FARGIN' BASTIDGES!!! (Another telemarketer rant)

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, we’ve all seen the threads about the ethics of telemarketing, both pro and con. I’ve even posted to them. But something happened last night that just steamed me and I have to vent!!

Picture it–it’s around 9:00 pm, and the 7 yr. old (girl) and the 2 yr. old (boy) are in bed. The 2 yr. old has been talking to himself for about half an hour, but has apparently started to drift off. I have nursed the six month old to sleep. She is still slightly restless, so I rock her for a few minutes. Just as I am about to get up and lay her in her bed…RING, RING!!! I have caller ID and see that it is an unknown number–almost always means telemarketer–so I don’t have to answer. BUT THEY WOKE UP THE BABY!!! AND THE TWO YEAR OLD!!! GYAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! I was able to get my son back to bed after getting him a drink of water (surprisingly), but it was another TWO HOURS before I was able to get the baby to bed. The night before, she had been up and down all night, and I was desperate to get some sleep.

Why do they call so late at night? Do they think we are all just so happy to hear from them, that we will wait up just for the privilege of hearing a long-winded sales pitch?? “Well, the calls are computer generated, so they are random.” So what? Program them not to call after a certain hour. And not all of them are computer generated. I regret that I did not answer the phone and tell them to kiss my lily-white ass!! I was so angry that I spent the next two hours ranting at the TV, calling those turdburgers the rotten, stinking (%)$%&#^(* rat bastards that they are!!!

Some (plenty of you, I’m sure) may consider this a lame rant, but at least I feel better now! And there may even be a sympathetic ear out there!!

That is all.

2

I always get that “unknown number” too. Occasionally I answer, don’t allow them to prattle on more than 15 seconds, then tell them I am not interested, and to take me off of their calling list NOW. It’s worked so far.

Yesterday my mom called me three times within 7 minutes at a very early hour (she knows my son is still asleep). Gaaah! You’d think she’d know, but NOOOOOOOOO. :rolleyes:

3

Why was your phone ringer on? Turn it off and check messages ate your convenience.

4

I don’t have kids, I don’t go to bed early, and I am still very very very annoyed when they call passed 8pm… (or before!).

I have call anonymous rejection on my phone service and it seems to work very good, and also the fact that I tell them NOT TO CALL again, and I always say something like “I wrote it down, I’ll know if you call again”!!

I feel bad for you and the kids!!

5

I did turn the ringer off as soon as it started to ring–but the answering machine picked up and completed the job of waking the baby. I am always afraid to turn if off completely though, because usually anyone who calls that late in the evening does so because it’s important that they get in touch with me immediately. So what we have here is a Catch-22, I guess! :slight_smile:

And now she is crying, having awakened from her nap. I suppose my signing on to the net wakes her up just as effectively as a ringing phone! :wink:

6

Put a comma in this sentence and it’s surreally humorous:

*Turn it off, and check messages ate your convenience. *

Meanwhile, back on topic:

I understand the “unknown name” or “unknown number”, but I got a call with “unknown name” and the number was 1-000-000-1359. How the hell do you get a number like that?

7

They do. Apparently that hour is later than 9:00 PM.

8

I’d be willing to bet that it isn’t, since it’s illegal to do so. Their clocks are probably set 5 minutes slower than yours.

9

My answering machine message says, “If you’re a telemarketer, please note that I only answer the phone if my Caller ID shows a number that I know, so you’ll never get through to me.” Every telemarketer immediately hangs up upon hearing the words “Caller ID.” It’s perfect.

10

Oh fer’ chrissakes…if you have just put your little one down, take your fucking phone off the hook. It would have been just as bad if your mum/best friend/ the lottery people informing you of your $10.000.000 win had rung. Why in Og’s Name is it the damn telemarketers fault if your kid has problems settling down to sleep?

Now if you have a rant against telemarketers in general, that’s fine. But this seems to be stretching the ‘vendetta’ just a little too far don’t you think?

