<h1>Wow.
One day I hope that the most stressful thing I have to deal with is an occassional unwanted phone call.
Only then will I take the time to plot ways to make the callers life as miserable as mine used to be before I attained this utopia.
As is telemarketing as an occupation doesn’t do that already.</h1>
Brian O’Neill
CMC International Records
www.cmcinternational.com
ICQ 35294890
AIM Scrabble1
Yahoo Messenger Brian_ONeill
I come from a telephone-company family, so I have picked up much telephone lore by osmosis. It’s impossible to do anything about the joker who hangs up when you answer the phone and say “hello?” instead of having the good manners to say, “Oh, I’m sorry, I got a wrong number,” and THEN hang up. And, here’s the flip side of soliciting by phone: I have worked telethons as a data-entry operator for the religious TV network TBN (although I do not agree with their religion’s creeds–that’s a long story). Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the callers are nice, and I try to be nice too–even when some are obviously hard-of-hearing or strangely inattentive on the phone. But there’s always that rare sorehead or crank who views the telethon as a forum for criticizing religion. When one such person, after insulting the program host in his absence, was clearly spoling for a verbal battle, I coldly informed him, "Sir, you are entitled to your opinion,"and quietly hung up. My point: I will not bite a telemarketer’s head off: it may be that this person is a shut-in, or crippled, or otherwise unable to do any other kind of work. I stand by this approach, the notions of some hotheads who have entered callous replies on it notwithstanding.
That is to say, Those who have entered callous replies on this message board notwithstanding.
Nickrz - have you ever been in the service field?
By this I include:
Waitstaff/barstaff/busboys
Customer Service (phone/email/inperson)
Checkout person of any variety
Bank Teller
Caller (survey/fundraising/telemarketing)
I think if you had, you would have a different attitude. I have done 3 of the 5 above jobs (to put myself through school, thank you) and I know what tremendous assholes people think they can be just because they’re holding the money.
I am a happy professional cube drone now, but I do not forget how jerky “customers” act. I give every working person the respect they deserve, even if this takes a moment out of my day. All I’m suggesting is that you do the same. As has been suggested, if not interested, I calmly say, “Thanks, I’m not interested, please take me off your list” I even hang up in the middle of a speech once the above has been said. but just calm the $@! down, would you!?
Clue in! A service person is more likely to help you if they are not being verbally assaulted. Plus, the person you are berating has practically no power to change the situation. Ask to speak with a supervisor if you’re so upset.
I just don’t understand your “shoot the messenger/ignore the cause” approach. How does that make the situation better?
Flame away, dissenters.
“Yeah, that’s a rational comparison.”
So in other words, it’s ok for somebody to annoy me if they’re “just doing their job”, but it’s not OK for me to provide a job to somebody if that job will annoy you. I think I understand now.
Rmariamp wrote, “A service person…”
A telemarketer is not “a service person”. Annoying me for their own personal gain is not a service. If I enter into a business relationship with someone of my own chosing, then they’re a service person, and I will treat them with all the respect in the world. I do not, ever, abuse people in the service industry.
(I don’t even abuse telemarketers. I’m just not going to be artificially friendly towards them).
All of the other examples you mentioned are cases where a customer voluntarily enters into a business relationship - i.e, grocery store clerk, bank teller, and so on. It’s an entirely different concept.
k0myers
Quote HelloKitty:
I’d hate to think of the criminals that get away because the cops are busy chasing after telemarketers! Surely the police department has more important things to follow up on. Your best route is asking to be removed from the calling lists. There really isn’t much the local police can do…believe me, it won’t stop the telemarketers from calling! Going through an attorney or contacting your state attorney general’s office is the best legal route to get you started if you are serious about pursuing it.
I said that nobody was on the line when the phone was answered. Hense I could not ask them not to call me. I was not getting my sleep, because the phone rang evry half hour on average. It’s hard to work when you fall asleep at your workstation. I don’t want to turn off the ringer, in case my mother has an emergency and needs help now. I have no problem when a telemarketer is on the other end of the line. I say “No thank you. Good bye.” and hang up immediately.
For falcon2: I called the phone company in the first place to tell them their phone tests were ringing my phone all the time, and to stop it. They assured me that they weren’t doing it, and that an automatic dialer for a telemarketer was the problem.
