Telemarketing Vent

Katybug

Katybug

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
For those of you who have read my many complaints about int'l pharmacies calling me all the time, I have somewhat resolved the problem without having to change my phone #. The problem began when I ordered a couple expensive prescription drugs from Canada a yr or so ago (much cheaper than the USA), but never dreaming that once you order from out of the country you are fair game to any & all. Since then I have been bombarded with huge amounts of calls, all sounding East Indian. I have been at wits end as they come in morning, noon and night. I don't know how they access your info, as the Canadian pharmacy I ordered from certainly didn't share my info with their competition. Nonetheless, I've been dealing with it for over a year and the calls are growing in number. Because I was home today, I am aware that at least 8 different calls came in. I can't believe this, but as I'm typing this post yet another one is coming in...aaarrrrgghh!!!

The cable/phone company will change my number for no charge, but that's such a PIA after all these yrs with the same number. Their suggestion was to block the calls. My cable service logs them in on my TV and at least 1/2 the calls are from one company. I wasn't aware I could block phone calls from my computer, but happy as can be that I can. There is a tricky one that shows up as () instead of listing a phone number, so I'll just have to ignore them. As for the others, perhaps I'll get a small respite. Then they'll probably use a different number to call me once they get the recorded message, but maybe I won't get quite as many.
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They are a damn nuisance Katy, have you tried answering the call and telling them to hold on as someone is at the door and don't go back to the call, i have no problem here as i have registered for Do Not Call but you do need to register each couple of years i believe
 
I've just had a call from a very polite Indian lady extolling the virtues of entering a competition that my home insurance company is running. The prize is a trip anywhere in the World. I told her no thanks unless it includes the option of transferring the value to taxi rides to the local shop. The kilometre to the 'EasyGreasy' for a carton of milk and loaf of bread is about the limit of my travelling these days.

She was very sympathetic and understanding and far too nice and polite to skewer so we parted on friendly terms.
I must be goin' soft.
 

Jillaroo said:
They are a damn nuisance Katy, have you tried answering the call and telling them to hold on as someone is at the door and don't go back to the call, i have no problem here as i have registered for Do Not Call but you do need to register each couple of years i believe
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Thx, dear Jill, but that's way too nice for me to do with the number of them I get. I've been on DO NOT CALL since it began, and renew it yearly, but int'l companies don't honor it. Once in awhile I do answer and by then I'm so frazzled that I pick up the phone and hatefully say "I'm not interested, take my number off your list" and slam the phone down. I can tell by the caller ID that it's one of the international calls and I don't give them a chance to speak a word. Believe me, as long as I've been going through this, I no longer have an granule of phone manners for them. And they are the only ones I would speak to in such a harsh manner.
 
Diwundrin said:
I've just had a call from a very polite Indian lady extolling the virtues of entering a competition that my home insurance company is running. The prize is a trip anywhere in the World. I told her no thanks unless it includes the option of transferring the value to taxi rides to the local shop. The kilometre to the 'EasyGreasy' for a carton of milk and loaf of bread is about the limit of my travelling these days.

She was very sympathetic and understanding and far too nice and polite to skewer so we parted on friendly terms.
I must be goin' soft.
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I feel bad that I have sounded prejudiced against people from East India. My car insurance rep, whom I love, is East Indian. She & I have been phone buddies for years. And I've had several of them as neighbors, lovely and gentle people, and I have no prejudices whatsoever. It's just E India is where a huge majority of generic prescription drugs are manufactured and therefore have a large number of companies selling their drugs throughout the world. And therein lies the problem, seems every darned one of them are calling me to make a sale. It would be the same if it were Canada or anywhere else in the world.
 
Jillaroo said:
I have a silent number as well so i suppose that makes a big difference
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Private numbers work ONLY if you don't give them out. I didn't give it a 2nd thought when I was ordering from Canada, and gave them my phone number, as it was a company my friend had been ordering from for years and saving lots of money on her scripts that insurance wouldn't cover. The problem is that somehow other drug companies are able to tap into that info.....scary, huh? When I got the first sales call, I called Canada to chew them out for sharing my personal information. And their reply...."We didn't, we certainly don't want our competition contacting you." Makes total sense, but from what they told me it happens all the time with their customers. So from that day, I don't provide my phone numbers to anyone other than locally.
 
I feel bad that I have sounded prejudiced against people from East India.
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I don't think they'd take it personal Katy, it'd be the same wherever the calls were coming from.
We should be grateful it's not Scotland. I can barely understand a word they say.

I have a small portion of sympathy for the Delhi Demons really. They don't do it with malicious intent, it's just a job to earn a living in what must be a very competitive job market. It wouldn't be the job of choice for the majority of them I'm sure.

I'm short with them, but never get insulting or blame them personally for the inconvenience, unless I strike the rare really rude one, they are fair game. Bwaahahaha.

We/I get quite a lot of cold calls from Singapore too, and I find them reasonably nice annoyances. I've had more than a few 'chats' with some of them. It can get a bit bizarre to realize that I'm wasting their time instead of them wasting mine. But it can be quite interesting to chat to a total stranger in another part of the world about the weather, or how they're spending Christmas or equally mundane trivia. Especially when they're paying for the call.

One, with Optus, was so grateful to be treated as a human being that she went to all kinds of trouble to get me a better internet deal, and even ... wait for it... phoned back personally a week later to check that everything went okay.
Similar deal was forthcoming from chatting up a Telstra rep.
Depending of course on what they are selling, it can pay dividends to 'play' them at their own game sometimes.

Try and think to yourself "Oh, you poor bugger, I wouldn't want your job for quids."

 
My answer to nuisance callers is to imitate a cell/mobile phone breaking up.

It takes some practice, usually under she shower as I am a woeful singer.

Once you get it down pat, the hardest thing is to stop laughing as the little Indian man on the other end goes nuts, cursing his boss for giving him a phone thats 'no bloody good'
 
I wish I could have the same humorous attitude some of you have. I'm just too selfish with my time, have ZERO patience with phone calls overall unless it's family/close friends, plus I'm pretty sure I have been getting them a lot more often. But some of you are having fun with this and seem to enjoy them. Sure wish I did. I've loved reading the different ways you respond to them...very clever.
 
My problem is most of the time I don't understand half of what they're saying, so what then....If I say I can't understand them, or ask them to repeat, then they keep on talking and that doesn't work. I usually don't answer or just hang up. It's rude, but sometimes they do stop calling.
 
If I pick up the phone, and there's a dead air hesitation, it's usually a telemarketer dialing several numbers at once...I just hang up before anybody can start talking to me.
 
I have a "private" phone number.... that means it's not listed in the phone directory but I still do receive the odd telemarketer call.

My way of dealing with them:



I can usually tell that the call is from a telemarketer because it either comes up as "private" or "overseas" on my caller I.D screen.

I simply answer: "triple zero....Police, Ambulance, Fire. What is your emergency ?"

The caller immediately hangs up and never calls back.......



PS. for the information of countries other than Australia.... Triple zero or 000 is our emergency number which equates to 911 in USA.
 
Please let me brag.....not one international phone call all day! Not sure if it was the blocking phone numbers I had access to or the demented screaming and yelling to the last 30-40 that called me with my saying, "DON'T CALL ME AGAIN!" Whatever the reason, it saved me a lot of stress today.:)
 

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