They start talking to me as if I am the one who would be purchasing anything from them. So I interupt them and say “Oh, would you like to talk to my dad?”
then I set down the phone and go to the tv.
I come back a minute later and see if they’re still there (they rarely are) and say “He’ll be here in a second.”
Repeat.
I’ve had one stay for a few minutes.
I love hearing from my mother.
I’m sorry you rank getting a call from yours with getting one from a telemarketer.
And why on earth would I swear at her? I don’t even swear at telemarketers (though some have sworn at me on this thread.)
Haven’t you read the thread? 
Look at how many calls innocent people get from telemarketers, and you’re not bothered that these pests may literally have nothing useful to offer.
Why do you think there is a legal right in parts of the US not to get these irritating calls? You think there isn’t a problem, even though they’ve legislated against the entire industry?
Yes, and quality work needs effort. Why bother when you have desperate people who just read from a script selling stuff that is so poor quality they can’t sell it by decent means.
Ah, yes, no waiting for customers who want your product. No effort to find them either. Just mindless dialling.
I realise there are many silly people who can be fast-talked into buying something they don’t want. I just don’t want to have anything to do with an industry that relies on finding them by irritating everyone else.
Annoying, that repetition,isn’t it? Why it’s just like…telemarketing! :rolleyes:
Perhaps we’re using different definitions of competent.
I assume you mean ‘able to put up with endless hostility, while reading from a script, never getting trained and thinking this is a satisfying job because I can redial people who don’t want to speak to me’.
I was talking about the competence of a real salesman (not unqualified cold-callers). I gave the example of my mate, who recently retired after a distinguished selling career. He analysed market trends, kept careful databases on customers and their needs, made selections of clients to invite to product launches and trained his staff to do likewise.
A million miles from telemarketing, wouldn’t you say?
Funny, most industries would be concerned about massive turnover. Unless they were a low-standard company just looking for an endless stream of unqualified short-term employees…
See above for what competent means in this context.
Gosh, that’s your definition of ‘useful function’? :eek:
So you must think confidence tricksters and swindlers have a ‘useful function’ too - after all people keep giving them money too.
No, I’m not a telemarketer. 
Key word: may. You may heat with electricity, but if your neighbor heats with gas, he’s probably interested in getting cheaper gas. Obviously someone wants it, because someone keeps buying it.
You’re using patterns of U.S. legislation as indication of a societal problem? I think you overestimate the intelligence of our government.
Did you skip over the posts where I, and others, explained that it’s more than “reading off a script”?
Next you’ll be describing surgery as “cutting people open and poking around inside”. :rolleyes:
If you could spend $100 to dial everyone in a target area, or spend $75 to narrow down the list and another $75 to dial the remaining names, which would you choose? (Assuming you’re a rational businessman–feel free to correct my assumption.)
Never getting trained? I could have sworn I was trained, monitored, and coached. My friend at a different place trained for a week before they’d even let him near a phone.
I know this is IMHO, but some of these strawmen have to go.
Sure, it’s a totally different kind of sales. Driving a train is nothing like designing a bridge, but they’re both called “engineers”.
That’s how it goes with ‘unskilled’ work. I imagine they have high turnover at McDonald’s, too.
Except con men and swindlers are defrauding customers. I’ve never defended fraud, and if you’re being lied to, I encourage you to report whoever’s doing it.
Marketing is about bringing customers and products together. If you see an ad on TV that informs you about something you want, you and the company are both better off. Telemarketing does the same for the people who want the product. It irritates the ones who don’t want it–but so do TV commercials, junk mail, and phone calls from annoying cousins.
Is the $50 dollars the company saves worth poisoning the public’s general opinion of an entire industry?
I think the key word is pest, actually.
I already suggested that people who buy from fast-talking cold-callers are silly.
Let me expand on that.
I have a relationship with decent companies. I buy my computers from Dan, and my DVD’s from Amazon. I have favourite restaurants and I repeatedly buy from all these (and other) places.
They keep a few simple details on me, which helps them offer me further quality products.
Who on earth has a relationship with a telemarketing operation?
Who eagerly contacts a telemarketing operator to ask about their new products?
