WENDY KNOWLER: How to win when you are cheated over the phone
'MultiChoice appointed a company called On Air to cold-call its customers still hanging on to their old decoders, and attempt to “help them upgrade” with a supposedly special Explora+HD decoder combo deal'
EXTRACT
Telesales calls are a super annoying invasion of privacy for most, but there are two very good advantages to agreeing to a deal over the phone:
The call recording is a record of exactly what was said by both parties in the event of a dispute. You’re entitled to access to the call, so don’t take no for an answer.
You have a five-business day cooling off period in which to cancel for a full refund, for no particular reason – you simply get to change your mind, provided you do so in writing.
Donald Trump tells lies, but because it’s a bit awkward to say that of your president, some White House reporters have taken to calling his lies “demonstrable falsehoods”. Hillary Clinton made the word “misspoke” famous when talking about her false claim to have landed in Bosnia under sniper fire in 1996. “If I misspoke,” she said, “that was just a misstatement.” Call it what you like, it’s not uncommon for telesales agents to blatantly lie to potential customers in order to get them to agree to a deal. And thanks to call recordings, those lies are demonstrable – able to be proved.Sometimes it’s the script that contains the lies; other times the agent goes rogue to close the deal and score the commission. And when the lie is exposed by the recording, that usually results in the contract being cancelled, but what’s far more satisfying is the consumer demanding from the company what they were falsely promised by that telesales agent – at no extra cost. That’s exactly what happened to...
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