Got a telephone call last night

[Skii]

Me - Hello ?

Me - Hello ?

Me (now about 20 seconds) - HELLO !?!?!?!?

Caller - Hello, I would like to speak to Miss Humphries please

Me - She can't come to the phone right now, can I help you

Caller - Is Miss Humphries available ?

Me - I just told you she can't come to the phone, CAN I HELP YOU ?

Caller - Are you a relative or a person who can speak to me on behalf of Mrs Humphries

Me - Yes, I'm her fiance, what can I do for you ?

Caller - I am phoning to congratualted you, your number has been especially selected out of hundreds to recieve a FREE T-Mobile phone package worth over £200, I would like too..

Me- Excellent news, ok I'll give you my address and you can pop it in the post to me, very generous of you chap I'm assuming as I'v won a FREE phone package there is no payment terms or contract to arrange then..

Caller - <starts to read his script again> You have been selected out of hundreds of people to win a free mobile phone package to the value of...

Me - So no contract then ?

Caller - erm,... erm there will be a contract between yourself and...

Me - Is this a contract where I will be required to pay monthly ?

Caller - Yes i believe you will have the option to pay monthly or..

Me - Well then it isn't free is it ?

Caller - Well, er....

Me - So I haven't actually won any competition at all have I ? And the phone isn't free is it?

Caller - Yes the phone is free but..

Me - No it isn't free, in order to obtain the phone I will have to sign up with T-Mobile on a legally binding contract and arrange payment terms won't I ?

Caller - but..the phone is free….

Me - No the phone isn't free, its paid for by ME on a monthly basis to use it, and even then it isn't actually MY phone its still the property of you the phone company who will take it off me If I don't wish to continue the contract .... won't you ?

.
.
.
.
.
.

Guess what he did ?....

.
.
He hung up on me

[Russ]

lolol john your so harsh.

[silent ben]

Wish i could think of something like that, i usually just say "i'll be right back", hang up quietly and hope they have 1 of those phones which doesn't go *beep* when the line is stopped

Ben

[floppybootstomp]

well there's a coincidence....

[joshwa]

HA HA HA

love it.

[Raz316]

BOFH springs to mind! : D

[directhex]

\o/

[TeePee]

I always try to chat up the telesales people, its a good way of getting rid of them. Works especially well if they are male!

[MrFlibble]

nice one!

Some canvasser came round t'other day (my missus answered the door) claiming to be from the 'Mortgage Advice Board' and apparently 'not selling anything'. She, being a bit blonde, gave him our phone number, and someone rang lastnight to try and sell me Mortgage products. I said to her "people with nothing to sell don't go round knocking on people's doors!" Thankfully, the woman on the phone was easy to get rid of, I only had to say no twice and she was gone.

[nichomach]

Well slapped, Skii - and calling it a free phone is just taking the wee; me say Trading Standards?

We used to get pestered by a security company ("Let us sell you a hundred odd quid's worth of dodgy burglar alarm for three grand") who spent ages trying to convince us there was an epidemic of burglaries (my wife is a criminologist, who actually READS the crime stats, poor woman, and she just laughed and laughed - then reported them to Trading Standards) before we could get rid of them. I HATE cold callers with a vengeance, almost as much as spammers - actually, I don't hate the callers so much as the shoddy, devious, manipulative, scare-mongering, lying sacks of excrement that employ them...

[klarrix]

skii, on behalf of everyone who doesnt want to take their number out of the phone books, i salute u they should be waaay stricter on what you can tell people is free. ie. "this great offer for your cash deals" arent part of it

[grand_witch]

I had to remove a door and window salewoman from my house. I asked her to leave four times and she actually said "I will have to call my boss to see if I am allowed to leave as I have only been here 10 minutes and I am meant to be hear for at least 20" At this point I informed her it was my house and I was going to help her to leave. She was quite welcome to wait on the pavement outside if she wanted to if her boss woudl let her.

We only wanted to buy a front door!!!! I just wanted the price, not the discount price or the show home price or the multibuy price.

Sounds like you did the right thing. It's about time their was a revolutiona nd people stood up to cold callers.

[Skii]

Hehe

Well here's the deal chaps.

I don't mind sales people, I sell for a living (business to business only) and have enough people tell me to politely sod off, I do have some sympathy with these people.

Normally I'll politely decline -

- Its a dirty job, somebody's gotta do it


However.


Its the underhand tactics that I despise, As Nichomach points out, its the money grabbing Sh*ts that run the show, misleading people that they've been singled out to win a Free phone or a holiday, " just sign here sir and we'll take care of then rest...oh didn't you read the small print? tough titties "

calling residential lines using these damn powerdiallers that phone you up automatically and then connect the sales person to you ages after you answer the phone, and then call you on a sunday afternoon, hanging up after you answer because there are no sales people there.




It stinks, but unfortunately for them, it works.

[Nimrod]

excellent...

I have just had the same call and I was trying my damndest to load this page so that I could repeat your success...

...unfortunatley the guy released I was stalling and said, "You have a good day sir..." and hung up

Booooo

[grand_witch]

Its a shame you cannot get spam filters for phones like you can with e-mail. Imagine the possibilties. Hold on I better patent this where's my pen......................

I did join that natioanl register to get your number removed and I do seem to have had last cold calls. Cannot remember the name of it now.

[Skii]

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/