The
following is not intended to serve as opinion, judgement, fact,
or any other type of recommendation or stay-away-warning directed
at any company, person or business. Instead, it is an observational
piece meant to raise awareness for an overall (and increasing
and widening and sophisticating) arena that has in many ways been
found to include less-than-reputable characters taking advantage
of good people looking for honest assistance.
Do
your homework. Be smart. Ok? Good.
~ ~
~ ~ ~
Mail
arrived the other day… and evidently, I should make my move quickly.
After
all, delivered on pink paper that qualifies the message as significantly
more urgent, printed in bold and underlined font, the Department
of Negotiations on Internet Boulevard has reminded me that this
is their “second attempt” to reach me. (Oh… sorry… second
attempt… that’s better.) And thank goodness,
they are not messing around in letting me know this is important
stuff.
They
have been kind enough to let me know that there are repercussions
that could follow my failure to call. (Oops… sorry about that…
“** Failure to Call **”… that’s the presentation. With emphasis
and some capitalized letters.) If I may be so bold as to offer
a summary of this section in my own words, if I don’t respond
to their offer it’s quite possible that nothing will change.
And
that… umm… yeah. That’s pretty much right. If I don’t call the
Department of Negotiations, nothing at all in my life will change.
Now…
let’s get some of the important things out of the way.
While
I will not identify this particular letter as a scam, fraud, etc.,
I have questions. Most notably at this point: Are there really
people replying to this stuff? Department of Negotiations… on
Internet Boulevard… well seems legit. (Ding-ding-ding, danger…
filled with sarcasm alert… in my opinion, this contact is only
missing a foreign prince needing a wire transfer of money.)
Even
a quick internet search reveals some tremendous news. The Department
of Negotiations is part of a group that apparently has an amazing
list of complaints, and one of the worst Better Business Bureau
ratings a group can be assigned. That’s just a quick search though,
as the results didn’t surprise me and hardly presented enough
material to motivate me into a deeper investigation.
Still…
Department of Negotiations… Internet Boulevard… I think you already
might have guessed that there weren’t going to be many positive
stories and glowing recommendations discovered by the more frequented
search engines. And if you had the letter in front of you, well…
the thing is…
I
didn’t start this to dive too deeply into the Department of Negotiations
waters here. Truth be told, many people do investigate and actively
pursue services that assist with debt and credit in several ways.
Some of them are fee-based groups. And, I imagine, some are doing
quality work that truly supports people in great ways. And, good
for them.
Instead,
I started this because I couldn’t believe the actual letter that
was sent to me.
Pink
paper? I have never trusted any mailing I’ve received with changes
in font color… because evidently those generating it thought bold,
underlined, a bit larger and blue or red appropriately emphasized
things to me more clearly than an accurate and coherent text in
black Times New Roman font size 12. Same idea for paper color.
Department
of Negotiations? Is the company called the Department of Negotiations?
If so… that’s a pretty dumb sounding company name. Seems a bit
heavy and official while actually offering up nothing specific.
Is it a department that is part of a larger company? According
to the internet… yes. According to the letter… no idea. Plus,
Internet Boulevard? That strikes me as oddly named.
Paper
color, font changes, and catchy names are not at all a perfect
way of passing judgement. Let’s just say if listing the pros and
cons though, the column of positive items is not filling up so
far.
I’m
sure you’d be stunned to find out they did change the font size
when talking about how fees varied and were extra. Would you guess
the mentioning of fees was not bold, was not underlined, and,
in fact, were in a smaller font size? (I know. Me too.)
In
this case… as in several others delivered to my mailbox… I’m not
going to be able to provide a lot of clarity for you, since I
am not going to call the toll-free number. You’ll have to make
up your own mind on whether or not you would do the same, though
I believe moist of you will decide to join me in a mass failure
to call response. (Or, more precisely… a “** Failure to Call Action
**”.)
I
just want to advise all of you to be careful. Because I did feel
the need to at least do a quick and limited internet search for
this essay. And it does appear as though this letter comes from
a company that is attempting to do business. Since I will not
be seeking out their services, I cannot pass along any concrete
advice or suggestions about them. I can only say buyer beware.
And that’s the ultimate thing…
All
it takes is the right timing and presentation in order to establish
a connection with a handful of people that leads to a response.
In this day and age of design templates and cut-and-paste imaging
and more ways than you could ever imagine to create the appearance
of legitimacy, people are still giving out social security numbers
and personal information to sources they didn’t contact or double-check.
For
some people, there is the possibility that Internet Boulevard
does sound official and comforting. For some people, there is
little question that if you need help negotiating something, the
Department of Negotiations would be an obvious resource to have
on your side. And, for some people, pink paper and repercussions
are not to be trifled with.
For
me, the failure to call means nothing is going to happen. If the
day should arrive when I need something to happen, I’ll probably
seek out some counsel and thoughts not found on an unsolicited
piece of pink paper.
But
that’s just me.
And
if it’s not you… I hope things work out well for you.