Cold calls from vendors.

alexjbc · 2016-12-09T19:00:00.000Z

How many of you out there receive daily calls from vendors looking to tell you about their IT services? Either my last job had a good receptionist who turned them away, or those calls weren’t happening as much 8 years ago. Would love to see what others experience.

Thanks!

sqlrage · 2016-12-09T19:04:16.000Z

Yes. Some vendors are worse than others. Front Desk has our back though.

Edit: If the vendor is bad enough like calling everyday, or lying to your receptionist to get to your phone(Yes that happened), you can always call them out here. I have had good experiences with GGs on SW resolving these problems.

bensimpson3 · 2016-12-09T19:04:42.000Z

I get two or three a day

michaelperez6673 · 2016-12-09T19:06:08.000Z

I don’t mind a cold call every once in a while (maybe 1 every 2 months) as long as it is relevant to what I do for my job. I’ve got some from unitrends and nutanix, which were relevant. It would be very annoying to get 2 or 3 calls a day. And cold calling on a bad day is a sure way to get blocked

biscuitking · 2016-12-09T19:07:54.000Z

I probably average 2 or 3 a week. But I don’t answer if I don’t know the number unless I am expecting a call from someone.

georgemcfarlin · 2016-12-09T19:09:24.000Z

Maybe once a month, even that is too much.

alexjbc · 2016-12-09T19:13:15.000Z

I don’t mind them for the most part. The ones that keep calling back after you tell them you’re not interested are the ones I take issue with. Then the nice guy in more goes out of the window.

grandmasterboom · 2016-12-09T19:20:29.000Z

If you’re on LinkedIn, and especially you have any kind of management position listed there, you get these almost daily. Typically they don’t call back after I tell them I’m not interested. If they continue to I block them in our phone system. I don’t have time for that nonsense.

alexjbc · 2016-12-09T19:22:38.000Z

Before we had our phone system, they’d call and say “I left you a voicemail”. I’d be like “Oh really? We don’t even have voicemail”. Instant turn off.

jason7147 · 2016-12-09T19:31:58.000Z

I feel your pain. I gave someone my address and phone number in order to get a “free” bumper sticker for Sysadmin Day. Got two calls a day (no voicemail) for three weeks straight. Once those stopped, emails started coming in. Be careful what contests/freebies you sign up for.

bryanscott5 · 2016-12-09T19:33:26.000Z

I started attending the Spiceworks webinar events because 1) I like to listen in and hear from some industry experts a little bit so I can be somewhat familiar with stuff that’s out there and 2) because let’s face it, the SW team does some pretty sweet giveaways.

However, from doing these lately, the sales calls I’m getting from those vendors is crazy. I know these aren’t necessarily cold calls, because I signed up somewhere and agreed to terms that if I sign up, I might be contacted, etc. I just want to listen in most of these cases…I don’t need to tell every one of these vendors what our setup is like and listen to them try to convince me of why I need their product. I’ve actually stopped signing up for these events lately because of it.

As for actual cold calls, nah I don’t get a lot of those.

bryanscott5 · 2016-12-09T19:36:04.000Z

Romo:

I feel your pain. I gave someone my address and phone number in order to get a “free” bumper sticker for Sysadmin Day. Got two calls a day (no voicemail) for three weeks straight. Once those stopped, emails started coming in. Be careful what contests/freebies you sign up for.

“Free”…yeah, there’s always a cost. May not be money, but it will always cost something. I tried a free security assessment tool from a well known phishing test vendor and I got incessant calls and emails from him for weeks asking to set up a time to talk on the phone. I politely responded to emails saying I was not interested at this time and that I have his contact info should we get to a point where we want to look into using their product. He didn’t take the hint from that and continued emailing me. That kind of pestering makes me want to never look into using a company’s product!

beta · 2016-12-09T19:46:44.000Z

AlexJBC:

Before we had our phone system, they’d call and say “I left you a voicemail”. I’d be like “Oh really? We don’t even have voicemail”. Instant turn off.

Heh, kinda like the ones who say something along the lines of “we spoke previously.” No, we didn’t, LOL.

alexjbc · 2016-12-09T19:52:12.000Z

Exactly beta! LOL

kenbogdan · 2016-12-09T19:55:55.000Z

We had a guy show up out of the blue once to meet with my manager. He brought donuts. We turned him away, he left the donuts though

alexjbc · 2016-12-09T19:57:42.000Z

Gotta leave the donuts! LOL

James404d · 2016-12-09T20:04:26.000Z

I get very few (lucky I guess). My problem is the opposite, being an SMB that doesn’t buy a whole lot each year, I can’t get my regular vendors to be responsive in a timely fashion.

elongnp · 2016-12-09T20:16:26.000Z

Don’t call me - I’ll call you…

I get about 4 or 5 a week. Every now and then one will leave a voicemail.

port16 · 2016-12-09T20:34:31.000Z

I seem to go through cycles of cold calls and spam. Of course, they always get bad after I’ve signed up for a webinar or something.

Lately though, it’s offers to send me whitepapers for VOIP systems. I don’t know what it is, but I started asking as soon as I get a call from someone I don’t know, “is this for a whitepaper for VOIP”?

essjae · 2016-12-09T23:07:16.000Z

SQLRage:

Yes. Some vendors are worse than others. Front Desk has our back though.

Edit: If the vendor is bad enough like calling everyday, or lying to your receptionist to get to your phone(Yes that happened), you can always call them out here. I have had good experiences with GGs on SW resolving these problems.

Yeah, same here, front desk is awesome, they either ask me or put it to voicemail.