Foreign Call centres

[milly143]

I didn't know wher to put this really but I need to rant as I have had 3 phone calls this morning from sales people likely to be somewhere in India and it drives me crazy. I wouldn't mind so much if I could actually understand what they were saying! One of them said "I understand this phone line is under your name" how could he possibly know that when I hadn't even told him my name. then I tell them Im not interested in changing anything and they say "you don't have to change anything", well obviously you do. How do these stupid huge corperate firms get away with these highly annoying calls??? rant over.

[Scarlett]

I totally agree! I have actually stopped answering my phone now. My family give me 4 rings to say it's them. Whenever I do 1471 it's either not listed or witheld! I phoned BT and they said there was nothing they could do about it.

[Sequin]

Register with the telephone preference service - if the call is on behalf of a British company, and the call someone who has registered, they can be fined or have other atcion taken against them. I registered and it cut the number of cold calls down by about 90%

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

[ann_h]

My bf got a lot of these. We had much fun seeing how long we could keep them holding while we made a cup of tea, or went to the corner shop. The best one was the time he made out to be Japanese, with a grasp of English slightly worse than the Indian lady calling! She mentioned the service at present, so bf latched on to that and went on about the Christmas present this phone company were going to give him. Kept it going for about 25 minutes until revealing that his phone was incoming calls only, and appeared to be very disappointed that she couldn't help, and would they still be sending the present?

I was in stitches!

[milly143]

ann_h - that is brilliant! Why didn't I think of that before. Well I am bound to get a call tomorrow so I think i'll have some fun with them rather then getting annoyed and hanging up.

I'll probably get my number put on that list as well, thanks Sequin!

[Louis XIV]

With me it's "just going to get a pen..."

[Hgrove]

The one thing that I found works with pushy salespeople is to keep completely silent.  They have a variety of opening gambits but if you keep quiet they talk themselves out of arguments.  Then I say "thank you, goodbye" and hang up.

[pjm007]

Double-Glazing calls are good, you make yourself sound really keen, keep them on the phone for a good 15 minutes, tell them that you would definately be interested in having double glazing fitted, then tell them you need to ask the council first...works a treat, If only you could see thier faces. Or conservatory ones, do the same sort of thing, then tell them you live on the tenth storey of a block of flats and whether they would be able to build the wall that high !

[Scarlett]

That link doesn't work Sequin! Well, the link does, but you can't actually register.

[FP]

Having worked in a call centre (not in a sales capacity) I would ask you to spare a thought for the poor call centre advisors.  It opened my eyes to how absusive people can be on the telephone and how you can be treated as the scum of the earth.   It is an extremely pressured job and you are constantly monitored for good statistics and are often treated badly by your supervisors.  It affected my health and gave me constant headaches.

I agree it is not good when the English spoken is hardly understandable, but most of the people are highly educated and helpful individuals.   They have to earn a living and sometimes there are not other jobs open to them.

I used to be impatient and cross as well when I got calls.  Now I go out of my way to be polite.  Most of them respond very well if you are polite when telling them no and appreciate a kind word.

[Salamander]

The thing is FP that we do not ask to be hasselled at home to buy stuff. If we want to buy anything we will shop for it.

I work shifts and last week was woken three mornings in a row by people trying to sell me stuff. I am not at my best when woken up early and do not apologise for being curt towards them.

[kick3m0n]

sorry FP, but unsolicited calls to my home are NOT welcome, and while I am never rude, I dislike the intrusion into my life.  I am exactly the same with unsolicited e-mails or (even worse) uunsolicited calls to my front door.  I am fed up to the back teeth of these people phoning, it was at it's worst when we had a new baby and these calls would wake him up, or interrupt his feeds.  I ended up putting the ringer off and explaining to family and friends that they'd have to leave a message.   The foreign call centres are by a country mile worse than any UK based ones though.  At least the UK based centres employ people who have a grasp of basic English, and who can, at some point, pronounce your name correctly.   My fiancee used to work at a call centre in Scotland, so I do understand the difficulties of the job, but they must surely appreciate (just as he did) that these calls are not requested, and so are generally not welcome.  I would never waste their time or ridicule them though, I just tell them I am not interested and say goodbye.  The hideously persistent ones do get very short shrift though, I have to be honest.  I have never yet done business with anyone who calls unrequested to my home, because I dislike their sales technique so much.  I think it's a hideous development of modern life that even in your own home you're not free from pushy sales people. Whew! Rant over.  Thanks for your post milly143 I needed that!! xx

[FP]

I do understand exactly why you all get cross - I can just see it from the other side as well.  It's the companies that are to blame, employing the tactics that they do, the staff have to follow very strict guidelines.  It's the worse sort of job out.  I would rather work on a factory line  than go back into call centre work.  Some people in India don't have any other choice but to work in them.

I would stress again I didn't work in a sales capacity.

I would also stress that it's the companies that make all the money.

Sad world.

[Laura-sakura]

Why cant you understand that people get cross FP?  When i work from home i am interrupted perhaps 20 times in a day by people trying to sell me stuff i dont need.  I couldn't give a damn where in the world they are calling from! I also couldnt give a damn that they choose to work in a call centre.  The interview is there to tell them what the job involves, I cant believe that they do not expect abuse when harrassing people in their own homes. 

[Laura-sakura]

Sorry FP, i just realised you wrote "I can understand..." !

[FP]

That's OK Laura. 

However, as far as Indian Call Centres are concerned, a lot of these people really don't have a choice of where else to work!  Call Centres pay them relatively good money compared to other sorts of work (or no work at all)  They need to support families. 

We in the UK just don't appreciate what life is like for such people. 

And believe me, interviews do not prepare you for some of the really bad abuse people from call centres can get!

The companies that employ them are only interested in maximising profits.

[FP]

By the way, I have registered with TPS and MPS - However, I believe it does not stop calls or mail from outside of the UK.

[milly143]

Ok, I wasn't going to mention this but part of my job is to oversee the running of a call centre. We often have to call customers (though not in a sales capacity) and it is very easy to tell if someone does not want to talk to you. for the past 3 years running we have won awards for out outstanding customer service and to me and the team in the call centre we don't understand how othe companies find it so hard. It's easy to be polite and you don't have to be pushy. plus, we can all speak perfect English. If these people we genuinely polite and not patronising (which I often find them to be) I'm sure their jobs would be a lot easier and our lives a little less hassled by these calls.

[milly143]

I can speak perfect English, I just can't write it looking at my last post.

[FP]

Very different though Milly from those that have to sell and who get chucked out if they don't make targets!

I worked in a call centre where we could be polite and were highly rated - people were calling us for advice -but I still didn't like being monitored all the time.  My comments are specifically aimed at Indian Call Centres because I feel sorry for the operatives.  It's a numbers game for the companies that use these centres as a selling medium.  They don't particularly care about politeness - some they lose some they gain.  Obviously the method works because they still manage to sell.  They would have long since given up if not.  For every dozen or so of us that don't want to know about what they are selling, there will be one that does.  This is how they work. You can't blame the operatives if there management train them in this way.

[milly143]

Thats true I suppose and a fair piont. I do actually feel sorry for these people as well if that is their only option to get a decent income for their families. Lets just hope one day the arrogant bosses of these huge firms get bombarded with calls and decide its not a good idea any more.