Phone Company Shenanigans

[cultcross]

What i want to know is that for cold callers to exist someone must be buying from them.
Who the hell are these people.

I don't buy from them and know nobody who ever has. But the industry is worth billions of pounds - a lot of people must buy this stuff.

 

[Captain Shaw]

Ok new rules in my Britain the weak shall not be aloud to have phone lines.

 

[ITL]

If the pitch is transparent and polite, I'm polite in reply - I know that the person on the other end is only doing their job.

It's the sly tactics and douchebaggery that annoys.

Thats a bit of a contradiction to me. The sly tactics are forced upon by the team leaders/managers and if you don't adopt them or conform to the guidelines you lose the job. Some are happy to bullshit, most just don't want to be fired.

The nice guys who give up easily find themselves unemployed fairly quickly.

Understood.

But in the heat of the moment when tempers flare the messenger tends to get shot, metaphorically speaking. Even if they were only doing their job and I shouldn't take it out on them.

 

[jamestyler]

Understood.

But in the heat of the moment when tempers flare the messenger tends to get shot, metaphorically speaking. Even if they were only doing their job and I shouldn't take it out on them.

I can understand that entirely. I've never got angry with a call, but I have shown my annoyance in tone. Doing the job definitely changed my perspective.. but I can still find it annoying - even if I can get rid of them easily now

Odd this topic came up - I had my first cold call today in about three years.

 

[RobertVA]

While there's no reason to be rude to those telemarketers, be very careful, as it may be difficult to distinguish between someone who has no option to a thankless job and another person that's after your checking account or credit card numbers in order to fraudulently clean your account(s) out.

 

[DanTheGrey]

I just screen phone calls through the answering machine. I'm also on the national do-not-call list and another site that handles do-not-call requests to a bunch of organizations that the national list doesn't handle. It has cut down calls so we only get a couple of spam phone calls a day (usually blank or partial automated messages on the machine) with up to a week without any.

The few times they do get through (my wife expecting a call and asking me to get it while she's busy) I'm usually pretty polite to the staff because I know they're doing a job. I just resent the charity appeals that are based on complete guilt trips because those get my back up with the implication that I'm an evil bastard if I don't want to give great gobs of money to their cause. Now if I ever met one of the people running an outfit that does phone spamming, they'll get an offload of all the crap I've never dealt to the call center staff

Of course that's not as bad as the entrapment for the donation at a checkout counter...but still no need to be impolite to someone doing a job.

 

[jamestyler]

I just resent the charity appeals that are based on complete guilt trips because those get my back up with the implication that I'm an evil bastard if I don't want to give great gobs of money to their cause.

I've never had charity calls - but I do hate being ambushed in the street for a donation and recently Red Cross did a door to door campaign which felt very intrusive.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I registered with TPS a few years back, and I don't get any marketing calls, other than from my bank, mobile phone company, which are companies I actually gave my number to.
What I want to know is is there a thing I can register with to stop Jahovah's witnesses, charities and bloody energy companies knocking at my door? 3 Jahovah's, 2 charities and 1 energy company in the last month or two, and with 2 of them I actually had to stand there and argue with before they'd leave. Sure I could have just shut the door on them, but surely "no thanks" or "I'd like to but I can't afford to give to charity on a regular basis" should be enough for them to leave you alone?

 

[jamestyler]

[FONT=Arial][FONT=Times New Roman]

What I want to know is is there a thing I can register with to stop Jahovah's witnesses, charities and bloody energy companies knocking at my door?

If there is, I'd love to hear about it.

Though I've only really had the Jahovah's witnesses and that one visit from the Red Cross a couple of weeks ago - but charities often hire attractive women and I flirt back... and I've had a few dates out of it so they can keep on going all they like

Whenever someones came round to pass along their copy of Watchtower though, I've been very polite and receptive. When I was living in Dundee I agreed to read their book, if they'd read mine. I think I stole that tactic from 3rd Rock and offered them some wiccan material. They never returned.

In Cambuslang they were far more frequent as they visited a woman living in the flat above me every couple of weeks and would knock on all the doors until they reached the top. I ended that by taking their book, reading it in full and when they returned for to talk about it I discussed in lengths some creative corrections I'd made. They kept visiting the building after that - but kept away from my door.[/FONT][/FONT]

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Here's it's usually blokes for the charities. So I don't even get the attractive women from it. I try to be polite with all of them, but it seems like they're getting ever more pushy.
One time I did stand there and debate with the Jahovah's and they said "Don't you think we should spread good news about a book written so long ago, yet still holds so many answers?" and I said "Sure, if the people you're telling want to hear it, and are willing to hear the good news about the Torah, which has been around longer, and the Qur'an which has been around nearly as long." to which they replied "No, I don't think so." and left. but they still keep coming back.

