To all those who are being insensitive about her job
SOD OFF!!!
She’s just trying to make a buck.
About the ex-b/f he’s probably a prick (and not too smart about what you said about him)If you waste your time worrying about what the jerky guys do and say you’ll probably miss the nice guys. Don’t worry about finding someone, cause you sound nice and you should be a guy magnet (excuse any of my poor spelling) The world can be a sucky place, but it gets better. I can’t promise you it will but it usually does. You probably know that though. My motto is Shit happens. Not the most original, but its true.
Seems to me that vitriol against telemarketers fulfills two attractive features:
1: a reasonable person can usually feel fully justified in anger against the industry. So it’s safe to vent about, since the only real opposition will be “Yes, they are really annoying, but…” which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly strong opposition.
2: unlike other things that any reasonable person can be angry about, telemarketing is horribly uncomfortable to really contemplate the extent of in the world. So it’s relaxing to vent about, because the personal inability to really change the situation doesn’t matter (unlike, say, Florida losing track of a thousand or so kids in the child “protective” services’ “care”, or the surprising number of people who are so twisted up that they think killing thousands of strangers is a perfectly great idea, where the personal inability to markedly change the situation is profoundly uncomfortable to contemplate).
Me, I just don’t like the phone all that much. You’ve got this device sitting in your home, that at any time will just start screaming for attention, and you’re supposed to drop everything and run to do so because it might be important for once. I’m sometimes amazed they got such a large market share before such things as answering machines existed.
Rather, telemarketing is not horribly uncomfortable to contemplate the extent of. I like how much a sentence can hinge on a single word.
Aside from the telemarketing hijack, sorry about life not exactly being roses at the moment.
Old story goes that once there was a king who tasked an advisor to produce something that would make him smile when things were bad, and frown when things were good. The advisor retuned the next day with a ring, engraved with the motto “this too shall pass.”
I was told by telemarketers to just hang up without saying anything so they can get onto the next call quicker. This is what I do so am I being helpful or rude?
Some times the call is from a survey company and I do not consider that telemarketing and I like to help those people so I don’t want to not answer unavailable calls.
The ones that actually get to me are the ones that claim I won something. I warn them up front that if this is not the case and they are wasting my time then I will waste theirs. They always go on and almost always it is a scam. So I ask many, many questions then sign up for the product. I then give a bogus credit card number and address. This might be considered scummy but I warned them upfront that if they wasted my time, I would waste theirs!
JamesCarroll and Fenris, you both need to just go off somewheres and fuck yourselves. What the fuck it wrong with you people? This board is used as a way to vent, right (we are in the pitt, no?)? So, let the girl vent. She’s feeling bad, she wanted to get things off her chest and appologize to people she can’t appologize in real life to, and you’re going to call her shit.
You two are filth. Fuck you both.
As for Angel, I understand about the having a job that sucks. We all have to get them at some point in your life. It’s not right for people to get pissed at you simply for doing your job, but as these two afformentioned posters pointed out, there’s a lot of hotheaded fucks out there that use any opportunity they can get to take their aggression and frustration out on others they can’t see or interract with because they’re too scared to deal with people in person. You’ve done nothing wrong, you don’t need to appologize, and you shouldn’t get upset about this. It’s their own problems, you just happen to catch them at the wrong time. Let them deal with their own issues and get on with your life.
As for eveything else, only appologize for your own fuck ups. There’s a lot you have to offer this world, and if someone gets upset with you because you can’t offer them something specific, well then, that’s their fault. They can find it somewhere else without making you feel like shit. You don’t need to be appologetic for who you are. Unless you’re a bastard, but enough people here like you, and so far you haven’t said anything to piss me off, so I think you’re okay. Be proud of who you are and don’t let problems of strangers effect you.
I don’t think it’s fair to put JamesCarrol and Fenris in the same category. Fenris only ranted about telemarketers and provided reasons why he dislikes them. He qualified his remarks by saying he was not attacking her personally, and that in fact he likes her, and is sorry for her misfortune. That’s different than JamesCarrol, who basically told her everything is her own fault and deserves to be told to fuck off.
