Let me preface this with an admittance. I have worked as a telemarketer, twice in fact. One time was for my University (we called Alum as well as parents of students), once for a company located in Hamilton ONT who called people in the states (we had to say we were located near Buffalo, I found that odd). I worked for the first for the better part of my 1st year, the second for about a month (it really is a very crappy job, I just did it until I got a different one, need to pay for school somehow). The reaction of the people called was drastically different. In the first, I never once got hung up on, or sworn at. I attribute this to calling from a place you would have some affection for. The 2nd, wow, at least 1/4 of the calls was a barrage of curse words. It seemed very odd to me.
You see here in Canada I get a call from a telemarketer maybe 1/month, and I don’t live in a rural area (not sure if that makes a difference) but the GTA, the most heavily populated section of Canada. So it seems telemarketing is not as big of a problem in Canada.
So how many calls does the average American recieve in 1/day/week/month/year? Are these numbers available?
I have callerid and my number is unlisted. I am not on the Do Not Call list. The first two help a lot, but not entirely.
That being said, I *still * get about 2 telemarketing calls a week. When I never buy anything over the phone. Not annoying you say?
I don’t talk on the phone. I have e-mail, and only call my family once a week. I rarely talk to my friends on the phone. So when my phone rings, I think it’s important…drives me crazy when it’s not.
Still not annoying? Well, these two calls invariably will wake me up Saturday morning at 8 AM, which is the only day I get to sleep. Yah! I even have the phone in another room, but the shrill tone always awakens me.
Still not annoying? I’ve also had a lot of bad things happen on the phone…I was in customer service for three years, taking 100+ calls a day. I hate the phone. And my ex used to prank me on the phone for many years. So when the phone rings, I twitch.
I didn’t take part in any of those Pit arguments at all, but telemarketers and their companies suck eggs. I’ve had to cold-call on occasion, but it’s always business and it’s always between 9 AM to 5 PM.
Before I signed up for National Do Not Call Registry, I was getting about 5 a day. These were all “non-affiliation” calls – sales pitches, pre-recorded “you have won!” message, etc.
Now I get one a month or so, from organizations with whom I have some afffiliation or very occasionaly polling organizations (these have some sort of exemption from the DNCR) .
Several years ago I was getting from 3 to 10 calls a day at my shop. They interrupted my working, sometimes to the point of causing a specific problem, but always at the cost of time and aggravation. A 20 second phone interruption causes a lot more than 20 seconds setback in a work procedure. You’ve got to stop what you’re doing at a safe point, shift gears mentally, deal with the emotional stress of talking to a pushy jerk, refocus your mind, and carefully review where you were before it all started.
Now, calls from customers and suppliers had some of the same aggravations (though not all of them) BUT THEY’RE NECESSARY FOR THE BUSINESS. Calls from telemarketers do nothing positive for me, and they don’t have to call me. Why can’t they find a way to make a living that doesn’t interfere with my making a living?
It’s a little less disruptive at home, but the same principle applies. Why can’t they find a way to make a living that doesn’t drag down my quality of life?
Getting on the no-call list helped noticeably at home, though we still get calls, sometimes 3 or 4 in one day. Using caller ID at work helps a lot, but I still have the interruption of checking the caller ID display, and occasionally a customer calling from a system that gives an “unknown” reading has to endure the inconvenience of talking to the answering machine.
You found it odd that a fourth of the calls resulted in a vituperative reply? I find it odd that it was such a small proportion.
Before the NDNCR, 5 a day or so was the norm, with 10-15 on weekend days when we were actually around the house more. The frequency was ever increasing, and while I started off being polite, letting them get through the first part of their spiel before I said “Sorry, I’m not interested”, by the end it was more like “Not interested. <click>” as soon as I could tell it was a telemarketer.
There are exemptions to the NDNCR, including charities, political parties and groups that you have a relationship with (your credit card company, banks, etc.) I’d say that one a week is about all we get now, on average.
I, too, made calls for my University’s alumni organization, and out of hundreds of calls I only recall one or two that turned ugly. That’s not telemarketing, though; it’s fundraising for an organization that many people feel a life-long connection to.
Before I put my number on the Do Not Call list, I got between 4 and 8 every evening. If I stayed home during the day, I would rack up 10 - 12 or more for the day. That was about par for the course. I hope you understand now.
