Telephonery Sales People

Champ

Hi all,
While it can't be bad that the telecommunications market is gradually becoming more competitive the advertising calls are starting to become too.. ehh numerous?

My poor family has been pretty much bombarded this week alone to switch to a new Dublin based company. I was always at work and i'm the only real savvy member of the family and so you can guess nothing got settled about it....well come the call this morning as soon as i picked up the receiver i had expectations about who it was and i wasn't disappointed :rolleyes: .

Spent about one hour and a half trying to convince him that we weren't interested in switching right now... ah the polite way wielding words with razor kiss efficency though i was tempted to just hang up on several occasions but figured anyway that they'll just call back again later if that happened. Best to try to lay this to rest once and for all.

The basics of it was:
(1) We use our mobiles for handling most of our calls, international calls are rare to non existant. Thus nothing really prompting us to switch services.
(2) After a terrible experience in both service and billing from Esat, we went back to Eircom. Yes you can question their value but we've never had a problem in both billing and service with Eircom. If it costs a little extra for peace of mind and a competent provider than so be it.
(3) Since we don't rely on the landline so much, the benefits of a fixed bill aren't so benefical for us.
(4) I haven't heard anything about his company, i know save money by not advertising but still i don't like to do business with a largely unknown party. For instance i know about Cinergy..still called Cinergy right?.. and they don't advertise (friends, net etc..).
(5) If we were to change, Smart does offer better packages so.... He said his company has a large customer base from disgruntled Smart customers (be interesting to see the validity of this), and that no company is so good to pay your line rental.
(6) I'm under the distinct impression that he's going to get fired if he doesn't fill a certain quota or something from his supervisor.
(7) Said that in the future if i do want to switch to their company that i'll dig up their info and do it online. He would want to take the commission for this naturally, and this didn't really bother me too much however he couldn't give me a number to ring me as he's using an auto-dialer.. ah? :rolleyes: He then continually requested that i give him a time to ring back with...
(8) I then categorically stressed that we're not interested in switching indefinetly for the time been.
(9) He sounded very sorrowful and that should hopefully be the end of the matter... yes i know the auto-dialer though i've made my wishes clear and i'll go to ComReg if necessary...

dahamsta

"Can I speak to the Eircom bill payer?"
"Don't call this number again."
<bang>

Karoma

Ken Shabby wrote:

"Can I speak to the Eircom bill payer?"
"Don't call this number again."
<bang>

meh. make it clear that you don't want to be called again.ever. And ask him/her to hold.. *whistles* (They'll hang up - usually after 3 min's or so)

dahamsta

I've tried all sorts of mind games with them, it's not worth the hassle. I'm slowly moving towards...

"Can I speak to the Eircom..."
<bang>

Champ

I've tried all sorts of mind games with them, it's not worth the hassle. I'm slowly moving towards...

"Can I speak to the Eircom..."
<bang>

Can't really blame you, it felt like talking to some automated program with the 'retry' in an infinite loop .

Mr. Presentable

Champ,
I run a small business and get these calls about four times a week. Tell them you are not interested and repeat it about five times over what they are saying, then hang up. It's your phone, so you are in charge. Let them know that!

dahamsta

Since they started blocking caller id, it's just not worth the effort any more. It's not as if you can believe these lying sacks of shít...

Karoma

So..fight ignorance with ignorance.. :rolleyes:
That method cannot be doing much for you if you're still getting 4 calls per week..
What must be said is clear. How you say it though is just as important - they are still people trying to make a living. You can ensure that their employer doesn't reap the benefits of this sort of game without having to resort to being mean/rude/obnoxious.

dahamsta

No offense, but if you take anything these people tell you at face value, you're a fool. These peope lie for a living, they deserve zero respect.

