Um... No

I had a call from Sky Television this afternoon. I get them about once every six weeks or so, trying to tempt me back into the fold. I'm enjoying the extra £40 a month more than I'm missing Discovery Home & Leisure, so they'll have to try a bit harder with their special offers to get me back.

Still, the girl on the other end of the phone was polite, with a nice Western Isles lilt to her accent. I've worked in call centres before and know what a bitch of a job it can be, so rather than hanging up straight away I let her make her sales pitch.

At least, I would have done, but her opening gambit was this: 'Could you just tell me the first line of your address and your date of birth please, for security?'

'Er... No, I can't,' I answered. 'You phoned me, not the other way around. Why should I tell you anything?'

'It's company policy,' she said. 'We have to ask, and we can't continue the call without confirming these security details.'

Fine. I'd not asked for the call, and I had no intention of buying whatever it is they were trying to sell to me. I told her so, suggesting that she have a word with her line manager about the policy and how ill-thought out it was. Then we went our separate ways. But it's not the first time this has happened to me, and it's not always Sky TV. British Telecom have the same strange policy.

Now, if I'd phoned up Sky myself and asked to have my subscription renewed, I'd expect them to ask me security questions. That much is only fair and makes perfect sense from a security standpoint. But if they're phoning me to try and sell me something, then surely they don't need to do all the 'mother's maiden name' nonsense until after they've clinched the sale. Or am I the only person in the world who gets pissed off by this?

I suspect that every other ex-Sky subscriber she phoned today quite happily told her their complete life history.

And they wonder why identity theft is on the increase.

Comments

John Rickards said…
I would've responded by saying, "No, you give me your date of birth and address, for my security."

When she refused, I'd have pointed out that she knew my phone number and that therefore she was one up on me so it'd only seem fair to even the score before we proceeded.

Then the bargaining would have begun.

And the hanging up.
Stuart MacBride said…
Nah - ask them what colour underwear they've got on. then go into your heavy breathing routine.

Works like a charm.

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