When you buy a .co.uk domain name your have to give a valid phone number, we are inundated from domain brokers 3-4 times a day despite being one ourselves. Frustrating the fact that we cannot hide personal information. Thank you Nominet.
IT buyer? Had enough of pesky resellers cold calling? You aren't alone
IT buyers are pestered by between nine and 40 unsolicited sales calls from resellers each and every day, collectively wasting hours of their life that they’ll never get back. This was according to 60 per cent of 200 people questioned as part of a mini poll that was commissioned by, er, reseller Probrand. On average, these …
COMMENTS
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Thursday 7th December 2017 17:54 GMT Charles 9
No good. They'll just call back, and odds are the calls bounce through hostile nations to block tracing and the number ID is fake. In which case you're talking to a nagger who knows he can't be stopped short of a whitelist, which most phones won't use because they'd block out customers and those who order privatization services.
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Thursday 7th December 2017 17:42 GMT buzzki11
Change your number
I am one of the "recipients" of the relentless onslaught of these calls. I can pretty much point to where they originate from, as the deluge began not long after signing up for LinkedIn. I have changed my phone number, and am about to do so again, to get away from the barrage of daily phone spam. As a person that works in a service capacity to the company, not answering the phone is not really an option.
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Thursday 7th December 2017 21:49 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Change your number
" I have changed my phone number, and am about to do so again, to get away from the barrage of daily phone spam."
And for 2FA purposes, how many websites do you have to update with the new number?
Is it easy?
How many require you send them a snail mail letter to effect the change? I have a couple here that insist on that.
Verified by Visa was a complete and utter nightmare when I last changed my phone number.
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Thursday 7th December 2017 18:10 GMT Dave Harvey
TPS anyone?
All our company numbers are corporate TPS registered, and I find that (at least when called by otherwise vaguely reputable UK companies) asking for the details of the caller in exactly the form and order required for the TPS complaint page (when necessary augmented by an explanation of why I'm doing this), generally results in a very rapid hang-up, and no more calls from them.
If all else fails, we have a special "procurement" number which we put them through to - a particularly painful "your call is important to us" message with stretched tape effects, big volume jumps etc.
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Thursday 7th December 2017 19:55 GMT Doctor Syntax
Re: TPS anyone?
If all else fails, we have a special "procurement" number which we put them through to - a particularly painful "your call is important to us" message with stretched tape effects, big volume jumps etc.
That should be reserved for really persistent offenders. They're likely to realise they've been had fairly quickly. The first pass should be something which just possibly could be really genuine on-hold and a real slow burn. The worst example I heard - it really was on-hold - was Greensleeves, synthesised with excruciating precision at a hypnotic moderato.
BTW, your message should eventually change to "your call is unimportant to us".
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Thursday 7th December 2017 19:05 GMT Doctor Syntax
"Our staff time is valuable. You have the following choices, please listen carefully before choosing:
If you are cold calling and want to leave a sales message on the answering machine please press 1. If we choose to listen to your message you will be charged X currency units per minute.
If you are cold calling and wish to speak to a member of our staff press 1. You will be charged 10X currency units per minute with a minimum charge of 1 hour.
If you are not cold calling press 3. If you are a cold caller and abuse this option you will be charged 100X currency units per minute with a minimum charge of 1 hour.
Your company will be invoiced. Our terms are payment within 2 days. Our debt collection colleague hopes your company will not pay as he has not eaten for a couple of days."
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Friday 8th December 2017 11:07 GMT gbshore
Well....
So in this new digital, self service based economy, I am interested to hear as to how those orgs who only want help when they need and want help, how are the Service providers pay bill and remain a viable entity while they sit and wait for the phone to ring? I agree calls can be annoying at times. However, the person in the other end is trying to earn a living and they just may have some information that you have no idea about. This article assumes that the buyer knows EVERYTHING. Sorry, they do not. Sales people add value. Some don’t but this vilification of sales folks is repulsive to me.
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Friday 8th December 2017 12:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Well....
If sales people consistently added value then that would be fine. But they don't. In particular we by and large live in a commodity society, sales staff do not add value to commodity purchases unless they are offering discounts.
In the dim and distant past sales staff provided a service by providing information to make an informed decision, but in the internet age every detail about every product is available without having to speak to someone.
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Friday 8th December 2017 16:12 GMT ppsg69
Re: Well....
Not vilifying proper sales people. It is the companies using cold calling with not the slightest amount of information and research. I thought we had gotten away from the days of cold fishing expeditions. I am never ever ever going to choose a supplier or buy a good/service from a cold call. When there is a requirement I will reach out to relevant businesses. Randomly calling me up and saying Do you want to buy some servers (as just one example) when I don't have a datacentre (all cloud) is wasting everyones time. Then there are the dishonest resellers trying to give the impression they are calling from HP or Adobe (one even threatened me with a licensing compliance audit - I thought about bringing my Adobe account manager in on the call to discuss it, but didn't want to waste any more time).
And don't get me started on the phishing expeditions that are the "whitepaper" offers. Yes of course I will give you a whole bunch of my information in exchange for a 4 page, large type pamphlet that has been knocked up by an intern in their spare time...
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Friday 8th December 2017 12:35 GMT andy gibson
Probrand are the worst
"Hi, just ringing to see if you need anything?" on a weekly basis.
Yeah I've got a massive shopping list here and I was just waiting for you to call.
And that is why you and Softcat don't get a single penny of my IT budget, and my decent sales managers who never ring me will.
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Friday 8th December 2017 13:21 GMT adam payne
Me: Sorry we have a no names no details policy
Cold caller: But I just wanted..
Me: Sorry we have a no names no details policy
Cold caller: Who deals with..
Me: Sorry we have a no names no details policy
[click]
Any cold caller gets the the no names no details policy treatment.
The calls have lessen since we started doing this.