How to stop bloody telcos cold calling?

The numbers are actually randomly generated - I worked for a 'market research' phone company during my student days and half the no's generated by the computer didn't exist, the other half did.

I quit after a day cos I felt awful ringing up and confusing poor old women who reminded me of my grandmother.

Its a dreadful tactic that should be banned IMHO, or at least we should be able to opt out of it.
 
walk a mile in a man's shoes lads, then comment.
Click to expand...

Hi Gar,

I'm sorry I just cant accept this logic. If we were to accept this logic then then would be very very little discussion on the board.

Lets see, you cant comment on accountants unless you have worked as one.

You cant comment on train drivers unless you have driven one.

You can comment on turkeys unless you belong to the broader poultry family.

Sorry, Gar, but I'm going to continue to critisise cold callers, door steppers and spammers where ever I come accross them.

ajapale
 
Gar123,

If I understand you last comment correctly, you are defending the individual making the calls. I don't think anyone here has anything against them, we are annoyed at the companies and their directors who choose to run their buisness in such a fashion.
 
Got this response from IDMA

At present ComReg is organizing a telephone preference service for Ireland.

If a consumer (not a company/business) no longer wishes to be cold called at their personal telephone number (home/mobile) (excluding automated dialing machines which are not legal unless the consumer opts-in) then they can add their telephone number(s) to the National Directory Database TPS. They must do this by contacting their service supplier (e.g. O2) who will forward the details to ComReg's NDD department.

Anyone cold calling telephone numbers will be required by law to exclude those numbers which are on the NDD TPS.

The system is not set up yet but will be in the next few months. If you wish to get further information you can call ComReg (ask for the NDD section tel 01-8049600).
also this link on comreg

[broken link removed]
 
Receiving telephone calls at home trying to sell you cheaper calls is an invasion of privacy in my mind, I am very skeptical about all these companies, and just how can they offer calls cheaper etc.. I think that they would not be able to save me anything, I use my phone to call england and Spain and all these companies offer is cheaper calls in Ireland not there. Until there is a company that can give me calls to cheaper abroad then i think I will stay with Eircom... Can this zefone crowd offer me this can they?? Any Ideas...
 
calls

ehh let's not forget www.telestunt.ie which offers european and USA calls for 1.26 cent a minute off peak with no prepayment - just a 1890 number.

combined with the UTV phone service - free local , national and uk calls every evening and all weekend (up to an hour a call so just hang up and redial) using the two of these in tandem seems to be unbeatable.
 
Re: This thread is degenerating...

Couldn't agree more.

No offence to anyone who has to do this for a living (commission-only, so 'tell-them-anything-you-like-but-just-get-them-to-sign-up'...), but IMHO cold-calling people in their homes is one of the nastiest and most repulsive 'direct marketing' strategies to have emerged in the last few years. And usually counter-productive, as this thread shows.

I'm not holding my breath for Comreg to do anything meaningful about these practices - until some legal sanction is introduced, they can issue all the 'best practice' industry guidelines they like, and none of these guys will pay a blind bit of notice. In any case, Comreg have shown themselves on other matters to be about as toothless as my old gran with her teeth knocked out (God rest her soul ...and it wasn't me, I swear! ;) )

Jister's suggestion about verbal abuse working best is probably closest to the mark, but I suspect that it might lead to legal action if one were to get too hot 'n' heavy. Nowadays, full-on profanity and/or threatening physical violence is against the law, after all...

Not that it seems to have stopped , 'though! :rollin
[right-click, 'save as', change file extension to .wav or .mp3. Warning! Contains strong language from the start. In a Geordie accent..!]
 
Re: Re: How to stop bloody telcos cold calling?

SPAM posts deleted by RainyDay
 
TeleSales

do none of you work in jobs where you have to communicate with others?
Click to expand...

I certainly don't work in a job that would involve disturbing people in the evening after they've spent the day in work, when they're settling down for something to eat or spending time with their families. Quite frankly I'd rather be broke than annoy people for a living.

it's hard calling people up cold, be nice!
Click to expand...

Breaking and entering isn't easy but that doesn't mean I have to be nice to burglars. I don't give a damn if someone is working their way through college. If you bother me at home you get one chance to stop calling me, call again you get abused.

My favourite call was a company calling on behalf of AIB asking how they could improve their service to me.
When I said that they could stop calling me at home when I'm having dinner, the guy thought I was joking.

-Rd
 
Having just read all the posts in this thread, and a number of PDFs on askcomreg.ie and dataprotection.ie, the short version of how to stop cold (phone) calling is:

Ring your service provider (i.e. the company you pay line rental to, e.g. eircom, BT Ireland, Smart Telecom) and tell them you don't want to receive cold calls any more. They will then set the "No cold calling" flag on the record on the National Directory Database for your home phone number.

eircom and BT are planning to add a link to their sites to promote this but they don't appear to have done this yet.
 
This usually works.........

"I'm just in the middle of my dinner. Give me your number so I can call you back when your having your dinner"
 
UTV have just introduced a facility to register online to have your number removed from the NDD (National Directory Database) to stop cold callers. I presume that other telcos offer a similar service?

Update: just checked and has some info on this (apologies if this is repeating something mentioned earlier!).
 
Better one for ye all - Talk Talk "persuaded" my uncle to switch from Eircom. (He has a disability and lives on his own.) His total phone bill every month is €2.25.

It took my Mum weeks to "persuade" Talk Talk to let him change back for simplicity sake to Eircom.
 
2 things that have worked for me..
i tell them that my company pays my bill and the other i have asked them to hold the line,when you do this they seem to hang up on you.
 
I rang Eircom this morning and asked to be taken off the database - she did that and then said "it probably won't make a difference, a lot of companies just use the phonebook". I told her there was legislation in place and I could complain to Comreg if a company did this. She wasn't aware of any legislation.
 
We have been getting lots of calls during the day...from unavailable & withheld numbers.

My parents are ex-directory so ignoring these calls isn't really an option.

If I answer the phone and the speil starts I just hang up. I used to tell them I didn't want to change but they just keep ringing. I can't be bothered to tell them I don't want their service and as they are rude enough to interrupt my evening then I don't feel guilty for being rude back.
 
Kiddo, ask your parents to dial 142 before dialing your number and their number will be displayed for that call.
Leo
 
As annoying as they are try to have as much fun as possible cos it seems they wont stop. Try making up ridiculous things to say to them - got one last nite and told them he had the wrong number because i dont have a phone. After a few seconds of confusion on their end i heard a "but wait" just before i hung up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top