I moved out of state and needed a quick job, so I got in to telemarketing (which is much, much worse than even I thought it would be). In our one week training session, I learned quite a bit about the laws made to protect consumers. So a month or two after I quit, I got bored and typed up a little guide, just for you guys. Go ahead and check it out at http://members.home.com/qoncept1/telemarketing.html and let me know what you think. Its a little rough since I had forgotten a lot by then, but there are a few things you really should know.
Thanks for that informative link, qoncept. It’s nice to hear it from the horse’s mouth. In case any of our fellow dopers haven’t seen it yet, the column to which you refer can be found on-line at Is there any surefire way to stop telemarketing calls?.
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Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link kindly provided by my fellow moderator, and all-around great guy, Chronos.
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Thank you for the information. Are you sure the correct phrase is “non-rebuttal state?” I did a search for that expression using the Google search engine and couldn’t find any matches.
I’m not really sure what a law would call the non-rebuttal states, but thats what they called them at APAC. (APAC == All People Are Customers - yeah right.)
As I posted in another thread somewhere, I work for a company that does surveys - NOT telemarketing, since we’re not after your cash, but a lot of people get us confused. I just wanted to point out that the laws mentioned by qoncept (BTW, I may be the only one that understands the name) apply only to telemarketers, so don’t be surprised or offended if someone calls to do a survey and doesn’t comply with all that.
Why? What does it mean?
Well, I may be making connections that aren’t there, but where I work, we use Quancept software to run the scripts read by the interviewers. I’m assuming there’s a connection.
Smeghead, while I appreciate the point you’re making about the difference between “telemarketers” and “telepollers”, and the legal distinctions, for most of us on the receiving end the difference is moot. An unsolicited phone call from a stranger to interrupt us is still an annoyance, by whatever name.
Oh, sure. Absolutely. No argument here. My purpose here was merely to explain why there are people out there that aren’t obeying these laws - they don’t apply to everyone.