Pa. Resident Sues Auto Warranty Firm, Telemarketer for TCPA Violations
Despite having no prior relationship with Pennsylvania resident Zachary Fridline, Integrity Vehicle Group, through its telemarketing agent, made prerecorded telemarketing calls to him without his consent in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), said a Tuesday class action (docket 4:23-cv-01194) in U.S. District Court for Middle Pennsylvania in Williamsport.
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Fridline received prerecorded telemarketing calls from telemarketer Vanguard Vehicle Armor in September 2021, December 2022 and on March 30, May 8 and May 10, said the complaint. A short, prerecorded message played at the beginning of the calls, saying: “Please hold while we connect your call.” The message didn’t identify the caller, said the complaint. The call was identified as prerecorded because there was a pause before the recording played and a voice came on in a “generic monotone,” it said.
Vanguard used the prerecorded message “because it sent more calls than it had available agents for,” said the complaint. Each call pitched automobile warranty services that would purportedly provide coverage in case of an incident involving Fridline’s vehicle, and all calls identified Integrity Vehicle as the entity that would provide the administrator services, it said.
Fridline wrote a letter to Vanguard to stop the calling conduct in September 2021 but received no response. He explicitly told Vanguard to stop calling when he received subsequent calls, but they continued, said the complaint. He also sent Vanguard emails about the calls, but they continued. Fridline cited other consumers’ complaints about Vanguard on the Better Business Bureau website.
Fridline and other class members were harmed by the acts of Integrity Vehicle Group and Vanguard Vehicle Armor because their privacy was violated and they were “annoyed and harassed,” said the complaint. They were also harmed by “use of their telephone power and network bandwidth and the intrusion on their telephone that occupied it from receiving legitimate communications,” it said.
Defendants made calls to the plaintiff and class members despite their registrations on the national do not call list, said the complaint. Fridline seeks injunctive relief prohibiting Integrity’s vendors from calling phone numbers advertising their goods or services, “except for emergency purposes,” to numbers on the do not call registry “or to any cellular telephone numbers using a prerecorded voice in the future.” He seeks treble damages of $1,500 for each TCPA violation for himself and the class.