yeah I was wondering if thing was up and running yet? Its supposed to be a registry you can list your phone number so that the telemarketing scum are banned from harassing you.

Does this help?

cheers infi.

says it starts in May only a few more days ...

telemarketing scum = owned

Phone rings, I answer with "hello this is Billy?"....

If there's just silence for the first couple of seconds, I've finally started just hanging up the phone.

I don't get it Billy... what kind of retard gets thrown off by that?

Just a heads up, this registry won't stop market researchers calling you AFAIK. But at least with market researchers they take no for an answer, and they don't want any money.

i dont mind taking the time out to answer questions for market researchers that is if i have the time, cause i see it as a way to improve services. so for the Register i can just see it now, some offshore company going through all the numbers and calling each person on it. or even just a prankster wanting to annoy people, such a stupid idea so easy to exploit.

market researchers aren't to bad i don't mind answering their questions providing that they don't call at stupid times of day and s***

but telemarketers give me tha s***s mostly the ones from india or some s***.
i got 3 call last weekend withing 2 hrs of each other saying i was to recieve a free mobile phone all i had to do was change over to the companies phone plan for x amount of bla bla bla bla i don't f***ing care.

what kind of retard gets thrown off by that?

It's that initial first few seconds of silence (the telemarketers use VoIP so they're paying the cost of a local call when calling you from Bangladesh etc)...

If there's just silence for the first couple of seconds, I've finally started just hanging up the phone.

ditto, i can pick the Indian telemarketers a mile away. If they don't answer immediately, it goodbye like a stale toilet bowl of piss.

When I am in the mood (most of the time), I love spinning them crap or I throw some Oz lingo at them. It really throws them off because they cannot properly understand. If I have to tolerate them, then I might as well be entertained. It is funny how their entire line of communication breaks down when you just start talking crap to them... :)

woot. bring on the freedom from non-solicited telephone communications! i can't see why this wouldn't affect market researchers from calling via telephone as well.. after all, that's telemarketting. i personally don't care what the reason is for telemarketters to call me, whether to sell something directly or to help them sell something indirectly, i don't want to participate.

I did telemarketing for a week ages ago and then told em to stick it (actually no i just left) but yeah we'd ring up these random numbers for from different suburbs and get them to fill in some bulls*** suvery. After a couple of days we'd ring them back and thank em for helping us with the survey and for their efforts offer them a s*** phone for free that you wouldn't use if they paid you and put them on a 24 month plan and suck them dry. Lots of dumb people out there, including myself for even thinking of taking up a telemarketing job.

One time a punjabby rang and asked if I was the owner of the property and shizz and I said no the owners were obviously not at home because I was robbing the place .... he still tried to do the hard sell on me.

I told him that I'm busy ransacking the place and to call back later.

last edited by sLaps_Forehead at 16:15:50 28/Apr/07

woot. bring on the freedom from non-solicited telephone communications! i can't see why this wouldn't affect market researchers from calling via telephone as well.. after all, that's telemarketting.

Nah, not really because they're not selling you anything.

i personally don't care what the reason is for telemarketters to call me, whether to sell something directly or to help them sell something indirectly, i don't want to participate.

What about government-funded surveys, political polls etc? No commercial aspect there, you wouldn't be helping them sell anything directly or indirectly..

Just say you're not interested, and they go away. Or better yet, get a silent number..

I told him that I'm busy ransacking the place and to call back later.

Classic.....love it!

My private number gets telemarketers all the time, sometimes i'll play games with them, other times i'll just hang up.

The biggest problem with political polls is that they have the potential to be inaccurate by missing out a very large demographic: d*******s who think they're too good to spare 2 minutes.

I'm all for the new telemarketing registry to prevent getting calls. The only problem is that you could be getting calls from some s***hole sweatshop in India that is hiding behind such a massive paper trail that you'd struggle to charge them with anything.

Best thing to do is to answer the phone in an Indian accent saying "Welcome to Curry in a Hurry" ... then hear them go ahh ummm what ... sorry wrong number.

