Cold callers - an amusing way to get rid

AprilBlossom said:
Just for the record, not all outbound calls jobs are 'the only job you can get'. I earn a very reasonable amount of money and work for a high-end hospitality company whilst predominantely making outbound calls... I could do a job in a variety of spheres but choose to do this as I am good at it and enjoy it.

I always try to be polite to salespeople as I appreciate not all of them are as lucky as me, and probably earn very little basic salary therefore rely on commission. I'd never waste their time as some of you seem to enjoy doing - just politely say 'no thanks, I'm not interested.' and let them get on to another call, where someone might be interested!
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I agree ..I have worked in the telesales industry for 11 yrs and i have been very successfull. It can be a hard job i agree but when i took home as much as a top surgeon last yr it didn't bother me.
What would you rather people do ? Claim benefits ? Some people have no idea!
The cold callers that bother you are trying very hard to earn a living some of them probably earn more than you do. Show some respect.
i Its a boring job sometimes i agree when your working up the ladder .... but you think your the only ones who have a laugh ..Hmmm i don't think so ..
 
Thing is...........you register with tps and then give your number out to someone who then sells it on and you start getting calls again, you need to renew your tps (and mps) regularly to get the best from it, either that or don't EVER give your number out to any business or on any form/website.

BT - ask to speak to a manager and ask for your details to be removed from their list

It must be a horrible job, and I do feel the need to say that cold calling is TOTALLY different to scam calls from abroad, but when I have just got in and am tired and they ring and won't get off the phone then I just tell them I won't be a minute and leave the phone off the hook! I can't help it, it may be rude, but they do my head in! Having said that, I don't get many now because of the tps and I do renew my registration every few months.
 
[QUOTEThe cold callers that bother you are trying very hard to earn a living some of them probably earn more than you do. Show some respect. ..[/QUOTE]

Are you for real?? no I bl**dy won't show ANY respect for these people that 'force' their way into my home everytime (when my land line phone was plugged in) I sit down with my family after a long day ... :mad: they read from a boring script and refuse to accept it when I say NO THANKS ... :confused:I don't want it and shouldn't have to put up with it :mad:

And now to top it all I'm being told to have respect for people doing this job because they earn more than me :confused::confused: no chance, in fact you have just made it worse ... I will find more amusing ways to get rid of cold callers!
 
canteron said:
Dear Irish only so they are going to look on the forums, well I am going to stick up for those cold callers.

If life is good to you - as clearly it has been to You - then you can afford to be nice and 'up your nose' middle class. However believe it or not some people have to work out how to make life work for them and if you go into any call centre you I'll find people trying to make sense of life and find a way forward - the sort of thing the more privileged among you take for granted.

So if you think it is cool to be ride to people who may not have your sophistication and luck, then fine, but I just th ink it makes you rather a rude cow.

How do I know this, because I have worked in one and seen students trying to find their way through uni without huge debts, disabled people who are good on the phone but have limited keyboard skill and also single mums trying to have some work ethic - and some ot the Nicest most fun people.

So that's why I think most of you come across as rather unpleasant snobs and far more irritating than the cold callers. After all this forum is mean to be about horses not a competition on how beastly you can be.
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Oh dear, did I say I was rude? Nope, did he take offence? nope. Am I stuck up and middle class, I'll ask my friends and pick them up when they inevitably fall about laughing.
Has life been good to me? - well where shall I start. I've probably done more shitty jobs than you ever knew existed, 12 hours a day 7 days a week to make ends meet, and lived on veg stew. But I wouldn't work in a call centre or be a traffic warden, I'd rather clean toilets. And I certainly wouldn't resort to name calling someone whom I neither knew or knew of as I would hope that I could be unbiased.
 
I got the best feeling the other day from a sort of cold caller.

We have lost our kitten and i had put flyers up around the area.

Well i was driving home the next day and my mobile rang so i answered (ordinarily i wouldnt answer while driving but i was so desperate to find my kitten i just took the call).
The conversation went as follows

Teenage sounding lad : i've found your cat
me :where are you?
lad ; Aston - it's dead in the road
me: ha ha very funny (hung up)

I knew it was a prank call but the joke was on them. They phoned when i was justa round the corner from my road, so after the call i turned down the road and there was the kids, phone in hand, standing next to my ad.