It seems to me the people who are defending the telemarketers are consistently and purposely confusing the one issue that means anything in this debate:
All the people you list, with the exception of the telephone users, are people I’M IN FRONT OF VOLUNTARILY. Therein lies the gist of this argument, and if you do not see the distinction, then you’re completely missing the point.
Bringing up the fact many people in public are rude jerks to the people serving them has no bearing on the matter, either. That’s saying two wrongs make a right.
I agree fully with Nickrz last post. I go to places or call places of business that have hired someone to help me. Everybody wants to conduct business with the other. Telemarketers call you at home. They want to do business, you don’t. They invade your personal abode where you want to relax and be left alone.
No, actually, you don’t. For one thing, you seem to take telemarketing awfully personally, as if there are scads of firms out there all thinking, “Hey, let’s all call up k0myers and bother him at home.” I certainly seem to be able to tell telemarketers I’m not interested and to take me off their “call” lists without fraking out about it. In fact, I can’t even remember the last telemarketing call I got.
For another, there is an obvious difference between phone calls to individuals and a blaring public message over a loudspeaker that should be clear to anyone who is not dead.
Finally, I’m still wondering who conferred upon you the right to decide who may and may not have what job.
And therein, I think, lies the source of the difference of opinion. You’re lucky, Phil. I keep telling 'em to put me on their “no call” lists, but like locusts they come, one after the other. I’ve had as many as EIGHT telemarketing calls within a four hour spread. I am not exaggerating when I say I bet my household gets close to fifty or more such calls a month.
And yeah, I think that sometimes they ought to have some idea that they are going to be interrupting. There’s a pretty good bet that if you’re calling a home on a weekday night between, say, 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. you’re going to be interrupting either the dinner preparations or dinner itself. I get home from work – when I’m lucky – around 6 p.m., and on a school night that gives me about three hours to be with my younger kids before they have to go to bed. I’ve got better things to do with my time (dinner, help with homework, talk about the day’s events, etc.) then waste it answering the phone for a telemarketer. I resent the intrusion. I don’t think that just because I have a phone that means I ought to be fair game for constant intrusions that I didn’t ask for.
When I used to get such calls only once in a while I would be polite to them. Now I don’t even try, especially the ones that call up and call me by my first name, acting all nice and friendly at first, like maybe we know each other from someplace. And then there’s the asshole who called me about a month before Mother’s Day the first year my mother was dead: “Hello, Melin?” (sounding like a long-lost friend). Me: “Yes, hello?” “Hi Melin, how are you this evening?” “Fine, thanks” (me puzzled, but still not sure.) “Mother’s Day is coming up next month, Melin. Have you talked to your mother recently?” Stunned, I could only say “My mother died several months ago . . . .” What did I get? An “oh I’m sorry, excuse the call?” ANY kind of apology? Nope, just a “click” as the caller hung up. Not even goodbye.
Sorry, you won’t find a good word about a telemarketer from me. They could fall off the face of the earth tomorrow and I wouldn’t miss 'em.
-Melin
pldennison writes, “For another, there is an obvious difference between phone calls to individuals and a blaring public message over a loudspeaker…”
It’s a difference of degree, not of principle, in that a PA system bothers a lot of people at once, while cold calls bother a lot of people sequentially. They both bother people. And you seem to have carefully avoided answering the question.
pldennison also writes, “Finally, I’m still wondering who conferred upon you the right to decide who may and may not have what job.”
First, I never, as in not once, have claimed the right to decide what jobs these people can have. If you’re going to put words in my mouth, then there’s no hope of having a rational discussion. What I did say, is that if they’re rude to me, then don’t expect me to be artificially nice in return. I also said, their lack of jobs skills is not something I caused. The only person I ever knew who became a telemarketer spent all her time in school, as far as I could tell, polishing her fingernails, while I studied my ass off. Now I’m supposed to feel sorry for her because she can’t get a good job and has 3 kids? No dice. There are people in this world I feel genuinely sorry for, people who got dealt a really crappy hand in life through no fault of their own. But she’s not one of them.
k0myers
children, Children, CHILDREN!
Sheesh.
Can we agree on something? To wit:
#1 There is no good time to be called by a telemarketer(althought Holly’s situation is far worse than having dinner interrupted)
#2 The people who decide to use telemarketing in their company are scum of the earth and should be subjected to sleep deprivation by having their house called every half hour. (Now, if we could just get a phone number…)
#3 There is a gaping hole between being slightly rude and being abusive.
