New Form of Telemarketing

[Barry_White]

Last night I got hit by a new form of telemarketing. The phone rings and I pick it up and say hello and this recorded voice starts trying to sell me on changing my phone to a company called Freetel.

They have worked out how to do away with telemarketers. I suppose they just program all the telephone numbers into a computer and set it going.

The best part about it you can just hang up on it without saying a word. Talk about being impersonal.:mad: :mad: :mad:

[ozwinner]

Got one at work the other day, informing me my number had been selected to receive alsorts of goodies.

Being a real person on the other end, I had the pleasure or telling them to go away in slow jerky movements.

Al :eek:

[Suresh]

This is one of the reasons that I got rid of my landline. I could not stand the calls from marketing just when I was cooking or trying to feed the kids. Drove me crazy and then when Telstra did its latest bit of price gouging I decided it was time to look at the alternatives.
The best thing I had done for a long time, now only people who know my number call me. I do not get phone assaults any more.
Even better, the alternative mobile company lets me make calls from my mobile to landlines anywhere in Australia for the same price as Telstra was charging me, and the cost of my plan plus all calls is less than what Telstra was charging me for landline rental.
Suresh

[Gumby]

I've got call display on the home phone and if it comes up as 'overseas', I don;'t answer it. They're all in bloody Mumbai - particularly the Optus ones trying to convert me !

[LineLefty]

This is one of the reasons that I got rid of my landline.

I'd love to do that but I need the net at home

[Alastair]

Bugger

The only compensation I had was to be thoroughly rude to the inconsiderate b#st@rds.

Now they have taken even that away from me.

Alastair

[Wood Borer]

I think you will find that telemarketing companies are not allowed to annoy business telephone numbers - it used to be against the law.

I was also under the impression that recorded announcements could not be used to make calls, it had to be a human on the end when you answered.

The predictive diallers are machines that dial the numbers from a database and when someone answers they transfer the call to an "agent".

They are all pests and I have little time for them. One polite way of getting "a bad name for yourself" as far as call centres are concerned is to waste their time. They take time wasters off their databases.

My technique is after answering the phone, politely tell them I am not interested. If they don't take the hint instantly, I ask them to hold and I just leave the phone off the hook while I finish my dinner or go outside and count the stars in the sky. Check the phone after 20 or 30 minutes and see if they're still there, if not good, if so tell them to keep holding and give them another 20 or thirty minutes. They give up eventually.

Many outbound call centres are getting very cheap rates on their calls but only for the first 5 or 10 minutes so the above technique teaches them it is a waste of time and it is expensive to muck me around.

Some people will argue that I am putting students and illegal migrants out of work by being so callous. My time is precious and I don't want to change carriers 3 times per week so their call was wasted anyway.

If you feel sorry for these people, I suggest you publicly advertise your telephone number inviting their calls.

[jackiew]

I've got a silent number ( minor rant: why do telstra charge me for not being in the book .. think of all the ink they are saving ... with British Telecom in UK there was no charge for being "ex-directory").

However this doesn't stop businesses who have my number for legitimate reasons ringing me up for what I consider to be non legitimate reasons ... AGL caught me this lunch time wanting me to combine my gas and electric bill .... the salesman was totally thrown when I said there wasn't gas connected to the house ... its great when they lose their part in the script ( sounds of desperate scrolling down the screen looking for the right bit ).

I got the impression that there was no-one on the line when I first picked up the phone so they must have been auto-dialling until they got a "live one".

My old bank really took the biscuit for cold calling ... they ring you up and then ask you all sorts of very personal questions to verify you are who you say you are and then try to sell you stuff ... of course you have no way of knowing if its really someone from the bank or someone trying it on to get personal info for identity theft reasons. Helpful hint: kicking up a fuss about it got me on their "do not call" list.

Personally I would like "cold-calling" banned totally. Businesses who do it are just added to my ( very very very ) long list of who not to deal with along with anyone whose tv/radio advert appears more than once during a single program.