I'd like to see the source of your data about paper vs computerized faxing. I'm in the grocery industry. I visit some of the largest chains & wholesalers on earth. I can't see what's going on with their computers in any detail, but I see lots of busy fax machines.
Is it possible that your observations can coexist with those made by other people? Or is that categorically impossible?
Ah, if we were only as smart as you are. And as good looking. What a wonderful world this would be.
Steve
visit my blog at
I tried the honest way myself on two occasions. I'm pretty sure one was the story I already told where they kept calling anyhow.
the other one was just a year or two ago, and like you say every collector agreed to stop calling, but then someone else called. It did stop after about 5 different callers.
In my case, the different people showed up pretty quickly, so I'm wondering if they givve the same info to more than one person. Like some people want to be the first to call, and maybe they get less per successful contact that results in a payment plan; and others may want, or be foreced to take, the hard nuts to crack, but receive more if they make contact and get a payment plan. (and payment).
You may not be done yet.
Absolutely. I don't give such places my phone number unless there is darn good reason. I have given UPS, but when I have something delivered to a friend, I give UPS MY number again, because the UPS guys know her business hours already.
And to estabilsh a relationship that I think exempts them from the no-call list. But how do you get a free dinner at a resturant if you don't filll out that slip?
There was one company that would send money orders, charged online, for lower than anyone else. Ithink related to Bank of America. Half way through the process I read about how I was giving their affiliated organizations the right to email me. Now I thought that was only orgs that had Bancamerica in their name, that were actually branches of the bank dealing with stocks or options or whatever, but I still backed out. Later I found out it included 1000's of companies, so it must be anyone they contract with, including falafel stands.
The worst thing you can do is waste a telemarketer's time. If you can do that by keeping them on the phone for a long time, they will eventually take you off the list, that's what you want. If you're busy and can't do it, that's one thing. If you have the time and want to take it, it can be quite entertaining. Just go through the motions with them. Current address ........ not yours. Current phone ........ this one. Current place of employment ........ not yours. Right down the line. Cooperate, cooperate, cooperate, all the time taking up their precious time. Interjecting schizophrenic screams, Tourette's syndrome symptoms, and questions like, "What color underwear do you have on? Do you have a dog?" Then sharing information like, "I don't have any underwear on. I once had a dog, but I think my dad drowned him. So, I shot my dad and buried him in the basement. Do you like Tuesdays?" Once they get it through their thick skulls that you are not the person they are looking for, and you are just yanking their chain and using up productive time, they will leave you alone, and for a long time.
Listen to the Tom Mabe youtube sketch for ideas. Do you think that telemarketer is ever going to forget the name Tom Mabe? I don't. Any time soon, that is.
HTH
Steve
visit my blog at
I had a guy call me once to sell something. I told him point blank and politely that I was not interested. He kept talking.....No thanks I said......he kept talking.
I said look. You can keep talking if you want to. I have earned my money for the day. Go ahead.
He ended the call.
Pursuing a sales pitch probably does work sometimes. One year I volunteered to sell advertising for the program for my college fraternity's annual dance. I went to local stores. Every one of them said they wouldn't buy when I walked in, and I just explained the situation and, wihtout being pushy at all, gave one facet of the dance and the fraternity after anoyther. And fully 90$ of the shop owners bought from me. I coudn't believe it. Even in 1967 prices, I was selling 100 dollars of advertising an hour. 5 or 6 stores per hour. VAlmost no walking time so about 10 or 12 minutes in each one.
The next year I volunteered for the whole job, and again I sold at that rate.
Later I moved and about 5 or 7 years later tried to selll fund raising advertising for a community organization that really did a lot for the community, including by extention the merchants, and was a better org than my fraternity. But I got nowhere. I don't know why.
At that point, I say "Excuse me. Do you understand English?"
The response is invariably affirmative. My next question is "What did I just say?"
"Well, sir, you said you weren't interested, but -- "
[interrupting] "So you *don't* understand English. Or you're stupid." [hang up]
I once was a steel erection contractor. I had a guy call every month that must have been in prison, or just was persistent. He started the call with things that a relative or long lost friend would bring up. He tried to sell me cases of abrasive disks, like 1,000 that I would use a dozen of a month.
At first, it was entertaining. And he would catch me every time, thinking it was an old friend who had found I was successful and famous.
