They always call during dinner, don’t they!? I’m a generally patient person and don’t mind constantly telling phone surveys to beat it, but you may want to get off their lists for good. And with good reason.
Someone who worked at “the largest phone survey companies in the country” told Consumerist.com how to get rid of those phone survey callers calling back.
Sadly, it appears the only real way to get off their list is to say something like, “If you ever call me again, I’m going to contact my lawyer”.
You’ll get an apology and be blacklisted from all of our systems. Of course, you’ll have to do it with each company that calls you, but it should help make dinnertime a bit more peaceful.
How To: Avoid Pesky Phone Survey People – [Consumerist]
It may go without saying but *never* answer one of these surveys. A few years back on a long slow night my girlfriend took one of these calls and completed a survey. For months afterwards, we were plagued by calls everyday to answer surveys about all sorts of things. No amount of firm disinterest, threats or repeated pleas (“we will never do another phone survey ever again”) stopped the flood.
What eventually did was me telling the surveyer that it was a work phone number. Stopped it dead in its tracks. This may however only work in Australia.
You could also say that you work for Nielsen or Arbitron. They both survey people for ratings and it’s considered a conflict of interest to take one of them thar surveys.
I worked graveyard shift for quite some time, so I slept in the morning. Arbitron kept calling me. No amount of arguing would stave them off. They simply would go on with “we are not selling anything”, etc. Finally, after I screamed in the phone that I would never take their survey, and if they called again, I would file a complaint, they stopped calling.
Another method that might work: If you have a low income (or if you want to claim that you do), some surveys will leave you alone. Apparently, they only want to interview you if you have money to burn.
The “Work Number” answer works in the US as well, with the same results as the “I’m calling my lawyer” but without seeming so litigious.
It also works with charity solicitations (who are also exempt for the Do Not Call registry.)
In the UK, we have the ability to sign up to the Telephone Preference Service. Once on the list, it is illegal for anyone to call you. I used to get lots of calls then they stopped almost immediately once I signed up. Surely this should be available worldwide?!
http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/
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This is fake, all the phone survey companies are located outside the US… And they don’t worry about legal threats… They’re just not under US jurisdiction…
Hey guys, why don’t you just do the surveys? I work at a company that does surveys and it pays the bills for me..
If people like you get paid to annoy and interrupt people like me with surveys, then people like me should get paid to ANSWER. Or better yet, post your home phone number here so that we can call you whenever we have an opinion to share. Oh, you wouldn’t like that?
If people like you get paid to annoy and interrupt people like me with surveys, then people like me should get paid to ANSWER. Or better yet, post your home phone number here so that we can call you whenever we have an opinion to share. Oh, you wouldn’t like that?
Hi Alan, DanRoy here,
I’ll be polite and help you out here buddy. You wouldn’t be calling the right person if you attack the person calling you for the surveys, you want to attack the companies, or Government that is funding the companies/call centers that pay the person calling you during your dinner hour.
So you’ll want to attack the Government because they are one of the biggest supporters of political surveys which fund public opinion surveying companies that call all the time, also, you’ll want to attack local companies that are struggling because they often pay survey companies to do surveys in their behalf to stay afloat before the major corporations take their business before they go under. You’ll even want to attack some of the major corporations out there that seldom do surveys via telephone, but rest assured that major corporations survey much less often then the Government, or local businesses.
How do I know these things? I handle accounting for a few market research companies and they get the majority of their funding from Government sources. You want to complain to someone about these things? Then complain to Obama and his administration, they have funded more political polls than any previous administrations combined. I know because the main, or Father company I work for have opened 7 entirely new location across the United States in the last 3 years alone just to handle all the new polls that have been funded from these Government funded political polls. I could care less because my pay-rate is salary based, it’s much better than the callers get but I have much more work and haven’t seen a penny in raises.
I would only be rejoicing to see my work load lowered or lessened. If you’re wondering, yes, I am looking for other work. All I can say is blame Obama again for that matter as well, it’s his fault that finding a better place to work is so damn hard.