# Telemarketer haters should suck it up **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 13, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334 "2005-12-13T00:05:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/41 "2005-12-13T04:05:44Z")
Well, fucked up that link somehow. I swear I didn’t hire any telemarketers to bring you that witty and money-saving offer. :smack: Well let’s try it again. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2826351&postcount=18](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2826351&postcount=18) ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/42 "2005-12-13T04:09:48Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Well, your example is tresspassing. Legally speaking there’s nothing against the law about making a phone call (except for the Do Not Call List.) Right, agreed. My point there was that just because you get something for your own use and choose to allow others to use it does not mean you intend open it up for the general public. How about the main point I was responding to: Do you consent to a heavy breather? > [@](#): > > And until there is people need to quit bitching. Why? There’s no law against bitching. Or are you on principle supportive of unwanted sales pitches because it is fundamental to business practices? Don’t like my dislike of it? Tough fucking shit. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/43 "2005-12-13T04:17:34Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Well, if someone comes to your front door to sell you something, you don’t scream obscenities at them, act rudely, blow a bullhorn at them, or like behavior. Actually, I do. My general request for the world at large is to leave me the fuck alone. If I want to buy something, I’ll go looking for it. Any attempt to impinge on my private time or life will will be met with, at the very least, outright hostility. It will escalate from there. Anybody who tries to sell me something at my door, be it vacuum cleaners of Jesus, is going to get dealt with in a very unfriendly manner. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/44 "2005-12-13T04:20:53Z")
> [@davenportavenger](#): > > Do you also torment wage slaves at McDonald’s? Because from where I sit, it is the exact same fucking thing. It WOULD be the exact same fucking thing if McDonald’s wave slaves came over and kept knocking on my door. “Do you want a Big Mac?” “How about some McNuggets?” “Fries?” “Coke?” “How about now?” And if they did that, I absolutely would torment them as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/45 "2005-12-13T04:21:31Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > vacuum cleaners of Jesus Band name! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/46 "2005-12-13T04:22:46Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > It WOULD be the exact same fucking thing if McDonald’s wave slaves came over and kept knocking on my door. “Do you want a Big Mac?” “How about some McNuggets?” “Fries?” “Coke?” “How about now?” > > And if they did that, I absolutely would torment them as well. Torment? I’d fucking shoot them in the McNuggets. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/47 "2005-12-13T04:23:39Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Sales is a real job by the way, deal with it. Telemarketing and sales are not the precisely the same thing. If I see an advertisment in the newspaper or online and call some company, and they offer me a product that’s sales, but it’s not telemarketing. In that situation, they _aren’t_ bugging a total stranger in his home; they are dealing with someone who called _them_ and expressed an interest. In other words, despising telemartketers doesn’t make you anticapitalist/antijob any more than disliking tyrants makes you an anarchist. Telemarketing is a special case of sales, just as tyranny is a special case of governance. > [@Martin Hyde](#): > > A sales pitch isn’t discourteous. It has a long history in the United States stretching back to the door-to-door salesman and is in general an accepted practice. Such people have _always_ been regarded as jerks, to my knowledge. > [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Do you also take baseball bats and bullhorns to girl scouts trying to sell cookies? No, as a rule I don’t beat up little girls. Besides, I feel sorry for them; I regard having children sell things door to door as exploitation, bordering on abuse. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/48 "2005-12-13T04:24:21Z")
