Any 'research' company that makes unsolicited cold calls and keeps calling unanswered numbers is either incredibly incompetent or has a sideline selling vacuum cleaners. My wife learned this while working for them a long time ago. Seriously, can you imagine how much time it would waste having to call those numbers plus wait for the answering machine over and over and over and over... Real marketing companies want answers quickly and just skip the no-answer numbers. In the (extremely) rare case where a client insists on including no-answers they _WILL_ leave a message and hope for a call-back since harassment is hardly going to provide a willing victim-er-subject. Even telemarketers hesitate to keep pushing those numbers, and either discard them or reserve them for their most desperate callers.

There is also a federal "Do not call" list, but not all companies are honest enough to bother with obeying the laws. If you are registered on the list feel free to visit this link to file a complaint: h??ps://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/plt-cmp-eng That will also give you links for registering if you aren't.

Btw, although there are exceptions to the law, they are still not allowed to harass subjects by constantly re-calling no-answers.

Hopefully this will help someone.

Cheers.

I googled the number I get lots of these---thanks to these type of boards it stops people from phoning back

Boy, they must have a VERY BORING LIFE if all they can do is spend their time on these ridiculous calls. I answered, no response, yelled Hello a second time and then hung up.

2nd call from "ICBC" this week. First caller was speaking English and we responded in English and advised that we were not interested in any survey. Then Sunday morning, get a caller speaking Chinese advising he is calling on behalf of ICBC. So much for the being polite and advising them that we are not interested. Now it makes me wonder if it's not a scam because after all, everyone in BC must deal with ICBC so a survey from ICBC will have relevance to everyone. In this day and age of scams, Internet phone numbers can be spoofed to look like they are from legit businesses and government agencies. Since this number has been advertised as being from a legit survey company, I'm sure any scammer will figure that out and use it as well.

RE: Joe,
Your phone number is not shared with anyone for the ICBC survey; but once the request is made to not be called for this survey it can take up to 30 days to go into effect. If you got called again by NRG for the ICBC survey more than once in a few days it was probably by mistake, not by design (ASSUMING you told them the first time they called that YOU wanted to opt out of the survey -you can't opt out for somebody else if you're not the person being surveyed- and presuming you made the request in an UNambigious manner - There's no benefit to them calling you any more than they have to, and as long as you make a clear request for yourself, NRG and other reputable research companies are only too happy to comply. If your number was disclosed by ICBC, your number can only be used to contact you from NRG Research on behalf of ICBC for that survey. Don't believe me? Then ask ICBC themselves - Survey research is not telemarketing - they cannot and do not sell your number- but ICBC does want to get your feedback IF you want to give them feedback on the service ICBC provided when you dealt with them, or bought their Autoplan insurance products.

these f*ckers are wack, burn the building

I am disappointed that ICBC has released personal information for data mining companies. I do believe the analyst at NRG and NRG is paid a commission for each completed survey. The questions are quite personal and when I refuse to answer I am given 'strong feedback backtalk' by the analyst. Note, that I did request to be removed from their solicitation list and requested no further calls. NRG has called several times since. Following my request to be deleted from the call list, a subsequent call was made to our telephone number and answered by a member of our family, without asking for permission to conduct the survey, questions regarding ICBC were asked, my family member replied in French and this frustrated the NRG analyst, who subsequently hung up.The ICBC claim to follow Privacy Act provisions and not to release information appears to be bogus.
I do believe the 'call lists' have been 'marketed' to other telemarketers and as recently as the call today, shortly thereafter I receive a telemarketing call for a 'cruise' and another call later in the day for Airmiles. During the past week, we have also been called for WestJet promotions. We have not flown WestJet in the past 2 years. Do I believe it is a scam, yes. I do believe ICBC should stop this practice of 'outsourced telemarketing' as I strongly believe this is a waste of ICBC revenue. Rather than waste revenue, ICBC should use the regular media, advice they have stopped this practice, and waste of money, with money saved to reduce the insurance premium. I also believe ICBC had the monopoly on insurance and that the insurance market should be open to all other insurance underwriters.

I've got them already on my 'blocked caller' list, they phone even on sundays. scumbags. told them already twice to get lost and not phone here anymore since I am working graveyards. My response to such disturbing calls is extremely unpleasant. In these times with all the spams, scams, phishings, frauds...NO ONE will give any info away to unknown phone numbers. they can say whatever they want 'who they are'. No proof. The only thing I found about this number are complaints all over the internet.

I along with many others are leary of unsolicited phone calls. They are a niusance and I for one do not answer them. The unsolicited numbers are easy enough to google so why don't these companies just say who they are. They are a PAIN.

Same as above. No one there yet they keep phoning!
Who is this person?

I wish these a**holes would stop calling me

want to know where this number is from area

I had a claim from ICBC.  I called them to find out who it was and got a machine telling me they were doing a survey to find out how my appointment went with ICBC.  Didn't leave a message.  

ICBC agents deal with ICBC claims and direct customer service. With something relatively simple, like a customer satisfaction survey (something that requires little training, but a lot of manpower) they outsource it to a call center like NRG (lots of resources to do the surveys at a minimum cost) - Would you rather have ICBC have their limited number of trained, high-paid ICBC agents tied up doing thousands of survey calls? Of course an interviewer at a call center probably won't have the same people & basic language skills as an ICBC agent... They shouldn't have gotten defensive when you made it clear to them that you didn't want to give your feedback on ICBC's service.  

In any case, your fear of a 778 number here is a red herring - Call centers can use a 778 because they are independent call centers- and have offices all over Canada, in the employ of ICBC - if you don't believe me, check the ICBC website link, or call ICBC directly

http://www.icbc.com/about-ICBC/shiftinggears/phone-survey      

ICBC's own website says:

"By taking five minutes for an ICBC phone survey, you can help us improve our claims, licensing and insurance services.


ICBC regularly surveys our customers by phone to find out what we're doing right—and what we need to work on.
These confidential surveys are conducted on our behalf by NRG Research Group, an independent research company based in Vancouver.
If you are contacted by an NRG representative, please be assured that these surveys are legitimate, and are permitted under Protection of Privacy legislation. Your identity will not be revealed without your permission.
The surveys take no more than five minutes. If you agree to take part, the feedback you give us will help us improve the way we provide services to you.
"Do not call" list
Participating in the survey is completely voluntary.
If you would prefer not to be contacted, you can be added to our do not call list by calling our customer contact centre at (604) 661-2800 or 1-+1 800-663-3051.

enjoy my heavy breathing motherfarker

I asked them what they were wearing as soon as I felt that I was possibly getting scammed. I do this to every kind of unsolicited phone call, actually. It feels good and gets you put on the REAL do-not-call-list, which is what they got for people who ask them what they're wearing.