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Telemarketers :(


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If there's one thing I really don't like, it's telemarketers. Interrupting dinner, making me pause a game or making a mad dash to get to the phone to find out it's something from someone I don't want. Most of it is now regulated in my country. How often they can call, during what hours of the day. But I can also be put on a 'do not call' list which for the most part eliminates almost all calls. Problem is almost. Like any law or regulation, there are always exceptions.

 

Some groups or functions are exempt from the regulations. And that is what lead to my problem last weekend. Without getting into details, a special event was set to be decided on Jan 19th. The weekend before that saw a flurry of activity on the phone lines with these groups trying to sway or guarantee my decision on the matter.

 

The problem was from Jan 15th til Jan 17th afternoon my house was called a total of 57 times before I became sooooo frustrated I disconnected the phone. After being interrupted 3 times during the 1st half of the NFL Playoff game, I could take it no more. I even tried blocking the phone numbers but couldn't as they blocked the numbers from being displayed on my end.

 

I had to call everyone I could think of to let them know to call my cell phone and not the house phone til Tuesday. Luckily my cell phone was not getting these calls. Can just imagine if there was an actual emergency what might have happened. Several of my friends did the same thing. Some got called even more frequently than me :)

 

On Tuesday I was at a local police station doing some work and asked one of the officers if someone called my house 57 times within a 48 hour period what could I do about it. He said that constituted harassment and I could get a restraining order barring them from calling my house again for at least 6 months to a year. Longer would take a court order to do. Then I explained who was calling and he shrugged his shoulders and said there's nothing that could be done, but at least it would be over today (Jan19th)

 

Now I'm all for these certain groups to be able to get their message across. Again without getting into specifics, some of these groups include charities, like a call I just got asking for a monetary donation to help the Haiti Earthquake Fund. Some have a legitimate reason to call. Even the groups that called 57 times did. If they had called only once or twice to get their message across, I wouldn't be writing this. But I was getting called literally every 15-30 minutes from 9am to 9pm with automated messages. I couldn't even pick the phone up to ask them to stop calling.

 

I just can't understand what they thought they would accomplish by calling that many times. They had to know it would get aggravating. Well maybe they didn't know, since all the calls were automated messages, it was probably being done from an auto dialer. I would write a letter to both groups to express my dissatisfaction with their methods but like I said it was over Jan 19th and I doubt my message would even be read.

 

I'm sure others have gone thru telemarketer nightmares and I'm curious to how this is regulated in other countries-especially if there are exceptions to the rules like in the U.S.

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I just can't understand what they thought they would accomplish by calling that many times.

Do you think they have a list that they check to see if they've already called you? :)

 

They sit in a room full of desks and phones, and they have a list and they just call every number on that list. Considering the amount of those guys, 57 calls is not surprising.

 

 

I had come through this kind of office a couple of years ago while looking for job... :sick:

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The employees of those callcenters get a bonus for every victim which they have succesfully bound to a contract of the company which the callcenter got an order from.

Once I visit a callcenter to get a job there. They had an information meeting for everyone which was looking for work and you could directly sollicitate for work there. The manager explained then they worked for a certain energy company. He explained that everyone got normal paid, but you get a bonus for every succesfull contract you have closed to a customer. So it's no wonder that telemarketeers try over and over again, just to bound you to a filthy contract.

Here in The Netherlands you can put yourself on a list that prevents from those callcenters call you with their irritating message. This list is called Call Me Not and you can freely put yourself on it, so no callcenter calls you for a contract to an energy company or someone from the lottery calls you or some insurance company that tries to bound you to them or some other annoying dude that tries to sell you something. The Call Me Not register is under the guidance of infofilter and it falls under the department of economic business of the government. People which have registered themself on the Call Me Not register may not be bothered anymore by the marketeers and callcenters.

We have here registered ourself to that call me not register. From time to time we were being disturb by those callcenters and other people. Then one is calling for the lottery, then for a contract on an other energy company, then someone thinks you need a new insurance and so on. It's driving you nutts.

Edited by candesco
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I'm not too fond of these guys either. They are starting to get bold these days. The Los Angeles Times would call me several times a week but ask for only me. They would never talk to the wife and I would never take the call.

 

I got in the habit of singing on the phone everytime I got one of those calls.

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I share your pain knuckles, I hate those calls as well.

 

The employees of those callcenters get a bonus for every victim which they have succesfully bound to a contract of the company which the callcenter got an order from.

Once I visit a callcenter to get a job there. They had an information meeting for everyone which was looking for work and you could directly sollicitate for work there. The manager explained then they worked for a certain energy company. He explained that everyone got normal paid, but you get a bonus for every succesfull contract you have closed to a customer. So it's no wonder that telemarketeers try over and over again, just to bound you to a filthy contract.

Here in The Netherlands you can put yourself on a list that prevents from those callcenters call you with their irritating message. This list is called Call Me Not and you can freely put yourself on it, so no callcenter calls you for a contract to an energy company or someone from the lottery calls you or some insurance company that tries to bound you to them or some other annoying dude that tries to sell you something. The Call Me Not register is under the guidance of infofilter and it falls under the department of economic business of the government. People which have registered themself on the Call Me Not register may not be bothered anymore by the marketeers and callcenters.

We have here registered ourself to that call me not register. From time to time we were being disturb by those callcenters and other people. Then one is calling for the lottery, then for a contract on an other energy company, then someone thinks you need a new insurance and so on. It's driving you nutts.

 

Funfact: when the register opened last year, the servers crashed almost immediately. There were too many people interested in it. :drunkards:

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  • 3 months later...

In Holland you can ask the person if they call, how they got you number. might be help full in tracing it to the roots.

Most of the time when you have there offers or contest where you can win stuff for free, you have to put in your details.

Those details can be sold if you read the fine printing. If you up in that stadium,well... you in for some serious calling.

Same thing goes for addressed commercial mail.... ( not sure how to call it in English)

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