# Telemarketers deserve death... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 30, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687 "2003-01-30T19:36:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Ash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b3f665/32.png) [@Dragon\_Ash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Ash)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/1 "2003-01-30T19:36:42Z")
… and this is only further proof. [You thought we hated telemarketers now, wait 'til you read this…](http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=business&cat=advertising_and_marketing_news) I can post links here, right? ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/2 "2003-01-30T20:00:03Z")
Gee, telemarketers are sleazy assholes, I am SHOCKED!, fuck 'em I say let them go and get real jobs. unclviny ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/3 "2003-01-30T20:10:39Z")
I don’t really agree with what the telemarketers are doing here, but I have to say, some people on this board have been such complete jerks to me that I kind of hope that the lawsuit is successful just out of spite. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/4 "2003-01-30T20:15:48Z")
You mean because you’re too much of an unclefucker to get a job that doesn’t involve harassing people? ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/5 "2003-01-30T20:19:48Z")
\I am not a telemarketer, but I am in the marketing business.\ I don’t think anyone expected the telemarketers to let the feds set up a national “do not call” list without opposing it in some way. They’ll likely try to drag this out for as long as they can so that they can delay the impact this will have on their business. In any case, look into whether your state has its own “do not call” list. I signed up for the NY state list at the end of last year, and the calls have pretty much stopped. You-Didn’t-Ask-But-I’m-Telling-You-Anyway Dept.: Increasing telemarketing fines, brought about by state “do not call” violations and other consumer complaints, have really started to suck the profitability out of the outbound telemarketing business. I’m seeing quite a few marketers, who have traditionally depended on outbound telemarketing as a cornerstone of their business, shift funds from telemarketing to other direct marketing media. What does this mean to you? The number of calls might decrease, but you might get more junk mail and spam in your e-mail inbox. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/6 "2003-01-30T20:21:21Z")
I have to say this: I normally give the “eh, screen your calls- I never get telemarketing calls!” speech, but since my move and new phone number, I have a satellite service locally that calls and leaves me a goddamned voice mail on my Bellsouth voice messaging system! So now when they call, I have to go and retrieve the damned message and delete it- naturally they kept calling. I called back three times and left a message to be removed from their calling list, and I think it finally took. I let them know that I was recording their messages with date and time stamps and would be persuing legal action if they didn’t stop harassing me. Unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/7 "2003-01-30T20:27:16Z")
I just don’t understand how these compaines make money. What we really need to do it take every person that actually buys things from them, put them on an island with telephones in every room, and the problem will go away. I mean, [sinefeld]who are these people[/sinefeld]? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/8 "2003-01-30T20:29:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*You mean because you’re too much of an unclefucker to get a job that doesn’t involve harassing people? \*\* Ooh, ow, you clever beast. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/9 "2003-01-30T20:48:12Z")
My sister was a telemarketer for about six months, was always very friendly, easily let folks off the line and made TONS of sales. (windows and siding). While even she admits that a few calls and procedures made her oogy and she isn’t proud of having to take the job… I don’t think she deserves DEATH. No. ---
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Ash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b3f665/32.png) [@Dragon\_Ash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Ash)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/10 "2003-01-30T20:53:02Z")
jarbabyj - she doesn’t deserve death only because the saw the evil of her ways after six months 😃 Seriously - why did she quit if she was making TONS of sales? Or does “TONS of sales” not necessarily equate to “tons of salary”? ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/11 "2003-01-30T21:53:39Z")
Someone…can we countersue??? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/12 "2003-01-30T22:32:51Z")
I especially love this bit: > [@](#): > > In the suit, the DMA and four telemarketing firms said the FTC’s effort would violate free-speech laws and discriminate against an industry that provides millions of jobs. Um, hi, constitutional scholars in the telemarketing industry? May I introduce you to a little something called the Commerce Clause? You may be familiar with it, it gives Congress the power to regulate your activities when you engage in interstate commerce by, say, sending your voice through wires across state lines. The First Amendment doesn’t guarantee you the right to an audience. I love this bit too: > [@](#): > > But telemarketers say 27 existing state do-not-call lists and a voluntary national list run by the Direct Marketing Association trade group should provide consumers enough protection. So a federal law would violate the First, but the state laws don’t? May I introduce you scholars to a constitutional doctrine called “incorporation”? Since the First Amendment has been applied to state action through the auspices of the Fourteenth, shouldn’t you be yipping like annoying dogs about those? Oh, and I like the dire prediction that other forms of advertising might be next. The horror! The horror! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/13 "2003-01-30T23:12:31Z")
Not that I have any great love for telemarketers (For purposes of disclosure, I sold siding over the phone for two months. I sucked at it, didn’t get any sales and was fired), but why is it so terrible they’re suing? This law is going to negatively affect them and they think it’s unfair, and unconstitutional to single them out. This just doesn’t seem that terrible an action to me. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/14 "2003-01-31T00:11:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dragon Ash \* > \*\*jarbabyj - she doesn’t deserve death only because the saw the evil of her ways after six months 😃 > > Seriously - why did she quit if she was making TONS of sales? Or does “TONS of sales” not necessarily equate to “tons of salary”? \*\* She quit because she was in college and she needed to go back to school. When you only have three months in the summer to work and you need to make a lot of money, telemarketing is an easy job to get. She got so much fucking abuse from people like you who thought it was so fucking funny to rip her to shreds as if she made up the rules of her business. She was twenty years old and needed to pay for an apartment, bills and school. Like I said, it wasn’t her favorite job, and she never sang it’s praises, but she got up every day and trudged herself there to do it. And I’m sure someone here would have had equal disdain for her had she sat home and ‘freeloaded’ off of my parents. No, she didn’t make a great salary, but she made enough to pay her bills. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/15 "2003-01-31T00:17:16Z")
There are the ones that call and hang up when you don’t answer - fine with me. However, now we get the ones that let our machine answer and then say “Hello Dooku? Yo! Pick up! It’s me! Are you there?” I don’t care how many miles in the snow they had to trudge to get to work, that behavior is execrable. Lucky for me they always say my full first name, a dead giveaway. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/16 "2003-01-31T00:31:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*You mean because you’re too much of an unclefucker to get a job that doesn’t involve harassing people? \*\* Hold on a sec… you say _he’s_ harassing _you_? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/17 "2003-01-31T00:55:28Z")
> [@](#): > > She got so much fucking abuse from people like you who thought it was so fucking funny to rip her to shreds as if she made up the rules of her business. She was twenty years old and needed to pay for an apartment, bills and school. Like people have said before in this thread. The fact that you need a job does not mean we have to put up with people calling us on our phones to try and sell us crap we do not want. Telemarketing calls take up our time without giving us any benefits. Telemarketers are stealing little pieces of our lives at best and are talking people into buy junk through dubious business practices at worst. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/18 "2003-01-31T01:09:52Z")
and saying they deserve ‘death’ and calling them lazy unclefuckers is appropriate? ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/19 "2003-01-31T01:09:52Z")
> [@](#): > > She got so much fucking abuse from people like you who thought it was so fucking funny to rip her to shreds as if she made up the rules of her business. She was twenty years old and needed to pay for an apartment, bills and school. Part of the job. She needs to learn to deal if she’s gonna do an annoying job like that. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687/20 "2003-01-31T01:24:37Z")
Personally, I don’t think the telemarketers have a leg to stand on this lawsuit, which is why it is fine with me that they brought it on. After they lose, I think it will open the door for more regulation of telemarketing practices. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketers-deserve-death/151687.md?page=2)