# Ask the person who calls people--telephone surveys **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 17, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056 "2012-10-17T20:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/41 "2012-10-18T03:55:43Z")
I think **Flyer** must be mentally disturbed. This is evidenced by their trying so hard to justify such scummy behavior. Their sense of self hatred at having sunk to such a low as the type of job they hold drives **Flyer** into a place where they can’t possibly be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/42 "2012-10-18T03:57:08Z")
People like the OP are why I no longer have a land line. So, to the OP, thanks for saving me $30/mo. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/43 "2012-10-18T03:58:21Z")
Honestly, telephone surveying probably ISN’T so bad as other forms of aggressive telephone calling (debt collectors, salesmen), but what really makes Flyer a spectacle amongst feces is his/her insistance on the following principles: 1. You are a piece of shit for not answering my questions the right way 2. I laugh at your feeble, mortal attempt at getting on our Do Not Call List, muahahaha! 3. You have a phone, therefore, you must like to get raped. LOGIC. ---
**Author:** ![al27052](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@al27052](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/al27052)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/44 "2012-10-18T04:01:50Z")
For all of you who hate surveys, how are companies supposed to improve their products and services without surveys? Just make random guesses? No. Surveys and focus groups are extremely important in making the products and services we use daily _better_. I have worked for two different survey companies in the past. Yes, there were some surveys that most people didn’t care about, but I can also remember a number of surveys where lots of people were more than happy to take the survey. If it’s for something you truly care about, then it makes sense to take the survey…because you are getting the chance to shape company behaviors. Now, granted, you can often accomplish more with some smart, targeted facebook posting than by taking a survey…but you’ll spend more time on the facebook posting too. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/45 "2012-10-18T04:02:31Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I think **Flyer** must be mentally disturbed. This is evidenced by their trying so hard to justify such scummy behavior. Their sense of self hatred at having sunk to such a low as the type of job they hold drives **Flyer** into a place where they can’t possibly be wrong. 😃 Thanks for giving me a good laugh. Both because you are so far off the mark, and because you don’t know the difference between justifying something and explaining how something works. > [@Gorsnak](#): > > People like the OP are why I no longer have a land line. > > So, to the OP, thanks for saving me $30/mo. :eek: Perhaps you missed the part where I explained that we call cell phones? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/46 "2012-10-18T04:06:06Z")
> [@](#): > > For all of you who hate surveys, how are companies supposed to improve their products and services without surveys? Just make random guesses? The hate is for the OP and his/her employer, for refusing to put people on the DNC list unless the target uses the precise wording. How is it to a client company’s advantage to have a survey company keep calling people who have TOLD the survey company’s representatives that they don’t want to be called? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/47 "2012-10-18T04:09:49Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Perhaps you missed the part where I explained that we call cell phones? Perhaps it’s time you and your boss read the [law](http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/02/dnccellphones.shtm), straight from the FTC site: > [@](#): > > Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are barred from calling consumers on their cell phones without their consent. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/48 "2012-10-18T04:13:04Z")
**Musicat,** re-read post #27. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/49 "2012-10-18T04:14:03Z")
You know, there’s a thread over in MPSIMS, asking if we’ve ever met someone who is truly evil. I’ve never met the OP in person though, so until then the answer is “Not to my knowledge” ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/50 "2012-10-18T04:27:01Z")
In the OP’s defense, he or she thinks that making 8 bucks an hour is a good wage. That’s 75 cents an hour more than he could make slinging hamburgers and he doesn’t have to see people face to face. How many of the rest of us have the mind set that making $8.00 an hour is a good wage? Just stop and think about the education and ambition that would make someone think that this is a good job. The OP gets to sit in a chair for his entire shift. He/she probably has some sort of climate control in the hive and gets to wear a headset and use a keyboard. \*\*Flyer \*\*hasn’t said anything about bonuses, but I’ll just bet they get to have weekly meetings that last an hour and all **Flyer** has to do is sit around and cheer, while getting paid. Who _wouldn’t_ just drool over working conditions like that? **Flyer** , your sort is why I don’t have a landline, and why I never answer my cell unless I recognize the number. I resent having to do this, but it is what it is. I do wonder how you feel about having unwanted callers use up your minutes on your cell phone. I have unlimited data on my phone, but I make a bit more than you do. When the rare survey caller actually leaves a message, it just gets deleted and I never think twice. Maybe if you use some of your awesome paycheck to pay for a few college classes, you might be able to get a job that pays 9 bucks an hour where you won’t be bothering people? ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/51 "2012-10-18T04:29:37Z")
PS, thanks **Lynn** for moving this thread. I knew that it wouldn’t end well when I saw the title. **Flyer** will probably not understand why people hate him, but at least its now in a place where people can say what they really feel. ---