Believe me, we dislike talking to you even more than you hate talking to us. It is much easier for all concerned to just give us a polite…“No thanks” and we’ll happily go on to our next call.
We don’t have personal information about whether you’ve got young kids, or if you’re a shift worker, or if you’ve been on the turps the night before and you’re nursing the Hangover from Hell at 3.00 pm. We don’t know that you’re a pensioner who can’t make ends meet as it is, we had no idea that you’re great-grandma has just been diagnosed with a terminal disease.
WE JUST GET YOUR NAMES AND PHONE NUMBERS FROM THE FRIGGING WHITE PAGES. THEY ARE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE NUMBERS. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE RUNG, GET A SILENT NUMBER, OR TAKE YOUR PHONE OFF THE HOOK.

Oh, and another thing…oftentimes we cannot take your name off our ‘list’ because we are doing what is known as ‘cold-calling’. We don’t have a list to take you off! If you have previously donated to our charity, and you no longer wish to do so, then I CAN remove your name from future campaign calling. But it does not mean I can remove your name from another organisations ‘list’. So don’t blame ME if you have had ten calls from various charities over the past month. It might just be your lucky month, or it might be that you have helped them in the past, and they would just like to know if you would consider donating/collecting or selling raffle tickets again. CHARITIES DO NOT SHARE LISTS. Can’t you understand it would not be in OUR best interests to give your name to another charity? Is it THAT difficult? And anyway, it’s really simple and really civil to say, “No thank you”. It is NOT necessary to be rude.

We’re not Fargin’ Bastidges. We are workers just like yourselves…bringing up kids, juggling work with studies, caring for our elderly parents, paying off mortgages, keeping the wolves from the door. We are doing this to avoid going on unemployment benefits, or in the case of one I know, (an 84 yr old lady who works 55 hours per week) to keep her NEPHEW from having to go on the dole!!! We do this for all sorts of reasons, mostly because the hours are flexible and we can combine the rest of our frenetic lives with working for a living. We’re mostly nice, and we DO care if we have inconvenienced you terribly. It’s OK to tell us to not call again. We’ll certainly try not to…because it wastes our time more than yours. Just quit being so damned obnoxious OK?

Signed
Your friendly neighbourhood telemarketer, kambuckta.

11

Y’know, I’d like to point out a couple things, since we’re making sweeping generalizations, and what not.

This might almost make sense, I suppose. But let’s look at this:

No, it wouldn’t. With the exception of the lottery people, the rest of that lot knows what time the kid goes to bed, and knows not to call then unless it’s an emergency. In which case, priorities shift a little. It’s more important to know dad’s in the ER after a heart attack, since we’re gonna have to wake her up and take her with us anyway. And if I’d just hit $10mil, I think I’d wake the kid up even if the phone didn’t, what with the whooping and hollering and all. This is because, completely and utterly unlike unsolicited telephone spam, receiving money in large amounts is a good thing. But thanks for playing.

No, this is physically and psychologically impossible. Moving along.

Correct. This is because I have not contacted you with this information. Had I desired to speak with you, and impart this information to you, I would have done so years ago. This is a very good example of unsolicited, and unwanted. Next.

No you don’t. And all that shouting is going to wake the kid up. My number is not listed in the white pages, and yet I receive unsolicited telephone spam fairly often, on behalf of companies and charities I’ve never done business with, and frequently have never heard of. I presume this is because if the company sold a product or service that was worth my knowing about, I would. Sorry, Charlie. Oh, and this?

Thanks, but no thanks. See, I don’t have a phone because I like to recieve unsolicited telephone spam, much like I do not have an Email address just to receive same. I have a telephone primarily to communicate with my friends, family, and business contacts. It would be counterintuitive of me to disable this function to avoid spam that I never asked for. Since we already covered that I never contacted any spammer asking for information, it’s quite obvious that I should not be contacted by the spammer. Hence unsolicited. Hence unwanted. Hence I would not buy a glass of water from you if my ass was on fire.

What you are doing is also known as unwanted and annoying. Whereas commercial television is paid for by the commercials, my phone bill is, to date, not paid by you. Therefore, you shouldn’t have to call me with your commercial.

