I have been getting at least weekly, if not more than weekly emails from Virtual Switch. Most irritating. I filled out a form *once* to find out more about their telecom product. The deluge of emails hasn’t stopped since. Back in Nov. 2004 I emailed them asking them to stop. They didn’t. I got this email today:
Hi,
You are on my list as a prospective Virtual-Switch customer and I wanted to contact you to see what it would take to get you to open your account this month. We’re prepared to offer the first 3 who respond some exceptional incentives.
Like all businesses, we’ve got a sales quota every month and with just a few days left in July, I thought I’d write to you and see what it would take to get you to open your account this month. I need to bring on 3 more accounts this month and have got some room to negotiate some very special deals.
Just reply to this email if you are serioulsy interested and I will contact you tomorrow.
Regards,
Lenn Brown
+1-504-210-0716, Ext. # 207
lenn@virtual-switch.com
Yahoo Messenger: lenn_brown
MSN Messenger: lenn_brown@ hotmail.com
I replied:
Lena,
I am on your list as a prospective Virtual-Switch customer and I wanted to contact you to see what it would take to get you to take me off your list this month. I am prepared to report you to the FTC & FCC if you continue to ignore my repeated attempts at removal. The FCC has some exceptional incentives for you compliance.
Like all businesses, I have work to do every month and with just a few days left in July, I thought I’d write to you and see what it woud take to have you let me do my work without sorting through the additional spam that you generate. I am in the telecom industry and am familiar with the FCC. I’m sure I’d have room for the FCC to “negotiate” a very special deal for you.
Just reply to this email to let me know if you are finally taking me serioulsy [sic] about me wanting to be removed from the list. If you don’t, I will contact the FCC tomorrow.
–
Hans Mast
Golden Rule Communications
Manager
Phone: (800) 511-0072
Fax: (540) 788-1022
Cell: (540) 272-****
Email: *********@goldrule.net
http://goldedrulecommunications.com/
They bluster back with some untruths:
Hans,
You are on our list because YOU contacted us starting on Jan 29, 2003, then again on these dates:
2/03/03
4/29/03
5/02/03
8/2//03
1/09/04
7/26/04
9/14/04
12/04/04That would indicate that you were interested in our services.
Until today, we have not received any request to take you off our lists, but with your message today we will. Feel free to contact whoever you want.
Lenn
First of all, I didn’t start working at GRC until Spring/Summer of ‘04, so I know that I haven’t “had a relationship” that long. Second, I only contacted them three times. Once to ask some questions, second to have them remove me from their list (that email is the one below), and third my most recent email above. I don’t know where they pulled those dates from, but I didn’t contact them on all those dates. They said, “Until today, we have not received any request to take you off our lists.” I replied:
Lenn,
Au contraire.
–
Hans Mast
Golden Rule Communications
Manager
Phone: (800) 511-0072
Fax: (540) 788-1022
Cell: (540) 272-****
Email: *********@goldrule.net
http://goldenrulecommunications.com/——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Virtual Switch Update
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 08:07:31 -0500
From: Hans Mast <*********@goldrule.net>
To: lenn@virtual-switch.com
References: <200411281154484.SM01000@206.251.178.7>Lenn,
This is too big a solution for us. Please discontinue contacting me about this [emphasis added] unless you come out with a much scaled down version.
Thank you,
–
Hans Mast
Golden Rule Communications
Phone: (800) 511-0072
Fax: (540) 788-1022
Email: *********@goldrule.net
http://grc.goldrule.net/lenn@virtual-switch.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I recently sent you information and just wanted to follow up with you regarding your interest in our Virtual-Switch platform. Please email, call or instant message me if you’re interested in further discussion.
.
.
.
> 2005 is just one month away, and we we’re willing to offer some great incentives to get your account opened this year. [Hmm... sound familiar?]
>
> Regards,
>
> Lenn Brown
What is my purpose in this post? It is twofold. First, I thought my response (the second email in this post) was somewhat amusing in its “shpootting” (German word for imitate; I can’t spell German, I can just speak a dialect of it) of the letter they sent. Secondly, it will be put on the public record and in Google’s index for when someone else is unhappy with Virtual Switch, it will serve as a resource and indicator of past behavior.
3 Responses
February 4th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Mr. Mast has a very poor memory. He kept requesting information and we kept sending it to him – over the span of two years. We never did do any business together and promptly removed him from our sales database at his first request. The rest of his belly-aching is just for show and without substance or basis in truth. He obviously doesn’t believe in the meaning of his company name
August 9th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Hi Hans.
We had the misfortune to use this Lenn Brown and his cohorts Wendy Sposito and Dave Crosby and a couple of others. They resell the Maskina product, and ran over Time Warner in Colorado and now Com Data out of Houston.
Lenn was never able to discriminate between SIP calls and 800 access calls and never ever verbally responded to me over a 3 year period after signing the contract and providing them with a $5000 deposit.
Now they are refusing to give back the deposit. We paid them like 3000 a month last year, and could not ramp up the program or sell to retailers, etc.
We have moved to a responsive and responislbe carrier and would just like our money back.
Your warnings about this guy should be appropriately heeded. Also was big into phone card scams as owner of GPA phone cards a number of years ago.
Joe Ashcraft
August 10th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Lenn, it is not my memory that is serving me (whether it is serving me poorly or serving me well is beside the point) in this case. It is my comprehensive, searchable email archives of every email I have gotten. The basis of this post is the keyword and domain searches of my archives.
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