I have to disagree with the OP. I myself worked as a telemarketer for more than a year in the late 80’s, and would have to say that most of those working there, including myself, were not scum. I met some really interesting people there. I can’t speak for any of my co-workers, but I myself knew that what I was doing was wrong. Maybe only slighly wrong, but it was still wrong. The worst was we had to call people at 8 am on Saturday. I felt so bad about that, because I really hate waking people, and I hate selling things, and so can imagine my feelings towards waking people up to sell them things. I remember a few funny things about that job. First, we called every number. If there was an exchange 555-xxxx, we started with 555-0000 and went on up. People would get outraged and couldn’t imagine how we possibly got their number, since they paid money to keep it private. They never could grasp that when you get a private number, it is your name on the number that is secret, not the number itself. Secondly, we always called long-distance. Strangely enough, we could call long distance cheaper than we could call local. So when people yelled at us that they were going to come over here and kick our asses, we always laughed at them. Thirdly, there is a lot of fun you can have with people on the phone. I won’t go into details, because now that I think of them, I realize that we really were complete jerks. Hey, but we were in high-school, what do you expect? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/49 "2005-12-13T04:24:49Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Sales is a real job by the way, deal with it. I am in sales and you insult the entire damned profession by calling what telemarketers do “sales.” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/50 "2005-12-13T04:33:56Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > That’s fine, some of us will move on and be rational, polite human beings. Some people will behave like cave men and neanderthals. I see you prefer the latter, that’s a personal choice. Although I must say it reflects quite badly on you. So, referring to me as a “cave man” or a “neanderthal”…is this an example of the “common courtesy” you so persistantly promote? Or are you just a hypocritical jackass? > [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Sales is a real job by the way, deal with it. I’ve no problem with people who sell for a living…from a sales floor, or by appointment. And informed salesperson can provide a very valuable service in helping the customer select a product that is most appropriate to their need. In my capacity as an engineer I often have to deal with professional salespeople and manufacturer’s reps; they guys who go through the purchasing agent or mail me their promotional materials may get a call back if I need their services. If they go to the effort of putting together a letter and package inquiring about our needs I’ll usually give them a call back, even if I don’t need their products, just to give feedback. But they guy who slams my e-mail with spam or leaves unwanted voicemail every week ain’t never getting called, even if I need what he has to offer and his competitor has a higher bid. And the jokers who man the phones at telemarketing companies can hardly be referred to as salesmen in any professional sense; calling me at work or in mid-meal to read to me from a script, trying to convince me to buy some product or subscribe to some magazine I didn’t ask about and don’t need isn’t good salesmanship; it’s unmitigated bloody rudeness, on the order of an proselyting born-again evangelist. As I said, like begets like. And any time you want to stop insulting and falsely attributing arguments to people who disagree with your viewpoints, I’ll start to give your argument the credence it deserves. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/51 "2005-12-13T04:34:46Z")
I’ve jsut purchased an answering machine and find it stops the marketers. All my friends speak and leave a message and I get hang ups, which I assume are telemarketers. By the way, in the past year or 2, all the telemarket calls I’ve gotten were recorded. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/52 "2005-12-13T04:46:43Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I disagree that it was ever an “accepted” practice. From what I’ve read, door-to-door salesmen were just as despised in their day as telemarketers are in ours. Yes, they were, and they were replaced by telemarketers, who are annoying but aren’t able to look inside your house while they’re annoying you. Door-to-door salesmen were also understood to be one of the things we put up with in a free society. Perhaps someday “anticipate the objection” will have the same place in our language as “get your foot in the door.” ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/53 "2005-12-13T05:11:25Z")
> [@davenportavenger](#): > > Do you also torment wage slaves at McDonald’s? Because from where I sit, it is the exact same fucking thing. You are Soooo right. And just last night, when a pimple-faced boy drove a take-out window into my livingroom and asked me if I wanted fries with that, I tortured the hell out of him. Felt great. ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/54 "2005-12-13T05:43:51Z")
