[LINK] Annoying/Abusive phone calls from Westpac

[Craig Sanders]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 10:40:34AM +1100, Stilgherrian wrote:
> On 14/12/2009, at 10:15 AM, Craig Sanders wrote:
> > is your phone number on the govt's Do Not Call register? if so,
> > lodge a complaint.
> >
> > if not, register and wait a month.  then lodge a complaint.
> 
> Surely that only applies to marketing and related calls, not attempts  
> to get in touch with an actual (former) customer?

nope. not in my experience, anyway.

i had a similar situation a few months back. some company trying to get
in touch with their old customer (i got their number when i got a voip
service from my ISP). the company left a mostly incomprehensible message
on voice mail and, assuming it was phone spam, i lodged a complaint. a
few days later, the company called again and i told them they had the
wrong number and i had no idea who or where their old customer might be.
they said they wouldn't call again and they haven't.

about 2 weeks ago, i got a call from somebody from the ACMA about
my DNCR complaint.  I had to talk them out of following up on the
complaint, saying that it seemed to be a legitimate mistaken call to an
old customer of theirs and that they weren't going to call me again.

i had to reassure them at least 3 or 4 times that i wanted no further
action.



in any case, if you tell a business not to contact you (or to contact
you only in writing) then they have to comply. even if you have
previously given them consent. whatever the reason for the contact,
marketing or not.

they do not have a right to harass you, and they can't just use "our
computer doesn't make it easy to remove your number" as an excuse to
keep calling you.




btw, one other method that has worked for me (when auto-phone-spammed by
AGL) was to complain my way up the corporate ladder every single time
they called me (and, really, it's not that hard finding email addresses
and phone numbers on corporate web sites, or other info sources such
as ASIC). it didn't take long until they realised that it was far less
trouble to just remove my number from their dialer list than to have to
deal with senior management wanting to know why they're being annoyed
with complaints.





craig


ps: i remember that autodiallers used to be illegal in australia, anyway
- is that not the case any more? i thought that was part of the reason
for all the foreign telemarketing calls, as a way around australia's
laws.


pps: if all else fails, next time they call say "yes, I am the person
you're trying to call but i am emigrating to uruguay next week and my
new phone number is X" where X is one of westpac's own in-dial numbers
or, better yet, some westpac exective's personal mobile. or, to spread
the joy around, one of ANZ's or National's in-dial numbers.


-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>