SE on the phone

[csdrone]

I answered the phone (stupid of me I know) and had a clueless telemarketer (apologies to nice cold callers) who did not get the gentle hint of "I am on the other line. Is there an emergency?" She went into her "It will take a few minutes" whereupon I informed her I did NOT have a few minutes and hung up the phone. Sucky perhaps but listening to the person on the other end of the phone is a smart idea: it avoids pissing people off.

[MadMike]

I had one do that once. I also got the "This will only take a minute" when I told her I had a call on the other line. I decided "screw it", and switched over anyway. I wonder how she liked giving her sales pitch to dead air.

[trunks2k]

Sucky perhaps but listening to the person on the other end of the phone is a smart idea: it avoids pissing people off.

I don't think it's sucky. Really, I know being a telemarketer sucks, but YOU called ME at home unsolicited, so you're going to be treated however I feel like. I generally try to say "sorry not interested" but I often have to end up just hanging up. Although, I haven't gotten a telemarketer call me in ages (yay for only having a cell phone).

[Witch of Endor]

Why do people on this board, of all places, so jealously guard their right to treat telemarketers badly if they feel like it? What exactly is wrong with just waiting for them to finish their first sentence, saying politely "No thank you, I'm not interested", and hanging up before they speak again? It's the least abusive towards them, and minimizes the waste of time for you.

Yes, they call you at an inopportune time and are required to ask you a certain number of times whether you want what they're selling. But aren't there people here who are required to play that kind of game with customers in a store? After all, they're just doing their job too. So many people in here complain that customers could be a bit more humane in their refusals. What's the difference?

Some people can't apply the same standards to other people that they would want applied to themselves. Or, they're just playing the taking-out-frustrations game with people they consider to be 'lowlier' than themselves, just like everyone else does with retail and customer service workers. It's easier to be compassionate than it is to clamp a lid down on boiling anger every time you get an unwanted phone call.

[trunks2k]

Why do people on this board, of all places, so jealously guard their right to treat telemarketers badly if they feel like it? What exactly is wrong with just waiting for them to finish their first sentence, saying politely "No thank you, I'm not interested", and hanging up before they speak again? It's the least abusive towards them, and minimizes the waste of time for you.

Because often, you can't get a word in edgewise. They are also often quite rude, so they're going to get my rudeness in return. Again, with unsolicited calls, I never asked you to contact me, nor do I want you to contact me, and you are doing nothing but annoying me. I will be on a very short fuse. I try to be polite, but I won't remain that way for long.

Yes, they call you at an inopportune time and are required to ask you a certain number of times whether you want what they're selling. But aren't there people here who are required to play that kind of game with customers in a store? After all, they're just doing their job too. So many people in here complain that customers could be a bit more humane in their refusals. What's the difference?

If a customer comes into a store, they are accepting that they are going to be offered things. THEY came into the store. There's a difference between them coming into buy something and being offeres, say, a credit card, as they initiated the transaction. It's all about solicitation. I didn't solicit a call from the local paper every day at 6:30, and even told them I will never be interested so stop calling me. However, if I go into a store, I am soliciting a conversation with a representative from the company.

[Witch of Endor]

Be more specific. How are they 'rude'? Are they swearing at you or being surly? Or are they just calling during the hours when they're told to call, which just might be inconvenient for you?

There are plenty of people around here who work customer service, and who are required to be pushy in the name of the job. Yes, if I walk into a store I'm planning on buying something. I'm not necessarily planning on applying for a store-branded credit card, but in some of the stores where I shop, there's someone being paid to be pushy and try to get me to apply. There's no point in being rude to them either. Just say "no, thank you" and get away quickly.

You just have to know how to play the game that corporate has put us in. Telemarketing strategy relies on the call recipient's passivity and unwillingness to hang up the phone when someone else is talking. If you're passive, they're required to pester you until you say yes. If you're aggressive and rude back to them, it means more stress on you and them.