My private number gets telemarketers all the time, sometimes i'll play games with them, other times i'll just hang up.

Telemarketers / market researchers get silent numbers because they use old versions of the phone book, so if you're getting telemarketer calls on a private number then your phone company has just given you a number that the previous owner didn't have as silent.

a lot of telemarketters use auto dialers that just sequencially ring every phone number combination. that is why you often get a phone call where it seems no one is on the other end when you answer & then the line goes dead. it is an auto-dialler that has found you are an existing telelphone number & can go into the lists for a telemarketter to call. which is why silent numbers do jack to 'hide' you from telemarketters.

Nah, not really because they're not selling you anything.

marketting over the telephone = telemarketting... it's not rocket science.

What about government-funded surveys, political polls etc? No commercial aspect there, you wouldn't be helping them sell anything directly or indirectly..

can you name a genuine govenment survey that has an employee ring random people to do survey? they usually do thier surveys like the census.

Or better yet, get a silent number..

even if silent numbers did deter telemarketting i see no reason why anyone should have to go to the trouble of being unlisted to try & escape telemarketters. especially with this new system about to start which should do the job in any case.

fcuk all telemarketing f***** invasion of peace and serenity motherf***ers

marketting over the telephone = telemarketting... it's not rocket science.

They're not marketing (selling/advertising)anything - it's research, genius.
The "market" refers to what's being researched..(whether it's the consumer market, the political market, or whatever)

can you name a genuine govenment survey that has an employee ring random people to do survey? they usually do thier surveys like the census.

Yeah I can name two from the last few months:

- a public transport survey conducted by Translink (AC Nielsen did this one, IIRC)
- a survey about exercise and local community facilities conducted by QLD Health

Both were done over the phone.

even if silent numbers did deter telemarketting i see no reason why anyone should have to go to the trouble of being unlisted to try & escape telemarketters. especially with this new system about to start which should do the job in any case.

Well not completely, as has been pointed out, the Do Not Call register doesn't apply to market researchers! (Charities are also exempt, I believe). Sheesh..

Silent number is still your best bet - if you hate 'em that much you'll pay the extra couple of dollars to do it.

silent number is free with optus you scallywag playa haters.

when i was overseas I learnt a few indian cusswords and they come in handy : )(

They're not marketing (selling/advertising)anything - it's research, genius.
The "market" refers to what's being researched..(whether it's the consumer market, the political market, or whatever)

bull s***. who does the research benefit? it benifits the company doing the research, for the purposes of selling thier s***... most of the time it is just a precurser to further telemarketing. at any rate, it doesn't benifit the call recipient so they can get f***ed.
silent numbers aren't the answer for the reasons given above. now that i read a bit more about this 'do not call' register it doesn't go very far to impede telemarketters at all, so i guess i will have to go back to my old methods of misinformation & counterscripting to deal with these annoying fukrs.

i always answer telephone surveys. if there is anyway for me to help the market pump out better products for me to consume (preferbaly while making me feel all warm and fuzzy about being environmental as long as i don't actually have to sacrifice any comfort or pay more cause i really don't give a f***) i am glad to help.

and i don't consider it telemarketing as such, but i suppose it does constitute an unsolicited call.

maybe phones should have an msn function built into them where people have to be allowed to call first, and then if they annoy you they can be blocked.

bull s***. who does the research benefit? it benifits the company doing the research, for the purposes of selling thier s***... most of the time it is just a precurser to further telemarketing. at any rate, it doesn't benifit the call recipient so they can get f***ed.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong? Most of the time, the survey results are passed onto the client as pure statistical results - with no personal details attached (they tell you this at the end usually - Privacy Act prevents it), so they can't be used for telemarketing purposes later on.

And as infi pointed out, you do benefit indirectly, by getting better products or services as a result of the research..

