Congratulations Telecom - a salesman sold an Internet modem to a person with dementia in a rest home

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Congratulations Telecom - a salesman sold an Internet modem to a person with dementia in a rest home

geek4me

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#142433 12-Mar-2014 18:10

A Telecom salesman managed to sell an internet modem to my father in law who is certified with dementia in a rest home. He does not have a computer and has never owned one or knows how to operate one. A few months ago Sky tried to sell Soho channel to him in the rest home. Both agencies know his daughter has power of attorney (EPA) over his affairs as he is not legally competent to make these kind of financial transactions. He did not understand what the phone call was about thinking it was from his dentist.

Neither company has apologised though we have asked them to contact us. The Telecom modem was confusingly addressed to his rest home room as well as our address. Salesmen should stop trying to sell services to rest home residents and should not contact anyone with an EPA.

I have returned the Telecom modem and hope that this kind of sales call stops or otherwise we may need to cancel his phone to protect him from these calls.

jeffnz

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#1004477 12-Mar-2014 18:19

thats pretty bad, so he has his own phone line??, you say that Telecom knew he had dementia I don't get this

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NonprayingMantis

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#1004478 12-Mar-2014 18:19

did they sell him a modem or sign him up to broadband?

It would be pretty rare for Telecom to be cold calling people just trying to sell them modems, so you will need to make sure there is no broadband connection about to go through too.

I sympathise with you, my grandma had dementia and we had similar problems.
Sometimes she would be quite lucid, other times not know anything about what was going on.

Cbfd

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#1004480 12-Mar-2014 18:27

How is this telecoms fault - it would f been someone from a advertising company who gets commission from each sale he makes and doubt they would of known the person had dimensher -

mattwnz

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#1004485 12-Mar-2014 18:44

Cbfd: How is this telecoms fault - it would f been someone from a advertising company who gets commission from each sale he makes and doubt they would of known the person had dimensher -

When a company subcontracts out work to a third party, they are still responsible for what that other company does. I would presume they would still have said they were from that company, and that they have a great deal for them. This is one of the problems with cold calling companies. If someone wants a service, they would contact a company. Otherwise you are going to get a certain percentage of stories like this, so the cold callers have to sort this out, and I am sure it isn't uncommon.

Are telecom part of the direct marketing association?

I sympathise with the OP. I have had this same problem with an alarm monitoring company, who cold called on a family member with dementia in a gated community, and the seller even brought along a packet of biscuits so they could discuss it over a cup of tea and left signup forms to fill in. The ironic thing is that the complex already had monitored alarms.

geek4me

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#1004498 12-Mar-2014 18:58

jeffnz: Yes he has his own phone line.

NonprayingMantis: Yes, they signed him up to broadband and sent the modem. Sorry, I did not make this clear.

Cbfd: See mattwnz above. A salesman should need Telecom's permission to call if they are not working for Telecom.

(I have registered his phone number on the government "do not call" register.)

mattwnz

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#1004500 12-Mar-2014 19:10

geek4me: jeffnz: Yes he has his own phone line.

NonprayingMantis: Yes, they signed him up to broadband and sent the modem. Sorry, I did not make this clear.

Cbfd: See mattwnz above. A salesman should need Telecom's permission to call if they are not working for Telecom.

(I have registered his phone number on the government "do not call" register.)

I don't think the government has one, I think it is run by the Direct marketing association. But it is bad if telecom isn't following the do not call register, as I presume they would be a member due to their size.

EDIT: I have just checked, and they are a member. So you could lay a complaint at http://www.marketing.org.nz/

plambrechtsen

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#1004504 12-Mar-2014 19:29

Please email me all the details you have to "pl at telecom.co.nz" and I will follow up with the relevant parties if that hasn't been done already.

This is certainly how Telecom doesn't like to operate and takes a very dim view on staff members who do this.

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geek4me

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#1004523 12-Mar-2014 19:49

plambrechtsen: Please email me all the details you have to "pl at telecom.co.nz" and I will follow up with the relevant parties if that hasn't been done already.

This is certainly how Telecom doesn't like to operate and takes a very dim view on staff members who do this.

Email will be sent soon - Thanks.

compost

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#1004530 12-Mar-2014 20:07

Cbfd: How is this telecoms fault - it would f been someone from a advertising company who gets commission from each sale he makes and doubt they would of known the person had dimensher -

"How is this [insert major corp here]'s fault" another fine example of the defence trolling that's endemic on GZ.

A time-poor geek is hardly a geek at all

scuwp

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#1004567 12-Mar-2014 21:22

compost:
Cbfd: How is this telecoms fault - it would f been someone from a advertising company who gets commission from each sale he makes and doubt they would of known the person had dimensher -

"How is this [insert major corp here]'s fault" another fine example of the defence trolling that's endemic on GZ.

That's a bit rough. I thought it was a fair comment. [insert company name here] with several thousand employees and contractors servicing hundreds of thousands of customers and you expect them all to know the intimate details of ever single person including legal powers of attorney agreements of everyone who has a phone line? A tad unrealistic I think.

I empathize with the OP. Thankfully they have taken the correct steps to rectify the malfeasance and I am quite sure that Telecom (or whoever) will take it up with the individual concerned who should have had a bit more common sense (although they don't teach that class in school anymore).

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#1004590 12-Mar-2014 22:02

compost:
Cbfd: How is this telecoms fault - it would f been someone from a advertising company who gets commission from each sale he makes and doubt they would of known the person had dimensher -

"How is this [insert major corp here]'s fault" another fine example of the defence trolling that's endemic on GZ.

I don't see this around here. If you think there's "trolling" around then you should report the posts instead.

networkn

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#1004643 12-Mar-2014 23:52

compost:
Cbfd: How is this telecoms fault - it would f been someone from a advertising company who gets commission from each sale he makes and doubt they would of known the person had dimensher -

"How is this [insert major corp here]'s fault" another fine example of the defence trolling that's endemic on GZ.

Say what now? What nonsense. Evidence to support your claims seem the next reasonable response.

geek4me

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#1005097 13-Mar-2014 17:56

We received a telephone call from Telecom today. They reviewed the phone sales recording and agreed that the elderly customer did not understand what the call was about. They apologized for the incident and assured it won't recur. Apparently a pop-up alert which warns a Telecom caller to contact the person holding Enduring Power of Attorney instead of the customer with dementia was meant to have been added to the customer's database details and this had not been done. His number has also now been removed from Telecom's marketing list.

Thanks for your response, Telecom.

plambrechtsen

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#1005104 13-Mar-2014 18:17

I'm really glad that we could get things sorted, but sad I had to be involved in the first place.

If you have any further questions or issues don't hesitate to contact me and I can forward them on.

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#1005313 14-Mar-2014 02:25

I still don't get this - surely the phone salesrep must have, or should have, realised the the customer was not really understanding the whole thing? Always that pressure on the rep to reach sales targets and/or get that commission? Sort of been there myself.

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