I called yesterday and asked politely to be taken off the call register and am still getting unwanted calls today......

I had a call from this number today, When i asked for no more calls - " I recieve 10 calls a day from Telemarketers could you please take me off your list"
The man on the other end of the phone raised his voice and said YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT LISTENING TO ME AND WHERE IAM FROM I AM NOT A TELEMARKETERS SO DO NOT CALL ME ONE!

Seriously what the hell!

I would like to know how they have gotten my number?

f*ck off still getting called even after asking for my numbers to be removed.

I received easily around 50 calls from this number in a 3 week period. Very annoying. However, when I finally found the right number to call (from Reverse Australia) and I asked them to remove me completely from their database the lady was very nice and apologetic, and she removed me from their database on the spot, and I'm happy to say the calls stopped. I suspect the difference between my experience and some of the others here is that I called the right department to ask to have my details removed. Whereas I imagine if I'd asked the cold call operator calling me the same thing, it may have gone a little differently. As I'm guessing that the call centre operators who make the cold calls (a) don't have the authority or ability to instantly remove you, and instead have to pass on that message to another department which may take some time; and (b) the call centre operators are no doubt under a lot of pressure to meet targets, and so are less likely to spend time assisting you unless you are helping them to meet their target. As frustrating as it may be, there is no point losing it with them - and remember that they have a crappy job on a crappy wage. If you really want to put these places out of business, you've got to make them not only ineffective, but also demonstrate they are damaging to the charity they are representing. So when you call to ask them to remove you from their database, ask them charities they have you associated with on their database. In my case I found they had me associated with 2 charities that I've never donated to, but that I've been getting letters from for years. So it was a dead end in my case. But had they got my details from a charity that I do donate to, I would have called that charity to let them know how close they are to losing my monthly donation, and let them know that being affiliated with cold calling telemarketers is not doing their charity any favours.
Unfortunately there are a lot of such companies in Australia who do these cold calls for charities. I assume that because they are calling for a charity that they can override the Do Not Call register. And so each time you get cold calls from another company, you have to go through the same process each time.
I co-run an animal rescue group in Sydney, and we are registered as a charity. So I do truly understand how important and difficult it can be for charities to fundraise on their own. Running a charity is just like running a business - except you have to do it with very little money and are completely reliant on volunteers. Plus in our case, I also work full time as well. And so to run a charity you have to be adept at every aspect of running a business. Not only do you have to do the actual work of the charity (in our case rescuing animals), but you also have to coordinate a group of volunteers, manage the finances, build and maintain a website, maintain a social media presence, and of course fundraise. The fundraising aspect is a very difficult but vital area for any charity. And so I can understand why some charities end up using these cold call telemarketing companies. I don't know how it works for the charity, but I'd imagine that there is no outlay fee for the charity, but instead they probably pay a percentage of finds raised to the telemarketing company. I am only guessing here - as we don't use one. Despite the obvious benefits to a charity, I've always vowed that our rescue group will never use a telemarketing firm that cold calls people, nor will we ever stand outside of shopping centers accosting people to sign up for monthly donations. Firstly I just don't agree with the premise of the whole thing as it's very confronting and makes people feel bad every time they say No. And who doesn't say No most of the time? Imagine if you signed up for monthly donations every time you were asked? You'd be broke. I know I get confronted 2-3 a week outside a shopping centre near my work. Plus I would worry that we'd be complicit in guilting people to donate who truly cannot afford it. I know there are a couple of people who used to regularly donate to our charity when they could not afford it. To the point that even a $10 donation from them meant they'd go hungry that week. And so we keep an eye out for their names coming through on our donation list so we could refund it back to them. As much as every cent counts when you're running a charity, I think you have to be responsible and mindful that there are people out there that will donate when they can't afford to. I would not expect a telemarketing company to take this level of care and responsibility. So as someone who co-runs a charity, I feel this responsibilty lies with us. And so as a charity, or even as an individual, you have to make well considered and ethical decisions about how you are going to fundraise to ensure that it's in line with your own ethics. And the direct cold calling method of fundraising, or the even more direct method of stoping people outside shopping centres and telling them some awful statistics about how many children died today because of poverty, or how many companion animals we killed today in Australia, etc, is completely based on guilt. You're relying on that person feeling so bad and guilty and so donating. Perhaps I'm being unrealistic, but I'd much prefer that people choose to donate to us in the privacy of their own home, in their own time, without any outside pressure or guilt - but because they want to help and they believe in the good work your charity is doing.
Plus I feel good that we can assure everyone who supports and donates to us that 100% of their donation goes directly to the charity to rescue animals. There's no cut going to any middle men. Every cent donated to us goes exactly where you'd want it to if you were donating to an animal rescue charity. I know that whenever I donate to a charity that I always worry how much of it is actually going to the charity. And so I tend to donate to smaller charities whose work I follow, and also some that don't use telemarketing firms such as Animals Australia. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to know that 100% of my donation goes directly to the charity, and that the charity is using that money wisely.
And so to date our fundraising techniques involve online newsletters, social media, and social fundraisers such as movie or trivia nights.
However, we do need more donations to grow and be able to help more animals in need. But I'm busy rescuing animals, besides I have no expertise in marketing or fundraising. And so we are currently looking at working with a small marketing company to assist with our fundraising, but it will never involve direct one on one cold calling or accosting people outside shopping centres. This is not a decision we take lightly, as it will be the first time where a cut of the money donated will go elsewhere. But I think the important thing is that we ensure absolute transparency. Plus people can still choose to side step this promo event and donate directly to us if they want 100% of their donation to go directly to the charity. And of course the other aspect I've made clear is that we don't want any cold calling, or any kind of direct guilt based fundraising. Plus we have final say in any companies involved - as I won't accept any involvement from companies that exploit and profit from humans, animals or the environment. Yes, I know that rules a lot out.
I've said all this to give people a behind the scenes look at the difficult decisions that go into fundraising from the perspective of the charity behind those annoying cold calls. I don't blame charities that choose that route. It's understandable. But it's not something I'm comfortable with either for the charity that I co-run. And I hope that provided we always stay well involved in the decisions and process over our own fundraising, and we always stick to our core values, that we will be able to move further into the field of working with marketing companies to help us grow and fundraise, without unknowingly or insdvertantly compromising our ethics or commitments. Our core goal is of course to help animals. But we have no intention of compromising ethically and taking advantage of anyone to do so. It may be a fast world where big business reigns supreme, but I still believe there are a lot of good and compassionate people, and if they see the work we're doing and believe in it, then they will donate to us. The difficultly of course is reaching these people without resorting to telemarketers. We will continue to strive to find a way.