Mr. Presentable

Karoma wrote:

So..fight ignorance with ignorance.. :rolleyes:
That method cannot be doing much for you if you're still getting 4 calls per week..
What must be said is clear. How you say it though is just as important - they are still people trying to make a living. You can ensure that their employer doesn't reap the benefits of this sort of game without having to resort to being mean/rude/obnoxious.

You know, the damndest thing is, it's not the same companies all the time, and sometines it's different employees of the same company. And often they are overseas, Hong Kong is a popular one, but if you hear them out then they think they have a chance and are even harder to lose.

Mr. Presentable

And on a tangent, I love it when Eircom reps come to my door selling Broadband and I tell them I have NTL..........

Karoma

I never said hear them out..hell no:)
Just that there's a way of saying things to get the point across without shouting over them or being just plain rude.
*Realises it's a hopeless battle..walks away. fine. as you were..

dahamsta

Calling me in the middle of my tea is rude. Sauce for the goose.

jmcc

Ken Shabby wrote:

"Can I speak to the Eircom bill payer?"
"Don't call this number again."
<bang>

Good.

Better:
How did you get this number?
(Put the fscker on the defensive. Let them give the autodialer excuse)
Order them to remove your number from your database and do not call again.
(Get them to acknowledge but give them no room to whine.)
Terminate the call.

You must at no time consider the perp to be human and that should be conveyed by your tone of voice. They are looking for the in but this way you shut down all their options right away. You maintain the edge over them and keep the upper hand.

It might sound harsh but it does work - even on fsckers in foreign call centres.

Regards...jmcc

dahamsta

That what I used to advise people to do John, because I used to do it myself all the time.

However it doesn't work any more with cold calls. 90% of the junk calls I get are from autodiallers with caller id hidden, and I can /hear/ the utter lack of interest they have in logging my DPA requests with them. I don't doubt for a second that they're not logging my requests, and to be perfectly frank with the number of calls I get, I don't have the time to track the offenders. In fact I'm trying to train myself to just send private numbers to the answering machine and be damned.

What's needed is a requirement on the part of cold callers to display the number. However even that won't stop the slave labour liars from India and China.

dingding

One evening after a few pints I was with a friend watching TV, came accross one of the shopping channels, We rang them up and when the asked if they could help, he said no, just window shopping.

dahamsta

I wonder how many times they've heard this gem from Jerry Seinfield:

TEL: Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance service.
JERRY: Oh, gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later.
TEL: Uh, I'm sorry we're not allowed to do that.
JERRY: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home.
TEL: No.
JERRY: Well now you know how I feel.

There's another one too, but I can't remember it right now.

jmcc

Ken Shabby wrote:

That what I used to advise people to do John, because I used to do it myself all the time.

Sometimes it can work very well Adam,
The trick is to be so coldly aggressive that the perp gets very uncomfortable very quickly.

Regards...jmcc

dahamsta

Hasn't happened to me in a while John. I've had boredom and even aggression, but not discomfort. I think they've been trained not to give a toss any more.

Our man in Havana

How do the c**ts get ex-directory numbers?

dingding

THey must ring all phone no's in sequence, If they get an answer the call is routed straight through to an agent.

dahamsta

They don't Bond, they just hit them randomly with autodiallers.

Champ

Okay, enough is enough.

During the days while i'm gone the phone is set to silent, and our friends / important contacts have been instructed to rely on our mobiles instead.

Lets see come back from work, and 14 calls from a blocked number. No prizes for guessing from whom they were from. Switch off silent and soon enough...:mad:

If i didn't know better, i would say it was the original guy i talked to and said no to:rolleyes:

Well i did my part in been polite a week ago so...
-*Waits for him to finish the usual opening*
-Me: "No we're not interested!"
-*He cuts off the connection then*

Wonder if they'll be calling back again?;)

Well if they do i'm going straight to Comreg about this... errr i hope they have the power to do something helpful about this?:o I mean since i'm not technically ina contract with this company....

No-one else is getting harassed by newtel? www.newtel.ie
I think i was much happier been ignorant of their existence.