The alternative is to be assertive, which means being polite and hanging up so they don't have another chance to talk to you. It's the least offensive response that will let you escape in the shortest amount of time. At some point they have to take a breath and let you respond, and that's when you make your move. It's no more a waste of breath than if you swore at them.

Customers Suck communities are chock-full of people who claim they don't understand why customers take out frustrations on them, yet who gleefully brag about (or at least try to justify with unsound arguments) their doing the exact same thing to other wage slaves. I still want to hear a better explanation.

[csdrone]

Simple answer: A phone call from a TM is one thing when the TM hears NO, accepts NO and hangs the phone up. A TM who does not hear a polite version of the following phrases will tend to get a less than friendly response:

1. I am on the other line (meaning I clicked over thinking it was a parent or my DH, my doctor or someone who was supposed to be calling and I need to get back to the caller that I WANT to talk to). The TM DOES NOT SAY Sorry I will try back later. They continue blabbing. The call is disconnected,
2. I am walking out the door in a minute: I picked up the phone thinking it was one of the aforementioned callers. Again, the TM continues the spiel and the call is disconnected.
3. I am at work. We answer the phone as follows: "Thank you for calling *City* Grumbels *department*. This is Drone, how can I help you" (in other words the corporate script)." We do not have the authority to buy your products and are NOT connecting you to the MOD. The purchasing department has a process by which they approve vendors. Learn it and do not call random extensions. It just annoys the employees and purchasing is not amused. In addition, we do not give ANY information about our coworkers (I do not care what company or collection agency you are from): again that is a written corporate policy. Being nasty to me at that point is a very very very bad idea. My managers encourage me to not be pleasant to you. I will not cuss you out at work but will be quite deadly sarcastic and we will all be amused. Grumbels by the way is from a lovely comic strip called Retail.

[Witch of Endor]

You're still not addressing my point.

The telemarketer is required to not hang up just because you say no, to not say they'll call back later.

Their calls are being recorded so that their higher-ups can tell who does a good job and follows the script, and who doesn't.

Those who do not follow the script, which may include asking a certain number of times and being persistent to the point of pushiness, may get fired.

I don't see how it's justified for a recipient to be rude to them. Even if you can't get a word in edgewise, just hang up. That's better than saying something snarky or abusive that the wage slave on the other end doesn't deserve.

[Gurndigarn]

Be more specific. How are they 'rude'?

Well, let's see.

You just have to know how to play the game that corporate has put us in. Telemarketing strategy relies on the call recipient's passivity and unwillingness to hang up the phone when someone else is talking. If you're passive, they're required to pester you until you say yes.

I think that qualifies as rude. I think it also says something about the morality of the business.

I don't see how it's justified for a recipient to be rude to them.

Justified? Possibly not, but it's hard to overcome human nature. Some person you've never met is being rude to you, possibly interrupting something you were wrapped up in. Snapping back is human nature.

[MMATM]

A few things to finally address your point:

Firstly, most telemarketing calls (being unsolicited) can be avoided by putting your name on national do-not-call lists. For telemarketing companies to call numbers from said lists is illegal and you need only to ask the name of the company and the representative that is calling and said company can get in some pretty deep... uh...
Also, the recording of calls without the consumer's knowledge is extremely discourteous, but this is not the poor representative's fault. Do not take it out on the rep.

It is generally viewed by most that telemarketers are unwelcome intrusions into our daily lives. While I am polite when dealing with telemarketers, sometimes it is hard. I've been called on a do-not-call registered number by telemarketing agencies (not collections agencies or other "you brought this upon yourself" calls, I mean honest-to-God selling random stuff telemarketers) that would not let me get a word in edgewise unless it was "yes". Saying "No, thank you" on one occasion got me cut off at "thank-" while the TM did another spiel about the same product and how I really should say yes. On that occasion I hung up during the second speech. While some telemarketers that I have dealt with have been as courteous to me as I have to them, their jobs are out to get as many "yes" responses as possible as fast as possible, and some of them are very persistent. These are the types that if you don't sound angry or hostile (which I tried to great effect) would keep hounding you about their service. Simply saying "no" and omitting the "thank you" often got the message across, but even more often I ended up having to hang up on the TM as they ran through the same stuff again.
If you have a do-not-call number, the fastest way to get rid of a telemarketer (and to make sure they don't call back either) is to ask for the representative's name and the name of the company. Interrupt if you have to, but make it known that you want information so that you can report them for calling a do-not-call number.
We also have a nifty device that befuddles those automatic "dial 5 numbers at once and see who picks up first" machines by sending a signal that registers our phone as a disconnected line. This works wonders as number lists circulate the TM-companies.

