Great 'Best Cold Caller Rebukes' Hunt

Kiama

non.a.mousey I have to disagree with - well pretty much everything you have said.

I believe the callers have a lack of respect for their fellow human beings and their time, why should anyone else's job impose on my free time?

Market researchers being lumped in with sales calls - what a monstrosity!!! Wait a minute they both call usually uninvited, somehow expect your co-operation and often have a blatent disregard for your wishes for peace and quiet in your own home during your free time. Go figure!

MR firms get 'comissioned' to take on the task of disturbing people - sorry am I meant to feel sorry for them? They get money out of it where's our cut?

I'm sure no company wants to upset us they just want as you said a cost effective way of finding out info, my view which may or may not be shared by others is to offer something for our valuable time - perhaps on a survey website where people who like to answer questions will frequent (I expect a response here of but those people might not be the type of people that a company want to know about - whose problem is that, companies get refused by callers anyway their research is often flawed due to this).

You did however hit a point about legitimacy of companies and yes I believe many people are in fear of this as fraudsters are getting more and more clever at phishing for personal details thsi alone is a good enough reason for me to decide never to help anyone who calls me uninvited.

Saying that we have no right to stop them speaking to someone - hang on do they have a right to speak to people then? Do they have rights to disturb people? Do I not have a right to be left alone after telling a company that I do not wish to deal with them?

Lastly yes we have our phones that we pay to have connected so why should we have to do any of the following :- turn phone off, turn ringer off, TPS, complain to TPS, read a thread on MSE about how to avoid or 'deal with' these types of calls.

Bottom line everyone at every stage of these calls knows that they are annoying and disrupting - that alone should deter them, if it doesn't then they are fair game to these mindless and amusing 'games' or tactics.

BargainGalore

non.a.mousey

I have to say that many companies dont give a !!!! about its customers nor care when it comes to harassment from them with marketing calls etc

What gives them a automatic right to ring people up out of the blue and waffle about how good a god damn deal is?

Most of us have eyes we can use them, we have a brain we use to make an informed choice in our own time to find the best deals without a company who has vested interested telling us and we must give a answer now.

The sooner cold calling was banned the better

I am sick to death of dropping what I am doing just to answer the phone without getting the hard sell

I dont encourage absue to people on phone but I can understand why people do

I got my phone for one thing for personnel use.

Sylvan

This thread, and others like it (A big thank you to the person that posted the link to zincoxide's debitas conversations:rotfl:) is/are wonderful. Extremely funny, but also enabling.

Thank you to those of you who have put yourselves out to register in order to tell us irreverent types we're vewwy naughty chilluns if we don't want to talk to those nice, reasonable people who are being FORCED to make up to 100 calls per day to ungrateful wretches like us, but you're wrong you know.
YOU, personally, may take a polite negative for an answer, and YOU may go to the trouble of asking your supervisor to remove people from the database (though do you know whether your supervisor actually does so?) but the other 99% of cold callers don't. (See, we can quote unverified statistics too:p)

Throughout my childhood we didn't have a phone. When I was 21 I was burgled and attacked in my home, and had no way of going out to find help, without leaving a baby and 2 toddlers alone in the middle of the night - so I got a phone, for emergencies.
I hate the thing. It makes such a sudden, loud, intrusive noise. I've lost count of the number of things I've dropped or broken and cups of tea I've spilled thanks to its peremptory summons, but I'm very small and frail (and, in recent years, housebound) so I need it as a lifeline.

Some of you cold caller apologists have said "Don't answer it. Turn it off.", but I've been bringing up children for the last 30 years. You HAVE to answer it in case it's one of those calls that goes "Don't panic, but the headmistress has taken him to the hospital. Can you meet her there?"... "Mum, our bikes fell off the side of the mountain, with us still on them"... "I'm at Manchester airport with the babies - can you pick us up - sob, sob"...
We PAY exhorbitant connection charges, followed by line rental in perpetuity, so that we have a point of contact with the outside world, in case of emergencies. Why would we, should we, TURN IT OFF???!!!

I try to keep the phone near me because I can't move fast, but these people (EDIT: the cold callers I mean, not the accident-prone santaspawn) inevitably ring when (as another poster pointed out) you're in the shower, or trying to cook, sleep, or answer the door.

