Do not leave a message...

[qwerty]

...if you do not want it returned.

I have been working on returning an unusually large number of messages left by potential customers. They leave voice mails, email, and submit the web contact us request with questions on our products. Here is the list of what I have dealt with this week.

1. The vast majority simply do not answer the phone. Many have blocked our number after the first attempt to return the call. If you are no longer interested. Tell me. I will stop calling.

2. People who submit the web form and provide a fake phone number and fake email address. How do you expect me to respond? Bonus points for the 4 people who decided to use the same repetitive string of numbers. The numbers are real and belong to a guy who is REALLY sick of getting these calls.

3. The numerous people who forget that they contacted us and tell me to "take them off the call list". These same people would call and complain if we didn't return their call.

4. We sell a very distinctive add on product. As in, you need to already own a very expensive item for our product to have any use to you. There was the woman who has never owned this item but still left a message. Why?????

5. The numerous people with no money. We are a business. We don't give stuff away.

There were lots more but after almost a week of this they have all melted together in my brain.

[icmedia]

Reminds me of when I worked for a telemarketer; yes, we were calling to sell something, but it was to renew the subscription to magazines they were already subscribed to. So, not exactly cold calling-plus, the price we were offering was always far lower than what was offered by the company themselves, and we didn't even require any form of payment over the phone...the magazine handled the billing, just as if you had renewed through them.

Regardless of these facts, at least a dozen customers a day would claim to never have subscribed to the periodical I was calling them about. Only a small portion "remembered" once I let them know that my records showed they had been loyal subscribers since 1982.

[wolfie]

2. People who submit the web form and provide a fake phone number and fake email address. How do you expect me to respond? Bonus points for the 4 people who decided to use the same repetitive string of numbers. The numbers are real and belong to a guy who is REALLY sick of getting these calls.

Can you be sure it's 4 people, and not 1 person submitting the form 4 times with different fake names but the same number? Sounds like somebody wanted to "crank call" someone else but wanted a "cutout" so the blame wouldn't fall on them.

[EricKei]

I actually have a good tidbit about re-subscribers When I worked at GameStore, we were forced at gunpoint gently reminded that we were obliged to try and sell each and every custy a magazine subscription (and a pre-order/reserve, and used games/addons/warranties, all while checking them out as quickly as possible...). Once in a blue moon, we ended up with someone who had a sub that was almost expired. In literally all but a tiny handful of cases, they said "Yes" to the re-sub without complaints or mindless rage anything ! O_O Of course, this may have been because they paid attention, and realized that renewing the subs via the store cost about ten bucks LESS than doing it online or via the paper subscription cards that came with the mailed issues of the magazine...

[qwerty]

It could be one person and a crank call but I doubt it due to the number used. I do not want to publicly post the number but it was a repetitive set of numbers that would be easy to use as a fake (and not very creative). I also saw a lot of (123)-456-7890 (which is not a real number).

[Racket_Man]

It could be one person and a crank call but I doubt it due to the number used. I do not want to publicly post the number but it was a repetitive set of numbers that would be easy to use as a fake (and not very creative). I also saw a lot of (123)-456-7890 (which is not a real number).

You mean like the number from the Tommy Tutone song Jenny ?????

[Argabarga]

You mean like the number from the Tommy Tutone song Jenny ?????

That caused mayhem back in the day, 867 being a valid exchange in my area code....

[qwerty]

Ha ha ha!!! It is not the Jenny number. It is a few numbers repeated over and over...

[Racket_Man]

That caused mayhem back in the day, 867 being a valid exchange in my area code....

I think there was another one (phone number) on a Van Halen album cover. I do not remember the number as it was NOT mentioned in any of the songs on the album. People obviously saw the number and called it in their local area code.

[Geek King]

I think there was another one (phone number) on a Van Halen album cover. I do not remember the number as it was NOT mentioned in any of the songs on the album. People obviously saw the number and called it in their local area code.

It was on the cover of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. There was a chalkboard from the recording studio with things written all over it, one of which was a phone number for a session player in Tulsa. Unfortunately, the number had been re-issued, and the family who had it suddenly started getting all these odd calls asking about Van Halen.

[Jack7957]

Ha ha ha!!! It is not the Jenny number. It is a few numbers repeated over and over...

There's a lawyers office here, that their phone number is just 4, repeated over and over

"444 4444"

[Argus]

In other cities, dialing "4" repeatedly might get you a cab or a newspaper.

[Racket_Man]

There's a lawyers office here, that their phone number is just 4, repeated over and over

"444 4444"

Back maybe 15 or 20 years ago in the St. Louis area that used to be a major cellphone provider's main number. that company was absorbed years ago into another provider (SWB) so I do not know if that number is valid anymore.

[emwithme]

Now I'm singing "Allens Taxis 555555 you dial we drive" which were on my local radio station growing up and DH is looking at me as if I'm an idiot. He didn't grow up near me