Cold calling marketers

JONJO THE MISER

:mad: Just got my 3rd call of the day there from a Guy asking to speak to the owner of the phone, so he can tell me about some new phone company, im normally very polite on the phone but i just lost it completly and told him To F off, i fairly sure the calls are coming From some Indian call centre, i mean 3 times from the same call centre in the space of a few hours:mad: and i think its the same guy, also they rang me once on Monday and once On wednesday, do they have my number stored or something, im gonna ring Eircom if they ring me one more time:mad:. Anyone else experience this?

Saibh

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

:mad: Just got my 3rd call of the day there from a Guy asking to speak to the owner of the phone, so he can tell me about some new phone company, im normally very polite on the phone but i just lost it completly and told him To F off, i fairly sure the calls are coming From some Indian call centre, i mean 3 times from the same call centre in the space of a few hours:mad: and i think its the same guy, also they rang me once on Monday and once On wednesday, do they have my number stored or something, im gonna ring Eircom if they ring me one more time:mad:. Anyone else experience this?

Simple solution: get them blocked, ring Eircom.

Mollywolly

Think I got a call from this crowd on Sunday - Pure Telecom is what it sounded like. Again, he sounded Indian and when I said that we had just swapped from Eircom to Vodafone and had no intention of changing again, he just hung up :eek:

I'm now in the process of trying to get us ex-directory so that these clowns don't have access to our number any more. It seems to be the only way.

TheCardHolder

I've never been listed in the phonebook thank god!

Biggins

Stopping unwanted sales calls or texts

February 2009

Uninvited or unsolicited sales calls for direct marketing purposes can come in many ways - by phone, text message, email or fax.

Sometimes it's known as "cold calling" - those unwanted sales calls at home from companies you've never had any dealings with before, looking for you to buy their goods or sign up to their service.

Sometimes it's called "spam" - unsolicited commercial emails that can clog up your inbox.

These unsolicited electronic communications for direct marketing purposes can be very annoying for consumers, but they also may be a criminal offence.

New regulations came into force in December 2008 to deal with this growing problem. The changes include:

* Increased penalties for a summary offence, €3,000 to €5,000
* Greater fines for companies - up to €250,000 or 10% of turnover
* Putting the onus on the defendant (caller) in a court case to establish that the subscriber (consumer) consented to receiving an unsolicited communication

Perhaps it's a sign of the economic times, but the Data Protection Commissioner's office is receiving an increasing number of complaints about cold calls by businesses attempting to win back previous customers.

The Commissioner has warned businesses that he will be proactive in applying the regulations, and says ignorance of the law is no excuse. Under the regulations, each unsolicited call or email is treated as a separate offence.
Cold calls to landlines

If you are receiving cold calls to your landline, you can tell your phone company - the people you pay your line rental to in your phone bill - that you want them to record your preference on the National Directory Database that you don't want to receive cold calls.

The National Directory Database is a list of all phone numbers in public phone books or available through directory enquiries.

Once they record your preference, it can then take up to 28 days for this information to filter through to marketing companies within the Republic of Ireland.

If you still get calls after you’ve indicated this preference, you should inform the caller by saying something like:

"Let me stop you there. I have indicated my preference on the National Directory Database not to receive calls like this. This means that it is illegal for your company to keep cold-calling me, so could you please remove my details from your database? If your company calls again I will report you to the Data Protection Commissioner."

If that doesn't work, make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner, who has the power to prosecute.

These rules don't apply if you are already a customer of the company or have recently become one. A reputable company should respect your wishes not to be called.
Are you a customer?

These kinds of marketing calls, texts and emails cannot be made or sent to you without your prior consent, unless you have a "current customer relationship" with the business.

The Data Protection Commissioner says a current customer relationship exists only where you and the business have engaged in a business transaction within the previous 12 months.

Marketers may not cold-call, text or email you for direct marketing purposes in most other circumstances, including when:

* You haven't had any transactions with them within the past 12 months
* You didn't give prior consent to receiving such communications within the last 12 months
* The sender has disguised or concealed their identity or hasn't provided a valid address to which you can send an opt-out request

If you are receiving electronic marketing messages contrary to these rules, you may complain to the Data Protection Commissioner.
Text messages

If you have received text messages asking you to ring or text premium rate numbers and you have not given consent to receiving such marketing messages, you may make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.

If you don't want to receive texts from the business in the future, you should follow the instructions to unsubscribe, which ought to be included in the text. Another way to unsubscribe from a premium rate SMS service is to reply by texting the word “stop” to the sender of the message.

You should always read unsolicited texts carefully before deleting as in some cases you may need to opt out of the service to avoid future costs. If you wish to ring premium rate numbers, the business should make you aware of the cost.

Regtel.ie, the regulator of the content and promotion of premium rate telecommunications services, advises consumers that:

* The cost of an interactive service must not exceed €10 in any one transaction per day
* Unsubscribing must only cost a standard rate charge

Unsolicited commercial email (spam)

It can be very hard to prevent spam being sent to you as it is a global phenomenon.

