5142880420

Called - I didn't pick up - my voicemail is turned off so they couldn't leave a message even if they wanted

This Montreal number called yesterday at 11:50am, but on my fax line (which is the only number I have listed in the phone book).  No message & no fax

Survey company, calls and asks for me by first name as if they are an acquaintance... will not leave message with my husband, call repeatedly each evening at the same time even though my husband has told them not to call anymore.  At first he was nice about it and wasn't sure if it was an old friend or client trying to reach me, so told them they could not reach me in the evenings.  After they continued phoning and phoning, he's not so nice baout it anymore.

An internet search identified the company for me.

Rec'd call at 11:42 today - Did not answer as I did not recognised this number. Who calls people on Sundays....

*A GUIDE TO HANDLING OPINION SEARCH, HARRIS-DECIMA and DECIMA*

Let me tell you about Opinion Search Inc. or OSI. I am an Opinon Search/Decima/Harris-Decima employee at the Montreal office. I understand your frustration and complaints. I feel very bad when people are called numerous times, especially when they specified they did not want to be called ever again. I understand it is very disrespectful and downright annoying. This is usually due to the fact that some of our employees may not be doing their job properly logging calls or our computerized system is not working as it is supposed to.
I am writing to maybe clear some misunderstandings concerning this company and this number.
First of all, I will explain the difference between market research and telemarketing because they are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS. I am a university student so here is a personal market research definition, mostly inspired from my 2007 Canadian Edition of Philip Kotler's Principles of Marketing, a manual used in my Introduction to Marketing class at Concordia University.
*Market research*: Companies often need formal studies of specific situations. For example, Toshiba wants to know how many and what kinds of people will buy its new portable PC or your bank wants to know how satisfied you are with their services and if they should really lower fees on certain accounts, or Tim Hortons wants to know if they should continue with the Roll-Up The Rim To Win Contest. Company managers cannot determine that by themselves. They need the population's help and to do that, they use marketing research. So basically, marketing research (surveying or focus groups) is the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization. Companies use market research for a wide variety of situations. It helps companies understand customer satisfaction and purchase behavior, it helps them determine prices, market potential, the product, its distribution and its promotion activities. If any of you owns a business, you should understand this or else your business goes to hell.
So, what we mainly do at Opinion Search is SURVEY RESEARCH, which is one of the many marketing research approaches. Survey research is the most widely used method for gathering descriptive information about the population sample surveyed. A company or a social or governmental organization that wants to know about people's knowledge, attitudes, preferences, or buying behavior can often find out by asking them directly through a telephone survey.
Without your opinion, feedback and input, companies or the government will do as they please or will not know how to please you and you will continue to be disappointed and will continue to bathe in your ignorant bliss. As one famous interviewer once said: SURVEYS ARE LIKE VOTING, YOU ARE EITHER PART OF SOCIETY OR YOU ARE NOT.
*Telemarketing*: Telemarketing is the act of selling, soliciting or promoting a product or service over the telephone. Some telemarketing companies are the real deal, some are scams. You just have to use your own judgements. Opinion Search is not trying to scam you or SELL YOU ANYTHING.

*A GUIDE TO HANDLING OPINION SEARCH, HARRIS-DECIMA and DECIMA (CONTINUED)*

1) IF YOU WANT TO BE TAKEN OFF OUR LISTS, call 514-288-0420 or 514-288-0199 or 1-800-288-0199. At all these numbers, ask the receptionist for a supervisor or press 7 and you will reach a supervisor or the supervisor voice mail. If you reach the supervisor voice mail, feel free to leave your phone number and say the words DO NOT CALL ME AGAIN. We will then proceed to remove you from our database. If you reach a live person, they will most definitely ask you for your phone number. They will not ask for your name or any other information. We need to know your phone number so that we can know which number to remove. Many of you refuse to give it to us. If you do not give it to us, you cannot be removed from our database. You will receive more annoying calls and it is frustrating for us to receive complaints and not be able to do anything about them. Help us help you.

2) The difference between DECIMA, HARRIS-DECIMA and OPINION SEARCH:

OPINION SEARCH is the call center. It is the company that does the surveys, the research.

DECIMA is the actual research company. They get contracts from companies asking for market research. Then, DECIMA asks OPINION SEARCH to conduct the research.

HARRIS-DECIMA is actually a partnership formed by Decima, one of Canada's  major market research companies and Harris, one of US of A's major market research companies. Kind of like a North-American partnership.

