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!

It's cars. I contact people whose warranty is about to run out to see if they have had any thoughts about part exchanging it for a new one to therefore take them back into a warranty period. Each letter is typed to each customers specific circumstances and not just junk mail. Most people will talk to me and tell me what their plans are (to change in 6 months, to keep the car for a few more years or whatever) If they are not wanting to change i always make sure i ask if they have any problems with the car they have and if i can help in any way so it serves a duel purpose really. If they don't want to talk that's fine.

You might not agree and it might not be a job you would do, fair enough, but your first statement about it not being a job is just ridiculas considering you yourself just called it a job.

Also just to point out everyone i contact bought a car three years ago so I'm not ringing vulnerable old people trying to scam them. That is not what the company i work for is about.

I suppose you are right that i have wasted their time as soon as i say my name if they aren't interested. Not a lot i can do about that than apologise for bothering them and not call back.

That goes both ways though doesn't it Krum... if nobody was willing to work in telesales the companies wouldn't exist

Ephiny, thing is i'm just doing what i am told to do, by people who have mulitple years of experience with sales and the motor trade. I do see you point though, but at least when i introduce myself they have an idea what it is about and can make an informed decision as to whether or not they want to continue the conversation.

3monkeys lol at "I don't like them".

I said that to somebody trying to sell me a new UPVC porch, Mine is original with the original stain glass windows and the fella said "You need to update it, it's not in keeping with your neighbours"

Bumble - I wasn't being ridiculous, when I said it's not a job. What I meant by that phrase is that in my view it's not a honest days work. Each to their own.

No glassrose it doesnt. There are not enough jobs. People HAVE to work. You seem to think this is a choice.

Yes I appreciate you're just doing your job, and those techniques probably do work to increase sales (otherwise why do them?). I do think some of the comments about 'morals' etc are unnecessary - unless they're aimed at the people actually scamming or aggressively harassing the vulnerable.

An immoral job is an arms dealer, a banker, oil companies.
Not a bloody 19 year old making some calls to earn not even minimum wage ffs!

Exactly my point Ephiny, thank you. I think people that can intentionally lie and scam someone especially older people or people without the mental capacity to understand what is going on are just disgusting. Which is kind of why i am so annoyed at being tarred with the same brush.

You are being very offensive GlassofRose. Obviously you have a saintly job?

yabu
I just give them a polite 'not interested' and hang up.
I figure they get enough grief with people already, must be a really tough job.

Yes, Krum it does.

If people aren't willing to do the job the companies that you reckon we should be angry at cease to exist. It is a circle. If your willing to do the job the company works and takes on more staff. If nobody is willing to do it the company fails.

Some people are put in a position where they need a job, any job. That is understandable, but at the same time you do have retain your choice. Would you say I took a job selling crack because it's all that was on offer?

Talking about morals was always bound to offend somebody. Most people who say they worked in telesales said they fled the job ASAP for what seem to me like moral reasons - they couldn't bare being a nuisance to people and didn't like pestering/harassing for sales. Even in a company doesn't specifically target the elderly and vulnerable they usually are the only ones who are duped. The rest of us put the phone down. Those who do target elderly and vulnerable are completely unscrupulous.

I don't target anybody that couldn't drive a car and frankly i would be very concerned if someone who could use the roads and operate heavy machinery capable of killing someone was not of sound mind to tell me they weren't interested.

I've had all sorts of jobs Bumble. As a teenager I worked in a hair dressers as a dogs body. I've worked as teaching assistant whose role was purely to teach children who speak English as an additional language. I'm also trained in textiles and pattern cutting so do that freelance. Currently at university and do cleaning jobs to get by.

I'm not saintly and I don't pretend to be either. We all have different ideas of what is right or wrong. I haven't said 'bumble is an awful person without morals", I've purely said that I think telesales isn't a job I'd so because I think it's awful. Should I change my opinion just to keep those in telesales happy?

You are blaming the wrong people. Blame the ones making millions not poor people with no options.
Ok so your On JSA the job centre get you an interview at a telesales place, if you turn it down they take away your benefits. You literally have no choice. These are the people who work in telesales, nearly all of them are young, poor or recent immigrants. Vulnerable people who need to survive.

I don't have any trouble with cold calling since I bought this baby. It might look a bit expensive but is it worth it! My mother-in-law was so impressed that she bought one as well.

We are registered with the TPS but it doesn't stop the auto-dialling calls or the international calls so it is next to useless. For those that say that they just ignore cold calls, this doesn't actually work as it doesn't discourage the caller, they just go on ringing until they get an answer, sometimes ringing five or six times a day in my experience.

I don't target anybody that couldn't drive a car and frankly i would be very concerned if someone who could use the roads and operate heavy machinery capable of killing someone was not of sound mind to tell me they weren't interested.

So you know of no special needs people with a driving license? My aunt was starved of Oxygen at birth and is a bit like a down syndrome individual. She can drive and look after herself to an extent, she's still vulnerable when it comes to people trying to sell her stuff.

Seriously though Bumble, my posts aren't directed at you. I hate telesales simple as.

I start off polite but usually end up hanging up. There's a difference between them doing their job and harassing me in my own home which it often gets to the point of. Should be illegal. Love the password idea and can think of a few who deserved the whistle too.

Could anyone enlighten me (before they make their daily call) about the accident compensation one - is that an actual scam, or are they like ambulance-chasers?

I don't know how people can do that kind of job knowing full well that they are bothering people in their own homes and their calls are mostly unsolicited, I would be too embarrassed! Surely there is other work out there?

I think the accident compensation calls are a scatter gun approach - if you ask a hundred people about 'their accident', then a couple of them will have a tale to tell, and one will probably be lucrative in terms of suing a tax-payer-run public organisation for compensation.

Well your aunt or anybody else with health issues or otherwise would have to go through a lot of appointments and checks and things with what im doing before they would sell her a car. We are regulated you know. I don't think you understand the difference between what i do and people trying to sell things to vulnerable people on purpose. If you don't have the capacity to understand that and want to just throw a blanket rule over anybody who uses a phone to contact customers then that's your choice.

Let's just agree to disagree.

Agree that if telesales was made unlawful then the companies would obviously cease to exist, and those who run them would find something else to do. Maybe some of them would even think of a more suitable company to run and give better jobs to people.

Thanks Linerunner.

Unfortuantely, they are often very abrupt and hang up when you are not interested, so I have got a bit harder about it all.

I had one last week from someone claiming to be from a company connected to the Metropolitan Police! He sounded very convincing and sincere, but I smelt a rat after about a minute and said that I wasn't interested. He was abrupt and then slammed the phone down on me!

So, now - if its a reputable company e.g. my own bank with then I will listen and usually say I am too busy, sorry.

Anyone else, I just put the phone straight down now on them.

Guess what? I tried the "do you have a password" on an unsolicited call from my internet providers today (they've decided to pester me with "pleasssssssssssse don't leave us" calls ever since I gave them notice to quit from their sluggish service). The caller was dumbstruck. Said "no" "but" and I swiftly cut in with "well I cannot speak to you then!" and put the phone down. Thanks for the genius idea tidy!

I used to be really nice to them now I tell them to wait as someone is at the door, put the phone on the side on speaker and just ignore them, its their bill their paying not mine!

I just tell them i am not interested and hang up on most of them.

The worst ones are the ones who ring and don't even answer!!