Oh noes! I offended a telemarketer!

The BBQ Pit
1

Whatever shall I do? Do you see that over there? : points : Do you? Yeah, that’s baby Jesus weeping because of my horrible actions.

At work we get countless calls from telemarketers: toner, water, exorcisms- whatever we need is just a phone call away. I could rant all day (but not with enough vitrol to throw this into the pit) about telemarketers, but lately a few things have really stuck out to me as, well, whiskey tango foxtrot?

The first thing always leaves me doin’ one of these :smack:. The convo will go something like this:

Perhaps my last comment was a bit snarky, but on the particular day this exchange took place, this was the FIFTH such call I received within that hour. Each one was asking to speak to “the MAN in charge” and called me some variation of “Miss,” “Honey,” or “Sweetie.” But this was also the FIFTH person that said they weren’t soliciting something when they in fact were. Bah.

But the most recent thing that gets me: since I’m bored with screwing with the telemarketers, the moment they ask to speak to, “The president in charge of blah blah” I just say, “Are you selling something?” Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

“Ok then, so just take us off your list and don’t call here again, k?”

Pause.

Pause.

“But, ma’am. I just–”

“No, take us off your list.” Then I hang up. What gets me is that they sound so . . . hurt? It’s amazing. And makes me feel a little good. Ok, more than a little good.

And for the record, we are a tax business. If I say, “Are you soliciting something?” and it is, oh say, an IRS agent, they will say, “Nope. This is Revenue Officer Money Bags.” Then I’ll apologize and put them through. No harm done there.

**Not the real name, but I wish it was.

2

Calling “Diasa’s House of Whores” and soliciting is redundant.

3

I think I’ve become the victim of a lazy telemarketer. Daily on my caller ID, I see a call from “Texas” with a number. I googled the number and got nothing. But I’ve noticed when I’m home and I pick up the call from “Texas” no one is there, or they’re not ready to speak immediately. So I hang up. Screw 'em.

4

[super troopers]
“There are no… male officers I could speak to?”
[/st]

5

Hey, we’re here to please you.

6

The call you’re getting is coming from a computer. The computer dials many numbers at once; the first few that pick up are transferred to telemarketers, and the rest are dropped (or they were never answered). That’s where the delay comes from; most of the time, you’ll be transferred to a telemarketer within a few seconds of saying hello. The system appears to be voice-activated; just picking up the receiver will not get you transferred, and the computer will hang up on you.

7

I’m never mean to telemarketers. It’s a shitty job, and I feel sorry for them. They’re just trying to make a living and have to do their spiel, or they get in trouble. I just keep repeating “No, thank you,” and “Please remove me from your calling list.” I don’t see the point of heaping abuse on someone trying to feed their family.

8

Uh, no.

Telemarketers are annoying and just about all of them want to high-pressure you into purchasing something that you don’t need. They deserve just as much abuse as high-pressure used car salesmen and those assholes who sell Leptoprin, because they are not a net gain for society.

If the only job you can get involves annoying and interrupting 90% or more of the people you come into contact with, I’d rather you just went out and begged for food, it’s less trouble all around.

9

Must be the same people that keep calling me. I don’t know anyone in Texas, so I don’t answer it. I figure if it’s important, they’ll leave a message. My husband, however, can’t let it go. He’ll answer and get the same as you - no response.

10

I’m nice until they flat out lie (“No, I’m not soliciting anything”) or act like I’m just some helpless little secretary, incapable of making decisions, so I need to put them through to “the man in charge.” : Remembers this isn’t the Pit : Eff that. Seriously.

I’ve also had my fair share of rude telemarketers- I’d say the majority either meet the above or are flat out rude.

11

Really? :smiley:

What’s that number again…?

12

Christ almighty, man. Getting a call from a telemarketer is at most a minor annoyance which doesn’t merit such hostility. You’d rather people lived a life of poverty and dependence on charity than doing honest work? No one should ever be ashamed for working even if their profession is not highly respected.

Don’t be such a snob. Telemarketing centers are often located in areas where there aren’t a lot of jobs. For a person who never had a chance to get a higher education, it may be their only choice.

13

My husband operates a one-man business. I used to answer the phone for him, and I got tired of being polite to phone solicitors, so I just hung up on them as soon as I determined that they were trying to sell something.

One of the telemarketers that I hung up on was so infuriated that he called back and demanded to speak to “the manager.” I hung up on him again. He called back a third time and screamed “I fucked your daughter!”

14

I remember this from a previous thread. I tell all my friends about it :smiley:

15

It’s a shitty job, but that doesn’t mean I have to waste my time on it. I’ll say “no thank you” once, but I get mad if they persist.

16

What do telemarketers think the rest of us are doing at work? Sitting around waiting for them to call? I hate it when I’m on another call and have to put a customer on hold to talk to a TM, or have to stop what I’m doing. I collect a lot of cash money, and it requires concentration. The ringing phone is a distraction, and having to listen to a sales spiel is worse.

If I want information on cleaning supplies, a new phone carrier, water coolers, long distance, internet service or anything else, I am perfectly capable of finding it myself.

Any telemarketer who calls you back after you hang up on them should be jailed with a constrantly ringing telephone.

17

Oh, bullshit. I mean not entirerly bullshit, but did you read the OP? He wasn’t honests. He wasn’t doing honest work. And he was rude and condesending. Which warrent some hostility.

I tried telemarketing when I was desperate for a job. And they TOLD me to lie and how to lie (read scam). I didn’t stay. That doesn’t go for all telemarketers but it goes for some of them and it sound like it goes for this one.

18

We had MCI retention call us this weekend.

You see, we moved our local phone service.

Why? Because a guest fell in front of our house, broke several bones, required a week of hospitalization and two hours of stablization in front of our house by the EMTs before she could be moved.

But that doesn’t have anything to do with MCI…

911 didn’t work from our home. We had to use cell phones. My cell doesn’t have a GPS locator, so I went to FOUR emergency dispatchers to get an ambulance.

I told her “you can’t be sorry enough, file us under ‘you are lucky we aren’t suing.’”

19

It’s not their choice to persist. They’re given a list of “rebuttals” and if they don’t recite them, they can get in trouble. (The managers often monitor the calls.)

I once worked as a telemarketer for four days. We were only supposed to call places of business, not residences. We didn’t like it any more than the recipients of the call, but it was the rules of the telemarketing center.

Look, I’m not saying you have to sit there and listen to them. Simply saying, “No thank you. Please remove me from your calling list,” and hanging up is sufficient. (The telemarketer will probably be grateful not to have to repeat the rebuttals for the twentieth time that day.) My objection is to people who take out their frustration on the telemarketer by being nasty to them. There’s no reason to do that.

Many centers are computerized. If the call is ended before the telemarketer hangs up, it’s automatically bounced back to the dialer. (Which is why the magic words “remove me from your calling list” are so important.) Some centers actually instruct the telemarketers to call back manually if the call is “disconnected.”

Guys, they’re not doing this for shits and giggles, nor do they get jollies out of the idea they’re annoying people. All they want is a paycheck.

20

I don’t believe that other people’s bad behavior justifies bad behavior of my own.