Don’t get me wrong I understand that the people on the other end of the phone are simply doing their job but their sense of timing is impeccable at present. Last week I answered four cold calls in the space of a few hours all but one which was one of those silent ones! Was either ppi related or insulation! We also periodically get phone calls for the person who obviously had our telephone number before us. Once they start asking for Mrs smith and I’ve politely pointed out there is no one by that name here. The caller either apologises profusely and agrees to my request to remove the number from their list (although I suspect they never do!) or the proceed to ask if this is such and such address and seem quite shocked to learn it’s not and please remove the telephone number but they decide seeing as they have someone on the phone they will start their pitch on the off chance I may be interested. Well we all love an opportunity! I then usually hang up. Dad of 3 finds it hilarious how I deal with these calls well he would do because its my time that’s taken up with them!
For the last few years we have been registering our telephone numbers with the telephone preference list which is an opt out list. Once your number has been on the list for 28 days its is a legal requirement for telesales companies not to contact those numbers on the list so if they do and you can get the company name you can then report the company via the telephone preference list service. We have found that the number of telesales calls we get has reduced since being on the list and I have also now registered my mobile number as I’ve started to get telesales calls on that too.
I would love to hear how you deal with telesales calls. Do you simply hang up? Or enter into conversation with the person on the other end? Is there a particular company or product that you receive calls for more than others?
For genuine telesales calls I ask them who they are, where they are calling from and their contact number. If we get that far I then tell them we are on the TPS and they haven’t checked the number first. Usually they apologise (more often they hang up)
The TPS doesn’t cover market research, and this is the sneaky bit, they can then use the answers to target telemarketing which is then not covered by your TPS are you opted in! So be careful!
The real bane of my life is Indian calls trying to tell me my computer has a problem. I love these. I just talk them round the houses “what sort of computer have I got, is it a desk top or lap top” that sort of thing, til they tire of me!
I have just finished working for a cold-calling company – doing surveys.
I needed the money and the job allowed me to work at home without having to pay for childcare.
I lasted five weeks, and gave it up because it was soul-destroying, paid the minimum wage, and meant taking a lot of abuse.
My contract required me to work at least 16 hours a week, between 9.30am and 8.30pm, Mon to Sat.
Among the zillion rejections I got, I had to meet a target of 5 surveys an hour. I managed this by hanging up as soon as someone said “no” and moving on to the next call swiftly.
So I dialled into the system via my computer for an hour at a time, whenever my son was at nursery, or settled in the next room with crayons/toys/TV.
There was a legal requirement to say a certain amount of stuff from a script – if people let me get that far.
The best rejection I could hope for was a “No thank you” and a hang up. I didn’t mind that.
What I hated was people shouting “Haven’t you got anything better to do?” like I was some low-life who actually chose to bother them because it made me happy.
People also screamed at me they were registered with the TPS and I wasn’t allowed to call them – to which I had a script to read, explaining that I still could (but I could give them a number if they wished to complain).
If you fill in a form, in a shop or online, and you don’t tick that little box saying you don’t want your details passed on, then you’ll get cold calls – regardless of whether you’re on TPS or not.
It’s a crap job and I can only say that at my training I was alongside a lot of mums and skint students, who had few other options for earning around their families/studies.
I know some people will say “well if you don’t like it, don’t do that job”.
I’m lucky I had that choice. And now I don’t.
I wouldn’t say I’m sympathetic enough to speak to cold callers in future. But I definitely won’t stay on the phone, giving them abuse.
A firm “no thank you” or “not interested” and the receiver goes down.