To be a bit rude to cold-callers?

[Vagabond]

I loathe being cold-called at home. You get up from your comfy position to be propositioned by a foreigner (who can barely speak English) who wants to offer you cash-back on PPI insurance. Drives me mad. I used to be polite. I'm now a demon. I demand to know where they got my number, I tell them they've woken my baby up with the call and I tell them to never, ever phone me again.

Hmmm, I suppose that's quite tame! What do you say?

BTW, even if you register with that hotline number to never get cold calls, it's entirely legal if they call you from foreign call centres. That must be why I get so many foreigners (or computerised messages) calling me at home. Drives me crazy!

KrumBum

That's lovely for you.
I have had old callers be rude. Not just persistent. Very rude.

Ha ha, ok I'm going to bite, Why is it not a job?

Somebody is doing something that they are being paid money to do by someone else. How is that not a job?

When you say they are rude. What do they do? They are in a room filled with colleagues and their manager being pushed and pushed to make a lead.

We all have different ideas of what is rude I suppose. Krum, do you think it is okay for somebody to be persistent once you have said no? Personally I find that rude.

If I walked into a shop and had a pushy salesman, the type who make a beeline for you as soon as you enter the door and hovers about whilst you are having a browse, I leave. You half expect it in shops though because you've shown an interest in their products. You don't expect it when your at home, especially when you've gone to the trouble of registering with TPS. It's rude enough to cold call, let alone persist in my opinion.

I've played along with them once or twice and said "ohh that accident I remember now" and then been sworn at for wasting their time. Had to laugh at the irony.

Haha Bee, bite away. Harassing someone down the phone isn't a proper job in my opinion. Almost everyone who's announced they did telesales also mentioned they got out pronto. If you think harassing people over the phone is a job then go with it

Glass. A lot of people don't have an option but to work these jobs. There is a lot of unemployment and if you can get a job then some people need to do anything so they are earning.
It is Legal what they are doing 99% of the time. If you have an issue put the phone down, you hold the power to do that.

Did you read my earlier post? I don't harrass people in my job. To be fair what i do isn't cold calling as such it's warm (people that have bought from us before). I get annoyed by the ppi and accident ones but i'm not rude to them i just say i'm not interested.

I think taking your personal life out on a complete stranger is really rude.

I'd rather do what i do than claim money from the government that could help someone who can't work.

gordylovessleep and easilybored - I've had the Micrsoft scammers too. I kept one on the line for ages as I happened to have some free time (at least she wasn't then scamming someone else) before telling her I knew it was a scam and that she should be ashamed of herself.

She told me that I was rude and that it wasn't a scam that I should be the one who should be ashamed!

There's been a real escalation in the number of calls we get, despite the fact that we are TPS registered and I find myself getting increasingly stroppy short to callers who have disturbed me unnecessarily.

I can't not answer "International" or "Withheld" numbers as I have a lot of relations abroad.

Bumble - My post wasn't about just you, it was about cold callers in general. I fail to see how I am "taking my life out on a complete stranger". Surely you are taking your life out on me right now because you work in telesales?

Whether you wanna call it cold calling or "warm calling" it's telesales. So you may not believe that you are not harassing people, but if you make an unexpected call to a stranger you are taking up their time. You might not call again, but you've already disrupted somebody at home... and sometimes in a company another person working for them phones back instead.

I admire that you want to work rather than take handouts. However my personal view of telesales means I wouldn't personally dream of taking that job. The people I know who have bought from telesales or door knockers happen to be old people... It's not a job my morals would allow me to do.

Krumbum,

You don't know what being rude is?

Or are you struggling to believe me and would prefer to assume that every cold caller that ever makes a call is perfectly polite?

I think swearing, being aggressive or arguing when asked politely to stop calling, is rude. I have experienced those when explaining why I wasn't interested because i hate being curt. I tend to try and avoid getting drawn into any kind of conversation now.

Oddly I think engaging to say 'not interested' rather than 'sorry, not interested' and hanging up made some callers more frustrated and get arsier. I just keep it short now.

I'm not rude to the caller because they are working in what is often not a fantastic job and are very poorly paid and managed by morons (I've done jobs in this area).

I just say firmly but pleasantly (I hope!) 'I'm not interested; please take my details off your list.Thank you,' and hang up.

You could screen your calls so you don't even have to get up to answer it?

I wouldn't swear or be nasty, but I do say 'no thanks' as soon as I realise it's a sales call and immediately hang up. Maybe that could be considered rude, but from past experience I've found these people can be very pushy and manipulative if you get into conversation with them.

