Here is the way I have defintitely got rid of all those time and energy wasting calls.
I have switched to IP and no longer use conventional phone- phone is direcly connected with Internet router. The very simple trick is to set your router to 'Refuse private number calls'.
It really works, so it does !
Hope it helps.
some great responses to this...love the Granny calls best!
and also have adopted the term "phone terrorist" into my vocabulary...Thanks Theo Freundt :)
I think if they are being instructed to cut the call short on any groups in particular, except for those who have declared being uninterested then they can surely be accused of institutional discrimination. I'm using the UN definition because it is short and sweet enough to get the message across that negative discrimination based on language difference is not good. These calls must be almost as annoying for french people, without the added rudeness based on the slowness of speaking to a 'foreigner'.
Yes, the main issue with the cold calls as a whole, is definitely about the rudeness and intrusiveness and the racism is an extra annoyance, but I still maintain it remains an additional problem and that it can definitely be called racist.
I blame EDF.
I agree that I wouldn't want to do business with them at all. Perhaps I shall not try to engage in any meaningful way.
But I do feel it is really justified in being described as institutional racism. Despite that the actual callers are wage slaves with little control or understanding about how their behaviour is affecting people, still means that the way they are handling it is to discriminate against someone. If they are being forced to phone me and start a conversation with me, I can understand why they have no choice, but I can definitely say with confidence that I believe the people in charge of this are absoloutely instigating institutional racism,(discrimination based on language) harassment(unreasonable intrusion despite repeated attempts to stop it) and apparently sexism (discrimination based on gender) as well since they instruct them to only speak to male owners.
It's criminal.
I probably should add that I de speak French and I answer all french callers in french.
Right Donna! I think Jo feels they are getting at her because she is not French speaking but since they are doing exactly the same to French speakers and themselves are not necessarily first language French speakers, as the accents illustrate, then I do not see how the UN definition is in any sense applicable. To be objective, they are not treating her differently and in particular, negatively because of her language or hearing problem and thus not being discriminatory or racist but being unable to deal with people who by language (and even gender) do not fit the script they have to work with. If EDF are doing anything in fact, to both French and non-French here and presumably in an equivalent form in the UK and any other country where they are doing exactly the same, then they are creating a public nuisance and should be prosecuted for that. That, I might add, is about as nice as I can be about EDF in just about any respect.
Jo, racism is a heavy term to use under these circumstances. These callers have not been taught phone etiquette as some of us may know it, they may barely master French, may have never heard English, and are at a loss if they can't follow the script. And then others just have crap manners, are sexist, aggressive, ignorant and annoying. But it's not personal. You don't need services from people like this. There are better and safer ways to purchase things. Surely you wouldn't want to start giving information to strangers over the phone. They could be anyone, anywhere, and that's what they are. I wouldn't expect them to change any time soon. Cold callers like what you describe are not EDF or France Telecom employees, they're outsourced strangers. You can hang up on them without a word, or learn a choice phrase in French that makes reference to their mother, if that feels good. But expecting them to change and learn to be polite and attentive is not going to happen.
I have looked again at the definitions of xenophobia and racism and yes, I do mean racism. Xenophobia is more about irrational hatred and I don't feel irrational hatred, just casual discrimination based on the fact that I am less fluent in their main language, hence racism.
XENOPHOBIA. deep-rooted, irrational hatred towards foreigners (Oxford English Dictionary; OED), unreasonable fear or hatred of the unfamiliar.(Webster's)[7]
RACISM. According to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.[21]
So, to sum it up, racism is the practice of discrimination by someone who is able to exert a malign or negative power over another, based on their nationality or cultural grouping. Contacting someone in their own home and ignoring them as soon as it becomes apparent they are of a separate culture, that's racist.
When the cold caller calls me, it makes no difference that their job is poorly managed or that they are bullied by their managers into behaving in a racist fashion. I may need their services. I want a solar panel. I might be desperate for double glazing. I feel for their terrible lack of decent employment but I have a right to know why I am being contacted. I have the right to be treated with respect and patience if I have difficulty with communicating, be it because I am foreign, deaf or ill. The fact remains that they are treating me differently and in particular, negatively,(discrimination) because of my language and that is being racist. This is institutional racism.
Thanks to Brian's evidence, it seems the callers are also being told to be sexist.
I agree that it may not be their fault but they are part of the problem. Theo is right, the leaders of the industry need to be held accountable.
It is the wrong persond doing the hanging-up. I do not even speak to a cold-caller apart from saying hello. I just put the phone down.
We are also signed up to Pacitel, but do not forget that France Telecom also has "Liste Anti-Prospection" (it's free!). All kinds of cold calls have stopped, mostly. EDF/Energy consulting/Solar Panels calls still come through occasionally. I reply that the house is classified Monument Historique :-)
Often this phone-terrorists are criminals, or their approach is based on criminal activities. For a while it was possible to hide our number from these gangs by going on our ISP's dashboard, typing #13# so no-one could find our number. In our brave new cyberworld are always downsides and hiding our number have had the negative effect that our number then was also hidden when we where calling our contacts. They again, annoyed by the same bread of phone-terrorists, had begun not to answer any incoming calls of withheld numbers. Unfortunately this is the only option you have, don't even think that either your ISP, FT or any other company involved cares about your problem, they will just keep you waiting on a pay-"helpline". It took us 6 month to convince clients to call only this 06 numbers. Summarizing the issue, I think that by legal terms the ISPs are responsible and can be made eventually liable and better get their act together stopping these crooks who are stealing bandwidth to terrorize entire countries.
