# Dear Abby agrees with The Dope on survey phone callers
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 7, 2013, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574 "2013-08-07T11:09:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/21 "2013-08-07T19:19:12Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> It’s about time for them to do so, then.
Maybe, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on politicians getting rid of opinion polling anytime soon. 😃
---
### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/22 "2013-08-07T19:21:50Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#):
>
> Isn’t caller ID in every home/phone by now? Why does anybody bother to pick up the phone if it’s not somebody you know?
>
> Let it go to voice mail if you’re not sure. Else hit the red button - Buh-bye.
This.
You only let them into your home if you answer the phone. Yes, it’s annoying that they “knock on the front door,” but you don’t have to answer. If the ringing bothers you, then turn off the ringer of your phone and check for calls periodically.
---
### Author:  [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/23 "2013-08-07T19:27:54Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I’m surprised, since most people like to answer phone surveys.
😕:eek:☹ This statement just cries out for **CITE?**!!
---
### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/24 "2013-08-07T19:29:02Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> I hate phone surveys, because whenever I have, in a moment of weakness, agreed to do one I find that they are political phone calls disguised as surveys.
>
> “Do you think Proposition XYZ will end civilized life as we know it?”
> “no”
(snip)
That’s exactly what the last “survey” I took was like. And I haven’t agreed to take any since.
---
### Author:  [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/25 "2013-08-07T19:34:38Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> Yikes. A five second Google search would have shown her that the national “do not call” registry only applies to telemarketers, not surveys. Regardless of how you feel about surveys, that’s some pretty impressive misinformattion for her to throw out in a nationally syndicated newspaper column.
I read it with an interpretation that gives Dear Abby the benefit of the doubt. Making her sentence a little more long-winded “Many of those who you pester have done the best they can to stop unsolicited calls by registering for the Do Not Call list and are irritated that there is no way to expand their entry on the DNC list to include ALL unsolicited callers including survey takers”.
---
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/26 "2013-08-07T19:42:16Z")
> [@Canadjun](#):
>
> 😕:eek:☹ This statement just cries out for **CITE?**!!
I conducted a telephone survey asking if people minded taking telephone surveys.
The responses were lopsided, to say the least.
---
### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/27 "2013-08-07T19:44:58Z")
> [@Canadjun](#):
>
> I read it with an interpretation that gives Dear Abby the benefit of the doubt. Making her sentence a little more long-winded “Many of those who you pester have done the best they can to stop unsolicited calls by registering for the Do Not Call list and are irritated that there is no way to expand their entry on the DNC list to include ALL unsolicited callers including survey takers”.
Why give her the benefit of the doubt? She’s supposed to be a professional writer! If your quote was her intention she could have said exactly that or something similar, but what she said was flat out wrong. She’s either incredibly bad at expressing what she actually means or she’s misinformed herself and too lazy to fact check, and she’s spreading wrong information and ignorance either way.
---
### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/28 "2013-08-07T20:09:30Z")
Once in the last presidential election, I got a call for a short survey. It really was short, I think like 2 or 3 questions. I suspect they didn’t like what I had to say because I didn’t fall into the opinion they wanted
---
### Author:  [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/29 "2013-08-07T20:43:28Z")
The last political survey I did was hysterically funny. It was all about the upcoming NJ senate primary and obviously funded by Cory Booker or Frank Pallone. I listened to it because I was curious about the race. The only thing the call did was convince me I should vote for Rush Holt, a scientist who I had not heard about before. I got the guy on the phone the next day and was even more impressed.
Rush Holt for Senate!
😃
This is not a paid political ad. Mr. Holt has no idea who the hell I am.
---
### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/30 "2013-08-07T21:11:35Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#):
>
> Isn’t caller ID in every home/phone by now? Why does anybody bother to pick up the phone if it’s not somebody you know?
>
> Let it go to voice mail if you’re not sure. Else hit the red button - Buh-bye.
