And that will be $499.97, plus GST of course

[draftermatt]

Are these people sending you parts/items you didn't order for your Copier and then billing you some outrageous sum? Or is there something else I'm not catching here?>

Basically. They call up to get the serial #, or make and model of your copier. Then they either try to get you to agree to have stuff shipped to you at outrageous prices, or they send it to you without asking while claiming that your telling them the model number was authorization enough to send you stuff.

[vloglady]

At the public library, we used to get that kind of stuff a lot. We got emails from our main office warning not to give out any info about our copiers.

And people all the time call for our address and info, so we need to be especially careful. we need to make sure it's a customer not a phone book listing.

Susan
Children's Librarian
New York

[Polenicus]

Hey, free stuff to try to ebay (we get a lot of our office type consubables there.). I don't know what country you're in but under U.S. law, if you are sent something you didn''t order, it's yours to keep or do whatever you want with (much to the chagrin of the cuecat people).

It's because of EXACTLY these scams that that law exists, actually.

Basically, used to be common practise to send someone something in the mail, with instructions that if you kept the product, you were agreeing to purchase it, and would be sent a bill, and if you didn't want the item to return it unopened.

So they made it illegal as part of ontract law. Doesn't stop people from doing it, though, or people who aren't clear on their rights for falling for it.

[Rapscallion]

I once had someone demanding to know our VAT registration number, presumably as an attempt to get our information looking really legitimate on a fake invoice.

Rapscallion

[clowninasack]

Gah, for some reason this company always calls my work with stupid surveys and stuff. One time I said the owner wasn't here (for some reason he always actually answers them) and they tried to sell me a cell phone plan! It went a little like this:

TM: Telemarketer
Me: Me...

TM: Hi this is X from X Company may I speak to Y?
Me: He's not here right now, but I can put you through to his voicemail. *finger over the transfer button*
TM: Oh, since I have you on the line do you mind if I ask you if you have a cell phone.
Me: No. (Lying)
TM: Would you be interested in suchandsuch pla*click* (I hung up)

[JLRodgers]

The closest thing to a scam I've ever had on the phone, was from a yellow page company (who's phone books are actually the phone books in our town).

I say scam since they always call and say the same type of thing "confirm your information" and then once they're done ask how you want to pay the $500 or so bill for it. I said "I'm not, I have no interest in it being in there." Then the price went to $250 in the same conversation.... Then $200.... Then they said "but you're already in it, you don't want to lose it do you?" To which I said "I'm not in it."

[bainsidhe]

We get the "confirm address" calls quite a bit, but they never ask for money so I'm not sure what the angle is there. We'll also get calls for our controller, except they'll have a name that dates back a decade. The copier calls are the most frequent, and I've learned that stating we already have a contact gets them off the phone very quickly.

[pacman]

Sorry to disrupt this chatting about those scammers calling, but I once was hired to a yellow page company (that I quitted 4 months later and next year I heard it had been sued for scamming). I didn't know it was a scam, I thought really that it just was a new Internet company search engine/yellow page site that we were meant to advertise as well as sell those plans to those pages.

What I mean is that maybe the callers in these companies don't know these are scams? (Not the printer supply thing though) I wouldn't just hang up, I would say at least no thanks, have a nice day before hanging up. Don't you think it's rude to hang up mid-sentence?

Sorry for the rant, I just think from the other side because I've been there.

[Rapscallion]

Hanging up in mid sentence rude? On a telesales call, that would be the case. That's just someone trying to do their job. A proveable scammer is a chance for stress relief.

A bit like the difference between an SC and a thief, you know?

Rapscallion

[pacman]

Yeah, I understand this "proveable scammer" thing. But, problem is, like I wrote, I even didn't know I was trying to scam people before about a year later! That's what I mean. The job was advertised as a telemarketing job, but it was b2b trying to sell space in a worthless internet search engine (I'd call it scam). The bigwig scammers can hire people too, you know?

No offense meant. Please don't take any.

[Rapscallion]

None taken. I can see where you're coming from and your circumstances, but I can't see that most don't know what they're doing is pretty much illegal.

Rapscallion

[Kali]

I reckon that hanging up is definitely fair game, certainly for scams, but even for legitimate telesales.

The only ones I hang up on mid-sentence are the ones who don't let you get a word in edgeways, so that by the time they have finished, you feel bad saying no because they just spent ages talking to you.

Now, they are TRAINED to do this, so it's pretty much impossible for them not to know that what they are doing is just an asshole of a thing to do to people.

Also, remember that when people hang up mid-sentence, it's not because they wanna hurt your feelings or be a turd or whatever, its because being polite and saying "no thank you" and explaining why and all of that takes time, and when you've done it literally 50+ times, well, you just don't want to do it anymore, and why should you?

Not only that, but telemarketers sometimes don't realise that the people they are calling might have a customer or 5 standing right there waiting for you to get off the phone. I don't think it's fair to assume someone would rather be polite to a stranger pushing sales on you than make a sale themselves.

So don't take it personally, if you invade somebody's privacy and interrupt their day, and that's exactly what telemarketers are doing, they have every right to hang up on you.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Personally I have no qualms about hanging up on these people. Having worked at a call center myself, I know that hanging up is easier to take than being messed with or cussed out.

I just hate to be bothered with these stupid calls at work. I know who are providers are and whenever I get the calls I just hang up fast.

I nearly got burned by one of them once asking what kind of jugs our water coolers took. I had only been with the company a few days and failed to notice we didn't have water coolers (now in my defense, this was a large building and I had not yet been everywhere in it). Fortunately someone who had been around longer than I had and knew full well about the scammers set me straight.

[otakuneko]

Don't you think it's rude to hang up mid-sentence?

Not when someone I don't know, representing a company I don't know (or even one that I do) is cold-calling me trying to sell me something. Granted, they should be expecting such treatment. Unless they live under a rock, they know full well the ire a telemarketing call can generate, and should be expecting abuse and hang ups. Goes with the territory, you know? Kinda like pulling your hair out trying to walk a computer illiterate through troubleshooting. It's to be expected. If someone's in that job and not expecting such, they shouldn't be in that job.

These days though, on the rare occasion a telemarketer calls me, I make a point to interrupt their shpiel and ask for their company name and phone number. Failing that or after obtaining such, I hang up. (And visit the do not call website to file a complaint, if I got the info)

[Rapscallion]

Folks, you do realise that a number of members here are telemarketers? Had to send a few threads like this to Fratching.

Rapscallion