FN-FORUM: Sick of Companies phoning up praying on your business status

date posted 20th November 2007 15:45

I just thought id share my thoughts with you guys on a problem im sure =
many of you will have and probably despise as much as me.

Basically as a self-employed / small business, I regularly receive calls =
from companies claiming to be big companies in their respective fields =
ie Vodafone, BT, even the Police. Then they give you some shit about =
they spoke to someone in the company a few weeks ago etc etc. They =
called back because apparently said person in the company promised to =
buy their product when they had more time (ie NOW!!!!) etc etc.

Well as a sole trader I know if ive spoken to someone or not so I never =
fall for there underhand tricks, nor do I allow anyone to bully me into =
buying a product or service. Likewise I treat all such calls with =
scepticism because I can tell from the sales pitch that they are talking =
shite. Ive heard it all so many times before, with every other sales =
company who tries it on.

Anyway to get to the point. I just literally received the best one yet. =
A guy calls me up explaining some big long winded story, which he knows =
is likely to trick me as he somehow knows im a fairly new start-up (ie =
he probably noticed my new ad in yellowpages etc). Anyway the story =
revolves around how he spoke to me a while ago about me paying too much =
for my BT line etc but I was snowed under with work so told him to call =
me back when things died down.

How kind of him! Except it was all bull!

So the sales patter moves onto how im paying to much for my BT business =
line. To which I start to make an objection before realising ill go =
along with it for a while. To reassure me he quotes my postcode. =
Impressive (not), except this is a PO Box address he is quoting the =
postcode for. Anyway he ignores this little fact and carries on by =
trying to impress me by rather smugly trying to belittle me as he reads =
out my 'BT' phone number.

Ok, so he knows my number - well he did just call me. Problem is... its =
not a BT number its actually a Skype number. Again I inform him that its =
actually a VoIP number, and instinctively start laughing!

Ohthe lines gone dead! I laugh even more! Its nice to shoot them down, =
and herd them into a corner no pre-determined industry sales script can =
get them out of!

Discuss!

Regards
Phill Healey
Munklefish
Po Box 70
Manchester
M34 3SQ
T: 0161 408 4759
=20