Belonging to the TPS doesn't stop them. Asking them to take you off their databases NEVER stops them. Telling them you're not interested only ensures you'll get another call from them tomorrow or next week. They seem to think if they hammer at you often enough they'll eventually wear you down. And hey nonny nonny, what's with the accusatory "unless you've given your number to only very specific people"? Haven't you ever had to have something delivered, or wanted luxuries like water or an electricity supply? These days you can't place an order for anything without giving a phone number - and I'm sure the law must say they can't sell it on but who's going to enforce that?

If you're polite to them they just take it to mean they can push at you more.
There are a lot of very shy and frightened people around (You superconfident, loud call centre types probably haven't noticed us because we're vewwy vewwy quiet). Some of us need a script even to be able to speak to the postman or the neighbours. Cold callers are literally hell, since most of us have been brought up to be extremely polite and don't have the experience or the resources to deal with you.
And no, 3 or 4 cold calls per day doesn't increase our experience - just our anxiety levels. (My husband answered the door one night a few weeks ago and ended up giving our bank details to a charity collector. He's by no means uneducated, unintelligent, naive, or senile, but the woman wouldn't take no for an answer and he didn't know how else to get rid of her. - As an earlier poster said: cold callers prey on the vulnerable.)

I've spent decades answering the phone with spoof messages, often spoken in silly voices. Anyone who knows me and genuinely has a reason to call accepts that any conversation is likely to start out surreal and (unless urgent or official) become progressively more so. Why should the poor, put-upon, unfairly maligned cold callers get special treatment? Surely, if someone calls your private, ex-directory phone, or rings your doorbell, uninvited, you have every right to say anything you like to them (provided you don't break the law). (And if they don't want to be frightened by naked ugly old bags wielding pruning saws they shouldn't drive down private lanes to cold call the hermits:p)

Some of the posts in this thread are great ammunition. Others are just great!
Thank you very much all you posters with a sense of humour.:T Please keep on keeping on.

non.a.mousey

Kiami
BargainGalore
Sylvan

You're not obligated to do anything a cold caller asks you to do - and they'd very rarely be stupid enough to tell you otherwise. Cold callers DO understand that you may well have better things to do with your life...after all it is a cold call, not an appointment. Nobody is demanding your time - thats why a phone rings, and thats why market research people don't launch right into a survey - "Hello sir, Question 1..."

My point is: there is no need to be aggressive towards them, in the way seen throughout this thread. (Remember that I'm more specifically talking about market research too...)

Cold calling is like tapping you on the shoulder and asking for a chat. You can ignore it, you can turn round and say no, or you can turn round and have a chat. It's up to you...but they're letting you know the offer is there. As I said earlier - your telephone is a point of contact for you, and how you manage that is entirely your business.

Kiama - I did say it's not one's right to decide whether someone else wants to participate in a survey. And that's true. (Though I would say it's not your responsibility to help anyone contact them. It's just considerate. [And no - in most cases the basis of cold calling isn't inconsiderate - remember what I've said about your CHOICES.])

Maybe y'all schedule specific times to speak to people that you actively want to speak to, so they don't disturb you with the ringing of the phone? I know that isn't how it works in my home...

I reckon that might be it from me on this one. I can see that this comes down to a principal of whether ringing you uninvited/unscheduled is acceptable - I believe that this is acceptable, you don't. Most people I speak to are absolutely fine with it.

[Wow, it's late/early! Bed.]

gonzo127

person i am usually very polite the first time a company phones me and will usually have to inform them i am not interested and want to be removed from there database.

however when it comes to the second and third time the company phones i think you are well within your right to be a pain in he bum to them.

my favourite game i play if i have time is to actually see how long i can keep them on the phone without actually saying no to the product they are trying to sell me. my CURRENT best is 44 mins and 37 seconds and was a loverly lady for a double glazing company and i managed to get quite a lot of details from her such as
her full name
where she grow up
rough area where she lives now
what the weather was at the time

i am still really trying to break the 45 min mark but has become so much more difficult having a toddeler in the house who needs my attention so much

ad_luton

I simply say "fantastic - i'm so glad you called - saves me the bother.... let me just grab a pen...."
then simply put the phone on the side and carry on watching my programs in peace. they have blocked my incoming line so no others can interupt and its costing them time and money! they soon delete you off their list.

