'Grrrr... Spam called by an Indian company with AOL’s data?'

nonns

I used to get plagued by calls of this type. They rarely took no for an answer. I finally decided that my policy in future would be unless it was a customer services call specifically in relation to a bank account or something I owned now I was not prepared to deal with it. The callers usually reveal in less that 30 seconds what they want (and its usually to offer some service). I no longer take any services unless I initiate the search and so...my response now is a firm but polite... Thank you very much for calling. i am not interested in the service or products you are offering. Please don't call again. Goodbye.....and then I hang up.

Rude perhaps (I prefer to call it abrupt and direct) though I am polite in my use of language. If they call again we go through the same process. In one case someone did try 6 times.

At that point I said to him I think you would be better off wasting your time on someone else. I can keep going all day. Presumably you are paid on business won. You wont win any from me. Good day to you. Don't call me again. Goodbye....and then I hung up. He didn't call again.

Ezmondino

anthony_hunt wrote: »

I got a (similar) call from someone (again an indian call centre) selling telecoms, so I told him I didn't have a telephone and hung up.

They didn't ring back.

:rotfl: :T

babybug

Archie Walters has phoned me at least 3 times this week, although he hasn't mentioned AOL or any Telecoms company. I've never had an aol account in my name anyway.

The third time he told me he was ringing for a chat!!!! I asked what he wanted to chat about and he said "I'm from India, please talk to me" :rotfl:

mohthom

My girlfriend gets a lot of calls for the person who had her phone number before her (two years ago). I developed a great tactic.

Ask for their name and company name BEFORE continuing the conversation. Log the name, number and date. Preferrably, have a 'Do not answer' list next to the phone. Do the whole 48hrs to remove from database thing.

If you receieve another call after these 48hrs are up, make sure you get the name and company name of the person you're speaking to, as well as the company's address (they've always given this without question). Calmly state that it's now in the hands of your lawyers and that the harrassment papers will be coming through shortly . . .

At one stage she was getting a call every half hour during the day . . .

MohThoM

PhiltheBear

A few suggestions...

When you realise it's an unwanted sales call say "Excuse me could you just hang on for a moment?". Don't hang up but put the phone down somewhere. It usually takes some time before they hang up but a) it wastes their time, b) it wastes their money and c) while they are waiting for you 'to come back' they aren't calling someone else.

OR

Wait until they get to the sales bit. When they tell you what they are selling ask if you can get it at your local shop. Whatever it is. Pretend not to understand. Tell them you always buy stuff at your local shop and you don't shop elsewhere. (This one can develop into hours of fun).

OR

As soon as they launch into their 'can I speak to..' you know it's not someone you know. Ask them for their 'recognised access code'. They will try and ask you further questions. To every question just reply "I'm afraid I can't talk to you until you supply the recognised access code".

OR

When they ask to speak to X, say, in a very hushed tone, "I'm afraid that's impossible. Were you a personal friend of his?"

OR

Reply in French / German / any language of choice except English. Raise your voice with each sentence you utter. If you like just utter incomprehensible rubbish that might be another language...

Enjoy. Have fun.

Paul_Herring

We have just had a new kitchen and double glazing fitted. The house is paid for, and we have no debts. We have <current highest payer> for our savings account. We give to charity from our payslips for tax reasons. We've just renewed our contract for cable/sky/mobile/landline because we found they were the cheapest around anyway and the contract expires in <looks at date> 364 days.. We contracted out specifically for a reason, and weren't missold our pensions....

No - really, we have. Why would I lie?

Gordon861

I get the few odd calls now and then.

One compnay from Ireland phone my mobile every 6 months saying they are from T-Mobile and offering to upgrade my phone. I just take their number and then call T-Mobile cust services and say that this company is claiming to work for them. It's probably the one on WatchDog the other week just using a new name each time.

A few years back I had a number of calls from Zenith windows in one night, to the point where they were doing it to wind my up, they kept asking for a person that had been dead for 10 years which didn't go down to well. In the end I contacted their head office and sent them a fax stating that if I received any more calls from them I would be reporting them to the police for harrassment, they stopped.

On the foreign call centers - I do everything I can to avoid dealing with a company that uses a non-EU call center during normal business hours, I have no problem with out of hour services being out sourced abroad. I make a point of asking the rep on the phone of the UK call centers to log the fact that the customer is pleased that they are using a UK person to make their calls.

There was a very funny, non-PC call center movie available on the net but it appears the site has been taken down, if you can find a copy it's worth doing.

JerryF

Two years ago I received a non-stop stream of calls from India claiming to represent the '3' mobile network. I emailed '3's chief executive to complain. Their data control manager contacted me to say '3' didn't use cold calling.

Fortunately I had managed to get a contact telephone number for the manager of the calling company. I passed this to '3' who later confirmed that one of their approved sales agents had appointed a call centre in India to make unsolicited sales calls. '3' confirmed that this was a breach of the supplier's contract and the cold calling operation was shut down that day.

So my tips would be:
1. Try and get a contact telephone number.
2. Escalate the call to a manager. If they know you are trying to stop them, or calling you wastes their time they may desist.
3. If cold-callers claim to represent a UK company complain to that company's data control officer (all UK companies storing data - your contact details - have to nominate a data control officer). The UK company has a powerful incentive to try and stop abuse of their reputation, and ensure they don't breach data protection law.


JerryF

violasophie

As someone who has worked in the cold-calling business (please don't shout at me, it was a long time ago and I needed the money!) I know exactly how difficult the job is.

So for your ethical karma, I would advise being polite at all times as the person calling is much more likely to act on your request to remove your number from the business database if you've been reasonable in your response to their call!

Obviously I too get infuriated with cold calls now that I have my own home phone and various services, but unless a caller is being rude to me or is obviously calling without reason, I will always try to stay calm and polite.

zena2105

i also get the the automated calls, and my 8 year old daughter has started to answer phone, but when it's silence at other end, she thinks it's hers and starts to cry.