Telemarketers...

[furious]

i always ask how the weather is, what are they doing after work we should catch up, long time since i heard from you man what are you doing with yourself now days that bad hey doing things tough.

try to talk over them like they do to you. if i have nothing to do i might fake interest until they ask for a credit card number them i say i need more information here is were they hang up. 😛

 

[aquajet]

I did it for for my school a few years ago, pestering our alumni for money. Each person's information was printed on fanfold paper and included donation history, dating back several years. Some hadn't donated in 10+ years, if at all. Why we wasted our resources on these people is beyond me. And of course being a rookie minion, I was stuck with all the non-donors. It was a dreadful job, one which I worked at for several months at least. My last night there, I had had enough and threw my stack of papers on the floor and told my supervisor "my soul can't take this anymore" and stormed out. It was a very liberating moment.

 

[Lau]

Actually, that reminds me of another time, when I got loads of missed calls on my new Vodafone mobile phone over a couple of days. I was getting annoyed, because I kept missing them, and I just wanted to tell whoever it was to stop calling me as they weren't giving up. Eventually, I caught the call, and it was a girl trying to sell me an O2 phone contract. I told her how I'd just got a Vodafone phone because my boyfriend was on Vodafone, and it worked out cheaper. I also mentioned how if I was going to go with anyone else, it would be Orange, because they had great text message deals. She said that O2 had some great text deals. I said what I got when I was on Orange, and she said "Oh, that's really good. That's better than I get on O2. Actually, I used to be on Orange and I really liked them..." we ended up chatting for a few minutes, and then she said, "Oh well, I'd better go. Nice talking to you". Most crap saleswoman everrr. 😛 Was a nice conversation though. 😀

 

[rdowns]

I'm on the DNC list and receive very few calls anymore. HTis chimney scam company calls a lot and I get quite vulgar with the women who call. 😀 After like the 10th call, I finally told them to come out to look at my chimney. Too bad I live in a condo with no chimney in a gated community. Haven't heard from them since.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

I'm getting quite a few calls lately offering me cut price land-line calls. They guarantee that they can better any deal that BT can offer me. I let them say their piece, ask a few pertinent questions about their tariffs and how they're able to offer such great deals, and then mention that I don't actually have a BT land-line, nor can I get one because of where I live. That normally ends the call. 🙂

 

[yg17]

I did it for for my school a few years ago, pestering our alumni for money. Each person's information was printed on fanfold paper and included donation history, dating back several years. Some hadn't donated in 10+ years, if at all. Why we wasted our resources on these people is beyond me. And of course being a rookie minion, I was stuck with all the non-donors. It was a dreadful job, one which I worked at for several months at least. My last night there, I had had enough and threw my stack of papers on the floor and told my supervisor "my soul can't take this anymore" and stormed out. It was a very liberating moment.

Ouch, I can imagine that would be hell.

I can't wait until I graduate and get calls from UMR telling me to donate, I already know my reply..."I attended this college for 4 years and didn't receive a dime in financial aid and paid plenty in tuition. That was my donation, and I'll be damned if I'm giving you anything more"

 

[thedude110]

I can't wait until I graduate and get calls from UMR telling me to donate, I already know my reply..."I attended this college for 4 years and didn't receive a dime in financial aid and paid plenty in tuition. That was my donation, and I'll be damned if I'm giving you anything more"

Arn's opening a university? We'd have so much fun.

 

[WildCowboy]

Arn's opening a university? We'd have so much fun.

But we already know everything...

 

[MarkCollette]

Yes I know, it's a crummy job -- hardly a step up from shifting horse manure. Still, it's not like the telemarketers are performing some sort of public service, of the "it's a nasty job but somebody has to do it" variety. Nobody has to do it. Nobody has to interrupt your dinner or your TV or relaxation time with a pitch for something you don't want, and if you did want it you probably wouldn't buy it from some total stranger who called you on the telephone anyway.

If no one wanted that stuff, then no one would buy it, and then companies would not telemarket. But people do buy, so it obviously does serve a function.

Plus, almost all charities make the majority of their money doing funding drives. So, no telemarketers and no door-to-door canvassing means cutting back on fighting diseases, cancer, poverty, etc. The thing my Dad is fundraising for right now is for a helicopter ambulance service that's saved a lot of lives in our province. Most people don't know that it's funded through donations. They just assume that the government pays for it. So without someone telling them, then it would easily run out of funding and then all those people out in the boonies would be in serious trouble.

 

[atszyman]

This is just the politics of telemarketing. Spam faxing uses paper on your fax machine, and is also illegal. But that hasn't done much to put an end to the practice, because the enforcement is so lax (you have to file a civil suit against someone probably working out of a temporary office in another state). The "market research" exemption did not need to be put into the do not call list law. A lot of these things could be illegal and the existing laws could be enforced.

But most households I know of do not have fax machines and therefore the problem is not widespread and most people don't think of the paper being used up at the office on this is a big deal. If they start hitting cell phones which almost everyone has, and people start realizing they are paying their provider for the minutes wasted there will be a tremendous outcry and either stiffer legislation/enforcement or many lawsuits filed.

Considering people sue video game companies when their kids re-enact a scene in a game the kids shouldn't have been playing based on the rating alone, there will be plenty of lawsuits filed if they start calling cell phones.

 

[WildCowboy]

But most households I know of do not have fax machines and therefore the problem is not widespread and most people don't think of the paper being used up at the office on this is a big deal. If they start hitting cell phones which almost everyone has, and people start realizing they are paying their provider for the minutes wasted there will be a tremendous outcry and either stiffer legislation/enforcement or many lawsuits filed.

This is already a widespread problem with mobile text messages. It's only going to get worse.

 

[quigleybc]

Ok, I feel like I should post some of my experiences from when I telemarketed...

1-when someone picks up the phone, there is a delay from when you say "hi is xxx there" to when the name of the person you're calling appears on your screen. So:

I had a call that went something like this:

ring

"hello"

pause

name appears on screen Chocko, Chocko

I'm like ??

so I say " hi is Chocko There? "

He says, "Which Chocko you want?"

I say....." Chocko Chocko "

He says "no Chocko Chocko not here..."

I laughed hard at that.

Another one:

Ring

"hi is Mr Green there?"

"ya that's me"

"Hi, how are you?"

(he lived in Hawaii)

"Oh, well the sun is shining, the weather is perfect, oh, I just saw a dolphin jump up in the air !"

"oh wow, that's great !"

"ya, too bad I'm stuck inside on an Iron Lung !"

"oh....so....you wanna buy some coffee?"


another one

ring

"hi is Mr Jones there"

"Sure, you can find him down the street at the cemetary"

click....


and finally,

One time, I was so sick of getting hung up on, that when a woman hung up on me, I hit the F7 key (which is to quickly call right back the last number in case we got disconnected while in the middle of a sale.)

calls right back..

"hello"

I hung up.....

lol, so illegal, and so fun

I didn't last too long at that job....

 

[XNine]

I bring up a porn on my Powermac and blast it into the phone... the calls don't last very long....

 

[jdechko]

I don't necessarily mind telemarketers in general, but a few comments of my own.

1. I seriously dislike that they call during the most inconvenient times (Dinner, Sex, etc.). Normally then, I won't answer the call.

2. I don't like the overly pushy ones. If I tell you I'm not interested, I mean it. I'll hang up at that point.