Hot Sales Offer - anyone else getting these calls?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Hot Sales Offer - anyone else getting these calls?

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#85580 21-Jun-2011 18:58

Yesterday I got a call yesterday from someone claiming to be from 2Deg, but the caller got cut off before they got past "Is it ok to speak?" I suspect they thought I said no and hung up.

This morning I get exactly the same banter, so I knew instantly that the caller was reading from a sales script.

I got told "we have looked at your account and see you are using your phone for voice, data and text" and was then asked "is this how you are using your phone?"

Well those who know me on this forum can just imagine my reaction to that question I'm sure!

"we have looked at your account and see you are using your phone for voice, data and text"

"is this how you are using your phone?"

My response was "sorry, I'm confused, are you saying there's a problem with the billing system?"

I then explained that having told me he's looked at my account, he clearly knows how I use my phone so why is he asking me to confirm how I use it.

I then said "what is the deal you're offering?" (as he had explained at the start of the call that he was ringing with a deal.

At this point he got angry that I would not just give a simple yes or no answer to his question. Clearly he wanted me to play on long with his banter.

At which point I said "look, I'm from Christchurch, you've woken me up, I'm woken daily by earth quakes, I have little humour for sales people ringing me to offer deals who read from scripts. Are you going to tell me what the deal is?"

At this point he told me to calm asked me if I was telling him how to do his job?!

That was the point I hung up.

What really pissed me off the most was that I have ~$15 credit left on my phone after 6 months, wasn't interested in any deal, but would have liked him to put some credit on my phone off my credit card.

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117 posts

Master Geek

#484373 22-Jun-2011 14:03

I got a call like that yesterday, woman from 2degrees who said said "I see you mainly use your phone for texts and data", and tried to sell me the pay monthly plan for $39. That would have been double what I pay now ($19 prepay pack) and basically not given me anything useful except for another 50mb of data (which I can get for $6 if I need it).

What a waste of time that call was...I think she knew it too.

mattwnz

20165 posts

Uber Geek

#484405 22-Jun-2011 14:43

I avoid any company that cold calls/faxes trying to sell me something. Most recently it has been the yellowpages and sky, and vistaprint faxes . Also been getting quite a few of these Indian scam calls saying I have got something wrong with my PC.

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#484407 22-Jun-2011 14:45

mattwnz: I avoid any company that cold calls/faxes trying to sell me something.

So you don't buy any products or services then?

danielm8

109 posts

Master Geek

#484434 22-Jun-2011 15:29

DonGould: Yesterday I got a call yesterday from someone claiming to be from 2Deg, but the caller got cut off before they got past "Is it ok to speak?" I suspect they thought I said no and hung up.

This morning I get exactly the same banter, so I knew instantly that the caller was reading from a sales script.

I got told "we have looked at your account and see you are using your phone for voice, data and text" and was then asked "is this how you are using your phone?"

Well those who know me on this forum can just imagine my reaction to that question I'm sure!

"we have looked at your account and see you are using your phone for voice, data and text"

"is this how you are using your phone?"

My response was "sorry, I'm confused, are you saying there's a problem with the billing system?"

I then explained that having told me he's looked at my account, he clearly knows how I use my phone so why is he asking me to confirm how I use it.

I then said "what is the deal you're offering?" (as he had explained at the start of the call that he was ringing with a deal.

At this point he got angry that I would not just give a simple yes or no answer to his question. Clearly he wanted me to play on long with his banter.

At which point I said "look, I'm from Christchurch, you've woken me up, I'm woken daily by earth quakes, I have little humour for sales people ringing me to offer deals who read from scripts. Are you going to tell me what the deal is?"

At this point he told me to calm asked me if I was telling him how to do his job?!

That was the point I hung up.

What really pissed me off the most was that I have ~$15 credit left on my phone after 6 months, wasn't interested in any deal, but would have liked him to put some credit on my phone off my credit card.

Sounds dodgy.. maybe a scam, or maybe 2Degrees is that desperate to sell their pay monthly. Either way, I don't think you should be giving your credit card information to random callers.

2degreesCare

1537 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

2degrees

#484525 22-Jun-2011 17:28

Thanks for the feedback guys. We apologise for the cold calling, we are trying to be pro-active in touching base with our customers and letting them know about any products that may give them better value.

Please let me know if there are any instances of this happening again by PMing your number to me and I'll follow it up.

Don, I already have your number and currently checking what happened.

^POB

oxnsox

1923 posts

Uber Geek

#484535 22-Jun-2011 17:43

2DegreesCare: Thanks for the feedback guys. We apologise for the cold calling, we are trying to be pro-active in touching base with our customers and letting them know about any products that may give them better value.

Please let me know if there are any instances of this happening again by PMing your number to me and I'll follow it up.

Don, I already have your number and currently checking what happened.

^POB

Now thats a decent sort of response.
I once had a supervisor at a telco threaten to abandon my call and not help because I refused to answer the 'security questions' for a 3 time (I'd been passed around abit). My issue was that although he acknowledged I was the account holder, and called me by my name, he wouldn't progress the query unless I followed his script.
Sometimes these people need to be able to think past the marketingbabble and get to the issue. Funnily enough some customers respond better to that approach.

mattwnz

20165 posts

Uber Geek

#484550 22-Jun-2011 18:19

jbard:
mattwnz: I avoid any company that cold calls/faxes trying to sell me something.

