The totally off-topic thread

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm on that list but it doesn't work outside Australia. But the list I was referring to above is a list the Indian call centres have for rude people.

i have made it on to that list!!!!!

i had a very insistent sales person one day, trying to sell me a calling plan.

despite numerous refusals from me they started to get more irate and more insistent (and I'm too polite to hang up). eventually after about 30 minutes they asked me 'which country do you call the most?' to which I responded [neighboring country that you really hate]... there was an abrupt stop to the spiel... silence.. and then they hung up on me!

i have never been called again in about 4 years!

 

[Simo]

I thought numbers were not reallocated for a number of years?

The general time frame is at least 6 months at a minimum.

We have been living here for nearly 2 years and still get ph calls for a business.

There is company's that buy fax number so they can spam the cough out of them.

I spent a week faxing back all of the spam faxes with a huge"NO" on them and it has slowed them down but now only get 2 or so every few days.

I got e mailed from a marketing company with Fax numbers from certain regions and post codes at a certain cost.

Our fax number is on our yellow pages ad and also web page as well.

 

[Pushka]

Another update. After Telstra advising us that it was impossible for us to have been using that number as their "computers" were telling them it had been cancelled by them in March 2012! I have now taken screen shots of the recent calls on my iphone which proudly lists me making a phone to that number just last week, and better yet, have downloaded Mr P's phone bill and he called that number five times this Tuesday! I have also updated our complaint to the TIO listing just a few of the phone calls made to that number, this week. And each call lasted around 2 minutes, and as it was billed, it was answered and didnt just ring out.

I wish I had have thought of doing this while I was on the phone to the complaints section as they were adamant that we could not be using this number. So cross right now, I have to get some sleep but too antsy and Mr P isn't even home so i cant even ear bash him!

 

[anat0l]

We're on that list. SWMBO stuffed them up one of them one night so much that he shouted "I don't want to speak to you!" SWMBO just replied "ok" and hung up. Basically we have a game of trying to keep them on the phone for as long as possible without buying anything and to just really annoy them. In the example mentioned they were asking for Mr (mymiddlename). Obvious they want me but she just keep saying nope no one by that name, who do you want?

Anyway, that's our game. It works because they have kpis based on selling things and short phone calls. So long phone call, no sale and word quickly gets around.

One day, I'm going to get a pair of ear muffs and a simple voice recorder. Then I'm going to try and find a recording of a sound which is high pitched and can pierce ears to bleeding point. Then, when one of them decides to call, I plan to have that sound on standby, with the volume cranked up to maximum.

I'm sure that when one of them goes to the hospital, they won't be calling again.

Having said that, I'd think those guys do the job because they want to get paid.

I almost tried for one of those jobs, given I was desperate to escape the harassment of my father. He quickly saw that I was driving off the proverbial career cliff, so he used his contacts and got me an interview for a job at Harvey Norman instead.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

One day, I'm going to get a pair of ear muffs and a simple voice recorder. Then I'm going to try and find a recording of a sound which is high pitched and can pierce ears to bleeding point. Then, when one of them decides to call, I plan to have that sound on standby, with the volume cranked up to maximum.

I'm sure that when one of them goes to the hospital, they won't be calling again.

obviously you are joking, but as this is an Internet forum and someone with zip intelligence might find this post and think its a good idea... obviously it is highly illegal and would subject you to the full force of the criminal law. also stupid since the calling company has your phone number so you are easy to find.

 

[jetlagger]

At home I've pulled out the landline. So sick of Indian call centres. Apparently in the call centre there is a list of rude people who are put onto a "do not call" list. I want to get on that list.

I used to get annoyed with at least 3-5 calls per day on the business line asking for the accounts manager or whoever.. The polite response expired long ago..
Have tried many angles of approach:
How is the weather in Melbourne today?
Detract the conversation to the mentioning of ad-hoc cricket scoring.
Mention in graphic detail about the unused bread maker (still in box) that I have for sale.
Or the more appropriate.. I'll just go & grab the Boss.. 10-15 mins later (on speaker phone, ask if they are still there..Boss Bob is 'in the paddock" ..

It's a game plan nowadays.. The last Sandeep AKA 'Simon/e" was responded to in a very colloquial form that our 'Boss Bob" has gone to India to meet you in person.. I Just need to reconfirm your address & mobile number for the appointment... suffice to say that the call was/is very shortened with the usual apologies..

 

[Mal]

I used to have a home number that was slightly transposed from the phone number for an alternative Brisbane FM station. Oh wow. Those calls were fun...

