Give telemarketers the push!

[the foto fanatic]

Are you sick of telemarketers calling you just as you take your first mouthful of spag bol and swig of red wine on a Sunday night?

From this morning's "The Age":

Federal Dept of Communications has opened a web site where you can list your details to advise that you do not want to recieve telemarketing calls.

Just don't try to log on this morning. The site has shat itself already!

It would surely have been predictable that most of Australia would want to register.

[BT*ist]

I'm wondering if the call centre companies are going to offer bounties on people to REMOVE themselves from the register!

Also, imagine the aggregative effect : say half of Australians sign up... that means the remainder will (all other things being equal) get twice as many calls. Making them more likely to be pissed off, more likely to also register... meaning even less remaining people who can be called. And so on.

I pity the person who is the last to sign up

[sirhc55]

I am initially polite, let them talk for awhile and when asked how much my last bill was, inform them with a well known expletive where to go

[Raskill]

There should just be a register for those who WANT telemarketers to phone them. How do old folks and those without net access etc get on the 'dont call me' list?

The 'please call me' site would take up a lot less bandwidth.

Telemarketers shit me!

[moz]

They don't bother me at all. Mind you, they don't *call* me at all either No, I have no idea how that happens, but it does. Maybe it's just that there's hardly ever someone home between 6pm and 8pm, so after a while they lose interest in our answering machine.

[Nnnnsic]

I don't mind them. I just calmly tell them that I don't give a shit and I'm not really interested. Dad on the other hand...

It's the Microsoft activation people I have real fun with...

[Greg B]

This is the url for the website

https://www.donotcall.gov.au/

I registered this morning, haven't received the confirmatory email as yet
no doubt due to the load.

The irony is that the call centres have entirely brought this onto themselves.
I have no sympathy. And recent developments where you get the call and you are on
hold - I give two hellos and hang up - add to the annoyance.

Ditto the charities (which aren't covered by the register). Hate 'em. The touts
on the phone get 70-80% of whatever you donate - it is a scam. Same with the
people on the streets for AI or Greenpeace or anything else (not ANZAC), it is a
paid job funded from your "donation". No good. If you want to donate, do it directly
and tell everyone else to be gone.

[Reschsmooth]

Telemarketers shit me like they do everyone else, but I do get a laugh when everyone gets all up in arms about them as if they are personally offended that someone has rung up to advertise a product/chartity/service/whatever. What's even funnier is the pissing contest people have about how they 'defeat' telemarketers with their oh-so-clever/hostile techniques, as if they have won a war.

Yet, people listen to commercial radio and watch commercial TV without feeling the same kind of angst.

Anyway, it's all pretty funny and now we have even more regulations to worry about (it will be interesting to see how "telemarketing" is defined and how wide the potential net will be).

P

[stubbsy]

Actually I keep the Telemarketers on the phone as long as I can (15 minutes i the best so far), put them on loudpseaker and continue doing what I'm doing while stringing them along. Ask them where they're ringing from, what's the weather like there, pretend the line is bad and get them to repeat stuff, it's great fun. I figure the less people they get through the less economical for them so if we all kept them going for ages the economics would change.

That said I'm off to register for do not call and like Greg I especially hat being put on hold when I answer while I wait for a real live telemarketer to annoy me.

Be warned though - the government in it's wisdom has excluded political telemarketing (ooops - information) from the register as well as phone polling

Edit: Just saw Patrick's comment. I don't listen to commercial radio, but do watch commercial TV (then hit the jump forward 3 minutes button on my Toppy to skip the ads). Advertising in papers, on TV and radio is part of delivering a service to me and I can choose when I want that service. Telemarketing (cold calling) is NOT a service to me and it's foisted upon me regardless of what I may be doing. There's the difference.

Edit #2: I like this "telemarketers would not be able to call between 8pm and 9am on weekdays, and between 5pm and 9am on Saturdays" and Sundays are TBA

So it's a "do not call while I'm at work, but pester the shit out of me all day Saturday and some time on Sunday" register as opposed to plain old "DONT CALL ME" register

[fozzie]

I have created my own screening process at home, no telephone connected, just Modem/Router for Broadband. Quiet times at home :):):):):):):)

Only give out my Mobile # to people I know and trust. If a number or no number comes up on my screen, and I do not have in my phone's memory gets the flick.

fozzie

[ATJ]

Telemarketers shit me like they do everyone else, but I do get a laugh when everyone gets all up in arms about them as if they are personally offended that someone has rung up to advertise a product/chartity/service/whatever. What's even funnier is the pissing contest people have about how they 'defeat' telemarketers with their oh-so-clever/hostile techniques, as if they have won a war.