I would like to underline that Decima is one of Canada's major research companies. If you live in Montreal and read the Metro or le 24 Heures, you will sometimes see polls or research done by us. Open your eyes to what you see, read or hear. You will most definitely have a better understanding of society.

3) THE PEOPLE OF OPINION SEARCH.

So, Opinion Search is a call center where I believe more than 70% of Montreal's student population has worked at least once. It is the perfect student job because it offers very flexible hours and an hourly pay ranging from 9.25-11.50 per hour. Many Concordia, McGill, Dawson, Vanier and Marianopolis students pay their university, rent, food and entertainment with hours worked at Opinion Search. Some people work there part time for extra revenue. I like speaking with people who are not ignorant about society and how it works. For more information, there are adds in the Mirror or Hour pretty much every week. I am sure you or your kids know at least one person who works there since it is one of Montreal's major research call center after Ipsos and Leger-Marketing.

4)  It is a very interesting job, especially when people I call understand that I AM NOT LOOKING FOR THEIR PERSONAL INFORMATION, JUST THEIR VIEWS. WE ARE NOT SELLING YOU ANYTHING. WE JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. REMEMBER THAT YOUR PARTICIPATION IS VOLUNTARY. NOBODY WILL TWIST YOUR ARM TO ANSWER THE SURVEY. YOU CAN REFUSE, BUT DO IT NICELY AND CLEARLY SO THAT WE CAN ACTUALLY TAKE YOU OFF OUR LISTS AND NOT CALL YOU EVER AGAIN. WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS TOO. SO LET US HELP YOU.

4) WHY YOU HEAR SOMEBODY HANG UP ON YOU: At OSI, an interviewer's job is to complete surveys or log calls when there is an answering machine, when there is no answer or when somebody refuses. We are all human and some interviewers, mostly new ones, have yet to master the art of logging a call properly. It takes them a few days to get it, so please excuse them.

5) If you have any more questions, feel free to call the company at 1-800-288-0199/514-288-0199/514-288-0420 or contact the CEO, Mr. Ed Hum at edhum@opinionsearch.com.

You can always visit the following websites and learn more about these companies. I say knowledge is power.
www.opinionsearch.ca
www.decima.ca
www.harris.com

*MORE ON  HOW TO HANDLE OPINION SEARCH*

I forgot to tell you.

If you receive a call from OPINION SEARCH or any other market research company and it bothers you and you do not want to be called again, DO NOT SAY THAT YOU ARE BUSY!!! According to market research standards, when you say that you are busy, that is considered a CALLBACK and you WILL BE 100% CALLED BACK until you grow some balls and say DO NOT CALL ME/THIS NUMBER AGAIN. Those are the magic words.


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I hope all this information helps everybody. And if you want to be really sure to not be called for surveys in the near future, phone your Internet company, your Cable company, the company you bought your TV and Kitchen appliances from, your Magazine subscription and tell them you do not want to take part in any research. Also, avoid entering your phone number on online contests or contests of any kind offered at grocery stores or department stores. Usually, ballots that are filled out for contests will eventually be part of a sample database. And trust me, you will be called at some point by either a market research company....or if you are unlucky, by a telemarketing company.

Once again, inform yourself, if you do not want big bad corporate companies to invade your mind and household.

As John Madison said,

*Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.*

*MORE ON  HOW TO HANDLE OPINION SEARCH*

I forgot to tell you.

If you receive a call from OPINION SEARCH or any other market research company and it bothers you and you do not want to be called again, DO NOT SAY THAT YOU ARE BUSY!!! According to market research standards, when you say that you are busy, that is considered a CALLBACK and you WILL BE 100% CALLED BACK until you grow some balls and say DO NOT CALL ME/THIS NUMBER AGAIN. Those are the magic words.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope all this information helps everybody. And if you want to be really sure to not be called for surveys in the near future, phone your Internet company, your Cable company, the company you bought your TV and Kitchen appliances from, your Magazine subscription and tell them you do not want to take part in any research. Also, avoid entering your phone number on online contests or contests of any kind offered at grocery stores or department stores. Usually, ballots that are filled out for contests will eventually be part of a sample database. And trust me, you will be called at some point by either a market research company....or if you are unlucky, by a telemarketing company.

Once again, inform yourself, if you do not want big bad corporate companies to invade your mind and household.

