Dubious "car warranty renewal" notide: Colossal pain in the prat
 

My mom's been hospitalized or in a nursing home for over a month and it falls to me to check the mail every day. Yesterday she got a piece of mail, one of those official-looking things where the edges are sealed with little perforated strips that you tear off to open it, covered with announcements like "second attempt" and "to be opened by addressee only". Ooooh, scary! No return address to give a clue from whence it came. I ran out to the home to visit her and we opened the piece together. It was one of those "your auto warranty is about to expire, get a new one now" mailings from some company that has nothing to do with the manufacturer. When I looked at the outside again, it did say 'FORD', and our car is a Ford, but she got it a year old (it's a former renta-car). But what really got my goat was that the mailing was addressed to my mom in her maiden name which she hasn't used in over 60 years! Enough to make you a little paranoid, isn't it?

It's SPAM - we get them all the time.

Consumer's Report Magazine a few years ago, was very clear that third party auto warranties are not a good value.

Sending best wishes for supporting your mother in her current situation - she doesn't need that kind of pressure advertising.

Thanks, Bill. I know third-party warranties s*ck. My boss got one of those "notifications" too, it was a postcard which didn't try to look like an "official" document and you didn't have to open it to read it but the idea was the same. There was simply no way of knowing without opening it what was in it. I should quit being so paranoid and open whatever comes, unless it really looks like it's FROM a real person (i.e., I can tell the difference between REAL in-ink handwriting and some computer font which is supposed to LOOK like handwriting) and is marked PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL, but AFAIK my mom has never done that sort of business :: grumble, grumble ::

What really squicked me was the maiden name: my mom hasn't used it since she was married after WWII; who would even know it except for family and anyone she went to school with or worked with countless eons ago? Anyone else who wanted to use it would have to do a LOT of digging to find it out and you wouldn't think it would be worth the bother for a lousy sales pitch :: grumbles even louder :: ETA Oh, and Bill, I'm happy to tell you that my mom does still have her wits about her and immediately recognized the pitch for the bull#2 it was