 

[anat0l]

obviously you are joking, but as this is an Internet forum and someone with zip intelligence might find this post and think its a good idea... obviously it is highly illegal and would subject you to the full force of the criminal law. also stupid since the calling company has your phone number so you are easy to find.

On the other hand, if I was on the "do not call" list, I could claim not only is that company in violation of the law behind that, then I'm going to claim provocation.

Perhaps I'm being too brusque, but I can't help but feel the idiot who dared violate the register rules should deserve it. Otherwise, they just keep doing it and doing it, and you don't have anything to trace the company back (they use generic names, you can't track them, you can attempt to retrieve the source call number from your telco but that is if they can reveal that number), and bringing action against a company that may not exist or actually be backed by any equity is an empty effort.

If it isn't those who violate the register who should feel the pain of having to listen to pointlessness, then it should be the technical idiot who tried to scam me the other day by calling up and claiming that we had a security flaw with our network, and we had to purchase their software. I picked it up quickly, yelled him to leave us alone, and slammed the phone down. My dad, who is usually a critical hard cough, actually answered the phone the second time when he called and politely told him not to bother us. I was shocked at dad, because he would usually be the one to fly off his temper, especially if someone is trying to cheat him. I'm surprised he thought the man on the other end of the line who is clearly lacking in morals and ethics actually deserved the dignity to be answered with civility, when he deserved anything but and then some.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

On the other hand, if I was on the "do not call" list, I could claim not only is that company in violation of the law behind that, then I'm going to claim provocation.

Perhaps I'm being too brusque, but I can't help but feel the idiot who dared violate the register rules should deserve it. Otherwise, they just keep doing it and doing it, and you don't have anything to trace the company back (they use generic names, you can't track them, you can attempt to retrieve the source call number from your telco but that is if they can reveal that number), and bringing action against a company that may not exist or actually be backed by any equity is an empty effort.

If it isn't those who violate the register who should feel the pain of having to listen to pointlessness, then it should be the technical idiot who tried to scam me the other day by calling up and claiming that we had a security flaw with our network, and we had to purchase their software. I picked it up quickly, yelled him to leave us alone, and slammed the phone down. My dad, who is usually a critical hard cough, actually answered the phone the second time when he called and politely told him not to bother us. I was shocked at dad, because he would usually be the one to fly off his temper, especially if someone is trying to cheat him. I'm surprised he thought the man on the other end of the line who is clearly lacking in morals and ethics actually deserved the dignity to be answered with civility, when he deserved anything but and then some.

again... appreciate you are completely joking... but for the idiots out there (throwing rocks off an overpass type idiots for example) lets make it clear that your wishful musings are still against the law and there is no justification in this type of matter.

you can simply hang up... you have no right to inflict injury or intend to inflict injury for this type of 'intrusion'.

 

[jetlagger]

I used to have a home number that was slightly transposed from the phone number for an alternative Brisbane FM station. Oh wow. Those calls were fun...

Song requests.. ?
Congratulations .. Your the 5th caller for a day at Movieworld.. :shock:

My phone number once had a 'mix up" with the local lady entertainers.. & so the phone ran hot with such obscure calls around the clock.. Initially it was very entertaining.. How Much ? What sort of service? home calls etc..
A career change I considered..
I delved.. Not so desirable pickings after several days of weirdos obsessively calling & therefore resolved & well compensated by the local newspaper.

 

[anat0l]

throwing rocks off an overpass type idiots for example

Don't associate me with people who throw rocks off an overpass. There is no attempt to even try and equate that to a "justice", because unless there is a person out there who has an occupation as a truckie who has committed some sort of atrocity or social intransigence, there is no justice in throwing rocks off an overpass.

you can simply hang up... you have no right to inflict injury or intend to inflict injury for this type of 'intrusion'.

That's just plain sad. That's all I'll say.

Justice is definitely blind in this country. In fact, someone stole the statue, because they thought it was a nice joke.

 

[Mal]

Song requests.. ?
Congratulations .. Your the 5th caller for a day at Movieworld.. :shock:

Well check out their website and decide who would be calling.. hardly movieworld material.
www.4zzz.org.au

Anyway, being mistaken for a "massage" line would probably suck more.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Don't associate me with people who throw rocks off an overpass. There is no attempt to even try and equate that to a "justice", because unless there is a person out there who has an occupation as a truckie who has committed some sort of atrocity or social intransigence, there is no justice in throwing rocks off an overpass.



That's just plain sad. That's all I'll say.

Justice is definitely blind in this country. In fact, someone stole the statue, because they thought it was a nice joke.

no no... my reference to idiots (rocks off overpass) is that they might be the sort of person that reads your post and actually thinks you are serious and thinks they might try something like that. it was just going to show that some people might not appreciate it was only in jest.

