Help us stop this!

July 14, 2009 8:12 AM

Business-to-business annoying telemarketing-and making it stop-help us, hive mind!

Leaving out the gorey details, what legal recourse does a business have if another company keeps calling them -telemarketing calls-and we want them to stop? I know as a consumer at home all I have to do is get on a no call list or ask to be taken off their list and legally they must do so. Are businesses exempt from this rule or not-and if this other business keeps calling us what recourse do we have? They are very persistent, very annoying, and my boss would like these calls to be terminated with extreme prejudice. We are in NC if it matters.

posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies to law & government (9 comments total)

Whether you could actually do this or not is beyond me, but once I told the collections agency that kept calling me that I wasn't who they were looking for and that if they called again I'd get my lawyer (which I don't have) they stopped calling. Threaten with a lawyer.

Also depending on your business you could tell them that any further calls will result in a consultation fee. This works even better if you're able to actually deliver the bill somehow.
posted by theichibun at 8:19 AM on July 14

Hey, a little further googling has informed me that Clear Creek Consulting-the telemarketers in question-are....let's just say not good to do business with and leave it at that. Any creative ideas for if and when they call back would be good, and my boss would be ever so grateful.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:41 AM on July 14

Most useless/scammy business-to-business phone calls don't even ask for anyone by name - they ask for the manager, or the owner, or the IT head or what have you. So when they ask to speak to that person, and ask what their name is, you inform them that the manager is out but that his name is [totally fake name] - my favorite was Todd Forklift, so whenever someone would call back later asking for Mr. Forklift, I knew I didn't have to care or be polite and I could just say that Mr. Forklift will be in Uzbekistan for a month on very serious business and could you please call back then?

It won't end the calls - I believe that such a miracle is beyond man's ability - but it was a handy and hilarious way to immediately identify the calls so they won't take up more than ten seconds of your time instead of the three minute I-don't-want-to-be-rude-this-could-be-real dance.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:42 AM on July 14 [5 favorites has favorites]

Until you find a more permanent solution just tell them to hold on, put the phone down on the desk and leave it there until they hang up. Repeat. They may or may not remain persistent in the face of you wasting their time, but they can't be annoying if they are talking to the desk.
posted by mikepop at 8:52 AM on July 14

You may want to report their conduct to your state's attorney general.
posted by reenum at 9:00 AM on July 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

At a previous place I worked, we had a lot of calls for toner replacement and paper orders; they were quasi-scammy, in that they pretended we'd ordered from them before but hadn't. I became the go-to guy for these: whenever somebody got a call they thought was a telemarketer, the call would be transferred to me. I would play along, until I got to the actual part that involved ordering. Then I'd say, oops, they're not in my vendor list, so could they fax their information to me before I can start a purchase order? Once I got the fax and their business information (if they want to get paid, they'll include a real phone number and address), now I had enough to complain to the BBB in their area or the FTC. It may not stop them outright, but it also wastes their time, and if they are violating laws or regulations, eventually it'll help stop them from doing it to anybody.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:01 AM on July 14 [4 favorites has favorites]

"I'm sorry, we are not interested." Click. Repeat ad nauseam.
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:04 AM on July 14

Say this:
"This call is being recorded. We do not appreciate you calls to [company name]. Please put us on your do-not call list. If we receive another call from your organization or an affiliate we will contact the FCC and the state attorney general regarding FCC violations and harassing businesses practices." Include the state that you're in and the state they're calling from.

Then follow through. Check your state laws, you may be able to sue for $500 or more for violating a do-not call request, so you could add that to your threat list.

FCC complaint form

However they may hang up immediately after hearing "This call is being recorded" because htey know that means trouble.
posted by Ookseer at 11:07 AM on July 14

Thanks, guys-many of your ideas we'd already implemented but at this point we are ready to just cut them off at the knees. I thank you and the boss thanks you!!!
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 11:41 AM on July 14