Telemarketers

In Canada we have a do not call list where people can add their phone numbers and it is suppose to mean that you don’t get the telemarketers calling anymore. I don’t think it is working considering how many calls we receive.

The telemarketers have figured out a way of getting around the system and that is what is extremely frustrating. We have had phone calls from numbers that have the same exchange as our phone number and when you look up that number it is a residence. I am pretty sure that these people aren’t calling to sell the stuff these telemarketers are calling about. I know this because we have received calls from people complaining that we called them and just hung up. No, we are not telemarketers either but our phone number has been used to call other people. Sure, I know it isn’t our actual phone that is being used but the telemarketers have figured out a way for it to show up as someone else’s phone number and not their own.

Another method that they have been using is using area codes from the US and that is something else that is frustrating. Our Do Not Call List applies to phone numbers that are within Canada so now the telemarketers have figured out another method of frustrating all of us that are on the do not call list.

I have had a number of discussions with the various telemarketers when I ask to be removed from their list. I have been told that they don’t have to remove me because they don’t have a do not call list themselves. I have also been told that yes they will remove me but I continue to get the calls from the same phone number. The other thing that the telemarketers do is only let the phone ring 3 – 4 times because most answering machines answer after 4 rings. This means that if you aren’t home and you have call display you will see a list of the numbers that called and didn’t leave a message. Yes, a very good indication that they were telemarketers or my favourite call “Microsoft” telling me that my computer is sending out bad things over the internet.

Yes telemarketers have figured out a way to get around the Do Not Call list which I am not happy about but I also realize that if I can keep some of them talking about really nothing for a little bit it helps someone else. The less phone calls these people can make the less chance they have of hooking someone to give them information that they want. So next time you get one of those phone calls and it is from Microsoft or the duct cleaning service, ask them a few questions and see what happens. No, don’t give them any real information but keep them busy for even a couple of minutes to help prevent someone from being taken advantage of.

Telemarketers

Lately there seems to be more and more phone calls from telemarketers wanting to sell something. The big issue with this is our phone numbers are on the do not call list but the telemarketers seem to get around that or ignore it.

The ones that have been recently calling are ones wanting to do duct cleaning. Ok, I do have fun with this one because they have called on both our home phone and on our business phone. The person doing the calling starts off saying that they will clean all the ducts in our home for one low price. When they called the home phone they asked how many floors were in our home and I immediately said 20 floors (the number of floors in our apartment building). The guy then asked me again how many floors and I said 20 floors. He continued to try and let me know that in my house he would clean all the ducts and I had to remind him I said 20 floors and it was an apartment building he was calling. Now, the time they called the business phone number the speech was a little different. The question I was asked after he did a bit of his speech was home many bedrooms I had on the top floor of our house, my reply was “zero as you have called a business”. I did answer the business line with the company name so I guess he didn’t listen to what I said when I answered the phone. The guy after my zero reply asked me how many bedrooms I had in the house and I once again said “zero” and asked why he was calling a business offering home duct cleaning. After a bit he did hang up as I think he got it that there wasn’t going to be a sale. These duct calls have come through with a phone number showing up and I am one of those that does a search on the phone number and I found out that it was a home phone for a person in Sudbury.

A lot of the telemarketing calls that are being made especially from the scams are being done by masking the actual phone number. A lot of the calls that we are getting are from phone numbers that start with the first three digits of our phone number which let’s us know that the person calling isn’t really the person making the call. We have found this out as we have received calls from different numbers asking us why we called them and we never did and we have explained that our own phone number has probably been used to mask a scam.

The other calls that have really got me is when I receive a phone on our business number and they are offering me home services. The latest one was an offering of Internet, Cable and Home Phone at a good deal. That’s fine and I attempted to let the person calling know that they had called a business and we weren’t interested. The person calling continued to try and sell me this service and with this is when I got really frustrated with him. I ended up yelling at him that he had called a business and we weren’t interested. He tried to continue and I told him to “shut up and listen to me”, and I again repeated that he had called a business and we weren’t interested. Of course, his silence lasted long enough for me to say that and he then started with the sales pitch again. At this point I hung up because he wasn’t listening to what I had to say.

I understand that in some cases the telemarketers are given a script that they need to follow but they also need to listen to the person they are calling. It is frustrating when the callers don’t listen to me but then there are times when I decide that if they don’t want to listen to my real answers I will have fun with the answers and keep them on the line longer. I don’t often keep them on the line because I have work to do but there are times that I figure if you have bothered me I am going to get you back.

A Do Not Call List is exactly what that is. Telemarketers need to understand people are on the list and that they need to respect it. The masking of the phone numbers just means that more people are getting frustrated and that doesn’t help the people that are truly using marketing to raise funds for charities.