Chased by Vampires

We banked with Washington Mutual forever.
And Chase came in and took over.

Instituted fees, changed the way they credited our deposits, started annoying me with tons of mail... I'm sure you're familiar with the way big banks do business.

In fact, collectively, as a nation, we all have huge slightly bigger rectums from the royal screwing administered to us by the banks and our own government in not-too-distant-history. We're all intimately familiar with their business practices, now aren't we?

In the last month or so, Eric and I both got a letter from Chase, letting us know that we needed to 'update our mail preferences'.

They're making us opt out of receiving mailings, rather than just deciding not to annoy us with them. And we have to opt out of each type of mailing individually.

"We want to be sure that you know about available offers and that you have the opportunity to consider them."

Okay.
I'm no Einstein, but even a lowly paycheck-to-paycheck person like me knows that anything offered to me by a big bank will NOT be something slanted to my advantage.

It would simply be an unprofitable business decision to do so. They're in business to make money. I don't expect them to be anything other than what they are... a big business, trying in as many ways as possible to part me from more of my money.

"Please completely fill in the ovals below next to the Chase product and service offers you do not want to receive by mail:

Followed by a list of NINE different things.

They did make it fairly easy to opt out, I was directed to a website where I entered the reference ID at the bottom of the letter (we each got one) and selected all of them as things I do not want to hear/read about.

They gave me one more chance to change my mind (Please confirm your choices!) and then said, there ya go, that's it. And it remains in effect for five years unless we move. Then we have to renew those options.

I'm left with the same question I've asked/heard asked before in varying forms.

Why can't they just assume we don't want to hear from them, then if we do, we can contact them directly and you know, just... ask?

I hate the loopholes in the 'do not call' law, too. Political calls are exempt from the law. Of course.

And although I try to keep in mind that the person making the call to me is usually just a wage slave (or worse, someone who hasn't been painted by the big brush of cynicism that has plastered most of us.. and how the hell did they avoid that, I wonder..) by the end of election season, if you're one of those unfortunate people, you're likely to get a blistered ear if you catch me on an afternoon or during the evening after a busy day.

Why are you wasting my time?? Who does not know that every candidate is a money grubbing butt sniffer??

If you don't believe that, if you think YOUR candidate is somehow different, you're not paying attention.

If voting actually made a difference, it would not be legal.
Can I get an amen?

If you are foolish enough to do business with anyone, then you're suddenly golden... it's now legal to call and call.
And they WILL.
Because they can.

Or, they will inundate your house with catalogs. Because YOU opened the door and let them in by ordering.

Sort of like inviting a vampire into your house, I guess. Everyone knows how easy that is. And how difficult it is to get rid of the blood suckers once the door is open.