Thursday 8 February 2007

Telesales Part II

I know I’ve written about telesales before… specifically about T-Mobile, but after today’s episode I felt I had to share the experience. This call was from some mobile phone supplier (I don’t know which because I could hardly understand a word that the operator said). It started with a couple of questions… “Do you have a mobile phone?” and “Is it on a contract?”. I answered in the affirmative to both questions. I initially thought this was some sort of survey, but after the operator had repeated every sentence twice I was able to ascertain they were trying to sell me a new phone on a new contract. Normally, saying I already have a contract phone is enough to end a conversation of this nature, but not today though. I once again explained I had a contract that still has 10 months to run, and therefore I don’t want another one. “I’ll just pass you over to my supervisor” came the response. The conversation went like this:

Supervisor: “Hello, how are you today?”

Me: “I was fine until you called.”

Supervisor: “Pardon!?!”

Me: “Never mind. What do you want?”

Supervisor: “My colleague says you want a new contract phone”

Me: “No… I never said that”

Supervisor: “Does anyone in your family want a new phone?”

Me: “No… goodbye… <click>”

These calls are really becoming tiresome, and I’m getting less and less polite, but then I’m not called Mr. Grumpy for nothing ;)

10 comments:

Angela said...

I received a call yesterday from Alpha Telecom. I have an accoutn with them that I use for International Calling, they're pretty good I find, but I do from time to time get a call promoting their latest offer. I'm pretty sure their call centre in in India, as everyone I have spoekn to has an Indian accent.

Yesterday I had a customer satisfaction call from yet another man with an strong Indian accent. So if you can just picture that accent in your mind, the conversation went like this:
Him:Hello, may I speak to Angela ---?
Me: Speaking
Him: Hello! My name is Floyd. I am calling form Alpha Telecom
At this point I nearly giggled... Floyd? After I politely explained I was very happy with the service, not using another and jsut not making international calls he hung up on me!

The best telesales one I've had was after I'd taken out a new contract with vodafone. I already had an existing contract. I received a call on my new phone, *5* days after I'd got it asking me if I would like an upgrade! I was less than happy. Turns out there's a clause they don't point out to you when you sign the contract abotu passing on your details, and once I'd phoned Vodafone adn complained I was remvoed from the list and haven't had a call since.

mr.grumpy said...

Hi Angela,

Floyd eh? I wish the people who phone me would hang up. Have you noticed it's always phone related? I only ever get calls about mobile or landline phone services. Anyway, thanks for your comment... I was beginning to think I was the only one :)

Anonymous said...

If you want to get them back, you could try something like this:
http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

Cruel but funny.

mr.grumpy said...

Hi Alan,

That is sheer genius. If I could manage that without laughing I'd give it a try.

Thanks for your comment.

Mr Mans Wife said...

Excellent! That was hilarious! What's this mans name again? I need him to be my personal phone answerer thingy!

Anonymous said...

Just listened to that, had me laughing id love to do that to orange, who ring me up every week or so.

mr.grumpy said...

Hi Slurry,

Like I said in a previous comment, telephone companies seem to be the worst offenders don't they? Anyway, thanks for the comment :)

Anonymous said...

yep I do belive that the mobile phone companys are the worst offenders, BT tho have started ringing me, half the time i dont answer it.

Anonymous said...

I used something called the telephone preference service http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/ it stopped about 80% these calls.

mr.grumpy said...

Hi anonymous, that sounds interesting. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the post.