I pulled up, wound down the window and scared the s*** out of them. lol

They will think twice next time :D:D:D
 
cold callers are the reason why I dont answer my landline at the moment. I am also registered with TPS yet i come in at lunchtime to loads of missed calls and half a message on the answerphone (stops when they realise Its not actually a live person on the end of line) and then for the rest of the day , phone rings every 20 mins...and i do mean EVERY. if I wanted double glazing, a new kitchen, to change my services etc...I would sort it out myself. its just as bad as people knocking on your door aand saying " oh we are not selling you anything but we have been informed by (insert utility company of choice) that you are paying to much, so just sign this and you will be sorted!". the only reason i have a landline is for the internet.
 
We are registered with TPS and never get any cold callers luckily!

If we do get any phone calls at all what I like to do is call their bluff especially when they ask me to confirm my address, I reply "ok tell me the address and I'll confirm if it's correct or not!" that normally throws them off!!
 
I don't really have a problem with cold callers - I simply say 'thank you but I'm not interested' and hang up. Surely formulating amusing comebacks just wastes more time? I'm sure that they've heard it all before. When I was a student I worked in a BT call centre, there was no cold calling involved in the sense of sales, but I did have to make outbound calls to speak to people about existing BT orders. So many would automatically come back with things like 'I don't speak English' or 'You have the wrong number' only to hastily change their tune when they realised what I was calling about. It was a thankless task and I can't imagine what it must be like to do that as your 'real' job with no end in sight.
 
blackstar said:
I don't really have a problem with cold callers - I simply say 'thank you but I'm not interested' and hang up. Surely formulating amusing comebacks just wastes more time? I'm sure that they've heard it all before. When I was a student I worked in a BT call centre, there was no cold calling involved in the sense of sales, but I did have to make outbound calls to speak to people about existing BT orders. So many would automatically come back with things like 'I don't speak English' or 'You have the wrong number' only to hastily change their tune when they realised what I was calling about. It was a thankless task and I can't imagine what it must be like to do that as your 'real' job with no end in sight.
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Agree with this. Can't say I have the time or inclination to piss about with them. I just say no thanks and hang up, or ask me to remove us from their database if they can.
This has worked and we no longer get "real" people just the automated ones, and I just hang up immediately if there is no hello straight away :o I've hung up on my grandmother before but what can you do. :D
 
When i've had a nuisance call i google the phone number and if it is a known source of time-wasting calls or scams I put it on the phone's banned list. We are registered with TPS. I got seriously fed up with them when the kids were small as the calls would invariably happen at bath or bed time. Cue me running round the house trying to find phone, kids alone in bath, nappies half on, etc etc. Now we only get the foreign scammers and I can't find a way to block them yet.
I do feel some sympathy for people who have to work in call centres, I tend to say I'm not interested and put the phone down. They probably think its rude of me to hang up on them, but then I think its rude of them to argue with me over whether I'm interested or not.
 
Phone call I had today whilst babysitting.

"Hello, are you Mrs M?"

"No."

"Are you a relative?"

"No."

"Are you a friend?"

"No."

"Do you live in the house?"

"No."

*pause* "Ok then." Hangs up!
 
I have worked in a call centre to get me out of my uni debt. I couldn't find a job anywhere but this agency got me one working evenings in a scabby call centre. My only specification for my job hunt was no outbound calls.

If you get paid more than the rest of us to do outbound calls and so that makes it ok in your mind to bother people whilst they have things to do, then you can deal with people being rude imo. Otherwise, get an inbound callcentre job and perhaps regain your soul.

I am rude to cold callers. They are pointless and annoying, and nothing good ever comes of them. And if they make an extra few quid an hour than me (i doubt it, and i do a cruddy dangerous job) then that makes me more likely to be rude. It's like selling your soul to the devil.
 
I get them all day at work and it goes like this

"hello can I speak to miss XXXX please"

"yes I'll just put you on hold whilst I get her"

and I just leave them on hold for as long as I can bear ;).
 
I hate it, i just answer then hang up straight away when i hear who they are.

When i have a day off work, the land line seems to ring all day!! I never answer it.
 
Had a great one today.

"Hello, is Mr B in?"

"Yes."

"Can I speak to him please?"

"Who's calling?"

"BT."

"No."

"Sorry?"

"No, you cant speak to him."

"oh. ok. goodbye."
 
lillith said:
I work in telemarketing, business to business not to consumer but just to share some info...being rude gets you no-where.

... If you are polite about not being interested then I am far more likely to try to work a way to write off the record asap.
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Ditto this. Its common sense, and the same rule apples to lots of different walks of life. be polite to people, and they are more likely to stop annoying you ;)

Lollii said:
Is this for real?? :mad: I can't believe this is your attitude :mad:

I really believe cold calling should be banned, it is harassment of the worse kind; being constantly called on a private number being told you need something that you don't ... this is MY time, stay out of it.