> [@Farmwoman](#): > > You are Soooo right. And just last night, when a pimple-faced boy drove a take-out window into my livingroom and asked me if I wanted fries with that, I tortured the hell out of him. Felt great. Are you kidding? I would love that. How many times I have sat in my house, late at night, wanting some fries or some food I’ve seen on tv, and not wanting to go drive for it. I would be happy to have that young man knock! Door service! ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/55 "2005-12-13T06:41:48Z")
> [@Good Egg](#): > > Are you kidding? I would love that. How many times I have sat in my house, late at night, wanting some fries or some food I’ve seen on tv, and not wanting to go drive for it. I would be happy to have that young man knock! Door service! Mmmm! Wendy’s Let me clue the OP in; I work from home. I have a standard office phone in my “office” complete with a drop line. I’m in sales, mainly for aeronautical spares and consumables. I get almost no call telemarketer calls on my main laine, but litterally a half a dozen of calls each day on my drop line. Guess what dipshit, I have to go see each and every, mother, fucking, time, the phone rings, on, a, two, line, mother, fucking, phone, I, pay, for. Fuck, that, shit. Biattchh!!! Not only that, I sometimes put a legitimate call on hold while I have to deal with these bottom feeders. They deserve what ever scorn I feel like dishing out. I do NOT pay for this phone to answer calls from a autodailer or some semi-illetrate asswipe who can’t get a better job. Another poster nailed it, my phone is for MY USE! I did not order a phone for some prick in an office center to try and sell me over priced toner without vaseline to ease the delivery. Nor should I have to screen my calls (which I can’t ) to avoid some head in ass-over-talking-me-moron, while I’m awaiting legitimate business calls to come my way. You and the telemarketers can lick my hairy black ass!!! Want some fries with _that_ Dipshit!!! ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/56 "2005-12-13T07:15:52Z")
Mmmmmm. Hairy black ass. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/57 "2005-12-13T08:13:32Z")
Allow me to comment on the McDonald’s analogy? Please? Meh, I’m going to any. When I hit Mickey Dee’s, I order the food I want and scarf it down. I either give up most of my lunch break to eat in the store, or just live on the wild side and accept whatever the prison-release drive through worker decides to throw in the bag. Sometimes it ain’t pretty, but I’m still kicking. The important thing to understand is that I make the choice to order from them. I choose to order food from them. They don’t call me at whatever hour they wish to ask if I need an apple pie with that. If I don’t actually go to the store, it’s pretty fucking obvious I don’t desire their service. Same with Pizza Hut, Pappa John’s, Sears, the Elks, the Benevolent Order of all All That is Benevolent, etc. The same applies to telemarketers. Now here is a serious question to anyone defending these people. Don’t fucking ignore this. I want some answers. I don’t want you calling me. Why is that so offensive to you? Again, care to list your phone number here? We, as Dopers, promise to call before 9am. Just list your number, we have some coffee mugs to sell. It may generate enough revenue to eliminate the ads. YOU HAVE A PHONE, YOU MUST WANT CALLS!!! We don’t want the calls. We don’t need the calls. And if it’s simply a matter of blocking the calls, or not answering them, you have no reason to avoid giving your home number. Just don’t answer the ringing phone. Seems pretty simple. Sac up and follow what you’re saying here, punks. Turn off the phone between 9am and 9pm. It’s what you’re asking of us, you should be able to do the same. You’ll never have to hear from us. Oh, that’s right. You don’t want useless calls. I understand how an unanswered ringing phone can be annoyng, but that’s only a curse us lesser’s have to endure. You telemarketing geniuses don’t give a shit about that. You’re to the point of telling us scumbags to let the answering machine take the call. There’s a problem with that, too. Though you may need a thousand bells upside your head to get close to figuring it out. Maybe we don’t want your shit calls clogging up the machine. I know I don’t want to get home to 15 calls to wade through to get to the 4 that I want to hear. I focus more on the 11 that are wasting my time. Why? The entire message has to play before I can delete it. Oh, dear God please tell me it’s my fault for having a phone system that doesn’t allow for instant deletion. Please tell me this is somehow my fault. You shitstains did before in numerous threads, I just want confirmation. I’m finding myself agreeing with other poster’s to the point of **Miller** having a magical night if we ever meet. And it sickens me that that poster’s I normally agree with taking a stance that