Then I grew weary. I would tell this guy what he could do with his disks in terms that would make a sailor puke, and the next month, he would still call.
Then I just started hanging up on him.
That lasted about three months.
Steve
visit my blog at
On 23 Jul 2010, "Joe J" wrote in alt.home.repair:
Can't advise you about problem #1, but I have a strategy for #2. It's very hard to get this type of call to stop. They claim to be "credit card insurance", but when you press them for the name of their company and their real purpose they usually hang up on you (only to call back later). They do not respect any "Do Not Call" list, and since they don't admit their company name, it's not possible to report them.
I think they're paid according to how many idiots they can lasso per hour, so the best way to get back at them is to string them along for as long as possible. I used to have a routine where I'd start asking them mildly pervy questions about their sexy footwear, or whether they were wearing bikini underwear or bloomers. They usually didn't put up with that for long, but it was fun to hear them squirm. And I think I did wind up on some of their own "do no call this creep" lists. A slightly better tack seemed to be to answer all their questions in correctly formed but random sentences that are totally unrelated to anything they asked. They spend some good time trying to figure out if you misunderstood them, or if they misunderstood you, or if you're just plumb crazy. This seems to have gotten me on many of their "don't waste your time" lists.
Of course, this all takes your own time, too, but I think that merely hanging up keeps you on their list of possibles and therefore doesn't do much to discourage the calls.
I used to get the calls daily, sometimes multiples, but now it's rare.
An old business acquaintance had a cold calling job for a little while. He told me that whenever a potential customer wasted their time or just really pissed them off, they would pass the number around on a list and everyone would call the people on the list multiple times a day.
I had one guy sell me a couple things once. After that he thought I should buy something every month. He started to get rude and mean with me! As soon as I would try to talk to him he would hang up on me! I found my old invoice and called the company to complain. Turns out the callers are nowhere near the actual business, but the person I talked to promised me he would find the caller and get him fired. Don't know if he got fired, but I never received another call from that company.
Hold your phone calls, folks. We have a winner!
Steve
visit my blog at
I was thinking you would forward calls from your regular number to your Google number, then Google would block calls you tell it to. What I'm not sure about is whether the incoming number would be considered the original caller or your regular phone which is where Google is getting the call from.
Well, maybe I didn't explain it fully - our phone system had the capability to play a recording to certain numbers - blacklisted numbers. And the recording we chose was the "da da da - The number you have called has been disconnected". So sure, I can see them ignoring the tones, but their system is obviously faulty if it doesn't 'get the hint' that a number is disconnected after 4 tries a day - or more.
Or use a number like (area code) - 911 - xxxx
It will work for customer loyalty discount purposes, but if the store actually CALLS the number, they'll get in trouble for prank-calling emergency services. Or at least a talking-to. Maybe some flashlight therapy by a 'roided-up primate wearing a badge.
(Heck, a guy can DREAM, can't he?)
I work for a small tooling company that is about 1.5 million a year in sales and about 60 percent of our customer's orders arrive via fax, and they want their pricing and availability confirmed back via fax. The remainder is via phone with about 5% via email. Nobody can be our customer unless they open an account with us so we do not sell to end users or consumers. Because we only supply other businesses we receive so many orders via fax.
We receive about 15 junk faxes a day/night. About 50 on a weekend.
Have you considered the cost of receiving paper faxes vs using a efax service?
I just can't believe that those things still exist.
I actually receive most of mine via computer, but the annotation feature absolutely BLOWS. If I need to scribble something on the fax and send it back, it gets printed, scribbled on, and stuck in a fax machine.
Let's face it: No matter how you send or receive them, they're stupid. If people are placing orders, they involve descriptions, quantities and prices. There's no excuse not to use a spreadsheet, document, etc. If someone needs to see artwork, scan the friggin' thing and send an image file.
I had something similar happen many years ago. All of a sudden we were getting dozens of calls a day from kids wanting to re-enrol at the local college. At first they just blew us off when we called to complain. We kept calling and finally they look into it... seems they printed our phone number on a poster that was plastered all over campus. Once they took them all down it slowed down and eventually stopped.
"Metspitzer" wrote
I haven't seen the Statue of Liberty, but I believe it exists. Saying you can't believe something exists is saying something about the limits, boundaries, and size of your own brain.
Steve
visit my blog at
For houses with kids, hand the phone to your four or five year old "its for you".
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.