Fun With Telemarketers

submityournentries

how to pee off telemarketers

http://consumerist.com/2011/04/more-fun ... eters.html

good fun gonna try that next time some bastard rings me

supersonic

My StepDad has a great approach - just yells BOLLOCKS down the phone, and puts it down!

mak3m

old but my fave

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=9009&page=1

montevideoguy

I would never be nasty to the telemarketers. Pishy job to have. I have more hate for the people who run the companies that do it

MountainMonster

This one was always awesome, I love listening to it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYDpjWCPeU8

Gazlar

My way is to poltely decline, but then try and sell them something instead, which confuses the he'll outta them

Cleat Eastwood

ha ha thats great. What I used to do when they asked to speak to the home owner was to say 'hold on i'll just go and get him'......the leave the phone off the hook and put me brothers diddy wee radio by the ear piece....ha ha listening to 96.7 soon put them off.

Briggo

Managed to get a telesalesman from India to tell me he loves me once.

whyamihere

I once had one giving me the hard sell for about 25 minutes for a credit card.

He was so pissed off when I told him I was 14...

DCR00

Montevideoguy wrote:

I would never be nasty to the telemarketers. Pishy job to have. I have more hate for the people who run the companies that do it

i work for a company that runs call centres

we run campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the UK

a lot of effort and money goes into working out who to call so these companies arent wasting money phoning people who arent interested in their product

if you hate being phoned, then there are things you can do about it

you can register with the Telephone Preference Service. Takes about a month to take effect, but you should see the volume of calls you get go down by some margin.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

you can also opt out of mailed marketing here as well

whilst i appreciate that being called can be annoying, you must remember that 99% of companies use legitimate sources of info, meaning that when you ticked that little box that said you are happy to get marketing, that means the company concerned may well have sold that info on, and thats why you are being called

working in the industry, i never tick that box, and as a result, very rarely get called...

Stevo_666

DCR00 wrote:

you can register with the Telephone Preference Service. Takes about a month to take effect, but you should see the volume of calls you get go down by some margin.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

you can also opt out of mailed marketing here as well

This.

Works for me - get very little mail garbage or calls.

chrisga

I had a guy from British Gas trying to sell me the insurance that covers the boiler. When he asked why i didnt want to take it out i politely said "Because i have more moneyt han i know what to do with and would welcome something to spend it on should the unforeseen happen and the boiler cease to work". He burst out laughing, said thank you very much and hung up. All very polite.

Sometimes the telesales people can be really rude, even when you have asked them to leave you alone and then they get my wrath but if they are polite, IMO at the end of the day they are only doing a job to earn some money. It may not be their first choice of career but at least they are working!

Briggo

DCR00 wrote:

Montevideoguy wrote:

I would never be nasty to the telemarketers. Pishy job to have. I have more hate for the people who run the companies that do it

i work for a company that runs call centres

we run campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the UK

a lot of effort and money goes into working out who to call so these companies arent wasting money phoning people who arent interested in their product

if you hate being phoned, then there are things you can do about it

Really, you say you work for them do you actually run them? Not once have I heard a friend or relative say "wow, got a phonecall of a telemarketer and bought some right cool stuff, it was an awesome experience".

The data is basically anyone you have details for, you contact, certainly no thought process goes into it, or ever seems too.

5 years ago I had debt problems but managed to evade any nasty IVA or bankruptcies etc, yet still to this day I get phonecalls asking if I want help still. Never since 5 years ago have I mentioned debt problems.

Oh and the whole doing something about is crap, that website fails and yes I have contacted them numerous times.

mak3m

DCR00

Well wish they were all as nice as you and those cOmpanies

I never tick or untick the box, I'm registered not to receive cold calls or junk mail but it still gets through albeit at a reduced rate.

Still get random number generator calls now and again. I also get them at work email, letter and calls. Some companies have search engines similar to a google spider that looks for name, address and phone number strings, usually looking for scanned in letters etc.

Last 2 weeks on the trot I get an email thanking me for my life insurance query and they will call me to discuss quotes. Within the hour I have some poor telemarketer who makes the follow up call, they are either very good actors or they are in the dArk about the source of the lead. The 2nd chap was convinced I must of contacted them as my name, address, email and number were on the system along with my job title and age range. I did point out to him that if I had been in contact with them I'm pretty sure that they would have wanted my exact age rather than a range.

