Telecom Door to Door knockers

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom Door to Door knockers

kiwipearls

431 posts

Ultimate Geek

#105063 26-Jun-2012 16:14

Just had a guy saying he was from Telecom knock on my door.

I am very wary of door knockers - I watch Fair Go.

But he mentioned they have some no contract offers for existing customers where they can give you caller id, call minder etc free.

Again, I don't want to hand over my number to somebody at my door..yes he had an id, and his little bag had the telecom logo on it.

As an existing telecom customer quite interested in the free caller id etc package, surely I should be able to ring up customer service and ask for this special deal right?

Just had a second telecom guy knock on my door while typing this. So hrm....weird.

What are your thoughts? Has anyone else had these door knockers?

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Senility Guild

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#646482 26-Jun-2012 16:16

I would ask are you employed by Telecom NZ or a 3rd party company to do door sales?

oxnsox

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#646488 26-Jun-2012 16:21

VF (and others) also have door knockers.
Personally I wouldn't deal with a door knocker, for the same reasons you give, but if the deal is there you should be able to call Telecom (or visit a store) and get the same offer.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#646495 26-Jun-2012 16:28

same as above. I never deal with door knockers. too many stories about scams and the like.

the call centres should at least be aware of the door knocker deals, so at the very least you should be able to confirm the deal is real or not.

plambrechtsen

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#646498 26-Jun-2012 16:30

If they are a Telecom employed door knocker they will have Telecom Photo ID on the front of it will be a Card ID, and on the back of it will be an 0800 number 10 30 60 where you can verify that the card is valid.

The deal they are talking about is you can get Caller ID, Call Waiting & Voice Mail for $10 per month. It's called Smartpack

I had a door knocker come to my house and try and upgrade me to a Tivo and talk about Smartpack since I wasn't on that plan. Unfortunately since I am a staff member I can't get the Tivo, but I did upgrade to Smartpack and now the wife is happy since we already had a phone that supported Caller ID so we now get the caller ID numbers.

mattwnz

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#646558 26-Jun-2012 18:50

plambrechtsen: If they are a Telecom employed door knocker they will have Telecom Photo ID on the front of it will be a Card ID, and on the back of it will be an 0800 number 10 30 60 where you can verify that the card is valid.

Isn't there a flaw with that, in that if it was a scammer knocking on the door, the scammer could create their own card, with their own 0800 number. So they could have another scammer on the other end of that number to answer the calls and confirm that the scammer was a valid employee.

AKLWestie

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#646594 26-Jun-2012 19:38

I always turn away door knockers as well. I bet it is quite easy to create official looking stationery, ID cards, bags etc. All you need to download some logos and get some printing firms to do it (I am not saying that printing firms partner with those people).

plambrechtsen

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#646666 26-Jun-2012 21:25

mattwnz:
plambrechtsen: If they are a Telecom employed door knocker they will have Telecom Photo ID on the front of it will be a Card ID, and on the back of it will be an 0800 number 10 30 60 where you can verify that the card is valid.

Isn't there a flaw with that, in that if it was a scammer knocking on the door, the scammer could create their own card, with their own 0800 number. So they could have another scammer on the other end of that number to answer the calls and confirm that the scammer was a valid employee.

I understand that and it's something I am working on with the retail team on how it is best to improve the process of validating Telecom people turning up unannounced at a persons door. But the 0800 number I listed above which is on the reverse side of the Telecom issued ID does have a team who will confirm the validity of the card and person.

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sbiddle

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#646670 26-Jun-2012 21:32

plambrechtsen: If they are a Telecom employed door knocker they will have Telecom Photo ID on the front of it will be a Card ID, and on the back of it will be an 0800 number 10 30 60 where you can verify that the card is valid.

The deal they are talking about is you can get Caller ID, Call Waiting & Voice Mail for $10 per month. It's called Smartpack

$10 for that? You can get a VoIP line with local number, caller id, call waiting, voicemail with email notification, call forward, do not disturb, 3 way calling, last number redial for only $1.50 more!

JimmyH

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#646733 26-Jun-2012 23:00

oxnsox: VF (and others) also have door knockers.
Personally I wouldn't deal with a door knocker, for the same reasons you give, but if the deal is there you should be able to call Telecom (or visit a store) and get the same offer.

I don't deal with either door knockers or unsolicited callers - I politely demur and decline to discuss or take the call. Too wary of door knocking scams, and prefer to take decisions about what I am going to buy or which charities I donate to in a more considered fashion.

