Get Your Own Back on Marketers

ioscorpio

Tips for handling marketers

(1)The three little words that work: "Hold On please..."

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of
hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more
time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone,
you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has
efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other
end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and
records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real"
sales person to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is
to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times,
as quickly as possible This confuses the machine that dialed the call
and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to
have your name in their system any longer !!!

(3) Junk Mail Help:

When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return
these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own
junk mail away.

When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything
from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw
away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs
them more than the regular 24p postage "IF" and when they receive them
back.

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 29p
before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that
case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in
their postage-paid return envelopes.

For example; send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American
Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything
else that day, then just send them their blank application back!

If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on
anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you
want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 24p.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their
own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's
let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all
they're Paying for it...Twice!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that
e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need
to increase postage costs again. You get the idea ?

IF ENOUGH PEOPLE DO THIS IT WILL WORK

THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR
FRIENDS

Joe_Bloggs

I found iomexico's post very uplifting. Please take care not to throw away or send anything back that identifies yourself. If you get junk mail that has your name and address them remove it before throwing it away or recycling it.
Consider registering with:-
The Mailing Preference Service and the Telephone Preference Service.
J_B.

JohnFB

Brilliant !!
I will take your advice on the silent calls.

I have also been sending junk mail back in pre-paid enveloppes for a few months now -being carefull to rip out anything with my name or address on.
It's quite satisfying.

EagerLearner

As a result of this post I have logged my last address and our current address with the MPS and our current address with PPS as well.
Thanks!

EagerLearner

bbruce

I agree its great fun and satisfying.
Recently I've been getting mailshots from racing tipsters who've been banned from betting because they're so successful. I send them each others offers to help them get out of thir plight!

EagerLearner

I used to work in marketing for a company that had a telesales team and I can honestly tell you all that at least in that company, the telesales team did not want to cause upset to people by sending mail and it was not the telesales people that coordinated mailshots... it was marketing under orders from directors.

The marketing and telesales team were in agreement that if someone had asked to be removed from a list we should not contact them again... BUT... the directors did not agree. They claimed that as each new person had cost £xxx to get on board, the telesales team could not just delete them as they were deleting £xxx each time.

So the telesales guys were stuck with directors shouting at them to not delete, and customers shouting at them to delete. The staff were so upset sometimes and could do nothing about it. Then they would get junk back in the post - this did NOTHING - as they simply chuck it in the bin and YOU stay on mailing lists unless you call, call and call again. If you have no luck as to speak to Senior Management, and keep calling. That's far more sucessful than sending them junk mail back - don't waste your life on things like that...

Register with Mail Preference, but don't rely on it... You cost money for a company to obtain and they don't let go that easy. Don't blame the telesales guys though, they're only on the phones and didn't send you the stuff... Call, call, call and someone will get !!!!!! off enough to make sure you're deleted ;o)

EagerLearner

Omertron

EagerLearner wrote:

That's far more sucessful than sending them junk mail back - don't waste your life on things like that...

It's not about being sucessful, it's about making it less economic to send these mails out. It may only be 29p or so, but it's 29p less profit they would have made

EagerLearner

Omertron - I know what you mean, but the people that used to return junk mail/religious stuff to telesales in the envelopes were just ridiculed by the staff and not taken off lists anyway. The directors never realised and anyway couldn't care less about postal costs as long as the customers were not deleted. Calling through combined with returning the junk mail if you want, but not for me.

For me, it's 5-10 minutes of your life that you could have been using better - that's my opinion tho, I understand yours ;op

EagerLearner

fannyadams

When I worked for marketing co -in the "not known at this address return to sender" letters bit the ones marked "deceased" got treated differently. Knowing this is used this rather successfully to stop a lot of my junk mail. Admittedly it is a bit creepy to write deceased on your own mail but it's junk and if they send to a dead person it's harrassment or summat and they can be prosecuted i think.
Also - ANYONE who has ever completed a survey or sent in the warranty cards off their appliance or filled out a request for a freebie will get junk mail. So the only way to stop junk mail is to not apply for anything!

Lady_E

Heard on Radio 2 the other day that one of the female presenters on getting an unsolicited call , would listen to the caller and then say "tell me that you love me".The phone line normally went dead ........lol

pricefighter

What you need is a Telecrapper 2000 see: http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/12/the-telecrapper-2000/

Make sure you play Flash Recording which has been moved to here
http://www.deviantart.com/view/22995489/