Truth in advertising and the KLRVU affair: this is a phone spam company

There has been a lot discovered quickly about Alan Bruinooge's company, KLRVU, in very short order over at Unrepentant Old Hippy, none of it confidence inspiring.

Many have questioned KLRVU's expertise as a polling company, and honesty and competence in their self-presentation. One point that has not been made so far that should be made is that KLRVU is not primarily a polling company. Yes, their name is KLRVU Research; and, yes, their webpage claims membership in the Marketing Research & Intelligence Association (MRIA); and, yes, the subtitle on their webpage lays claim to "Market and Opinion"; If you look at the services that their web-page actually offers, however, it is all market and no opinion. And the MRIA seems not to have heard of them.

On the main page you'll find a link about Products information (sic!). If you follow it, you find a description of "voice broadcasting" (the image to the right provides a link to a screen capture of that page -- just in case it, um, changes soon.)

And, what do you find there? A detailed description of "Voice Broadcasting". What's that, you ask?

Voice Broadcasting is a message delivery service that plays a pre-recorded message on a customer's answering machine, voicemail service, or even to a "live" person. …

Further down the page we learn

KLRVU specializes is supporting High Volume Voice Broadcasting customers. With an aggregate voice broadcasting capacity of more than a million minutes per hour KLRVU can provide you with that rare combination of unbounded capacity, low prices and exceptional service.

What about polling and opinion research? Not a word, here. Nor is anything about polling to be found at their link Key Points for Successful Campaigns, which again only discusses "Voice Broadcasting" campaigns (screen capture can again be accessed through the image to the right).

There is, of course, a polling page, but as we have seen (here and here), the words are all copied from another website.

Much has been said over at JJ's about KLRVU's honesty, transparency, and competence in polling — or rather, the lack of these things. This should not be especially surprising, since KLRVU is first and foremost an automated phone spam company.

Now, in case you don't recognize this phenomenon, these are the jerks that phone at suppertime to congratulate you on the free holiday you've won (provided, of course, you sit through a presentation by their friendly sales rep!) 

This is not a field in which honesty or integrity are to be expected.