Telemarketers: why why why

[Curtdude]

Okay, so I changed phone numbers last year and forgot to re-register on the national "Do Not Call" list. I just did that last week and does not go into effect for 31 days.

 

But for the love of god. All of a sudden I'm getting bombarded. The partner at home gets them all day long (at least three calls) and then they call back in the evening after work just while I'm throwing back my martini.

 

The guy from MCI this morning (at 8:30 a.m.) didn't even stop his script reading when my pardner asked him to hold and gave me the phone (the pard doesn't speak great English). I got on the line and he's blathering on about the great services of MCI and how it'll change my life. I gave the usual "Sorry, no thanks" to which he just kept right on jabbering. I hung up. I don't like being rude, but I'm just not interested in what they've got to sell. "No thanks" isn't enough.

 

Any other coping mechanisms out there to suggest?

 

I realize that this must be the "Last Job in Town" for most of these telemarketers, but geezus. Don't make me suffer for it.

 

 

Okay vent is over. Can breathe...again.

[Jose]

I used to be a telemarketer.

 

To tell the truth, the faster you hang up, the better. If you listen to them and then say no, you're just screwing up their call time.

 

It's easier for everyone if as soon as you realize that they're trying to sell you something to just hang up.

 

You're not being rude, you're helping them out by saving them time they could be talking to someone interested.

[Guest Challenger]

I don't like to hang up either, but I keep in mind they're violating my space--I didn't ask them to call me. Usually a "No thank you, I'm not interested" will do it, followed by a disconnect. I also don't answer calls in the evening if I'm busy with something, like helping with homework--that's what the answering machine is for.

[Guest pagmatic]

I used to be one also. It was a soul-sucking job.

[godlessgrrl]

I got an answering machine and automatically screen my calls.

 

I put all my numbers on the DNC registry. After that I set my answering machine message to say "You have reached the home of T, M, and O. We screen our calls and do not accept solicitations. Please leave a message at the beep. If we are able to take your call, we will pick up. Thank you."

 

And it seems to work really really well. All my family and friends and coworkers know to expect the message, so they just wait and leave messages. Telemarketers just hang up. If it's a pre-recorded call I can pick up and immediately hang up.

 

We really don't get many solicitation calls at all these days. Maybe one a week, if even that.

[Curtdude]

Thanks for the interesting info! Particularly those who have done this job...I was hoping The Insiders would speak up.

 

I'll have to check my phone co. regarding the Caller ID (thanks SerenityN and GwenM). I've already added so much crap to my phone and cable services, I really don't want to add another, but we'll see. Also, the phone co. is one of the worst telemarketing callers to my apartment, but since I already subscribe to their service, they are exempt from the Do Not Call Registry (argh!).

 

Hey Jose, GanjaC and pagmatic, what were the worst and best aspects of doing this type of work? It must be a huge industry since the calls just come fast and furious. They sound like sweatshops, but that's a stereotype and it would be interesting to hear from Those Who Know.

 

Yeah, Challenger, I don't want to be rude either. I just often feel that what little personal space I have (apartment dweller, BigCity density) is being invaded by these solicitations. Most callers now don't let you get a word in edgewise (rather counterproductive according to Jose since they want to get rid of the no chance in hell calls and move on to potential clients), and "No" just seems to mean "Yes." That's when I lose it. I pride myself on speaking my mind clearly without a lot of "fill."

[Mike D]

When a telemarketer calls me I just hang right up, I don't even say bye. That might sound rude, but before the do-not-call list I was getting up to 20 calls a day, and some of them were those predictive dialers so when you pick up the phone it sounds like it's dead or a hang up. To me that's rude, and it's rude of them to call me 20 times a day trying to sell me shit I don't even want. That's how I see it anyway.

[waynus]

In Australia telemarketing is very new (1-3 years) it is not acceptable to most Australians. My responses vary according to who calls:

 

1) General response - Can you hold for a minute walk away.

