Yay for intelligent phone spammers

[cjwatson]

Phone: [ring]
Col: [pick up] Hello? [no sound] Hello? [pause, buzzing]
Phone spammer: Hello, am I speaking to Mr. Kelly?
C: No, you aren't.
PS: He is unavailable?
C: He does not live here any more.
PS: OK, then I will call back.
C: You don't need to call back; please do not call me again. [PS hangs up somewhere in the middle of this]

Am I speaking in Korean without noticing, or something? I realise I'm probably sounding like a broken record on this to ghoti at least, but I'm really looking forward to my TPS registration becoming active.

Comments

[mr-ricarno.livejournal.com]

My experience with TPS is that it might reduce the number of calls you get, but it doesn't eradicate them by any means.

These days, we generally get recorded messages rather than real people. This is better in some ways because you don't feel guilty slamming the phone on a computer.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

I don't feel guilty slamming the phone on a call centre drone, either.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

(Oh, and I'd make running a company that makes those automated recorded-message phone calls subject to a fine of all your operating revenue, barring from running a company for several years, and a few months in gaol.)

[cjwatson]

Yes, but at least once I've been registered for 28 days I can ask to speak to the supervisor of anyone who calls, get the company name and address, and then observe that they're in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Which would at least be more fun.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

No, you're speaking English, and they don't. hth

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps he'll call back when he wants to sell to *you* :)

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we get that too. You also get calls from call centres outside the UK which aren't subject to UK regulations; with those ones Ross has taken to noting who they say they're calling "on behalf of", demanding to know who they really are since he knows UK companies can't spam him, then reporting them to the company they claim to be calling from..

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

Who's that in your userpic, OOI?

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Sarah Smart (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0806699/)

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

Ah, minor celebrity, that's fine then :) I'd've been annoyed if randoms in the street were managing the 'looks like me only better' thing without the help of stylists and makeup artists..

[j4.livejournal.com]

There's really no need to slam the phone down. The people who call you are human beings, they're doing a shitty enough job without you making it any worse. They don't know who's TPS-registered and who isn't. How much does it cost you to just say "I'm not interested, thanks" before putting the phone down?

[cjwatson]

Indeed, I am generally civil to the callers themselves (though after the fourth call in a day I'm liable to be rather annoyed after getting off the phone). That doesn't mean I have any compunctions about escalating to the point in the organisation where they should be taking responsibility for knowing, and complaining to them. It's the company I'm annoyed with rather than the individuals, even though it can be psychologically difficult to separate them sometimes since the individuals are the public face of the company.

(I believe that, legally, it's a good idea to explicitly say "please take me off your call list" or "please don't call me again", rather than just saying that you aren't interested in this particular call. It's not rude, and that way the position is quite clear.)

[gerald_duck]

Actually, the worse you make the job of people in call centres, the fewer people are prepared to do it, and ultimately the fewer nuisance calls everyone gets.

Frankly, such cold-calling organisations are sleazy as hell… I'm undecided whether "I needed the money" is a sufficiently good reason to work for them.

In practice, I compromise by giving such people just one chance to terminate the call before I lose civility.

[cjwatson]

Actually, the worse you make the job of people in call centres, the fewer people are prepared to do it, and ultimately the fewer nuisance calls everyone gets.

I'm not convinced at all that that argument holds in reality; you have to be well past full employment (i.e. many unfulfilled job offers as well) in the relevant sector of society for that to happen. I think I'd rather not have the debate here, though ...

Frankly, such cold-calling organisations are sleazy as hell…

The recorded-message lot yes, but since these people are almost all asking to speak to the previous tenant it's just possible that they actually do believe they have a semi-legitimate business relationship with him. Some people are careless - who knows.

[armb.livejournal.com]

On the fifth or sixth call from one particular organisation when I had clearly said I didn't want them to call again I said "Just fuck off and die", and they didn't call again. So there may be something to be said for being rude.
From the voice, it was actually the same person I'd talked to earlier, not just a random call centre employee.
I'm on the TPS now, and have only got recorded messages with American accents recently.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Actually, the worse you make the job of people in call centres, the fewer people are prepared to do it

If a job exists, there will always be people who are prepared to do it. Usually because they have few better options. I'm all for trying to stop the companies being allowed to cold-call people, but attacking the poor sods who for whatever reason have been forced to choose a badly-paid job where they're treated like shit ... well, it just seems like kicking a man when he's down.

I'm undecided whether "I needed the money" is a sufficiently good reason to work for them.

You are fortunate that you're unlikely ever to be in a position where you have to make that decision. Not everybody is so fortunate.

In practice, I compromise by giving such people just one chance to terminate the call before I lose civility.

Me, I just say "I'm sorry, I don't buy anything over the phone" clearly and firmly, and 99 times out of 100 they hang up then. (Not that we've had anywhere near 100 cold-calls in total in the last 3 TPS-registered years.)

[j4.livejournal.com]

In practice, though, what happens is that you say "Can I speak to your supervisor?" and they hang up. Same if you say "Sorry, what company did you say you were calling from?" -- and they always withhold the number.

Doesn't really hold

[(Anonymous)]

There is an operating call centre just three rows of cubicles away, and I can say with a fair degree of certainty that hostile customers are just one part of what makes call centre work hellish. And yet, there is always new grist for the mill.

Anyway, when they said they will call back later, what they really meant to say was "I'll be back for *you* later." It helps if you imagine a similar scenario to Death telling the Merchant he'll be back for him later.

g.