To dob in this woman from letting agent to her boss?!

[Undertone]

Right. Have recently been in touch with property maintenance liaison woman at my letting agency re: faulty heating. I generally communicate with her via text, for convenience - we've been going back and forth about arranging times, etc.

Today, following an exchange, she texts and asks if she can email me a link on a personal matter and then call me in her lunch hour to discuss. I was fairly intrigued - and a bit 'oo er'. In the end it was to promoting a health juice drink 'network marketing' thing.

A bit of Googling and it predictably transpires that basically it's pyramid selling, this drink has virtually no discernible health benefits, etc. She then calls me and pushes the hard sell for 10 bloody minutes, interspersed with my feeble protestations that 'it's not for me, thanks' and 'actually it sounds like the health benefits are unproven'. She even hinted that it was anti-carcinogenic - even though the company has been taken to court for falsely claiming this.

I eventually got rid of her. But now, actually, I'm a bit pissed off because she's basically stolen my personal information from the letting agency's contact data in order to pursue personal gain. She could be ringing absolutely everyone on their books!

Should I tell her boss, the owner of the letting agency? I have his email address. He may want to know that one of his employees is using company data to push a pyramid scheme - it could affect my future decision to rent from them again.

Arguments against:

• It's only a sales call, it's not the end of the world.
• She knows where I live.
• When she texted me to ask if she could email me a link, she did say it was for a 'personal matter' - so I did give her permission to do this, even though I didn't know what it was about.
• Even though this drink thing is obviously a scam, it's hardly illegal or overly tawdry.
• What if she gets fired?!

Would I be being unreasonable to email her boss and say that he may want to have a word with her?

Oh god. I don't know at to do. Can you tell I have trouble making decisions?

did you put kisses after the text to her or not?

Jumping in here...I think OP you should text her back a polite message of warning...let her know that it could get her sacked and that many people don't appreciate the hard sell....especially when their client confidentiality has been abused.

You don't want to antagonise her by dobbing her in at this poin and I think that far from getting a crap service from her in the future she's very likely to ensure you're looked after.

No - the xxx was meant to be my name - apologies for confusion.

That was to stealth, btw.

"Personal matter" implies a relationship dilemma or similar. It is perfectly posible that she could have wanted to talk to you about a genuine personal matter, I mean what if she'd seen your boyfriend with another woman, of course you would be interested in that! Describing a sales call as a "personal matter" is a blatant twisting of language.

text the boss. she has crossed the line and has no right to use your personal data for her own potential gain.
I think you'll find she's broken data privacy laws.
Imagine if she were to contact someone more vulnerable/malleable - it would not be right for her to use her position in this way.

Undertone, I think your first text about the possible DPA breach was very tactful.

Maybe send her an equally tactful email at her workplace saying that it has made you feel very uncomfortable to be contacted as a sales opportunity for her private business, and you wouldn't like to think of another lettings customer being made to feel like this. And could she give you her assurance that other customers won't be contacted?

If you get a negative response, or none at all, then copy your email to her boss by all means.

But at least you'll have given her a chance to mend her ways. She sounds like a complete idiot, rather than a shyster, and we've all made mistakes.

thanks - in that case there was nothing overly friendly about your text - not that that IMO would have made it OK for her to do what she did, but just making sure I know all the facts
Have you decided what you're going to do?

Have decided to send email today just to her, along the lined that kittybuttoon spells out. Then we'll have to see!

It's interesting - discussing this at the office, with mum, with friends - there really is a divide over the dilemma to drop her in it.

And if you do decide to contact the boss, don't text them! Be professional. I'd probably ask to speak to them.

Here is the email I just sent:

Hi [woman's name],

I just wanted to follow up on this. Thinking about it - you may want to reconsider contacting [agency name] customers about your private business concern. I've had a chat with a few people and it was agreed that it would be best if I made my unease clear via email.

The manner in which you contacted me about it - asking what I did for a living, then asking to email me on a personal matter - made me assume you were thinking of a career move and would like someone to check your CV. I think it was a little misleading to call a sales pitch for MonaVie a 'personal matter'.

You mentioned that you have contacted a couple of other people who also let from [agency name]. I am worried that an elderly or vulnerable person would not be able to do the background research on MonaVie and make an informed decision. For example, I Googled the company and found out quite a bit from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonaVie - as you can see, the company has attracted some controversy. In your sales call to me yesterday you mentioned that you have recovered from breast cancer. MonaVie does not have anti-carcinogenic properties. It sounded like you were suggested it has, without explicitly claiming it did. This could confuse some people, and could exploit someone looking for help with their struggle with cancer.

In my text yesterday I mentioned it could be a data protection issue. As you obtained my mobile number through the [agency name] contact details database (you would not have had access to it through any other channel), this could be seen as [agency name] 'giving' my details to outside parties without my permission. In this case it was just my mobile number, but [agency name] also has my bank account details, etc, so a 'worst case scenario' of a data protection breach could be very grave.

If [boss 1] or [boss 2] found out that you had taken information from the database, then they would take it very seriously - it could damage the [agency name] business quite badly. For example, it could make [agency name] customers concerned about future contact about similar things. Some people would be worried about the data protection ethics, and feel that their details are not safe with [agency name]. Landlords would undoubtedly have concerns about their tenants being vulnerable to hard-sell situations, and would be cross that they are less likely to rent their flat via [agency name].

I just thought it would be useful to explicitly list the reasons why it would not be a good idea to contact [agency name] customers about MonaVie. I have no way of knowing for sure about how many other people you have contacted - so I am reluctant to forward this to [boss 1] and [boss 2] in case it was a one-off mistake. However, if they did find out about it through someone else mentioning it to them, it could be very serious and may even put your job at risk.

Best of luck with the MonaVie project - I hope your friends and family are able to help out with it and that you continue to feel good through drinking it. I look forward to speaking to you again soon when I have any questions about [my flat number and road name].

Kind regards,

[my name]

Has she replied to the email yet?

Undertone - that email is absolutely perfect. Well done for dealing with it so well.

No reply yet - will keep you posted!

make absolutely sure you keep that email just in case

Fab email. Sorry I was obviously asking if she had replied as you were posting the email.

Bravo!

Good email.