for several years. They call and claim that
this is the last year of a 2 or 3 year deal you signed on for and they are
just confirming your shipping address so they can send the flimsy item out
with, as you described it, "a hefty price tag" attached. I posted about this
problem a year ago and received over a half dozen responses from librarians
who had received the same treatment. I notified ALA about them, and
threatened to have our lawyer contact them if they did not cease and desist.
They still call once or twice a year and I usually inform them that we did
not order anything and threaten the lawyer again. They usually keep talking
and I hang up in their ear. Treat them like mosquitoes and don't give in.
Michelle Noel
Library Director
Cumberland University
Lebanon TN
===Response #3===
From: John Abbott <abbottjp_at_appstate.edu>
I mentioned this general scheme to someone who manages a
manufacturing plant. He told me this same con is run almost weekly
in his world too. Someone calls to confirm a directory listing, a
shipping address, or an unordered book arrives followed later by
an invoice. The plant staff use the same responses of hanging up,
referring to legal, asking for written confirmation/evidence, with
the same mixed results.
This problem is a regular topic on Acqnet, too.
Received on Thu Jan 09 2003 - 17:00:56 EST