TrueCall – another nail in the telemarketing coffin?
Howard Lake | 3 December 2008 | Blogs
I spent yesterday ‘working from home’ – actually mostly hanging around waiting for a mechanic to turn up then chasing car parts round the city.
Even so, I did get some daytime at my desk (kitchen table) but even that was interrupted regularly by telemarketing calls.
Truth be told they didn’t really bother me, but my other half genuinely works from home for two or three days a week and she’s truly sick of them. But because of our work we don’t subscribe to the TPS (Telephone Preference Service – it’s an opt-out).
However, I see Which? has given a mixed but not significantly critical review to the TrueCall.
Now while this telephone equivalent of a spam filter just looks like more IT that can go wrong to us, my partner could well be tempted if the volume (number not loudness!) of calls continues at its present rate. She gets half a dozen calls a day at least. One day Style Kitchens(?) rang four times – and while she won’t take the phone off the hook or unplug it – why should, she have to after all? – she’s sorely tempted, especially lately as the number of calls has risen noticeably, predominantly with ‘debt counselling’, consolidation loans and utility switching offers. At least half the calls we receive are recorded messages, many are only picked up at the other end when we answer and loads end up as either silent messages on our voicemail or even people saying,
“Hello, hello, can you hear me, hello …” to our answerphone. Idiots.
I don’t think we’ll get a TrueCall, and I don’t know if many people will buy one, but if they do, the telemarketing industry’s failure of self-regulation has only itself to blame.
Which? review: www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/truecall/index.jsp.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.