Cold calling ideas needed

viscachaz

When they phone enquiring about an accident, tell them the person died.. get more and more hysterical, feign tears, and eventually they will (and I'm not kidding..) "hope you have a nice day" and hang up..

Person_one

ValHaller wrote: »

Why do you lack the courage to actually quote the point you need to argue against?

Lack the courage? :rotfl:

You put it in a quote box, I couldn't be bothered faffing as its right there just above my post anyway...

VitaK

viscachaz wrote: »

When they phone enquiring about an accident, tell them the person died.. get more and more hysterical, feign tears, and eventually they will (and I'm not kidding..) "hope you have a nice day" and hang up..

I would start preparing for a second call.

Richard53

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.

I take your point, and I don't fundamentally disagree. My point was that I default to polite and civil at the start of any call. If the caller demonstrates he/she is dedceitful, dishonest or manipulative, then my approach changes radically. A lot of the posts here seem to favour going in like Rambo from the outset.

tim75 wrote: »

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

This has been covered, and demolished, several times further up the thread. Have you read the previous posts?

ValHaller

Richard53 wrote: »

I take your point, and I don't fundamentally disagree. My point was that I default to polite and civil at the start of any call. If the caller demonstrates he/she is dedceitful, dishonest or manipulative, then my approach changes radically. A lot of the posts here seem to favour going in like Rambo from the outset.

As time goes on, there is less and less reputable selling going on by cold calling. In part it is probably because reputable businesses come to the conclusion that it creates a negative association for their brand - someone who has been pestered by cold calls for PPI reclaim, accident reclaim, Windows fix-your 'virused' PC, kitches, new windows, gyms etc is going to be less and less tolerant of phone spam.

Ultimately it is probably not totally unreasonable once someone determines that it is just another cold call for them to treat is as 'deceitful, dishonest or manipulative' from the outset.

sillygoose

I have seen a substantial increase in landline calls, my mobile is being targeted far more than ever and text spam has hugely risen too.

I think this is to do with the increased postage costs and the fact most people have access to so many TV channels now, also the decline in newspaper and magazine reading. Mailing is too expensive and TV or other media advertising is too diluted.

These cold calling companies are probably doing telecom deals that means it costs them pennies a call, just in the way spam email costs them next to nothing.

Sadly all this means that I think the cold calling business is only set to expand massively, settings us back in telecom use for years as it will become too tiresome to have an 'open' callable line.

Pollycat

sillygoose wrote: »

Sadly all this means that I think the cold calling business is only set to expand massively, settings us back in telecom use for years as it will become too tiresome to have an 'open' callable line.

Won't make a blind bit of difference to me if cold calls expand massively.

I have caller display plus an answerphone.
Even if I am in, I don't answer the phone if I don't recognise the number or it is withheld.
If someone wants to speak to me or OH, they will leave a message.

So I won't (and don't currently) find it too tiresome to have an 'open' callable line.

Tiddlywinks

When they call, ask them their full company name, company registered office address and confirm with them the details.

Advise them that you will report them to the ICO and TPS and say that you will view any further calls from their company (or partner companies) as harassment and then hang up.

Report them to the Information Commissioner (and TPS):

http://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/marketing/calls

No need to play games... That's just childish and won't solve anything.

sillygoose

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

When they call, ask them their full company name, company registered office address and confirm with them the details.

Advise them that you will report them to the ICO and TPS and say that you will view any further calls from their company (or partner companies) as harassment and then hang up.

Report them to the Information Commissioner (and TPS):

http://www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/marketing/calls

No need to play games... That's just childish and won't solve anything.

Neither will any of the above, they ignore the law or dodge it, plus you have lost 10 minutes of your life answering, discussing it with them, logging on to websites, filling in forms..

Why the heck should you have to?

sillygoose

Pollycat wrote: »

Won't make a blind bit of difference to me if cold calls expand massively.

I have caller display plus an answerphone.
Even if I am in, I don't answer the phone if I don't recognise the number or it is withheld.
If someone wants to speak to me or OH, they will leave a message.

So I won't (and don't currently) find it too tiresome to have an 'open' callable line.

I don't carry the handset on my person so you don't mind trotting off to the phone every half hour to check the caller display?

Many of us receive quite a few legitimate (welcome) calls, including from people or businesses that need to have numbers withheld. Many of us can't let it just go to answer-machine.

And why should I be forced not to answer and phone people back on my bill just to avoid being hounded by cold call?

If you want to modify your life to suit a bunch of unscrupulous scammers that's your right, but I would prefer it if they were just banned!