From: wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr)
Subject: Re: corporate/business crime?
Organization: Northeastern Law, Class of '93
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 03:26:59 GMT


In article <1992Oct6.003558.17686@wam.umd.edu>, 
kckbxr@next08csc.wam.umd.edu (Robin Hood) said:

> Recently, I received a letter to contact a Mr. ****** of a local
> health club regarding a question about my account there....  I was
> then informed that this person doesn't even exist and that I was
> instead talking to one of the "operators" representing the
> department in which this Mr. ***** was supposedly the director of.
> This is the second time (two different companies and situations) in
> which this has taken place.  The other time, an operator gave me a
> false name (apparently it was company policy to give a false name to
> customers) which I wrote down in the event I had to have a contact
> name.  I was later informed that the name I wrote down was a false
> name and it was, indeed, company policy to do this.
>
> My question is whether or not this is legal?  Should I report this
> to the Better Business Bureau?  Are there any legal scholars out
> there who can offer some information about this?  I'm sure that this
> has occurred with other people as well.

Off-the-cuff opinion: this practice probably isn't criminal or civilly
suable in and of itself.  At worst, it's just a mechanism for giving a
customer the ancient and honorable runaround; at best it might be seen
as a mechanism for protecting the employees from worrying about being
personally harassed by irate and/or nutso customers... and even taking
the worst case, the runaround isn't (generally speaking) in and of
itself a violation of any laws.

If, on the other hand, there was an allegation that the firm attempted
to defraud a customer or otherwise commit a crime or a tort against
him then the fact that they ran a runaround game on him would
certainly be seen as evidence supporting the allegation.  

So the bottom line, I guess, is that if you eventually got
satisfaction from the firms you dealt with then the frustration and
annoyance that their false-names policies caused you is a private
matter between you and them and your best (only?) recourse is to take
your business elsewhere and spread the word about them to your friends
and associates.  (This is generally known as "the free market at work"
-- businesses that keep their customers happy keep those customers and
maybe get more, while businesses that alienate their customers lose
them and maybe others as well.)  Only if you feel that there were some
shady dealings going on ***that still would have been present even if
the people at the business had given you their true names and
otherwise treated you like a prince*** should you think about legal
action (where "legal action" includes going to a regulatory agency).

IMPORTANT NOTE: The preceding has been the off-the-cuff babblings of a
third-year law student.  This has not been Real Legal Advice.  Had
this been actual Real Legal Advice, this station, in conjunction with
the Emergency Broadcast Network and other broadcasters in your area,
would have given you instructions on where to send your money... :-)

-- William December Starr <wdstarr@athena.mit.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.legal,alt.censorship,misc.headlines