Telemarketers

[mneary]

The dialing, ringing, detecting the 'hello' is all done by machine. The human only talks to you for 10 seconds if you say no up front. Profits are pretty big if they get one hit in a hundred.

 

[Mikebits]

Remember, there is a person that you are dealing with on the other end of the line, just trying to make some money to get by.. and if you treat them badly, they may retaliate.
I spent several months working as a telemarketer, and whenever someone asked me nicely to put them on the do not call list....I would do it immediatly, often within seconds. When someone used profanity with me, or was a smartass...they were immediatly placed on a Multiple recall list, cycling their number up for someone to call several times a day. Do you really honestly think that someone that you have sworn at, or spoken to badly, or been sarcastic with is going to actually put you on the DNC List???. Remember you get further with a teaspoon of honey, then a bucket of gasoline
These people are usually herded like cattle into small call centers, paid less than minimum wage, and then given hefty bonuses for every sale they make, or any useful bit of info they can squeeze from a client. As long as minimum sles levels were met, a blind eye was turnedto wards people doing anything bad. And I worked for major call-centers for major companies, like Visa, Mastercard, Sears...etc, not rinky dink no-name companies.
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As well, there are now telemarketing companies that call from places other than North America, and therefore are not covered under USAs Do Not Call legislation. Only recently Canada (where a LOT of call centers exist, calling into the USA) started up a DNC list. Prior to this, we ere instructed to tell people that we had placed their number into the DNC....but nothing was actually done.

I could care less that the person calling me is working for meager wages. That is a choice they made when they signed on. I am under no obligation to be polite to a person who disrupts my day or my dinner to hear a sales pitch they must give since they are in a hard up situation, no more than I am obligated to throw a coin to the homeless man. At least the homeless man takes no for an answer.

Telemarketers are obnoxious, uninvited people that enter my life without me having a choice. The telemarketer is intrusive and unwanted, and anyone that chooses this line of work should know that and accept the responses.

How dare someone invade my peaceful day to make a buck. I will be polite and say no thank you, but when this is not enough and they push their foot in the doorway, then I will take a more purposeful stance, in other words, tell them to Fu&% off.

An invader into my life has no right to harass me even if I fluffed their shorts with a verbal response. I never invited their phone call in the first place.

 

[HarveyH42]

Regardless of the reason a person takes a telemarketing job, they have to know that they are going to be treated badly in most cases. Back when there was junk mail (catalogs, flyers, sweepstakes, official looking letters... We at least had the option of just chucking it in the trash when it was convenient. We pay for are phone service, for our personal business, and give our number out to people we want to hear from. So when the phone rings, it should be someone we invited to use our paid service, not some stranger, intruding on our private lives, with an offer we wouldn't be interested in anyway, or would have already looked into, and probably shopped around some. Telemarketing is mostly a scam, they target impulsive buyers. As stated before, they only need one sale out of a hundred calls. Maybe the poor $6/hour employee only made one call to an irate 'mark', but could be the third or fourth call in the same hour, or maybe the number gets recycled daily, and people get tired of the same pitch, different voice...

I realize that jobs are tough to get sometimes, but I never did telemarketing (not much people skills), and always managed to keep an income. I've had some pretty tough jobs, probably getting a little old for the work I do now, but it's honest work.

 

[Willbe]

So who are the telemarketers getting money from? I mean who actually buys stuff some poor schmuck is trying to sell over the phone?

About one person in six, where I worked.

 

[HarveyH42]

About one person in six, where I worked.

What were you selling? Seems like a high ratio, unless these were all established customers and clients, not random numbers out of the phone book.

I never buy from people who approach me, don't know many people do (or would admit it anyway). Usually know what I want/need, and look around for the best quality/price, research different brands/sources for issues, before taking the leap. Just never been rich enough to gamble, or just throw money around.

Wonder how many people buy, just hoping that the calls will stop if they do. Sort of protection money, bummer it likely buys them a spot on the call-often list...

 

[Willbe]

What were you selling? Seems like a high ratio, unless these were all established customers and clients, not random numbers out of the phone book.

Magazine renewals; Architectural Digest, Four-Wheeler Magazine, etc. One of the cards I pulled up was Ed Bradley from 60 Minutes.

The wording of the script is very important; scripts were changed one time and even our best guy couldn't sell anything.

They let us off early when the Gulf War broke out. I think it was Jan. 16th.
People that night had other things on their minds besides renewing magazines.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

Sounds like the basis for a group project here

 

[sleekyG]

They are definitely very annoying at most times. Whenever I hear stories about these telemarketers, I always remember this video from YouTube that made me laugh out loud! YouTube - The Greatest Prank Call Ever

 

[Sceadwian]

That man is my own personal hero, that was the funniest prank call I've heard in ages.

 

[shokjok]

If you want specific number blocking, I saw a product offered by Florida-based Weeder Technologies that allows YOU to program your phone to accept "valid" numbers only. It uses your keypad to enter the valid numbers in a serial EPROM. When your phone rings, invalid numbers get a constant ringing phone that you don't hear, while valid numbers ring your phone. Try them at **broken link removed** .

 

[-Simsy-]

you could try this for a bit of fun in the meantime

Seinfeld (to telemarketer): I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number, and I'll call you back later.
Telemarketer: I'm afraid we can't do that.
Seinfeld: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you and bugging you at home.
Telemarketer: Right.
Seinfeld: Well now you know how I feel.

 

[Chippie]

you could try this for a bit of fun in the meantime

Seinfeld (to telemarketer): I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number, and I'll call you back later.
Telemarketer: I'm afraid we can't do that.
Seinfeld: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you and bugging you at home.
Telemarketer: Right.
Seinfeld: Well now you know how I feel.

Hmm must remember that one for next time... Gotta be worth a giggle.....

 

[Triode]

or if you have a lot of time, the most annoying thing you can do since they want to just get their sale and go is to keep them on, not being rude, but not buying stuff like:

Hello mr soto, this is tim, may I have a moment of your time?

Hi tim! hows it going? Hows karin?

I would like to see if you would be interested in design news magazine, and only 20% of the regular price.

Aww tim, don't be all buisness, its been a while! Why don't we catch up on old times!?

and so on depending on their confused replies.