Quicken Loans Telemarketing Calls and Texts TCPA Class Action

Illegal calls seem to be a favorite means for companies offering loans to look for customers. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is meant to prevent such calls as well as other telemarketing calls that consumers do not want. The complaint for this class action alleges that Quicken Loans, Inc. placed calls to consumer cell phones for telemarketing purposes without first getting the consumers’ permission.

Congress intended that the TCPA reduce the increasing burden of telemarketing on consumers. Automatic dialing systems and prerecorded messages were becoming more and more available to companies, allowing them to contact thousands of consumers per day, but the consumers were themselves were becoming more and more annoyed with this nuisance.

Of particular concern were calls to cell phones, because cell phone owners typically pay for incoming as well as outgoing calls. For them, telemarketing calls are an expense as well as a nuisance, whether the “calls” are regular voice calls or text messages.

Under the TCPA, telemarketers are prohibited from placing non-emergency calls to consumer cell phones using automated dialing systems or artificial or prerecorded voices unless they have the consumers’ prior express written consent to make such calls. The law also specifies how such consent can be obtained, so that consumers don’t give it unknowingly.

In this case, plaintiff Richard Winters, Jr. received calls from Quicken Loans on his cell phone, beginning in October 2018. He received both voice calls and text messages from the company. The calls were an attempt to solicit him to purchase Quicken’s services.

The complaint alleges that the calls were made through the use of an automatic dialing system. They were also not made for emergency purposes.

Winters claims he was not a customer of Quicken and had never given it his number or his consent to the company’s calling him. On at least one occasion, he asked the company to stop calling him, thereby withdrawing any prior “consent” the company might claim he had given.

The complaint’s counts include both negligent and knowing and willful violations of the TCPA.

The class for this action is

• All persons within the US
• Who received any solicitations or telemarketing calls from Quicken Loans
• To their cell phones
• Made through the use of an automatic dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice
• Where the person had not previously consented to receive such calls
• Between January 15, 2016 and January 15, 2020.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Failure to stop calling faxing or texting when requested, TCPA, Unsolicited Cell Phone Calls, Unsolicited Text Messages