How to discourage telemarketers

[jetset]

LOL - this guy in the UK has his own way of dealing with telemarketers!

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[maxd]

I love how the providers rushed in to say "that's not how to use our service!". Poor babies. :sob:

 

[conker]

I had a rye grin on my face when I heard about this on the radio. Such a simple idea and yet so damn effective. I hope loads more people start getting involved in this.

 

[vinylweatherman]

I saw that article elsewhere. He even got warned that what he was doing was illegal by the regulator Phone Pay Plus as it was in breach of "consumer protection laws". This is bullshit as he is targeting BUSINESSES, not consumers, and consumer laws do not apply in this instance.

He is not doing anything different to other big companies that hide their services behind such numbers in order to make money from dissatisfied customers who want to complain. At least he isn't putting cold callers on hold for a couple of hours listening to some crappy muzak before taking the call.

If he switched to an 0844 number instead, Phone Pay Plus couldn't even make an issue of it because this type of premium number is not regulated by them.

The UK government and OFCOM have allowed the scandal to go on for years, but now the EU has put a stop to it, and by next year businesses will be banned from using all these 08 numbers to make money from callers; this IS a "consumer protection directive", and already the businesses are gathering up their lawyers to fight the ending of this "nice little earner" they have had going for years. No amount of lobbying will work either, as it appears to have done in the past, as this is an EU directive, not a lobby influenced decision from the UK parliament.

I am sure businesses will be looking for further loopholes though, so we still have to be on our guard.

The postage and packing scam needs to be dealt with next, where something is advertised at an artificially low price like £9.99 or £19.99, but is "unavailable in shops" and comes with "p&p" that is much higher than the actual cost. I have seen all three. A common CD compilation advert offers the CDs for £9.99 or £19.99, but the only way to order is via an 0871 premium number, and the postage is £6.99

 

[skiny]

I usually say something like "Sorry, I'm a little busy right now but if you give me your number I'll call you back. When do you usually have dinner?"

Although if she sounds cute I might chat her up for a while. I remember one girl saying "People keep looking at me. I'm not supposed to be sitting here laughing." I said if they start to look annoyed just say "I'm sorry. I did some drugs earlier."

I had one guy with an Italian accent call and ask if I wanted life insurance. I said "Screw that. I've seen the Godfather. I know how this works." He hung up on me. I guess it was a little racist.

 

[LaurieJim]

Oh Really ?

That was first question to 2 telemarketers the other day , it went something like this

Hi Mrs. X , we are with XXX home security and there has been a rash of thefts on your street that we know about from the police dept

Oh Really , please tell me more but let me tell you first that I live in a gated community, a Nudist resort and we have an electric gate and you my dear are feeding me a line of Bull Shit...........................CLICK !!!!

One hour later:

Hello is this Mrs. X , your neighbor Mrs. XXX asked that we give you a call regarding the hail damage to your roof , we have an estimater just 4 doors down

Oh Really ?

Well my dear , my neighbor is right here beside of me and has no phone and uses mine and futhermore if your estimater is 4 doors down , then he or she is in the pool swimming with 25 to 30 Nudists right now.................................CLICK !!!!!

Laurie

 

[vinylweatherman]

Our REAL target though are the companies that set these up. Both the call centre company and those who task the call centres to do this work. In this respect, the guy who set up his own 0871 number is hurting the call centres, but not the poor staff who he is now more than willing to engage with, thus reducing the work related stress they get from those who's dinner they have interrupted.

It should be a wake up call to the whole industry, as they could get what they fear most, which is us having such a "lock down" on our phones that telemarketing is effectively a dead industry.

Whilst people moan about all the junk mail that pours through the letterbox, at least it can be read AFTER dinner, and does not sit there on the mat constantly ringing for attention DURING your meal. Add on it being printed on one side only of a nice sheet of A4 and I'm all for it

Same with the endless charity collection bags that keep coming - haven't bought a bin bag in decades