(Mind you, I'm talking about genuine market research companies here - not dodgy telemarketers trying to pass something off as a survey when they actually are trying to sell something - THEY can get f***ed, as you say.)

maybe phones should have an msn function built into them where people have to be allowed to call first, and then if they annoy you they can be blocked

genius!

Needs to be spam filter products for both tv and telephones IMO.

I refuse to watch adds, I refuse to talk to telemarketers. Will the world ever f***ing evolve into something good? Cause f*** knows, there is so much s*** out there is just ruins life. Life can be good.

f*** up Gimpy, why do you even have a phone? Nobody is ringing you anyway :P

can you name a genuine govenment survey that has an employee ring random people to do survey? they usually do thier surveys like the census.

Well, Demon, you're just proving how ignorant you are on the topic. Do you *really* believe that governments bodies, your bank, your car insurer or your educational institutions have the resources and the manpower with the necessary skills to do mass calling? Do you think they can just do a mini cencus to find out if there's a 10% swing in the polls 2 days before an election? What kind of magical fairly land do you live in? If you need to survey a thousand people over 2 days just a few days before an election, you're gonna need a full call centre set up with the right gear, software and skilled people to get it done. I have personally done jobs for multiple government bodies to find out just how much people know about particular topics to help them design and model public awareness and education campaigns. Market research companies also do work for other organisations like banks, schools, insurers, unions etc to inform members of important information, changes or to get their imput to improve the particular organisation for those members.

So yeah, put your tin foil hat back on, they're all out just to get your money, steal your details and annoy you. You're that important.

Edit: And no, market researchers can't name a govermnent body they have done surveys for, that would violate the Privacy Act and other industry regulations.

last edited by Crizane Tribal at 18:09:06 30/Apr/07

ok so i was probably on the wrong track with govt surveys... although how useful the information would be is debatable. i persoanlly have only been subjected to one govt survey, which was the recent literacy survey, & they sent a bloke out. pre-electoral surveys are a fukn joke anyways.

i am going on the telemarketting & surveys i actually do get, ad nauseum. they are in order of repitition :-
1. telephone companies 'surveying' my current communications plan (with no view to offering thier own, of course! how absurd of me to think such things. these guys are altruistic! surely!!)
2. loan re-finance jerks, who miraculously know my name, address & the fact i have a housing loan even though i never released such information publicly.
3. time-share holiday accomodation. do you earn enough to win!?! just tell us so we can pass yur financial details onto the next scumbag.

but maybe you are right... i must just be paranoid & really the world is a marvelous place where no one would think to gain advantage over thier fellow man. or maybe this is the capitolist society that i know only too well & yur a naive twat.

I think we've established that you're the naive one...

I'm talking about real market researchers though, not telemarketers posing as market researchers. You should be able to tell the difference between the two just by how they behave on the phone and the language they use etc. If you're suspicious, ask them if they're selling something, the name of their company and a contact number.

As for the guys who seem to know a lot about you, I'd look into who you give your details to. You'll find that most things you sign up for these days (bank accounts, insurance, phones etc) will have allowances for the company to contact you for their own research (or pass that info on to the companies with the skills and people to do so). OH - and Flybuys reserves the right to give your details to anybody AFAIK. One time a while back I had a guy ring me on my mobile to try to sell me a mortgage. I told him I wasn't interested, and asked where they got my details from. He gave me the name of some company (for got it's name, had something about 'light' or something in the name). I called that company up, told them to remove me from their records and they did it. Haven't had a telemarketing call since. Anybody else ever tried that?

I don't have a landline where I live, but I usually go down to stay with my family for a couple of weeks during the uni holidays (so I'm there for about 2 months out of the year total) and they've never had a telemarketer call while I've been there. Are people exaggerating how frequent telemarketers call, or are they just dumb about who they give details to? At any rate, telemarketers are pretty scummy and it must be a s***ter of a job.

My point is that anybody with even an average level of intelligence should be able to tell the difference from a telemarketing scam and a real market researcher.

You know, you dont have to answer the phone when it rings...