Sylvan

non.a.mousey wrote: »

Cold calling is like tapping you on the shoulder and asking for a chat. You can ignore it, you can turn round and say no, or you can turn round and have a chat. It's up to you...but they're letting you know the offer is there. As I said earlier - your telephone is a point of contact for you, and how you manage that is entirely your business.

Lady, be very very careful when you tap strangers on the shoulder unexpectedly. Some of the people I know could hurt you quite badly with their unintended reaction.

Yup, who we speak to on our telephones is OUR OWN BUSINESS. It's immoral to steal our numbers (and buying something from someone who doesn't have the right to sell it IS stealing) and then repeatedly use them to bother us, despite being asked not to.

non.a.mousey wrote: »

Maybe y'all schedule specific times to speak to people that you actively want to speak to, so they don't disturb you with the ringing of the phone? I know that isn't how it works in my home...

Are you watching me? Are you outside??? OMG who are you?????

(Thanks rhuallan)

Yes actually, unless it's an emergency, people we know email first to say they're about to ring. You mean your friends ring you at all times of the day or night, without regard for whether you might be busy? That doesn't sound very friendly at all. Poor you - it must be dreadful.:grouphug:

(By the way, some of the older people I know would be very grateful if you could tell us your secret of how to turn off an old phone, without actually having a brainstorm and cutting the wire)

non.a.mousey

Sylvan wrote: »

You mean your friends ring you at all times of the day or night, without regard for whether you might be busy? That doesn't sound very friendly at all. Poor you - it must be dreadful.:grouphug:

My friends are free to call me whenever they like If it's inconvenient my phone will be off or I won't answer it. (No need for cutting wires...) They certainly don't have to arrange to speak to me by email..... poor you?

Sylvan wrote: »

Lady, be very very careful when you tap strangers on the shoulder unexpectedly. Some of the people I know could hurt you quite badly with their unintended reaction.

Really? Some of the people you know... poor you?

Sylvan wrote: »

Yup, who we speak to on our telephones is OUR OWN BUSINESS. It's immoral to steal our numbers (and buying something from someone who doesn't have the right to sell it IS stealing) and then repeatedly use them to bother us, despite being asked not to.

1.) Who you speak to IS your own business. Like I said - you're not obligated to do anything. 2.) Market research firms (that I know of) don't acquire numbers illegally. In fact - often numbers will be from the organisation that they're calling for...whom you've given your number. 3.) As I said, if you don't want to do it - just say so!

Just to remind you - (obviously, based on the title of the thread...) this thread doesn't represent the majority of the population, who are quite happy to receive these market research calls, and quite happy to take part in surveys if/when convenient.

[/non.a.mousey]

BargainGalore

Can I have your number so I can ring you umpteen times a day especially evening just when you got your evening meal or bathing kids etc etc

I might even give you silent treatment and not say anything

non.a.mousey wrote: »

My friends are free to call me whenever they like If it's inconvenient my phone will be off or I won't answer it. (No need for cutting wires...) They certainly don't have to arrange to speak to me by email..... poor you?

They do acquire numbers illegally, some companies have been fined for misusing the telephone network, ie Barclays and Car Phone warehouse

Why should you be told not to ring, did they tick a box to accept these calls or give you permission, I most certainly did not and when offered I tick the box not to receive such calls, but despite being on TPS and telling companies not to ring me my views meaning nothing to them

non.a.mousey wrote: »

1.) Who you speak to IS your own business. Like I said - you're not obligated to do anything. 2.) Market research firms (that I know of) don't acquire numbers illegally. In fact - often numbers will be from the organisation that they're calling for...whom you've given your number. 3.) As I said, if you don't want to do it - just say so!

I dont believe that crap, most people I know dont want these calls

non.a.mousey wrote: »

Just to remind you - (obviously, based on the title of the thread...) this thread doesn't represent the majority of the population, who are quite happy to receive these market research calls, and quite happy to take part in surveys if/when convenient.

NeverInDebt

I could equally say that having marketing calls, equally demostrates the lack of consideration to customers past/present from companies to give people a chance for a peaceful life and home without being bombarded by unwanted calls

Clearly by your posts and being defensive you obviously work for such a company, you must have a very rewarding fulfilling job I bet.

non.a.mousey wrote: »

Wow.

I think some of the responses here demonstrate a real lack of consideration for your fellow human beings.