Now for some home truths (IMHO)
#1 Being abusive to a telemarketer is probably not going to make them change their profession.
#2 Even if you manage to get someone to quit, their company can probably find 20 more people to fill that position.
#3 If you managed to get every telemarketer to quit that you ever talked to, and no one else took their place, you would still probably not make a dent in the number of calls you get.
#4 Being mean to people makes them mean to other people, which goes on ad infinitum. If you are mean to someone, you are contributing to meanness pollution! :o (It does not make them reconsider the choices they have made in their life. OK, I’ve already said this but it bears repeating)
#5 Telemarketing exists because it is profitable. They probably only need one schlepp in hundreds or thousands of calls to make a profit. The only way to stop this evil ( 
) is to make it unprofitable.
Good Bloody Luck.
Or to make it against the law.
#6 Contrary to popular opinion, expressing your anger is not necessarily going to relieve your anger, it may make you fixate on the incident and blow it out of proportion. (Not that anything like that is going on here 
) The best thing to do is to say No, thank you, hang up and let it pass. (Of course, if you want to screw with them and vent - make very angry cat sounds MROWRRR - satisfying and mystifying at the same time)
And Phil
#7 You don’t think that they get their phone number out of the phone book, do you? If I were setting up such a system, I would either buy the numbers or auto-gen them. Having an unlisted phone number is only going to stop the local obscene phone callers, not the national ones.
Holly - if the three ring trick won’t work for you, may I suggest either telling critical people a code ring, e.g. ring once, hang up and then call back, or get a pager - then you can turn the phone off
Ok, I’ll admit I made up the “I’ll personally come and kill you” statement.
I always immediately say “I’m not interested” and hang up.
I would not be abusive to someone who had just interrupted an extremely personal climactic moment or anything like that. Really, I was just kidding.
Would it be at all possible to cease accusations/assumptions that people who become telemarketers have no other job skills?
Quoting myself:
“Ok, well, as a former telemarketing boob who has just landed an executive position due mostly to skills learned at my boobesque telemarketing job…”
Quoting myself again:
“2) In that so many people find telemarketers in general to be a despicable and disgusting offbreed, to make any money at it requires that you effectively employ powers of command persuasion simultaneously with customer service sensibility. Indeed, this is not the position for someone who is unemployable or fundamentally retarded.”
Why do I feel like the mommy all of a sudden? I shouldn’t have to say it twice, kids…but I will. (Using caps to avoid dealing with UBB crap, be warned.) IF YOU TELL A CALLER TO PUT YOUR NAME IN THE DNC DATABANK, IT WILL BE DONE WITHIN THE WEEK. HOWEVER, IT WILL ONLY BE DONE ONE COMPANY AT A TIME. COMPANY “A” DOES NOT CALL COMPANIES “B” THROUGH “Z” TO LET THEM KNOW THAT JOHN SMITH WANTS HIS NAME OFF THE LIST. JOHN SMITH WILL HAVE TO DO THAT HIMSELF. UNLESS YOU PLAN ON FAKING YOUR DEATH, YOU WILL FOREVER BE ON SOMEONE’S LIST.
Quoting myself one last time:
“if you’ve placed your name on any sort of registration card, subscribed to a magazine, ordered an item by phone, mail, or email, you’ve shown an interest in a particular company or product and therefore have zero right to complain when someone believes that you may be interested in their offer based on such information.”
'K?
I’m not a religious person, but this afternoon when two guys came around to talk to me about the word of God and the Church of Mormon and all that, I certainly didn’t turn them away because I don’t share their beliefs. Sure, I would rather have been playing with Bowen, but it didn’t kill me to let them in for a few minutes so they could do what they had to do. It’s called tolerance, folks. Learn it, use it, it’s good for you.
k0meyers says:
I studied my ass off in school, and I became a TM so I could continue to study my ass off in college.
A call from a telemarketer takes, at the most, 30 seconds out of my day, certainly less time than it takes for my dinner to get cold. Unlike the guy with the bullhorn, it’s at a normal volume and, thanks to my phone ringing, I know it could be coming.
As for being uninvited, well, almost every phone call I receive is uninvited. If a friend called me at a bad time with someone inane to tell me, I wouldn’t be rude to them, even though what they’re doing is pretty much the same as the telemarketer.
