Consumerist
pranks
Just Say 'Yes' To Telemarketers
Want to drive a telemarketer crazy and amuse yourself at the same time? Here's an example of how to do it.
Posts Tagged “
Telemarketers
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complaints
Obnoxious Police Telemarketers Tease You About Your Bedtime
Reader Chris, a donator to his local police department, is disturbed by the calls he has been receiving from the Richmond Police telemarketers. Besides being unusually aggressive and rude, one of their recent tactics involves placing phone calls late at night. One evening Chris tried to explain to this person that it was too late to take such calls to which the disgruntled telemarketer replied, "Ok little guy, you get to bed." Chris describes the strange phone calls, inside... More »
hard sell
Chase Telemarketing Tactics: Try Being Sneaky, Then Launch Vague Threats
A reader writes in to share his traumatic experience with a Chase telemarketer who first tried to sneak a sale into the one-way conversation, then launched into scare tactics like asking, "What are you going to do when someone steals your identity?" R. writes, "I feel like I need protection from Chase's employees." More »
banks
A woman sued Wachovia last year because it allowed a telemarketing scam company to process stolen payments through its banks, despite complaints from customers and warnings from other banks and federal authorities. Wachovia said it had no idea what was going on, but now documents have been revealed that prove people high up in the company not only knew, but that "the bank, in fact, solicited business from companies it knew had been accused of telemarketing crimes." Why? How about millions of dollars of extra revenue from steep fees whenever a fraud-related chargeback went through? The lawyers for the woman are now seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.
More »
Internal Docs Prove Wachovia Knew About Telemarketer Rip-Offs All Along
A woman sued Wachovia last year because it allowed a telemarketing scam company to process stolen payments through its banks, despite complaints from customers and warnings from other banks and federal authorities. Wachovia said it had no idea what was going on, but now documents have been revealed that prove people high up in the company not only knew, but that "the bank, in fact, solicited business from companies it knew had been accused of telemarketing crimes." Why? How about millions of dollars of extra revenue from steep fees whenever a fraud-related chargeback went through? The lawyers for the woman are now seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.
More »
A telemarketer that spammed customers with over 46 million pre-recorded calls will stop and have to pay a $180,000 fine. The FTC wanted to charge $3 million, but the company doesn't have that much money so the fine was reduced. [FTC]
telemarketers
Get Rid Of Telemarketers, Debt Collectors, And Other Vermin With Phone Tones
Chris recorded a little sound file onto his answering machine that stopped a debt collector robot that kept calling him, seeking people who didn't live there. This .WAV is the U.S. Special Information Tone signal for "vacant circuit", which signifies and out-of-service or nonexistant number. You know it better as "boo-boo-BOOP!" Chris recorded a new message on his answering machine with the tones at the beginning and the next time the robot called, it thought it was getting a dead line and dutifully erased the number from its system. Voila, automatons be gone. Some places have autodialers that don't (or have been tweaked) to respond to SIT tones, but if you've got a persistent unwanted robot caller, it's worth a shot.
SIT-VC.WAV [Art Of Hacking]
insiders
To Get Telemarketers To Stop, You Must Specifically Say "Put Me On Your Do Not Call List"
According to a reader who works as a telemarketer for a timeshare company, it's not enough to say say, "Stop calling me," to get yourself off a company's calling list, you must unequivocally request the removal.
"If you want a telemarketer to stop calling you, do not say "Quit calling me" or "Don't call me again." In some companies, Reps are informed under strict guidelines to only delete records if the customer specifically requests they do so. Telemarketers are only required to put you on the "Do Not Call" list if you SPECIFICALLY request to be put on it. Be clear about this and ask for written documentation to be mailed to you if they have your mailing address, but don't provide it to them if they do not."
Furthermore, if you're on the National Do Not Call list, you can report the infraction to the FCC here. An important caveat is this technique will only work for non-skeezy, non-fly-by-night telemarketing operations.
(Photo: Getty)
misunderstandings
What Part Of "Do-Not-Call" Do Skeezy Telemarketers Not Understand?
Meet Bluegreen, a Florida time-share company that regularly skirts the Do-Not-Call Lista by offering a $50,000 raffle. By entering the raffle, unsuspecting consumers give Bluegreen - and over a dozen of their affiliates - permission to contact them, even if they subscribe to the Do-Not-Call List. We explain how this is technically legal, after the jump. More »
comcast
Free Calls From Telemarketers With Digital Voice Service Activation!
Subscribers to Comcast Digital Voice service get more than just digital phone service installed when they sign up. They also get the pleasure of Comcast selling their phone number to telemarketers, fresh out of the box!
Numerous consumers have begun to complain online (read the comments, too) about receiving telemarketing pitches on their phone number within days of installation, referring to them by name, before they even had time to give the number to anyone. In some cases, the telemarketers asked for the person by a misspelled variant of the their name, the same wrong name that appears on their Comcast bill.
Consumerist reader Kevin writes, "I was receiving calls from telemarketers within 3 days of installing my digital voice line in my house. It got so bad that I just unplugged the phone."
Undoubtedly, new subscribers will open their first bills to find a "marketing fee" surcharge for the pleasure.
Comcast sells your new phone number [Messaging..... Technology...... Life.....]
(Photo: Getty)
Roughly locate a phone number on a GoogleMap using the area code and 3-digit prefix. Good for helping track down telemarketers. [RMLABS via Lifehacker]
consumer action
True-Life-Tale Of Dealing With A Telemarketer Who Continually Ignored The Do-Not-Call List
I just got yet ANOTHER call from a third party selling life insurance policies for BoA. Sometime last month, I told them to stop calling me, and that just because I bank with BoA (I had...I terminated that week before last for reasons unrelated to this) doesn't mean they're allowed to keep calling despite my telling them to stop. If I had access to our call records at the moment, I'd list the time, date, and duration of each call, as well as the date I told them to stop.More »I quit being amenable on the day they called for the third time before 3pm...
confessions
How To: Avoid Pesky Phone Survey People
F.M.I. (Former Meal Interrupter) used to work at one of "the largest phone survey companies in the country," and would like to share with our readers the best technique for assuring that the survey people will stop calling you. Asking them to stop calling doesn't cut it. Saying "no" just gets you listed as a "soft refusal" and will result in more call backs. More »
donotcall
How Effective Is The Do Not Call Registry?
A report recently released by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hails the Do Not Call registry as "an effective consumer protection initiative." Since its inception in 2003, the registry has grown to include 132 million numbers.The agency said the program's primary goal of reducing unwanted telemarketing calls is succeeding, largely due to a "high degree of compliance by telemarketers." The report notes that while roughly 1.15 million complaints were received in fiscal 2006 from 374,937 registered phone numbers, that was the equivalent of only about one-quarter of 1 percent of the numbers in the database.Telemarketers are required to pay an annual fee to access the list so they know whose dinner not to interrupt. Still, the FTC put down its fork and left the table to fine 28 companies, including DirecTV, for calling people on the Do Not Call registry. More »
telemarketers
3 Steps To Sue Telemarketers And Win
Andr -Tascha Lamm has successfully sued telemarketers in small claims court and wants to share his secrets with you. For only $195 in filing costs so far, he's received $6160.00. More »
consumerist kit
Opt Out Of Junk Mail, Calls and Cookies
Reduce the noise in your life by getting rid of the marketing junk flooding in. More »
readers
