Cold calling ideas needed

MrsAtobe

PrincessPlaty wrote: »

I work in a call centre albeit not a cold caller. I am a customer care advisor for a very large retailer.

I think it is the whole talking to someone on the other end of the phone thing that the general public have issues with, rather than just the fact that they are being interrupted by a cold caller.

The abuse that myself and my colleagues receive on a daily basis from customers who have called us is horrendous.

If they weren't calling you no doubt you would be moaning about them being sat on the dole. Lay off them they are only trying to earn a living, they don't ask to be abused by people.

I am registered with TPS and the calls i have had since being registered which have been very few and far between. I have always asked where they are calling from, how they got my number and advise that i am registered with TPS and would appreciate it if they removed my number from the system. This has always been done.

The ones that wind me up are the witheld numbers that ring up and they are automated PPI numbers wish there was a way to block them :mad:

No, I really do have a problem with cold callers, hence the TruCall unit. When you work from home, you really get to know the full extent of the problem. When I am in the office, it is a large open plan office which also has a call centre in it for a telecoms provider, and there have been a few conversations that I haven't been able to help overhearing that have horrified me by the response of the call handlers. It cuts both ways, I'm afraid. Oh, and BTW, I've worked on 2nd line IT help desks, so I do know what I'm talking about, and I never had an abusive call.

claire16c

Ive had two of the windows calls in the past week. I told the second one I had already been called by them & she denied all knowledge and as soon as I said I know this is a scam she hung up.

The first time it happened I lied & said I only owned a mac. The guy from the 'windows support team' then said 'er oh actually it's for any computer'.

Idiots. I read somewhere the other day some of the operations caught doing it are being sued in the US.

claire16c

Princess platy yes it is that we're being interrupted!

Of course if you work in a customer call centre you're going to get complaints, customers don't ring up to sing praises down the phone do they.

But when it's a cold caller its extremely annoying if I'm in the middle of cooking, hoovering, getting out the shower or whatever to go running for the phone only to discover its someone trying to sell me ppl reclaim help when I've never taken out ppi in my life!

PrincessPlaty

claire16c wrote: »

Princess platy yes it is that we're being interrupted!

Of course if you work in a customer call centre you're going to get complaints, customers don't ring up to sing praises down the phone do they.

Actually yes they do, I had one yesterday for example which was a product query, I gave the customer the answer he required. He then swore at me and put the phone down. Any need? I don't think so do you?

claire16c wrote: »

But when it's a cold caller its extremely annoying if I'm in the middle of cooking, hoovering, getting out the shower or whatever to go running for the phone only to discover its someone trying to sell me ppl reclaim help when I've never taken out ppi in my life!

And I totally understand that but that is never a reason to be rude to someone who is just trying to do their job imo!

Infact there is never any reason to be rude to ANYONE, manners cost nothing... :money:

Georgiegirl256

PrincessPlaty wrote: »

Actually yes they do, I had one yesterday for example which was a product query, I gave the customer the answer he required. He then swore at me and put the phone down. Any need? I don't think so do you?



And I totally understand that but that is never a reason to be rude to someone who is just trying to do their job imo!

Infact there is never any reason to be rude to ANYONE, manners cost nothing... :money:

While I mostly agree with you, manners cost nothing etc. IMO them calling you up when you're in the middle of making something to eat, getting ready to go out, relaxing etc and then going on and on and not taking no for an answer, phoning us up for PPI claims, accidents, computers problems that we've never had is extremely rude to me, and if they push me, then after being polite for so long, yes, I will be rude back, either that or just hang up, depending on what sort of mood I'm in that day!

quidsy

If someones job is to cold call, i.e. phone up uninvtied then try to harrass me into buying some kind of product or service then they lose all right to be treated with respect.

If someone calls, as often happens from SKY or the like offering insurance for the telebox & I say no, they say, ok thanks for your time & hang up. They, I will be polite to.

If someone calls up & asks if I want to buy some service & I say no thanks, then they continue the patter & I say no thanks again, after that it is free for all & I will use whatever is necessary to get them off my line & out of my life. Simple really.

Georgiegirl256

quidsy wrote: »

If someones job is to cold call, i.e. phone up uninvtied then try to harrass me into buying some kind of product or service then they lose all right to be treated with respect.

If someone calls, as often happens from SKY or the like offering insurance for the telebox & I say no, they say, ok thanks for your time & hang up. They, I will be polite to.

If someone calls up & asks if I want to buy some service & I say no thanks, then they continue the patter & I say no thanks again, after that it is free for all & I will use whatever is necessary to get them off my line & out of my life. Simple really.

You've just reminded me, I need to phone up SKY and cancel the movies!

ValHaller

PrincessPlaty wrote: »

Actually yes they do, I had one yesterday for example which was a product query, I gave the customer the answer he required. He then swore at me and put the phone down. Any need? I don't think so do you?

The real difference is that the CUSTOMER rang YOU. His behaviour is unacceptable BECAUSE he was making the call. The comparison here is not with a member of the public being upset at being cold called, it is with a cold caller swearing at a member of the public.

PrincessPlaty wrote: »

And I totally understand that but that is never a reason to be rude to someone who is just trying to do their job imo!

There are limits. The Gestapo were raised early in the thread.

Sometimes the people 'only doing a job' are actually causing greater offence than someone making a rude response. Cold callers fall into this category. Criticising people for being rude to cold callers without unequivocally condemning cold calling itself is straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.

cazziebo

I see two sides here.

I work from home mostly - often to deadlines. This means I'm often stressed and short tempered and the last thing I need is a cold call trying to sell me home improvements or PPI claim services. I probably get 2/3 calls a day, sometimes more. They are a scourge.

My daughter works in a call centre - cold calling to sell gas and electricity packages. She came back from a year in Australia with the attitude that any job is better than no job, and it's easier to get another job if you're already working. A lot of her colleagues are youngsters with no educational qualifications who would find it difficult to get any other kind of job, especially in this area. Some of them are graduates (many with good degrees). Some are young single mums, who have parents who mind the children while they do the 5-9 shift. Surely it's better that these people are working, rather than getting used to life on the dole?

It's the economy, innit?!

cazziebo

quidsy wrote: »

If someones job is to cold call, i.e. phone up uninvtied then try to harrass me into buying some kind of product or service then they lose all right to be treated with respect.
.

And I'd say if someone sits around on their backside claiming benefits rather than take a job that's available doesn't deserve respect.

Remember these jobs are minimum wage, minimum conditions with very little job security. Just about every person doing the job would prefer something a bit more interesting and pleasant yet they do this to feed their children, keep their home, stay out of the benefits system. To me - that deserves respect.

It would be wonderful if we could all spend our working lives doing something enjoyable and meaningful. Sadly that's just not the reality for a lot of people.