Experts Warn Consumers: Telemarketing Blitz May Follow Phone Changes
Posted December 13, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
And while the Conservatives insist it will be good for consumers because it will lower their phone bills, several experts are predicting a boomerang effect – an endless stream of phone company telemarketers pestering you to change from your current provider to a brand new one.
One of the warnings comes from Ian Angus, the president of Angus TeleManagement Group. He fears alterations in the status quo will force companies into a frenzy of competition that will move straight to your home phone number.
The changes will allow giant utilities to bundle phone services, offer rebates and lower rates and lock you into long term contracts if you accept their bargain prices.
How are they going to tell you and sell you on this wonderful new world where just about anything goes? Angus fears they’ll all hire telemarketers to spread the word about their big deals.
“They can target individual customers and do customized offers, but the other thing is that it is less easy for the competitors to see what they’re offering and match them.
“They’ve probably not going to want to offer you the same deal they offer me.”
If they’re approved, the new regulations will be in force only in cities where adequate competition already exists. That means Toronto and the G.T.A would become a prime battleground. And you would be the ammunition in these phone wars, as firms fighting for supremacy try to top each other with special offers.
“The value for the phone company in having you subscribe to multiple services just isn’t there if you’re churning,” explains Jeff Leiper, research director at the Yankee Group.
He reveals many companies have already started calling customers and lining them up in anticipation of the change. And if you haven’t been bugged yet, you likely will be.
“You hear from folks that it is already bothersome, but I think it is unavoidable,” he shrugs. “I would love to say the phone companies are going to be examples of restraint advertising, but … they’re going to be phoning us at dinner. They’re going to be mailing us in the mail. Pop up ads on our browsers. It is going to be a very intense fight.”
The worst part may be that you won’t even be able to really complain about it to the phone company. Because chances are, they’re the ones who’ll be calling you.
- How do you deal with telemarketers? Do you simply hang up the phone? Are you polite? Do you toy with them, telling them to hang on and never come back? Do you have advice for dealing with the annoying callers? And have you ever actually bought anything from one of them? Write us at news@citynews.ca and we’ll share the best of your strategies with other viewers.
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