Pretty much it for me. If a number comes up on my cellphone that I don’t recognize, I let it go to voicemail. Back when I had a landline, for my entire adult life I screened everything through my answering machine. Family and friends knew to just start talking at the beep, and if I was there and available, I’d pick up.
I have a personal quote/mantra for this;
_My telephone exists for my convenience.
When it stops being convenient, I stop using it._
---
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/31 "2013-08-07T21:29:48Z")
> [@Canadjun](#):
>
> 😕:eek:☹ This statement just cries out for **CITE?**!!
I tend to agree, and I work in the industry! 😉
I might agree that “most people like being able to give their opinion”, but I would be extremely surprised if you found that even a significant minority like taking phone surveys.
Phone surveys are fairly intrusive (since they’re not scheduled for a time when the interviewee has agreed to be available), tend to be on the long side (15 or 20 minutes is not uncommon for a legitimate telephone survey), and too many people have had (or have heard about) bad experiences with the things already mentioned in this thread (selling under the guise of research, political “push polls”, etc.)
---
### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/32 "2013-08-07T21:49:44Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> Why give her the benefit of the doubt? She’s supposed to be a professional writer! If your quote was her intention she could have said exactly that or something similar, but what she said was flat out wrong. She’s either incredibly bad at expressing what she actually means or she’s misinformed herself and too lazy to fact check, and she’s spreading wrong information and ignorance either way.
I read Dear Abby’s response the same way that **Canadjun** did. Perhaps the problem is less with Abby’s ability to cram her meaning into a 600 word column every day and more with your ability to glean said meaning from her writing.
In any case, you’re picking a nit that doesn’t need picking.
---
### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/33 "2013-08-07T21:50:29Z")
> [@Filbert](#):
>
> I don’t have caller ID- and I’m job hunting, so just letting it ring isn’t a very good option.
>
> There’s plenty of reasons, even in this day and age, why people could not have the number of an important call: workmen and delivery people don’t always call from the company main number; friends and family borrow phones or call from a helpful shop because they’ve had their bag stolen and need help- all kinds of stuff. I’m not going to ignore mine ringing just because it might be someone who wants to get something out of me, and I don’t see why I should have to. No call should be no call.
My husband doesn’t answer calls on his cell from numbers that he doesn’t recognize. The last time our old house got burgled, he went to the old house, waiting for the cops. The cop assigned to his case called from a cell, my husband didn’t recognize the number, and much confusion ensued.
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> Why give her the benefit of the doubt? She’s supposed to be a professional writer! If your quote was her intention she could have said exactly that or something similar, but what she said was flat out wrong. She’s either incredibly bad at expressing what she actually means or she’s misinformed herself and too lazy to fact check, and she’s spreading wrong information and ignorance either way.
Her column gets edited, apparently by the same method that the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy got edited, by passing random strangers. Seriously, if you look at the same column in different papers, you’ll notice that someone has cut a lot from one column.
I kind of like answering surveys, IF they are genuine surveys and IF I’m not doing anything more interesting at the time. Since both of these conditions are rarely true at the same time, I usually decline. Now, if it’s a political survey, I have lots of fun. I’m a yellow dog Democrat in Texas, and this means that my opinions are usually pretty different from my neighbors’. I view political surveys as my chance to set the record straight. I also view them as a way to vent my spleen about Governor Good Hair.
---
### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/34 "2013-08-07T22:37:14Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> I read Dear Abby’s response the same way that **Canadjun** did. Perhaps the problem is less with Abby’s ability to cram her meaning into a 600 word column every day and more with your ability to glean said meaning from her writing.
Ah, so now my reading comprehension skills are suspect. Classy notch to kick it up to there, Bo.
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#):
>
> In any case, you’re picking a nit that doesn’t need picking.
I have no dog in the fight and don’t care one way or the other about Dear Abby’s grasp of federal law, I’m just engaging in that favorite pastime of lawyers everywhere of pointing out when people publish incorrect statements of law. I’ll drop it if everyone else does.
