I never deal with telemarketers because my surname is almost always mispronounced by people who read it and haven’t heard it. So “I’m sorry, there’s nobody here by that name” works very well - it’s true, polite, and leaves no room for any response other than “Sorry to bother you, have a nice day” - and as an added bonus I get removed from their list.
I got rid of a polling call last night in a different way: he was doing a survey about video/DVD rentals. Told him (quite truthfully) that I have no TV, VCR or DVD player so my weekly rentals would amount to zero. He was not expecting that.
Yes, you see what I’m getting at and have outted me for having a bark bigger than my bite.
I’m really an evangelist trying to lead the flock away from telemaketing. I can’t save the people who call me on the phone, and it really doesn’t do either one of us any good to converse so I simply hang up.
But I can try to scare away any potential recruits by giving you former evil doers hell on this board. Maybe, just maybe, I can lead a few potentials away from the burning abyss called telemarketing. Calm Kiwi figured me out too but I’m afraid that InvidiousCourgette lacks the ability to understand.
Well couple of quick words before I head off to my job that everybody loves me for.
Personally, I never had to take that telemarketting job- As low end jobs go I’m a fair short order cook and you can usually get work with that. I do however sympathize to some degree, sometimes you consider jobs you can’t believe you would. I had a couple of roomates work for survey companies, which has similar bad rep but doesn’t actually try to sell you anything.
Really the best thing is to just say “no thanks, take me off the list”. It’s easy and doesn’t spin out the bad karma.
I live in Canada and not on any no-call list, I get maybe 1 call every 1/2 months. I guess this is a more American biz tactic, my Mom in AZ got herself on a list it was bothering her so much.
A lot of telemarketers I get go straight into their spiel. (“Hello, I’m calling to discuss with you about blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…”) Maybe they pause for breath, but I never seem to hear it. I’m not a patient person, so once I realise it’s a telemarketing call, I hang up. I don’t bother to interrupt, or say anything to tell them I’m not interested. Just click and that’s it. I don’t make the decision in the family anyway, so they are all a waste of my time.
I have to say, being a telemarketer is the lowest on the job ladder. I was a telemarketer for two days. I needed money, and my friend was working at the place, and the boss hired anyone who showed up and could speak English. I hated it so much. The first day wasn’t too bad because I was training and just sat there and “learned”. The second day, I was on my own, and I loathed it. So, I quit and looked for another job. It wasn’t that hard; I managed to save some of my dignity. And I have to say, a lot of the telemarketers I worked with were my age, and were working there not because they couldn’t find another job, but because they were lazy and could sit there talking on the phone and getting paid more than minimum wage plus commision.
[QUOTE=JayElle]
It’s worked great for stopping the vinyl siding and insurance people, but is anyone else getting tons of non-profit organization calls?
[QUOTE]
Personally, I love how fundraising for political causes is specifically exempted from having to obey the ‘Do Not Call’ list. :smack:
For a while there, I just screamed some blood-curdling screams and then let events unfold. Really, the results could be quite interesting. Some callers just hung up, but others showed real consternation, even gave a hint of panic in their voices as they tried to determine what was wrong with me…
L: Hello?
TM: Hello, sir! My name is Sally, and I was wondering if I could speak to Mr. Loopy about our extensive line of wood-textured vinyl siding products. You do own a home, is that correct Mr. Loopy?
L: Why, yes, I…uh…ah…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
TM: I…hello?
L: MEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
TM: Hello? Sir? Sir, are you all right??
L: BWAAAAAAAH! AHHH-AHHHH-EEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAGH! <BANG!> <THUD!> <scratchscratchscratch on the reciever>
TM: Oh my God! Sir?!? Sir??? Are you still there; can you hear me??
L: <pant> <pant> <hack> YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!
TM: Sir, I have your phone number and address and can call 911 if you’re experiencing an emergency…just…sir, can you hear me at all? Do you need emergency assist…
L: No, I’m fine. Why do you ask?
TM: Sir?
L: I’m good.
TM: <mental wheels grinding all most audibly> You were…
L: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
TM: What the…
L: BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
TM: Is there something wrong, sir, because…
L: No. Nothing. What, you wanted to talk about vinyl siding, right?
TM: <loud exhalation> Yes, sir, we carry a full line of…
L: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
<TM hangs up>
No, I understand your point perfectly. You, however, appear to be pretending that the prevalence of telemarketing might be reduced if you insult the people who man the telephones. That is not how capitalism works. Insult the industry leaders, fine. Insult the investors, OK. Even better, campaign for the practises to be abolished. But insult the people who are trying to earn a crust? That is never going to eradicate anything. That is just insulting.
What explodes from your statements is crass stupidity. If there are people who are willing to pay people to do stuff you do not like, fuck with the employers not the employees. How difficult is that? What is there not to understand in that there are people who are desperate for a job? Take your :rolleyes: and stick it up your arse, you fucking shit for brains.