Now, I get about 2 - 4 a week which is just about managable even though I still ahte them. I simply hang the phone up as soon as I suspect it is a telemarketer but it is still a huge pain when you are doing something else.
I am on the **Do Not Call ** list and I get about 1 Telemarketer call this year.
I use to get 3-5 per night, every night. I was called during the SuperBowl.
Yes, I use to hate these parasites. I would try and be polite.
“I am not interested and please remove me from your call list”
3 out of 4 would apologize and that was it. The 4th one would just try and keep pitching their pitch. Then I would explode and be insulting or curse them.
Every once in a while I get a call from a polling place.
Me, “Please don’t call us, we are on the Do Not Call list”
At least 3 of Them, “Oh but we are not telemarkers, that doesn’t aplly to us”
Me, “The Do Not Call list should be a good hint I’m a grouchy SOB that doesn’t like to be disturbed by idiots that can’t get a real job”
Them, “CLICK”
It’s difficult to quantify because it depends on how you respond to the calls. A recorded message will play to an answering machine, but an autodialer which forwards to a live person will only stop calling you when you answer. They’re programmed to hang up (and dial back later) when an answering machine picks up on the other end.
So if I let my answering machine answer my phone, it will often ring four or five times in one night. If I pick up and swear at the person on the other end, it will at least stop that telemarketer from calling for the rest of the night, and I’ll probably average one call per night.
In addition to which, I get a recorded message on my answering machine about once every other day, usually offering to consolidate my debts (I don’t have any) or reduce the interest on my mortgage (I don’t have one).
Hmm, got moved I see. Ok, not a huge problem, but I was actually looking for a FACTUAL answer to this question. I have so far recieved anecdotal information, but I was hoping that somewhere someone would know the true answer. It is very easy to say “I get 10 calls a day”, particularly when you hate them. Whether or not that is an exaggeration is what I was hoping to find out. I thought perhaps the lawmakers would have had to have an actual factual number of calls/person on average to try to make a law severly limiting such behavour.
Nooooo, just when I was about to inject some facts into the discussion and answer the OP, it gets moved out of GQ! If the website wasn’t so slow I would have made it in time! Anyway, I finally found the court documents that begin to answer the question. Here’s a link. The important part is:
I’m still looking for post do-not-call statistics, but it’s still an interesting data point.
Of course, we don’t have a landline in Casa de Lightnin’. We just use our cellphones. Luckily, telemarketers can’t call us on those… yet.
Previously, when we did have a landline, our phonespam dropped from about 3-4 per day to 1-2 per week when we put our number on the Do Not Call registry.
I think you have got enough of a poll here to draw some conclusions at least.
There are too many without the Do Not Call list would appear to be a valid observation.
The reason congress acted on this was that an overwhelming majority of American of all Parties hated these calls and wanted them to end.
Hmm, that seems vastly different then all the numbers people seem to say they get. Thank you for the information, it is an interesting data point. Kind of points to it being slightly exaggerated as a major problem. I don’t want to get into that though, there are plenty of threads already about that. I just wanted to know why it seems Americans get so angry about these calls that for me, are barely even on my radar. Thanks again. If you do find those numbers please post them.
Factor in some Area codes/exchange codes may get a higher number of calls than others.
If I was a telemarketing firm, I would probably direct more calls to more affluent areas.
Yes, I thought this would be true as well. However I do live in the largest metropolis in Canada, and like I said I recieve maybe 1 call a month. This barely even annoys me, yet there is apparently real rage felt towards these calls, I have even experienced it in my aforementioned job. You see I rarely treat people with anything but respect, and cursing at them on the phone is hardly respectful. Of course I only have to deal with them once a month. If it really was 10x a day I could see yelling, screaming, cursing, the murderous rage. Less then 3 times a week? Not so much. However, only closer look at that stat posted by Emerald Hawk I see it says Telemarketers say, anybody got one from say Ihatetelemarketers.com?
Me too. Starting at 8 a.m. and coming in until 9 p.m., including weekends !! Unbelievable. It was especially fun when I was in a wheelchair. :rolleyes:
Since the Do Not Call Registry began, I only get calls from places where I’ve done business – Gevalia, Sears (pushing their extended service agreements), and DirecTV. I’m okay with those, except for Sears, where the caller gets argumentative when I don’t buy anything.
So in answer to the OP, I guess I don’t get any random telemarketing calls anymore.