This juxtaposition made me laugh out loud. Good job.
A couple of telemarketer stories from me:
One of them, after having been told, “Sorry, this is a not-for-profit, and we’re not interested, have a nice day” and me hanging up on him, called me back and told me “You’re very rude to hang up on me.” I said, “I wasn’t rude. However, calling me for a service I didn’t want is rude…” And hung up again. He then called back once more, to tell me I was being rude yet again, and I said, “Well, sir, we will now never do business with your company as long as I work here. Good job.”
Albany Times Union around here is terrible with their telemarketers, calling over and over. And our own telemarketers, which we hire out of the National Office and not my office, are pretty freakin’ rude, too, and I’m always having to apologize for them. I agree telemarketers do nothing but ruin the company’s reputation and make us look bad.
The other one was when I was 8 or 9.
Telemarketer: “Hello, is your daddy home?”
Me: “No, he’s taking a shower. Can I take a message?”
TM: "Taking a shower, is he? Well, why don’t you crawl on in there with him?
Me: :eek: click
It was years later, on these very boards, that someone gave me the perfect comeback:
Yes, it is. No one is holding a shotgun to their head and saying “become a telemarketer or we pull the trigger”.
They start out being rude by violating the Law (I am on the DNC list, so if they call, they are a criminal), thus I can be as rude as I fucking want.
Actually, I do have to say that telemarketers are not the rudest. The worst are Bill Collectors violating Federal and State Law by pretending that my number was “on their list” as a number one of my possibly delinquent neighbors gave. It isn’t, lying asshole. I know exactly where you got my number- as a *neighbor * of the person you want to harrass on Lexis/Nexis. Now, true, they are allowed to call me, as a neighbor, to confirm that so&so lives next door. But they don’t do that. That would be legal. :rolleyes: So, they call my number, which they know damn well is NOT the number of who they want, and ask for my nieghbor. When I say she doesn’t live here, then they ask if I can give her a message- which is illegal. Assholes. And of course, if the debt is being collected by one of those outlaw collection agencies, you know it’s validity is seriously in doubt anyway.
So do you plan to continue ignoring my point about how you are nothing but a drain on our society? I mean, will there ever be a human society where every person takes responsibility for their own actions and role? Not so long as people like you* are around, that’s for sure.
People like you = busy bodies who do nothing more than sit around bitching about how absolutely horrible the entire world is, how every system is fucked, etc. etc-- but don’t do a goddamned thing about it. Well, nothing except attack those that try. Let me tell you something, it’s much easier to sit behind your computer downing Funions and making snide comments about everyone else than to even begin to try to make a difference.
It’s one hell of a lot different. When I walk into a store and am approached by a salesperson, my presence is (a) voluntary, and (b) indicates at least a preliminary interest in purchase a product. I have given no such indications to people who cold call me.
Let me change the circumstance slightly. If telemarketing were done in person - if a salesperson approached you on the street hawking a product, and wouldn’t stop even after you told them you were not interested, following you down the street, would you consider that rude? I would, and I don’t see a difference between that and telemarketing - except that you can (rudely) hang up the phone on the telemarketer.
Okay, let’s run with this. The government declares that everyone has to send in a check, and everyone does so. Of course, they’d need some sort of agency to collect all those checks and cash them. And they need to make sure everyone sends in their check, because even discounting the people who will try to avoid paying what they owe, there are still lots of people who will forget to mail their check in on time, or fill out the check wrong, or somehow not get the message that they need to mail in their checks in the first place. Of course, not everyone in the country is equally wealthy, so in the interest of fairness, you can’t really have everyone paying the same amount of tax. So you’ll need some sort of system to figure out how much each person should pay, based on how much they can afford. In the interests of simplicity, we could have one organization do all of this. Let’s call this organization the IRS.
Now, the amount of wealth among the citizenry is so varied, and comes in so many different forms, that it’s going to be pretty complicated, keeping track of what everyone owns. Sometimes, too complicated for average people to figure out on their own. Or, at least, complicated enough that some people are just not going to want to bother, and would rather pay someone else to figure it out for them. Folks love convenience, so there’d probably be a large market for this particular service. If I were starting one, I’d want something with a classy name, so that people think I’m going to do a good job, you know? I’d probably call it something like “H & R Block.” That sounds like a heckuva name, to me!
Anyway, point is, if you’re going to have a system of taxation, you need an agency to oversee the collection of those taxes. The IRS is not an “unnessary middleman.” They’re an essential part of the taxation process. And H&R Block may be, technically, unnecessary, but a lot of people would rather use them than deal with filling out their tax forms by themselves. As “unnecessary” as they may be, they are also not a prerequisite of the tax-paying process. No one has to use them if they don’t want to, so there’s no need to “eliminate” them from the process. Just don’t use them if you don’t want to.
Never been to Mexico, have you? Yes, this has happened to me, especially in the poor countries I have visited (and by kids here in the States who are selling candy bars). Again, I just keep repeating “No, thank you” and keep walking. There’s no need for any other kind of response.
Minor point: I never said I cut them off. I realize that by not typing out their response, it appeared that way, but I wait for a pause in their speaking before repeating my refusal.