My home number is ex directory and registered with the TPS, we still get several calls a week (it was several a day) I have now unplugged the phone - thanks to people like you :mad: I can now only use my mobile.
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My my I can't believe your attitude... ;) Seriously, take issue with the company which creates these inefficient and soul-destroying jobs, not the person who has to make the calls.

They're getting your number from somewhere - and if you actually answered the phone and asked them politely not to call again I bet the frequency of these calls would decrease. :)

And again, its not people like those who work there, its the companies who employ them you should be taking issue with.

Seahorse said:
If we do get any phone calls at all what I like to do is call their bluff especially when they ask me to confirm my address, I reply "ok tell me the address and I'll confirm if it's correct or not!" that normally throws them off!!
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Also legitimate companies who I am actually interested in hearing from, or whom I would actually answer their market research questions for, won't confirm your details without you confirming it to them first :rolleyes: I have many a time told the caller that since it was them who rang me, they should be able to tell me my address, in order to confirm to me that they are who they say they are. They won't though (which I can understand and am quite grateful for, but surely they can see that I'm not going to tell someone calling from an unknown number my other telephone numbers and address etc :rolleyes:

i'm all for amusing ways to get rid of cold callers. just not rude ones.
 
I never answer any call from an unknown number. I Google unknown ones and all the telemarketers' numbers come up on various websites, so I just add them to a caller name titled "Ignore". Some are very persistent, despite me never answering.

If I could be bothered to find out how, I would start forwarding calls from 1 telemarketer to another randomly selected one. That would confuse them when they start getting calls from each other!
 
I used to work nights and cold callers were a total nightmare. I feel its an invasion of privacy, I have a phone line purely for the internet, not for companies to use the line I pay rent on for their own benefit.
I refuse to do business with any company that calls without invitation.
I'm never rude, I just leave the phone reciever on the side and go back to what I was doing while they talk to themselves. Stops someone else being bothered for a few minutes.
No sympathy for cold callers - wages are very good. Contribution to society = nil.
 
I just normally say "no thanks" and hang up. A couple of months ago i had one asking for Mrs ******, my Mom. My Mom passed away 11 years ago, that one got more than a "no thanks" :(
 
Night before last, my phone went at 1.35am. It rang twice, then stopped. It woke me of course. I looked at the number, and it was a landline I didn't recognise. I laid in bed worrying in case it was something important, so switched my laptop on from bed, and googled the number.

It was a UK number, from a UK company, called Grove Communications, who apparently try to get you to swop your mobile package to be with them. They are a supposedly 'legitimate' company, they are based in the UK, yet they called me at 1.35am!!!

A search on google revealed it's not just me either - other people have had them call at midnight, 4am, 5am, etc.

How on earth can that be justified?!?!

I don't normally speak rudely to cold callers, tho I do resent their intrusion into my life. But if this lot call me again, day or night, they are going to get incredibly short shrift!
 
QR

I always try to be nice (as does my OH) - we simply say something along the lines of "I'm sorry, we're really not interested but thank you for your call". However, the ones who are very persistent and insist on giving us the sales chat, I do get a bit stroppy with. I tend to interrupt and ask where they got the number from because we're ex-directory and registered with TPS, they usually apologise and end the call.

One did make me laugh a couple of weeks ago. "Hello, could I speak to Mr X XXXX please". "Erm, no, I'm sorry, he doesn't live here any more" "Oh dear, would you be interested in blah blah blah". The previous occupant hasn't lived there for nearly 4 years and never had the same phone number as us. AAARGH!
 
My friend's husband has the best trick, he asks who they are and when they say the company's name he pretends to be a police officer investigating a murder at the house, and gets shirty saying why are they calling etc and demanding to know what their relationship was with the deceased.
Take it from me, they never call back.
 
The worst ones are the cold calls I get at work from salesgimps. I met 1 at a conference and he was pestering me for weeks afterwards to come in and demo his software. I told him I had just bought (for £200K) the equivalent software from 1 of his competitors! In the end I had to have a quiet word with someone in his parent company to make him stop (I suspect he got b****h slapped for annoying me).
 
I Had a call from company wanting to help me settle my debts....told them i didnt have any....

Caller - what no credit cards, overdrafts?
Me - Nope
Caller - mortgage
Me - Nope
Caller - nothing?
Me - No, I won the lottery and have settled everything & will shortly be off on holiday before moving to my new house
Caller - oh sorry to bother you, congratulations

Lol i did have to laught
 
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