Cold callers

Author
Discussion

Bisonhead

1,567 posts

188 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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I cold call a fair bit for work and must say that I only make a call if I have something of interest to say. Never try and sell anything other than a meeting on the first call.

Used to cold call the public when starting out...one good way to give you a thick skin. Horrible thing to have to do.

How come you guys get so many cold calls? I can only remember having one or two in the last 6 years. Then again, we have moved house 7 times in that period.

NPI

1,310 posts

123 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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funkyrobot said:
I had a phone call from one of the delayed flight companies the other day.
Interesting - I've not had one of those. I might set them after Virgin for messing me about during the ash cloud. scratchchin


I am getting loads at the moment about industrial hearing damage. Weird as I did work in a factory about 30yrs ago and my hearing is certainly losing its edge. But I've done absolutely nothing to bring it to anyone's attention.

Negative Creep

24,942 posts

226 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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NPI said:
I am getting loads at the moment about industrial hearing damage. Weird as I did work in a factory about 30yrs ago and my hearing is certainly losing its edge. But I've done absolutely nothing to bring it to anyone's attention.
Surely the obvious thing to do is pretend you're deaf, keep asking them to speak louder and give totally unrelated answers?

Hybrids

838 posts

242 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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We changed our landline number about 4 years ago, Virgin gave us a recycled number of someone who obviously not been very credit worthy, so we got plenty of debt management calls and subprime lenders
So if/when I can be arsed, I play the Yes game.
Is that Mr xxx - Yes
Do you have debts in excess of xxx -yes
Would you like to write off blah blah -yes
how much do you owe ? -yes
how much do you owe ? -yes
Are you taking this serious ? - yes

And so it goes on until they loose interest, usually over in less than 60 seconds, once managed just under 4 minutes, but she was determined to sort Mr Brown's poor finances

arfur sleep

1,166 posts

218 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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I find that just answering "yes" or "no" to questions gives the hint that you're not interested in switching utility provider, buying FX services etc.

Persistent ones will get a simple "i'm not interested, thanks for your call" before I put the phone down. One guy rang back when I did that this week and said "did you just put the phone down on me?" "yes" and did it again.


Zod

35,295 posts

257 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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I've tried several techniques from telling increasingly obvious lies to my new one of putting the phone on loudspeaker and just walking away.

Paul Dishman

4,676 posts

236 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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Zod said:
I've tried several techniques from telling increasingly obvious lies to my new one of putting the phone on loudspeaker and just walking away.
I had a cold call one morning when there was a particularly gruesome gynaecological discussion on Woman's Hour, so I put the phone next to the radio and left them to it

Jagmanv12

1,573 posts

163 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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Can't find the link but I like the response where the recipient pretends to be a police officer and questions the cold caller about the murder of the person he's calling.

Just had a good idea. Play a gunshot over your computer speakers and when the caller asks what it was say you've just shot a salesman at your front door. Then ask the caller to make an appointment!! laugh

CatfishCKY

904 posts

171 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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sanguinary said:
The police motor federation call probably started out along the lines of thanking you for the last advert placed?
I've had these call me a few times, they even provided me with a proof advert, on the basis that they had authorisation from a member of staff - I worked on my own at that point.
Whenever I asked to see a copy of a purchase order, or even the magazine with our 'last advert' in it, they tended to hand up.
Not quite, they wanted to know if we were interested in donating towards something or other, like sponsorship, in return for some publicity etc (cannot remember exactly). I told him that we didn't have any more budget for sponsorship this year, but thanks for his call. He got a little more uppity saying 'I'm sure if your company don't want to take advantage of this, then someone else will jump at the offer, it's limited time only and very sought after, your company will lose out.' I still wasn't interested, so he said he would call back the next day but he never did!
Sounds like I might be expecting another call shortly then, if your experience is anything to go by!

Chrisgr31 said:
Googling Pistonheads CVS reveals that a previous thread about them has been removed, you'll get the idea.
Thanks for that Chris, and thanks for the PM too smile Looks like I had the right inkling about them. I did forward one of them to my manager who probably gave them an ear bashing, but we haven't bothered the MD about it - looks like with good cause!
I was suspicious that they were trying to give us loads of money back for 'very little in return' apparently.

MitchT

15,788 posts

208 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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Friend of mine used to get pestered quite a lot by a conservatory firm. In the end he invited them to come round and give him a quote for a conservatory ... for his third floor flat. hehe

dudleybloke

19,717 posts

185 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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i havnt had a human cold caller for ages just those bloody ppi recorded message calls.