That was a separate paragraph, and therefore not aimed at you. I just mean when people go mental at cold callers rather than just saying not interested is a bit well mental.

What you have said is exactly why i introduce myself and then say are you ok to talk? if they say no I say is there a better time to call back if they say no i say ok thank you for your time and hang up. I then make my notes that the customer doesn't want bothering so the next person that comes along doesn't call them. I also send them a letter out a week before outlining what i am calling about and that I am following up the letter. So if they say they have time to talk i say that i sent a letter out recently and wondered if they had received it and if they had had any thoughts. What i am selling is something that is a necessity in a lot of peoples lives. Actually i'm not even really selling them anything I don't earn commission I just find out if they are interested and get someone to call them if they are or invite them in for an appointment. My work aren't pushy with me though. I don't have targets.

So i think i am being as considerate as i can be while still contributing to my family's income. I don't appreciate you making out as if i have no morals because of that.

Glass. What would you do if that were the only job you could get quickly? Which it often is. A telesales company are one of the biggest employers where I live and a lot of people have no option, there simply are not other jobs.

No Pagwatch I do believe you I'm just really surprised.

Fair enough.

I do understand what you are saying bumble. You do sound as if you're trying to be considerate but If received mail then a phone call I'd think fuck me they send junk mail and then call. Even if it's a brief can you talk I would consider it that you've just wasted my time.

You say you're not selling anything, so you're setting up an appointment for somebody else to do telesales... what exactly is it that your company offers?

I wouldn't want to point you out and say you have no morals, my post wasn't purely directed at you. I couldn't take a job phoning strangers to try to sell them something because I think telesales is a nuisance which can be harassing and that most people. I couldn't do it because my morals say that it's wrong. Especially when it seems so many who end up buying from telesales end up being old or vulnerable people who have been convinced to part money for what usually ends up being a very poor deal. My family made the decision to put my great nan was actually became a target of door knockers and cold callers repeatedly. We all see things differently, but sorry I'm not going to pretend I think telesales is an innocent inoffensive job to make someone who does it feel better.

Just say "no thank you, goodbye" and put the phone down. Can't see why anyone would waste time thinking of anything else to say really!

How come you're all being called by actual people? When I get a PPI or accident claim call it's always a recording. I can't remember the last time I was cold called by a real voice.

Krum - I've been in the position of having no job... I got up at 4am to scrub office toilets. Wouldn't dream of being part of companies whose only wish is to gain from another using harassment.

PPI claim companies make want to gain off people who aren't aware they can claim their own PPI back without having to hand some over to a company.
Accident claims also want to make money off your misfortune.
Double glazing usually want to flog you over priced windows and the victims of all tend to be the elderly and vulnerable. No thank you

oops post up thread got jumbled

• My family had to make the decision to put my nan in a home after years of trying to keep her their as she wished because she became a victim of those types of companies all too often

You do sound very reasonable Bumblebee, though tbh I don't really want unsolicited phone calls at all - if you've already sent out a letter, why not have a phone number on that and people can call you if they're interested?

In fact, if it's people who have bought from you before, presumably they already know your company exists and are capable of contacting you if they want to do business with you again, so really no need even for the letter?

The reason I get annoyed with the cold callers is that we are on TPS and therefore shouldn't be called. And I get irritated by people making the excuse that "our number can't have been registered yet on their system" (we've been on TPS for years - since just after it started) or that "we need to re-register for TPS" (we don't). But I recognise that most legitimate cold callers have just got "our" call as the next in line from a predictive dialler and that it is the company's database that is at fault. I'm not therefore too rude to the caller but remind them that they should not be calling our number (I do however, often report the company to TPS).

My particular ire is aimed at the scammers: the Microsoft ones in particular but also those that are trying to tell me that I am owed refunds on PPI or compensation for an accident (never took out PPI, never had a delete as appropriate credit card, never had an accident...). They are fair game.

Alright then glass. That's fine for you because there was another job on offer. Often these jobs are the ONLY option.
Blame the people who run the companies not poor people who need to work.

I did this horrible, horrible job during a summer while I was at uni - I despised every second and hated bothering people. Because of this experience (shudder) I know that automatic diallers take a second or so to click in after the person answers - so when you say 'hello' or whatever to answer the phone they don't generally hear it and then the call clicks in on their end iyswim? If I hear the pause I just hang up - simple as that!

Whenever someone knocks the door I just tell them I don't buy on the doorstep, thank you and shut the door. Or if it's something like windows I just say I don't like them, which always really confuses them (I mean, I must be so weird, EVERYONE loves upvc windows, don't they?).