**Author:** ![prettydorky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@prettydorky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/prettydorky)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/52 "2012-10-18T04:32:04Z")
I’ve done this job. For two companies, in fact. One focused on political and scientific research. For example, we called the residents of Savannah and asked about their mayor. We also called residents of a town to find out how people felt about some chemical industrial factory that was being built there. The second company would call people who had recently been to an auto or RV dealership for service and ask about their experiences. They were fascinating jobs. I almost never got yelled at or anywhere close to the level of seething hatred I see here. Then again, this was over ten years ago and people did this by phone more than email back then. But we most definitely would stop calling if someone asked you to stop calling. I did encounter a lot of frustration at the first place, because these would be 30-45 minute surveys and people would be _aching_ to get off the phone at the end. I don’t understand why you would spend your time deliberately trying to make someone’s job harder, such as by answering “purple” to all the questions. Why not just say “no thanks” and hang up? One unusual thing about my experience was that you had to either not have, or be able to speak without, your southern accent in order to be hired. I imagine that is not as common a requirement for Colorado call centers. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/53 "2012-10-18T05:02:17Z")
I think I can answer this question. I work to pay my bills. One of the bills I pay is phone service. I do this for me, not for companies that want to do survey’s or sell things to me. When (generic) telemarketers call me, they are using MY resources to further their goals. I resent this. After I’ve gotten home from my long day at work, if my phone rings, I want to answer it and talk to my friends. I can’t do this, because half the time, its someone using MY phone wanting me to do something that I just have no interest in. I’m eating dinner, I’m feeding my cats, I’m playing with kittens, I’m posting on the Dope. I don’t want to pick up the phone that I’M paying for just to hear someone asking me to take a 30 minute survey. Do you really sit around and hope that someone will call you and ask you to waste half an hour of your precious leasure time on the phone? If so, send your info to **Flyer** ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/54 "2012-10-18T05:22:04Z")
Harassing people until they finally answer your survey is why survey and poll results are such crap. Our land line is only for internet access and I don’t answer my cell unless I recognize the number, but if you kept calling me until I answered your worthless questions, every last answer from me would be a lie. And no, I wouldn’t tell you I’d lied either. You work a crap job, you can have crap results. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/55 "2012-10-18T05:58:15Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > In the OP’s defense, he or she thinks that making 8 bucks an hour is a good wage. That’s 75 cents an hour more than he could make slinging hamburgers and he doesn’t have to see people face to face. > > How many of the rest of us have the mind set that making $8.00 an hour is a good wage? Just stop and think about the education and ambition that would make someone think that this is a good job. > > The OP gets to sit in a chair for his entire shift. He/she probably has some sort of climate control in the hive and gets to wear a headset and use a keyboard. \*\*Flyer \*\*hasn’t said anything about bonuses, but I’ll just bet they get to have weekly meetings that last an hour and all **Flyer** has to do is sit around and cheer, while getting paid. > > Who _wouldn’t_ just drool over working conditions like that? > > **Flyer** , your sort is why I don’t have a landline, and why I never answer my cell unless I recognize the number. I resent having to do this, but it is what it is. > > I do wonder how you feel about having unwanted callers use up your minutes on your cell phone. > > I have unlimited data on my phone, but I make a bit more than you do. When the rare survey caller actually leaves a message, it just gets deleted and I never think twice. > > Maybe if you use some of your awesome paycheck to pay for a few college classes, you might be able to get a job that pays 9 bucks an hour where you won’t be bothering people? You know what happens when you assume, right? I happen to have an associate’s degree. I find it fascinating that you apparently seem to think that the last four years never happened. > [@](#): > > As the AP notes, recent graduates are now more likely to work as “waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined.” . . . Not nearly enough jobs have been created to accommodate them, which has resulted in falling wages for young college graduates in the past decade, as well as the employment problems we’re now seeing. > **[53% of Recent College Grads Are Jobless or Underemployed—How?](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/53-of-recent-college-grads-are-jobless-or-underemployed-how/256237/)** > > A college diploma isn't worth what it used to be. To get hired, grads today need hard skills. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/56 "2012-10-18T06:19:40Z")
I don’t think an article discussing the difficulty in finding jobs as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians is really addressing the plight of people with associates degrees. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/57 "2012-10-18T06:39:17Z")
Flyer, with the way you think that it’s OK to harass people over the telephone, it’s no wonder that you can’t find a proper job. There’s something wrong with you. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/58 "2012-10-18T06:59:50Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > :eek: > Perhaps you missed the part where I explained that we call cell phones? And I have to pay per minute for that. I hate you… ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/59 "2012-10-18T07:31:31Z")
Flyer, you previously called a person a worthless, ignorant, filthy, stinking pile of garbage, pus, and vomit because that person leaves tips. Was that before you found yourself unemployable other than to harass people? What are you doing to improve yourself so that you don’t spend the rest of your life being a nuisance? Why were you so stupid as to waste years on an associate degree rather than either get a real degree or a skilled trade? Do you feel good about that decision? How has it helped you in your present career? When did your parents cut you off, or are they still helping you out in hopes that you will pick up your socks and become a decent human being? ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056/60 "2012-10-18T07:43:09Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > You know what happens when you assume, right? I happen to have an associate’s degree. > > I find it fascinating that you apparently seem to think that the last four years never happened. Four years for a two year associate degree to get you to the point that a telephone harassment company is willing to hire you? How embarrassing. By what age do you expect that you will be able to make a good decision concerning your life and your carreer? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-person-who-calls-people-telephone-surveys/638056.md?page=4)