#1. Homebrew: It’s wonderful that you have no sick or elderly people in your life so you can choose to just ignore the phone. Those of us who aren’t so fortunate, however, MUST answer the phone when it rings and it’s an unidentified caller. #2. Golly. The Red Elvis thinks I’m filth just because I’m using the Board as a way to vent. If she’s feeling bad about harassing people then that’s a GOOD thing. If one is feeling bad about doing something wrong, then the proper thing for friends to do is to urge the person to stop doing the wrong thing, not telling her it’s ok to keep doing it.
And jeepers! “too scared to deal with people in real life?”, “go fuck yourself”? “She was just venting” [and so is immune from any criticism]? Wow! You must have gone all-out and purchased the Big Book of Pit-Cliches. I hope you got the annotated edition to help you with all those confusing big words.
But I’ve apparently lost your respect. How ever will I survive?
:: weeps openly ::
And Xan? “Just trying to make a buck”? You didn’t finish the sentence “Just trying to make a buck by harassing others.”
If she gets a job that doesn’t negatively impact my life, I’ll consider it “just trying to make a buck”.
Would you say the same thing (“just trying to make a buck”) if she was purse-snatching or holding people up in darkened alleys?
Like I said. I’ve got nothing against Angel as a person, but II’ll be damned if I validate her disgusting job simply because I like her.
Fenris, okay, I jumped the gun, I applogize. I see you’ve got nothing personal about AOL, and I missed that the first time around. I read your rant more as a personal attack, I’ve reread it, and I see where I fucked up. I appologize again for my mistake.
I have read, and trembled with disgust, at the responses that some folks are making to the OP. Here is the thing people, there is no reason for us to abandon courtesy!
In the OP, it was made quite clear that she hates being a telemarketer and does not want to disturb people, she is obviously feeling down and (some) of you folk feel the need to kick her. Pretty fucking lame.
Do I hate being called by telemarketers? You bet! That said, I never abandon simple polite discourse. “I am sorry, but this household never responds to telephone solicitations, please put me on the do not call list” followed by hanging up always does the trick. I get perhaps 2 calls a month.
I’m not being facetious when I say that, yes, I’m grateful that there is noone who is in a position of reliance on me so that I must answer every call. Whether you meant it sarcastically or not, I do appreciate you pointing out one of the life’s gifts that I can be thankful about.
JamesCarroll… that was just weird. Normally I’d discount a post like that as an attention hound troll, but the rego says you’ve been around a few years. So what did you hope to accomplish? Do you always assume the very worst about someone? If your reaction to everthing is along the lines of your rant here you must lead a very lonely life.
If you’re just being a troll, I apologise to everyone else for feeding you, but again, if you’ve been hanging around the board since 1999 and just pop up every now and again to troll, well… what I said about a lonely life.
Dammit, how DARE you be gracious in the face of me being pissy?
I was all prepared for a flame-war and you were all nice and everything!
Ya bum!
Anyway, apology accepted and ::shakes hands:: no hard feelings?
Homebrew: there was a bit of a snarky tone in my earlier post. I’m in that situation right now and every time the phone rings, I jump a little, and every time it’s “Out of Area” or “Caller Unknown” I get a sinking feeling in the Pit of my stomach.
I just have to chime in with a hearty “fuck off” to JamesCarroll..
While I don’t exactly enjoy receiving telemarketing calls, the rudest I’ll get is: “No thanks, I’m not interestedclick.” Hope you feel better about things, Angel.
Oh c’mon, FEN. You know this doesn’t make any sense. Your time is your own, and your phone is your own. A ringing phone doesn’t remove your choice to answer it or not, any more than if you bend down to pick up a fiver on the street the person leaving it there “stole” the time you decided to invest in reaching down. There is no theft of your time; there is only you choosing to invest that two seconds in picking up the phone prior to slamming it back down. And the phone is obviously not being stolen, either. The actual instrument remains in your house (unlike the lawn mower in your example) and serves as a convenience for you. People who make it ring no more “steal” it than they steal your door by knocking on it.
The fact of the matter is there is no perfect way to screen calls, any more than there’s a perfect way to screen e-mails. You can put a peephole in your door and see who’s standing out there, but if it’s a harmless looking person with no identifying features, you still don’t know who he is or what he wants.