I realize I’m fighting a losing battle here, so this will be my last post on this subject. Again, I see telemarketing as, at most, a minor annoyance. Even with the most persistant telemarketer, I’ve never spent more than a few minutes on the phone. Maybe I’m unusual, but this is not enough to send me into a rage as it seems to do with some others.
Despite claims to the contrary, telemarketing is a legitimate industry which employs thousands of people. Apparently, they must reach willing customers at least on occasion or the entire practice would have been scrapped long ago. Some telemarketing firms are dishonest, but certainly not all, or else they would have been shut down by the authorities.
I don’t agree with Miller, who said that telemarketing is inherently despicable. It’s a job like any other, and there is a market for it-- some people do buy products over the phone and there is nothing inherently immoral about seeking new customers. I do think that it is immoral to heap abuse on someone who’s just trying to do their job, no matter what you feel about their industry.
If you dislike it so much, write to the companies who own the call centers. Spew your venom at the real “culprits”, not the poor schmoes who are manning the phones. It’s pointless, childish and uncouth.
No, Excalibre, I never have had a telemarketer treat me rudely, but I’ve also never had a nasty waitress as is reported in so many threads. Maybe I’m just lucky, or maybe they appreciate my courtesy. Who knows?
No, of course not, but many people have pride which insists that they work instead of go on public assistance. Of course, they could go on public assistance and enjoy being villified in pit threads about “welfare bums,” but some people would prefer to earn their keep, even if it means doing a job they don’t like.
Do you honestly think the average telemarketer knows your number is on the DNC list but calls anyway? They’re either handed a list of numbers or a computer dials for them. It’s not as if they’re given a copy of the DNC list to compare. The numbers are supposed to be filtered by the company, but on occasion, a few slip through the cracks.
Secondly, putting yourself on the DNC list once does little good, since some companies sell your information when you buy a product from them, putting you back on the “okay to call” list. As I understand, you should periodically update your registration on the DNC list. If you haven’t done so, you are abusing people for something that is not their fault.
I must say I have to marvel at the concept that taking offense at others’ behavior frees you from the obligations of civility. It sounds quite liberating. Does the same standard apply if, say, your waitress is rude? Do you then get to scream at her or throw your food? What about a person who cuts you off in traffic, or the jackass who talks on his cellphone in a theater? The ability of people to justify their actions to themselves with the playground excuse of “But he did this!” never ceases to amaze me.
I have said my piece, and now I bow out of this thread.
What really tore it is when telemarketers started bypassing home defenses (e.g. blocking/falsifying their caller ID, programming their systems to dial through “TeleZapper” devices). At that point, any last possibility that their activities were anything other than willful trespassing evaporated.
Oh, I get it. The companies don’t know people hate telemarketers, and they just need us to tell them that, and they’ll change their ways.
Have you ever tried asking a telemarketer for their mailing address? Do you really think this is an approach that would have any impact whatsoever?
I like Muffin’s outlook on the subject: people who call you and act like assholes by lying or refusing to take “not interested” as an answer should be made miserable, so that their employers will have a hard time finding people willing to do that work.
FWIW, I never had a problem giving our company address or phone # during the year that I was in telemarketing. In fact, it was company policy to give those to anyone that asked.
Before the DNC, spending a few minutes on the phone with each telemarketer who called would have cost me at least an hour a day. On the really bad days, assuming “a few minutes” to be about five minutes, it would have been upwards of three hours.
For that reason, I didn’t (usually) excoriate the callers, I just hung up, without a word, as soon as I realized they were telemarketers. One telemarketer is indeed a minor annoyance. Ten to fifteen telemarketers every day is something else entirely.
Not all jobs are equal. Some are, indeed, less moral than others. Testing cosmetics on animals, for example, is perfectly legal, but also entirely dispicable.
Why are the call centers the “real” culprits? Everyone involved in the industry knows that what they are doing is disliked by the vast majority of the public, and none of them are forced to do the job against their will. How are the people on the phone any less culpable than the people who own the phone? They’re all assholes, and they all deserve to be treated like assholes.
Well, fuck those people. Their pride is not my problem. Feeling bad about not having a job is not license to harrass people in their own homes.
Telemarketers do not “earn” anything, except scorn. They do not provide a valuable service, nor do they produce anything useful. They are parasites, and should be treated as such.
Pretty sure that’s illegal. And again, it is their fault, because they’re the ones who dialed the call.
Yes on all counts, although I wouldn’t scream and throw food at a rude waitress, because that would be inconsiderate to the other patrons, who have not offended. Civility is a two-way street. You don’t give it, you don’t get it. Constantly calling me at home to sell me crap I don’t want is not civil. It is, in fact, staggeringly rude. When a telemarketer calls me, he is implicitly telling me that he has no concern for politeness or the feelings of his fellow person. I am more than willing to treat with them on the level they have decided to treat with me.
I think that we are on the DNC list, but even before that, I might get a couple at home in a month. I can’t think of the last time I got a telemarketer call.
I guess it’s a matter of demographics, and perhaps the DNC list. But I would think I would be prime….
