Urban decoder

My voice mail is inundated with messages from Boris of Best Price Movers. How do I get off his list? — Gina Kim, Forest Hill

Posted on January 1, 2002

Ah yes, we’ve all received calls from Boris—not to mention Janos, Reggie and various other amiable pseudo-ethnic characters. They may sound folksy, but don’t be fooled: they’re masters of “back-door ADAD technology” (automatic dialing-announcing devices), a computerized system capable of beaming spam to upwards of 450,000 voice mail accounts in a single day. Last fall, Ma Bell tried to have the phone spams banned, citing system bottlenecks and thousands of customer complaints. Alas, the CRTC decided the nuisance wasn’t sufficient to warrant a crackdown, which means there are currently no governing regulations whatsoever. If the messages are really driving you nuts, you can try calling the company and asking them to set you free. You might also get yourself onto the Canadian Marketing Association’s voluntary “do not call” list, which recently began handling complaints about voice mail spam. Unfortunately, the list (which has about 440,000 names on it) is far from a panacea—it only applies to companies in the CMA, and enforcement consists of kicking out offending members. Best Price wouldn’t comment on its marketing practices—a recent call elicited a hasty click. It must have been sweet old Boris’s day off.

Comments

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JJ May 30, 2007 at 10:18 a.m.

You think thats bad, you should try and deal with the people at Century grove homes. Even my lawyer told me that there service department was hostile. Everyone that I have spoken to is pissed, they even erected a wall without telling some new after they closed their property!

Disappointed Customer July 18, 2007 at 12:19 a.m.

Do not use Best Price Movers!! Unfortunately we fell for the scam. We used Best Price Movers today and got ripped off. They walked away with $700 and left more than half of our furniture in the garage because they didn't feel like working anymore. They were by far the slowest moving human beings on Earth, not to mention extremely rude. They demanded their money up front and once they had most of it, they took cigarette breaks every 15 minutes.

Rob September 2, 2007 at 1:04 a.m.

They seem to refer to themselves now as "Anna from the moving company". They do abusive (illegal) telemarketing by auto-dialers, they are despicably rude, and not to be trusted no matter what they call themselves. Don't go near these people, and never let them touch your things.

anna from the moving company September 13, 2007 at 1:19 p.m.

calls at home AND at work - scam and sick of it - between that and

"Macy's, bloomingdlae's and.." cancun travel unlimited - ridiculous rude telemarketers who are driving me crazy

i feel like getting rid of my damn phone - email is the way to go

john boy October 19, 2007 at 4:41 p.m.

Boris from Best Price Movers are run by a Russian dude.
He also uses the name Tug Boat Willie, not to mention Anna.

Problem is, that the above boys keep changing their phone numbers to stay 1 step ahead of Ma Bell.
The best people to complain to would be Ma Bell herself.
If you complain high enough up the food chain , you will get action.
Keep a copy of the recording and forward it to them, then demand they pull the plug on these Yahoos.

From what I remember these ADAD s were stopped back in the early 1990s because they were being used much more than now.
I assume Boris probably stumbled upon an old machine and being used to the Russian way of doing things back home ( basically like the wild west ), decided he could do the same here.
Since hardly anyone uses these things anymore the CRTC figures he just a punter, small fry knat, not worthy of their time or effort to squash him.

Maybe you could get an old ADAD and spam him and tie up his phone lines.

boris is famous November 19, 2007 at 3:20 a.m.

that's just so sad...that comment about wild west just shows how many people are still shallow, probably coming from buttf*** outskirts of Ontario. it would be even sadder if you actually live in the city. No,I don't know Boris. Yes, i do enjoy his voicemails. The best part is - they work!

hippocrate March 3, 2008 at 5:20 a.m.

thats just sad... that comment about "coming from buttf*** outskirts of Ontario." that just shows how big of a hippocrates they are. Slamming someone for speaking of russia negatively, Then bashing the outskirts of Ontario. Stupid. Get a life.

Mikey doesn't like ANNA from the moving company July 22, 2008 at 5:38 p.m.

Every Tuesday I get a recorded call from ANNA at the moving company. I still don't want to move ANNA!!! And when I finally called the place, they hung up on me when I tried to have my number removed. So next step - phone company, in my case Rogers Home Phone. They have a call block service they charge $4 a month for. Wait a second, they are the ones allowing the calls to get thru in the first place. I bemoaned this fact to the rep on the line who finally gave me 3 months free service. This should stop these idiots, at least for a while.