If you do receive this kind of email, remember that the message headers you see in the unwanted email are likely to have been forged.

So replying to the message may merely result in you sending an unwanted email to an innocent person whose email address was forged. Or, worse still, the address is being used to confirm that the spam has been sent to a valid and active email account – and your address could be sold on to yet more spammers.

If you have received spam and it appears to have been sent from Ireland, you can make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner. Your complaint must be in writing (email will do) including your name and postal address.

Learn more

Read the Data Protection Commissioner's "Consumer Guide to Dealing with Unsolicited Direct Marketing"

Find out how to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner

Source: http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/Hot_Topics/Tip_Of_The_Week/Tips_Archive/Stop_unwanted_sales_calls.html

If your signed up to BT Ireland, there is a service they provide for free to provide blocked sales calls too.

Want to know who called you? Try: http://whocallsme.com/

AckwelFoley

"telecom" is the buzz word to hang up.


ring ring

"Hello" (fap fap fap fap)

"Oh hai! Im from Acme Telecom"

*Ding* Hang up

fap fap fap fap fap

toiletduck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3aCL8PIOuM

FACEPALM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD70Zaa3z-0

wudangclan

was he calling to provide a better service for your internet service providings?

littlehedgehog

Going ex-directory won't stop them, because they could be using randomly generated numbers.
Also, they are based in Dublin.. with Indian guys. And they're a shower of bastards and target old people to switch and don't deliver on their cost cutting promises.

Trail_Blazer

Not sure if they do this in Ireland/UK yet - But what's worse is that I'll get a fu*king robot automated call, trying to sell me something! I mean what the hell? Can't have the common decency to have an actual HUMAN call me eh?

If people hang up on human callers, you know they sure as fook are gonna hang up on a stupid robot!

ejmaztec

Trail_Blazer wrote: »

Not sure if they do this in Ireland/UK yet - But what's worse is that I'll get a fu*king robot automated call, trying to sell me something! I mean what the hell? Can't have the common decency to have an actual HUMAN call me eh?

If people hang up on human callers, you know they sure as fook are gonna hang up on a stupid robot!

There's a good chance you might be exterminated if you do.:eek:

Trail_Blazer

Why's that ejmaztec?

_ZeeK_

Had my mobile coldcalled once which was shocking because I didn't think it'd be listed anywhere. Was an Indian chap who said he was calling from some organisation called Red Sea Something-or-Other. I asked how he got hold of my number and he said it was through a random number generation.

BS! :mad:

Be as rude as you want with the f***ers. They're being rude in the first instance by giving you an unsolicited call so they deserve what they get!

ejmaztec

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalek


Bottom of first paragraph:eek:

_ZeeK_

Trail_Blazer wrote: »

Why's that ejmaztec?

you've never seen the terminator?

Trail_Blazer

ejmaztec wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalek


Bottom of first paragraph:eek:

Oh wow, I had no idea! Jesus, I think I'll be a bit more careful than ffs!

Trail_Blazer

Totally forgot about the Terminator Zeek. Glad I'm well prepared now!

Nathankeane

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

:mad: Just got my 3rd call of the day there from a Guy asking to speak to the owner of the phone, so he can tell me about some new phone company, im normally very polite on the phone but i just lost it completly and told him To F off, i fairly sure the calls are coming

Those calls are cold calls from telemarketing companies. Those calls promote new products, loan services.

smokingman

I just got a cold call from a croud in england www.gfk.com who seem legit as a marketing company goes (y'know, amoebas with attitude) and since I was ex-directory, I pressed them on how they got my number.

They informed me that they had an auto-dialer which I believe to be illegal, is it not?

I informed them of this and asked them if they were registered with ComReg (they never heard of them and spent a long time quite earnestly trying to convince me that they were a legit marketing company). So after a while of giving them a lot of hassle without being rude and trying to impress on them that they were engaging in an illegal act, I did their survey which gave them the impression I was a sculptor named Brian Dobson living off the back of my wifes CEO job and we thought the economy was in great shape, saved loads of money, buying cars like they were going out of fashion (next tuesday in fact), building extensions on top of our extensions next month and on a combined income of 15,000 a year.

I was given phone numbers (UK Phone Number +00441120500396999 and +00441102078909000 apparently).

I was seriously thinking of doing a denial of service attack on their website but I decided against stooping to their primative level.

Any suggestions from anyone here on what I can do with this bunch of mouth-breathers?

Bonavox

Please stop making silly threads. You complain about getting too many phone calls yet you flood After Hours with daily updates on your life.

smokingman

Bonavox wrote: »

Please stop making silly threads. You complain about getting too many phone calls yet you flood After Hours with daily updates on your life.

If that's directed towards the OP, this thread was made last year..

Bonavox

smokingman wrote: »

If that's directed towards the OP, this thread was made last year..

And you resurrected it for some reason?

smokingman

Bonavox wrote: »

And you resurrected it for some reason?

Yup, had a cold caller myself tonight, searched for existing threads instead of being mr. self-important and starting a new one. Are you in marketing? :pac: