It Had to be done.........

[jd_1984]

Sick to death of cold callers and people ringing me left right and centre trying to advertise their "great deal". I had to keep one of them going today.
I wont script the whole conversation but suffice to say I kept him on the phone for well over 10 minutes pretending to be "oh so grateful" that he had CHOSEN ME to tell me just how much I could save on my energy bills. Naturally all the info I gave him was complete nonsense. I continued to thank him for all his helpfulness and allowed him to waffle on for ages on loudspeaker whilst I continued to do my jobs in the house. I kept him on so long my asking him to repeat almost every question and then I would take a bit of time answering, often firing back a logical (yet irrelevant) question back.

After 10 mins he asked for my bank details.
My response was "Absolutely not you moronic ***, I would rather stick my testicles in honey and stick them in a bee hive"

He then got angry with me (this was fantastic, more than I bargained for... I expected to hear him hang up).
But No, he got angry with me for wasting HIS TIME.
Priceless, my OTT laughter only enraged him more. Having exhausted his English Language he began to shout at me in his mother tongue.
Then, he hung up.
For once its nice to know the cold caller finishes the call in a far worse mood than you.

Accuse me of being petty, I felt it was about time....

[gailforce]

Not petty at all, I wish I had thought of that

We'll done you

[gailforce]

We'll??

Well

[anneasquith]

by all means be angry at the companies, but these callers are doing a job and often work for low salary plus commission. I doubt you should be boasting about your little jape.

[jd_1984]

assuming it isn't a scam to get your bank details - which you should NEVER give over the phone!

[ummmm]

Anne...some cold callers are simply doing a job. Others are scammers and trying to empty your bank account.

[kylesmum]

In fairness jd you yourself said you kept the conversation going way before your bank details were asked for.

I thought you'd have some empathy/sympathy for people who were trying to earn a crust...

No-one , unless they were desperate, would want to work in a call centre cold calling....soul destroying.

I prefer to thank them and then say no thanks than make their day any worse than it possibly could be.

[jd_1984]

Kylesmum - I feel that it was me that managed to draw the conversation out for that length of time.
Otherwise the bank details may have been requested much sooner. Surely a scammer would allow a conversation to ensue to add some reality to the call.
The line was poor, their accent was hard to understand and he contradicted himself several times. If he was genuine I am surprised he sells anything.
I get between 4-10 calls a day and I am fed up, some may be good honest people, others sadly are not.
A police officer I know who works for the fraud squad says never to give bank details over the phone. Request written requests and research the company's credentials. Perhaps I could have requested some company info and written request but at that stage he may well have hung up. Sorry but I assuming it was a scam, I just got that feeling

[Peter Pedant]

There's an Essex Chav called Charleh who was after my bank details,
and I kept up - the householder is out ( fill in activity ) and to ring back later..... for three or four weeks ! ( shopping, playing golf, at the library, at the chippy etc )

In the end he said look I think you are the householder and we are the fraud section of your local bank....

You are misrepresenting yourself to gain financial advantage, and that is against the Fraud Act 2006

Oh you know the law do you asked he

Yup I do as a matter of fact....


And no, I dont feel sorry them - as soon as you hear, "I can't do X because of the data protection act", you know it is a scam and any possible future sorrow evaporates

[kylesmum]

Don't get me wrong...they're the bane of my life in so far as I no longer answer my landline.
This in itself bugs me as I have elderly parents, who don't do 'mobiles' and each time the phone goes and I choose to ignore it I wonder if they're needing me. Thankfully Mum does leave messages.

On the the other hand my daughter was desperate for work and had to do those jobs and I saw what it did to her, she did take her work home with her and she was ill with the abuse she got.

So balancing it all up i'd rather, if I answered the phone, be polite and hang up.

Scamming is another issue but again you didn't know you were going to be asked for bank details, hanging up politely is the best option i'd say.

[jd_1984]

I think that I just felt fed up by the constant intrusion.
I realise the energy companies will outsource call centres to other countries and I also accept that UK based centres will employ people who may not have started life as a UK citizen. Now, not that I am saying this is evidence of a scam, not at all, but I could barely understand some sentences, this immediately puts me (personally) on a suspicious foot.
His lack of clarity and his contradictory manner put me off too.
I didn't intend on getting revenge on the next cold caller and I am normally very polite.
I totally empathise with those who can not find work, but want to work and end up with a job like this which at best is a means to an end.

[Bazile]

////...I would rather stick my testicles in honey and stick them in a bee hive..//

Bees hate honey

[Jackdaw33]

I once worked as a supervisor in a UK call centre which eventually was outsourced to India. At the time an operator's salary in the UK was £12,000, a pittance, whilst in India it was £1,500, a fortune, so you can see why so many companies outsource off-shore.

[jd_1984]

Bazile - exactly, so they would be rather ill tempered at my testicles..... :)

[whirlyhurly]

I now hang up when I hear a foreign accent.

[ethandron]

There's enough publicity these days about people being totally cheesed off by being rung by cold callers.
If a person takes on a job in a call centre..be they student or whatever.. which does cold calling then they shouldn't be surprised or upset that they get short shrift, or anger, or any other type of response from the person whose life they are interrupting unasked.
It comes with the job, and if those who work in call centres can't handle it and get upset then they're in the wrong job. I have no sympathy for them.

[kylesmum]

So people are always castigated for claiming benefits and when they manage to secure a job, albeit a *** one, they're then castigated for working.

That makes sense Ethandron...makes totally perfect sense....

[kylesmum]

Btw...no-one should ever be bullied nor abused at their workplace ever, we're all agreed on that aren't we? There's Government Legislation in place isn't there?
Unless you're that desperate you have to take a job as a cold caller to earn £6.50 per hour....or even worse a zero hours contract.

Poor souls can't win can they? Damned if they do and damned if they don't !

[ethandron]

I'm not saying anything of the sort.
If someone takes a job in a call centre then they have to accept the various responses they get are part of the job. If they're too sensitive and get upset then they're obviously in the wrong job...

[marval]

If I get international calls I don't answer the phone.

If I answer one from a call centre I just no thank you, not interested.

[kylesmum]

We all know the abuse they have to take every day as people , even on AB take great delight in regaling people with how they 'sorted them out'.Let's not be naive about this, i've been less than kind myself in the distant past until I gave myself a kick up the jacksie and acknowledged there was better ways to deal with it.
People who take those jobs aren't insensitive, they're desperate, they have to be. Takes nothing to replace the phone, you don't even have to speak.