 

2) Charities - Can you give me some details to add to my charity list, my partner and I keep a list of all charities we do not have a relationship with that call us, so that we will never support you in any way.

 

3) Financial Institutions/Advisors - Why would i trust a firm that has to promote itself by annoying people at this hour.

 

4) General reply - Where did you get my number? When did you ask me if you could call me at this hour? Where are you calling from? Do you know how unacceptable this line of business is to us in Australia?

 

We don't have a working do not call list, the only thing that works is to annoy the hell out of the caller and cost the firm as much money as you can on each call, maybe then the message will get through.

 

I don't feel sorry for the people I speak to because they are being paid to annoy me.

[Thurisaz]

Any other coping mechanisms out there to suggest?

 

Sometime when I get a call that's definitely from someone I don't want to talk to (however I would know that), I want to try picking up with a hitleresque voice (as well as I can imitate it) and shout into the mic "Führerhauptquartier! Nennen Sie Name und Dienstgrad und machen Sie ordentliche Meldung!".

 

And then I'll regret not having a video phone, to see the expression of complete deep shock on the face of that whoever-it-is

[Flyby Stardancer]

When I'm at home alone during the day, I let it go to the answering machine and screen it that way. By now my mom knows to expect this, 'cause I've been doing it for a while.

 

However, I do not have that option in the dorm, because we have voice mail rather than a message machine, so I must suffer. Though I'm actually getting a LOT less telemarketers this year than last, and all of them so far have been asking for someone who's not here!

 

What was REALLY annoying was more than half of the telemarketing calls I was getting last semester were for my former roommate, who was not living with me then. And most of them were from the credit card company I use. (grumble)

[Jose]

Hey Jose, GanjaC and pagmatic, what were the worst and best aspects of doing this type of work? It must be a huge industry since the calls just come fast and furious. They sound like sweatshops, but that's a stereotype and it would be interesting to hear from Those Who Know.

 

The best aspect of doing it? No question about that... it was the money. I worked part-time on commission generating leads for in-home salesmen and every lead I got was worth $1. Every sale generated from my lead was worth $10 and every upgraded sale was worth $12. I've got one of the sexier phone voices out there (not bragging, just stating a fact), so I could generate about 20 leads an hour.

 

Eighty leads per day by itself was $80, roughly one-quarter sold, so twenty sales was $200. Of the sales, about half upgraded, so another $120.

 

That's $400 per day... multiply that by six days (the only day we didn't work was Sunday), so my checks came in at around $2,000.00 after taxes for working 24 hours a week.

 

The worst aspect of it was the stress. You can't keep those kind of stats up forever and my sales started to slip due to burnout around the same time I got in a pretty bad car accident, so I just lay around the house for six months taking pain pills and sleeping, then I went and got a "real" job where I made half as much money working twice as long, but the stress wasn't nearly as bad so I learned how to budget my money and I've been working office jobs like this one since then.

[Curtdude]

 

The best aspect of doing it? No question about that... it was the money. ....so my checks came in at around $2,000.00 after taxes for working 24 hours a week.

 

The worst aspect of it was the stress. You can't keep those kind of stats up forever and my sales started to slip due to burnout ...

 

Whoa...according to my calc., that's $83 an hour. Not bad. Ah, but commission sales. Not easy to keep that up with the stress. Pressure, pressure, pressure!

 

Thanks Jose. Most interesting insights.

 

Sorry to hear about the car accident. Sounded like a tough period of your life.

 

Yeah, office work is certainly less stress (in general). My hat is off to anyone who can budget money. I'm still not very good at it.

[LloydDobler]

I got a cell phone, cable internet, and ditched the home phone completely. The cell is unlisted, and the only people who call me are those I've given the number to.

 

I've received one telemarketing call in the last 3 years. And before he finished telling me what company he was with, I said 'this is a cell phone and you're using up my minutes'. He immediately apologized and hung up, and I never heard from him again. I think it's illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones for that reason, so I'm glad to be free from phone spam.

