Duly signed – thanks for doing this. It seems particularly timely to me, as not only are genuine surveying organisations able to disregard the TPS, BT Privacy and the like, but some marketing organisations seem to have decided that a cunning way to get around those lists is to phone with what is blatantly a sales call, but claim it is a survey, and phrase the first few bits of the script as questions to justify this. I have received several of these calls in the past few weeks (mainly trying to sell me hideously expensive loans, though I think one may also have been about “home improvements”/kitchens) and I, like you, have been signed up to the TPS for a long time. Presumably they use the TPS list as their call sheet for these calls – though quite why they think I would be any more receptive to their call under this guise, I have no idea.
Tom, thanks for doing this. I’ll be signing in just a mo’ too.
nmatheson –
Find out which agency is calling you, and ask them to stop:
I was told (which working in the industry, more on that below) – If you ask them to take you off their database, they MUST comply – and they must take you off EVERY database that they hold – not just the one they’re calling on.
It is also against the code of conduct of the MRS (market research society – main regulating body in the industry) to conduct a sales call and call it research.
If they’re not MRS registered and they’re abusing TPS laws by making sales calls, they could find themselves in line for fines of ¬£5K a time.
I used to work on the B2B side of this industry (admittedly doing biz dev for web companies rather than flogging loans to grannies, but the same laws apply) – there isn’t a way around TPS; that is to say even companies you already do business with shouldn’t, strictly speaking, phone you after you’ve registered…
jrh – thanks for that; whoever it was seems to have got the message for the moment, but if they call back I’ll certainly do as you suggest.
Unfortunately, there are those who abuse the rules, of course – there was a Dundee-based kitchen company who were calling me pretty frequently for a while, even after I had repeatedly asked them to take me off their database (and been assured that they would), and pointed out that I was TPS registered. They eventually stopped when I said if they ever called again, I’d be complaining to the Information Commissioner, but it’s sad that you have to make that sort of threat before some people will get the message – after all, at the end of the day, it’s a waste of their time and money calling me, too, when I’m not going to take their product.
nmatheson
It’s crazy isn’t it? Although I get the feeling with a lot of these companies that the person you’re talking to doesn’t care either way whether you’re going to buy something from them, they’re paid to talk, and talk is what they do… *shudder* it’s like all of marketing’s ugly faces in one easy to swallow pill. Urgh.
4 replies on “Links for 2007-10-03”
Duly signed – thanks for doing this. It seems particularly timely to me, as not only are genuine surveying organisations able to disregard the TPS, BT Privacy and the like, but some marketing organisations seem to have decided that a cunning way to get around those lists is to phone with what is blatantly a sales call, but claim it is a survey, and phrase the first few bits of the script as questions to justify this. I have received several of these calls in the past few weeks (mainly trying to sell me hideously expensive loans, though I think one may also have been about “home improvements”/kitchens) and I, like you, have been signed up to the TPS for a long time. Presumably they use the TPS list as their call sheet for these calls – though quite why they think I would be any more receptive to their call under this guise, I have no idea.
Tom, thanks for doing this. I’ll be signing in just a mo’ too.
nmatheson –
Find out which agency is calling you, and ask them to stop:
I was told (which working in the industry, more on that below) – If you ask them to take you off their database, they MUST comply – and they must take you off EVERY database that they hold – not just the one they’re calling on.
It is also against the code of conduct of the MRS (market research society – main regulating body in the industry) to conduct a sales call and call it research.
If they’re not MRS registered and they’re abusing TPS laws by making sales calls, they could find themselves in line for fines of ¬£5K a time.
I used to work on the B2B side of this industry (admittedly doing biz dev for web companies rather than flogging loans to grannies, but the same laws apply) – there isn’t a way around TPS; that is to say even companies you already do business with shouldn’t, strictly speaking, phone you after you’ve registered…
jrh – thanks for that; whoever it was seems to have got the message for the moment, but if they call back I’ll certainly do as you suggest.
Unfortunately, there are those who abuse the rules, of course – there was a Dundee-based kitchen company who were calling me pretty frequently for a while, even after I had repeatedly asked them to take me off their database (and been assured that they would), and pointed out that I was TPS registered. They eventually stopped when I said if they ever called again, I’d be complaining to the Information Commissioner, but it’s sad that you have to make that sort of threat before some people will get the message – after all, at the end of the day, it’s a waste of their time and money calling me, too, when I’m not going to take their product.
nmatheson
It’s crazy isn’t it? Although I get the feeling with a lot of these companies that the person you’re talking to doesn’t care either way whether you’re going to buy something from them, they’re paid to talk, and talk is what they do… *shudder* it’s like all of marketing’s ugly faces in one easy to swallow pill. Urgh.