Political Campaign Tactic : Phony Phone Surveys
Politics October 10th, 2004I encountered the oddest tactic to sway my opinion on the upcoming election today. I received a phone call from a company called “GHY Research”. The call begins like a neutral political survey poll asking me questions such as my choices for president, governor, and lieutenant governor. About 5 minutes into the survey the caller begins to ask loaded questions such as “Richard Burr sided with RJ Reynolds and voted against a tobacco buyout hurting our North Carolina farmers. Does this make you more or less likely to vote for Mr. Burr?”
Incredible.
April 25th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
There was a phone call today from a man asking to speak to my son. I said he was at work and may I ask who’s calling. He wouldn’t tell me and said he’d call back later. I again asked who was calling and to be assured that I would leave a message for my son. Again he wanted to call back later. “I’m sorry but you can’t. He may not be home until very late, please leave a name and number for him to call. If you call back tomorrow you’re only going to get me again. My son’s a busy guy so I’m afraid you’ll need to give me a number.”, I said.
Finally he replied it was GHY Research. “Thank you”, I said. “And what is the number?” He said he didn’t have a phone number and wasn’t going to give me a callback phone number.
Excuse me? What the hell kind of reply is that? I’m certainly not going to give this guy my son’s work phone number. Having to play 21 with this guy and getting a non-response like that does not engender a polite response from me. I couldn’t control myself. I said, “Well, I must say this is a first for me. I guess I haven’t been watching the news lately. Wow, how’d you call me if you weren’t using a phone?” I just hung up w/o waiting for a reply.
Ordainarily people describe me as friendly and polite. And I’m truly sorry because I know the guy is just a shmoe doing his job but what would be the harm in identifying himself and supplying a contact number so my son could decide whether to respond or not? I hate phone calls like this.
April 29th, 2006 at 3:46 am
Regarding that comment, it’s a bit odd that he wouldn’t say where he was calling from, however, he honestly didn’t have a number you could call. THe way call centers work, are dozens of stations on an auto-dialer that’s constantly dialing out. Only these stations are connected to the server and dialer that would allow the survey to be done, so even if you had the number for that line, calling it wouldn’t accomplish anything. The best they can do is call back at a more reasonable time, or not at all. If you hang up that way, you’re likely only going to get a call back.
September 1st, 2007 at 2:39 am
I recieved a call like that myself and I’m in Boston, Mass. I asked the girl who she worked for and she gave me a three letter name of some company. I can’t be sure it’s the same company that called you, but I had the same rudeness. When I said I was voting for the Green Party, instead of my usual Democratic Party, she became rather insistant in that she wanted me to change my mind it seemed. She kept asking the same questions in different ways. It seemed to me as if she wanted a different response from me. Very unprofessional by my way of thinking!
December 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I just got a call from GHY research. When the guy asked me which political party I was affiliated with, I asked who GHY was. He was very evasive, and finally gave me an 800 number. When I called this number, they said they wer with Peter Heart Research. Peter Heart seems to have a good rep, but the persistive nature of the young man was annoying, and his evasiveness about GHY made me sceptical of his purpose.