As John Madison said,

*Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.*

*THE OPINION SEARCH DO NOT CALL LIST REMOVAL*

IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE YOUR SUPPER, SEX, PARTY OR FAVORITE TV SHOW DISTURBED, GO HERE. ENTER YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND IF YOU WANT TO, YOUR RANT.

http://www.opinionsearch.com/en/tools/donotcall/index.php

I hope this helps everybody. When I call you, I think about you. I really do. Sometimes, I feel horrible when I call moms about to change their crying babies. I immediately tell them I am sorry and that I sympathize and that I would rather call them at a more convenient time. Sometimes, I disturb family time. And yes I feel guilty. But that is my part-time job and I have hefty school fees to pay. Other times, I call really passionate people who really have interesting things to say about society, corporations and politics.It's always a pleasure doing a survey with them. Other times, I call lonely, old people and they do my survey. Then, I listen a bit to what they have to say. Usually, they are very glad somebody called them.And those are the best moments.

To the person posting above.  You seem to think this makes it alright for your company to intrude on my privacy.  Telling folks to "grow some balls" doesn't improve your point either.

JD, if you don't want people calling you don't have a phone, or turn off the ringer and don't answer.  It's a choice if you want to answer or not.

I've had 3 calls from these jokers - each time I answer the phone, they hang up.

Could be I've got one of those "Tele-Zapper" units (Remember those?) on my phone line.  Simple to use and when a computer generated call comes through and you answer the phone the unit "Zaps" the computer, erasing your number and jumbling their messages"

Whatever reason - it's highly annoying to take the call.  I think I'll start calling their business number and then hang up when they answer.  Anybody else want to play???

SE  You're right it is a choice.  It is also my choice how I choose to deal with it.  Ever try to contact these folks?  I have.  Email you send is filtered by spam blockers so they won't get it.  If you call them and ask questions or to talk to Ed Hum they get annoyed.

Since they don't reply to email try calling them.  They are in the eastern time zone.  This has an added plus, when you call it costs them money not you.

1-800-363-4229  ext. 3006  Mr. Ed Hum
or try Shawn Gallman ext. 3026

Name and Address of caller 15142880420

Government of Canada, inquiring about a survey about the CRTC

I just got a call from this number at my workplace... there was nobody there so I hung up. They really shouldn't be calling people at work!

i am extremly annoyed by this number to call my home at 10:30 pm when my husband and i are in bed and when he answered the phone no one replied..we didnt call them they called us and we found that very rude and upseting we have family members that are very ill and if this ever happens again we WILL call the authorites and have them handle this rude awakening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rec'd call at 11:54 today - Did not answer and I did not recognised this number.

This is a joke isn't it? Calling the police about being woken up at night by the phone? Don't you think the police have better things to do then to deal with your insignificant annoyances while sleeping? Just turn off the ringer, or better yet, call the company and tell them to put you on their 'do not call list'. It's not hard.

Oh and the reasons they keep calling are as follows:

-you tell them you're busy then hang up (or tell them a phony time to call back)

-You yell at them or are very rude (basically acting like a 9 year old). Handle the call like an adult and you'll be treated as such. If you are rude, it's more likely that they will call you back because you've hurt their feelings of they want some sort of revenge. It's not right, but they are people after all. Some you may like, some you may not. Bottom line, act like an adult and you will be respected like one.

-you hang up while they are delivering their introduction. Some may just think they had a bad connection and will call you back later.

Also, threats regarding the authorities do not affect the situation one bit. The company is legitamate. If you get called at late, it's by accident. If they do it once, foget about it. If they do it continuously, just contact the company. It's okay to take the first step. Call them up and handle the problem personally.

The more professional you are, the better results you will recieve. We are all adults, right?

For me, I will keep contributing my valued feedback to improve society by helping companies who offer products and services in my area, the municipal, provincial and federal govenments, and to help those interviewers trying to make money to pay tuition (so they can finish school and become an even more productive member of society). Oh, and not to mention, recieve cash incentives from time to time for focus groups they invite me to (cash up front after the short focus group. Got 75 dollars for it)!

In short: calm down, think rationally, deal with the problem head on,act like a mature adult, and work out a solution. Do those things and I'm sure if you handled it right, you will get the results you are looking for.

Goodbye, and wishes for you all to work out your issues with this company and get what YOU want out of it! Don't give up until you get what YOU want!

Montreal  based National Research group calling to get my opinion on renting in Toronto.  The # had been calling me for some time and each time there was no one there...i kept saying hello this time until someone came on the line and told him not to bother calling again and take my # off their list.