Which telemarketers care about who they sell to? (No sale? Phone another victim!)
Aren’t telemarketers selling products that are so rubbishy they can’t be sold through respectable retail outlets?
I certainly don’t overestimate the intelligence of any government! (They’re better than telemarketing, but that’s not saying much.)
However, the telemarketing industry has a unique honour among businesses. It is the only one where Governments acknowledge that the business is so intrusive, and offers so little benefit, that decent people need the legal right to be protected from it.
What a condemnation!
Well we could do a comparison with the medical profession if you like:
My mate is a doctor. He needed brilliant school results to even get into Medical School. He trained for 7 years, including extensive on the job training.
His job has the respect of the public. He gets immense job satisfaction and works with a dedicated team to serve society.
He will be a doctor till he retires.
Perhaps you could correct any mistakes in the following:
John Smith is a telemarketer :o. He needed no qualifications to get into telemarketing. He had simple initial training in dialling numbers, reading a script and typing answers into a computer.
His job is loathed by the public. He hates his work and doesn’t know many of his co-workers (because they keep leaving). Society has banned his industry from even approaching any customer who makes a simple legal declaration.
He will get out as soon as he can.
Of course quality businessmen don’t use telemarketing at any price. They want to have a pleasant relationship with customers and get the priceless ‘word of mouth recommendation’.
If you know any rational businessmen, ask them how important ‘word of mouth recommendation’ is. (Clue: it’s a lot more than saving $50 and simultaneously annoying almost all potential customers.)
Well I have a description of telemarketing from a telemarketer right here.
Addressing the appalling employee turnover of the industry, he said:
Stopping people in the street to thrust a leaflet in their hand is ‘marketing’? That needs less skill than telemarketing (and you can’t say that about many jobs!). Why do you think people go to Business School to learn marketing?
I already gave a list of how I rank various advertising methods. (Amazon 5 stars etc…)
I could add that TV commercials are designed to entertain by artistic professionals, and filmed using top actors and directors, many of whom are delighted to do the work.
Telemarketing is ‘unskilled’ work, done by people with no qualifications, who don’t enjoy their work, and is aimed at everyone even if they can’t possibly want it (guaranteeing massive customer dissatisfaction).
And I’m sorry to hear that you have an annoying cousin who is paid to phone you…
Would that be the same Amazon that claims to have invented the practice of buying products by clicking a button (“One Click Shopping”), and threatens their competitors with lawsuits because of it? Yeah, that’s decent.
Some probably are, I wouldn’t know. Of course the same is true of TV commercials, magazine ads, newspaper ads, and direct mail.
Sure. My comments in bold.
John Smith is a telemarketer :o. He needed no qualifications to get into telemarketing. He had simple initial training in dialling numbers, reading a script and typing answers into a computer.
(Actually, he was trained to use the software; speak clearly and confidently; build rapport with customers; answer questions about his product/service; pick up on customer interest and cues; and respond to objections with persuasive rebuttals. He may start with a script, but as he becomes familiar with it, he’ll improvise on his own. His calls are monitored by managers, who take him aside and coach him on his technique when necessary.)
His job is loathed by the public. He hates his work and doesn’t know many of his co-workers (because they keep leaving).
(He knows most of his co-workers, because they’ve been there longer than he has. He knows which of them are good at their jobs, and tries to learn from them.)
Society has banned his industry from even approaching any customer who makes a simple legal declaration.
(Is that unique? Try approaching customers on the street outside a retail store after they tell you to stop, and see how quickly you get sued.)
He will get out as soon as he can.
(Only if he’s no good at his job, or something with better pay comes along.)
Hmm… you might be familiar with a little organization called the Red Cross? How about Camp Fire or the Girl Scouts of America? They use telemarketing to collect donations.
Does it matter if he gets paid? According to you, all that matters is it’s my phone and no one should call without my prior consent.
Sweet fancy Moses, is this still going on? Can’t you just agree to disagree or something?
Telemarketers need to realize that people are going to be annoyed by them no matter what they do, how nice they are or how hard they work. It’s definitely something to consider when you go into that job.
