Strange phone call

[mpfund]

I just received a phone call from Azamara asking if I need any help on Cuba excursions.  Huh?  I found it a bit intrusive.  I've never had a call like that from any cruise line and wonder what his motivation was -- to sell me excursions?  To intimidate me from taking private tours?

 

Anyone else experience this?

[Grandma Cruising]

In the past I’ve had a call from Azamara a few weeks before a cruise to see if there were any excursions I wanted to book. I politely said - not at the moment, thank you and I’ll contact you if I change my mind.

[upwarduk]

I had a phone call in 2016, 2 week’s before my TA, asking if I realised that I hadn’t booked any excursions. I am afraid I told thecaller I wasn’t likely to either, unless the rate came down. Obviously the excursions weren’t selling, otherwise there would have been no need to call.

[florisdekort]

Intrusive? Intimidating? Seriously? If someone calls to ask if you’re interested in any excursions and you’re not, just say “thanks but no thanks” and hang up. I really don’t see the problem here?

Edited December 14, 2018 by florisdekort

[donaldsc]

23 hours ago, mpfund said:

I just received a phone call from Azamara asking if I need any help on Cuba excursions.  Huh?  I found it a bit intrusive.  I've never had a call like that from any cruise line and wonder what his motivation was -- to sell me excursions?  To intimidate me from taking private tours?

 

Anyone else experience this?

 

You could have just politely said that you were not interested and hung up.  What is the big deal about the call.

 

DON

[mpfund]

Thanks Grandma Cruising and upward uk for your courteous and informative responses.

[Whitby100]

I too would not be offended - and from someone who has booked Azamara shore excursions I appreciate their efforts to increase numbers as I suspect some excursions may have been on the brink of being cancelled due to low enrolment. 

[marinaro44]

It's probably also worth remembering that passengers new to Azamara might not be aware of the ability to book excursions in advance through Voyage Planner using onboard credit, so a call such as this could be very useful to them in being able to book before excursions become booked up.

[Shawnino]

I hope they don't call me.

I'm on the Don't Call List (not that Az would apply to that as I am a customer) and I get way too many calls from people trying to sell me stuff as it is.

[lahore]

My usual response to that sort of thing is ‘if I had wanted to purchase something I would have done so.....do you consider me to be incapable of running my own life’?  Sorry, but unsolicited sales calls are too pushy for my liking.  It hasn’t happened to me with Azamara and I really hope it does’t.  

[Lois R]

Good morning, I have a land line (I know many people don't) but when my phone rings the number is displayed on my TV and if I don't know the number, I pick up the phone (I don't say hello) and I disconnect it.  I still get calls from numbers I have no clue about......I have been on that "no call list" but it doesn't seem to do much good anymore.

[Shawnino]

1 hour ago, Lois R said:

Good morning, I have a land line (I know many people don't) but when my phone rings the number is displayed on my TV and if I don't know the number, I pick up the phone (I don't say hello) and I disconnect it.  I still get calls from numbers I have no clue about......I have been on that "no call list" but it doesn't seem to do much good anymore.

 

Not sure about rules where you live but where I am, if there's a customer relationship, the company is exempt from Do Not Call.

 

Worst are the calls from India phishing for my credit card number or trying to hijack my computer. Occasionally, if I'm in a funny mood, I'll keep them on the line awhile and eventually make them angry... 

[audobon_tx]

1 hour ago, Shawnino said:

 

Not sure about rules where you live but where I am, if there's a customer relationship, the company is exempt from Do Not Call.

 

Worst are the calls from India phishing for my credit card number or trying to hijack my computer. Occasionally, if I'm in a funny mood, I'll keep them on the line awhile and eventually make them angry... 

Robot calls, immediate hang up.  Humans, "not interested", then immediate hang up.  India calls, agree it is sometimes fun to argue/play with them.  Do Not Call lists, reporting to FTC in the USA, etc. are remnants of a simpler time and are less than useless these days.

[Baynanno1]

I don't know what the rules are in other countries, but in Australia one needs to renew at a time interval (some years) which eludes me at the moment, so for those whose do not call seems to not work any more it may be worth checking. The only exemptions I am aware of are genuine charities.

[Shawnino]

12 minutes ago, Baynanno1 said:

I don't know what the rules are in other countries, but in Australia one needs to renew at a time interval (some years) which eludes me at the moment, so for those whose do not call seems to not work any more it may be worth checking. The only exemptions I am aware of are genuine charities.

 

Every five years here in Canada.

Plethora of exceptions:

--any client/customer relationship (my bank calls incessantly trying to sell me additional financial products)

--charities

--political parties

--market research/polling firms

--newspapers soliciting subscriptions

etc.

[upwarduk]

New privacy rules introduced in May in the U.K. have certainly halved nuscence calls.

[Bloodaxe]

17 hours ago, upwarduk said:

New privacy rules introduced in May in the U.K. have certainly halved nuscence calls.

 

I agree that they have reduced but we are still getting calls from scammers pretending to be internet providers saying you have a problem with your system and trying to gain access to the computer or get you to call high priced advice lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[uktog]

1 hour ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

I agree that they have reduced but we are still getting calls from scammers pretending to be internet providers saying you have a problem with your system and trying to gain access to the computer or get you to call high priced advice lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly plus callers based overseas do not respect the rules. We are registered for no calls and have removed permissions for third party calls from many contacts but have noticed no difference in the number of cold calls over this year. It’s still way too high. 

[Grandma Cruising]

28 minutes ago, uktog said:

Exactly plus callers based overseas do not respect the rules. We are registered for no calls and have removed permissions for third party calls from many contacts but have noticed no difference in the number of cold calls over this year. It’s still way too high. 

We have a phone with BT call guardian and that has really reduced the calls.

[uktog]

1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

We have a phone with BT call guardian and that has really reduced the calls.

Sadly not our experience, it all depends where the calls are coming from.  

[tgg]

I was glad to get a call from Azamara asking about our Cuba excursions. We had been on the web site, chosen a few excursions to make use of the large OBC, but had evidently never hit the submit button.  Without the phone call, we would have boarded the ship and wondered why we didn't receive our excursions tickets. 

 

The person who called could see our choices just sitting there, waiting to be submitted. 

 

Thanks Azamara for the timely follow-up.

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

Sadly not our experience, it all depends where the calls are coming from.  

We have it set to answer machine and find those making nuisance calls just ring off as soon as they hear the message. Over time we have found we get less calls. Also I either ring unknown numbers back & if I get a ‘number unknown’ message, I block that number, or I google the number - if it shows up as someone I wouldn’t want to speak to, I also block them.

We do still get some international calls and the number doesn’t show up so you can’t identify the caller.

[nordski]

24 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

We have it set to answer machine and find those making nuisance calls just ring off as soon as they hear the message. Over time we have found we get less calls. Also I either ring unknown numbers back & if I get a ‘number unknown’ message, I block that number, or I google the number - if it shows up as someone I wouldn’t want to speak to, I also block them.

We do still get some international calls and the number doesn’t show up so you can’t identify the caller.

 

Sounds like you have a system!

 

But what will happen if you miss that emergency phone call that informs you that your network connection is going to be permanently disabled if you don’t allow the handily available technician immediate access to your computer? 😄

 

In comparison to that call, and the one insisting that “they” needed my Visa Account information right now to void an illicit $1000.00 charge, I would consider any Azamara call relatively benign.