Get Your Own Back on Marketers

Jays

rallymad wrote:

Registering with TPS or whatever won't stop you getting calls from people going through the phone book number by number.


... I lasted fifteen minutes in that job.

I just say "how did you get this number, it is registered with the TPS?", they say how sorry they are to disturb me and hang up. No problems, I may get one in four/six months.

Or, go ex-directory.

Jays

rog2

I'mcomingbackasaman wrote:

may as well stick it in the recycling bag provided by the Council save the bother of posting it back if it's not gonna make a jot of difference.

We get most of the junk mail rejected from our re-cycling box. I think I prefer the posting back option.

aj3001

I have been on both sides as I have also worked as a telemarketer before, so I can understand the postition they are in, I still have some fun though, like on friday:

Hello?

Hello

I am calling for Mr *****,

Yes this is him

I am calling from Icon, we are currently doing a survey....

Calling from where? I am TPS registered, did you know its illegal for you to be making this phone call to me and I can now take legal action against you and your company?

I'm sorry, sometimes the TPS system takes a while to be updated

I have been on TPS for 2 years now, if you continue this conversation any further, I will be forced to contact my lawyers

<Caller hangs up>

A few weeks ago some guy tried selling me a mobile, we were talking for 20 minutes about how my son killed things and how we had a dead womens body in my front room and I wouldn't let this guy go, just kept repeating how I had no control over my son etc etc etc was funny as hell!

davepin

If I'm in a particularly bored/annoyed mood and get an unsolicited telemarketing call, I ask them if I can have their own personal home number. Everyone so far has refused, and I ask them why as they are happy to phone me in my own personal time when it's inconvenient to me why can't I return the favour. After a few minutes of this discussion they usually get the hint.

halloweenqueen_2

The only person that continually rings me is BT, I say to each and every caller I do not wish to have any calls from them - they do not provide any services for me - yes Mrs HQ we will tke you off our list - and then they ring again, sometimes the sameperson/ the same day. I point out I am not a customer of theirs and do not want their calls, I am now registered on the TPS, what else can i threaten them with?

ckerrd

kuohu wrote:

I agree with the above poster. The people on the other end of the line are only doing a job, and it is probably not a very pleasant one (and with poor pay). I don't see why you should gain any pleasure from giving them the runaround with these silly games. If telesales calls are a problem then register with TPS or just simply say 'I am not interested, thanks'.

Just my opinion anyway.

All these people are doing a job and I appreciate that however they are invading my privacy by calling me unsolicited at my home.
So far I just hang up on them or say "Too Slow" just before anyone speaks.

I also object to being stopped in the street by people trying to sell me things, sign me up for charity DD or whatever. Usually I ask them if they know me, when they say "No" I tell them not to talk to me then.
One guy put his hand on my shoulder and I warned him that I would report him for assault.

I will start using the OP tactics - much more satisfying and thanks for posting.

Gorgeous_George

It is better to return the junk (if they provide postage). This gives them the option to reuse the junk or not to send it in the first place.

Recycling takes up valuable resources. Surely it's better to not create the junk in the first place.

I prefer to keep them waiting rather than being rude. Saves some other poor soul from being hassled.

My favourite time was the Kirby Legend vacuum cleaner scam. Had a call to say I'd won a bottle of wine or set of crystal glasses so I chose the wine. To get the wine I had to be presented with their total cleaning solution - took three hours, fininshing at midnight. Quite a pleasant 3 hours - even had my bed hoovered (sorry, vacuumed!) and I got the wine. Two weeks later...

Had a call to say I'd won a bottle of wine or set of crystal glasses. I told the caller I had already seen the vacuum cleaner but she was very persuasive so I chose the glasses (wine was rubbish). To get the glasses I had to be presented with their total cleaning solution and I thought why not, the glasses may be better than the wine and I could get another bed vacuumed.

You should have seen the face of the salesman as he struggled up the drive with two suitcases full of vacuum cleaner only to be met with my smiling face. He turned around and i never got my glasses.

The Kirby Legend cost £850 at the time. Can't believe anybody bought it!



GG

msmicawber

McAzrael wrote:

Don't just send junk mail back in reply paid envelopes - tape them to a brick to keep the postage charges high.

My father used to amuse himself by filling up prepaid envelopes with old washers/stones/cat litter to do just that! It doesn't get you off the mailing list, but gives a sense of empowerment by knowing that you're raising their postal charges. :rotfl:

kittiwoz

tempuscat wrote:

An individual's time is valuable because it is that individual's right to choose how best to spend it.

tempuscat wrote:

Outfits engaged in this kind of activity wouldn't last long if they couldn't recruit staff because the work experience was going to be so distasteful.

Working in telesales is very distateful and the staff turnover is terrific. People start and quit the same week or even the same day but the telesales companies don't care because they make people work a week in hand or pay commision. The thing is an indiviadual's right to choose how they spend their time is severly curtailled by their means. If they're desperate enough they'll spend it doing crappy work in crappy conditions for crap wages.

I worked in telesales for about a fortnight. It was absolutely awful. We were constantly shouted at, sworn at and humiliated by our supervisors. I had to work a week in hand and I started mid week and got left mid week so I only actually got paid for three days work. They were supposed to send me the comission only for the rest of the time but I guess all the sales must have fallen through or at least I can't prove they didn't. I got fired for not making enough sales. I think I was too honest really. The best salesmen hustled the buyers into agreeing without even knowing that they had done. They mostly thought they were signing up for an information pack. That was tacitly encouraged. We weren't even told about TPS and we were just working from printed sheets that got thrown in the bin when we'd gone through them. We normally told people we would take them of the database if they asked but it was just to get them off the phone quickly without an argument. No one went through the used sheets to log if people had asked to be removed. It was mind numbingly boring, sitting at a desk punching numbers into a phone all day. It might sound surprising but my housemate went to stay with his boyfriend and I didn't really speak to anyone all week. Most of the time no one answers the phone. When they occasioanally do they don't want to speak to you, not that I blame them. I did find it a little upsetting when they were rude though. Also I had a few people say things like, "I'm not wasting my time talking to you just to save a few hundred pounds." (We were calling businesses.) I had nothing left in my student overdraft and the council were onto me for three months council tax over the Summer so I was doing this horrible job in this horrible environment for £5 an hour and hearing people say things like that made me feel like crying. I agree telesales isn't a proper job. It doesn't provide any service or value to society and I wish the goverment would ban the whole telesales industry but I don't see that trying to make the lives of the poor suckers stuck on the end of the phone even more miserable helps matters.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I recently had a call from someone asking for me by name. She wanted to know if she could take "2 minutes" of my time to ask me a few questions (I've no idea if she was trying to sell something or just doing market research). When I asked where her company got my phone number, she said it must have been from a survey I'd filled in. I told her that I never put my phone number on things like that, and she just said "sorry to trouble you" and hung up.