I work at Thomas L Cardella and Associates. I have been there over a year. I hate my job, it's extremely stressful, but it's what's paying my family's bills. I obviously am not going to risk losing my job by disclosing any personal info, but I feel the need to explain a few things to hopefully help you (people getting called) and us (other fellow employees ) get along a little better. For one thing, our call center, like a lot of others, handles all sorts of "campaigns" meaning we are basically voices on phones for hire. We have several centers in Iowa AND in Texas. Political calls are seasonal and contracted by democrats, republicans, whoever. Most of us who are actually making the call don't even know what it's about, we just read the script that's given to use during the duration of the campaign. I don't know for sure, but I've heard from management that all the political call contacts are GIVEN BY YOU, not bought or traded or anything like that. You may have approved receiving calls when you registered to vote, signed up with your phone/internet/cable provider ( and not known it) Unless you read every single word of every single page of every single paper you ever sign your name to, you most likely legally signed an agreement at some point in time releasing your info for this purpose. And the DO NOT CALL LIST? I'll bet a lot of you don't even really know how that works. For one thing, if you did go through the process of actually being added, you would have to abstain from doing business pretty much anywhere and not sign anything for anyone to keep it in effect. If you have any credit cards forget it. For political calls though, we're not calling to sell you anything, so the rules don't even apply. Political calls have offered me a unique view into the world of paranoid delusional weirdos, I suppose 99% of which are you people that I am writing to on this site. Why are you people so freaking worked up about answering a phone call from someone you don't know? what is going to happen? Do you think that by "connecting" the line the person on the other end is somehow closer to "getting" you? Are they going to reach through the phone and steal your soul? Not to mention the fact that if you hang up and never address us, we're just going to keep calling and you'll never know who or why. If you don't want to receive phone calls, don't have a phone.

You are either misinformed, or just making s*** up. I work there, and if you've bothered to read the other poster's message, we are a legitimate business, and we handle all sorts of campaigns. Sometimes it's easier for companies to call you rather than mail you, which saves YOU the customer time and saves paper as well. You sound naive in regards to how corporations work. We are paid by Macy's to handle their calls, Citibank to handle theirs; so on and so fourth. We did calls for J.Crew (a fashion clothing magazine), whoever wants to hire us. Anytime you are talking to a representative on the phone from some corporation, chances are it's a call center like us being contracted by the corporation to handle their work for them. Do you think there's a back room at the Macy's store where all the Macy's phone call people sit and work? People like you make my job that much harder. I have a family and we struggle and I pay our bills making these calls. I hate my job, but people like you who are misinformed or just paranoid for whatever reason make my life alot harder on a daily basis. Don't blame the people on the other end of the phone, blame corporate America. Or better yet; whatever company is paying us to call you on their behalf.

You should never, ever give our personal information on the phone to ANY caller.  That is the most basic rule to avoid issues.  If Macy's wants to upgrade credit cards or anything along those lines, they can mail you something to complete - or you should call the Macy's customer service number on your card.  Never give out information to someone that CALLS YOU - only consider providing information when YOU CALL a number or company that you are confident are legitimate.

Caller asked for my mother when I said she was not in they did not want to leave a message.

Called asking if we wanted to upgrade Macy's card.

I have a friend who works at a Thomas L. Cardella call center.  They DO have centers in Souix City and Cedar Rapids IA, and they DO call for Macy's to upgrade credit cards.  They are not allowed to leave messages on answering machines and they can only speak with the name(s) listed on the card.  They must ask for d.o.b. and mother's maiden name to verify that they are speaking with the cardholder.  Would you rather they didn't verify who they were speaking with and and allowed anyone to change your credit card?  There is no scam here, this is a legit telemarking firm.  

I understand that people are nervous about telemarketers, and there are definitely scammers out there, but not every person or firm in the telemarketing business is fraudulent.

I'm getting this number on my caller id several times per day.  When I answer, the callher hangs up

Got 3 calls in 2 hours finally picked up and no answer

Called the number back  319 730 4172 and asked to be removed.  He informed me that they are the outbound calling service for Dow Jones and it was regarding my WSJ subscription. Either calling due to expiration or setting up online service. They indicated they would stop calling.

Thomas L. Cardella & Associates
2738 Edgewood Road SW
Cedar Rapids, IA  52404
(319) 393-1511   Fx: (319) 393-3901

Caller ID shows as TLC Associates, Inc.
Same persistent calls - never a message left.

Received a call from 319.730.4170 this afternoon at 1:41 PM EST.  The caller ID read "TLC ASSOC INC".  Happy I did not answer it.

I get calls constantly from this #, although I never answer and am registered with the do not call list.  There is never a message.  Now that I know it is a telemarketer I will report them to the DNC registry. See if that works.

I got a call today from this number. I answered the phone and a young male said he was calling from a Boston radio station. I hung up immediately.

This caller continually calls me, then hangs up several seconds after I answer, perhaps because there is a buzz on my line and the machinery is not registering that the phone has been answered.  I was able to finally identify the caller by dialing *69, then located this site by Googling the phone number.

Just got a call from this number but I didn't answer. After seeing the below comments I am happy I didn't answer at all! They did not leave a message. Will be reporting this to my service provider.

This number has called twice in less than two hours, if they keep calling I am giving the number to the police for harassment....

Continually calls and has been for the last week.  I haven't answered it and they don't leave any messages.  I've gotten 3 calls in the last 2hrs from them today alone.

Caller called at about noon on Sunday, Sep. 7th. Lefy no msg. I want to stop this caller if possible as it is very annoying to receive calls without message being left!!

Thank God for caller id!
I never answer the phone if I do not recognize the area code and/or the caller. I don't know anyone in Iowa or phone number 319-730-4172.
I immediately check my nationwide area codes and my next step is to 'google' their name to see if it's a scam!
I'm glad to know this site is available & I did the right thing!

I have been receiving calls from this #---caller id Thomas L Cardel for over 2 weeks -daytime,late night,even Sundays. It is infuriating as we are on the "do not call" list.I finally got fed up,Called the number back & threatened to report them the very next time I receive a call! I will let you know if the threat works!

Caller asked for my mother when I said she was not in they did not want to leave a message.

(319) 730 - 4170 called and asked for my brother. i asked him to leave a message and he quickly said no. must be a fraud case. im reporting it to the police.

"Thomas L Cardel" just called my house, looking for my father. I lied and said he was not home, but asked the caller to leave a message. She said, "No message" and hung up before I could tell her to, "Have a nice day!"

in in new york this appears on my caller id on a regular basis
never leaves a message been getting it for a while now

This number calls almost every day...
It is usually a woman who doesnt finish message..just says hello???
Then hangs up.

This number appears on our caller id about 5 times per week. Caller id says Thomas L Cardel. If you call the number back that comes up, it gives you a message regarding a special offer from Direct Energy.

they keep calling my number and when the machine picks up never leaves a message so i tried to google it to see if its a legit company but i guess not.
the caller id shows it as Cedar Rapids IA

Male caller asked me if I wanted to upgrade to VISA Macy card.  I did just receive the application from Macy ... so I said okay. and Stupid me gave him answers to two security questions: 1) What is your birth? 2) what is your mother's maiden name.
After thinking about it decided to call Macy to verify. Macy only uses 2 agent to make those calls: 1) by Macy 2) by Citi Bank.
Caller did call more than 2 times from caller log ....best to refuse.
I've call all Credit card to disable use of that password and turn on fraudlent check for all credit agent.
319-730-4170 was displayed number.

Offered me a Macy's Platinum Card.  Asked for Mother's maiden name.