Monday, May 18, 2009
Two Years and 30,000 Complaints Later, FTC Finally Busts Car Warranty Robocallers [UPDATED]
After more than one billion unsolicited calls and some 30,000 complaints–one from Senator Charles E. Schumer–the Federal Trade Commission is finally going after companies responsible for those supremely annoying car warranty robocalls.
You know the ones I’m talking about, I’m sure. They’ve been occurring since 2007 and go something like this: “This is the second notice that the factory warranty on your vehicle is about to expire.” Hang up and the machine calls you again later. Transfer to a “warranty specialist” and ask to be taken off the call list and you’re either hung up on or, in my case, given an 800 number to call that turns out to be a phone sex line.
With a Department of Justice ruling on Google’s advertising partnership with Yahoo expected by late next week, a key legislator is urging further scrutiny of the deal. In a letter to the DOJ, Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, encouraged it to monitor the Google-Yahoo deal, even if the agency signs off on it. 
What an ugly week for the digital GOP. First, John McCain’s domestic policy adviser conjures up a PR disaster by crediting the senator with the development of the Blackberry–odd, since McCain’s not exactly a digital native. Then former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina says U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s not qualified to run HP. And now, Palin’s Yahoo email account has been hacked and its contents published to Wikileaks. What an astonishingly tech-savvy presidential ticket. 