my home isn’t a place of respite. Yes, I own a phone. Yes, it’s subject to douchebags calling my unpublished number. And yes, I am allowed to be a complete prick to anyone calling my home number when I pay an extra charge to keep the number private. It’s not hard to figure out the number. It’s 7 digits in my area code. An auto-dialer can easily find it given enough time. The fact I have the number unlisted and unpublished should tell you something, though. The fact I pay extra money to have the number kept from the public realm should tell you something. I don’t give a shit if you’re the Virgin Mary. If you didn’t get my name from the phone book, the number is off-limits. And if you happen to get my home phone ringing through your slime-bag tactics, you have no cause to bitch about what I might say to you if you try to keep me on the line for more than 10 seconds. It’s my phone, I pay the bill, I’ll say whatever the fuck I want to on it. WAIT!!! Before you tele-fucks finish your response, keep in mind it’s all bullshit without your home number in the response. Of course, you won’t do it. You’ll come up with a myriad of reasons, including privacy and and the desire to not have your phone ring at all hours. ( **NOTE** ) We’ll only call between 9am and 9pm local time. Please include your time zone. You won’t do it will you? Any of you pricks defending telemarketers can shut the fuck up if you don’t give us the digits. You won’t, so you lost. Scored. Punks. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/58 "2005-12-13T13:06:02Z")
> [@](#): > > you’d think these wage slaves were on the level with serial rapists or puppy molesters Actually sometimes they are, prison work programs sometimes use inmates for telemarketing. A hint is they will transfer you to someone else if a sale is going to happen or any personal info is to be exchanged (so the inmate doesn’t get it which would be a PR nightmare). ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/59 "2005-12-13T14:23:19Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You have an interesting concept of what consent means. And by “interesting,” I mean “stupid.” Great comeback. With this level of intelligence I’m not surpised you can’t muster more than namecalling to defend your position. > [@](#): > > Explain to me, please, how harassing people by telephone is “offering” something to society. Obviously if they are in business they are offering something to someone that buys it. Telemarketing makes money. That means someone, somewhere, is buying what they are selling. If you can’t grasp that and simply think it’s “stupid,” just let me know and I’ll use smaller words next time. > [@](#): > > I fully support the right to people with all sorts of disabilites to work. But if the only job someone is capable of performing is telemarketing, then yes, they’re better off on welfare. That’s why we have it: so that those on the bottom rungs of society can survive without having to resort to unethical or illegal practices. And telemarketing is entirely unethical. It’s not something you do if you have the smallest sliver of consideration for other people. It’s great that you think your desire to not be offered products and services by phone outweighs the right of someone to have a job. These people may have very few (or no) other job options but since you don’t want to be bothered to let the answering machine pick up your phone, they have to go on welfare instead. Sorry, but I don’t think your desire for a little more convenience in your life is worth the trade off of depriving people with disabilities of a job. As far as this whole debate goes, it seems it’s just another sign of a culture of spoiled brats. "We don’t like to be inconvenienced, " they whine. Boo fucking hoo. Life is full of inconveniences. I deal with a hundred of inconveniences and annoying people daily. That’s life. Get over it. I’m not egotistical enough to think that all of them should be eliminated. I’m enough of an adult to realize that, hey, life isn’t perfect. Sometimes you have to put up with people who are annoying. Sometimes you have to answer the phone and tell the girl that, “no, I don’t want to switch to MCI.” I fail to see how that should ruin my day. If something that simple would ruin my day it would seem to me that I have bigger issues than simply dealing with telemarketers. Get over it, grow up – life ain’t perfect. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334/60 "2005-12-13T14:36:51Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s great that you think your desire to not be offered products and services by phone outweighs the right of someone to have a job. I think I could get some dopers to pay me to call your house in the middle of the night. Post your phone number or you are denying me gainful employment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketer-haters-should-suck-it-up/335334.md?page=4)