I hung up on a telemarketer today

[Ironclad Alibi]

I spent too much time talk to a telemarker the other week. Now I have an unauthorized $1charge on my credit card and a promise of charging $9.99 a month unless I cancel. So now I have to disput the charge with the credit card company, and get them to cancel the membership and refund the $1. How did they get my credit card number? This is HSBC Bank which issued the credit card and their Identity Protection Plan scam.

[Ghel]

That's why you never say "yes" or "ok" to a telemarketer. Even if you say it to something like, "Do you want us to stop calling you?" they'll use that as a confirmation for charges.

Here in the US, IIRC, charities and political organizations are exempt from the DNC list. I suspect that's why most of the scammers who call me claim to be charities. (Plus they're feeding on people's sympathies.) I think there's also an exception for existing relationships, but I'm not sure.

If you tell a telemarketer not to call you, they're required to remove your number from their list for a year. Of course, if it's a shady operation, that won't stop them.

[Bandit]

"Do not call again" doesn't seem to work, and I'm not sure we can require them to take us off their list, what with the "prior business relationship" loophole.

Hence me wondering if the other phone company is any better about not harassing us.

I talk to India about once a month since I dropped the ISP service with Hell Canada. I still have the phone and TV with them.

I *am* on the DNC list, and don't hear a peep from Robbers or the other 1001 people selling Windows/funerals/weddings, etc.

Now I just have to be at home sometime when the local newspaper calls again so I can inform them that a) Don't call again, b) I'm on the DNC list, and c) They are being reported.

B

[draftermatt]

The only telemarketing calls I get at home are scammers pretending to be charities or mortgage brokers.

We got a "mortgage broker" last week. The only info he had on us was info you can easily find on a property search database, and he said he got our info through Fannie Mae, which is odd since we have a conventional mortgage.

Different guy from same company called yesterday asking why we hadn't sent the papers they asked for (they never asked for any).

So my wife kept asking him questions about why their story keeps changing each time they call, and why they claim we talked to person "x" that we've never heard of. When the guy couldn't stop stuttering she told him to never call again and hung up.

Part of me hopes they call back so I can talk to them, heh.

[Arcade Man D]

We got a "mortgage broker" last week. The only info he had on us was info you can easily find on a property search database, and he said he got our info through Fannie Mae, which is odd since we have a conventional mortgage.

I had one of those calling my cell phone a year ago. Which was hilarious because I don't own a house. I tore into him because he was a scammer. And I have no room for bad feelings about yelling at scammers.

[kittiebaker]

Language Barrier

I have had a few times where I have pretended not to speak English. This is made simpler by the fact that I can speak 3 other languages. The one that surprised me was when I answered the phone and a tiny little voice asked me if I spoke Russian and if I would like to buy something from Russia. I asked how this product could help me in Iowa of all places and was immediately hung up on. Only time I'VE been the one to be hung up on by a TELEMARKETER.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Now I have an unauthorized $1charge on my credit card and a promise of charging $9.99 a month unless I cancel. So now I have to disput the charge with the credit card company, and get them to cancel the membership and refund the $1.

Good news. I called the IPP people today. They cancelled my membership and agreed to refund the $1 charge. I got the feeling they are a separate company from HSBC and might not be happy with the way HSBC does their telemarketing.

[Dips]

I'm not sure we can require them to take us off their list, what with the "prior business relationship" loophole.

If you are in the US, you sure can. The "prior business reliationship" loophole closes as soon as you inform them that you want to be placed on their internal "do not call" list.

They can still call you for current business reasons such as asking a question about an order or to let you know about a late payment. But no marketing calls.

Anyone who doesn't maintain and honor an internal DNC list is breaking US law.

[wolfie]

"Do not call again" doesn't seem to work, and I'm not sure we can require them to take us off their list, what with the "prior business relationship" loophole.

Hence me wondering if the other phone company is any better about not harassing us.

In your position, I'd ask for a supervisor, and then tell the supervisor "I understand that the CRTC has a special offer for (your company) customers - switch to (competitor) phone service and you will stop your marketing calls in 6 months. Which is it going to be - you honour my requirement that you not call again and I stay as a customer, or I take the CRTC up on their offer and you lose me as a customer?"

Note that in Canada, the "prior business relationship" loophole expires 6 months after the business relationship ends - hence my reference to "CRTC has a special offer".

[Kiwi]

We had shaw call and try to sell us TV 5 times before I threatened to take action (we live in BC) and during each call after the first one I asked for a supervisor. It took 5 really firm but polite requests that we did NOT want to be contacted about this and we were prepared to take our business elsewhere if they kept it up before they listened. It's been over a month and no calls.

Here is a great link, Canada does have a DNC list, they have links to it on that page.

BC civil liberties group

I have also gotten rid of capital one mailing us constantly with credit offers using a firm letter and quoting the following (again from above link)

If you continue to receive direct marketing mail addressed to you, you may contact the sender and instruct it to stop contacting you. Both the Personal Information Protection Act (BC) and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act require an organization to carry out such instructions.

No offers in 6 months from them.

[Magpie]

In your position, I'd ask for a supervisor, and then tell the supervisor "I understand that the CRTC has a special offer for (your company) customers - switch to (competitor) phone service and you will stop your marketing calls in 6 months. Which is it going to be - you honour my requirement that you not call again and I stay as a customer, or I take the CRTC up on their offer and you lose me as a customer?

