Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Avoid tele-marketing call

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Avoid tele-marketing call

I can recognize a telemarketing call within 10 seconds of receiving the call. My immedate answer is "I am not interested" and I put down the phone immediately. The telemarketer recognize a rejection and do not call back. If the telemarketer calls back (which never happens), I will lodge a complaint for harassment.

If someone wishes to market any product to me, they can send an e-mail to me. I can decide whether to read it or to delete it.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...: Just out of curiousity, who do you call to lodge a complaint of harrassment? The police?; March 20, 2010 12:08 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Just make a police report. And send the police report to the harassing person.

You can also engage a lawyer to write a letter to tell the person who harass you.; March 20, 2010 12:34 PM
Anonymous said...: I know that they are just making a decent living by making cold calls. When receive the phone call, I just have to interrupt and simply tell them that I am not interested and hang up. I don't want to waste their time talking to me. They should invest their time talking to some one else out there who may be interested in their products. So far, I do not regard these calls as harassment, yet. But, it can be annoying when you are in the midst of doing urgent tasks. Other than that, the situation here is manageable. Don't need to resort to reporting to police.; March 20, 2010 7:50 PM
Anonymous said...: i am an insurance agent making a living selling decreasing term insurance and normal term insurance, also taking out motor insurance and travel insurance. life is tough because of agents undercutting each order, or giving rebates (if there is any after taking the cost of living), just to make a living.

because i have to travel to my prospect's place to meet them, the time when I was out, I hired students/part-timers to call people like Mr. Tan, to see if they are interested to meet me for a free financial consultation. It is a numbers game and while it is true that 90% will react like Mr. Tan, and only 10% will still give us a chance.

Actually even after meeting the 10%, not all of them will buy my term plans because some will just take notes on the free advice and thank me for the time, food and drink.

People like us provide jobs for part-timers and students so that they can earn a living too. All that the telemarketeer asked is an appointment for me to meet you. I don't think anyone is asking you for your credit card and sell you something you don't know or don't need.

If you want the industry to change so that agents can survive on selling things that has little commission, please be more understanding and patient.

There are just so limited number of people that we can call - friends and relatives before the pool dries up. Cold-calling is the best way to reach out to more people who might just need our help. Resorting to police just because someone called to enquire if you can able to meet up is too harsh and too judgamental.

Probably an egg and chicken story but that's why many other agents resorting to other ways to earn commission because with these type of unfriendly and critical people in the society, who don't think twice of giving someone a chance, why bother to think in their best interest?; March 21, 2010 3:26 AM
Anonymous said...: I had someone calling me and like you I said, "I'm not interested." She told me off saying she has not tell me how do I know I am not interested?
I was pissed. I let her say her peace. She went on and on while I went about doing my thing. When she finished, I did not react she say, "hello" and I reply, "So you have finished. I'm not interested."
She threw down the handset.; March 21, 2010 10:43 PM
Anonymous said...: REX comments as follows,

I am not very sure what is the intention of the writer's article titled "Avoid Telemarketing Calls"? Is it advising everybody to never bother to listen to any telemarketing calls at all?

I saw a couple of opposing views in the posts ; I felt that the points raised in these posts are very reasonable.

rex; March 22, 2010 8:53 AM
Anonymous said...: What I do is to save the telephone number under "Blacklisted" so that when I get a call from the same number again, I reject the call right away.

Very often, I get the same telemarketer calling me despite letting them know of my no interest.

Once I get a call. The telemarketeer couldn't even pronounce my name properly. This was obviously outsourced marketing.; March 22, 2010 9:39 AM
Anonymous said...: Some banks had a habit of calling me during lunch time trying to push loan products or credit cards. Most of the time I just hanged up & can't be bothered with them. I hope they take my hint & stop harrassing me.; March 22, 2010 10:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Sometime, these calls can be quite annoying when they call at the "wrong" time.

Most of the time, I'll politely tell them that I'm not interested.

If they persist, I 'll tell them not to waste their time going thru' detail.

If they persist further, I have no choice but to hang up the phone.; March 22, 2010 4:35 PM
Anonymous said...: i am curious, does anyone buy anything that start from a cold call?

maybe it is ok for sales people to try telemarketing, but Mr tan approach seem fair enough too.

if someone ask you if you are interested to buy a high end IT product(eg. top range handphone) at only $500, but if you ask that person about the functionality and specs or even reliability..., he won't know anything in detail( because he really don't know as he is just a poor student part timer) and said he is only making appointment and ask you if you will like to meet up the person in charge, how do you think people will usually feel... for this case, if got ten percent is positive response...i also find it very surprising...; March 22, 2010 8:25 PM