If you want to be perfectly “undisturbed” in your home, rip out yoru phone, bar the door, and dig a moat. If you say “I can’t,” I say: Of course you can. So realize you are choosing to risk some disturbance (if only the occasional wrong number) by having a phone just as those who call you are choosing to risk disturbing you. It’s just that you value your right to quiet enjoyment of your property more highly than their right to earn a living. They, not surprisingly, do not.
Telemarkets may not be considered the cream of our society, and with very good reason – I think those who choose to annoy people for a living take their chances on the reactions they will get. But they’re not the anti-Christ, either.
Good God. I don’t like getting calls from telemarketers either. Then again, I don’t like the guy at the drive-through asking “Would you like to supersize that?” each and every time I order a Big Mac meal. So maybe I should call him lots of nasty names, berate him for working the only job available to him, and generally make him feel even shittier than he already might. Because that JUST MIGHT SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
You’re performing a LEGAL job. It may not be the best job in the world, but you’re hardly devoting your life to it. No one has to approve of it, and unless you are rude, insulting, or threatening, you don’t deserve to be treated like shit. I suppose you could go on public assistance, then people could rip you for stealing their tax money.
Hang in there. Two months will pass, and you’ll find better work in the future, and hopefully you’ll remember how tough this time was, and use that experience in dealing compassionately with other folk.
And: Smart move to lose the boyfriend. Now, you need to draw some boundaries and don’t let him dump on you. And as far as the world, don’t be afraid to take a break. Give yourself some you-time, whatever that means (bookstore, chocolate, hike, etc). You need it, and you deserve it as much as anyone else.
Hang in there. You’ll get through this.
Fenris, I’m sorry to hear that you are having to deal with the stress of illness in the family. It has to be hard, and I think I know that feeling in the Pit of the stomach all too well. You hang in there too.
~karol
Problem with this analogy is that you chose to go to McDonalds for your meal, and you chose to purchase a Big Mac meal knowing full well that the guy would ask about supersizing it. That’s way different than just sitting at home minding your own business, and being interrupted by a telemarketer.
It may be legal, but her job entails intruding on people’s lives, she chose it because it pays well, she will just have to live with the crap along with the bucks. Don’t take it personal, Angel, because it never really is.
Good freakin’ Lord! Then I suppose it’s a good thing it’s illegal to attack door-to-door salesmen with a baseball bat, huh?
If the fear of breaking the law is the only thing keeping you from deliberately and maliciously assaulting someone just for annoying you, then you’ve got bigger problems than telemarketers.
Fenris, you are a good bloke, so I’m a little alarmed at your reaction. I’m thinking the vast majority of telemarketers are either students looking for a summer job (so they can actually afford to go to school and get a “real” job) or people who never had the chance or the desire to get a good education. I’m sure there aren’t any 9 year olds out in the world proudly bragging about how they plan to be a telemarketer. I’m sure in high school their dearest dreams and sweetest desires were not to become phone salesmen. I’m sure they weren’t overjoyed when they realized that the only thing they were qualified for, the only place that would hire them, or the only career that would allow them the flexiblity they needed due to school, family issues, or health problems was telemarketing.
Perhaps you should redirect your anger away from the people who need the money for bills, food, and rent (and the benefits) to the companies that decide the best way to sell their product through telemarketing. I’m currently having troubles with both the local newspapers—I don’t blame the people calling me, I blame the fucknuggets who hired them in the first place.
Or maybe I’m speaking out of my ass and the people are cold heartless motherfuckers one step removed from the Antichrist whose fondest desire is to harass people and get paid for it.
Oh shit! A horrible realization just hit me! OH MY GOD, I am evil incarnate, the true person you should all be pissed at.
I’m a statistician and the last company I worked for was a company that major newspapers used to consult with. We did many, many things and one of them is what I just horribly realized…
We would recommend that the newspapers call every non subscriber in the community every 3 months. This was because our research (which I did) indicated that this brought in more subscribers without creating negative effects from calling too much.
Oh my God, I am scum. I am the source of telemarketing evil. I’m going to slink into a hole now. Does it help that I haven’t worked there for two years??
(((((Angel of the Lord))))) - I don’t have any great advice - I just wanted to let you know that your cared about and to hang in there. Things will get better, you’ll see :).
