Just moved into the area, and immediately begag receiving a deluge of inbound cold-calls. They were pretty obviously CID-spoofed, as the calls were appearing to come from everywhere, but each time, the prerecorded message said "Hi, this is Jerry, and I'd like to talk to you about" blah blah exciting dish network deal. Finally, a couple of days ago, I picked up the phone to a call coming from (000) 000-0000, and pressed the, err, 0 key to speak with someone. When a male voice answered, I said, "Hi, I need you to stop calling this number." The person simply hung up the phone.
So today, I get another one, this time purporting to come from Quebec, and again, I press the key and wait for a few minutes - they actually have a well-put-together hold queue, told me what position I was in, etc, so obviously they are making money - and again a male voice answered.
Trying a different tactic this time, I made my voice more friendly and attempted to get the guy to tell me who he was - he said he was Jerry and worked for DishNet (the recording was a different Jerry from the sound of him, and the recorded Jerry definitely wants me to buy from Dish Networks). Anyhow, I said that I had no interest in the product and wished to no longer be called. The guy cut me off several times, saying, "Dude!" and even you know this one "duuuuuude, " attempting to either annoy me or prevent me from making my wishes clear to him.
I finally got the message across to him (by this time he was telling someone near him "we've got another Napolean Dynamite here, " and referring to me as "Napolean" and laughing loudly at his joke). Honestly, I didn't care what he called me so long as the calls stop, and he took my number down and promised "you're off, you're off, " between laughter so hard I imagine he had tears in his eyes.
This is where things got truly weird, and way over the top: about three minutes after I got off the phone with the immature telemarketer, my phone rang, this time from an 800 number. Curious as to whether they were really calling me again, I picked up the phone and answered, "Hello?" A different male voice responded, "Hello?" We asked each other hello about three times, and I was certainly beginning to think that the guy had his friend call me back (this is still a possibility, but I suspect not), and then the guy on the other end, clearly exhasperated, said "Listen, this is a business line, you can't keep calling me back, I asked you to stop, " etc.
It took me a minute to figure out that the guy was asking ME to quit cold-calling his business phone number, and that he was seriously ticked off about it.
I've done a lot of work on inbound call centers, and have for the past five years dealt with people who need help with broken things for a living, and can generally tell when someone's feigning some upset in order to gain advantage. It is my opinion based upon experience that this guy was most likely exactly what he claimed to be - an annoyed recipient of a Dish Network telemarketing call.
I actually had to convince him that he was talking to some guy in a private residence who was also being harrassed by Dish Network callers and was busy making dinner (the sound of my child playing in the background was of some assistance in this). We figured that they were putting his call through to my home line for harassment purposes, and he pledged to find out who did this and sort him out personally, which was a sentiment I had some sympathy for, and then we got off the phone.
I phoned the 800 number listed at www.dishnetworks.com and spoke with a call center manager about this issue, and he promised that he would forward this information to his superiors, and while he sounded sincere, I really doubt that Dish Networks is going to do anything about their rogue affiliates.
Therefore, I will be using the automated call trace feature provided by qwest for every inbound telemarketing call I get from here on out. If any attorney wishes to contact me regarding filing suit to enjoin Dish Netorks from paying affiliates without proper supervision, I do make a good witness and would be more than happy to gain compensation for what is clearly beyond the pale.
Mike
Ashland, Oregon
U.S.A.
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