Crackers, YOU! are absolutely wrong. Mine is a business number which has never been handed out to anyone other than suppliers and potential customers.....yet I still get these ridiculous interruptions all day from telemarketers! Strangely enough, these calls have nothing to do with my business.

They are relentless! Am so sick of it!!!!!!

Being Called day after fay, mobilr rings then home phone rings!

Every day at the same time... the phone rings and I know I shouldn't bother answering it, and then I do! Please stop calling, I am on the Do not call list.. you will be reported next!

They call about every 2/3 days around the same time I answer no one says anything then they just hang up I tried to call them back to tell them to stop calling but it's just a busy tone I'm so sick of the calls. WE ARE ON THEDO NOT CALL REGISTER I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY GET OUR NUMBER

You f*cktards called me thousands of times already! I'm 13 you know so don't go abusing your stupid phone calls on me! You even distracted my whole class in school! THIS HAS TO STOP.

I wish this company would stop ringing me!!

Stop calling me (03) 8803 7699. We know you are dodgy. Each time I get a missed call from this phone number and return the call the number is engaged. They on sell your phone details that's the problem and no one gives a sh*t, that's the other problem.

At least once a week I get a call from this number. It rings a couple of times and when I answer it there is no one there. I'm getting very annoyed by this.

If what you wrote was true Asha, I would still not be harassed by this number daily. Its embarrassing for your company to have so many complaints. Shame on you!

Really had enough of these blood sucking leechers who don't know
how to interpret the
meaning of 'no thank you i'm not interested'. Maybe they should get some expert grounding on the art of COMPREHENSION then maybe, just maybe they will understand that when someone requests their phone number to be removed from their data base it should be removed. But, you may as well be talking with deaf person. Called you time wasters again this morning and yet again repeated what I have already mentioned 'please remove my phone number from your records' as I do not contribute to any charity via these cold calls. The very polite woman said that my number would be removed within the next 48 hours (yeah right). Hopefully this time
they will get it right. I have a recording of the phone conversation this time time and will post this on the net with the phone number and invite everyone to call and give them some of their own medicine back. Has anyone actually been foolish enough to donate to a charity by way of the cold calls, I hope not. And just for the record books, YES, I do donate to charities, just not from cold calls.

Asha, by the way. Your info and sympathetc explanations are as clear as mud.

I just phoned Telstra and they have a service for unwelcome calls 1800 805 996 and they can organise to have this number blocked from calling you without having to get in touch with the scammers.

I have no idea who this person is

The (03) 8854 6100 number l just rang is nolonger connected, so it means you can't get your name&phone number removed from Smart Health data base...

I have taken action against Telstra re telemarketers so called annoying phone calls so many times a day week after week, time for others too do the same.