Just because you don’t know someone is no reason to be mean to them.
Let me ask you a question in return: Do you care if I get a telemarketing call, or do you care if you get a telemarketing call?
Don’t confuse your limited experience with the totality of the situation. I had a good friend in college, Brian Giese, who spent several months just prior to graduation working as a telemarketer to put together some money so he could get an apartment in the Cleveland area and look for a job. Brian is now a producer for the local news on our Fox affiliate.
So, because of this one person, you assume all telemarketers are like that? Again, you seem to be heavily leaning towards the attitude that people in difficult situations are only permitted to have jobs of which you approve.
If you don’t understand the concept of auto-genning numbers by now and how it undermines your arguement, no amount of additional explaining will help.
And I suppose you support unlimited spam e-mail based on the same principle? It’s the exact same concept.
Then don’t make blanket statements.
What a crock! One who cannot get angry without being abusive or nasty can be described in one word - immature. Doesn’t fit here, how 'bout there?
Oh, please back atcha. In this thread alone you have posted ““irrational” doesn’t even begin to cover it, Nickrz.”; “what kind of asshole does that?”; and “Are you daft?”, among others. I rarely start ad hominem attacks, but I can return them. Cripes, Phil, that was the best documented statement in the whole post ;).
What I said was that they cannot know what I am doing when they call. They assume that their sales call is more important than anything I may be doing - and that’s a poor assumption.
spurious (adj) L. illegitimate, not genuine, false - Webster’s New World Dictionary. An appropriate word,IMHO, for an industry which consistently ranks at the top of fraudulent business practices.
Nor do Wal-Mart clerks call or visit my house to announce a special in aisle 3.
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
pldennison writes, “So, because of this one person, you assume all telemarketers are like that?”.
In a word: “no”.
pldennison also writes, “Again, you seem to be heavily leaning towards the attitude that people in difficult situations are only permitted to have jobs of which you approve.”
You said that before, and I explained that I don’t think that. Now you’re saying it again, but I don’t think this any more now than I did the last time. You seem to be leaning heavily towards putting words in my mouth and arguing with those. It is clearly not possible for us to have a rational discussion if you’re going to do this, so I see no point to continuing it.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think what you say I do here. I never have. I likely never will. So stop telling me that I do. All I’ve said is: telemarketers annoy me, and while I’m not rude to them per se, neither do I try to be artificially friendly, nor do I feel sorry for them. That’s it. That’s the whole enchillada. I’m not telling them what jobs they can have. I’m not calling for the death penality to telemarketers. I’m saying I’m not going to pretend like I like somebody bothering me in my home for their own personal gain.
k0myers
Sorry for the lengthy quote, folks, but… uh… EXCUSE ME?
Since when does religious “tolerance” include letting proselytizers into my home so they can extol their religious beliefs?
I’m truly stunned at those sentiments.
I dare not say more.
“Since when does religious “tolerance” include letting proselytizers into my home so they can extol their religious beliefs?”
OK, bad example…my apologies.
Here it is, in a nutshell. You don’t like recieving calls from marketers? You know what to about it, so do it. If you’re not going to take the measures to stop the calls, you’ll continue to get calls till AFTER you’re dead. Like I’ve said before, there are several companies who have telemarketing departments, companies you wouldn’t expect. Gannett Publishing, for one (you know, the big guys who make MOST of this country’s newspapers?) Insurance companies like Shelter, Farm Bureau, Principal, etc. Granted, most telemarketing calls are from rinky-dink operations trying to sell siding, “event” tickets, or drum up contributions to police/fireman causes (note: none of that money actually goes the the policemen or firemen … don’t give.) At any rate, there is a point I was trying to make about tolerance. There’s no need to let yourself get angry about marketers, or other, equally trivial matters… nor is there any reason to insult the intelligence level of the person who performs a job that you don’t like. I don’t particularly LIKE paying taxes, but I don’t hate the person who works as an auditor or collector for the IRS. It’s a job. There are 24 hours in a day, there’s no sense in whining about missing five minutes. If you want to stop the calls, dial up your phone service, tell them you want Privacy Plus, Privacy Manager, whatever its called in your region. If your area doesn’t have it yet, tell them to get it. If they get so many calls about it, they’ll install it. In the meantime, tell callers to add your name to the Do Not Call list.