[Vigile]

Many states have laws that fine the telemarketer if they call you after you ask to be removed from their list. I used to just ask them to remove me. At that point I usually got a quick appology and "uh, yeah, sure." One or two got huffy with me though and one even argued with me when I told him I would report him for calling me twice.

 

I like Seinfeld's response best. "I'm kind of busy now. Can I get your home number and I'll call you later this evening? What? That's against policy? I guess you don't want anyone calling you and bothering you while your relaxing right? Well now you know how I feel." (from memory, so I probably screwed it up somewhere)

[No Heaven for Kevin]

If you are on the "Do Not Call" list, just report offending telemarketers to:

 

https://www.donotcall.gov/Complain/ComplainCheck.aspx

 

but I think you have to be on the list for 30 days or so before it takes effect. I've been on it since it first came out and have not had but a couple of calls since. Also, tell the person to put you on their "Do not call list", because if you tell them to take you off their list, it will be taken off but it will just come back when they purchase a call list from somebody else.

[pandora]

Hey Jose, GanjaC and pagmatic, what were the worst and best aspects of doing this type of work? It must be a huge industry since the calls just come fast and furious. They sound like sweatshops, but that's a stereotype and it would be interesting to hear from Those Who Know.

 

The best aspect of doing it? No question about that... it was the money. I worked part-time on commission generating leads for in-home salesmen and every lead I got was worth $1. Every sale generated from my lead was worth $10 and every upgraded sale was worth $12. I've got one of the sexier phone voices out there (not bragging, just stating a fact), so I could generate about 20 leads an hour.

 

Eighty leads per day by itself was $80, roughly one-quarter sold, so twenty sales was $200. Of the sales, about half upgraded, so another $120.

 

That's $400 per day... multiply that by six days (the only day we didn't work was Sunday), so my checks came in at around $2,000.00 after taxes for working 24 hours a week.

 

The worst aspect of it was the stress. You can't keep those kind of stats up forever and my sales started to slip due to burnout around the same time I got in a pretty bad car accident, so I just lay around the house for six months taking pain pills and sleeping, then I went and got a "real" job where I made half as much money working twice as long, but the stress wasn't nearly as bad so I learned how to budget my money and I've been working office jobs like this one since then.

 

 

Sexy voice, huh? Wanna give me a cal?

 

 

I have caller ID, so usually I can screen them (even though we're on the no call list, we get tons of them). I bought pain medication online once (lovely Lortab) and I keep getting calls from pharmacies who want to sell me more. Sometimes unknown numbers are some of my friends, so when I answer and it happens to be a telemarketer, I just say "She's not here right now." I am too nice to say something mean.

[Bodhi-in-Training]

I like to ask them to hold a moment...put down the receiver, go about my business and leave them hanging there on the line. They hang up at some point within that 1/2 hour or so.

[Taphophilia]

Telemarketers do make a lot of money. It's a shit job, so they compensate well to get people to do it.

 

When telemarketers call me. I tell them I'm the babysitter right away. I sound young, like a teenager, so it works.

They want to get off the phone with me ASAP after I say that.

 

Taph

[godlessgrrl]

On the subject of blocking calls - we have Qwest (Qworst!) out here, and they have a service connected to their voicemail that automatically screens unfamiliar calls. If a call comes in that's blocked by their caller ID, the phone company routes it to a recording which says "you have reached a number that does not accept solicitations. Please press 1..." and then i don't remember what it says after that, because I always press 1!

 

But of course the idea there is that an unfamiliar or blocked call doesn't even ring through to the house at all; if it's a real caller, they have to press 1 to get through; if it's a telemarketer, they've just been told to FOAD, so they *can't* press 1; if it's a pre-recorded call the phone just hangs up on them because there's nobody there to press 1 in the first place.

