Cold calls are a fact of life. We don't do it, but a lot of businesses do. Done correctly, it can be a very effective marketing tool and lead generator.
But unfortunately it looks like ExtraEnergy (extraenergy.com) are in to auto-dialer, automatically blasting out multitudes of phone calls simultaneously for the poor call centre drones. They can only answer so many, so if the phone goes dead when you answer it, then the call centre bod has connected to someone else, and your sales pitch has been saved for another time. Probably about 20 minutes later!
Over 2 working days, they have phoned us 7 times. Each time from 08000 314502, which if you phone you get a nice polite message telling you have been called from Extra Energy.
Finally on the 7th attempt, there was someone on the line and Clive got a high speed sales pitch about how much we would save from our electricity. Naturally Clive tried to take him off script and politely ask why they keep phoning us, to which the response was about how important it was for us to save money. Go away...
It's very slick, and makes maximum use of call centre resources using these automated systems, but it's a shame no one stops to think how annoyed people get from receiving phone calls when there is no one there. It actually worries a lot of people, especially older or more vulnerable folk.
If you are a residential user then you can try and limit them by registering on the Telephone Preference Service, which companies are supposed to observe and can be fined if they call you.
