Sales people pretending to be from openreach

Lartyconshayo · 14 Dec 2022 at 20:16

Has anyone else had someone or a couple of folk, call to the door in a suit with a high-vis "enquiring about making sure you get full internet speed". They ostensibly say they are following up on work that's been carried out in the area and then ask you who your ISP is and then try and give you the hard sell.

I have had them twice now. I just hate the underhand tactics of pretending to be a service provider instead of a cold call salesperson.

I never let them get past a few questions, but they pretend to be all pally to gain your confidence and it annoys me no end.

Tony Edwards · 14 Dec 2022 at 20:17

[FnG]magnolia · 14 Dec 2022 at 20:17

But do you get full internet speed?

Hotwired · 14 Dec 2022 at 20:26

Didn't the extra effort to turn up in person impress you.

I've had maybe a dozen cold calls coming in hot with a statement that they're from virgin or bt and are worried about my connection.

How do people even get hired for this trash. Heeeey come join us and spend 9 hours a day trying to blag personal info and money out of the naive and elderly.

d_brennen · 14 Dec 2022 at 20:55

Invite them in for tea and a good long talk about Jesus

potatolord · 14 Dec 2022 at 21:12

I've had phone calls from pretend openreach/ sky etc, but never a personal visit.

I generally take great pleasure in wasting their time.

Angilion · 15 Dec 2022 at 01:20

Openreach's fibre network ends a couple of dozen metres down the road from my house. Every now and then I have a look on their website to see if they're going to extend it. No plans to do so...until I looked yesterday and saw that they're going to do it. The date range given was "some time between now and December 2026". A window of 4 years seems excessive to me.

They're welcome to come to my door. I won't answer it, but they can stand outside in the cold all they like. Phone calls...straight to voicemail, since they won't be calling from a number on my approved list.

Hotwired said:
How do people even get hired for this trash. Heeeey come join us and spend 9 hours a day trying to blag personal info and money out of the naive and elderly.

There are people who welcome to chance to do that sort of thing without having to worry about criminal charges. If a person does it for themself, it's illegal. If they do it for a business, it isn't. Because reasons. Other than that, people who are desperate for a job, so desperate they'll do obviously unethical things for a wage.

Vidar · 15 Dec 2022 at 06:41

I had this nonsense last night, something about my whole area being designated as a priority area because our Internet speed isn't what it should be, told me he was from my ISP but wouldn't tell me who that was. This at just before 9pm at night.

In no uncertain terms was told to go forth and multiply, and had the door promptly slammed in his smug sleazy face.

peterwalkley · 15 Dec 2022 at 07:45

The energy companies used to try this BS on until the multi million pound fines for mis-selling finally beat the message through their thick skulls. Hiring commission only sales people was of course never going to lead to dodgy stuff going on was it :rolleyes:

Looks like some ISPs are failing to learn the lesson.

My particular favourite was the lying snot who claimed that providing my signature on his form "to show he'd been" was a legal requirement. Still waiting for him to come back with the police to enforce that one.

goldy6660 · 15 Dec 2022 at 07:50

Na haven't had anyone but not entirely sure what they'd gain from impersonating them

wordy · 15 Dec 2022 at 08:01

Fake, there are only 6 Openreach engineers across the whole country so the chance of 2 of them turning up at your house is minuscule.

Hotwired · 15 Dec 2022 at 08:03

wordy said:
Fake, there are only 6 Openreach engineers across the whole country so the chance of 2 of them turning up at your house is minuscule.

Nah the box across my street has a van every week and most days and was given a special label to discourage lesser beings from using the de facto openreach parking spot.

VincentHanna · 15 Dec 2022 at 08:10

wordy said:
Fake, there are only 6 Openreach engineers across the whole country so the chance of 2 of them turning up at your house is minuscule.

I know this is a little joke, but to be fair there's been loads in my local town for months now, I see them feeding cables under the pavement to each other all the time.

Chris Wilson · 15 Dec 2022 at 08:20

Never have in person cold callers here, keeping the gate locked and being a well known **** locally has its advantages

Chris Wilson · 15 Dec 2022 at 08:21

VincentHanna said:
I know this is a little joke, but to be fair there's been loads in my local town for months now, I see them feeding cables under the pavement to each other all the time.

They're probably pulling 'em out and selling them

tom_e · 15 Dec 2022 at 08:21

d_brennen said:
Invite them in for tea and a good long talk about Jesus

Or Satan if you really want to throw them off.

the shadow · 15 Dec 2022 at 08:31

I had two clowns yesterday no one can beat my offer so i said no sales people thanks

Angilion · 15 Dec 2022 at 23:13

d_brennen said:
Invite them in for tea and a good long talk about Jesus

Someone I know is a theist (some version of protestant christianity, I forget the details) and a pretty knowledgeable amateur theologian. They succeeded to putting the JW's off ever coming round again by inviting them in for tea and a good long talk about religion.

Malevolence · 15 Dec 2022 at 23:24

Angilion said:
Openreach's fibre network ends a couple of dozen metres down the road from my house. Every now and then I have a look on their website to see if they're going to extend it. No plans to do so...until I looked yesterday and saw that they're going to do it. The date range given was "some time between now and December 2026". A window of 4 years seems excessive to me.

Says the same for me too. Can't even get fibre of any flavour here, the surrounding streets can though. It's just our cabinet they haven't enabled, which makes me think they made a mistake and accidently skipped it. Hence me being stuck on crappy 1MB/s ADSL2+ over copper.

Angilion · 16 Dec 2022 at 00:00

Malevolence said:
Says the same for me too. Can't even get fibre of any flavour here, the surrounding streets can though. It's just our cabinet they haven't enabled, which makes me think they made a mistake and accidently skipped it. Hence me being stuck on crappy 1MB/s ADSL2+ over copper.

I'm stuck on the same and my line is held together with sticky tape. No joke. The comms infrastructure here looks like it was installed in the 1950s and the wiring from the pole to my house is literally held together with sticky tape. You can see bits of tape dangling down where it's become unstuck over the decades. 3MB/s is theoretically possible on ADSL2+ over copper, but I get 1 to 1.2 MB/s.

Due to the increase in file sizes, it's like being back in the early 90s with 9600 baud dialup. Or worse. A few months ago I bought a new "AAA" game and the download time was 40 hours.

I could get fibre with Virgin, but when I phoned them asking to be a customer they were so rude I decided it would be better to not be a customer of theirs. LILA connect laid lines under pavements months ago but haven't done anything else. Besides, I'm not going to trust a company that refuses to reveal its real prices and which conceals a £650 connection charge in the small print of their FAQ. They front with the common "waive the connection charge" thing, but that only applies to the £50 initial connection charge and not the £650 final connection charge. So they're reducing the connection charge from £700 to £650 while concealing that fact. Dodgy.