Annoying phone calls

[zoebartlett]

Geez, tonight is not my night. I''m in a crabby mood. Does anyone else get annoying phone calls from their insurance company, especially late at night? My FI just got off the phone after a twenty minute conversation with a rep. He was answering the woman''s questions and completely engaging her. If it was me, I would have very curtly told her that it''s 8:30 in the evening and I wasn''t available to talk. To me, they''re just like telemarketers. Anyway...

These insurance reps call at the worst times (in the evening, late at night) and they call frequently (sometimes within a few day''s time frame). I know they''re only doing their job but it still bugs me.

Does anyone else get these calls?

 

[chiapet]

I haven''t spoken to my insurance agent in 3 years. It is kinda weird that yours calls at 8.30 Friday night. But your FI must be a real patient guy to talk to her for so long.

 

[Kaleigh]

Yes, we get them, and it drives us nuts. I try to look at caller ID, but if I am downstairs in the kitchen, we don''t have it on that phone. Must change that. I don''t want to be bothered at night. Heck I don''t want to be bothered by day. Send a letter, but please don''t call me. The kids call us at night, so we are always looking forward to their calls.

 

[zoebartlett]

Kaleigh,

It drives me batty. My insurance co. calls pretty regularly and I''ve gotten to know the phone number. Just recently, they kept calling and calling. I ignored the calls and kept track of the number of times they had called in a three day span. I finally got a letter from the company saying that they had been trying to reach me and I need to update them with my "new" number (assuming I had changed it). Thinking that they really did need to get a hold of me for an urgent matter (change in coverage etc.), I finally called them back. Oh no, it was the same old story -- just checking up on me. They''re worse than my mother. It''s one thing if it''s a courtesy call every 6 months (if that) but otherwise, please don''t call me. Please.

 

[LegacyGirl]

That would drive me nuts!

 

[perry]

Date: 3/7/2008 9:11:51 PM
Author: ZoeBartlett
Kaleigh,

It drives me batty. My insurance co. calls pretty regularly and I've gotten to know the phone number. Just recently, they kept calling and calling. I ignored the calls and kept track of the number of times they had called in a three day span. I finally got a letter from the company saying that they had been trying to reach me and I need to update them with my 'new' number (assuming I had changed it). Thinking that they really did need to get a hold of me for an urgent matter (change in coverage etc.), I finally called them back. Oh no, it was the same old story -- just checking up on me. They're worse than my mother. It's one thing if it's a courtesy call every 6 months (if that) but otherwise, please don't call me. Please.

I'd say its time to change insurance companies.

I don't recall a single call from my insurance agent unless I asked them to call me for something (in over 7 years at this location - and in about a decade with my previous agent).

A couple times a year I get a letter or card from them.

A couple times a year I drop in on their office to chat (husband /wife team - with young kids: Statefarm Insurance).

That's it.

I'd say you need to find an agent who treats you appropriately. They do exist.

Perry

 

[strmrdr]

That's where 2 lines/phones is nice.
put an answering machine on the second line and a phone with the ringer shut off.
Give that number out too your insurance company utilities and doctors, people you don't like then check the messages every 2-3 days unless your expecting a call.
If your expecting a call just turn the ringer on and the volume up on the answering machine and screen calls.
Anyone I actually want too talk too has my cell number the rest get my home number.
I haven't talked too anyone I didn't want too talk too in over 7 years by doing this.

My insurance company and my agent have never called me, find someone else and tell them that the harassing phone calls is why your switching.

 

[777_LDY]

Zoe, I was getting insurance for my stone and the agent actually called me back at around 10:30 PM. We were all sleeping but I jumped out of bed to answer it and he was like "Oh I was hoping the machine would pick up, I didn''t want you to think I forgot about you." I"m thinking to myself after about 8PM I figured he wasn''t going to call but didn''t expect that.

It was very strange.

 

[Steel]

I feel your frustration.....

DH and I are polar opposite on this one... He will pick up the phone and talk to them about their survey because he thinks his info REALLY makes a difference. I will not answer or if I get caught out and do pick up I will hang up ASAP.

Companies have to PAY for market research; they wll not get it for free from me.
Call during sociable hours - if necessary, in fact just do not call. Use the outbound staff to answer the inbound calls so I do not have to queue while my call is important to you.
Data is complied from these outbound calls on your customer type. If you answer the phone they will call you back. End of. If you do not answer they will not waste 10 seconds dialling your phone. If you do answer but hang up, eventually you will be removed from the outbound list as you are non-productive.

So unless you are a 999 dispatcher, do not pick up the phone to a number you do not recognise. Or if you do, and it is a creepy double gazing man, just hang up!

ETA: I remembered we have legislation here on cold calling only inside sociable hours. No calls after 10 and before 10 on a Sunday. Something like that. Check into it, you probably have somethin similar.

 

[Mara]

we don''t even use our house phone, we only have it for DSL. we both use our cells for 100% of our calls. we never even gave out the home # to anyone. whenever we do randomly decide to turn the ringer on, it never fails to ring like within an hour and we stare at it and think ''telemarketer'' so we turn it off again. hahaha.

so no, we luckily are not plagued with calls from anyone we don''t want to talk to, thanks to not having the phone on!! plus i would never talk to anyone anyway. whenever sprint tries to call my cell for some ''important upgrade'' thing i just tell them no thanks and hang up.

 

[elle_chris]

All the annoying phone calls stopped when we got rid of our landline. We only have cells now.

A few months ago though, some collection company started calling my number. I never picked it up as i saw it was one of those 866 area codes.
But they kept leaving messages for someone named "frank" whatnot.
I had finally called them back and explained there was no one here by that name. They started grilling me. "Have I ever heard of this person, how long I''ve had my number etc." I tried explaining that I''ve had this number for many years and no, i don''t know anyone by that name. They apologized and said I wouldn''t receive anymore calls.
A few weeks later it started all over again. When I called back a second time, I was beyond annoyed when the same questions were asked yet again.
I told them to stop wasting my minutes and threatened that I would report them to the BBB, my cell carrier, and as I have a friend that works for the Village Voice, I''d make sure their collection company along with the idiot who was questioning me would get a nice writeup. Again the apologies came- blah blah blah.
So far so good though, no more calls. Yet.

 

[sumbride]

The only time my insurance company has ever called me was in reference to an actual business need... like a claim. No other reason, no other time. I only deal with them online for everything else. You need a new insurance company!

We get a LOT of political calls, plus DH was doing some surveys for somebody (they actually paid him to), and we occasionally get calls from our credit card companies hocking their "credit protection services", but honestly? I don''t answer the phone. I don''t. If I don''t know the number (or sometimes do and don''t want to talk) I don''t pick up the phone. We have voicemail for a REASON. I feel like just because you call me doesn''t mean I''m obligated to talk to you. Our cell phones don''t work well inside our thick brick house, so we do use our land line, but I''m still suspicious when it rings. I think of it as mainly existing for OUTBOUND calls!