By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 2, 2021 | Scammers don’t quit.
For about the 10th year, we’re in receipt of a letter again from the “Vehicle Notification Department” out of Plano, Texas offering to sell us a vehicle maintenance service contract on an automobile.
Of course, it is a scam. This invitation stinks to high heaven. We have no doubt it’s worthless.
Several people in Gwinnett have received this letter recently. If you have, not only just disregard, but throw it immediately in the trash.
The scammers are getting even more lazy than previously. Where before in a previous letter, they listed a specific car we had owned as needing this warranty, this time in their form letter in the space for “Year/Make/Model” they said simply “CALL TO IDENTIFY.” By the way, the time we got the scammer’s letter before, it was a whole year after we had disposed of that car. We didn’t even own it then.
The only personal note about the letter was that they had our name and address correctly.
This offer to sell us a service contract goes into great detail to outline what could happen to anyone’s car. They suggested that the auto’s computer could go out, an estimated expense of $849. Or an alternator ($677), or air conditioning unit ($1,507), and even an engine ($4,352.50).
They even go so far as saying the total cost in this example of what could happen might be $12,914.75. Note this quote was to the exact cent. That would include the above, plus lots of other items: water pump, $495; five days car rental $175; wiper motor, $516.25; Transmission, $3,302. They wrote: “And more.”
Now really? All these various components of your car are going out at the same time? Come on! Cars are built better than that these days.
Look at other instructions in the come-on letter, and note that all this part of the letter was in caps:
- IMMEDIATE RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE REQUESTED. (The word “immediate” always indicates a scam.)
- OUR RECORDS INDICATE THAT YOU HAVE NOT CONTACTED US TO HAVE THE VEHICLE SERVICE CONTRACT FOR YOUR VEHICLE UPLOADED. YOU ARE RECEIVING THIS NOTICE TO ENSURE NO LAPSE IN WARRANTY COVERAGE.
- By neglecting to replace your coverage, you will be at risk of being financially liable for any and all repairs after your factory warranty expires.
- Your file on this vehicle (which they never identified) will be deleted and you may no longer be eligible for this offer regarding service coverage after (certain near date.)
The offer comes from United Car Care Inc. of Greenwood College, Colo. and they also have offices in Northbrook, Ill., in addition to Plano.
They continue to suggest to you in the letter:
“DO NOT PAY.” But they suggest: “Call today so you don’t have to pay for these kinds of repairs out of pocket.”
How nice! They are so polite.
This simply means that they don’t want your money in cash or check today, but will wait until you call later so that they can get your credit card number, and that same day, pull out all of your money from your account if you are foolish to sign up for this malarkey.
This proposal sounds like small potatoes, compared to some scams. We read of one on the weekend that cost that person $90,000. What we describe today, compared to that one, is a low grade scam.
Warranties can have their own problems. An extended coverage such as from this letter, sounds like major trouble for you if you reply. Trash it immediately!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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