We only get about 1 cold call per week (double glazing!!!) and I just put the phone down as soon as I confirm that it is a cold call. I did not ask them to contact me so I feel no need to be polite.
Rgds, Mike L
I definitely don't like the game, its a waste of my valuable time. So in the UK I'm registered with the telephone preference service and don't answer withheld or unknown numbers, nor even numbers that are not in my contacts and in France I screen my calls with my answer phone. If there's an intelligent message with a number, and I'm interested, I might phone them back.
I usually answer in my best english accent "Duh - par - paarlezz voose onglesee?" Either the line goes dead immediately or sometimes I get a polite "non". I hope that this results in my number being given a universal hopeless case tag!
After looking at the academic report on the call centre culture I mentioned somewhere else on here I am now going to be a bit gentler. Poor souls in the call centres get paid for successful calls, not people like me having fun!
Here here. Well said. Good solution and absolutely correct on the misuse of "racism".
Have to admit though - have had a great morning being amused at some of these entries.
It is definitely not racist, xenophobe or anything of the sort because they call everybody. Comparing experience with French friends they get exactly the same response. The call centres are in Algeria and Morocco where French is spoken of course and India where they recruit graduates with French for this pretty menial job. In many cases one can hear non-French accents, that is why. Join Pacitel, Liste Orange or whatever and it will not stop the calls. One of our friends who has PV and all else they could possibly sell still gets the calls, so it is indiscriminate. He now has a new number with a dialling code the equivalent of ex-directory but still gets a few calls. Apparently part of their brief is to only speak to the propriétaire who will automatically be addressed as Monsieur X. In their training they are told that it is inevitably only men who deal with or are interested in these matters so often cut short conversations with women anyway. That is a bit antediluvian if you ask me, but there you go. Part of the brief is to call at least once a day to 'break people down', a multiplicity of calls reveals how many call centres have your number. There are records of people having into the 20s of calls per day that the researchers logged, each from a separate centre.
It is done the same way for all countries. One of the major call centres in India works 24 hours a day, calls all over the world and uses over 20 languages. There is a study by a university research group that makes a mix of frustrating and occasionally hilarious reading that we had a look at last night. However, the bottom line is that unless they keep somebody on the line for two minutes they do not get paid and the real commission is for every appointment for a visit from one of the contractors' evaluators who are actually salesmen/women. They get a smallish percent for every sale. The rest goes unpaid. Best things is cut them short. "Non, merci", phone down. They are going to call again next day anyway, so that or do not answer at all.
Why give them a chance a hang up on you? As soon as realise that it is a cold call, I either say goodbye and hang up immediately or, if I am feeling particularly elfish, I start playing mind games with them which leaves most of them at a loss for words. The strategy of a lot of the companies is really not too clever. If my mobile and house phone start to ring at the same time or if I see that it is a blocked number on my mobile I just don't bother answering. After a long period of relative calm, I have also been receiving 4-5 cold calls a day for the past fortnight. Enough is enough and I don't see any reason to go out of my way to be polite to a public nuisance.
I totally empathise with the gentleman that rushes in from the wood pile.
A slightly lateral view of the cold callers topic. We live mostly on the Isle of Man, with a holiday home in the Languedoc. Cold callers are all too frequent from Pension companies, PPI claim companies, mobile phone companies etc etc etc.
I stop them in their tracks when they say, "here in the UK, the Government this and the Banks that", by saying they can't help me as I don't live in the UK. You can almost see the pregnant pause fill with confusion. Like Brian, I thouroughly enjoy the game, as they dig a hole deeper and deeper for themselves. My favourite is the guys from "Microsoft". "Sir (presumed Indian voice), are you by your computer?""Please switch on as you have a wirus (sic) that we must fix for you!!"
I must say, though, I had a great conversation with a guy from Swansea phoning re pensions, but it was about the IoM TT. He was an avid motor bike fan and racer himself, who had never been to the TT, but it was his lifelong ambition (sounded genuine for once). I said, sorry you can't sell me a pension today, but at least I sold the Isle of Man to you!! Hilarity all round and the best cold caller I have ever had!!
I've never had a problem with EDF cold callers putting the phone down on me even though I am english. They seem quite pleased when they find out we are south-facing and have no shade all day. However, when it comes to making a rendez-vous and I say 'seulement le samedi' (my husband is in Paris all week), all conversation is ended because their 'ingénieurs' do not work on Saturdays. We had two different engineers make appointments for a Saturday, we waited in but neither turned up.
After getting 7 calls in one day, all from the same number and one at 8.30pm - I phoned it back to see who it was who was harassing me - only to be informed I could not be connected to that number.
Anyway, plan b - listen to their spiel and then arrange for them to come round. Hopefully then they would not call again. The first time we did this, last year - a bloke came round, gave his spiel on solar power, we asked him loads of hard questions where he promptly said he'd have to ask a colleague and get back to us - a year later and we are still waiting!
Second time round, my husband arranged for them to come on Wednesday - he flew back to the UK for a week on the Tuesday. They phoned on the Tuesday to confirm the meeting on Wednesday morning and when they found out it was just madame promptly didn't turn up - wasting my time. Racist - no more like sexist !
Anyway now I just say as soon as they start their quick fire gabble
"arret, arret, qu'est-ce que vous vendez" and keep on repeating that until they answer. Then just say "Je ne suis pas intéressé" and hang up.