Phone calls from Model Rail

[RJS1977]

I've had a number of phone calls recently supposedly from Bauer Media offering to sell me three issues for £5. However as they have been asking for my bank details I'm a bot suspicious, Has anyone else had these? And is there anyone here "in the know" who can cinfirm or deny whether or not the calls are genuine?

[mikes rail]

yes I had a call a few weeks back, very bad line and hard to make out what the man was saying, same £5.00 offer. Told them no thanks. Does seem a bit strange and wondered at the time was it a con

[dibber25]

I've had a number of phone calls recently supposedly from Bauer Media offering to sell me three issues for £5. However as they have been asking for my bank details I'm a bot suspicious, Has anyone else had these? And is there anyone here "in the know" who can cinfirm or deny whether or not the calls are genuine?

 

I expect they are perfectly genuine marketing calls, but I have asked for it to be checked out. (I'm not in the office today)

CHRIS LEIGH

[edcayton]

I don't mind this sort of thing in the post when I can view it (or not) at my leisure. I very much resent marketing calls intruding into my time, and if Model Rail are doing this I would request that they stop immediately.

 

Ed

[Guest baldrick25]

I had a similar call a couple of months ago, asked some questions of the caller which only a legit seller would have known the answer, agreed to the deal and now receive Model Rail at a bargain price subscribed. I can't say that the call that others have received was genuine, mine was!

[rodshaw]

I very much resent marketing calls intruding into my time, and if Model Rail are doing this I would request that they stop immediately.

 

Ed

 

You can always subscribe to the Telephone Preference Service, you'll find the number of unsolicited calls you get drops dramatically after a couple of weeks. Most ones that still get through will stop immediately if you say your number is registered with the TPS.

 

The only ones it doesn't seem to stop are ones with weird numbers that seemingly come from Asian call centres, telling you you have a problem with your PC or some such nonsense.

[Talltim]

I can't imaging that fake Model Rail subscriptions would be top of the list of scammers successful cons!

[The Stationmaster]

I have a few standard phrases for dealing with telephone sales people

 

1. Those who are polite and not insistent - 'I don't buy things from telephones, please write with details and you obviously have my address because you've got my 'phone number'.

 

2. The rude and insistent -

a. If not to irritating - 'goodbye' (and replace receiver),

b. If rude and/or insistent - 'go forth and urinate' (or words to that effect),

c. If they're really insistent or irritating - 'go forth and multiply' (or words to that effect).

 

In many cases accompanied by 'you are in breach of the law, this 'phone is on the Preference service and i shall be reporting you'.

All of the above seem to work but 2c can be very heart warming when you've had the 3rd call of teh day telling you that XX bank owes you umpteen thousand £s for miss-selling me insurance that I never had on a mortgage that I never had.

[halfwit]

I have a few standard phrases for dealing with telephone sales people

 

I just gently place the phone on its side and leave them talking to themselves for a while (although I often forget that I've done that and leave the phone off the hook for several hours!).

I like to think that its costing the company time and money and the time wasted talking to themselves could mean that they'll make one less call a day.

[6959]

I have several ways of dealing with nuisance calls:

 

Put the phone aside and let them talk to themselves for half an hour. Good for political canvassers and people who talk without taking breath pauses.

 

If they are rude I ask them why they are making an illegal call because we are registered with TPS. Click!

 

If they say that TPS does not aply to them because they got the number from a local directory or they are doing market research, I insist they remove my name from their list. Generally works.

 

I have a radio next to the phone and I ask them to hold whilst I transfer them and play them some music or the 'wisdom' on Radio 5 Sports Live.

 

However, over the past few years I have needed to moderate my reaction to nuisance callers because after giving a guy some ear ache I asked him who the hell he was. Reply was, "Inland Revenue". Oops! Because we get so many calls I assume they are all nusisance calls and react badly which does not go down well with our dentist.

 

To weed out the dodgey calls we have a caller display and do not pick up Withheld, Unavailable, International, 00000000000000000, or blank. We have a broadband phone that is ex-directory and tell friends and family overseas to use that phone but our son cannot remember the other number, and Skype does not show up as his phone.

 

Our phone number is similar to a motorway services so we get a lot of calls asking for Dave, or Sharon or Burger King. Having done it myself I let them down lightly but not so the callers who thought we were a car dealership and breakdown service.

 

Our phone number was the same as the dealership except the area code was different. I complained to BT who explained that people start dialling before hearing the dial tone. So they dialled the area code, dial tone kicked in, then they dialled the number. System did not get the area code, assumed caller and other end were in same area and dialled us instead. We got very abusive calls in the early hours, like 3AM, demanding we send a tow truck to rescue them. Some complained that I was not sympathetic to their plight. Some got as good as they gave. One guy was so abusive that after his fifth call and he had not taken the hint I told him the company had gone bust and he should contact the Receiver to get his car back. Naughty really but at the time my parents were very fragile and a call in the middle of the night could only mean death or burning rubber down the motorway to the hospital.

[yorkie_pudd]

most i just put the phone down unless im that way out, i let them speak for a minute the say in corrupt voice, " na unstand ur english ppeez speek engalish." call ends lol.

[Mod5]

As we have been through this sort of thing many times before with many of the ways that these calls can be dealt with I see little point in going through them all again. So can we please wait for Chris to come back with an answer unless someone has other evidence to show that it is genuine or otherwise?

[Xerces Fobe2]

I expect they are perfectly genuine marketing calls, but I have asked for it to be checked out. (I'm not in the office today)

CHRIS LEIGH

 

Be aware if this is genuine and I get one of these calls that I registered with the telephone preference service and I will have no hesitation of reporting it. I regard any organisation that resorts to this form of marketing as violating my privacy and they never get my business again!