5potTurbo

12,481 posts

167 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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Having spent a few days at the outlaws' in Hants over the weekend, I was surprised how many calls they receive.
My MIL answered the phone to one on Monday evening, "Hello, is that MR 5pot's father in law?"
MIL: "No" and hangs up. smile

I received a call yesterday at home in Luxembourg. My wife told me it was a survey as she'd seen the number a couple of times on the phone over the previous week. I answered the phone, speaking English, knowing the number's Belgian. I only responded in English to the French speaker on the phone, then asked her,
"Do you speak English?"
caller: "No - only French" - but in English confused
me: "I can't help you then" and I hung up.

We don't have the option of 1471 or call blocking, unfortunately. frown

Shaolin

2,955 posts

188 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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The TPS does work BUT only if you go to the website and register a complaint which is a bit of a pain in the arse. You also need to know the name and number (possibly address) of the company who are plaguing you.

When we moved about 12 years ago it seems the house had double glazing installed a few years previously so the same company would call and telling us about "special offers for existing customers", I would say we weren't customers and hang up. Eventually they tried a new tactic where they said someone had gone to them on my recommendation and as a thank you.... blah, blah which was a blatant lie. Thus annoyed I found out about the TPS complaints procedure and the calls stopped.

SL

868 posts

223 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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I had one come through to my extension at work wanting to speak to the MD. He was insistent that he'd met our MD before and he was waiting for the call etc. He was really miffed when I refused to transfer his call and when I told him that despite not having access to the MDs calendar I knew for a fact he could never have met the MD. I got a mouthful of abuse and was told I would be fired when the "Mr MD" found out. He eventually put the phone down on me. I never did tell him the reason I knew he could never have met the MD was because had he actUally had a meeting, he would realise "Mr MD" was actually female wink

grumpyscot

1,277 posts

191 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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1. If they ask "is that Mr Grumpyscot?", I respond, sorry - he died 2 weeks ago and its his funeral today
2. If they ask "do you own your home", I answer "No, I rent it"
3. If they say that they have detected a problem with my computer, I simply say that I run a disaster recovery centre with 800 personal computers in it - which one has the problem?
4. If it's Arn**d Cl*rk asking if I'm interested in trading in my car, I reply "Sorry, I don't drive".
5. If it's a "We're calling about your accident..", I simply reply - "Too late, the diver died and the other person has been sent to prison for 10 years for dangerous driving"


But if it's a foreign call centre, I simply lapse into broad Scots and they eventually hang up!

daddy cool

3,996 posts

228 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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Dr Jekyll said:
The phone rang a few minutes ago.

'Hello is that Dr Jekyll?'

'Yes'
See, that's where I differ - if I don't know the number, I never reveal my identity, instead replying with "who are you?".
Once that's established, and depending on how busy I am, I either hang up without saying anything or troll using the sort of tactics the guys above have mentioned.
Sadly I am getting mostly automated one that start the message when they hear you say anything.

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

185 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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I've got one of those BT phones that diverts all classes of call that I choose (e.g. number withheld, international, etc.) to the answer phone.

Best £50 I ever spent. If the phone rings you can pretty much guarantee it's someone I want to ring me.

extraT

1,740 posts

149 months

Thursday 17th April 2014
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I used to be a cold calling monkey, and its important to remember (for the CC that is) that unless the cold caller believes in the product, chances are they are bored stless and are waiting for the weekend.

My opening gambit went along the lines of:

"Hello, its ET with X Company, is that Dr. Suess"?
"yes it is"
"perfect, you have won £1,000 just by answering the phone"
"I have?"
"yes, well, you will have if you buy X from me! It will save you that over a year!"

It often got a laugh, sometimes raised suspecion, very rarely it pissed someone off, but I usually got round that by apologising, explaining I was on the arse end of an 9 hour shift, but asking "how did it feel to be a grand better off"

joema

2,644 posts

178 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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I feel sorry for those making the calls. But then when they phone I get slightly annoyed. Sometimes I pick up but don't say anything. That confuses them

HTP99

22,442 posts

139 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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We get at least 3 cold calls a day to the point now where we just ignore the home phone, there is an answer phone on which friends and family leave messages so we can call them back.

I always wonder; particularly the ones that originate from India with a bad line, poor English and someone called Bob on the other end, whether they actually gain any business, some are just awful at their job.