Telemarketers

[edible_hat]

There's this one company that keep ringing us saying "Hello am I speaking to the manager of [store name]" (or occasionally "Hello is that Mr [store name]", even though our store name is nothing like any person's actual name. Think telemarketers in the Simpsons asking for Mr Kwik-e-mart.)

The first few times we told them we're not interested, but they keep calling. Telling them the phone number is on the do not call list doesn't work because the call center's outside Australia so the DNC doesn't apply.


So now when they call, we say the manager's not in. Even when he answers the phone he tells them "No you've just missed him" or "He's not coming in today".

[Evil Queen]

How odd. I'm going to assume that you guys have already requested to be taken off the call list, right?

[edible_hat]

How odd. I'm going to assume that you guys have already requested to be taken off the call list, right?

Yes, and they said they'd take the number off the list. They're outsourcers not based in Australia so we have no legal recourse against them. So we're screwing with them until they realise that calling us is just a waste of time.

[Raieth]

The one I've found that works is belive it or not "You do know that this is a buisness right?"

Most go "uh, Um, one sec" and then hang up on me.

Only had one call back twice.

[marasbaras]

Let them die on hold.

You: Hold on, let me get him. I have to put you on hold for a sec.
Caller: OK (of course, he thinks he's going to get what he wants)
You: (pushes hold button)

Oops

[Boochan]

We get quite a bit of pre-recorded message telemarketing in our store. Caller ID just shows the obligatory "OUT OF AREA" message, so we know its VOIP or scammers. Horrible amount of junk faxes as well, most of it Timeshare or printer cartridge, toner crap.

Thankfully the debt collectors stopped calling our store when one of the previous managers who had various companies chasing him left..

[SwanJun]

At the office, I have been trying to get our company off the call list of a prominent telemarketing company here in Canada. Even though they promise me it will take 90 days, it has taken over five years. I still get, on average, ten calls a day from them.

I counted one day - I get roughly 700 calls on a slow day. 30% of them are telemarketers

It's insane! Then I have to go home and face-off with them too!

I had one that I hung up on actually call me back to chastise me for hanging up on him after I had repeatedly told him that I didn't want to receive a prize for some fictional raffle I had apparently filled in (with the wrong city-name no less) eighteen months previous: "Of course it may be difficult for you to remember. The ballot was filled in over eighteen months ago."

Oh he got P!SSED that I refused to accept "one of the five excellent prizes in their raffle"... HE got even more pissed when I told him that I never fill out a "free" raffle ballot in a store because they are usually just Time-Share scams.

Yeah, so after I hung up on him he called back to not only yell at me for hanging up on him, but then continued to INSIST that I come to their warehouse to pick up my prize.

I then passed him to my husband, who very coolly informed him that he is a tree surgeon by trade and has a myriad of chainsaws and woodchippers ... and left it at that.

...he didn't phone back again.

Usually, though, at home I pass telemarketers to my three year-old. They don't often stay on the line too long.

SJ

[Kogo Shuko]

I used to be a telemarketer - so just imagine if I had been working there while on this board. Imagine all the SC stories I would have because someone passed me to their three year old or started asking me what I was wearing, or tried selling ME something (that happened once - it made my day... in fact, I think it was the only day I enjoyed work).

Being a telemarketer is crap. I hated it. I really, really hated it. But it paid the bills. That's why I did it. I didn't do it because I liked it - I certainly didn't like the way I was treated over the phone most of the time.

But - in Canada at least- there are certain rules. Whoever told you it takes 90 days is full of crock. It takes 30 days, after that and you can take it to court (at least when I worked in the business). After you have said no TWICE it is then illegal to continue to try and sell the same product. In certain states (I think Alabama is one of them) the customer only has to say no once, and then that's it. However, you can then try upselling a DIFFERENT product and it's perfectly legal. Assholes in the telemarketing business.

If you want to get off that list immediately there is a way to do it. Be irate. Be REALLY irate. Start yelling, swearing, threatening to sue, to go over and chop them up. Whatever. They will manually send in the request as opposed to electronically, and you can be removed from the list within two business days. Most people would prefer to hang up, fool with the telemarketer, put them on hold than to do this, which makes absolutely no sense to me. If I don't want to be on a calling list, I tell them. I tell them angrily. If you act like an ass, they'll get rid of you quicker than if you are polite.

[SwanJun]

<snip>
But - in Canada at least- there are certain rules. Whoever told you it takes 90 days is full of crock. It takes 30 days, after that and you can take it to court (at least when I worked in the business). After you have said no TWICE it is then illegal to continue to try and sell the same product. In certain states (I think Alabama is one of them) the customer only has to say no once, and then that's it. However, you can then try upselling a DIFFERENT product and it's perfectly legal. Assholes in the telemarketing business.

If you want to get off that list immediately there is a way to do it. Be irate. Be REALLY irate. Start yelling, swearing, threatening to sue, to go over and chop them up. Whatever. They will manually send in the request as opposed to electronically, and you can be removed from the list within two business days. Most people would prefer to hang up, fool with the telemarketer, put them on hold than to do this, which makes absolutely no sense to me. If I don't want to be on a calling list, I tell them. I tell them angrily. If you act like an ass, they'll get rid of you quicker than if you are polite.

I think that they might have a loophole on the 30-day thing. What they do is phone our stores who in turn pass along our number as corp. Because one of our "outlets" (as one of the callers called them) has given our number, the time limit begins again .... or something like that.

I don't know ...

I honestly can't berate a caller who is genuinely nice. I'd live to get pissed off and rant and rave, but I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of a really, really, really pissed off customer yelling at poor lil'me because a of a store. Sure, if they start getting under my skin I will yell, but not the poor woman with that cute Alabama accent asking me about my postage meter or to "confirm the mailing information for an executive".

I know the number now, anyway, and just ignore it.

And me putting on my three year old is justifiable when they call me at 9:30pm and wake him up. Call me an SC, but don't call me after 8.

[Kogo Shuko]

THAT officially is illegal. You can not call after 8:30 PM. Perhaps throw that one out there to the caller.

I know being rude to the person on the other end sucks - but I know from experience that it's the only way that seems to work - both from the telemarketing side and the other side as well. Columbia House is the worst for that stuff.

[SwanJun]

It is illegal?

Why thank you for that! I will throw that out next time. I rarely get calls before 8pm.

I've never had Columbia house - the Shriners is the one that is the most annoying to me ...