Soliciting Phone Calls: Why they suck

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The problem with the No Not Call lists that telemarketers are required by law to keep is that many of them don't keep them.

You would be shocked and suprised to discover that a great many telemarketers do not even know the first thing about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It's illegal to even BE a telemarketer and not know this group of laws! You'd be suprised how many telemarketers cannot send you a copy of their do not call policy...they can't send it because they don't have one. You cannot operate a telemarketing business without having a policy available on demand.

Frankly, I believe the widespread knowledge of the National Do Not Call Registry really woke a lot of these people up and set them on the right path. But a great many of them simply do not care. And the smaller business are the absolute worst. I've actually had one bonehead say "Oh, we don't have to maintain a do not call list. We're calling locally." Uh, guess what, Mr. Einstein? That is neither here nor there. All that means is that you are an excellent candidate for a lawsuit from me. Which I will win.

And you will not be the first.

Before I got really militant and started suing these people in small claims court, I did have a lot of nasty fun with them. One of my favorite pranks was something I did to Stronghold Athletic, a gym here in town. They called me up and left a message (which pisses me off even more than if they'd got me in person.) I called and corrected them. They told me they'd call who they wanted. (sound familiar? I think all the local pests here went to the same How To Get Sued For TCPA Violations school.)

This was back in the days I was studying Media Arts. Went to the university, checked out a reel-to-reel tape machine. Dubbed the message Stronghold had left on my machine. Made a continuous loop of it. Waited till they closed for the night and turned on their answering machine. You see what's coming...called them up, and turned on my continuous audio loop when the machine picked up.

Went to bed with a smile on my face.

Continued this for several nights. Basically, I tied up their phone after hours ALL NIGHT LONG.

I never heard from that arrogant peckerhead again, either.

[zzapp the witch]

Jesus, kinkoid, you are six shades of pissed off, psycho bitch EVIL!














I love you.

[Seshat]

I say if people should be able to take the time to be nice and just say "stop calling" and hang up, it isn't that hard.
Kibbles

When I get telemarketed, I get two types.
Type one admit to being telemarketers and are polite, and they get told to put me on their do-not-call list, and politely thanked before I hang up.

Type two usually claim that they're not telemarketers, yet have a spiel about how I should subscribe to their service/buy their stuff. And are calling on the phone. Sorry, but it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck...

Type two also refuse to accept the request to be taken off their list/put on their do-not-call list.

Type one, I dislike but will be polite to.

Type two forfeit any right to courtesy.

[IT Grunt]

It's not an excuse IMO, really how hard is it to say "Put me on the Do Not Call list?" I know it's not the same at all, but retail workers have to upsell and many people get needlessly rude with them, how hard it is for them to say "I'm not interested?"

The problem I have with most, not all, but most telemarketers is that once you tell them you're not interested, they don't accept that and hang up. Many try to pull you into a guilt trip, like you're starving their 50 kids if they don't make money on this call. Like not buying their product is the same as wishing 40 years of bad luck upon thee, for the gods of Direct Sales shall smite thee for thy insolence. Many will practically go breathless to get their spiel in before you can say anything. The ones who accept that I'm not interested, and are polite about it, I'll return the favor. The ones who start trying to suck me in or give me attitude, the gloves come off. So, to address the point, there are many times "I'm not interested." is not enough to end the call, because to them it translates into "I'm playing hard to get."

[Geek King]

Best handling of a telemarketer I've ever seen came from a friend of mine who is a Spanish/Portugese professor. I was over for a RPG he was running when they called the first time. He picked up the phone and answered in fluent Spanish (he was expecting students to call, and he almost always talks to the upper levels in spanish). The telemarketer has no idea what he was saying, and finally hangs up after a few exchanges. We had a good chuckle about it and promptly forgot about it. Two hours later, they call back with a spanish speaking rep.




Which my friend spoke to in fluent Portugese.

Another hang up later, this story had entered legendary status among my circle of friends.

[Becks]

Sorry, but it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck...

Nah, it's a ferret in costume.

[Barefootgirl]

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm really pleased to see that the thread has gone back to being nice - but lets just remember that we have members who work in telemarketing, and we don't call other members sub-human or other un-called for names like that. Let's continue to keep things civil, please?

[Girly]

We didn't have a land line for a long time, while we lived in Fairfax, VA. When we moved down here to SWVA, the cell phone wouldn't work in most places around here, so we ended up having both.. the land line for the house, since the cell didn't work there, and the cell for when we were in the cities around where we lived.

Since DH didn't want to pay the $2/month or whatever fee it is to have an unlisted/nonpublished number, and I wasn't working yet during the days, I got to receive all the telemarketer calls during the day.

Most of them were ok, except for one company. Dish Network. I'm sorry for everyone that works there on these boards, but I will never, ever use Dish Network, even if they pay me to use their service, simply because of the way they use their telemarketers. I don't even think it's Dish Network themselves, I'm pretty sure they have 'authorized installers' and those guys contract out telemarketers to call people.

It started about two weeks after we moved in. I would get, no kidding, two calls a day from them. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. Every single one of my 'please put me on your do not call list' resulted in a hang up. Every single one of my 'I'd like to speak to your supervisor, please' resulted in ai hang up. This continued for three months after I'd registered the number with the federal do not call list.

