How to get off telemarketers lists

What prompted this little rant was after Telefonica’s telemarketers rang me no fewer than 30 times in two days.

When they rang me at 10pm on a Friday night, I snapped and called back. I am now on their “do not call” list. Want to find out how I did it?

Two steps:

First, ring back the company that’s calling you, on the number they called you.  Ignore the first person who answers and ask to be put through to a supervisor. Say you want your details to be removed (dar de baja en su lista comercial). When the supervisor starts to babble on about faxes and permission slips, ask for his / her ID details for the data removal request you will proceed to file with the Agencia de Proteccion de Datos www.agpd.es. This is the government body that deals with the protection of personal information (the data protection agency). If you insist enough, the sales rat on the end of the line will suddenly remember that while he can’t do anything, José has just come in and he’s authorised to remove your details from the list. You will be transferred to Jose who takes your details. davidjackson.info. Make sure you take down the reference number of the operation (all large call centers assign one) for future reference / complaints.

This happens because the large telemarketing companies / departments aren’t keen on just letting people call them and asking to be put on their “do not call” list – but they are obliged to do so by law. Hence the threat to make a complaint via the AGPD, who proceed to ensure that your details are removed from the company databases. If you show yourself to be confident on the phone you will break through the barriers. Don’t take any guff about having to send in a fax, email or other such nonsense.

Second step:

Register your details with the Federación Española de la Economía Digital y Marketing Digital. This official Federation maintains a “do not call” database called the Robinson List which to which all telemarketing companies are granted access. If your name is on that list then the affiliated companies (just about all of them, I understand) are not permitted to call you. www.listarobinson.es

You can ask them to remove you from post, fax, email or phone spam.

Of course, the best thing to do is not buy anything from a cold caller – if we all did this, over time the practice would die a natural death.