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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that 'blasting' a whistle, down the phone, into the ear of someone in a call centre is abusive?

211 replies

twinklingfairy · 14/06/2012 20:08

An old school friend has delightedly put this as her status. That her husband had the whistle ready and BLAST = call centre caller with tinitus, lol ??
How is that funny!?
My DH had someone scream into his ear, as a teenager, and has tinitus to this day. That's over 20yrs later!
I wrote a reply giving this story but omitting that it was my DH and was told to , calm down. She has been putting up with the abuse of the constant call for months etc. And that she had suffered it herself, after a rock concert.
hmm not quite the same, I think, as having a high pitch put straight into your ear that could abuse Long Term damage.
But it would seem I am a kill joy Hmm
DH says leave it, but I can't help feeling very angry on his behalf. Not to mention the poor soul, though I don't deny the calls are annoying, no one deserves abuse like that when it could cause lasting problems.

OP posts:
LineRunner · 15/06/2012 18:46

One of the businesses mooted in final of The Apprentice was a massive call centre.

ravenAK · 15/06/2012 18:55

Hate call centres. Horrible shitty places that make people do a shitty job that involves inflicting unsolicited shit on other people whilst being treated like shit.

No need to blast a whistle at some poor desperate sod trying to earn a crust. I tell them I have TPS. If they persist, I hand the phone to dd2 (four). She loves talking to god botherers & conservatory salesbods.

maybenow · 15/06/2012 19:02

redpanda - we checked again last week that we are on TPS and we definitely are. it seemed to work for a year or two but we've been on the same number now for 5-6yrs and somehow a load of companies have our number. i don't want to have to keep changing it to avoid them. as i said i'd like to use the number for my at-home business but i'm too scared to as then i'd have to actually answer rather than let the answer machine get them. as it is the answer machine does get them and we erase about six 'silent' calls which are definitely not people we know per week.

ChopstheDuck · 15/06/2012 19:05

Ok, but even if you say that the call Center worker has no choice but to be there, do they REALLY have to be so rude, and persistent? They soon stop when you do take action, so why not be a little more polite to begin with, before it gets to the stage when people do get that frustrated they resort to such measures.

If I could answer the phone, be told directly what they want and then give a yes or no, or it's not convenient to talk, and for the cold callers to listen to tha,t, I'd be happy! It's the eprsistsnce and rudeness that pisses people off, and then they don't really deserve sympathy, no!

maybenow · 15/06/2012 19:08

last one i answered last week because i was expecting a call - he starts with 'is that mrs marriedname?' now i know it's already a cold call as i dont' use my married name so i say 'no' but still he blusters through starts with 'how long is it since you had your kitchen redone' would you say your bathroom or kitchen were older' 'if you won a free bathroom or kitchen which would you choose'?
they do not and will not say what their actual proposition is. they try to keep you on for as long as possible before you can actually say 'no' to anything.. by relying on the fact that you don't wnat to be rude. It's not the individual speaking, it's 'the script' but you don't get to speak to the script writer and it is all designed to take advantage of social niceities and our reluctance to be rude.. people say 'there's no excuse to be rude' but that's what these companies rely on. I do not want the product and there's zero chance i'll buy anything from a cold caller but I also do not want to wait five to ten minutes waiting to be told the proposition to which i can say no.

monkeymoma · 15/06/2012 19:08

YANBU it is deliberately causing physical pain/damage

noone deserves that at work!

HoneyDragonWearingLederhosen · 15/06/2012 19:19

A very effective way to get rid and taken off call lists, is to say you are in the profession of what they are selling. Especially the poi calls from abroad. Simply state firmly you are a financial advisor and you specialise in PPI etc. they always hang up straight away.

Tell window sellers your other halfs a window fitter or your dad does lift insulation. They never call back.

tuffie · 15/06/2012 19:34

Agree with misslinnet. I have a great respect for people who are prepared to do a horrible job rather than claim unemployment benefit. Their persistence is because they are under huge pressure to get sales.
I think anybody who is rude to them ought to spend a day doing the job themselves.

Pseudonym99 · 15/06/2012 19:34

Blowing a whistle down the phone wouldn't harm the person on the other end, as the equipment wouldn't be capable of reproducing sound at a volume to do harm. If it does to harm, it is the employer's fault for putting their workers in danger, rather than the person defending themselves by blowing the whistle.

SardineQueen · 15/06/2012 19:55

YANBU what an utterly shitty thing to do to someone.

And because they've got headphones on they won't be able to get them off quickly.

Of course it can cause temporary or permanent damage to hearing Confused obvious isn't it.

MirandaGoshawk · 15/06/2012 20:00

Pseudonym - so that's OK then. Reminds me of the school that told a parent her child wasn't being bullied because they have an anti-bullying policy.

whathaveiforgottentoday · 15/06/2012 20:26

my mum is registered with TPS but she has been blighted with cold calls recently (we suspect they are coming from abroad) and she gets quite a number of phones from all over including abroad due to her old work company (she still helps out with the retirees) so she likes to be able to answer the phone without screening each time.

