Well, not answering is what a lot of the people in the thread are in fact doing, but you seem to have labeled everyone in the thread an asshole.
Last presidential election season, when I lived in Ohio, it wasn’t enough not to answer the phone, because the phone essentially didn’t stop ringing from August through early November.
At what point do the calls IN become hateful?
Paid surveys sometimes generate different results than unpaid surveys, even from the same participants.
Most companies will do some paid focus groups in addition to their surveys.
Flyer: Please post your home and cell phone numbers in this thread. Many of us would like to “survey” you.
The people that we call are given a free, easy opportunity to make their opinions heard. There are a great many people who evidently aren’t as greedy as you are, because they’re happy to share their opinions.
Most of the time, yes, I know how long a survey is SUPPOSED to take; I do not know, however, how long it WILL take. Usually the target time is pretty accurate, but once in a while it’s way off.
Wrong. My job is collecting information.
And incidentally, the percentage of rude or hateful people that I “meet” on the job is far, far lower than the percentage of such people here on this board.
Gee, I wonder how people learned to identify certain types of calls as ones to be hung up on immediately, and why they lost the patience to give them the benefit of the doubt… :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
I hear there’s this thing called “the invisible hand of the marketplace” that sends clear signals. There’s also the visible hand of stevemb, which I am using at this very moment to send another sort of signal in the general direction of phone spammers.
I did NOT complain about everyone! Go back and re-read my OP. As a matter of fact, I said, “Most people are reasonably polite.”
I’m not sure why some people have decided that I’m female–although I suppose I really haven’t given much indication one way or the other. I’m male.
Thank you. Finally somebody actually read for comprehension.
The whole reason why I decided to post in the first place was in the spirit of “fighting ignorance.” I know that a lot of people have never worked in a job like that, and I thought that perhaps–just PERHAPS–somebody might be curious. And so I set out to fight ignorance. I tried to clear up misconceptions about the Do Not Call list; I tried to clear up misconceptions about how to get such companies to stop calling people.
Out of 11 paragraphs, only 3 could be construed as complaining.
And I must say, I was very surprised at the shabby, vitriolic response that my well-intentioned efforts met with.
You and your rotten company make money from your actions. You then have the nerve to whine that people who also want to be paid for their time are greedy?
You hypocritical putz.
(posting after reading [del]most[/del] some of the OP)
Oh, so THIS is the kind of asshole telemarketer you guys associate me with. No wonder you hate me! 
There’s a difference between what I do and the raw body counts of the survey people. F’rinstance, I only want to talk to you if you want to talk to me so I try to flush the rest out of the call list as fast and painlessly as I can. Blows my contact conversion numbers to Hell, but I have happier customers and fewer sales that break down at the payment stage.
Now all I need is a method for gently cutting off the women my age who talk my ear off but aren’t going to buy anything. I’ve always been deadly attractive to women my present age and older, but when I was 18 it was no fun being attractive to women pushing 60.
ETA: And I’m limited to calling people who are already customers while political surveyors can run roughshod over the whole phone book. Puts a whole different complexion on the matter.
I’m not saying people don’t have good reason from past experience to hang up. Long, poorly-designed surveys, especially on subjects you don’t care about, are extremely annoying. I’ve taken a few, and I’ve had to administer a few, as a surveyor. They suck.
Don’t start about the invisible hand of the marketplace, though. Surveys are freely-entered-into, there’s no coercion. That’s about as free as it gets. Surely any concept of a “free marketplace” would include the ability to survey people. Please stop trying to have your cake and eat it too.
Wow, that sure was a fast pivot from “telepests are perfectly justified in refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer” to “telepests are a purely voluntary intrusion upon your time”. Ever think about going into politics?
As has been pointed out, it’s not free if you’re someone who’s paying by the minute for your cellphone. And if I have to pay money in order to have my opinions heard, then I’d like it to be on MY terms and MY time, not when somebody else calls me while I’ve got dinner on the stove.
Flyer, I apologize for mischaracterizing your post by saying you had a problem with everyone. Clearly you didn’t say that.
I also apologize for referring to you as she/her.
If you ever happen to call me as a surveyor, I will be polite to you, and might even take your survey! I just think you were being extremely rude and arrogant on a few points, and it pissed me off.
Just to give people a concrete example of what my work actually does–here are three PDF links about a Marist poll in Wisconsin.
Press release:
A condensed version of much of the same information:
An explanation of how the survey was conducted:
I don’t remember whether I actually worked on this particular survey, but I have worked on other Marist projects. So when you read those links, and look at the depth of detail, remember–THAT is what I do. And I make no apologies whatsoever for my work.
It’s not a “dickish” thing to do. It’s a sleazy way to find a loophole so they can keep on harassing people, and then claim that people didn’t tell them they couldn’t. Back in the day, IIRC, telling people “take me off of your list” actually technically gave them the right to call you back, because the people on the “list” were the ones they COULDN’T call.
I got a political poll today that was finally not a robocall. It felt soooo good to say, “I’m going to vote for whoever isn’t calling me 24 hours a day!” click
(I only wish I had been able to slam the phone down, rather than just press the disconnect button. I miss that.)
Sooooo… are there any situations in which you are instructed to end the call/not call back?
YEah, we know that. Scumbag pieces of shit rarely do make apologies.
My voicemail is very polite. I think if you were to “meet” everyone you call, rather than their Voicemail/answering machine, you’d get way more “fuck yous”. Fuck you.
But the value of your data is suspect. You have made it clear that you don’t care if people wish to respond, you will hound them until they do. At that time, they won’t be interested in contributing, they will be interested in getting rid of you. The quality of the data cannot be trusted if you have bullied people into giving answers.
Based your information (OK, I had already concluded this, since I had to get a device to screen out pollsters) I now have no faith at all in polls. As far as I can tell, your company cares more about the volume of data than the accuracy of the data. Such methodologies are useless.
As far as being rude: The first time a polling company called me I was courteous. The second time I was courteous but more firm. After that I demanded to be left alone.
The rudeness is in using a device I pay for, for your purposes and then not taking a courteous ‘no’ for an answer.