I hate telemarketing with a burning passion almost as intense as I have for spammers.  My worst hatred, though, in terms of telemarketing, I reserve for the automated sales call.  It’s the telephonic equivalent of a drive-by.  Worse, in many cases, I can’t seem to hang up on them (i.e. I hang up and then pick up a few seconds later and they’re still droning on about whatever it is they’re trying to sell).

So it was with something between anger and disappointment that I listened to my messages yesterday to hear one from Cabela’s.  I expected better from them.  According to the Caller ID information the call was received at 10:33AM from “MOSLEY MICHELLE” at 1-404-524-1180.  The content of the message was to remind me of a $20 “gift” I could get with the card I’d received in the mail if I made a $150 purchase.

My numbers are on the National and State do-not-call list.  However, I realize that they make exceptions for “existing” business relationships.  I’ve bought from Cabela’s both online and in person at the Ft. Worth store.  Since I make it a point never to give personal information at the register, they appear to be exploiting my online personal information, which they require when placing an order.  In fairness, I decided to have a look at their privacy policy, just to be sure this wasn’t already covered before I unloaded on them with both barrels.

Down a ways was this section, which seems to imply to me that they shouldn’t be doing this:

We will request your telephone number or facsimile (FAX) number, and if you provide it, you may receive telephone or FAX contact from us with information regarding your orders or requests for information. We do not share phone or FAX numbers with third parties for marketing purposes.

If Cabela’s did not share my number with a third party for marketing purposes, then it means they’re violating federal rules by using bogus Caller ID information.  If they did share it, then they’re violating their own policy.  Regardless, though, they’re pissing me off by taking unwanted liberties.

I submitted an email “service request” with them to see if I get any kind of reasonable answer.  I’m not expecting much, though.  I may end up just having to cancel my account with them if I can’t get a satisfactory response.

Update:  Received an email reply from a CSR who stated that she had “marked” in my file that I did not want to receive phone calls and that she was forwarding my information to the appropriate department for a reply.  That’s all well and good, I suppose, except for the fact that she had to “mark” my file about phone calls.  I looked on Cabela’s website and while there were options to control whether you got email marketing messages, there were none to control how your phone number is used.  Anyhow, now I’m curious to see whether this other department (which she didn’t specify) will respond.