613-688-3625

I work for Audience Studies, though I'm not paid to say this. A lot of people are saying that they are on Do Not Call lists. Since we do research and aren't selling anything, YOUR government has given us permission to call you. The cynic in me will tell that it's because our clients are the big businesses and your government is in their pockets. Either way, they are the people you ought to be complaining to if you want this kind of call to fall under No Call laws.

Secondly, we don't usually have any of your information. It's not like we buy contact lists from other companies or anything. Rather, we have a computer that randomly generates a list of numbers for us to call. All we have is your number, not your name or any other identifying information. There are occasions when our client specifically asks us to contact their costumers - in which case they will give us their customer records. We don't keep any of that information, it all has to go back to the company you do business with.

If you don't pick up the phone, your number is recycled. This means that we will keep calling until we get an answer. If you do not want to get any calls from us, please pick up your phone and (politely) ask us to put you on our Do Not Call list. We are required to do so immediately.

While you may have had bad experiences with some of our representatives, I can assure you that this isn't company standard. Due to the hours of work and the fact that we do not need any employment history to be hired, most of the people working in my call centre are teenagers. Those who aren't in High School are mostly in University. There's the oddball retiree as well and a small sprinkling of others, but the vast majority of us are in our teens or early twenties. What this means is that many of our interviewers are far too young to take the job seriously. I can assure you, however, that if any interviewer is caught being rude to you or hanging up without cause (we are allowed to hang up if you are verbally abusing or harassing us), we will face severe consequences.

It is company policy not to call cellphones. We do not want to use up your minutes or cause an accident if you answer while in traffic or something of that sort. Unfortunately, because we use a random number generator, we do often reach cellphones. If we suspect that we have reached a cellphone, we are required to apologize and end the call. Your number is then coded as a cell phone and never called again. What this means is that if you pick up and simply tell us that we are calling a cellphone, you will save yourself a whole lot of trouble.

Finally, yes our questions can be very personal. However, this isn't a scam and yes it does have something to do with your TV watching. However, it's not your TV show watching that interests us, but rather your commercial watching. What these personal questions allow us to do is to find out if we are reaching our target audience. For example, we may ask you if you've had a cold in the last twelve months because our client is a cold medication manufacturer. I know that some of the questions can be a little too personal and I do understand that we don't explain our goals well (there is a good reason for this - specifically that we want you to watch the TV show we send you as though it were any other TV show - in other words, we don't want you to pay any attention to the commercials so that we can get a realistic view of how much of the commercials people watch are actually absorbed). If you aren't comfortable answering a question, please just tell the interviewer (politely! We're people too!) that you aren't comfortable with it.

And finally, some people have said that we shouldn't be working in this business if we didn't want to be harassed. Unfortunately, many of us don't have a choice. Many of the people I work with (who are all nice people, by the way, and most of them do not like having to disturb you) have to take this job because of the hours. Some of them are single moms who can only get day care during the evenings and need to be home with their children during the day. Some are in school and need to pay rent or tuition and need a job that doesn't conflict with class time. Some of us, like me, needed non-contract employment while I wait for my dream job to open up. None of us like what we do, but we have to do it. We try to be polite, but it can be very difficult to keep an upbeat attitude when we've just spent 6+ hours being yelled at. At the very least, it's something to consider when you respond to our calls.  

I hope that I've been able to clear up a few questions some of you have had.

GOT A CALL FROM THIS NUMBER AND THEY DIDNT LEAVE NO MESSAGE ON MY ANSWERING MACHINE. THEY HAVE CALLED MY NUMBER HERE TODAY TWICE. THEY ARE FROM CANADA.

Received 2 separate calls from this number today 06/16/08. I did not pick up either time - and wow, am I glad that I didn't after reading these posts!  What a pain...they are persistent!   Thanks everyone for the info -

This number called me on 6/16/08 and was listed as Gatineau QC.  They didn't leave a message.

watch it son!

Got called on a Sunday afternoon (!!) June 22 at 3:14pm.  Even more annoying on a Sunday.  I do have family in Ottawa, Ontario so I recognized the area code, but not the number.  I want them to stop!

on my phone several times, looked it up on the internet and i'm reporting it because i am on the do not call list.

Started calling this past weekend and of course left no message. Even called twice in 15 minutes on Sunday. We, too are on the DNC list, but I guess that doesn't matter.  Really a pain when they interrupt your weekend spent with family.

Received a call from this number. Performed a search on it and discovered that a number of other people are getting calls from this number also. I don't pick up the phone anymore for number's I don't know. And if it is important enough they can leave a message.

Phone rang during dinnertime.  Looked on caller-ID and didn't recognize number, so didn't answer.  After looking up number on YAHOO!, I'm glad I didn't.  I hope they take the hint and stop calling.

I just received a phone call from this number.  I did not answer it because it looked unfamiliar and I did not recognize the name.  They did not leave a message on my answer machine.  They called at 5:31pm.  I will definitely report them :D

Sounds like some guy trying to make $5 on a return call.

Called twice 6/26 and once 6/27 around dinner time.  I was out both days and they did not stick around for my voice mail.  I will tell them not to call back if they call again.

6/28/08 3:11 PM  No message left on answering machine

keep getting calls.

called 3x in a row,left no message.ANNOYING!!