Scotiabank Does Not Honour Do-Not-Call List?

For the past month or two, several times per week, Scotiabank has been calling me from 1-888-882-3811 to tempt me with a "Special Offer". Despite declining it and requesting that they not call back, the calls have continued. For awhile I stopped answering, hoping that my request to be spared from their marketing machine would be honoured eventually, but no... they called again tonight. I didn't answer, but instead called them back directly on their main customer service line.

"Shareef" answered, and over the course of the call I became increasingly irritated with his seemingly flippant attitude about my situation, overly intrusive verification, and (it seemed) eventual dismissal that Scotiabank had done anything wrong at all.

The verification process was unlike anything I've ever experienced from a financial institution. After getting my name and card number, he asked for the 3-digit CSC from the back of the card, as well as my mother's maiden name. No address with postal code, no date of birth, or any of the other standard verifiers I'm used to be asked for by banks. Instead, the kind of extra information one could use to make a charge over the Internet if they were so inclined. Yes, I realize I called them and so I was reasonable sure I was providing special codes and password/email reset capability to a designated employee, but still.... I got the creeps. He claimed that the questions were generated by his computer and he already knew the answers anyway, but I think I could have been verified less intrusively given that I had already indicated that my sole purpose in calling was to opt-out of marketing.
At many points during our conversation he laughed in response to my frustration and when answering my questions. I didn't see the humour. If laughing is his way to cope with a customer describing an irritating situation, I think Shareef is in the wrong line of work. While he may have felt better, I just felt disrespected.
In the end he determined that I had already signed up for the Do-Not-Call service. Surprise.

Shareef took the phone number that has been calling and pledged to contact them on my behalf to ask them not to call me again. Given that by Scotiabank's own admisson I'd already opted out of calls at home, I am not hopeful that this will fix anything. And, in the end, there was no explanation as to why Scotiabank would call me if I was already on their opt-out list. Perhaps I imagined the whole thing? Or made it up? Maybe the "Special Offer" or "Thanks For Being Such a Great Customer" calls are not considered marketing? I disagree. Paying my bills on time is not an invitation to invite me to take advantage of an additional "free account" or apply for a credit product with a ridiculously high rate of interest.

I originally approached Scotiabank for one product, with no intention of becoming further entwined. After this experience I'm glad I didn't. This rep's approach certainly made me feel like a stupid, unreasonable, or misinformed customer... in which case, why would I ever want to do additional business with Scotiabank?

Seems I'm not the only one getting repeated calls from Scotiabank Sales. Check out these unsatisfied customers (and be sure to read the comments):