Cold Callers
There has been a lot of correspondence in The Independent this week about how to deal with cold callers. It started a couple of weeks ago when one of their journalists in the Saturday financial section gave his tips, and readers responded with theirs. Most of them seemed to be designed to keep the said caller talking for as long as possible without actually accomplishing anything for the caller, except to waste their time and money.
My feeling is, life is too short. I wrote a letter to the Indie saying this although they haven't published it (yet).
In seems as if the rise of the cold caller corresponded to the time I retired but this could be that being at home all the time, I noticed them more. Soon after I retired I did register with the telephone preference service, but that doesn't do much good for those companies phoning from abroad, or legitimate companies such as American Express who claim they have the right to phone me as I have one of their cards. For instance, Domestic and General with whom I have a number of insurance repair policies for things like the cooker and the television, insist on phoning me when it's time to renew, even though they also send me a letter and I'd much rather renew over the internet than over the phone.
The thing is, I rather dislike speaking over the phone. I get tongue-tied, whereas with an e-mail, I can make sure it says what I want it to say before sending. And therefore, most people I know don't phone me, they just e-mail me.
The result is that getting on for 99% of all phone calls I receive are cold calls. So I've stopped answering the phone. If I hear it - the handset is usually in the hall and if the door to the hall is closed and I am watching the TV or listening to music, I often don't hear it - I just let it ring. And one thing I have discovered is that cold callers almost invariably don't leave messages. If I do hear a voice leaving a message, I'll try and pick the phone up if I can get to it. The only exception is some company offering PPI compensation who have a recorded voice leaving a message. As that message involves pressing phone keys, which won't work on a recorded message, I'm not sure what they are trying to achieve. I suspect their crappy phoning hardware doesn't properly detect answerphones. If I do hear one of those calls, I can detect that it is not a live human speaking almost from the first syllable by the tone of the voice.
What I can't understands is why, if no-one ever answers at my number, they still keep ringing it.
And that is my guide to how to deal with cold callers.
My feeling is, life is too short. I wrote a letter to the Indie saying this although they haven't published it (yet).
In seems as if the rise of the cold caller corresponded to the time I retired but this could be that being at home all the time, I noticed them more. Soon after I retired I did register with the telephone preference service, but that doesn't do much good for those companies phoning from abroad, or legitimate companies such as American Express who claim they have the right to phone me as I have one of their cards. For instance, Domestic and General with whom I have a number of insurance repair policies for things like the cooker and the television, insist on phoning me when it's time to renew, even though they also send me a letter and I'd much rather renew over the internet than over the phone.
The thing is, I rather dislike speaking over the phone. I get tongue-tied, whereas with an e-mail, I can make sure it says what I want it to say before sending. And therefore, most people I know don't phone me, they just e-mail me.
The result is that getting on for 99% of all phone calls I receive are cold calls. So I've stopped answering the phone. If I hear it - the handset is usually in the hall and if the door to the hall is closed and I am watching the TV or listening to music, I often don't hear it - I just let it ring. And one thing I have discovered is that cold callers almost invariably don't leave messages. If I do hear a voice leaving a message, I'll try and pick the phone up if I can get to it. The only exception is some company offering PPI compensation who have a recorded voice leaving a message. As that message involves pressing phone keys, which won't work on a recorded message, I'm not sure what they are trying to achieve. I suspect their crappy phoning hardware doesn't properly detect answerphones. If I do hear one of those calls, I can detect that it is not a live human speaking almost from the first syllable by the tone of the voice.
What I can't understands is why, if no-one ever answers at my number, they still keep ringing it.
And that is my guide to how to deal with cold callers.