Cold calling and surveys

hitchglitch
hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
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edited December 2015 in General Chat #1

I am a patient person but modern life is eating away at that veneer.

My wife and I ((a) joined the RAC, (b) flew to Miami (c) went on a cruise. No sooner did we get home than we received:

- Two unsolicited calls on my mobile from the RAC trying to sell us additional services that we didn't need

- Questionaries to each of us by email from the cruise company asking for feedback, then a reminder two days later despite already doing one on the ship

- Email from the airline asking us about our experience flying with them.

I expect that before long if I pop into Tescos to buy some milk they are going to text me asking how I enjoyed my shopping experience.

Is this the new world?

Comments

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,860 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #2

    We went on a cruise five years ago and since that time I think we have recieved the weight of a cruise liner in leaflets, we get them almost on a daily basis!!!

    One thing that amuses me is when you go to a new website a little box pops up asking for you to provide feedback when you have hardly had a second to see what the website is like!

    At least on my new mobile I can block callers.

    David

  • Kennine
    Kennine Forum Participant Posts: 3,472
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    edited December 2015 #3

    You have my sympathy - It is a growing annoyance. Save yourself some hastle and cut those people off without an explanation, as soon as you know it's that kind of call. They only get away with those  nuisance calls  because we in the UK, by nature, are too polite.

    KCool 

  • Francis
    Francis Club Member Posts: 2,023 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #4

    You have my sympathy - It is a growing annoyance. Save yourself some hastle and cut those people off without an explanation, as soon as you know it's that kind of call. They only get away with those  nuisance calls  because we in the UK, by nature, are too
    polite.

    KCool 

    Write your comments here...

    That is exactly what we do now. We get these nuisance calls on a daily basis asking us to do surveys, offer investment opportunities etc I  used to be very polite with them but these people refuse to take no for an answer and just talk over the top of you
    so now I  just hang up on them its the best way.

  • rogher
    rogher Forum Participant Posts: 609
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    edited December 2015 #5

    In my day it was The Readers' Digest you cuold not shake off. It seems their staff may have moved on.

  • Metheven
    Metheven Club Member Posts: 3,987 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #6

    In my day it was The Readers' Digest you cuold not shake off. It seems their staff may have moved on.

    More than likely they have all passed on LaughingTongue Out

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited December 2015 #7

    Thing that really annoys us is the the ammount of money that charities waste on junk sorry "pleading"mail and if you do give then the deluge gets bigger,and we always gave to our local air ambulance in their collection boxes,now they do not use them they only want DD so thats one thread of income they have lost,we have had nine different "Xmas presents" from charities in the post so far,and plenty of holiday brochures from some companies we have not and would not use,at least we are ex directory at home and have a bar on our mobiles some still get through Yell 

  • Kerry Watkins
    Kerry Watkins Forum Participant Posts: 325
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    edited December 2015 #8

    If you register with the Telephone Preference Service this will reduce the number of calls but not all. We normally let the telephone ring until the answer machine cuts in. They then ring off 

  • hywelsycharth
    hywelsycharth Forum Participant Posts: 37
    edited December 2015 #9

    Received an e-mail from Tesco asking about my shopping experience !!!!!!!!!!

  • ValDa
    ValDa Forum Participant Posts: 3,004
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    edited December 2015 #10

    Another annoying shopping experience is where companies now ask for your email address, so that they can email you the receipt!   Oh Yes, and so that they can besiege you ever after with 'Cheap at half the price' offers, marketing tricks, and other rubbish!

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #11

    Always look for the tick boxes hidden away on web site orders etc, worth checking carefully to prevent unwanted calls and your details being passed on to third parties.

  • Metheven
    Metheven Club Member Posts: 3,987 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #12

    ..... and a lot of times where there are two tick boxes with similar meanings, you have to tick one box to opt out and untick the other to opt out. It's there to trip you up.

  • ABM
    ABM Forum Participant Posts: 14,578
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    edited December 2015 #13

    You have my sympathy - It is a growing annoyance. Save yourself some hastle and cut those people off without an explanation, as soon as you know it's that kind of call. They only get away with those  nuisance calls  because we in the UK, by nature, are too
    polite.

    KCool 

    Well  you  may  be  Kennine,  as  befits  your  Northern (!!)  upbringing,  but  I  do  my  very  best  to  educate  the  Cold Callers  in  the  finer  &  more  graphic  parts  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Dictionary   No  Holds  or  words  Barred,  believe  me
    !!

    B

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #14

    I get really jarred off with charities cold calling at night.  We had WWF at 8.30 the other night.  Looked at their accounts, last year they turned over 63million and spent 19million on fund raising, I find that obscene.  I select charities I give to carefully.
    I don't want to contribute to executives/managers outrageous salaries

  • RedMick
    RedMick Forum Participant Posts: 173
    edited December 2015 #15

     As to Telephone Preference Service!! Service? Pah!! Registered with them ages ago, complete rubbish!

