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?

This number keeps calling and nevre leves a message nor responds if i answer. I really dislike spammer calls....

DO NOT give these people ANY information!!!!!DO NOT email them about removing your number from their call list!!! If you email them you just gave them your email address as well as them having your phone number.They use software to cycle through phone numbers sequencially anytime of day or night looking for numbers that answer with voice (or non- electronic [i.e. Fax]) responses. If you or your answering system "talkings" to their software your number is put on their "hot" list for follow-up or you will be talking to a real person who is after you FINANCIAL or more contact information so they can STEAL your $$$$.

The thing is, the NDCL ( the national do not call list ) only applies to telemarketers - people who are trying to sell you stuff or get your money somehow. Market research - that is, public opinion surveys, like the kind conducted for governments and business, are explicitly exempted from the National Do Not Call list- but if you don't want to be called for surveys either, then don't despair. (I don't know for certain, but I believe the idea of the structure of the NDCL was to hit the telemarketers the hardest, while still allowing  some room for calls in the public interest - in a free & democratic society it is difficult to outlaw a public opinion poll - even if it's done, annoyingly sometimes, over the phone).

So market research companies are allowed to make a call (or if no one is home/no one answers the phone- perhaps several calls) to speak with people. This was covered under the NDCL list regulations; but always remember that (legitimate) market research companies don't make sales, and there is absolutely no incentive for them to call anyone they don't have, any more than they have to - they only want to talk to people who WANT participate and share their opinions. So if you make the request to them, then they are not only obligated, but probably they'll even be eager to do everything they can to prevent you from being called again.   

As I understand it (I could be wrong), because surveys are NOT considered telemarketers, research survey companies don't even have access to the numbers on the NDLC list- that is, they don't even know who not to call, because the list is only disclosed to the telemarketers. Because of this irony, survey research companies have to maintain their own 'don't-call-me' lists with the people that they contact who request not to be called again. So, as the person being called by a market research company, you've got all the power- just so long as you make the request to them to be put on their 'don't-call' list: (Legitimate) survey companies are all too happy to add a request to their do-not-call lists because this helps them too- like I said, they only want to talk to people who are willing to share their opinions and viewpoints; and there's zero incentive to bother the people that don't want to be bothered. 

Another irony (as I understand it- again I could be wrong) is that independent research companies, once they've banned themselves from calling a particular phone number, they NEVER disclose or share that number again with any other companies - which makes sense because it protects confidentiality; but it can also mean that just because you were added to the do-not-call list for research company 'A' you might still get a different call someday from research company 'B' - because company 'A' isn't allowed to share or disclose the numbers that they've banned themselves from calling with anybody else, including company 'B.' Sort of a rock-and-hard-place situation; the good news it that company 'B' would be just as eager to help get you on their no-call list as soon as possible too. BTW - as per the the rules (so I was told)  they can add anyone by request to their do-not-call list at the time of a call, no questions asked; provided the person making the request has been told 'the call was for a survey- not a sale'

Again- hope this helps - the NDCL is still a good tool for getting rid of telemarketers (at least, all the ones that aren't offshore) and like I mentioned,  there are easy ways to opt out of the survey calls too.

Keeps calling me at random hours of the night!! Stop calling!

Survey researchers ( phone interviewers ) NEVER leave voicemails because they are never (with very few exceptions) ALLOWED to leave voicemails. Why is this you ask? Well, interviewers are paid by clients and clients don't want interviewers wasting paid time leaving voicemails- every minute an interviewer is NOT conducting a survey is costing the client money for nothing. If an interviewer makes 200 calls in a night and it takes 30 or 40 seconds to leave a voicemail on every call, you can see how the unpaid time adds up. Moreover, most people don't want their answering machines filled up. If you are called for a survey and don't answer, then in most cases they WILL call you back because they have no idea WHY you didn't answer the phone- they'll try back at a random time ( or a different time ) in the next few days in the hopes of speaking with you then- which is why you might get called at a less convenient hour. If you want to know who's calling, pick up the phone- they'll tell you. If you want them to stop calling because you don't want to do a survey, pick up the phone and (politely please) let them know- that way they don't have to call you again. But phone interviewers can't know that until you talk to them. That's why they call back- they can't know if the reason you didn't pick up the phone was because you were away, or if it was because you didn't want to participate- so let 'em know- surveys are always voluntary- they only want to talk to people who want to talk to them- the less people they disturb, the better it is for everyone.

want to know where this number is from area