I wasn't going to be that careful about it. "If we get another call from you we're switching to Rogers". I'm just trying to convince my husband that it's worth it to actually switch. I don't like making empty threats.

[blas]

The DNC has proven quite effective for me, I signed up only because with the decline in landline phones, telemarketers were somehow getting ahold of cell phone #s and calling everyone they could find, and after a few, I'd had enough. Working night shift and being called at noon can do that to a person.

Nowadays, only scammers call me. The most recent was the one pretending to be AT&T's debt collectors.

As a general rule, I never answer a call from a number I don't recognize, ESPECIALLY an 800 or similar type of number. Then as soon as I can, I use whocalledus to see if anyone else has gotten calls from that number and who they think it is. If it's local, I just google it and find out if it's just someone's cell or a business number.

[sirwired]

In the past two weeks, I've had two different brokerage places cold-calling me at work trying to get me buy stock! What kind of flipping idiot would buy a cold-called investment? I guess there must be enough, since the PPS (Payoff Per Sucker) amount is probably pretty high...

And on Friday, I got a phone call (also from some call center) trying to reach the last guy that had my work phone number. Too bad I've had the same work phone number since my first day on the job... over ten years ago.

SirWired

[Shalom]

There's been an epidemic recently of shady warranty companies trying to sell extended warranties for cars. The Caller ID is forged to look like it came from somewhere in Florida, at a number that does not exist. When you answer, it's a recorded message (which I'm pretty sure is illegal, DNC or no DNC), telling you your car warranty is about to expire and they can extend it for you ... for a price, of course. Press 1 to speak to a CSR, press 2 to be removed from the list. (Which is BS, I pushed 2 and they called me again the next night.) Finally I pushed 1, just to find out who the hell they were.

Him: "Hi, I need the make, model and year of your car please."
Me: "I need the name and address of your company please."
Him: "You're fing high."
Me: "The hell I am, I don't toke."
Him: "I remember my first beer..."
Me: "Ya? When was that?"
Him: (click)

Afterwards it occurred to me that I should have played along and wasted his time, and given him my 1988 S-10 Blazer with (at the time) 194K miles on it, see what kind of warranty he'd come up with for that old clunker.

The epidemic eventually stopped when they finally got a Senator's home phone number on their list and bothered him night after night until, as they say, Steps Were Taken™.

(Not that even the more reputable warranty companies are worth dealing with. I bought my '99 Blazer back in '03; it had 37K miles on it, so the factory warranty had just run out, and the dealership tried to sell me an extended warranty for $2400. I did some research and found an outfit that would sell me an extended warranty for $1600, bumper to bumper (certain parts excepted, as detailed in their book), with no deductible, good until 100K miles. So I jumped at this. Turns out not to have been such a great deal after all...

First of all, they pay with a corporate credit card over the phone. My mechanic doesn't take credit cards over the phone, which means I had to shell out and submit for reimbursement unless I went to the dealer. Second, they don't always take your word for it on an expensive repair: they want to send their adjuster out to take a look at it first. OK, I can see this, they're trying to prevent fraud, but it still makes it inconvenient to have to wait around a couple of days until they get around to showing up. (Not to mention that they don't always agree with your mechanic that something's in bad enough condition that it needs replacement.) They also don't cover normal wear and tear, so there's an out for them as well if they can find a way to claim that something wore out rather than breaking. Fortunately they didn't pull that one on me too often.

The worst of it, though, was that even though there are "no deductibles", they still wind up paying less than the cost of the repair, leaving me to make up the difference. How so, the dealer wanted $85/hour for labor, (it's $104 now... this was a while ago) but they only paid $69 because that's how much they figure labor should cost in whatever universe they live in, so I have to pay the difference out of my own pocket. (My mechanic only charged that much at that time, but some things are better done at the dealer.)

On top of that, they low-ball you on parts cost. One example, I needed a new brake caliper. Mechanic quoted me $110 for the part. They said "Well we'll only pay you $35 for that." I asked how come, and they said because they found that caliper on some online parts dealer for $35. I asked her whether she'd feel comfortable driving a car with a $35 brake caliper? She didn't have an answer for that one, but she probably doesn't have one of her own company's warranties either. It's like being nibbled to death by ducks... by the time the warranty ran out at 100K miles, between the labor cost differential and the extra money I'd shelled out for decent parts instead of their cut-rate specials, I'd wound up paying in more than the $800 I'd saved by not going through the dealer, who would have covered all the repairs in full without any arguments about price. So watch out for those discount warranties, they're not always worth the paper they're written on.)

[protege]

During the last state election, I was constantly getting spam and messages from one of the candidates. Every damn day, my inbox was getting flooded. That is, until I called up his office, and ripped him a new one. Needless to say, the spam and other crap soon stopped...mainly because I said something like "Well, I know who I'm *not* voting for this time!"

But the worst, has to be Verizon. For quite awhile, I was getting letters, and nearly every night, someone would call to sing the praises of FIOS. All of that just pissed me off. Not only is FIOS much more expensive than what I have, I can't see upgrading to it anyway--it's not like my ancient computer will run any faster