The phone rings. It is from 1-701-625-5003. You don't know the number but you answer and hear;
"You're not alone -- here in Canada, credit card companies are accepting reduced settlements from people just like you. We would be happy to talk to you about your situation. If you'd like to be removed from our list, then please Press 2 now. But if you are struggling with any type of unsecured debt, and you'd like to find out more about getting completely debt-free, then press 1 now to be connected to a counselor. Press 1 now to be connected."You press 2 and figure that you will never hear from them again. You fool!
The next day they call again. You hit 2.
They call 3 more times that week. You press 1 and talk to a representative. They tell you that you are talking to Consumer Debt Advocacy. Before they go into their spiel you politely tell them to stop calling. They comment that all you have to do is hit the 2 button when you get their message. You point out that you have already done that, twice at this point, and are still getting calls. They say they will take care of it. Problem solved. Not!
The next week you get 4-5 more calls from them. Sometimes 2 the same day.
The next week 2-3 calls.
The next week you press 1 the 1st time they call and tear a representative a new asshole.
Two days later they call again. You get nasty again. A few days later another call. You get nasty.
A week later they call. You try a different tact and are polite again. The person you talk to says he will make a note for his supervisor who will make sure you are taken off the list. Their supervisors are never around. You hang up figuring nothing will change.
A week goes by with no calls. can it be? It worked? Another week goes by. No calls.
Just when you believe you won't hear from them again ... they call. You explode.
Guess what,
you aren't alone.
This is pretty much what is happening to me now. According to the last asshole I talked to the company is based out of Florida, but the phone number is for North Dakota.
According to the Better Business Bureau there is nothing you can do. They are allowed to call you. And if you think the No Call list in Canada will protect you ... you are wrong. Being based out of America it doesn't apply to them. Your phone company won't do anything to help you either.
It boggled me that there is no recourse. In this day and age surely to god you could block them. You would think their behaviour would at least fall under some form of harassment since they are asked, repeatedly, to stop calling. With that in mind I called the operator and asked what the phone company could do to help.
We have Eastlink and our home phone provider, out of Halifax. The operator said it is possible to blockthem and put me through to customer care. The rep I talked with said that using *60 we can block up to 12 numbers. Just call it and follow the prompts to block the last caller.
I followed the instructions and called *60 after a few seconds I was told to press the # key then 01 and the # key again. That adds the last caller to the blocked list. It worked like a charm the first time. Hopefully it means we will never get a call from those asshats again. Time will tell.
One thing you can do if you have the time and can't block them is start wasting their time. Get a rep online. Encourage them to talk. Keep them on as long as you can. Then ask them if the enjoyed you wasting their time like they waste the time of so many people and hang up. They need to make as many calls as they can to get suckers who will sign up. By wasting their time they miss out on calls which can mean money.
Fucking Telemooketers. I can understand people needing to make a buck but they don't have to be so obnoxious about it.