Due to the nature of my job a lot of my correspondence is in the public domain, all of my colleagues have similar problems

redvee

Within 2 weeks of having a landline installed, part of the VM deal, I had a call from an insurance company, when I asked them where they got my number from I was told they were returning calls made 6 weeks previously. When I told them how long I'd had my landline for they gave me another unbelievable story.

MountainMonster

My parents back in the U.K. have signed up for every possible no call list, and still receive a crazy amount of calls from Telemarketers.

It's come to the point where they have got a internet phone as the main house phone now, and turn the other phone on silent nd only check messages on there. If they are important calls they will leave a message. Works for them.

Gazlar

To be fair I get very little hassle as I need a landline for broadband, sky and my burglar alarm but as it's easier and cheaper to use my mobile because of free calls I don't actually have a phone plugged into the phone line, therefore if I need to give out a number to businesses I always give them my landline number which exists but doesn't

DCR00

Reailty is people that there are some companies who choose to operate outside of the law and some who operate in the grey area in between

Overseas call centres are not governed by the same rules as UK, so they basically do what they want

My company spends a lot of time and effort ensuring we are compliant, and believe it or not 99% of what my team does is making sure we call the people who are interested in the product/service

If you are getting calls/emails/mail, its cause someone has your details somewhere

If you are on the electrol roll, which most of us are, then your details are available to use

Have never come across any company using random number generators - not really cost effective

People get out of their tree about telemarketing more than any other form of marketing.

Why is that ? is it any more intrusive than say banner advertising, TV ads, pop ups or billboards ?

Not really. If you don't want to look at the pop-up, you get rid of it. If you don't want to look at the billboard, you look away. If you don't want to speak to the telemarketer, tell them to take you off their list and put the phone down.

Telemarketing has been demonised by the press and so people have a massive problem with it. If you cast your mind back 10 years or so everyone was banging on about direct mail and how awful that was. Do you still get DM ? yes of course you do, but you don't mind now cause telemarketing is the new evil...

Daz555

DCR00 wrote:

People get out of their tree about telemarketing more than any other form of marketing.

Why is that ? is it any more intrusive than say banner advertising, TV ads, pop ups or billboards ?

Not really. If you don't want to look at the pop-up, you get rid of it. If you don't want to look at the billboard, you look away. If you don't want to speak to the telemarketer, tell them to take you off their list and put the phone down.

You still have to stop what you are doing to go and answer the phone.

I'm never rude to telemarketers though. Just a quick "not interested, please take me off your list" and put the phone down.

Stevo_666

Daz555 wrote:

You still have to stop what you are doing to go and answer the phone.

+1 It's more intrusive than pop-ups etc, which are dead easy to block, or paper stuff that you just chuck.

PS: if you receive junk mail with a pre-paid envelope, get some garbage out of the bin, stuff it in the envelope with a note saying "You've sent me your rubbish so I'm sending you some of mine". Might not stop it but you gotta fight fire with fire and it's satisfying

bentes

DCR00 wrote:

Why is that ? is it any more intrusive than say banner advertising, TV ads, pop ups or billboards ?

Yes it is. A lot.
I'm usually polite to the telemarketers because they are just trying to "earn their bread", but yes, apart from door to door salesmen, it's the most intrusive way of marketing.
You might see things differently because you work in the industry, so you're biased...

Briggo

So we have multiple folks all saying how crap it is but then the telemarketer doesnt see that himself.

No surprises there then, explains a lot.

dan shard

Although I can understand peoples frustration, Id rather they be doing that than claiming benefits like all too many people seem to be doing these days

mattv

At my workplace, we get on average 2 or 3 a day. It is a new premises so just signed up to new phone, gas electric etc so the number is all over the telemarketers at the moment. At one point we had 35 (!!) calls in 3 days from gas companies as we had been put on a list. Asked repeatedly to be removed and were told we had been. Until 20mins later. They even got me down on their database as the owner, which when I asked them to changwe it (as is my legal right) trhe guy had a go at me down the phone and laughed at me. He refused to let me speak to his supervisor either, so I hung up.