Right. The phone number fairy keeps pulling my unlisted number out of a hat, then, is that how it works? Thanks for clearing that up.

No, it isn’t. And yet you keep going back to work, day after day. Are you cruel-hearted?

Quoth the pot, to the kettle. :rolleyes:

You shout a great deal. Perhaps you should consult a doctor about your blood pressure, or find a different line of work, with less personal stress. I would normally hesitate to offer such advice unasked for, but that does seem to be your preferred method of communication.

12

Hey Skeezix, you were the one who bolded me where I hadn’t done so in my post. I’m not the one with the blood pressure problems. As I said in my previous communication, if you have a problem with telemarketers, that’s fine. I understand your angst. You just have no need to be rude to us. If you have a problem with telemarketers, then petition your government to have us outlawed. Until then, get stuffed!

13

I have a telephone for MY convenience, not yours. The very second you publish your personal telephone number so that we may call you at our convenience, and IF we wish to inquire about your oft-worthless product, then you have the right to tell us to “get stuffed”.

Can I come over and put one of my bumper stickers on your personal car? No? Then may I cordially invite you to a rousing game of hide-and-go-fuck-yourself.

14

kambuckta, you strike me as one of the most willfully ignorant posters I’ve seen yet. Here you are with what the public (I’m pretty sure we can all agree on this) considers as one of the most obnoxious jobs, and you have the stupidity to yell at us for being rude to you, saying we have no need to be this way. Un-fucking-believable. Rationalize much, kambuckta?

15

A suggestion: Mayflower, have you thought of giving the phone to your two-year-old when the telemarketers wake him up? This works extremely well if he wakes up crying

16

kambukta, your ass is grass, and the SDMB is the lawn mower.

You have mistaken on who the onus of responsiblity falls. I should not have to take any action to avoid your intrusion into my life. You should.

Let’s make a little deal. If you don’t want me to scream obscenities into your ear as loudly as I can, just don’t call me.

Problem solved.

Regards,
Shodan

17

Isn’t it illegal (in the US) for telemarketers to not show up on Caller ID? If not, it should be. People should be sitting in small jail cells for that.

18

I find an effective telemarketer deterrent is putting on some loud Finnish heavy metal and holding the mouthpiece up to my speakers til they hang up.

19

Apparently, it isn’t, since 90+ percent of the telemarketing calls I get show up on my caller ID as 'Unknown call", with no phone number or name.

Note that phone companies often offer outgoing caller ID blocking, even to residential customers. It’s a neat little setup; they get money from you for the privilege of knowing who’s calling you, and they get money from the telemarketers for blocking their caller ID information from reaching you.

20

<sigh> Ignorance is an ugly thing.

See, this is what flyboy88 meant by willfully ignorant. Read some posts on this MB by persons other than yourself, or those directly quoting you. This practice of bolding text is known as quoting. Very often, when one is quoting, one bolds the words quoted, for clarity’s sake, to distinguish the point-counterpoint style of discussion that takes place in an electronic format. Thanks for completely missing the point.

What I said about shouting, and blood pressure, related to your overuse of ALL CAPITALS. This is considered to be shouting, when one communicates in an online format. But why am I explaining this? Chances are you’re not going to read it anyway.

Here we go again. No, you obviously do not. If you truly understood just how much the general public dislikes telemarketing, you would find some less despised method of earning a living, perhaps as an IRS auditor, or a proctologist.*

Believe me, we’re trying.

You are operating under the misaprehension that it is somehow the general public’s burden to go to some special effort to avoid you. I point you to the posts made by Doc Nickel and Shodan above. While these posts were not made by you, and they did not directly quote you, you should still try reading them.

I’ve not yet been rude to you, kambuckta. I would like to point out to you the excellent suggestion the good Doc made in the last sentence of his post, however. An infinitely better use of your time than telemarketing.

*[sub]Before I am accused of maligning these two groups, make note that I say both of these professions, while universally disliked by the public at large, do make some worthwhile contributions to society. Unlike telemarketers.[/sub]