People who hate telemarketers need to realize that this is not a blight on humanity or a plague of evil telemarketers bent on world domination; it’s a nuisance and unfortunately one of the many you have to deal with when you are an adult. Sorry 'bout that.
You seem to have a deeply misguided idea of business.
I don’t know anything about the facts of this dispute, but are you saying Amazon didn’t invent and copyright this practice?
Or that companies shouldn’t be allowed to protect their copyrights and patents in the courts?
In any case, they’re not offending masses of customers daily with shoddy business practices.
Ah, but my point was that quality products can be sold without offending customers. Telemarketing relies on fast-talking, not on the product.
So you admit telemarketers need no qualifications- and this telemarketer agrees:
As for ‘trained to use the software’, isn’t this a simple program that just responds to customer prompts? They don’t write the software, do they? What further training do telemarketers get?
‘build rapport with customers’ - what, like this telemarketer:
‘pick up on customer interest and cues’ - what, like this telemarketer:
‘respond to objections with persuasive rebuttals’ - what, like this telemarketer:
Next comes ‘(a telemarketer) knows most of his co-workers, because they’ve been there longer than he has. He knows which of them are good at their jobs, and tries to learn from them.’
[/quote]
Ah, those ‘long-serving’ ‘helpful’ telemarketers - like these:
I am puzzled by your comparison of the unique legal right to ban all telemarketers with ‘…approaching customers on the street outside a retail store after they tell you to stop…’.
Does that happen to you a lot?
You also claim that telemarketers are waiting for e.g. a better-paid job to come along.
Could you give an example of another job, paying the same, which you would not give up telemarketing for?
I am sorry to hear that.
Presumably charities feel they should use the cheapest alternative, and that people will understand why.
I personally make allowance for worthy causes - but not for businesses run for profit.
I look forward to you finding that quote. :rolleyes:
Well that’s sensible. (But I am making slight progress - one telemarketer accused me of being boring through constant repetition, so now he has at least had a taste of what telemarketing is like.)
Very true.
Don’t hate the sinner - hate the sin!
Are you saying we shouldn’t protest about nuisances?
Surely that’s one of our democratic rights!
Protest all ya like, glee, not that you need my permission…you’ve certainly been dilligent enough about it so far.
However, you can rant and rave and plan and plot all you like, and it will not change the fact that you’re going to get these calls for the rest of your life, especially if you don’t even tell them No Thank You Take Me Off Your List. Maybe there’s something wrong with me; maybe I just don’t mind speaking to other humans on the phone as much as most people do; maybe I’m just way too forgiving or friendly…I can just think of so many other way more annoying things than having to take six seconds of my day to refuse a sales call. Just doesn’t bother me that much.
It takes different strokes to move the world, yes it does.
Absolutely. Patenting the process of buying something online by clicking a button is akin to patenting the concept of putting products in boxes for retail sale–it’s plainly obvious to anyone in the field. The patent should never have been granted, of course; but the fact that Amazon applied for it, and has used it to threaten their competitors, calls their “decency” into question.
Or both. That guy on the Micro Machines commercial talked pretty fast, but I never bought any of those little cars because I didn’t like the product.
You don’t need a degree. It’s “unskilled” work in the same sense as flipping burgers, typing letters, answering phones, hauling boxes, or waiting tables: it doesn’t mean they’ll literally take anyone off the street, nor that there are no skills involved; it means anyone can do it with a little training, if they’re motivated.
Yeah, it’s a simple program. But you’d be surprised how many people can’t use computers, even at that level – some people have to take classes to learn Word and Outlook.
Care to take another shot at understanding what I actually wrote?
Never has. I’ve never been called back by a telemarketer after asking them not to call back, either.
I wouldn’t have left for anything in foodservice, sanitation, or a job that would put me at risk of physical harm (e.g. working with machinery). Telemarketing was frustrating at times, but I never worried about getting sick or injured from it.
Usually we just say no to anyone who solicits us, but sometimes we jab back at the caller, especially if they don’t accept a simple no.
We live 10 miles out of town and on the second infraction we allow the window salesman or water conditioner people to set up appointments and then ‘forget’ and leave the house when they’re scheduled. Most don’t call back after two rounds of that game.
