[VoIP] Fun with Pat and Jane

[Steph Kerman]

Here in the US, companies that you already have a business relationship 
with are supposedly allowed to solicit you.  Nevertheless I find that 
when I call SBC/The New AT&T they ask for permission to use information 
you give them when calling in about any matter whatever, for the purpose 
of calling you for solicitation about new services.  It's kind of a 
nuisance to have to go through the accept/decline exercise each time you 
call but I have to respect the fact that they do it instead of just 
taking advantage of the fact that (AFAIK), under the existing DNC law 
they could call me without permission.   But these calls I described are 
I'm sure not coming from anyone I have an existing business relationship 
with.  They use some vague name in their recorded spiel to describe 
themselves when they call, like "This is Credit Card Services calling".  
I've found that making any inquiry about who is calling or how to reach 
them, immediately or a few questions into the call always results in 
being dropped very immediately and without any further word.  I have a 
few WAV files of such dialogs at this point.

Steph

windmill wrote:
> Steph,
>
> Similar things happen here, what annoys me is that I have discovered 
> there is no data protection as far as my bank is concerned. It freely 
> passes details to third parties 'in the group' so that they can attempt 
> to sell me services I don't want such as insurance. It took me sometime 
> to discover that this was happening and as you suggest saying the wrong 
> thing tended to end calls. I called the bank and complained but it 
> didn't think it was doing anything wrong, obviously trust is one of 
> those values that no longer matter and it is a growing trend. The UKs 
> Data Protection Act affords little or no protection to the general 
> public and is used by many companies as an excuse not to discuss or 
> disclose its activities.
>
> Brian
>
> Steph Kerman wrote:
>   
>> Brian,
>>
>> YW.  Another factor is probably this:  For predictive dialers to work 
>> well, a large groups of attendants and placed calls is necessary so the 
>> statistical delays involved in dialing ahead can average out.  The 
>> smaller the group size, the greater the probability that all attendants 
>> will be in the midst of a call and no on will be available for the call 
>> that has just answered.  It's basic traffic theory.  As more and more 
>> small boiler room operations engage in this, it's inevitable that there 
>> will be more and more hang-ups as a percentage of the total calls placed 
>> by all of them.
>>
>> I receive calls on a regular basis from a specific organization that 
>> claims to offer debt consolidation.  So far, though I have gotten better 
>> at it, I have not succeeded in learning their identity.  Each time I get 
>> further into the dialog with them.  Of course, I am recording each of 
>> these calls for quality assurance.  ;-)    And so that there is a record 
>> of the time, date, duration and exact details of each call in case I 
>> eventually am able to report them for violation of DNC regulations.   
>> But these folks are crafty and as soon as you say the wrong thing you 
>> are met with an immediate loop current interruption as they summarily 
>> terminate the call.  Asking who they are or how to contact them is the 
>> first big "no-no".   Answering with anything about your credit situation 
>> that does not match their target produces the same result.  So far 
>> they've probably called me 6 or more times.  I have no need for their 
>> services but I am slightly outraged that they blatantly ignore the DNC 
>> rules and play this anonymity game.  I wonder at what point if any they 
>> would reveal who they are.  Perhaps they are just phishing for 
>> identities to steal from the gullible.
>>
>> Steph
>>
>> windmill wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Steph,
>>>
>>> Thanks so much for that little gem of info! I was always puzzled by 
>>> calls from apparently no-one. These days if I don't see a valid caller 
>>> ID on my PSTN calls, i.e. UNAVAILABLE, INTERNATIONAL, WITHHELD etc 
>>> then I simply don't answer them. Eventually I will hook up my PSTN 
>>> landline to my *box but I won't be ready to do that for some time and 
>>> I don't have a pressing need as yet.
>>>
>>> Brian
>>>
>>> Steph Kerman wrote:
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> Can I assume we are talking about PSTN calls? 
>>>>
>>>> Probably not a broken predictive dialer but one that is cranked up too 
>>>> high so that it's placing calls too far ahead of the staff's ability to 
>>>> respond to them.  Some TMers do that because they don't want to waste a 
>>>> second of their staff's time while at the same time don't give a crap 
>>>> about how many tens of thousands of people they hang up on daily.  
>>>> Simple economics and "All in a day's work" in their view, like the TMers 
>>>> who call me in violation of the DNC list.
>>>>
>>>> Steph
>>>>     
>>>>       
>>>>         
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