Was this a scam? (cold callers)

Ziegfeldgirl27

At tea time our doorbell rang and my father answered it. It was two men, who proceeded to tell my father that Talk Talk was now available from the exchange (I thought it always was), and we would be able to get cheaper broadband. My father asked him if he was from Talk Talk, and they said no, they were from a sales company who were doing direct advertising.
They were asking who our broadband was with and how much it cost. My father asked if they had any literature on Talk Talk that they could give to us, and they said no, they didn't have anything because that would be indirect advertising and not face to face. My father then said he wasn't interested and closed the door.

I have felt so uneasy ever since this incident. Does anyone know if Talk Talk send third party cold callers around peoples doors? These guys had local accents. My first instinct is that they would sign people up to something and it would turn out to be a scam, but it just occured to me that it could have been a distraction burglary too.

kneemos

You could give Talk Talk a ring,sounds a bit dodgy.

Thatnastyboy

Did they offer to do the gutters when he rejected the first proposition?

Abi

"NO JUNK MAIL, NO COLD CALLERS". It was inexpensive, and very effective.

Sky King

You should give them a call and talk talk to their customer services department department.

Ziegfeldgirl27

Just remembered they asked to see one of our phone/broadband bills.

I sent an email to Talk Talk to see if they do indeed have third party advertisers coming around door to door.

Sorry if it sounds a bit stupid but I have really felt very anxious ever since this happened.

kneemos

Probably genuine if they were looking for a bill.

L.Jenkins

How the unwanted scourge, who want to enter your home should be treated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7H3AlWMOuM

Fr_Dougal

Didn't "Talk Talk" close down their call centre in Waterford making 500 people unemployed?

Milk & Honey

I wouldn't show anybody a household bill. It might be taken and used in identity theft.
I had a door to door guy around a few months ago. I could see his clipboard and I could see a neighbours name and mobile number. I told him I wouldn't deal with anyone who would allow private information to be visible.

Adyx

Talk Talk don't operate in Ireland do they? If your dad is in Ireland it's definitely a scam if so. The call centre in Waterford was for UK customers.

Fr_Dougal

Digiweb bought Talk Talk.

Ziegfeldgirl27

Well, actually I am in Northern Ireland. I remember the Waterford centre closing when it was on the news.

Sofaspud

A friend of mine here in the UK used to work for one of those direct marketing companies that did door-to-door calling for Talk Talk. I can't say that your one was definitely legitimate but Talk Talk have at least in the past subcontracted these door to door companies.

steve9859

Sofaspud wrote: »

A friend of mine here in the UK used to work for one of those direct marketing companies that did door-to-door calling for Talk Talk. I can't say that your one was definitely legitimate but Talk Talk have at least in the past subcontracted these door to door companies.

There's always threads about them in the work & jobs forum. People who have been invited for interview without being told its for door to door commission only work. Seems they're very prevalent in Ireland

Sofaspud

steve9859 wrote: »

There's always threads about them in the work & jobs forum. People who have been invited for interview without being told its for door to door commission only work. Seems they're very prevalent in Ireland

I was called for an interview before in Dublin then looked up the company and cancelled straight away. They sound horrible to work for.

Wendolene

A few years ago, I answered the door to a cold-caller from Talk Talk ( as it happens ). It took a couple of attempts on my part to convince him he was going to be disappointed with me before he finally relented and asked to see my last phone bill ... just so he could record that he had met me :rolleyes:

This was sharp practice, to put it mildly, and was very common in the UK following deregulation of the residential telecoms market there. I've heard of a few instances of it here too. It's usually done in an attempt at "slamming" where the customer of one telco is surreptitiously moved from their existing telco provider to the telco employing the cold-caller, without the customers knowledge.

The customer only finds out when they get their first bill from their "new" telco provider and are left with quite a job trying to explain that they shouldn't have been migrated in the first place. While it's easy to migrate back to your old telco provider, the cold-caller has racked up a sale ( albeit illegally ) and will be in line for their commission.

Now, I should say that I don't think telcos encourage this behaviour, but it is an undesirable side-effect of hiring commission-only door-to-door sales agents.

The trick here is getting the details necessary to instigate the telco-to-telco migration, and that's where the phone bill comes in - it shows (a) your current telco, (b) your account number with your current telco, (c) your name and address as recorded by your current telco, (d) your phone number. Slam dunk for the door-to-door cold-calling telco slammer :mad:

OP - if your father is in NI, then Ofcom are the people to complain to ( http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/changing-provider/ ). In RoI, it would be ComReg ( http://www.comreg.ie/ ), but they don't seem to have much in the way of consumer advice on the same matter

HTH,
Wendolene.

Matt_Trakker

I've a mate who did work like this for eircom, they weren't working for eircom but selling the service. However, they did all have to wear an ID badge and had to present it to people once they opened the door.
If they didn't do that then I dunno, they coulda been scoping out the place, get a big dog, a big angry one.