Cold calling ideas needed

Tropez

sillygoose wrote: »

Remember a lot of the time cold caller are selling things to gullible or worse, vulnerable people that they don't need or are rip off deals they could get elsewhere vastly cheaper using misleading or scare tactics. This puts them on a par with con artists and muggers. Is this an acceptable way to 'earn' a living? Not for those of us with an ounce of morals.

That's the big point for me.

If it is a call from a reputable company who abide by the relevant legislation and do their best not to be a pest about it, then I have no problem with that. I get the occasional calls from companies I have used in the past, who want to offer me a new service, or try and beat a deal I have with one of their competitors and if I tell these people that I'm busy, they apologise and rarely seem to call back. I can live with that.

Sometimes I will even listen to what they have to say and it works out nicely - for instance when I had to work abroad for six months I cancelled Sky while I was gone because there was no point paying for it. I fully intended to sign back up again when I returned but upon my return, Sky actually called me a few days after I had got back. I had told them why I was cancelling when I cancelled so as not to go through their retentions process and waste mine and the CS rep's time. I assume that the CS rep made a note on my account of the reason. Long story short, full packages and a few benefits for 50% off for 12 months and the service was back on within an hour. As Charlie Sheen might say, winning!

My objections come from the slew of nefarious companies who have obtained my mobile number in a devious way and try their luck with some obvious, flawed scam. These are the companies that don't give a fig about legislation and the regulations, or they wouldn't have my number in the first place. I haven't used my number on some webform; they have used a webcrawler to harvest my office number (which diverts to my mobile number) from my employer's website which is there for the benefit of clients and customers, not them. These are the same types of webcrawlers that harvest email addresses to add people to spam lists, or will harvest any other detail they can get.

And as you rightly say, much of the time they are simply trying to scam vulnerable people, or just preying on the unsuspecting.

There are few organisations where workers are excused for flouting the law at the behest of their employer, and I do not see why cold calling should be such an industry. If they could keep to the rules then that would be fine but too many don't and nobody seems to be in a rush to stop them - possibly because it does actually make the government's unemployment figures look a little better.

Percy1983

I usually try selling them my car, when they say there not interested I say 'neither am I, goodbye'

The best on was a call a about PPI (I have never taken any PPI)

In short I played dumb, and said "I hardly use it" and "It isn't even broken" eventually they said do you understand what PPI is, to which I reply "its personal penis insurance isn't it", there was just silence and jsut as they started to say something I just said "somethings come up, gotta go" and hung up.

Interestly I do think I maybe getting myself blacklisted as I don't get as many calls as other people these days.

Mrs_Imp

Pollycat wrote: »

To me, this is not cold-calling.


However, if you have all the time in the world and 'want to have a bit of fun', carry on.

They are cold calling. I've had a chat with one of them. They want to try and review his pension as they believe they can get him a better deal than he currently has. I've looked up their number and they are a cold calling centre in Swansea. One of them even tried to review my pension when they realised that they wouldn't be able to get through to the other person!!

I reckon it's just as quick for me to sing them a song, as to explain that the person they're after really really doesn't live here, please could they stop calling, and no I don't want to review my pension.

To clarify to everyone who is jumping on the 'don't abuse them' bandwagon. I specifiaclly said in my first post that I wanted nothing abusive. I don't want to abuse them, I want to have a bit of fun to make up for the fact that they are disturbing me and haven't had the courtesy to remove my number from their list, as they have promised to do.

Pollycat

Mrs_Imp wrote: »

They are cold calling. I've had a chat with one of them. They want to try and review his pension as they believe they can get him a better deal than he currently has. I've looked up their number and they are a cold calling centre in Swansea. One of them even tried to review my pension when they realised that they wouldn't be able to get through to the other person!!

They might be 'cold calling' the person they are asking for but they are not 'cold calling' you.
They are asking for someone who does not live at your address - that is not 'cold calling'.

Are you TPS registered?

If you are, take the name of their company, telephone number and the name of the person who calls you next time and report them.

You say you've asked them to stop calling. Have you specifically asked them to remove your details from their list?

If it were me, I wouldn't be having a bit of fun, I'd be looking to get them a serious fine for breaking the rules.

Or, alternatively, sing to them in German. :cool:

pukkamum

I am always polite but I must confess to having a bit of fun sometimes.
Got one yesterday went like this,
Bob says
hello mrs pukka, I am phoning about the none blame car crash you have recently had.
Me
Oh my god am I okay
Bob
Errr are you okay
Me
I don't know you tell me, you seem to know a lot more about it than me, am I okay was it serious, what on earth happened
Bob
Mrs pukka I am talking about the accident the system is telling me you had
Me
What system is that then
Bob
The computer system
Me
Is that some sort of crystal ball system then, maybe it's predicting an accident I am about to have, bloody hell Bob you've clearly got some kind of super power maybe you should consider using it for the good of mankind imagine the possibilites, (continue to ramble about good v evil)
Bob (laughing)
Ok mrs pukka you got me have a nice day.
Bob

ValHaller

Person_one wrote: »

Imagine this was posted on the employment board, how would you respond?

Really hope somebody can help, I'm at the end of my tether! I was unemployed for 6 months after being made redundant and the only job I've been able to get is cold calling for a PPI claims firm. I hate it, I hate annoying people, I hate trying to convince them to part with their money and its really starting to get me down how rude and abusive people are.

Anyway, I'm not meeting my targets, and I'm on a written warning that I have to improve. If I don't I'm sacked in a fortnight! My wife is on maternity leave on SMP and if I lose this job my JSA will be sanctioned so we won't have enough to pay our rent or bills. I can't sleep at night with the stress of it, and I feel physically sick before every call I make. Is there any help or any allowance made by the job centre for being sacked from or leaving this kind of job?

Well, I certainly would not advocate that they continue or try harder at spamming people.

Really it comes back to this form earlier in the thread:

sillygoose wrote: »

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Why not just say no thank you and put the phone down.

They are only doing their job

So were the Gestapo and their efforts were not welcome either.

Just try reworking your hypothetical post as being from a Gestapo grunt

Really hope somebody can help, I'm at the end of my tether! I was unemployed for 6 months after being made redundant and the only job I've been able to get is clerical assistant in a torture centre. I hate it, I hate the idea of bringing people in to be hurt

Now the comparison is perhaps OTT. But if someone does not like doing their job and hates the effect it has on innocent people, they should stop doing the job. It is that simple

Person_one

ValHaller wrote: »

Now the comparison is perhaps OTT. But if someone does not like doing their job and hates the effect it has on innocent people, they should stop doing the job. It is that simple

Only 'perhaps' OTT? Do you not think its in slightly bad taste to compare cold calling to genocide?

securityguy

Pollycat wrote: »

Are you TPS registered?

If you are, take the name of their company, telephone number and the name of the person who calls you next time and report them.

Interestingly, the ICO appears to have got its mojo working, and is at last actually fining people. How amusing that BBC3 should choose to make a series about a bunch of loveable law-breakers.

http://www.callcentre.co.uk/why-is-the-telephone-preference-service-law-flouted/

1886

Cold Callers at the door, don't answer.
Cold Callers on the phone, hang up

Simple.

tim75

Try the Telephone Preference Service, that should do the trick.