Kaise

I get it all the time and i have always been very careful about ticking or not ticking the box, which ever way means they dont get hold of me. I have been getting calls recently from one group who insist i am due £3000 for an accident i was never in, i mean whats that about.

The rude ones leave with their ears ringing after i blow an sos whistle down the down at them and the polite ones i just explain i am not interested and ask them to remove me from their database.

The whistle thing works a treat, but really if the things keep happening and you cant you the preference service to stop them, call your provider and ask about changing your phone number, i changed my mobile number after 3 year purely because of this.

DCR00 wrote:

Do you still get DM ? yes of course you do, but you don't mind now cause telemarketing is the new evil...

No i dont because i use Gmail and have the filters in place to divert it to my junk mail, unfortunately not something that i can do one my phoneline

DCR00 - you might be a nice bloke, but some of the poepl in your industry are rude c units and thats what gives the industry a bad name not the press!

DCR00

Briggo wrote:

So we have multiple folks all saying how crap it is but then the telemarketer doesnt see that himself.

No surprises there then, explains a lot.

who said i was a telemarketer ?

i dont make the calls mate

my company does a few other things as well as run call centres

appreciate im on a losing side

if you read my post i didnt say that it wasnt crap to receive calls you dont want

im merely trying to present a balanced argument

bails87

If I wanted to speak to someone then I'd probably make the call myself. I've never had a telemarketer call with something I've wanted. It's just a waste of my time.

I asked a (UK based) company to remove me from their lists (after originally ticking 'don't call me') four times before they eventually did. I was getting a call a day, telling them I wasn't interested, and they'd call back at the same time the next day.

I am polite to them though. At the end of the day, the bloke calling me probably doesn't know that his colleagues have phoned me every day that week and that I've asked not to be contacted, so he is only doing his job.

I had a flurry of calls form 'Kitchens Direct' a few months back, and kept telling them that I didn't own a house so I didn't really have anywhere to put a kitchen. Every time I asked not to be contacted but they kept phoning back. In the end I saved their number and answered the phone with "I don't want a kitchen, leave me alone" and then I'd hang up! Seems to have done the trick.

welshkev

what pee's me off is when you politely say no and they call you again the next night, and the next night and the next...........

i tried explaining that i wasn't interested and could they stop calling at around 7.15 at night because they wake my son up....but still they call.......

i won't be getting a 3 phone anytime soon

El Capitano

The calls that p1ss me off are the ones where you pick up the phone, only to receive a ringing tone as if you've called someone. Normally Indian call centres and now get cut off before they can answer.

Stevo_666

El Capitano wrote:

The calls that p1ss me off are the ones where you pick up the phone, only to receive a ringing tone as if you've called someone. Normally Indian call centres and now get cut off before they can answer.

Also the ones where they have some machine that dials you up then passes the call to a telesales gimp when you pick up. Trouble is if there are no gimps available to talk, you just get a 'silent call', stalker style. Bit annoying for us but some biddies get freaked out by it.

montevideoguy

DCR00 wrote:

Montevideoguy wrote:

I would never be nasty to the telemarketers. Pishy job to have. I have more hate for the people who run the companies that do it

i work for a company that runs call centres

we run campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the UK

a lot of effort and money goes into working out who to call so these companies arent wasting money phoning people who arent interested in their product

if you hate being phoned, then there are things you can do about it

you can register with the Telephone Preference Service. Takes about a month to take effect, but you should see the volume of calls you get go down by some margin.

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

you can also opt out of mailed marketing here as well

whilst i appreciate that being called can be annoying, you must remember that 99% of companies use legitimate sources of info, meaning that when you ticked that little box that said you are happy to get marketing, that means the company concerned may well have sold that info on, and thats why you are being called

working in the industry, i never tick that box, and as a result, very rarely get called...

When i was there I was on TPS and made a point of being careful when reading the "please tick here if you would not like to have no offers spammed" but you'd still get a few that would slip the net.


My own take on things is that the telephone should not be used as a means of marketing delivery. Obviously this would impact on your own profession but I feel we're subjected to too much advertising as it is.