An actual conversation I just had with an outfit that regularly calls Kathleen (during dinner time, of course) looking to have her donate money:
CALLER: Is Kathleen David there?
ME: No, she’s not.
CALLER: When would be a better time to reach her?
ME: When she’s here.
(Confused silence. Then…)
CALLER: Thank you.
ME: No problem.
PAD
• 
Megan: “Whenever we get these calls at dinnertime, we ask the caller for their home phone number and what time they’ll be sitting down for dinner. When they ask why we want to know, we tell them it’s so we can call them back during their dinner.”
Sorry to take the wind out of your sails, Megan, but you’re comparing apples and oranges. Telemarketers are calling you from their place of work, and have limits placed on their behavior by their management. If you, on the other hand, had their home phone number, you could curse them out, call them at 2 a.m., call them repeatedly and hang up, or otherwise harrass them without easy recourse on their part.
Besides, griping at a telemarketer is like bìŧçhìņg at a cashier because you don’t like the prices at Wal-Mart. In both cases, the people pulling the strings are many times removed from the situation.
And, uh, you do realize that telemarketers receive telemarketing calls at home too, right? So they do indeed “know what it feels like.”
Posted by: Phil at February 18, 2008 01:03 AM
well, I just quit a job where i had to do quite a bit of cold calling and sales.
Phil: “For instance, after leaving a message, and then asking the person on the line who it is I am leaving a message with. This usually gets a uh, um uh, click.
“My favorite is when some one hangs up on you in the middle of you telling them what you are calling about. At that point I call them right back, and say in a completely ignorantly innocent voice. ‘Sorry about that Mr./Mrs. SoandSo, I think we just got disconnected.'”
Oh, dude.
Phil, Phil, Phil.
This is exactly the kind of horseshit that leads people to call residential telemarketers “scum.” Calling people in their homes is intrusive enough as it is. If someone offers to take a message, leave it at that. If someone hangs up, move on to the next prospect.
By refusing to adopt such high-pressure tactics, I may have cost myself some sales during my telemarketing days. But the low-key and respectful style of selling I learned to adopt as a telemarketer is exactly what allowed me to break into corporate sales, where there’s more money and WAAAAYYYYY more job satisfaction. Many of the telemarketers who used to scoff at me for “not having the guts” to do the things you described are still telemarketers.
Posted by: Phil
My favorite is when some one hangs up on you in the middle of you telling them what you are calling about. At that point I call them right back, and say in a completely ignorantly innocent voice. “Sorry about that Mr./Mrs. SoandSo, I think we just got disconnected.”
…and this is the sort of reason why i keep a police whistle by my phone.
The best one I ever did was with Sprint. I had been getting hammered by phone companies wanting me to change my plan, and I was happy with what I had.
The Sprint lady caught me on a bad day. She said, “Hello, I’m Sally with Sprint, how are you today?” I pretended that I couldn’t hear her. We went back and forth for a minute, with her speaking louder and louder, articulating her sentences more and more. I pretended to finally get that she was talking about telephone service, and said, “Why does the U.S. Mint care about my phone service?” She spoke loudly into the phone and re-identified herself as U.S. SPRINT, sir. I ended the call with “look, if you guys can’t get áhøld of me with a clear connection when you’re soliciting my business, why should I think that your regular service is going to be any better?” and hung up.
Yeah, I know. Yukyukyuk. Emily Latella lives, and all that.
Sally submarined me, though…she called back the next day and spoke a couple of sentences with me to make sure that the connection was clear, and THEN she identified herself.
I still didn’t take the service.
With all due respect to Mr. Myers, I do understand that telemarketing is a job nobody wants, filled with rejection.
But a) nobody made anyone take that job, and b) phone calls are by their very nature intrusive. When you cold call someone you don’t know, you deserve exactly what you get.
When someone annoys me, I reserve the right to annoy them right back.
And I know that every single point that I made has been made (and answered)by other people on this post.
But it’s my take, and the “U.S. Mint” line always gets a laugh when I tell the story, so there you are.
Have a lovely day.
True story from about ten years ago.
Prior to the no call list being put into law, I was getting calls from Capital One dámņ near every day. After about the fifth day in a row, I told them I wasn’t going to get their credit card and to stop calling. I got a call back the very next day, so I asked to speak to a manager. I very irately told him that I didn’t want called, I didn’t want their credit card and to stop bothering me.
He sighed and said…
…I swear on my mother’s grave this is true…
“Look buddy, it’s my job to make these calls, and it’s yours to have to listen to them.”
That was the only time I ever told anyone on the phone “F— you!”
I hung up, but as Seinfeld once said, it just isn’t satisfying to press the disconnect button on a cordless. You want to slam the receiver down.
I think I was shaking for about a half hour after that one.
I’m a bit surprised to find that Bill Myers is showing the most class of anyone on the string lately, as I have disagreed with him so often before. I have always disliked having to use the telephone and resented telemarketers, but he has shown a very healthy perspective on the subject. One area in which I think he is helpless to rescue fellow telemarketers is that of fraudulent solicitations. I’ll take his word for it that he was selling a legitimate product and using legitimate means of marketing when he was in the business – or at least that he made a good effort to remain clean. What he cannot reverse is the fact that the public knows there are many scams going on, both in sales and solicitation of donations. As one example, it’s quite uncomfortable to hang up on a caller who claims to be representing the local police or fire department, but I’ve had to do just that when several callers just would not stop telling me how they’d be willing to accept a slightly smaller donation than they had originally demanded. There is sometimes a nearly-overt threat that the police know who donates and who doesn’t – and will respond accordingly. That comes pretty close to extortion by threat. Of course, many of these callers do not really represent the officers or firemen they say they do, and that’s more in the line of fraud.
All I can say now is thank heavens for the “Do Not Call” register.
Jeffrey, I’d hope that your determination of whether or not someone has class doesn’t depend on your agreement with them. Granted, Bill’s an intelligent guy. I wish most people would approach a discussion, on-line or no, with the consideration , forethought, and respect that Bill and a few others around here show repeatedly.
What does antagonizing people have to do with the equal application of principle? How is that not protectionist sniveling?
Speaking of apples and oranges, if I avoid Wal-Marts, no Wal-Mart cashier requires an explanation from me why I don’t shop there. That isn’t true of telemarketers.
Telemarketers are calling you from their place of work, and have limits placed on their behavior by their management.
Not my problem. I don’t ask them to call me.
In addition to the above post, I’d like to add that what used to annoy me the most, is that we have had “silent” phone numbers (ie we’re not in the directory) for over 20 years, and we don’t give it out “willy-nilly”. We changed it again about 6 months ago.
Megan,
Some telemarketers are still going to find your number. Some use a machine to automatically dial every possible number.
Posted by: Alan Coil
Some telemarketers are still going to find your number. Some use a machine to automatically dial every possible number.
And, in many if not all states (certainly Georgia) pay Large Fines if caught doing so.
To do so is also a violation of the Federal Do Not Call list.
It’s quite hard to track down “Unavailable,” which is all many unwelcome solicitations will remain. I suppose the occasional fine is just a cost of doing business, as far as some solicitors are concerned.