---
### Author:  [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/35 "2013-08-07T23:21:44Z")
Before answering any survey, I would always ask if they are going to sell me something. Recently, after being assured “no,” I answered a very realistic sounding phone survey about what kind of cars we had, their ages, number of miles, etc. At the end of the survey the caller thanked me and said they entered everyone who completed the survey in a drawing for a “free gift.” Several days later someone called and said I’d won the" free gift," an air filtration system for my house: they would come out and install it and I only had to pay for it if I decided to keep it after a month. No, I don’t think so . . .
I’ve not answered a survey since. I’d be glad to answer real ones, but too are scams and they will lie toy just to try to hook you.
---
### Author:  [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/36 "2013-08-09T02:44:02Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I’m surprised, since most people like to answer phone surveys.
not even close. My son worked as a phone surveyor for a summer, for a reputable pollster that actually DOES surveys (the Marist Poll, for those interested) rather than the bait and switch that many have described. “Most people,” in his experience, had Zero interest in answering phone surveys. Hard to believe that his experience was all that atypical.
---
### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/37 "2013-08-09T13:12:10Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> The biggest, suckiest things out there are robocalls. THOSE should be illegal.
If you mean recorded messages, they are illegal in NC, with a $500 fine. Unfortunately, in practice, it’s not feasible to collect the fine, as far as I can tell.
I have a little more sympathy for political and scientific surveys, than for telemarketing (for which I have none). In between are market research surveys – in that case it depends on my interest in the market segment.
I’m sorely tempted to ask telemarketers, “Can you please hold?” and set the phone down, and see how patient they are. IMHO, if you want to do something rude, annoying, and effective (in reducing their call rate), that’s the best response I can think of. But I don’t. (I have a friend who says "Well, let’s see what Rover has to say about that, and calls the dog.)
I generally let the machine pick up if the caller ID is suspicious or uninformative. If I get repeated calls from the same number, I set the machine to block those calls. On my mobile, I add the number to a “SPAM” contact, which has a very quiet and short ring tone.
---
### Author:  [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/38 "2013-08-10T15:55:51Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#):
>
> Isn’t caller ID in every home/phone by now? Why does anybody bother to pick up the phone if it’s not somebody you know?
Actually, I always pick up when it says “Private Caller”, as 99 times out of 100 it’s my mother.
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> I hate phone surveys, because whenever I have, in a moment of weakness, agreed to do one I find that they are political phone calls disguised as surveys.
You’re lucky - I keep getting phone companies trying to get me to switch my service disguised as surveys.
"Did you know you are being charged an excessive fee by AT&T?
Would you like to stop paying that fee?
Note that you will still be served by AT&T, but you will be paying your bills to FlyByNight Phone Company."
The second time somebody tried this:
(them) "Did you know you are being charged an excessive fee by AT&T?
(me) "Before you go on, could you tell me which phone company you work for?
(them) (pause…_click_)
---
### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/39 "2013-08-11T00:54:38Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> The exemption for surveyors exists so that the Do Not Call laws will be compatible with First Amendment free speech rights (so far, so good . . . ) .
Maybe I’m dense, but I don’t understand why freedom of speech requires an exemption for surveys. 😕
---
### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574/40 "2013-08-11T01:45:41Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> I have no dog in the fight and don’t care one way or the other about Dear Abby’s grasp of federal law, I’m just engaging in that favorite pastime of lawyers everywhere of pointing out when people publish incorrect statements of law. I’ll drop it if everyone else does.
There’s absolutely nothing incorrect about what Dear Abby wrote. Surveyors do ignore the Do Not Call list, and that does bother a lot of people. The fact that they’re allowed, by law, to ignore the list is immaterial to the complaint.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574.md?page=1)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-abby-agrees-with-the-dope-on-survey-phone-callers/665574.md?page=3)