Getting so sick of being harassed by sales people at work

[Moirae]

A good day is if we only receive 3 sales calls from companies trying to sell us garbage. I actually had one day where we received 10.

So today I finally lost it on one of these people after the 4th call and said "I don't know who you people think you are, but we have other things to do than listen to you sales people blather on. Please don't call back. Thanks." Then I hung up.

He called back claiming to be a guest trying to book a group of rooms, and told my husband that I was a cancer on the business and he needed to fire me immediately.

Well, I don't care what he was claiming to my husband, what he said to ME was "Hi, how are you today". " Fine, and you?", "I'm great. I was wondering who supplies your toner cartridges and who I can talk to about purchasing..." and that was when I cut him off and told him off.

The lying little sack of garbage.

If we talked to every sales person that called us in a day, we'd never do anything else but talk to sales people. We don't have time for that. It is a small business, and everyone does every duty.

I get that sales people have a job to do, but I have a job to do too, and it's not to spend all my time listening to sales people trying to sell me stuff.

[bainsidhe]

Correction: That was a scammer, not a legitmate salesperson. That is the age-old toner scam and apparently the economy has affected scammers too, because they are getting pretty bold-faced and will curse you out sometimes, if you don't fall for their spiel. Used to be they would just hang up on me when I started asking questions, calling them out on their scam. Now they argue with me. So now I just hang up.

[EricKei]

Oh dear Gawd I remember the damn toner scammers x.x Back at accountingfirm they called us every week like clockwork. Then, we'd get the ones asking for our printer model, claiming to be tech support...and the ones who kept trying to get us to go back to our old ISP -- those guys called at the end of EVERY month, sometimes with as many as 6 different callers in one day, for all of the SIX YEARS I was at that place. Keep in mind that the boss had cancelled service with that ISP many years before, due to high rates and poor customer service...

I wish the DNC list applied to businesses, I really do x.x Not that it would help with scammers, of course, but it would at least reduce the amount of callers. Good job chewing that asshole out, though! ^_^ See if you can get hubby and any other management staff on board with it. With any luck, they'll eventually get tired of getting cursed out/having their parentage called into question every time they call...Don't even bother with the "Hey, asshole, we know you're scammers," just jump straight to language that would make a South Park character blush ...if there are no custy's around, of course.

[KellyHabersham]

I wish the DNC list applied to businesses, I really do x.x Not that it would help with scammers, of course, but it would at least reduce the amount of callers. .

t

I did that with the church office number when I was the secretary there......our phone system didn't have Caller I.D., so I "had" to answer every call that came in during office hours.

[notalwaysright]

Heard the receptionist at my doctor's office fend off one of those calls just the other day.

"No, we don't have any need for... No, we're a very small office and... No thank you, goodbye."

We used to (at the roofing co) get tons of calls from places saying they could get us #1 on Google. We had caller ID, but they would often come up as "out of area" or similar, and we just couldn't risk it was a ligit call. They got super rude when we said no, calling back just like in the OPs case.

[EricKei]

KH - No ID at our place either, by the express wishes of the owner. I usually just hung up on these people right away, but our assistant manager/boss' girlfriend occasionally broke down and threw a serious bitch-fit at them. Those were fuuuun to watch

[Moirae]

I think that's the first time I actually told one off. I usually say "nope" after cutting them off, then hang up. I just finally got sick to death of the harassment.

[fireheart]

We have a mobile phone at work ONLY (no landline)...I'm waiting for the day we get one of those, so I can rip into them without actually resorting to swearing. (I DO work with children after all )

[Jay 2K Winger]

I'd be very surprised if anyone tried to call the outside line at The Client to try to offer us a better deal on our toner cartridges. It'd be very unlikely they'd ever get to me, though, having to work their way through the phone menu to get ITSD.

And if they did, I'd be sorely tempted to explain just who The Client is and just how bad an idea it is to try to scam them.

[ImmBarb]

At an old job my boss was the owner. He had a private phone number his friends knew, and the business one that rang at my desk. I would get cold sales calls all day long on that line wanting to talk to 'Joe' - I'm his friend, put me through or I'll get you fired.

I had carte-blanche with these calls. If I made Joe laugh a twenty would get flipped on my desk -"lunch is on me". If I *really* amused him it would be a fifty or a hundred for dinner!

I miss that job!

[NecessaryCatharsis]

As part of my job, when times are slow, I'm required to make cold calls for businesses. At least 90% of the time I get put through to the person I want, or I get a call back from them, and I never have to lie. How hard is it to tell the person answering the phone why you're calling?
'Hi, may I speak to the estimating department please'
'May I ask the nature of your call'
'Yes, it's name from company, I was calling to find out if I could be out on your bidding list, or if you had any upcoming projects you would be interested in having us price for you.'
'Certainly, I'll put you through to so-and-so, he's in charge of estimating', or 'yes, can I get your number and I'll have him call you back' or occasionally 'could you email me your contact details and some information on your company and I'll talk to the estimators about getting you on our bidding list.'

It's very rare that I get told no from the person answering the phone. Would people not have an easier time getting the response they want if they are up front about what they are trying to accomplish?

[rose_metal_nz]

He called back claiming to be a guest trying to book a group of rooms, and told my husband that I was a cancer on the business and he needed to fire me immediately.

That is just horrible

[Moirae]

NecessaryCatharsis, I can pretty much guarantee that if they ask me how my day is going, it's going to be a sales person. The problem is that they immediately start going into their spiel. If they just asked immediately "would it be a good time to talk about such and such", I'd be polite. But once they start it's almost impossible to get them off the phone unless you hang up on them.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Yeah, that's just rude. And a stupid way to sell something, piss off the person you want to get a yes from.

[EricKei]

I've always been under the impression that their methodology is that they can actually bully workers into buying their products -- failing that, they're hoping to get someone who's too low on the food chain to buy anything, and trick them into "committing" to a purchase anyway.

Simplest thing is probably just to hang up with no comment as soon as you realize who is calling. Hopefully, they'll stop bothering after a few of those.