U.S. Buildings, however, does not take no for an answer. They have called me at least a dozen times since I told them I was no longer in the market for a building. Each time, I explain, with decreasing politeness, that I am not going to be buying a building, and that they should take me off their calling list. And it never happens.
I do not (and cannot) believe that this kind of high pressure, refuse to follow instructions approach is actually ever successful. Or are there a lot of people easily pressured into buying stuff over the phone?
Such telemarketing must work at least some of the time or they wouldn't do it.....
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like they are too desperate for business which could mean they might not be around much longer.
Since I only have a cell phone and never answer the phone unless I know who it is and unless it is someone I want to talk to I find it easy to ignore (though it sure can be annoying until they finally figure out I never answer).
I'm tired of that guy over in Caldwell that is constantly doing those mass mailings for his HVAC business and an annoying realtor that thinks I might want to sell my house and buy another (sorry I can't afford the $100K+ loss I would suffer if I were even able to find a buyer in this market not to mention not having the same income I had 3 years ago).
BTW, the dynamic ad generator is working well and showing a link under this item for one of the steel building companies.
P.S. My neighbor has a nice steel building that was already up when I moved next to him on 2006. I think he said he got it a year or two before from some local (Idaho) outfit. Of course the prices were more reasonable before the housing boom and subsequent bump in steel ( and oil) and building materials prices which hasn't gone down enough. I'm sure the same building would be at least 1.5 to 2 times as much money now!
That has me thinking about these magazine club businesses.
ReplyDeleteI made the mistake of letting a salescritter sign me up in a magazine club. It sounded like a good deal -- five different magazines, 60 month subscriptions, and the option to change any of them out for any other magazine on their list at any time. And every now and then, someone from the club would call me up to make sure I was getting my magazines and they were arriving in good condition.
On three occasions, the caller offered me a price break from what I was paying. At least that's what it sounded like. It turned out later that I had agreed to sign up for a whole new contract each time. When I called their customer service line to tell them that was not what I had intended to do, they played back the recording of me agreeing to their boilerplate contract, and told me it was too late to break the contract. They were locked in to their contract with the publishers they work with.
A friend of mine who's a lawyer told me they probably have lawyers who are very well practiced in making sure these contracts are enforced.
Now, when I get calls from "the magazine club", I use one of two options:
1) Wait until the caller gets to the line, "...and if any of the magazines send you renewal notices you can just throw them in the trash", thank him, and hang up.
2) Quiz the caller, and then the supervisor he passes me to, to try to pin down just which magazine club this is, and verify that it's the one I'm actually doing business with. (The last half dozen calls have been from companies that either I'm not doing business with, or that don't want to admit they're the same one I'm stuck in a contract with.)
Since the calls I receive are on my cell phone, I'm thinking it would be interesting to get a Bluetooth gadget to record the calls, so I can transcribe them for the local District Attorney. I find it hard to believe this doesn't constitute fraud. (Maybe there's some way I could sneak a judge's home phone number into their list?) (Maybe a Mexican drug lord?)
In any event, I have finally worked out how to keep these creeps from signing me up for thousand-dollar contracts.