Direct-Mail Marketing

I received a note in the mail today with this text:

PLEASE CALL US AT YOUR EARLIEST CONVENIENCE CONCERNING YOUR STUDENT LOAN(S). YOU MAY REACH US AT 1-800-238-7816 EASTERN STANDARD TIME, DURING THESE HOURS:

MONDAY – FRIDAY: 3PM to 11PM (EST)

RESPECTFULLY,

STUDENT LOAN CONSOLIDATION CENTER
LOAN REVIEW DEPARTMENT
800-238-7816

DEPARTMENT – 100

Now, I am a smart man, and so I can tell that this note is not from the bank that holds my student loans. I notice almost immediately that I don’t really know from what bank it came. I know enough about finance that it’s obviously a sales pitch for something I don’t need.

On the other hand, I am surprisingly irritated that this information is missing. I can easily imagine thousands—nay, millions—of gullible graduates who will see the terse message in fixed-width font and think, Oh no, my loans are broken! I better call them and do what they say! Whether loan consolidation is a good idea or not for any given individual, this is not an honest way to pitch it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2005 at 8:35 pmand is filed under Everything else. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Direct-Mail Marketing”

  1. Nicole Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 4:06 pm

    What kinda crappy bank is only open from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.?

  2. Vaughn Says:
    November 28th, 2005 at 9:43 pm

    Yes. It seems suspicious to me as well, here is the company’s Better Business Bureau Reliability Report

    http://www.sandiego.bbb.org/commonreport.html?compid=27002048

  3. Edward Says:
    November 30th, 2005 at 6:37 pm

    “Fraud” is written all over this notice!

    I get them every month and throw them out. I think I’ll start marking them with “return to sender” and hope this will give the idiots on the sending end a big hint. Maybe one of them will read this message.

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