to test your water.
G
Posted on 05/04/2006 9:30:44 AM PDT by HOTTIEBOY
HottieGirl, bless her heart I love her to death, is somewhat gullible. She almost fell for the oldest trick in the book.
Well, its not really a trick, just a missleading marketing strategy to get you to buy an elaborate water filtration system that can run into the thousands $$$.
Here's how it started:
Last week I noticed a vile sitting on the counter. It came in the mail and had "water test division" on it. I didn't give it another thought. HottieGirl, being the responsible citizen she is, fills it full of tap water and puts it back in the business reply envelope. (redflag#1)
I thought, for a second, this is either routine testing or the ole water filter scam. Besides, if my water company needs to test my water, they will. Somehow. I am sure they do it everyday.
Those thoughts ran through my mind in an instant and were gone and forgotten about just as fast. Well, yesterday, I got home and HottieGirl was on the phone.
"It's the Health Department", she says. "They want to come by here one day and retest our water. They said that it would only take 45 minutes and it would be free". (why wouldn't it be free? redflag#2)
I asked, "Is that THE Health Department? As in The Department of Health?" and if so why are they calling me if my water is bad. Shouldn't the DOH be contacting my water company? (redflag#3)
She asked what the name of their place was. They said they were the water testing division of health services and we have a few minerals in our water that may be harmfull and require further in-home testing. (minerals, well duh redflag#4) (in-home testing redflag#5)
HottieGirl asked me if I was going to be home early one afternoon this week so they can come by and test it. "NO!", I said, "Hang up that phone. Tell them we ain't buying."
She said she would call them back and told me she can't talk to the DOH that way. Bless her heart. I informed her that she was talking to a water filter company that claims they are an official entity. They tell you that you and you family are going to die if you don't have one of their filtration systems installed in your home.
I told her that if I have a problem with my water, the water company will address it.
This is partly a funny story but I also wanted to get it out there in FReeper land so that some of you that may not be familiar with it will know. Selling water filters is fine, but I don't want someone going around posing as an official agency, scaring people into buying. Imagine how many little old ladies fell for it.
HA! My other Grandma was like that. Tough as nails. She would eat a fatback and onion sandwich and a glass of buttermilk with a dip of snuff in her mouth. Slappin youngins at the same time.
Grandma that is still living has never said a cuss word in her life.
I think our grams would have gotten along swimmingly.
My gram has also stuck her tongue out at people in restaurants when she thinks they are staring at her (she has no teeth), has slammed the door on the door to door Mormons, saying "I've got my own damn religion", and called a kid trick or treating at her house a son-of-b%^^$@$ because he was too old to be trick or treating. Unbelievable!
It really shouldn't matter. Because the vial was sent via USPS, and it was enough to convince hottiegirl that they were a government agency, that is mail/wire fraud.
I say no to all telemarketers. Politely, of course. Then I quietly hang up.
G
There's a really wild fraud advertising in some of the pop tech mags, such as Popular Science. The text of the full page version is this delusional rambling paranoid masterpiece. The ads must have yielded little in Popular Science, because it has been reduced to a classified.
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