pushy telemarketer

[KellyHabersham]

*Note: the phone system we use doesn't have Caller I.D., so I HAVE to answer any incoming calls*


I'd been finishing up the church's monthly newsletter when we got a call from "Alice" with the local NBA team. She didn't get into specifics about what she was trying to sell/promote, but wanted info on group activities organized by the church, who might the person be who was in charge of that, .......etc. I tried to explain politely that we do not have a designated activities coordinator, that yes, we were busy in the office right now, but "Alice" was pushy about having a "quick conversation to figure out who in the church would best fit that description".

Normally I try to be polite with telemarketers, but "Alice" was getting on my nerves, and I really did NOT have time to listen to her spiel, so I hung up on her. She called back immediately,and unfortunately I had someone else in the office area, so I had to be more civil with "Alice" than I wanted to. But fortunately, she finally got the hint that we don't have a specific person in charge of organizing activities, and hasn't called back since.

[bainsidhe]

Our workplace gets a lot of calls to "renew our free subscription" to blah blah magazine. Or to "confirm" our company details (addresses/titles/etc). Thing is, I know they're sales calls. They're calling in on a customer line. See the problem? I'm supposed to be helping customers, not helping a phonejockey make their quota. I tend to plunk the calls into voicemail.

[InsanityInc]

We get a lot of those at work. There's been this one that has been trying for about 6 months to talk to our maintence "guy" I was just talking to "him" the other day. He says that every time.

Really easy to pick him out. Can't give us a name. And our maintence "guy" is a woman.

[Sauletekis]

I hate getting sales calls at work, too. They all seem to come between 3pm and 4pm, when the lines are very busy with actual customers needing assistance and these buttholes clog things up and damage our SLA.

I wish they would get the hint.

[Fryk]

In what dimension does hanging up on a sales call NOT mean "not interested"?

[RedRoseSpiral]

I get AT&T up at the office all the time. It's either them or other people wanting us to place ads in their phonebook, website, magazine. We're a very small construction company who's advertisment budge has dried up and yet they refuse to believe we're not interested when I tell them so and have now started asking for the owner right off the bat. I doubt they'll ever get to talk with him. The owner of the company is never in the office. He's always out with the workers.

[KellyHabersham]

In what dimension does hanging up on a sales call NOT mean "not interested"?

I think in this case, "Alice" thought we'd been disconnected in the middle of the conversation, she didn't seem to catch on that I'd purposely hung up the phone. And to be honest, I don't know for certain that she actually was trying to sell something.......but she did call back twice the next day.

[Andara Bledin]

I used to answer phone here, and I'd screen calls for all of the in-house bigwigs. The current receptionist can't seem to get it through her head that she's supposed to cut people trying to sell crap out of the loop.

Anyway, anyone selling something would get the same answer as everyone else. If they don't have an existing relationship with us, then they are free to fax or mail their information to us and should we be interested, we'd get back to them.

We got lots of stuff in and I didn't let them waste the bosses' time with stuff we didn't care about.

^-.-^

[KellyHabersham]

Well, part of the problem I have in the office is that sometimes our congregation members (this being when contacting companies on behalf of committee work) use the church office number as their contact info. And these people often do NOT inform me of this, making it hard to know when such calls do/do not need to be screened or info passed on.

[Hyndis]

The best way I have for screening out telemarketers from legitimate callers is to say that the person is not available. Then I will ask for their information to pass on the person they are trying to reach.

A caller attempting to reach that person for legitimate reason will happily do this. I will then email the information to the person in question, allowing the person in question to make the decision. If the name and number are familiar, they will call the person back, if not, the email is deleted.

A telemarketer, however, will hang up within seconds of me making that offer.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Heh, back in the days when the long-distance telephone wars were still going on between AT&T and MCI, my dad was working for MCI. As such, we had our long-distance telephone service through MCI.

We'd still get calls from AT&T trying to convince us to switch, and my mother loved to string them along, hemming and hawing about it, just wasting their time, until finally the telemarketer would ask, "Ma'am, why are you so reluctant to switch?" "Well, my husband works for MCI..." At which point they would hang up as quickly as politeness would allow.

[Andara Bledin]

We'd still get calls from AT&T trying to convince us to switch, and my mother loved to string them along, hemming and hawing about it, just wasting their time, until finally the telemarketer would ask, "Ma'am, why are you so reluctant to switch?" "Well, my husband works for MCI..." At which point they would hang up as quickly as politeness would allow.

Ugh. I hate AT&T's tactics.

I had to order them to stop bothering me or I'd file harassment charges. I haven't made a long distance call in nearly a decade and I have a cell phone. Why on earth would I use a land-based long distance service?

^-.-^

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I used to get flyers and postcards (I haven't spoken to a telemarketer in a loooooong time) trying to get me to switch to various carriers, AT&T being one of them.

This was when I worked at TWC and got TV, Road Runner AND phone through them. I think I was paying 20 bucks for unlimited long distance at the time, plus everything else was free.

Yeah. I'm gonna really switch, right?