Nuisance Calls - What Can Be Done?

[Ian_B]

A few weeks ago I interviewed about a dozen recently graduated Thais for 3 positions in the company I work for.

On Thursday I phoned the unsucessful candidates and told them they did not get the job. The next I started to get calls from my mobile. The number does not show as the call the office number which gets forwarded to my mobile (only my office number is displayed). Nobody speaks when I answer. This has been happening all weekend and I am now seriously hacked off!

Has anybody any experience with dealing with this in Thailand? I don't want to get the police involved yet.

Ian

[Thetyim]

Keep calm.

The caller wants to annoy you, if they think it is working then they will continue.

If you just say 'Thank you for calling' and hang up they will eventually get bored and go away. It is costing them 5baht a call.

[george]

Just say "Just a moment please. I am on the other line". Then put the call "on hold". It will cost them more than 5 Baht.

[fatter than harry]

Agree with George, for extra points you should hum the chourus to "It's a small world after all" repeatedly.

[GuestHouse]

For a long time now I have stopped giving out my business cards, I've had more than one occassion when this kind of 'stalking' has happend.

You might try switching off the redirect for a while, and leave your answer phone to take the calls.

Nothing is going to be more boring than an answer phone.

[Insight]

A bit on the nasty(ier) side, when non-descript girls called me constantly waiting for some sort of response (despite it being 4 in the flippin' morning), I used to answer my phone then leave it by the side of my bed unattended to.

It took two calls, both costing them over a few minutes, before they finally got the hint.

[Ian_B]

Thanks for all the advice... luckily I've not had any such calls for 24hr now.

What I find suprising is that a well educated Chulalonkorn graduate is/was probably doing this!

[Up2U]

Thanks for all the advice... luckily I've not had any such calls for 24hr now.

What I find suprising is that a well educated Chulalonkorn graduate is/was probably doing this!

Maybe not. I've had similar calls - I speak, no reply. But when I eventually got a Thai friend to answer my phone, it turns out it was a simple wrong number, but the person on the other end was waiting for a Thai voice, so that he could make sure it was not the number he wanted.

This was over a period of maybe ten days, four or five times a day. Guy would not accept that he had the wrong number until it was forcefully explained in Thai.

[Thetyim]

I phoned a wrong number once.

The thai guy on the other end phoned me back many, many times for the next four days.

He would not accept that I had dialled a wrong number

[astral]

I think there is a lesson to be learned here.

Do not use your personal mobile phone for calls to prospective

employees, especially the one who do no get the job!!

[GuestHouse]

Thetyim,

He probably thought you were trying to call his wife or girlfriend.

I once had a Thai guy call me and ask me why his wife had my business card in her bag. It turned out she was a rep for a company that we do business with but he would not accept that until I got a Thai to call him back and explain.

As for Chula girls stalking. My very worst experience was from a very well educated engineer from another company. There had been ZERO socialising between us and nothing that I would call flirting, but when on one occassion my girlfriend and I bumped into her at a shoping center I could see the look on her face, I knew absolutely that she was p1ssed with me and I knew exactly who it was who sent me hate mail and neusance calls over the coming months.

It only stopped when I went overseas for a spell, and after that I have never met her, but I would not put it past her to start again if I bump into once more.

I also had a collegue that was stalked by the editor of a leading magazine in Bangkok, she was calling him constantly ( at one point he counted 35 calls in a day) - he had met her ONCE in Bangkok and had never spent anytime alone with her, he just gave his business card to the wrong woman..... Yikes... leave my rabbit alone!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

You guys get all the excitement. My calls are mostly from predictable sources and boring as all heck.

[elsie]

You guys get all the excitement. My calls are mostly from predictable sources and boring as all heck.

You can count on me if you want all excitements in the world. What is your number?

As I was cleaning the dishes after lunch, I recall it happened to me once too. One day, I found a missed call on my mobile. So, I rang back and found out she had no clue who rang me. So, okay, the whole system might just be messed up. Then, later that day, she called me again trying to find out why her number was shown on my screen. And I had no idea too! It went on and on for days. She wouldn't drop it. Jesus Christ, so finally, I decided not to answer when she called. She kept ringing for a few days while I told myself not to answer. And thank goodness, she stopped trying in the end.

Edited June 22, 2004 by LovelyCutie

[ka12345]

We had someone call every morning and ask for "Tik". When that person wouldn't give up we just told her that "Tik" was in prison. No more calls...

[snowleopard]

A few weeks ago I interviewed about a dozen recently graduated Thais for 3 positions in the company I work for.

On Thursday I phoned the unsucessful candidates and told them they did not get the job. The next I started to get calls from my mobile.

It's possible you unwittingly brought it on yourself!

Your mistake might actually have been that you were so polite and personally called all the unsuccessful candidates up with the bad news.

I think most Thai companies wouldn't even have bothered phoning them;so your behavior could have left a little unsolved puzzle lingering inside a few of the rejected applicants' minds.

A couple of them could have taken it as a sign that there was still a chance for the job and that you were just fishing for a bribe or something else before their application would finally be approved and their dreams realized!

Next time you should tell them,"Don't call us,we'll call you"!

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[Ian_B]

Thankfully I've not had any more such calls for 2 days now. I hope that is the end of it.

This has been the first time I've ever suffered through this and never want this to happen again.

I'll have to be more careful who I give my cards out to from now on

Cheers

Ian