My doctor says I shouldn’t get angry, that I need to let things go. But how do I keep my cool when some idiot discount phone company spams me incessantly? In the last 12 hours I have received about a dozen calls from Startec. The bastards are so desperate for business that they call me and pretend to be “Om Malik” and speak to me in Hindi and Urdu, hoping that I’ll talk to them.
I told these idiots that I don’t want anything, and that if you’re going to bother someone during work hours, you’re only going to alienate them as a potential customer. That hasn’t stopped them from calling back — again and again. They are calling my mobile number, which is what makes the whole thing so aggravating. I am surprised that a buyout firm like Platinum Equity is involved with this piece-of-shit operation. I interview Tom Gores for Red Herring during the heyday of the telecom boom. I guess there are slim pickings for telecom buyout guys these days, hence investing in Startec. Sorry for ranting!
Om,
Why dont you do what I do and have fun with these guys. I use a different ethnic accent and confuse the hell out of them.
Kamal.
Oh- Dude – tell me about it – I have the _exact_ same issue with WQN. The reason they have the cell number is because I use my cell to call through them, and they track that and put it in their CRM system.
Once you get into the CRM/Telemarketing system you are pretty much fu***ed — Why? – They are usually calling from India (I know they are calling from India – cause they try to speak to me in hindi) and they should give a shit about Do-Not-Call etc.
I am waiting for a feature on iPhone that I can mark a caller ID as “auto-reject” !!!
-v
@ Vivek
I am trying to get a handle on this and talking to some lawyer types in Washington DC and using contacts to go to FCC and try and get these scamsters shut down.
You are not the only one. It happen to my friend too.
Dish network resellers having been doing this for ages. In fact, one of them had the gall to ask me to prove that I had registered under the “do not call” registry.
I misread the title as Starbucks Sucks and was amused. When I realized I’d misread it, I laughed (at myself) and decided I’ve been drinking too much coffee and need to sling less code…
Om, don’t hold back, tell us how you really feel.
Desperate assholes.. My wife goes through this shit all the time. Funny though, she doesnt want to shut them down by hanging up. Oh yeh, forgot to mention, sometimes its so hard to understand what they are trying to say. Weirdos. SPAM! SPAM! SPAM!
Cheers,
omfut
Do Not Call?
https://www.donotcall.gov/
so, I shouldn’t talk to you in Urdu to get your attention Om. How about pig-latin?
Same thing in the UK. Just give the phone to your child and let them chat away – they soon hang up. I don’t blame the individual who is making the call – they get peanuts in some far away call-center. I blame the lame US/UK/EU companies that contract these idiots to sell for them. Extortionate financial penalties is the only way to stop them – i.e “Stop the Demand”. The Do-Not-Call (or Telephone Preference Service TPS in UK) are totally toothless to put a stop to it. Following months of relentless calls from one telecom, the TPS told me it had no enforcement powers and could only ‘ask’ companies to stop calling. What the heck are you wasting our tax dollars/pounds for then?
BTW Om – some nice Urdu/Hindi swearing also worked in the end!! I hated doing it, but hated my kids being woken up all hours ever more!
I thought telemarketers were banned from calling cellphones ? Or is there no way now to distinguish between the two ? I know in NYC, 917 is normally for cellphones, however in Neighboring counties, the area code is the same or cell/landline.. oh well. Not to talk about number portability.
Do not call is joke. Do not get me started.
Om,
Please do something about these people. Any support needed please say a word. They are making every day life hard.
You people have no Caller ID? I can spot a call,
a call what is a bu—sh— call right away.
Cut the ringer to 4 times,look at the screen and
leave it alone.It stops.After a while everything stops.
takes a while before taken off the callinglist.
It works!!
Only nice people need to comment.Do not call my an
idiot e.t.c. before you try.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PICK UP THE PHONE AND HANG UP ON THEM. THEY ARE STUPID ONES THAT KEEP WASTING THEIR TIME.
So far S.R. gives you another good advise.
Finally someone keeping his senses and cool.
Ranting about it gets you nowhere.Kapisch!!
On my phone bill I found charges from Startec Inc @ 47 cent per minute. I have never even heard of this company, how can those charges appear on my phone bill.
Hi, we had a bad phone “phishing” or “phreaking” problem back in Januaray; my business’ phone system got hacked and we had phone bills in the $1,000’s because these phishers would get outside lines from my office and call the craziest places! we had to laugh a little (after we got the problem fixed, of course) because they were places like Ethiopia, Uraguay, Pakistan, Africa – and other little “islands” that we had to actually research and most of them are so poverty struck, we were surprised they even had phone service. Anyways, we went thru complete HELL getting this taken care of; at first, no one could seem to help us – it was even kinda scary because when they would call during business hours, we’d pick up the phone & hear the most absurd, fast, gibberish talking EVER. To get to my point, Star Tec was calling us about this, and we ended up thinking they might have something to do with it. JUST TODAY, (starting this morning) – we have been getting calls from 800.206.5977, couldnt understand the “hindu” sounding guy, all we could make out was that he was from “THE ACCOUNTS PAYABLE DEPT.” …so I *69ed, and heard, “Welcome To Star Tec!”…my stomach started doing flip flops. I REALLY hope something isn’t going to happen agian…my company is already under enough stress as it is!!
Wow. I have been a Startec customer for over 6 years and I’ve never had any problems with them. I am very suprised to hear this. I use their service to call Russia all of the time and have never had any problems. They once billed my credit card twice but that was quickly fixed with a call to their service number.
I do get a lot of calls from other phone companies, even Verizon. I always do the same thing… I say “no thank you” and hang up. It is the easiest thing to do. With all of the things going on in the world, these kinds of calls are hardly something to have a heart attack about.
I am also in a same boat. Startec sucks!!! They kept me sending invoice via e-mail. I got so many, so I sent them nasty e-mail stating that I am going to complain to labor department. And All of a sudden, it stopped.
this people call me acting as my current phone carrier and want to add long distance service and I never use it, today after 2 yrs still receiving bills.
I am just going thru a fiasco with startec, they are more interested in signing you up than giving service after the fact.. we just switched carriers.. they did not connect our long distance carrier ( Startec) I called startec about the fact.. they want 5 to 7 working days ( today is 7 working days still not connected) to switch over .. I had them for my overseas calls on my cell phones .. Beacuse my land lines were not connected I could not even call on my cell phone overseas ?
when I called them ( Customer service) about this all I get is an eastern european worker who sounded more flustered than even I was.. with the company..
I concluded I had to switch an advice if you are thinking of switching “Dont”!
The company must have poor public policy when even the employees dont know what to do.