 

XF

 

Xerces Fobe

[Guest baldrick25]

I feel the lead came from a 'competition', most likely on the Model Rail stand at Warley last year. Maybe for other people it came from entering on-line competitions such as the Hornby site, or model rail magazine itself, etc. Maybe others came from other exhibitions like Barrow Hill etc, where Hornby had a stand/ took an active part in organising or sponsoring. Don't think that they are completely 'cold called'. Did you all really read all the small print on the back , or reverse side?

[figworthy]

You can always subscribe to the Telephone Preference Service, you'll find the number of unsolicited calls you get drops dramatically after a couple of weeks. Most ones that still get through will stop immediately if you say your number is registered with the TPS.

 

 

 

My understanding (and I would be happy to be corrected) is that the TPS doesn't apply when you have an existing relationship with the business in question. So to take the current example, if you already subscribe to Model Rail, then the call is outside the remit of TPS. Whether you welcome it or not is a different issue.

 

 

Adrian

[RJS1977]

From my point of view I don't even really mind being called - although it can be a minor irritant at times.

 

I just don't believe in giving myfinancial details out without being sure to whom I'm giving them (especially since I don't have a landline).

[dibber25]

I don't yet know whether the particular call mentioned above was genuine or not. I suspect it was a genuine call from the Bauer Marketing Department based on the fact the name/address/phone number etc has been supplied by the recipient at some point as someone interested in railway modelling. There would be no point in making random cold calls about a model railway magazine (unlike insurance companies, banks, double glazing etc) or in infringing TPS. Whilst I wouldn't wish to deny anyone the right to free speech, I find that 'No thank you, Goodbye' works just as well as any of the other suggestions and doesn't raise my blood pressure.

CHRIS LEIGH.

[reevesthecat]

I once posted a vote in model of the year with my wifes details (yes double vote- I was naughty) and model rail phoned her and asked if she wanted a subscription!

Never done it since and she declined the subscription by the way!

mark

[Andy Y]

I once posted a vote in model of the year with my wifes details (yes double vote- I was naughty) and model rail phoned her and asked if she wanted a subscription!

Never done it since and she declined the subscription by the way!

mark

 

That would have been a year when there was a prize draw; on that occasion users were asked if they wanted to opt-in to the database for future correspondence. I screened the list and sent the relevant names over to MR; therefore MR didn't receive a list of those who did not opt-in.

[rodshaw]

My understanding (and I would be happy to be corrected) is that the TPS doesn't apply when you have an existing relationship with the business in question. So to take the current example, if you already subscribe to Model Rail, then the call is outside the remit of TPS. Whether you welcome it or not is a different issue.

 

 

Adrian

 

Yes, that may be correct, but only because they usually have you opting in by default. You can still ask them not to make marketing calls, either when you order something or later, if you don't want to receive them, and they should take your name off their calling list.

[kevinlms]

I don't yet know whether the particular call mentioned above was genuine or not. I suspect it was a genuine call from the Bauer Marketing Department based on the fact the name/address/phone number etc has been supplied by the recipient at some point as someone interested in railway modelling. There would be no point in making random cold calls about a model railway magazine (unlike insurance companies, banks, double glazing etc) or in infringing TPS. Whilst I wouldn't wish to deny anyone the right to free speech, I find that 'No thank you, Goodbye' works just as well as any of the other suggestions and doesn't raise my blood pressure.

CHRIS LEIGH.

 

Exactly so, and any decent business ought to take such a clear decline as sufficient evidence that that particular potential customer doesn't want such calls and the best thing to do is remove them from their database. Such a business ought to compile their own database of customers & not just rely on a 'Do Not Call' register or whatever your local administration calls it.

 

Kevin Martin

[edcayton]

Much as I dislike these calls, the people making them are only trying to make a living and it ain't really their fault. I just let the answer-phone screen calls. They generally don't leave a message or even start talking so I presume they move on to the next (and possibly more rewarding) call.

 

Ed

[The Stationmaster]

Exactly so, and any decent business ought to take such a clear decline as sufficient evidence that that particular potential customer doesn't want such calls and the best thing to do is remove them from their database. Such a business ought to compile their own database of customers & not just rely on a 'Do Not Call' register or whatever your local administration calls it.

Kevin Martin

I am a 'Model Rail' subscriber and 'ticked the box' to say that I wanted neither telephone sales calls or email sales (but they do put 'offers' stuff in with the mag - fair enough). As a result, presumably, they have never canvassed me by either 'phone or email and subscription reminders come by post.

 

That in my view is the way things should be done and the way in which a company should be keeping faith with its customers. And it is totally different from the halfwits - such as one a couple of days ago - who call to 'conduct a survey' when what they are really trying to do is sell something or the others who call offering insulation and a Govt grant who are downright liars. And almost as bad as the weak in eyesight who occasionally stand at my front door trying to sell double glazing - to the occupant of a house which even to the myopic must obviously be a recent build.

[dibber25]

I don't yet know whether the particular call mentioned above was genuine or not. I suspect it was a genuine call from the Bauer Marketing Department based on the fact the name/address/phone number etc has been supplied by the recipient at some point as someone interested in railway modelling. There would be no point in making random cold calls about a model railway magazine (unlike insurance companies, banks, double glazing etc) or in infringing TPS. Whilst I wouldn't wish to deny anyone the right to free speech, I find that 'No thank you, Goodbye' works just as well as any of the other suggestions and doesn't raise my blood pressure.

CHRIS LEIGH.

 

I am advised that there is currently a telemarketing exercise being conducted on behalf of all three Bauer railway titles. The calls are therefore genuine.

CHRIS LEIGH

[Andy Y]

Thanks Chris; on that basis I'll lock the topic so it doesn't continue down the circular "How I get rid of sales calls" comments.