       I now have a BT Call Guardian telephone, just £35 including an answerphone. Now, all callers not on my 'friends and trusted business' list have to announce themselves before I accept the call. Needless to say, auto calls and cold callers can't/won't do this. The number of 'blocked' calls started out at six a day, now down to one or two a day. Progress. Happy

  • DEBSC
    DEBSC Forum Participant Posts: 1,362
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    edited December 2015 #16

    We are with the telephone preference service and it works perfectly, we are also ex directory. At first a few calls did come through but I said very clearly that they should not be calling us and I required their names in order to report them. All the calls
    soon stopped. Luckily we don't get the automated ones, these are more difficult to report.

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #17

    We're the same, also not on the public part of the voting register and rarely get calls either.

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #18

    You are lucky if you do not get automated calls. There is nothing more annoying than picking up the phone and hearing a recording - can't moan at them for a start. 

    Also get annoyed by the ones that swear it's not a cold call when you tell them you dont accept unsolicited phone calls

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #19

     Look at the Ofcom web site re automated calls, see Ofcom for consumers. Hope this is useful.

  • Graydjames
    Graydjames Forum Participant Posts: 440 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2015 #20

    I don't really object to surveys and I will usually do them unless they are huge and I just don't have the time. Surveys are important to retailers and other businesses and are quite a different thing from cold calling and annoying phone calls asking you
    to take add-ons.

    My beef about a lot of surveys these days is that the compilers make you do all the work instead of couching the questions in such a ways that they can glean the same information without burdening the consumer with having to write an essay. If I am asked
    to do a survey and it gets to the point where I am being asked to do all the work and do lots of writing I always give up.   

  • Graydjames
    Graydjames Forum Participant Posts: 440 ✭✭✭
    edited December 2015 #21

    Unlike RedMick I found the TPS was excellent. I registered with it years ago and after a week or two all the calls stopped. More recently I have had a few calls, not many, but a few, from overseas which I understand the TPS can't stop. All those I know on
    TPS found it was highly sucessful so I find it odd that it hasn't worked for RedMick.

  • JillwithaJay
    JillwithaJay Club Member Posts: 2,485 ✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #22

    Ditto here.  We've also been with TPS for many years and have also been ex-Directory since the 1970s and don't get cold calls.  We're not on the public part of the Electoral Roll either.  Why would you want to be?

    I think some problems occur because companies buy lists which are out of date so your details are still available.

    Ultraframe has now lost our trust and any future business because of their persistent calls "to check that everything is okay".  

    I decline surveys which ask for details of my income as I don't consider it necessary to provide that.

    150 pixels photo ba9efc87-643d-42da-9817-e5b5ead08e3e_zpsf5f9425f.png

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #23

     Look at the Ofcom web site re automated calls, see Ofcom for consumers. Hope this is useful.

    thanks for the advice

  • neveramsure
    neveramsure Forum Participant Posts: 712
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    edited December 2015 #24

    Surveys are unfortunately part of modern life.

    Yesterday I even had an email survey from our local chemist, with 20-30 multiple choice questions.Undecided

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #25

    The problem is that the TPS does not stop them calling if you have requested contact. I have had several lately from people wanting to sell me investments. When I have told them I do not  accept cold calls, they have informed me that I have requested it. They are either lying, or it is a case of miss checking a box, or not unchecking one when I have bought something on line. Often there is one about passing on details to other branches of the company. Often they are not that obvious, or off the bottom of the screen, unless you scroll down.

  • InaD
    InaD Club Member Posts: 1,701 ✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #26

    Ditto here.  We've also been with TPS for many years and have also been ex-Directory since the 1970s and don't get cold calls. We're not on the public part of the Electoral Roll either.  Why would you want to be?

    150 pixels photo ba9efc87-643d-42da-9817-e5b5ead08e3e_zpsf5f9425f.png

    And the same here, including not being on the public part of the Electoral Register; it's very rare we get cold calls.  Also, our number is withheld when we ring people.

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited December 2015 #27

    The trouble with that is that the recipient may not wish to answer "number withheld" calls expecting them to be cold callers.

  • huskydog
    huskydog Club Member Posts: 5,460 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #28

    a few weeks ago I had a call from a window company ,but he didn't get very far as I pushed the concept of using solar panels on him , after a few minutes he hung up Surprised

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant Posts: 8,195 ✭✭✭
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    edited December 2015 #29

    Touch wood we rarely get a cold call.  We have always been ex directory, not on the public electoral list and try our best to tick/untick boxes about passing on details.  We never turn our answerphone off - so we don't have to rmember to turn it on when
    we go out.  Recently we got lots of answerphone messages but silence - that turned out to be the local hospital phoning with an automated service to remind about appointments.  Instead of leaving a message the phone had to be answered and then replied to 
    by pressing buttons.  To me it defeats the object if they don't leave a message you can still overlook, there is no number so that's no help either.  I mentioned it to hospital staff who told me to write in
    Yell.  If it is in the realms of 'privacy' about appointments why bother?????