telephone preference service hot or cold calling?

Lady_K

I had a sales call from Everest double glazing today. I'm registered with the telephone preference service and told them this. The woman was really very snooty and very rudely pointed out that does not effect thier call and that it only matters when its either hot or cold calling I can't remember which, she said as she was only either hot or cold calling(cant rem which way round it was) that it doesnt matter and she had every right to call! What the heck is hot calling or cold calling?

Bossyboots

Cold calling is ringing unumbers nsolicited when you have not given the number to the company yourself.

If you have previously registered with Everest for a quote or something and they have retained your number from that, then that is not technically cold calling. If however you are sure you have never given them (or a linked company) your number then she was cold calling.

EvilMonkey

I'd guess (and it does match up with what the TPS say) that

Cold calling = getting your name / number off the electoral role or something similar and then calling.

Hot calling = getting your name off list that says you want information (or something) IE you've put your name somewhere, or signed up for something possibly without unticking the "do not call me" box

I guess it would have been helpful to find out where they got your name \ number from?

E.M.

Lady_K

I've not asked for anything from any double glazing firms as I've had it for over 10 years now. Can they just say it just to make an excuse to call? I can't prove I didn't ask them to call and they didn't say anything about when or how I am supposed to have asked them to

Bossyboots

Lady_K wrote:

I've not asked for anything from any double glazing firms as I've had it for over 10 years now. Can they just say it just to make an excuse to call? I can't prove I didn't ask them to call and they didn't say anything about when or how I am supposed to have asked them to

Lady_K they seem to be able to say just about anything they like. It seems that as soon as they are prevented from calling for one reason, they find another way around it.

hawkwinddotcom

One way around this is to get a 0870 (free ,,do a google) redirected to your home number and give that out to companies and use your real number for friends and family.

That way if you get fed up with cold callers you just give the number up.

You can get 0870 numbers that you can make money from as well.

headcovers

I have to say that registering with the telephone preference service was the best thing I ever did, as those pesky calls went right down - almost disappeared in fact.

However, I have had a couple just recently and on both occasions when I politely informed then that by calling me they were in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 they both slammed the phone down on me!

The trick is to get full details of the company name and if you can stand it the address and telephone number and the name of the person calling you before you tell them to remove your number from their database. Then, when you get a moment, log onto the TPS site and use their complaint form to inform TPS that the company called you. They will then add it to their report to the Information Commisioner. Gives me a sense of satisfaction, anyway!

Stonk

Easy to deal with.

<ring ring>

Callee: Hello.

Caller: Hello, this is Everest trying to flog you something.

Callee: I'm registered with TPS - you are breaking the law by calling me.

Caller: (getting snotty) You're wrong - actually this is a hot call, not a cold call.

Callee: Meaning what, exactly?

Caller: Meaning that in the dim and distant past you once filled in a form and forgot to tick a box and now you're going to be plagued by hordes of charlatans, err, sorry, carefully selected partners, to whom that company sold their database.

Callee: Please remove me from your calling lists, effective immediately.

loracan1

Stonk wrote:

Easy to deal with.



Caller: Hello, this is Everest trying to flog you something.

Don't be silly! They never admit they're trying to flog something, they're always "giving you an opportunity" or "you've been selected".

RichyRich

I'd prefer something like this:

Callee: "Hello"

Caller: "Hi. Can I speak to Mr XXXXX please?"

Callee: "Speaking. And can I make a note of your name?"

Caller: "It's YYYYYY. I'm calling from ZZZZZZZ."

Callee: "Very interesting. I work at WWWWWWW. Do you enjoy your job?"

Caller: "Erm...."

Callee: "Whereabouts in the country are you?"

Caller: "We're based in Bradford."

Callee: "That's a coincidence, so am I. Whereabouts in Bradford are you?"

Caller: "We're in the Shipley area"

Callee: "Oh that's only down the road from me. Do you know the Sun Inn pub?"

Caller: "Erm..."

Callee: "They do a very good deal on a lunchtime. Do you work through the day?"

Caller: "No..."

Callee: "Is your work part or full time?"

Caller: "I work part time for ZZZZZZZ"

Callee: "Do you study or have another job through the day?"

etc.

It can get quite funny to see how far you can take the conversation before they hang up. Just make sure you get first question in before they get a chance to try and flog you some overprices s@!t.

I don't wanna register with TPS. It's too much fun.

Rich

monkeyspanner

TPS is a wonderful thing. I thought it wouldn't make a difference but it has. We can now prepare and eat an evening meal in peace. Mostly people back off immediately and apologise. I did have one the other day who ask me for my TPS ref number "so he could enter it on his system...."

Highly recommend Mailingf Preference system also reduced our mail a lot.