So let me get this straight. After you receive a message that states you are an unwanted call and instructs you, as a telephone solicitor, to hang up, you remain on the line to make a sale anyway? Mr2001, you are MY favorite kind of telemarketer. The kind that easily opens themselves up to harassment litigation. The Federal Government has enacted pretty severe punishments for this sort of behavior to try to keep you assholes legit. I know it doesn’t seem to be working, but just wait, you slime sucking, bottom feeding sack of pus, because word is getting out, and soon you fricking jerkwads will be as extinct as the Dodo, and not nearly as missed.
God Damn I hate telemarketers. Go get you a real job snotpicker. Like pimping or murder for hire. Ya know, something with a little dignity.
particlewill:
If someone wants to tell me in person “yes, I have contributed in the past but I have decided not to continue, please remove me from your list” or even “fuck off, phone spammer”, I’ll be glad to do that. But many people, especially previous customers, seem to consider us different from the average telemarketer.
“Thanks for contributing in the past, sir. Have you come to any of our shows at all?”
If someone wants to call that harrassment, he ought to get back in his padded room.
So I suppose the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, St. Vincent de Paul, 4-H, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts are all “illegit”? They contract with companies just like ours.
Not likely. Perhaps if you had the sense to deal with the calls correctly you wouldn’t have such a problem.
There is no reason for a legitimate business or charity to engage in phone solicitation. Period. Plenty of entrepreneurs have made healthy profits without bothering anybody. If the only way you can get people to buy what you’re selling is to harass them, maybe you should sell something better. As for charitable organizations, if anyone gives a rat’s ass about your cause, you should be able to find better ways of making yourself known.
The true purposes of telemarketing are to pressure feeble-minded people into buying things they don’t really want, and to make it easier to get away with fraud.
RoboDude:
No? So all of the organizations I mentioned are illegitimate? There are many more, just as well-known and respected: a few more examples are Veterans of Foreign Wars, Rotary Club, Lions Club, Eagles Club, American Cancer Society, MADD, SADD, Plannet Parenthood, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, Red Cross, and the YMCA.
Mr2001:
I have hung up on Red Cross solicitors, and would do it again in a minute. I donate blood fairly regularly, but I do it on my own time. I try to donate to local blood banks, and not the Red Cross, as their usage of telemarketing is NOT legitimate.
Same goes for the ACS, YMCA, and any other charities you listed. When possible, I do NOT donate to these charities, but rather, their local, non-telemarketing scum equivalents.
flymaster is right. i’ve worked for so-called ‘legitimate’ telemarketing scams. the percentage of money that goes to the actual organizations is tiny. maybe 2%. the rest goes to paying the telemarketing folks. there’s no way to dress it up, mr2001 - as a telemarketer, with the exception of your boss and hopefully your mom, you’re as useless and unwelcome to the fabric of society as nuclear waste. hopefully not as long-lasting, though (your job - not you personally).
zwaldd:
Depends which company you’re talking about. See the Washington Secretary of State’s report from last year.
It’d be going to pay for some kind of marketing anyway - TV commercials, radio commercials, direct mail, etc.
You can add the organization we call for to that list, as well as all the people who contribute - believe it or not, most of them are happy to do it.
Oh, and my dad. 