Would it be silly of me to point out that if telemarketing didn’t work to at least some measurable (and profitable) degree, it would cease to exist?
Seriously, maybe a rally against the people who actually buy stuff/contribute money/answer surveys is the way to go here; if it didn’t work, and it didn’t lead to progress towards the goal, no one would do it anymore.
No, I get very few calls of that type. Once in awhile - but it’s pretty rare. I DO get a ton of political calls, but only in the couple weeks before an election, and they tend to be far less intrusive than the telemarketing calls I used to get. The political ones are usually just pre-recorded messages. I can deal with that; compared to the 5 or 6 highly aggressive telemarketing calls I used to get EVERY DAY, this is heaven.
BTW, “debt consolidation” sounds like a commercial enterprise, and ought to be covered by the DNC list. You should be able to file a complaint with the FCC.
If somebody pays me a dollar to dump a bowl of chocolate milk over your head don’t blame me. I just needed the money. Even though I knew that my act was beyond common courtesy and would cause you a hassle you should admire me for my work ethic.
C’mon you can do better than that.
Also, I’m stateside and prefer that you direct your insults to my ass, not my arse.
OK dipshit, here’s a strawman. Somebody pays me to sit at a computer and send you endless email offerings for Viagra, mortgages, sex websites. You wanna wax poetically about the valiant work ethics of spammers?
Or maybe you can lend a sympathetic backing for those hard working guys who club baby seals to death. After all, they’re just trying to earn an honest living.
And did you ever try to **contact ** any of the principals involved in telemarketing? I betcha they won’t come to the phone. Your only contact, the only available representative of this sleazy business is the dumb schmuck who calls you on the phone. Face it, at whatever level you are employed, you are the representative of the company. And even if you are desperate for work if somebody is paying you to be an asshole you should expect to be treated like one.
How far would you be honestly willing to extend the analogy that telemarketing is like clubbing baby seals? I have a pool going over here, and the winner would love to talk to you about your vacation plans and life insurance…
[sub]And that certain area of the male body we can’t mention by name…[/sub]
Come on, y’all, do what I do. As long as they haven’t caught me at a bad time, I let them go through their script. Go ahead, let 'em talk, let 'em gab their little hearts out. Just watch TV or something until they ask you a question. THEN tell them you’re not interested. That way, you’ve wasted as much of their time as possible without being mean or dishonest.
If you get off the line quickly, they’ll just call someone else, and they actually stand a chance of making money. Telemarketing will only stop when it becomes unprofitable. And the only way I know of to eat into their profits is to waste the time of the people making the calls. It’s a public service! Do it for your fellow man!
I’m afraid I have to point out that your comparison is flawed on the following points:
Spamming is illegal. Telemarketing is (unfortunately) not, as long as the company follows the laws in place to regulate their behavior.
Generally, spamming is a one or two man operation. You don’t need to hire people to staff the phones (or computers, as it were), in a one-to-one ratio of rep to potential sale. One spammer can reach thousands of people in a matter of seconds. Hardly a work ethic, especially when you consider the ramifications of point 1.
Precisely because spamming is a low-cost-investment “business”, some reports put the amount of spam worldwide at 60% of the total volume of email sent and recieved each day. I sincerely doubt anyone gets telemarketing calls 60% of the time on any given day.
And even if you do get telemarketers 6 out of every 10 calls, there is a very effective national registry to sign up with that will effectively eliminate those calls. There is currently no way to sign up for a no-spam registry - see point 1.
Equally annoying? Sure. But still apples and oranges for the purposes of your argument. It comes back to stopping telemarketing at the source. If you hate it that much, work to make it illegal.
:rolleyes:
Actually, I believe that a legitimate company is required to put you on the line with a supervisor if you request it. That’s exactly how I weed out the legitimate companies from the scammers.
While this may be true, how* effective* is it to getting your point across? The answer is not effective at all. While they are representatives of the company, these callers have no authority whatsoever to stop the company from using telemarketers to boost sales. Let’s repeat that:
No.
Authority.
Whatsoever.
So you expend the time and energy to be an asshole, thus pissing off both you and the rep that gets the brunt of the abuse, for no discernable gain on your part whatsoever. You just made someone else’s day that much worse for what amounts to “because I can! And they should expect it!” Which is fine if that’s how you want to live your life, but I can imagine you’re going to be one miserable human being after 60-odd years of feeling entitled to be a jerk about something so inconsequential as telemarketers.
These entities don’t HAVE to abide by do-not-call registries, but it’s in their interests to do so. I have a canned response to all such calls. “We do not accept telephone solicitations at this number. Please place it on your do-not-call list.” If they were to argue, I would advise them that I was placing THEIR name on my “do-not-support” list. Especially if they got haughty! If it’s a charity or organization I would normally support, I might go one step farther and request that they send me printed information and that I would consider their request when I was planning my charitable donations for the year.