 

[blackcat20]

These take my cake today for "hair tear of the day".

Started working a new experiment today. Lots of water, bit of construction required (duct tape to the rescue), and plenty of blue dye (for tracer). Got quite a bit of blue dye and dyed water on my hands and lab coat, you'd think I was butchering a Smurf.

Lab coat is in the bucket soaking overnight with Napisan.

Thats when I take my lab coat back to the store room and ask for a new one

Never did get to pay that invoice. I've sent them an email saying that I tried calling them to pay it, so there had better not be any penalties on Monday.

 

[anat0l]

Thats when I take my lab coat back to the store room and ask for a new one

Well in the words of my generation, aren't you a lucky duck.

This lab coat I've had since undergrad. And I'm fairly certain that unless I had a high cycle rate of them, my employer wouldn't pay for my lab coat (it would be a condition of appointment that I supply one). If it came to that, I'd probably be claiming the expense on my tax return, but that's the best I could do.

Nothing really wrong with stained lab coat, as long as it's all sanitised in the end. It's just quite unprofessional, so to speak (since from a distance, a stain on a coat can't be judged as being a real threat or not).

 

[medhead]

I used to have a home number that was slightly transposed from the phone number for an alternative Brisbane FM station. Oh wow. Those calls were fun...

Thought you might be talking about ZZZ. Special people.

Our Brisbane phone number used to end in 1222, back in the days when Pizza Hut ended with 1111. As their call centre was within a few km of home the first four number also matched. So we used to get a number of Pizza Hut calls late in the evening. Depending on how I felt it was either say wrong number or take the order.

 

[Mal]

Thought you might be talking about ZZZ. Special people.

Our Brisbane phone number used to end in 1222, back in the days when Pizza Hut ended with 1111. As there call centre was within a few km of home the first four number also matched. So we used to get a number of Pizza Hut calls late in the evening. Depending on how I felt it was either say wrong number or take the order.

Aah yes. I still remember the jingle. That would have been fun...

A workmate (after a very long overtime shift) convinced me that b&w cabs number was actually dominos number. Was not impressed.
131008 v 131888 if my memory serves me well...

 

[anat0l]

Aah yes. I still remember the jingle. That would have been fun...

I still remember the ad which took place in some sort of patient's ward. One patient looks grimly at his food, then all the patients start singing the phone number. And, in those days, phone numbers only had 7 digits. When the extra '3' came in, that singing phone number jingle pretty much died immediately.

A workmate (after a very long overtime shift) convinced me that b&w cabs number was actually dominos number. Was not impressed.
131008 v 131888 if my memory serves me well...

In recent times, B&W Cabs made a phone number jingle with their number.

Too bad 13CABS was taken already by Yellow Cabs. Then again, when you're hailing from the rank, there is no choice; when you're calling them for a job, it's almost a much of muchness.

 

[Major]

I used to get annoyed with at least 3-5 calls per day on the business line asking for the accounts manager or whoever.. The polite response expired long ago..
Have tried many angles of approach:
How is the weather in Melbourne today?
Detract the conversation to the mentioning of ad-hoc cricket scoring.
Mention in graphic detail about the unused bread maker (still in box) that I have for sale.
Or the more appropriate.. I'll just go & grab the Boss.. 10-15 mins later (on speaker phone, ask if they are still there..Boss Bob is 'in the paddock" ..

It's a game plan nowadays.. The last Sandeep AKA 'Simon/e" was responded to in a very colloquial form that our 'Boss Bob" has gone to India to meet you in person.. I Just need to reconfirm your address & mobile number for the appointment... suffice to say that the call was/is very shortened with the usual apologies..

I keep asking for curry recipes, particularly what spices they use. I queried a lady one day about chicken curry and after a um..er...she said she was vegetarian and hung up.
We haven't been bothered much lately

 

[blackcat20]

Well in the words of my generation, aren't you a lucky duck.

This lab coat I've had since undergrad. And I'm fairly certain that unless I had a high cycle rate of them, my employer wouldn't pay for my lab coat (it would be a condition of appointment that I supply one). If it came to that, I'd probably be claiming the expense on my tax return, but that's the best I could do.

Nothing really wrong with stained lab coat, as long as it's all sanitised in the end. It's just quite unprofessional, so to speak (since from a distance, a stain on a coat can't be judged as being a real threat or not).

I've still got mine from first year uni too. But the institute where I work provides them (with the institute name on them); we have to wear them. So they get sent to laundry and we get a fresh one. (And aren't we the same generation?)