It is not so much that they call (OK, it is), but when they call, often during dinner.

We generally don't answer the 'phone any more to avoid the annoyance and let it go to the answering machine. This basically means family and friends get stuck with the answering machine.

Yet, people listen to commercial radio and watch commercial TV without feeling the same kind of angst.

I feel the same kind of angst from ads on TV or radio. As such I avoid commercial radio and TV as much as possible. We usually only watch ABC TV and when we watch sport it is either on Foxtel (with minimal ads) or it is recorded and we skip the ads.

[Reschsmooth]

Edit: Just saw Patrick's comment. I don't listen to commercial radio, but do watch commercial TV (then hit the jump forward 3 minutes button on my Toppy to skip the ads). Advertising in papers, on TV and radio is part of delivering a service to me and I can choose when I want that service. Telemarketing (cold calling) is NOT a service to me and it's foisted upon me regardless of what I may be doing. There's the difference.

In the absence of any device like a TV HDD, advertisements on TV are foistered upon you regardless of what you are doing. To combat that, you have bought a device which allows you to skip ads, not record ads, etc. Very similar to a phone answering machine, yes?

I don't see how advertising in other forms of media are part of a service delivered to you/me, but that could just be my misunderstanding.

P

[myarhidia]

I don't understand what the issue is. YOU HAVE THE POWER !!!!!! As soon as they start the sales pitch, hang up, what's so hard about that.

The Federal Government is funding the register with $33 million over the next four years.

About $11 million will be recovered from fees charged to the telemarketing industry.

Great, $22 million of tax payers money because people are too polite to hang up on telemarketers. Our health system & education system is crap because there is not enough funds. Thanks Mr Howard & co for spending our money so wisely.

[Reschsmooth]

One final question, who is going to ensure the "do not call" register is not sold to telemarketers? (Of course, we could trust the government to do this until they outsource it to a private company, based in India).

P

[ATJ]

I don't understand what the issue is. YOU HAVE THE POWER !!!!!! As soon as they start the sales pitch, hang up, what's so hard about that.

The issues is that it is an unnecessary interruption (even if you do hang up).

[Greg B]

myahardia - the problem is that some people are polite when they do not need to be. My wife is an example, I have had to train her to not engage with telemarketers, and that it is Ok to just say no thanks and hang up , even when they enquire after your health.

Surveys - we say - I am sorry, we do not do surveys, and hang up.

Questions - don't answer them, just say no thanks, and hang up.

Stubbsy - I have my red button on the toppy remote programmed to jump forward three minutes. Saves the other two button presses.

We usually screen through the answering machine and the hangups are telemarketers etc. But sometimes we answer and, doh!

[myarhidia]

I don't understand what the issue is. YOU HAVE THE POWER !!!!!! As soon as they start the sales pitch, hang up, what's so hard about that.

The issues is that it is an unnecessary interruption (even if you do hang up).

Is that worth 22 million taxpayer dollars?

It's another government joke. Like the anti-spam legislation where you have to 'opt-in' to receive e-mails marketing some kind of product or service. The crap coming into my inbox hasn't decreased since they passed that legislation. What is there to stop telemarketers calling from other countries where AU laws have no jurisdiction?

[sheepie]

Edit #2: I like this "telemarketers would not be able to call between 8pm and 9am on weekdays, and between 5pm and 9am on Saturdays" and Sundays are TBA

So it's a "do not call while I'm at work, but pester the shit out of me all day Saturday and some time on Sunday" register as opposed to plain old "DONT CALL ME" register

As I understand it, that's a restriction on all telemarketers regardless of your status on the DON'T CALL REGISTER. So even if you're not registered, they're still not supposed to call outside of the listed hours.

My question is this though:
How effective is all this going to be given that the vast majority of these 'lovely people' (insert more appropriate title of your choice!) are not even calling from the confines of Australian shores - and therefore aren't subject to Australian law. As if someone in a tinpot calling centre in India getting $1/hr is really all that worried about the Australian Government coming looking for them because they rang a number on the register! Doesn't the register just give them yet another source of live phone numbers to target?


