Are you a scumbag salesman?

[miguel]

Do one of the following:

1. Talk with a fake accent and change the subject alot.

2. Repeat everything they say back to them everytime they speak, kinda like Groucho here:

[video=youtube;rdQ9jh5GvQ8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdQ9jh5GvQ8&feature=kp[/video]

 

[Scutter01]

Do one of the following:

1. Talk with a fake accent and change the subject alot.

2. Repeat everything they say back to them everytime they speak, kinda like Groucho here:

I had a video once (sadly, lost in the mists of time) of a guy that had two cellphones with a Microsoft support engineer on each one. He put them both on speaker and they were trying to provide support to each other and getting into an argument over it. It was hysterical. I wish I could find it again.

 

[churchmouse]

I understand scammers and telemarketers who use these kinds of tactics, but these are both legitimate professional services companies selling software and high-end network storage equipment. It's entirely out of character, in my line of work, for the types of vendors I deal with to behave this way.

That is becoming an accepted Norm at some company's. It is near the same as pursuing the woman of your dreams until you either wear her down and she submits or has you arrested for stalking

 

[dennymac]

The best thing that you can do it to waste his time to the point that he will leave you alone. Talk to him, make an appointment to have him come out, and when he comes, leave him sitting in your office and go to lunch, or anywhere else.
I had a roofing company hound me, and I finally let them service my roof. They kept calling about servicing my roof, and I started telling them to come on out. I then got a call asking if there was a problem with the roof, that they had recently serviced it. I told them that there was no problem, but that it they were going to call, I was going to make an appointment. They may have stopped calling. I can't tell. DennyMac

 

[PeaShooter]

We get more unsolicited sales calls trying to sell us: shipping services, toner, bank loans, financial assistance, light bulbs, etc than we get legitimate phone calls. Our secretary is a pretty good gatekeeper, but when she is off, it is like a flood of crap calls we have to handle. Some are jerks and hang up on you, keep calling back, block caller id, won't take no for an answer, etc. Worse than the charity fundraisers calling our house...and that was bad.

 

[Scutter01]

Our spam filter for e-mail currently blocks about 95% of all incoming mail as spam. That's fairly typical. I barely even pick up my phone anymore and I never do if I don't recognize the number. It's going to get to the point where it will be impossible to contact me because it just won't be worth the effort of weeding out the wheat from the chaff.

 

[Crbn79]

Tell them they have reached the wrong person and ask them to hold. I do that at home when stupid people call. Then I set the phone on the counter and go about my daily chores. Vacuuming floors, banging things around in the kitchen, singing at the top of my lungs but very off tune....they usually don't call back. If they do, I ask them just how stupid they truly are but not quite that politely. If they are still there, I ask them again to please hold.

^ This works ^

Or there is always this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev2mzjyvDqQ&feature=kp

 

[TB1999]

Most likely they are still calling you regularly because they have a Asshat boss that is making them call you.

This. I had a phone sales job with a legitimate company. A sales persons "territory" consisted of about 200-300 companies and we had to make at least 40 calls a day. Obviously, most people were called more than once a month.

I always tried to be as polite as possible, but didn't know people considered me to be a "scumbag salesman" for doing my job.

 

[Scutter01]

I always tried to be as polite as possible, but didn't know people considered me to be a "scumbag salesman" for doing my job.

Did you keep calling even after they asked you to stop?

 

[gregkl]

I have been in sales for over 25 years.

 

[Scutter01]

I have been in sales for over 25 years.

Not all scumbags are salesmen, not all salesmen are scumbags.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

My dad was a legendary salesman, but not inside sales with a phone. The real stuff. He literally had the feral .gov come down on him for monopoly. I got my sales genes from my mom. I've done the various mean things to phone schmucks, especially bill collectors, but salesmen as well. My bank called me on an account I was behind on due to health and sanity issues. He wanted me to do a check by phone, I said "No. I'll do it online in a few minutes." which I did. Then he wants to start verifying all my information, so I say "I don't wanna talk to you anymore, too much information going around." I consider it an accomplishment that I got him to hang up on me rather than vice versa. I led one lot of bill collectors (not my bill) down the garden path, utterly. That was fun.

 

[Ruger-9mm]

Oh, it's easy. You just set up prompts: "Press 1 for the technical department. Press 2 for the sales department." and so forth. The very last level takes you back to the beginning regardless of what you press. The fun part is that you can add levels any time you get bored and have a few minutes to record prompts. The beauty is that you never hook it directly to your main business voicemail tree. You assign it to a dummy phone extension and then just forward calls to it based on Caller-ID or incoming phone number. The only way for someone to fall down that particular rabbit hole is to accidentally dial the extension or to be deliberately routed to it.

That's..... brilliant.

 

[TB1999]

Did you keep calling even after they asked you to stop?

Yep, sure did, it is what i was asked to do by my employer. Since the customers didn't sign my paychecks, I figured it was in my best interest to follow orders set by the higher ups.

Did I agree with it? No. Did I do what was required for me to keep my job? Hell yes.

 

[Scutter01]

Well, as long as you were only following orders I guess it's OK.

 

[actaeon277]

Do scumbag salesmen sell scumbags?

 

[Birds Away]

We don't offer scumbags anymore. We just couldn't move them.

 

[actaeon277]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you supposed to be able to tell them to remove you from their list.
And if they don't, you can document it and turn it over to the BBB.

 

[Scutter01]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you supposed to be able to tell them to remove you from their list.
And if they don't, you can document it and turn it over to the BBB.

You have to say "Please add me to your Do Not Call list". Simply saying "stop calling" is insufficient. If they fail to do so, you can sue them for $500 per instance under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or for violating the Do Not Call Implementation Act. However, there are a BOATLOAD of exceptions to both. Also, the Better Business Bureau is a private organization similar to Angie's List (although the BBB is a non-profit) that has no legislative or punative authority, except for their members.

 

[actaeon277]

You have to say "Please add me to your Do Not Call list". Simply saying "stop calling" is insufficient. If they fail to do so, you can sue them for $500 per instance under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or for violating the Do Not Call Implementation Act. The Better Business Bureau is a private organization similar to Angie's List that has no legislative or punative authority, except for their members.

So have you told them to add you to their do not call list?