You don't have to be rude, but you can't usually get away with being polite if you really want not to have to deal with the same sales pitch three times in a row.

Does it make it ok to trash telemarketers or to treat them badly? No. But it does explain why so many people feel that it is their only option. Quite simply, the courtesy that is extended (such as "no, thank you" as opposed to just "no") is often abused.

[Arcade Man D]

Having worked in telemarketing hell before, I don't see why you should threaten the peon ((no offense to those who work in it, but that's what your boss treats you as)) with the consequences, as they have no control over the calling list, and on the automatic dialers, they don't even know what number they're calling until they are connected.

[ContraCorriente]

Why do people on this board, of all places, so jealously guard their right to treat telemarketers badly if they feel like it? What exactly is wrong with just waiting for them to finish their first sentence, saying politely "No thank you, I'm not interested", and hanging up before they speak again? It's the least abusive towards them, and minimizes the waste of time for you.

Yes, they call you at an inopportune time and are required to ask you a certain number of times whether you want what they're selling. But aren't there people here who are required to play that kind of game with customers in a store? After all, they're just doing their job too. So many people in here complain that customers could be a bit more humane in their refusals. What's the difference?

Some people can't apply the same standards to other people that they would want applied to themselves. Or, they're just playing the taking-out-frustrations game with people they consider to be 'lowlier' than themselves, just like everyone else does with retail and customer service workers. It's easier to be compassionate than it is to clamp a lid down on boiling anger every time you get an unwanted phone call.

Thumbs up to you! I volunteered around election time and called people, soliciting votes. Not to toot my own horn, but I definitely am nicer to telemarketers now that I know the sh** they have to deal with.

[HYHYBT]

Calling up strangers at home to try selling them stuff is *inherently* rude. Calling people on the do-not-call list, in other words those who have specifically and politely, by signing up for it, asked you not to bother them, is especially rude. This is true even for politicians, etc who are not legally bound to obey the list. This past election, I voted for the candidates who called least often. And told the ones who called about that.

Having said that, I'm not rude to the very few telemarketers I still get and don't believe anyone else should be either. It's a job, and I doubt many are in that line of work for the sheer joy of being cursed at. But I can't pretend that being at home and getting called from dinner, or woken up if you work an odd schedule, by someone you don't even know trying to sell something you'd never want is remotely the same as going to a store and being asked if you'd like to buy their products.

[iradney]

We don't have much in the way of telemarketers here. I don't have any landlines, only cellphones, so if I do get calls, I just say "no thanks" and they understand.
I did have an issue with a time-share company that kept inviting me to a phony prize giving (You've won a prize! Come and collect it at no cost to you! No strings! then you get there, sit through a presentation/sales pitch, and then they have a rigged draw for the prize - never done it myself, but it's happened to enough people that I know).

After 4 seperate calls, each one ending with a polite "No thank you", I quietly ripped them a new one - no swearing, just letting them know I do not appreciate this harrassment. I haven't heard from them since. I feel a bit bad, but then again, I did tell them four times I'm not interested...

[csdrone]

So let me get this straight: asking the TM politely to remove ones name from their lists is ignored. POLITELY informing the TM that one is on the Do NOT Call list is ignored. Politely saying NO is ignored. I think the "what is your name and what company do you work for?" response may work nicely. Thanks!