Great 'Best Cold Caller Rebukes' Hunt

steve1973_2

Lots of easy options depending on how much sport you fancy! Most of them will hang up within 30 seconds

1. Say you are busy and ask for their home number to call them later on
2. Thank them for calling and start to try and sell something to them - windows, loans, credit card, doesn't really matter
3. Say you work for a competitor to whatever it is they are selling
4. Advise that they have called the ex directory number of some suitably serious official body and the call is being recorded. Then ask how they got the number..... this one can be lots of fun - bit like your own version of the legendary youtube link further down!
5. Tell them it is not your house, you are a burglar, plumber, doctor, etc.
6. I am from a sales background, so sometimes I try to coach them through their technique

Not my preferred option, but if you are abusive then it normally flags the number on the database that company are using so they won't call you again, but it won't stop them selling their list to someone else and so it continues. I've got to the stage where I either just hang up or have some fun with them!

taxi97w

PhiltheBear wrote: »

If I'm doing something else and someone rudely interrupted me then I would tell them to wait. That's basic manners.On the phone I don't have that choice and they don't know what I'm doing, what phone calls I might be waiting for, etc.

If I want to buy something then I'll search out the product - I don't need anyone to phone me with unsolicited offers about anything. As far as I'm concerned these companies (not the callers) have decided that for their commercial self-interest it's OK to interrupt my life with their sales message and take my time. As far as I'm concerned it isn't. It's my right to say "No, I don't want to listen to you. Go away."

If that were all there was I'd have no problem. But it's not. Irrespective of the number of times you say no companies keep calling back. That's really what this thread is about.

I've registered with the TPS and that has stopped the majority of such calls. But it doesn't stop foreign ones. It doesn't stop, for example, the AA who phone you after you've used their breakdown service to ask if everything was OK and, by the way, can we sell you something?

These calls take my time when I can be doing something else. I've already made it clear I don't want them. So, if someone decides that they can override my wishes then I can decide to be as rude and nasty to them as I want. If they make my life uncomfortable then I'll do exactly the same to them. It's really that simple.

Really? If someone was looking for the train station you'd ask them to wait because they'd rudely interrupted you?
And so with you on the phone:- when someone rudely interrupts you? You answer the phone though. You choose to speak with pot luck. Don't you think you might have something to do with this interruption? Do you think it's basic manners to slam the phone down on someone etc; which is what you do, I'm sure? Can you not take time out of your life to be decent to these types of people for some minutes of your life? I seem to manage to end a call by being polite and truthful. It might take 10 seconds to say that you have no desire for the product or no money to buy one even if you wanted to. Some of these calls are for research too. Be nice to all people, not just moneysavers. What goes around and all that.
And quite frankly, I have nothing else to reply to your long post.

Edit: I include the rest of you, not just you personally PhiltheBear.

PhiltheBear

taxi97w wrote: »

Really? If someone was looking for the train station you'd ask them to wait because they'd rudely interrupted you?

Yes. If I was talking to someone else and the person looking for the train station just rudely interrupted my conversation I'd tell them that I was talking and ask them to wait. If they don't have basic manners then, as far as I'm concerned, they don't deserve a reply.

And so with you on the phone:- when someone rudely interrupts you? You answer the phone though. You choose to speak with pot luck. Don't you think you might have something to do with this interruption?

????? The only thing I have to do with it is get interrupted. That's why I'm ex-directory and registered with the TPS. The only people who have my phone number (that I've given it to) are people I chose to have it. If other people acquire it or call randomly then I haven't chosen to speak with them at all.

Do you think it's basic manners to slam the phone down on someone etc; which is what you do, I'm sure?

I think it's basic manners for them to stop calling me when I've asked them not to. I never 'slam down the phone' - so don't make assumptions.

Can you not take time out of your life to be decent to these types of people for some minutes of your life?

Which part of " It's my right to say "No, I don't want to listen to you. Go away." If that were all there was I'd have no problem. But it's not. Irrespective of the number of times you say no companies keep calling back." are you too dumb to understand?

The first time I'll be polite. The second time I'll be less polite. The third time I see no reason at all to be polite. It's not about an initial sales call - it's about repeated sales calls from the same company that you have told that you aren't interested.

I seem to manage to end a call by being polite and truthful. It might take 10 seconds to say that you have no desire for the product or no money to buy one even if you wanted to. Some of these calls are for research too. Be nice to all people, not just moneysavers. What goes around and all that.