One rainy saturday I talked to someone for over an hour about some cruise and when she finally asked if I was really interested I told her no, but I was bored and stuck home with a sick kid and just enjoyed talking with an adult for awhile. She had the nerve to hang up on me! How rude can a caller get?
I find that asking a female caller what she’s wearing is an effective deterrent as well. Especially if I get to ask about details. And asking the caller if he’s ‘saved’ can really shorten a call, too. No matter what they say, keep asking about their salvation.
And here’s a really bad but effective thing we did once:
Shortly after our 3rd child was born my wife picked up the phone, listened a bit, then said, “The baby died.” She listened a bit more then said, “EXCUSE ME, THE BABY DIED!” She listened a little bit more, then hung up.
“What the heck was that?” I asked her.
The telemarketer lady was selling whatever it was to new parents and had asked how the new family member was. She then ignored the response and went happily into her spiel. When my wife interrupted her with the second comment the caller gasped, went totally silent, then quietly hung up.
We didn’t get any more baby stuff calls and I doubt the lady on the phone line enjoyed the rest of her day too much…I like to think she went out and found some honest work instead. (The baby is now seven years old, BTW.)
I got a telemarketing call today … from “Seventeen” magazine. I wound up with a subscription a little while back, even though I’m a 29-year-old male, after a sports magazine I was subscribing to went out of business. In such cases, they offer to give you the balance of the subscription in any number of magazines, but if you don’t send back the little card that they send you with all of the choices, they pick a magazine at random.
I did learn a lot about prom dresses, I have to admit. Oh, and what to do if I get pregnant.
Hey consolid8, yer a real comedian mate. Y’know what? The lady that you spun your bullshit too probably DID have a very bad day after that. While you might have considered it a bit of sport, did you consider that the person you were egging-on might have felt for YOU??
There have been a number of occasions when I have been moved to tears of grief and/or admiration for the folks I have spoken to on the phone in my role as a telemarketer. I have spent hours in some instances ‘counselling’ people who have had shitful things happen to them: in one case it was a woman who’s daughter had committed suicide a few days before and didn’t have anybody else in her life to talk about it to. I have rung ‘emergency services’ wen somebody picked up the phone but did not answer (and the noises that I heard indicated that they had fallen or collapsed). Just yesterday one of my coworkers spoke to a five-year old kid who was home alone while her parents went out to work…we kept ringing and ringing every five minutes until we found another adult home…(turned out that the NES grandma was at home all the time, but WE weren’t to know that!!)
Every day at least once I chat to an elderly or lonely person who is more than happy to give me their life story in exchange for my time on the phone. I enjoy those conversations more than anything. I like having to step out of my ‘automaton’ role and truly engage with people…it’s what makes my job really worthwhile. And ALL of my coworkers have the same attitude.
So, sure, if it gets a telemarketer off your back, then chuck them some bullshit whenever you feel so inclined. But just remember that we don’t ALWAYS forget our conversations with you immediately, and we share tears amongst ourselves when people share their troubles with us (and their joys too funnily enough). Your baby’s ‘death’, while fucking hilarious to you, might have had greater repercussions than you might imagine.
Hope you enjoyed YOUR laugh consolid8. I just reckon you are a complete fucktard, but, hey…I’m just a telemarketer.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Well ** kambuckta**, it sounds like you’re a nice person, but I still don’t want to get telemarketing calls from you. I hope you quit your telemarketing job and get a job where you don’t call me. And I hope you volunteer with Meals on Wheels or donate some time at a local retirement home. That way I’m happy and you still get to help people who really appreciate you.
What if a hit man said he was proud to kill people since one time he killed a guy who was suffering from cancer. (Obvious clarification of analogy here. I’m not saying telemarketers are hit men. I’m trying to say that having one beneficial outcome does not make the all occurrences justified.)
Think if you had a job clubbing baby seals (Obvious clarification of analogy here. I’m not saying that telemarketers kill baby seals or anything. I’m saying that they have a job that’s legal, but it’s a job that most people don’t like them to do.) A seal clubber probably says he’s just trying to make a living and that it pays well and that he tried to get other jobs but he just couldn’t find any. But I doubt if you’d find many people who would praise him for the job he had. Other than those people who benefit from the seal fur trade that is.