 

[ITL]

A friend of mine would tell them he was a Satanist and stare very intently at their left ear until they went away.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Easily the best way to deal with telemarketers (no I don't care if it's fake or not).

 

[Captain Shaw]

I just resent the charity appeals that are based on complete guilt trips because those get my back up with the implication that I'm an evil bastard if I don't want to give great gobs of money to their cause.

I've never had charity calls - but I do hate being ambushed in the street for a donation and recently Red Cross did a door to door campaign which felt very intrusive.

I hate the people who ambush you in the street trying to make you feel guilty.
I know they get commission on how many people they get to sign up so i refuse to give those people money.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

We had a tv prog about this recently including the telesales guy who sold broadband to a little old lady who didn't have a computer but on the advice it would make her television picture download quicker and clearer. I hope that guy has sleepless nights.

and No! please don't laugh, I know it's tempting but what if it was your granny?!

 

[jamestyler]

I hate the people who ambush you in the street trying to make you feel guilty.
I know they get commission on how many people they get to sign up so i refuse to give those people money.

Most of them have good personalities and I often end up having good chats with them even after I said I won't give money. They seem to be happy to talk with someone friendly.

I do ask for info though, a lot of them give the impression they actually do give a shit.

The Gouranga mod are the only ones I've actually had trouble with as they're so pushy. I've taken the route of always saying "I am not the one you seek!" whenever one approaches me.

We had a tv prog about this recently including the telesales guy who sold broadband to a little old lady who didn't have a computer but on the advice it would make her television picture download quicker and clearer. I hope that guy has sleepless nights.

All calls are recorded. They'd match the complaint with the salesman and he'd get sacked. Calls are monitored live thruogh the day as well... if that was his method, it's a risky one.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

A friend of mine would tell them he was a Satanist and stare very intently at their left ear until they went away.

I wish I read this a few minutes earlier... I've just had Mormon's walk up as I was stood outside talking to a friend. I didn't even have a door to close on them.

 

[cultcross]

I just resent the charity appeals that are based on complete guilt trips because those get my back up with the implication that I'm an evil bastard if I don't want to give great gobs of money to their cause.

I've never had charity calls - but I do hate being ambushed in the street for a donation and recently Red Cross did a door to door campaign which felt very intrusive.

I hate the people who ambush you in the street trying to make you feel guilty.
I know they get commission on how many people they get to sign up so i refuse to give those people money.

God I hate chuggers. Particularly from charities I fundamentally disagree with , like the 'animals shouldn't be used for medical testing' crowd. When they stop me, they get a piece of my mind.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

We had a tv prog about this recently including the telesales guy who sold broadband to a little old lady who didn't have a computer but on the advice it would make her television picture download quicker and clearer. I hope that guy has sleepless nights.

All calls are recorded. They'd match the complaint with the salesman and he'd get sacked. Calls are monitored live thruogh the day as well... if that was his method, it's a risky one.[/quote]

It was a programme about salesmen talking about others alleged tactics. It wasn't a consumer prog so I doubt if there was ever any complaint. Just a confused little old lady wondering why Corrie wasn't any better.
I had a sales call saying 'you or someone in your household entered a competition on-line... and proceeded to try and sell me gas. I was so busy deferring them I forgot to ask what I'd won

 

[jamestyler]

It was a programme about salesmen talking about others alleged tactics. It wasn't a consumer prog so I doubt if there was ever any complaint. Just a confused little old lad

Was it on the BBC or anything that might have an online repeat? Having met and worked with those kind of people I'd be interested in seeing it.

The worst I worked with was a guy called Anup (if you ever get a Glasgow accent on the phone matching that name, ALWAYS say no ) who was really sneaky and pushy.

He got caught processing sales multiple times, which I think was what got him fired. They kept him on for his dodgy tactics though... that was the last call centre I worked . Morals went out the window there.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

It was a programme about salesmen talking about others alleged tactics. It wasn't a consumer prog so I doubt if there was ever any complaint. Just a confused little old lad

Was it on the BBC or anything that might have an online repeat? Having met and worked with those kind of people I'd be interested in seeing it.

The worst I worked with was a guy called Anup (if you ever get a Glasgow accent on the phone matching that name, ALWAYS say no ) who was really sneaky and pushy.

He got caught processing sales multiple times, which I think was what got him fired. They kept him on for his dodgy tactics though... that was the last call centre I worked . Morals went out the window there.

It was a show called 'Confessions' ITV1, Tues 3rd March. It was billed as confessions of flight attendants but was all sales stories. I was particularly amused by the guy who was so desperate to get the deal signed he spent the weekend singing in a church choir to befriend the 'mark'. He did get the deal but I don't think it bought him any closer to God