[sharpiel]

Today was the last straw...

Over the previous several weeks I've received 6 calls from a mob called NCS - National Consumer Services - on behalf of Real Insurance.

The caller doesn't start the call by asking if I'm busy and able to chat, they state their name and tell me they're with NCS and then advise me the call will be recorded for training and quality control purposes. Then they launch straight into the sales pitch for Real Insurance.

The first time I let it slide and just said I wasn't interested and to please remove me from their calling list. Well...talk about persistence. I had to almost be rude to get rid of the caller. I've received a few telemarketing calls recently and just put it down to an ex wife giving my mobile out to these type of cold callers just to irritate me.

The second call caught me at a busy time. That didn't worry the caller who insisted on running through the same sales pitch. This time I was irritated and told him I'd asked not to be called again, to remove me from their list and please, please, please don't call back..."I'm sorry sir I'll take care of that for you."

The third call I thought I'd have fun and decided to try and sell personal training packages to him. Not surprisingly he decided he was to busy and tried to terminate the call. Persistently I kept him on the line for as long as I could till I could tell he was getting irritated. Then I reiterated to take me off theirs calling list. He agreed...

Fourth call I politely waited for the lady caller to run through her spiel and asked her "Do you get abused a lot in your job by those of us you call?" Not surprisingly she said she did. I the said I wouldn't abuse her but that every call previous I'd asked never to be called again could she take care of that and crestfallen, she promised to do so.

Fifth call I have to say I lost it. Got quite heated with the guy and he just hung up on me. Fuming I wished I'd gotten his name. Pretty jack of this by now...

Today though I was ready. Today I listened and very politely got all the details of the caller including name and employee number before insisting on being put through to his supervisor. The trick is to get all their details so that you can report them if they hang up on you. When they know they can be identified they'll do ANYTHING for you.

Supervisor came on line and same details provided. Told her the situation re all the calls and how I'd repeatedly asked to never be called again. Turns out ONLY the supervisor has the discretion to put a name on the Do Not Call List.

My question WTF didn't every prior operator tell me this so I didn't have to go through the angst of repeated calls from these bozos? Very sorry sir. Promise to take care of it now sir...

Needless to say I'll never willingly deal with NCS again or Real Insurance.

I know there's a consumer site you can place your name on to be removed from calling lists...