So you don't buy any products or services then?

I do just not from cold callers. I would prefer to use my own research when purchasing services. Especially after some bad experiences where I have signed up to something and the terms weren't explained, which I admit is difficult from just a phone call.

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nakedmolerat

4629 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#484553 22-Jun-2011 18:30

oxnsox:

I once had a supervisor at a telco threaten to abandon my call and not help because I refused to answer the 'security questions' for a 3 time (I'd been passed around abit).

i believed he was doing the right thing. better be safe than sorry

TangoNZ

117 posts

Master Geek

#484599 22-Jun-2011 19:43

2DegreesCare: Thanks for the feedback guys. We apologise for the cold calling, we are trying to be pro-active in touching base with our customers and letting them know about any products that may give them better value.

Please let me know if there are any instances of this happening again by PMing your number to me and I'll follow it up.

I don't really mind being called like that, I was just surprised by the approach of trying to sell me something that wouldn't really give me any extra value. Thanks for the reply though, good to see you guys being proactive on this forum.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#484637 22-Jun-2011 20:37

2DegreesCare: Thanks for the feedback guys. We apologise for the cold calling, we are trying to be pro-active in touching base with our customers and letting them know about any products that may give them better value.

Please let me know if there are any instances of this happening again by PMing your number to me and I'll follow it up.

Don, I already have your number and currently checking what happened.

^POB

Feel free to drop me a copy of the script and I'll be happy to rewrite it so it's not quite so offensive.

However I really do suggest some sales training for those out bound callers.

2Deg had this really 'hey we're human' zeal to it.

Who installed the robots?

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#484641 22-Jun-2011 20:42

Tbh a better approach if you want to reach out to customers, would be to selectively text them, and give them a specific number to call. Just make sure when they ring up, the people on the end of the call know exactly what the person will be calling about (ie don't just make them contact the standard sales number, you want to be able to have the same discussion as was intended for this phone call)

This way they can get a potentially better deal, its non intrusive and you can probably cover a much wider base of customers.

If i got a text saying "based on your usage patterns, we may have a better deal for you, if you are interested give us a ring on ##### to have a chat", i'd call up being curious of what they have to offer. People who are the same type that slam the phone down when they hear someone cold calling can simply ignore it, no harm done.

Just my 2c.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#484698 22-Jun-2011 22:08

eXDee: Tbh a better approach if you want to reach out to customers, would be to selectively text them, and give them a specific number to call. Just make sure when they ring up, the people on the end of the call know exactly what the person will be calling about (ie don't just make them contact the standard sales number, you want to be able to have the same discussion as was intended for this phone call)

This way they can get a potentially better deal, its non intrusive and you can probably cover a much wider base of customers.

If i got a text saying "based on your usage patterns, we may have a better deal for you, if you are interested give us a ring on ##### to have a chat", i'd call up being curious of what they have to offer. People who are the same type that slam the phone down when they hear someone cold calling can simply ignore it, no harm done.

Just my 2c.

1. 7 years of trying to get VF to stop sending me txts was one of reasons I moved.

2. Now I have an open source smart phone, I'd be looking for an application to block all texts from the provider quickly.

3. I'm quite interested that marketing staff are looking at my personal usage trends with out my concent.

"Hi, this is Joe from 2Deg, we're currently doing a review of accounts for customers who are interested to know if they're getting the best value from their phone. Would you be interested in my assistance to review your account usage?"

....long before anyone even goes anywhere near my account!

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

eXDee

4032 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#484716 22-Jun-2011 22:27

This is a good point. I still think if a carrier is insisting on marketing to its customers, texts are much less intrusive than cold calling. And they should easily be able to be made opt out - i believe 2degrees already has an opt in for special offers via email and such?

Also the usage trends would likely be auto generated, it'd be easier for the telco and no person would be involved in actually reading your data till you called about it.

Of course the better solution would be have them not do it all, hence why i said if they insist, i reckon its the lesser of two evils.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek

#484726 22-Jun-2011 22:40

eXDee: This is a good point. I still think if a carrier is insisting on marketing to its customers, texts are much less intrusive than cold calling. And they should easily be able to be made opt out - i believe 2degrees already has an opt in for special offers via email and such?

Also the usage trends would likely be auto generated, it'd be easier for the telco and no person would be involved in actually reading your data till you called about it.

Of course the better solution would be have them not do it all, hence why i said if they insist, i reckon its the lesser of two evils.

I asked and asked to opt out of the VF spam.

They always had a habit of sending it when I was sleeping and it would wake me up.

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

ajw

1932 posts

Uber Geek

#484834 23-Jun-2011 09:49

2DegreesCare: Thanks for the feedback guys. We apologise for the cold calling, we are trying to be pro-active in touching base with our customers and letting them know about any products that may give them better value.

Please let me know if there are any instances of this happening again by PMing your number to me and I'll follow it up.

Don, I already have your number and currently checking what happened.

^POB

How about some pass through from the regulation of mobile termination rates.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10733453

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