Had an interesting experience with one just before Christmas (from memory it was a young Chinese guy trying to switch people to TelstraClear). I kept coming home to find cards had been slipped under my front door (which itself was very odd in itself, as I have a mailbox at the end of the drive and no one else has ever done this) saying he had called to see me and would I please call to arrange a convenient time for him to come back - with hand-completed contact details on the back. It was entirely unsolicited and I wasn't interested, so I kept binning them (3-4 in total from memory).

Anyhow, about 9.30pm one night there was a pounding on my door, and when I opened it he was standing outside and he immediately and very angrily started shouting at me that "I hadn't called him back, he had a business to run and why was I wasting his time by not calling him". He knew I hadn't in any way solicited the business, and when I told him I wasn't interested he kept shouting that "I was being stupid and he was trying to save me lots of money", and kept demanding to know who my telco was and what I was paying now so he could compare prices. He was very, very belligerent and I was (to be quite honest) fairly amused. That sort of approach might work by intimidating some people, but I'm not one of them. In the end I ordered him off the property a couple of times - and when I offered to call PC Plod if he didn't leave, he did.

mattwnz

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#646739 26-Jun-2012 23:52

JimmyH:
oxnsox: VF (and others) also have door knockers.
Personally I wouldn't deal with a door knocker, for the same reasons you give, but if the deal is there you should be able to call Telecom (or visit a store) and get the same offer.

I don't deal with either door knockers or unsolicited callers - I politely demur and decline to discuss or take the call. Too wary of door knocking scams, and prefer to take decisions about what I am going to buy or which charities I donate to in a more considered fashion.

Had an interesting experience with one just before Christmas (from memory it was a young Chinese guy trying to switch people to TelstraClear). I kept coming home to find cards had been slipped under my front door (which itself was very odd in itself, as I have a mailbox at the end of the drive and no one else has ever done this) saying he had called to see me and would I please call to arrange a convenient time for him to come back - with hand-completed contact details on the back. It was entirely unsolicited and I wasn't interested, so I kept binning them (3-4 in total from memory).

Anyhow, about 9.30pm one night there was a pounding on my door, and when I opened it he was standing outside and he immediately and very angrily started shouting at me that "I hadn't called him back, he had a business to run and why was I wasting his time by not calling him". He knew I hadn't in any way solicited the business, and when I told him I wasn't interested he kept shouting that "I was being stupid and he was trying to save me lots of money", and kept demanding to know who my telco was and what I was paying now so he could compare prices. He was very, very belligerent and I was (to be quite honest) fairly amused. That sort of approach might work by intimidating some people, but I'm not one of them. In the end I ordered him off the property a couple of times - and when I offered to call PC Plod if he didn't leave, he did.

I've had telstra also door knock a few times. The person at home didn't answer the door, but they left a card. I say if the product is a good one, then companies shouldn't need to door knock or cold call.

farcus

1554 posts

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#646750 27-Jun-2012 02:11

doorknockers from companies are no better than JWs or Mormons etc. If I get door knocked by a company I am with - it is almost enough for me to consider changing companies.

Lurch

1061 posts

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#646862 27-Jun-2012 10:14

Not a Telecom door knocker but had mecury energy door knocker harras us over the weekend. 4 times on the Saturday even came back after 6pm.

Then said he'd book us in for 7:30am Sunday morning, so we spent most of the day out on Sunday because of this.

However late Sunday arvo when we came back there he was just leaving our property and heading up the street.

When he came to do the door he tried all sorts of tactics to get his foot in the door even repeat no's from us did not work.

Also very hard to understand what he was offering due to his accent. Mentioned this to Mercury and they said they would remove my house from the list.

The thing that topped it off is that he knew what power company we were with and what our current rate/bill was. How does that information get out???

Lurch

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#646865 27-Jun-2012 10:18

Oh and when we were with Telecom a couple of years back we had one of their door knockers come through, we asked several times if there was a contract involved and got the no there was not reply.

Even made him right it down on for us. So went a head with the deal and of course all that he said to us was wrong. But because he had written it down we got out of the contract.

bonkiebonks

389 posts

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#646867 27-Jun-2012 10:23

Why don't I get Telecom salesperson knocking on my door? Can we just ring up Telecom and ask for one of the offers on here?

jonb

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#646869 27-Jun-2012 10:27

I got a great deal from a Telecom door knocker last year, it was enough to get me to switch over to them.

Last week we got another Telecom door knocker though, I wasn't in but I should've tried to get them to give me another deal to re-sign for 12 months..

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