I'm very happy to be polite to people who ring, explain who they are and allow me to decide whether I wish to listen to what they have to offer. If not, I don't listen. I've nothing personal against the people phoning and with the exception of the one who persistently kept ringing my mum, would consider myself curt on the phone, rather than rude.

However, do people really buy stuff off people who cold call? I'm less likely to buy from a company that cold calls me.

misslinnet · 15/06/2012 20:46

Some people must buy from cold callers or they wouldn't be doing it.

whathaveiforgottentoday · 15/06/2012 21:07

yes obviously they must - c'mon, who are you people that buy from cold callers?

HoneyDragonWearingLederhosen · 15/06/2012 21:17

With respect that's bollocks. We've had people let of air horns before. If you have a head set on you cannot move from
The ear piece and health and safety says you must wear a head set.

It's not a nice experience.

jaquelinehyde · 15/06/2012 23:18

Pseudonym - That is completely incorrect, please refer to my previous posts about how my hearing has been permenantly damaged by someone blowing a whistle down the phone.

There isn't much that a company can do about whistles being blown, I suppose you believe that chuggers deserve to be stabbed or punched by the people they approach and that it's the companies fault for not protecting them from this?

No of course you don't because that would be a rather pathetic and stupid thing to think wouldn't it?

ravenAK · 15/06/2012 23:30

Really, I don't find sales calls an unbearable nuisance. I won't deal with any company that cold calls (or give to a charity that chugs me), but I just tell them briskly to bugger off, I have TPS, & get on with my day.

(Persistent callers get the phone handed to v chatty small child technique).

I see it as a kindness to be quite brusque with them. They're on commission. Given that I wouldn't buy a bucket of water from them if my arse was on fire, what's the point in letting them waste time on their spiel?

& if we all tell them to bugger off, eventually it'll no longer be effective marketing & the problem will disappear.

Whistles are unkind, though. You aren't on the line to the CEO, just some poor sod doing a shit job for shit money. Get rid asap by all means, but hurting or distressing them is out of order.

jaquelinehyde · 15/06/2012 23:36

I will say I hate cold callers who won't take no for an answer.

I never, ever continued a call if it was made clear the person on the other end wasn't interested.

I don't understand pushy sales, it takes longer to convince one person who doesn't want an item to buy it than it ever did to rattle through 20 calls to get to the one person who does want what you are selling.

I've always been the top seller when I have done cold calls and never quite got why others didn't work the same way.

The whistle I got down the phone was actually whislt working in the civil service and the person had called me Shock What a twat!

bogeyface · 16/06/2012 00:02

TPS protects you from calls within the UK, it does no prevent calls that originate outside the UK and that is perfectly legal.

Thats why people who are registered can still get cold calls and the threat of TPS doesnt stop them calling back.

If you want to know who is ringing you and why then a) get caller display so you only answer the numbers you know and b) google the phone number. 99 out of 100 times it will take you to www.whocallsme.com (or.co.uk) where nuisance calls are reported.

carernotasaint · 16/06/2012 00:39

It works the other way too. We were plagued by cold calls from a company called UK Today for almost six months and the constant harassment culminated in my DH having bad chest pains on the Saturday of the Jubilee weekend (he has ischemic heart disease) so we had to call the ambulance. The paramedic ran an ECG and it turned out to be an angina attack. We were on the TPS service and ex directory but the calls were coming from abroad. High level complaints at BT dealt with it and our number has now been changed.

carernotasaint · 16/06/2012 00:41

He had an angina attack that Saturday because they called AGAIN and it was the final straw. he developed chest pains after coming off the phone to them.

bogeyface · 16/06/2012 00:47

carer I had my number changed for the same reason, but we shoudlnt have to :(

Sadly, whilst the whole world is on top of internet crime/trolling etc, no one seems to give a flying fuck about this. I hope your DH recovered. Seriously though, caller display is your friend. We dont answer answers we dont know, withheld numbers or 0845-esque numbers. We check for 1571 message a couple of minutes after each call as anyone who has a genuine need to get hold of us will leave a message.

bogeyface · 16/06/2012 00:48

We dont answer numbers we dont know

misslinnet · 16/06/2012 00:54

Yes caller display is great.

Since we signed up to TPS, most of our cold calls come from international numbers. So we just ignore international calls and let it go to voicemail. Funnily enough, the international callers never bother leaving a message.

carernotasaint · 16/06/2012 00:54

Hopefully its resolved now. It was very stressful though. And my 76 year old parents are currently having the same problems. Theyve been on the same phone number since the late 70s early 80s . The only thing thats changed with their no. is when it changed from people having 5 digit numbers to 6 digit numbers in the early 80s they had an extra digit added to the front of their number. Theyve had the same number for that long. thats why they are loathe to change it.