I was a telemarketer for exactly 45 minutes before I quit (and 30 minutes of that was filling out pre-employment paperwork). I was telemarketing funeral plots! Really. I’d call up people and remind them of their own demise, and hell since they’re gonna die anyway, why don’t they get buried here in our lovely cemetary. Well, that was the gist of it anyway. There was no “3 tries” thing where I worked as far as I know. They handed me a list of numbers that went : 001-0001 , 001-0002, 001-0003, etc, etc, etc, and I’d just call and say “Is the man of the house home.” So I’d be calling up people that were 20 years old trying to sell them burial space. After three calls, I told my manager that I simply couldn’t annoy people for a living and walked out.
I have an unlisted, nonpublished number that is billed in an altenate name, which means I only want folks who I’ve given the number out to call me. I’ve experienced several extremely rude telemarketers, some who called me back after I hung up on them and screamed at me. My opinion is telemarketing should be a crime punishable by death!
My family is united in our fight against these intrusive jerks. I don’t care if they are trying to make a living. So are drug dealers, abortion doctors, process servers, etc. That doesn’t mean a guy has to be nice to them! We talk nasty to them, blow whistles into the phone, order the merchandise, then at the last minute say we changed our mind and hang up, and do or say just about any uncouth thing that might ruin their day.I am normally a mild mannered guy, but those people really push my buttons! My advice to telemarketers: Stop calling folks in the middle of dinner & get a real job assholes!!:mad:
You know, all I can think of when reading your post is “My, whata raging prick.”
Then I thought you might be a woman, and I ammedned it to, “Or maybe you’re a pathetic douche bag.”
Yer pal,
Satan
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Three months, one week, five days, 13 hours, 12 minutes and 14 seconds.
4142 cigarettes not smoked, saving $517.75.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 9 hours, 10 minutes.
And like I said, I’m usually a sweet guy. But we were abused by telemarketers once to often. The “sorry I’m not interested” then hang up method would result it a call back with the salesman yelling “you didn’t even hear what I was selling jerk! How can you say you’re not interested!”. Plus they always, and I do mean ALWAYS called in the middle of dinner. I should not have to take my phone off the hook just so I can spend a nice supper hour with my family whom I haven’t seen all day.What if someone I actually like was trying to get ahold of me? I also shouldn’t have to pay to have a special service that blocks telemarketers. To me that almost equals blackmail.
Satan, we were getting between 2-4 calls a day, every day!I’m not kidding! We almost had to change our number. This has since dwindled to less than 2 a week but even that’s annoying.
I want to mention that some of these calls were selling things that did not sound like they were legit, i.e. “congratulations, you have won a vacation…” All these calls pushed us over the edge, so we decided to push back. I consider most of those calls as harassment. Please respect my opinion regarding my privacy. Peace.
I finally admitted defeat with telemarketers. I was getting like 6 calls a day. So for my peace of mind I now pay an extra 7 bucks to the phone company every month for caller ID and never pick up the phone unless I know who it is. What a sad world it is where we have to pay for our privacy.
The easiest thing to do is to just set the phone down and walk away. damn funny when 5 minutes later they are STILL talking. either that or I let them talk to the cat, and the cat HATES the phone! {: I really like when they try and sell me siding or lawn services as I live in a Condo. I have the same phone number my grandmother did when she died so I tell them that she’s dead, that normally gets them too.
I was a telemarketer for about 10 years. I’ve heard just about every silly thing there is to hear, and had a response for everything mentioned so far and everything that will be mentioned(except one). In fact I, along with my co-workers, welcomed the occassional goofball who thought he was wasting our time, broke up the monotony. We even had a bunch of calls that we pulled of the tape machine and made a funniest calls tape.
The take me off your list issue only applies to some companies, and from what I hear it’s hard to prove. If someone asked us to put them on the “do not call list” we did, and then called them back after a few months to see what kind of conversion rate we would get. The conversion was only slightly worse than calling straight cold calls.
Also had a list of nonpublished numbers. Those ran about 3 times higher than straight cold calling.
If someone asked for my home phone number ala Jerry Seinfeld I promptly gave it to them and continued on, nobody ever called me.
Set the phone down and walk away, I always waited and started over when they came back.
Blowing a whistle may get you in trouble since most companies record the calls.
I could go on and on, but if you want to get a telemarketer off the phone HANG UP, no legal operation will ever call back without someone losing their job.
Well over 90% of our employees were either college students or local folks plenty able to do labor btw.
If you’re recording intrastate calls without the permission of both parties on the line you are guilty of a federal crime. Only in state calls apply to the “one party consent” rule, and not all states have that law. I would love, love, LOVE for a telemarketer to go to prison!
The company I worked for calls nationwide from four different states and records all the calls made. They are very concerned with ethics and legality. They do not inform the called party the call is being recorded. Have not read the law you mention, but I would guess it does’nt apply in this circumstance.
According to the legal department at the firm I work for,it most certainly does apply. I was told that ANY call that crosses state lines can not be recorded unless both parties are notified. This is why when someone calls a help or information line many times you get that “for quality assurance, this call may be monitored or recorded”. That is the notification. Unless something changed or there is a qwirk in the law I don’t know about, you cannot record phone calls across state lines without notification. Any legal eagles out there want to back me up?
Also, I have yet to be sued or arrested for blowing a whistle (an ACME Thunderer, by the way. The loudest police whistle made!)into the phone. Besides, unless I spoke (on your illegal recording) how would you know who did it? I have 5 people living here.
You know, congress has some bills before it that contain some very harsh restrictions on telemarketers. So I’m not the only one who hates you people! I’m not the bad guy here!
Hey, GreatKingRat. This is off topic, I know, but does your handle come from the Queen song of the same name?
The company I worked for has used the recordings in court to protect itself from consumers who had lied about the contents of the call. I don’t think they would use an illegal recording in court.
If you spoke your voice is on tape. Still does’nt mean the injured party could prove you blew the whistle, maybe they could I don’t know. I would never intentionally trying to damage someones hearing over a phone call, besides if they did prove it you may go insane from getting bested by a telemarketer 
I have read about those bills, hope they pass. I really do.I get the calls myself and don’t like them at all. I am not one of “those” people any longer btw.
Yes,I’m the son of a whore always wanted by the law.