So kambuckta, nothing personal, but I hope you quit your job and never go back.
And check this yahoo story out. Four telemarketing groups are suing to prevent the creation of a national do-not-call list. The telemarketing groups want to make sure they are able to call people who don’t want to be called.
Currently many states have a do-not-call list, but it only prevents businesses within that state from calling people on that list. So, for example, if a telemarketing company is in Kansas, it only has to obey the Kansas do-not-call list. It can call people in all the other states without regard to those states’ do-not-call lists. The national do-not-call list would be a way to close that loophole.
Rant? Rave? Plan? Plot?
You seem to read too much into my simple idea of leaving the telemarketer hanging.
Anyway a friend just told me that here in the UK we can now deal with this nuisance:
Just phone BT and ask for ‘Telephone Preference Service’.
Ah, the peace and quiet!
As I said previously, I have tried asking them to take me off their list. It didn’t work.
Maybe - you did work as a telemarketer…
Ah, if only it were six seconds (incidentally you can stop what you’re doing, reach the phone, identify the caller, refuse the spiel and get back in just six seconds?) a day.
As I said previously (do read the thread next time), Motorgirl has had 37 calls in a day - would that bother you?
Maybe - I wouldn’t work as a telemarketer…
Wow!
So (if I understand you correctly) a company applies for a patent, is awarded it and uses its legal right to defend itself against patent infringement. You state that:
a) they shouldn’t have applied for the patent
b) they shouldn’t have been granted the patent
c) it is not ‘decent’ of the company to protect its patent
Have you much experience of patent law?
Surely a quality product from a reputable company doesn’t need random cold-calling, causing irritation to most of the potential customers?
So you admit telemarketers need no qualifications?
I am surprised that every US school pupil doesn’t have computer training.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by glee *
‘build rapport with customers’ - what, like this telemarketer:
‘pick up on customer interest and cues’ - what, like this telemarketer:
‘respond to objections with persuasive rebuttals’ - what, like this telemarketer:
Let’s see.
You claim telemarketing needed the above skills. I quote telemarketers who patently don’t use them.
And this means I don’t understand you?
Let’s see.
I point out that telemarketing is the only industry that has had a law passed protecting the public from it. Actual legislation to defend the public against a nuisance!
You reply with an example of something that has never happened.
I point out this is a silly example.
You reply that you personally haven’t experienced a problem (even though others on this thread have).
And your point is?
You don’t feel you might have been emotionally damaged by the constant hatred from the public?
You don’t feel you might have had to take time off to cope with depression, stress or anxiety?
You don’t feel telemarketing has affected your ability to argue cogently?
Another good way to repel telemarketers is to pretend to be practically deaf. God, I’m not EVEN going to try to bother if I think I’m gonna be shouting throughout the conversation. Besides, most of the practically deaf people I talk to are also old, and it’s hard to pry credit card numbers out of old people.
I know how patent law works. I’m sure someone at Amazon thought it was a great business decision to apply for such an obvious patent. However, the problem here is that the patented “technology” is blatantly obvious, on the same level as Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes. The latter is a funny story in The Onion that we read for a laugh; the former is a tragic indictment of our patent bureau.
Does any product need any specific form of marketing?
Yawn. “Have you stopped beating your wife?”
Some schools are a little more concerned with fixing leaky roofs than buying computers.
If they don’t use those skills, they don’t make sales. That’s how it works. You listed a handful of examples, but you must try to see the forest instead of the trees. Rudely dispatching an irate customer once in a while isn’t going to harm your sales, but if you rudely dispatch everyone, you’ll be looking for another job soon.
Um… meat packing? Drug manufacturing? There are regulations and restrictions on hundreds of industries. Restaurants, like telemarketers, can also be fined if they don’t follow strict guidelines; does that mean there’s something wrong with restaurants?
There were people who had been there much longer than I had, and they seemed all right.
“Constant hatred” is an overstatement. I made dozens of calls a day–perhaps a hundred–and only a few people were rude. There were a lot more people who went out of their way to be nice to me than to be rude.