Cold callers

[Ms Thrifty]

Maybe it's the recession but a lot of people seem to be chasing the same limited amount of business. Round our way we are always getting flyers for window cleaning, house-cleaning and ironing. But we do those ourselves!

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

I agree, brilliant guideline Andrews

[Sunny Saver]

I just got a cold call from O2. The guy, John O'Connor, said that someone from my home had been surfing the O2 broadband page. I said yes that was me, I wanted to know the details to make a complaint. Could he put me through to customer services given that no one had responded. He said he couldn't transfer the call but he would email them to ask them to call me.

I made sure I got his full name so if no one rings by tomorrow, I'll complain about him too.

But I like Andrews' guidelines... If anyone on here is a telemarketer and is on the receiving end of any of those ideas, you know where we got it from :).

[Beate]

Funny, I hardly get any cold calls at home but we get loads at work. Unfortunately, you can't just leave them hanging on the line for an hour. All these pesky "can I speak to the owner of the business please?" "Erm, what is it about?" "Mobile phones/diamonds/you name it". "Sorry no sales calls."

[steve9872]

Basically, if they don't know the name of the person they want to talk to, just say no. Its not in their script so they don't know what to say next.
The script always begins with "Can I speak to the person who deals with....." so they're easy to identify as sales bods to tell no to. No legit call starts that way.

[superhero]

Sometimes they are really sneaky they get the name of the managers first or the ones that can make a b*ying decision and then callback later/another day and pretend they know the person

[Beate]

Yeah. You can easily spot them though. My offic manager gets a lot of calls in her old name before she married - 3 years ago. "She knows me, we spoke 2 months ago." "I don't think so!"

[superhero]

Like what's been mentioned before I guess it's the recession, everyone's desperate for business

[Diane65]

Brilliant Andrews I will copy your ideas.
If I get anyone coming to the door I just say that I am the tenant (I'm not) and that soon gets rid of them!

[Beate]

I fail to see how you being the tenant would deter a mobile phone cold caller?