Telephone Sales..

Oooh this really is one of my pet hates at the moment. For a good 7 or 8 weeks I was getting blank answerphone messages on my phone every week day, apparently it was some company trying to make me take out a loan. I registered with TPS well over a year ago and I was furious that this blank call thing was going on. One day I worked from home and actually was at home when "they" called. Apparently it was an auto-dialler and if an answering machine picked up it cut off after a few moments but just left blank messages. When I got them on the phone I had to wait a few moments before someone picked up. I asked if they had been trying to contact me prior to that day and they said they had. They said they had a wonderful deal for me and kept calling me Mrs XXXXX when I told them 3 times during the call that I was Ms, my mum was Mrs and she lived somewhere else. I let him babble on for a while about this wonderful loan he was going to give me then started asking him stupid questions "I might think about it if it's 0% interest rate?" and "Do I have to actually pay the money back?" and "Can I borrow say £250,000 to emigrate to another country and not come back?" The chap was getting rather confused by my questions then I let rip and told him if he ever called again, I was going to personally go around to his office and chop his wotsits off and I hope the conversation was being recorded because I didn't need any finance or any loans or any more blank answerphone messages :) Ahhhh the satisfaction. Haven't received any calls like that again...! Not sure what the legality of them saying that TPS can't do anything, my number is ex-directory, I never give it out when filling in forms and if I have to provide a landline number I provide my work VOIP number which diverts to my mobile. These companies have random number generators so most of the time they don't even know who they're calling. So if that was the case, why was that guy calling me Mrs ????? Some muppet I know must have given my number out! When I get hold of them.... LOL

I do not feel obligated. I just hang up. It is my home and my life, and I owe them nothing.

i also hate telemarketers. when i was younger i had a job selling over the phone and it is one of the jobs i hated the most. In fact any phone job sucks... i used to work for a major phone company here in australia taking customers calls and it doesnt seem to matter if you are calling them or they are calling you wanting help- there is always an idiot or ten a day!

I've signed up for a DO NOT CALL list here in the US. Spam calls are not allowed to anyone on the list or the company could have to pay a heavy fine. Unfortunately, some places have managed to get themselves exempt from the rules. Charities in particular have gotten around it. If I get a call from someplace that I don't want to talk to, I tell them to take me off their list because I'm on the Do Not Call list. If they really get obnoxious, I just hang up. When I moved to my new place I also got an unlisted and unpublished phone number so that cuts way down on the calls too. I have Caller ID so I can have a record of the numbers that call, even if they don't leave a message on my machine.

telephone sales really annoys me. why? because they keep on talking eventhough you are not interested of what they are offering. They are really discourteous and don't respect your opinion. Eventhough you have said no and i don't need it, they still insist on selling them.My God, don't they understand english and the two letter word NO! Wow! Makes my temper rise just the thought of thinking of it. anyway, goodluck!

Since we have caller id we don't always pick up the phone because we can tell that it is a telemarkter. Occasionally though we have to asnwer the phone because the number is blocked. This could be one of the childrens teachers or a bus driver. Now I admit I usually will just say a quick no thanks an hang up. But there are other times when I get so annoyed that I will just mess with the current telemarkter by asking them personal questions. Are you married? Do you like your job? How many children do you have? Do you currently like your mortage company? Usually I get told that they aren't allowed to answer personal questions. I then inform them that I am also not allowed to answer personal questions either and hang up.

You are seeing one side of the coin. If you are busy person, if you are getting hundreds of unsolicited calls from sales personnel (telemarketing), you cannot be doing a nice talk. I just switch it off.

If I get stuck with a sales call like the ones you're describing, I let them say their first sentence, then said, "Can I stop you there, please?" If they stop, I tell them I'm not interested and I'm in the middle of my dinner, or some such reason. If they carry on, I say, "Ok, I'm putting the phone down now.. goodbye.", and I put the phone down, even if they ignore me. To my mind I've been polite and they haven't by ignoring my answer. So, down goes the phone!

I really can't stand when this happens. It always seems to be when we are ready to sit down and have dinner or we are in the middle of some sort of crisis. What my husband does and it works every time, he asks them for there telephone number and says he will call them back. They get speechless and don't know what to say ....thats when he hangs up.