When we bought our house last year, it was pretty much perfect except for the back yard, which was a grungy mess. We’re currently investing in some upgrades to the yard. Over the past few days we’ve had landscapers tidying it up a bit and fixing a collapsing wooden fence back there; our hope is to eventually stick un petit hot tub back there so our whole house can scream middle-class California.
Anyway, we had no idea who to call to give us the skinny on how hot tubs get installed in backyards. Carole turned to the miracle of Web search, which uncovered ServiceMaster.com, a directory site of tradespeople and service-types. She filled out a form on the site, giving them some information about us including our address and phone number and a description of what we wanted to do.
After horking up all our personal information, they didn’t return any information about anyone in San Francisco who could answer our questions or help us. But to add insult to injury, within a couple of days we got a telemarketer call from somebody saying they were from LendingTree.com and wanted to offer us a loan on our upcoming hot tub project. Strike three: our phone number is registered with the National Do Not Call Registry.
Yo, Servicemaster.com: you ding-dongs are in violation of your own privacy policy. Until you fix this, no one should give you any of their personal information.
Yo, LendingTree.com: you nit-wits are in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Hopefully at some point soon, somebody who has more free time and a lower irritability threshold than us will sue you. Enjoy!
P.S. We’re still looking for a contractor who works in San Francisco and can do this work, if you know of one, lemme know!
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Their privacy policy is very carefully written (i.e. it makes things not as clear as most would want!). Buried in the small print: “We use customer contact information from these registration and survey forms to send you information about our company, promotional materials and information from our partners.” So what exactly does “information” mean, and who exactly are “our partners”? Anything and anyone they choose to apply that terminology to! There’s another version elsewhere of their privacy policy which says: “We may send you information in conjunction with third-party partners that we think is relevant to your interests.” And that is pretty much of a blank check.
Jeffrey,
You got hosed by Barry Diller. Both companies are owned by IAC. So they’re “partners”.
Nice going, Barry.
Ken
If a company violates their own privacy policy then what recourse does the affected individual have? I believe my bank released some of my financial info to my home builder. My home builder subsequently cheated me out of $36,000. The banks actions are clearly in violation of their own privacy policy.