I'm with Stubbsy, while not quite going as far as my wife with them (I won't go near what she says to them!) I now tend to tie them up for a bit trying to get some real answers from them - I even managed to get one to hang up on me while back! Come to think of it, we haven't had so many calls since then

[Reschsmooth]

Overseas telemarketers are supposed to be caught up by the law. How this is to be enforced, I don't know. How much taxpayers money is going to be wasted trying to enforce this.

Market researchers are not. I wonder if surveying a person about their intent to purchase my goods or services would fall under the exemption - better tie up the court system with that one.

If you have a business relatonship with a company (by virtue of purchasing their goods or services), they may be able to rely on this as an exemption to the legislation. Of course, the burden of proof is on them, but, hey, you are the one who has to complain and tie up the court system. How many people receive calls from Telstra, their mobile phone service provider, their bank - it is likely these calls will be exempted.

Reading the Act, I reckon it is pretty flimsy, and there seem to be enough holes to let anyone get through.

I just think this is an absolute waste of resources, provides greater regulations for our government to, well, regulate us, provides another government database (as innocuous as it first appears) and is probably not going to work.

We have had our fair share of telemarketers, and the number of times a "not interested, good bye" hasn't worked can be counted on less than 3 fingers!

By the way, the register operator is "Service Stream Solutions".

P

[ATJ]

We have had our fair share of telemarketers, and the number of times a "not interested, good bye" hasn't worked can be counted on less than 3 fingers!

We had one company call us regularly - I'll even name the f***ers: The Modern Group. They did some roofing for us a few years back. The job was satisfactory, but the sales person and/or CEO of the company lied to us over a number of issues, including allowing us to inspect the work before we paid and cleaning up the rubbish after they had finished. We vowed never to do business with them again. For the next 3-5 years they called us every 6 months asking if we wanted more business. We explained to them that we were unhappy with the work they did, that we won't ever engage them to do any more work and to take us off their list. And yet, the calls kept coming.

[the foto fanatic]

There should just be a register for those who WANT telemarketers to phone them. How do old folks and those without net access etc get on the 'dont call me' list?

The 'please call me' site would take up a lot less bandwidth.

Telemarketers shit me!

This was actually a proposal put forward by the Consumers' Association, but was vetoed.

Probably because it would be too effective.

[Greg B]

I believe a similar scheme to the one we are getting has had some success in the USA. I suppose it is a matter of accepting that nothing will be 100% effective, and maybe settling for some measure of relief.

[phillipb]

With regards to enforcement, the only effective way is to target the company behind the telemarketer's offer. eg if a telemarketer in India is pushing for Telstra mobile connections, then slug Telstra with a fine, it would soon become unprofitable to go down that route. A company that doesn't have a presence in Australia wouldn't telemarket here.

[tbgphoto]

I honestly don't see why people get into trouble with the people, they are calling you on the phone so just hang up, it isn't that hard.

Depending on what mood I am in I quite enjoy it when they call, I put on my best Indian voice and see how long I can keep the conversation going before they hang up on me

[phillipb]

What annoys me more then telemarketers is Spam faxes where I have to pay for the paper and the ink for the privilege of receiving unsolicited crap.

[moz]

What annoys me more then telemarketers is Spam faxes where I have to pay for the paper and the ink for the privilege of receiving unsolicited crap.

Yeah, we switched to electronic faxing at work for exactly that reason.

Mind you, one place I worked we shared the fax number with an IT recruiter (I was on the IT consluting side of the business), and we were getting literally hundreds of unsolicited faxes every night. Using paper would have killed us.

[Killakoala]

What annoys me more then telemarketers is Spam faxes where I have to pay for the paper and the ink for the privilege of receiving unsolicited crap.

Send them a bill for postage and a $5 handling fee in the mail to them.

I only use VOIP for phone calls, incoming and outgoing so i don't get telemarketers anyway. Plus it's much cheaper than Telstra call costs. I only have my ADSL modem plugged into the phone socket. (And to my great pleasure, Telstra stuffed up my address in the phone book so that's wrong too.)

I also use prepaid mobile so I don't get any unsolicited phone calls from that either. I don't use my mobile phone much.

Mind you, I didn't set it up this way to avoid telemarketers. It's just a lot cheaper and other than line rental, it avoids telstra rip-off rates.