They finally stopped when I called Dish Network directly for the I don't even know how many times and spoke to someone that said they were a supervisor, and I let them know that if I got one more call from them, I'd be suing them. I wasn't quite nice at the end of those three months.... again, three months AFTER I had registered with the federal do not call list. But holy cow. How many times do I have to tell you already?

[protege]

I don't think anyone here has a problem with the *polite* telemarketers. They are just doing their job. I *do* think everyone hates the *rude* telemarketers. However, because they hold the same job, unfortunately, they all get painted with the same brush.

Just the other night, I had a pushy one. He was trying to get donations for some police officers charity. No matter how I tried, he wouldn't take no for an answer...which resulted in me hanging up on him. People like that I can't stand and *deserve* to get yelled at.

If the person is polite, and will quit pestering me when I say no, I stay polite. However, if I've told them no *twice* and they continue, I'm not nice anymore--I will get rude (not nasty!) and hang up.

[kibbles]

Went to bed with a smile on my face.

Continued this for several nights. Basically, I tied up their phone after hours ALL NIGHT LONG.

I never heard from that arrogant peckerhead again, either.

I gotta agree with you on the majority of your post because you got the worst of the worst telemarketers! They deserved the "fun" you had with them

When I used to telemarket, sometimes when I could tell someone wanted to be put on the DNC, but wasn't exactly vocallizing (spelling?) it, I asked them if that's what they wanted.

And the TCPA! That was drilled into my head the very first thing, I can't believe some of the things telemarketers say! I would have never dreamed of acting like that. Sorry you had bad experiences, I think you would have liked me if I had phoned you during my call center days

The problem I have with most, not all, but most telemarketers is that once you tell them you're not interested, they don't accept that and hang up

With most call centers you used to be required (or be written up or fired) to give 2 rebuttals. There were some non-rebuttal states (my favorite), but recently I think the amount of rebuttals has gone down to 1. It sucks I agree, but usually if someone told me they weren't interested I'd just mention a feature briefly (no guilt trip ) and if they said it again, well the call was ended.

[Gurndigarn]

The "don't take no for an answer" confuses me at times. A while back, I was pestered by AT&T credit card services. They had been trying to track me down for weeks, and finally got me. I promptly told them no, not interested. They immediatly said, before I was even finished speaking, "Well, I can understand why you might think that, Mr. Grandigurn, but..."

I didn't hear any more, because I had quietly laid the phone on the table and gone off to do other things. About ten minutes later, I walked past, saw the phone off the hook, and listened to the click of the telemarketer hanging up.

Ah, well. At least their sales were down and call times up that day.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Jesus, kinkoid, you are six shades of pissed off, psycho bitch EVIL!









I love you.

Heheheheh...thanks! That just might be my favorite compliment so far!



What kills me about the whole telemarketing business is that the bigwigs in telemarketing love to get in print saying "Oh, we don't want to call anyone who does not wish to be called."

Really? Is that why they fought the Nat'l Do Not Call Registry (which could otherwise be known as "The Phone Book") so long and so hard? I would think they'd have LOVED the NDNC Registry. There you have a whole list of people who don't want to be called. But they want freedom to bother people regardless of thier wishes. No does not mean no to the people who run this industry. That in a nutshell is why people like me have a problem with telemarketing of any sort. It's about the lack of respect for people's privacy and people's wishes.

[Seshat]

With most call centers you used to be required (or be written up or fired) to give 2 rebuttals. There were some non-rebuttal states (my favorite), but recently I think the amount of rebuttals has gone down to 1. It sucks I agree, but usually if someone told me they weren't interested I'd just mention a feature briefly (no guilt trip ) and if they said it again, well the call was ended.

I strongly disagree with that rule. What part of 'No' do the people who write that rule not understand?

If I meant 'I don't think I'm interested, but why don't you tell me something else about your service?', I'd say that. If I say 'no', I mean 'no'.

I had a sign on my door for a while which said 'This household has a policy of not using goods or services, or donating to charities, who solicit door to door for donations. Please leave us alone.'
I wish I could hang a similar sign on my phone. (The local 'Do not call' list equivalent isn't working.)

We really do have that policy: if we want a company's service/goods, we know where the phone book is and how to comparison-shop. If the company provides the right price/quality compromise for us, they have an excellent chance at our business.

If we don't want the good or service, the company contacting us is a waste of our time and their money. It drives their costs up and makes them less likely to be within our price-for-quality bracket, and annoys us and reduces our likelihood of including them in our comparison-shopping short list. Telemarketing to our household is a lose/lose scenario.

[protege]

If I meant 'I don't think I'm interested, but why don't you tell me something else about your service?', I'd say that. If I say 'no', I mean 'no'.

I bet there's a "company policy" in place about that. Several telemarketing firms have policies in place that can get the person into trouble if they don't at least mention a feature. It's not helped that calls are sometimes recorded for quality assurance purposes. I agree though, it sucks, but if someone's not exactly willing to lose their job over it, they're pretty screwed.

[Gurndigarn]

I don't think anyone here has a problem with the *polite* telemarketers.

Individually, no. But when you've been getting four or five calls every day (all from different places, mind you, not one company slamming you) for almost a year, it gets real old. We were seriously considering getting rid of our phone because that seemed to be the only way to get rid of the telemarketers.