Friday, January 01, 2010

New Year, New Determination, Watch out One Specific Telemarketing company

I swear, the 'Do Not Call' requests give you more calls.
I have one 'company' that calls every couple of weeks. Something about I'm paying too much interest on my credit card, and this is my FINAL notice to lower my rates. After hanging up on these automated messages I finally chose one time to actually talk to someone.
Me=Me, TS=Telephone Solicitor


Me: "So...which credit card company are you calling from?"
TS: "Oh, we're not a credit card company, we're actually a financial institution..."
Me: "Oh-ho! Then, take me off your list. You know, your automated announcement is VERY deceptive, btw."
TS: "Okay, we'll remove you from the list."

Few weeks later, another call...
TS: "You wish to lower your interest rates?"
Me: "No, I want you to remove my name from your calling list."
TS: "....." Uh, wait, there was nothing, they HUNG UP ON ME!!!! (How's that for customer service?!)

Several weeks (and calls) later:
TS: "You chose '(whatever number)' to lower your interest rates..."
Me: "Actually, no, I clicked '0' to talk to someone. I've requested before to be removed from the list. I've also had someone hang up on me when I requested to be removed from the list."
TS: "I'm sorry about that, I'll remove your name now"

Few weeks later:
My daughter answered. For those old enough to remember the briefly-lived 'Valley Girl' trend, she used one of those voices. Complete with 'Like' (and not bad, considering she's 14 and is blissfully ignorant of the 'Valley Girl')
She was hung up on.

So, my new determination.
Next time, and I am SURE there will be one, I will talk to a person, politely ask what company and their contact information (which by law here, they HAVE to give me), then ask to speak to a supervisor (and hope to get one and not get hung up on) to let them know I will be reporting their company. To the BBB as well as the CRTC, which may or may not result in them losing their phone lines. We can only hope.

Some interesting reading for those who are in Canada and ticked off about telemarketers--and even getting dead air when you answer the phone: apparently the CRTC has rules about that too!!! Though due to the large number of such calls that I receive, I think some of these telemarketing companies are fudging their books.

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