So, if I stand outside your house and intermittently ring your doorbell at all hours of the day and night until you answer the door, you'll be polite and nice every time you answer it? I somehow doubt it.

And quite frankly, I have nothing else to reply to your long post.

Good.

Mary_Hartnell

Let us get slightly off the topic:

What do you do when you repeatedly get ordinary members of the public getting you as a wrong number?

I spent a long time discovering that Yellow Pages had published my number as the number of a coach tour company (their number but my exchange). If the directors had offered me a free trip to Paris I would have been a lot more helpful. As it turned out, the firm has gone bust; I wonder if I made my little contribution to that outcome.

My number starts XXY but if you have finger trouble when keying XYY, I get a call about industrial control systems.

These days I have to pick up the 'phone with "Hullo":- long pause or gabble gabble gabble;
then I ask "What number are you trying to call?". I'm always happy to help those with dodgy fingers, but it does get very frustrating when they (autodial?) the wrong number for the third time:D

Gordon861

I've not read the whole thread yet, but the best I've heard is this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmLMcQ09BHc

irrelevant

Mary_Hartnell wrote: »

What do you do when you repeatedly get ordinary members of the public getting you as a wrong number?

I can beat that .. every so often we get people trying to fax us! If they keep trying, I'll drag the fax machine out from the back of the cupboard in order to accept the fax, so that I can find out who is sending it.

Each time, it's been the court service, trying to fax details of an offender to Securicor's monitoring service ...!! It seems someone, somewhere, has muddled up a 3 and an 8 on a list of fax numbers they distributed all over the country, and we're the unfortunate mis-dial! Needless to say, they are always horrified when I get onto them!

Nothing juicy yet, just the usual toerags..

Mary_Hartnell

When the company I used to work for, first installed direct inward dialling; I kept on getting phone calls from someone banging on in what I eventually decoded as Spanish.
Eventually I managed to get a caller or two with pidgin English and we worked out that they were trying to phone their student offspring.
Seems that there was a college, affiliated to Kings College/London University that had a Spanish intake.
I eventually took time out to go down there and demanded access to the telephone operators.
It seems that the student accommodation had telephones that would not accept incoming
calls, but the students would assume that if the "internal" number had the London international number put on the front of it, then someone would pick it up when their (wealthy) relatives rang back.

The most amusing call was the father of a sweet little daughter who was in a right panic.
It seems that a few weeks in wicked London had turned her into a right party animal.
He more or less accused me of putting her on the game.:rotfl:

dazo123

Hi All

I used to work for Ipsos Mori (research org.)

What you need to say are these words 'I would like to be placed on your do not re-contact database'

If you don't say exactly these words or say specifically I do not want to be contacted by (whatever the company name is) then they are not legally obliged to put you on it so hence you get called again if you just yell 'Dont call me again' and hang up! Remember they need your consent to put your details on the database!

I have to say it makes me so upset seeing this! I know it's not up to you guys to take into consideration the persons feeling but seriously...politeness goes a long way!

Having said that though Sales calls are different from research! AND are most DEFINITELY covered in TPS.

Being rude/leaving the phone/hanging up is not taken as a refusal - you will be called back unless you say I am not interested thank you or ask to be put on DNC database.

Personally, I think the people that do it are ****. I couldn't care about their situation. If they hate their job and know what they are doing is wrong, then they should not do it. If I have time, I will waste theirs.

this upset me most. I was calling on behalf of government/public bodies like the NHS most of the time and we all get tarred with the same brush! I certainly didnt think what I was doing was wrong! Still dont!!!

JimmyTheWig

dazo123 wrote: »

I used to work for Ipsos Mori (research org.)

What you need to say are these words 'I would like to be placed on your do not re-contact database'

I think the point is that while this will work for a reputable company like Ipsos Mori, for less scrupulous companies this won't help at all. Not surprising, then, that people get cross.

Heinz

dazo123 wrote: »

I used to work for Ipsos Mori (research org.)

What you need to say are these words 'I would like to be placed on your do not re-contact database'

If you don't say exactly these words or say specifically I do not want to be contacted by (whatever the company name is) then they are not legally obliged to put you on it so hence you get called again if you just yell 'Dont call me again' and hang up! Remember they need your consent to put your details on the database!

What, just like they obtain consent when they put people on their "Call this number" database?