Cold calling: don't hang up on them, here's the only trick to shut them up

© Tima Miroshnichenko – Pexels

The phone rings. Again. An unknown number appears on the screen. You hesitate, then pick it up. “Hello, I am Mrs. Martin from company X, do you have a few minutes to talk about your home insurance ?” This scene is familiar to many French people and is repeated tirelessly, sometimes transforming the smartphone into a real sonic nightmare.

The French are fed up, and the results of a study conducted by Arcom are explicit: 65% of users say they never or rarely answer callsCold calling has become a national scourge: the French are repeatedly contacted on their mobile phones with unwanted calls that disrupt their daily lives. These unwanted solicitations represent more than an annoyance (and hanging up on them doesn't always help): they have become a societal problem.

Fighting against canvassing

Faced with this telephone invasion, the government has tried to react. Since March 1, 2023, canvassing is only authorized from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Weekends and public holidays are protected. In addition, specific codes have been imposed on canvassing companies such as 0162 or 0163 for mainland France. (Metropolitan France: 0162, 0163, 0270, 0271, 0377, 0378, 0424, 0425, 0568, 0569, 0948, 0949/Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy: 09475/French Guiana: 09476/Martinique: 09477/Reunion and Mayotte: 09478 and 09479).

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Despite these measures, their effectiveness remains limited and the government is considering now to officially ban telephone canvassing. Unsolicited calls are often a nuisance but also an open door to scams. To take advantage of them, there are several options – such as Bloctel, which is the official government service. Unfortunately, even call centers do not respect this directory where subscribers demand not to be solicited.

Today, there are real alternatives like Orange Téléphone, which has however lost efficiency since the release of a paid application. That said, it will still allow you to be warned that a number calling your mobile is potentially a telephone canvasser: you will just have to ignore it. To have it automatically blocked, you will need to upgrade to the paid version.

In any case, if you are one of the brave French people who still answer the phone, we invite you to exercise maximum caution when dealing with a sales consultant: you should definitely not hang up on them because they will try to call you back later. And if you lack diplomacy, they may bother you even more – or even ask their call center colleagues to take over.

The best strategy to adopt if you come across an unscrupulous salesperson is to keep your cool and politely answer that you are not interested. If you look for an explanation, it is very likely that the salesperson will find a loophole in the speech to keep you on the phone. So it's better to cut it short and not try to get involved in the debate: you're bound to lose.

Share your strategies in the comments!

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