"Transunion Told Us To Call You"

While I am on the theme of Sales Bros, I thought it might be fun to highlight a call I got last Monday while on the way to the gym with the Admiral.

 

We recently bought a home in Tucson. We knew we were coming to Tucson for a very long time so we had been watching the Tucson home market since at least April last year.

 

Around that time we submitted our info to a mortgage broker that came as a referral from the mortgage broker we had used for our Hawaii condo (she did GREAT, went above and beyond big time, and if you are looking for a Hawaii mortgage broker- she’s the one… but, she wasn’t licensed in Arizona so we needed the referral).

 

Our Arizona mortgage broker did not disappoint. Above and beyond, and kept us out of trouble…

 

Around the time we finally started putting together some offers on home, the original credit checks needed to be updated. So, around early November we had a second set of credit ‘pulls’ done to update our application.

 

The home we finally settled on was under contract in early December- and a third and final set of pulls were done to support all of their processes.

 

For those who weren’t aware- some (all?) of the credit agencies sell quite a lot of information about us. In this specific case, the fact that we had a credit check in support of a mortgage application for sure (and probably our credit score range) along with my full name and phone number (and who knows what else!)

 

So there we were driving to the gym when the phone rang. I usually never pick up but the caller ID actually said something instead of ‘unknown caller’ or ‘scam likely’ so I broke my usual policy and answered the phone. 

 

I knew immediately that I messed up. It was what sounded like a young lady with a heavy foreign accent trying her best to sound official. She asked if this was (my first and last name) and when I said yes she instructed me she was transferring me to someone.

 

The transfer was nearly instantaneous, I could hear two rings and it picked up… Sales Bro immediately tried to start qualifying me.

He stated in a ‘matter of fact’ tone and demeanor that I had applied for a loan and he was ‘instructed by Transunion to call me’.

 

I told him his lead gen process needs help and to not call me again, then hung up.

 

A few moments later the phone rings, this time with caller ID from a US state (not Arizona). I suspected it was him so I answered to see what kind of gall this sales bro had.

 

I was not disappointed! Sales Bro predictably stated that ‘we must have gotten disconnected’ to which I said ‘yes, that’s because I hung the phone up after telling you to not call again’...

 

Undeterred, he plowed right on through… ‘I was trying to call because you applied for a mortgage’... ‘Transunion told us to call you’... 

 

My Sailor language came out in full force so I’ll paraphrase my response- ‘my dead dying a** transunion told you to call me, you bought a data pull and are just talking out your a**’

 

He insisted- ‘sir, Transunion told me to call you’.

 

Through all of it, he kept up that forceful ‘frame’ (well, attempted to anyway). He didn’t crack until I pumped him with one of my last resort tools.

 

It cracked him too…

The tool? Kinda mean on my part but dang! This guy… All he had to do in order to have a fairly real conversation with me was to be honest! He couldn’t do that…

 

He just HAD to pump out that sleazy Sales Bro Bah-Loh-Ney.

 

Ok, the tool?

 

I told him repeatedly ‘repeat after me’ until he shut up, then said ‘I will not call you again’. Which got him to object with more Sales Bro stuff, so he got the ‘repeat after me’ treatment until he finally shut up then made a comment about Transunion and hung up.

 

I wonder who taught him that stuff? Why did he start the whole thing off trying to put forward some narrative that made no sense at all? 

 

More-

 

What would have happened if he said something like: 

 

‘Hey, we got your name and number from Transunion because we’ve found that many folks who recently made mortgage applications didn’t quite get what they wanted or needed. I am calling to see how that went for you, could you still use some help on that?’

 

There is a difference between being genuinely interested in a potential client and trying to do the Sales Bro Slam… 

 

I may be no David Robinson but I sure swatted this Sales Bro’s shot!

 

Unfortunately the Solar world has more than its fair share of Sales Bros. That’s one reason why I decided to write the Tucson Solar Insider Desk Guide for Buying Solar. I’ll be releasing it soon enough, click here to get on the notification list.

 

Be Good!

Curtis