 

I've occasionally put telemarketers off by claiming I don't have a life equipped to use whatever they're offering. Like one time somebody called trying to sell me Venetian blinds, and I told them "Oh, thanks for calling, but we don't have any windows."

 

One of my former profs, who's one of the sweetest, nicest people on the planet, got a call from some guy offering who knows what, and after he got through his spiel, she paused and said, very nicely: "So what did you really want to do with your life?"

 

Funny thing is, there was a longish pause on the other end, and then the guy said "Well, I really wanted to be an architect." And then they got into this convo about why he gave it up, and how he could actually go back to school and achieve it! Supposedly after the call he was going to quit and go back to school; in any case he probably got fired anyway for spending a half hour on the phone not actually selling something, but whatever. I thought that was a funny story. Plus a hopeful one, if he did quit.

[queenie]

Do Not Call registry has been wonderful, however, we just transferred some of our credit cards to different ones (lower interest rates and all that) and now those companies are annoying us constantly. In fact, one justs called moments ago. They already have my business, why are they doing everything in their power to piss me off??

 

 

I had a friend a few years back that did a killer East Indian accent. They'd call and he'd flip into that, start talking nonsense and the callers would always hang up on him instead. I, unfortunately, am not that quick witted.

[Taphophilia]

On the subject of blocking calls - we have Qwest (Qworst!) out here, and they have a service connected to their voicemail that automatically screens unfamiliar calls. If a call comes in that's blocked by their caller ID, the phone company routes it to a recording which says "you have reached a number that does not accept solicitations. Please press 1..." and then i don't remember what it says after that, because I always press 1!

 

But of course the idea there is that an unfamiliar or blocked call doesn't even ring through to the house at all; if it's a real caller, they have to press 1 to get through; if it's a telemarketer, they've just been told to FOAD, so they *can't* press 1; if it's a pre-recorded call the phone just hangs up on them because there's nobody there to press 1 in the first place.

 

I've occasionally put telemarketers off by claiming I don't have a life equipped to use whatever they're offering. Like one time somebody called trying to sell me Venetian blinds, and I told them "Oh, thanks for calling, but we don't have any windows."

 

One of my former profs, who's one of the sweetest, nicest people on the planet, got a call from some guy offering who knows what, and after he got through his spiel, she paused and said, very nicely: "So what did you really want to do with your life?"

 

Funny thing is, there was a longish pause on the other end, and then the guy said "Well, I really wanted to be an architect." And then they got into this convo about why he gave it up, and how he could actually go back to school and achieve it! Supposedly after the call he was going to quit and go back to school; in any case he probably got fired anyway for spending a half hour on the phone not actually selling something, but whatever. I thought that was a funny story. Plus a hopeful one, if he did quit.

 

Qwenmead,

 

Too funny about not having windows. I will have to remember that.

 

I like the story about your Prof.

 

I used to work in a call center selling tickets for International Speedway Corp. I wasn't a telemarketer; people called me wanting to buy tickets. I sold tickets for 12 racetracks across the country. We were supposed to only be on the phone for 5 minutes or less a call, or at least average 5 minutes or less a call for the day.

 

The tickets were not cheap. $95 gets you the worst seat in the house and it goes up from there. It takes time to find a person good seats. So, I never paid attention to the time and looked for the best seats I could find. (If they were mean or rude to me, they got shitty seats.)

 

I was wrote up a couple of times because I went over my time. It pissed me off because I sold the most volume in tickets. Because I fucking cared and word got around, people would call and ask for me. I would also stay on the phone with someone explaining things even if I didn't make a sale.

 

I had the highest quality assurance rating; people would ask to talk to my supervisor to tell them how pleased they were with me. Yet, if I would have stayed there they would have fired me due to the 5 minute a call rule.

[snookums]

Like everything else .....telemarketing is largely outsourced to overseas bases like India. Its cheaper now for the large companies like American express to pay in Asian currancy/wage rates...

check out their accents next time?

Shit ...why be cruel its only a job that people do. Hang up immediately and get on with your own life.