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Mobile Phone Salesmen a bad reflection?

Are mobile phone resellers and companies paid to tele-market new mobile phone deals and get new contracts for their clients giving the telemarketing industry a bad name?

Let's face it its hard enough in telemarketing at the moment to feel we have a good name. Generally in the press telemarketing is only news when it does something wrong or when individuals that work in the industry do something wrong.

So the trend of mobile phone resellers to use tricky tactics to get new customers to sign up to extended and expensive contracts and tariffs is doing us no favours. Apparently the technique becoming known as slamming includes offering customers a new free phone and not telling them of the extended contract or higher tariffs.

Ofcom has received a record number of complaints about this and is working with the Office of Fair Trading to stamp this out.

Obviously just because these companies use the telephone to make their sales they automatically give the telemarketing industry a bad name, now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong in being a mobile phone reseller, apart from the 14 day clawbacks on cancelled contracts, but it's the techniques that are used. There are far too many salesmen that are in our industry that feel the need to lie and trick people into a sale, whereas the modern professional telemarketing professional knows that the best business is that that is landed honestly where the customer knows what he or she is getting and is happy to do so.

But please remember that although Ofcom has had a lot of complaints regarding mobile phone sales calls that the companies in this industry that use these techniques are in the minority and do not reflect the industry as a whole. As always members of the Guild of Telemarketing Professionals adhere to a strict code of conduct and do not take part in practices such as this.

By Samuel O'Prey

CEO The Guild of Telemarketing Professionals