posted on May 4, 2001 04:03:44 PM new
My husband's family has a surname of French origin. Because the accent is not available on most keyboards, businesses, marketers , etc. inevitably mispronounce it.
Dead giveaway.
My father-in-law always says " sorry, he's gone to China ", when asked for.
Only a very brave few have ever asked when " he'll " be back !
posted on May 4, 2001 04:20:22 PM new
I did telemarketing sales for a year during college. It's a crappy job. You sit there in a cubicle and have to call people who hate you. At many places there is a supervisor hovering nearby listening to you, to see if you're selling hard enough.
Nobody does telemarketing because they really want to. They do it because they need money to get by and it's probably the only job they can get at the moment.
There's nothing dishonorable about working for a living -- and that's what they're doing. For themselves and their families. Would you rather they were collecting unemployment or welfare?
Maybe you guys think it's funny or clever to treat these people badly. But your real beef isn't with them -- it's with the companies that create telemarketing divisions, or that generate and sell phone lists.
Taking your frustration out on people who are just trying to make minimum wage is petty, IMHO.
Say a firm no thank you. If they persist (and they probably will because they have to if they don't want to lose their jobs), say no thank you again, good night, and hang up the phone.
P.S. If it's a marketing survey taker, tell them you work for an advertising agency. They aren't allowed to include you in their surveys and they will end the call on the spot. This also works for those people who approach you with clipboards and questionnaires at the mall.
posted on May 4, 2001 04:35:55 PM new
Usually I just say "No thank you," and hang up.
When I notice the same Co. repeat calling I ask to be placed on their don't call list, most respond appropriately.
There is now a law such that they can be heavily fined if they continue to call after being asked not to (specific request wording, including requesting caller's name and affiliation, and note taking is required).
posted on May 4, 2001 04:41:05 PM new
We now have a privacy manager service from the phone company that stops almost all those calls from coming through.
Before I would quietly put the phone down without hanging up and let them run on as long as they wanted until they figured out nobody was there.
posted on May 4, 2001 05:12:26 PM new
If I answer...get a dead line...I hang up. If I answer, get the merest inkling of a sales pitch...I say "No thank you" and hang up.
I don't feel any need to have a conversation with a salesperson. I buy nothing over the phone.
posted on May 4, 2001 06:00:25 PM new
I keep the answering machine on all the time. My friends know to identify themselves and give me a couple of moments to get to the phone. In the 10 years or more that I've been doing this, I've only had one telemarketer be goofy enough to leave a message.
posted on May 4, 2001 06:27:48 PM new
I have Voice Mail so I usually don't answer the phone unless I'm expecting a call. I also hang up if I hear a dead line. If a solicitor does get through, I say,"I'll save your time - I don't buy anything over the phone." I can be off the phone in less than thirty seconds without being impolite.
More annoying than solicitors was one drunk that used to call continually before I got an answering machine. No matter how many times I told him that he had the wrong number, he called back. Finally, when he would ask for John , I'd say,"Just a minute and I'll get him". Then I'd walk away and leave him waiting on the phone while I had a cup of coffee or read the paper. An answering machine took care of that problem.
posted on May 4, 2001 10:38:09 PM new
Rather than being insulting (besides, it's hard to get a word in edgewise once they start their sales pitch, and some won't take "no" for an answer), as soon as I realize the caller is a telemarketer, I just set the phone down. That way, they are free to continue with their spiel as long as they like, and I am free to get on with my life. Usually, I'll check back in 5 or 10 minutes- by then, they're always gone.
posted on May 4, 2001 11:42:23 PM new
Hello,
One friend insults them. But it's just someone doing a job.
I say just a minute and set the phone down and go back to reading, listing, chores, etc.
Sometimes I go out on an errand.
I have voice messaging, so I never miss a call. The repeats are few. Once I picked up the phone 15 minutes later to make a call and she was still holding. I just hung up.
Rou
(feeling silly cuz I just read Mr. Potatohead's post!!!)
[ edited by LilRedDog on May 4, 2001 11:59 PM ]
posted on May 5, 2001 01:31:19 PM new
I just lay the phone down on the table, wait a few minutes and hang it up-I love to think about them going thru their entire spiel and then realizing no one is listening!
posted on May 5, 2001 02:21:44 PM new
There have been some really funny ways presented, strategic, and heavy handed...but I appreciate all of them.
The point still is these people have a hell of a nerve using an instrument that we pay for to invade our privacy. The ringing phone is an incessant aggravation. I have an answering machine, which states: You have reached ####, if you are trying to sell us ANYTHING please hang up...we buy NOTHING over the phone EVER, if you would like to leave a message we will return your call as soon as we are able.
I have found that when you block annonymous phone numbers you could be locking out your doctors office, or the hospital...many use unlisted numbers to insure privacy, with health issues in my family I cannot afford to have that happen.
One of my favorite answering machine messages.
Hi! XXX's answering machine is broken. This is his refrigerator. Please speak very slowly, and I'll stick your message to myself with one of these magnets.
posted on May 5, 2001 02:28:58 PM new
I really don't understand this perverse pride you take in abusing people who are simply doing a job. May all of your eBay customers treat you as well.
posted on May 5, 2001 04:13:55 PM new
For anyone who works night shifts, telemarketer calls = sleep deprivation. That can be more than an annoyance when you are taking care of patients who need their caregiver to be 100% sharp.
posted on May 5, 2001 04:40:03 PM new
I can't see how anyone who has even the slightest concern and consideration for others could possibly take such a job as telemarketer regardless that they may have allowed themselves to spiral into a dire circumstance. It's their own failing that brings them to do as they do, and anyone who could fail so miserably is deserving of nothing better than the contempt that confronts them.
posted on May 5, 2001 04:44:16 PM newSpaz, how would you feel about having sales people ring your doorbell 8, 10 and 11 times a day? Not just 8 etc. x 4 that is the number of rings it takes for the answering machine to kick in. Now consider that many of those sales people are calling while you are making dinner or listing products on ebay.
I am not part of the "you" but junk mail is bad enough, at least the Companies are paying to send it out and I can dump it and help fill up landfills.
The thrust of my complaint is, using MY phone that I pay for,for the privilege of making necessary out going calls and receiving communication from family, friends and doctors...to enter my space and annoy me with incessant ringing and taking up my time I am very serious, let potential customers SIGN up to receive solicitation if they want it not the other way around.
Complain to the companies that employ them. Complain to the Direct Marketing Association of America. Complain to your state regulators (here in New York if you instruct a company to take your name off their list, and they don't comply and call again, and if you file a complaint with the state, the company will be fined and the money goes to you).
But don't take it out on the person calling. It's just as easy to be polite but firm as it is to be rude or "clever."
There seems to be a mindset in America that it's okay to be rude to people if they are in certain occupations -- waiters or waitresses, telemarketers, etc. Like there's an implied inferiority. I personally think it's wrong. JMHO.
posted on May 5, 2001 05:01:11 PM new
I use caller I.D. and I also have a "silent" number. The only people that have my number are those that I have given it to.wink
posted on May 5, 2001 05:35:31 PM new"There seems to be a mindset in America that it's okay to be rude to people if they are in certain occupations -- waiters or waitresses, telemarketers, etc. Like there's an implied inferiority"
I disagree entirely.
In the first place a waiter or waitress, or most other service occupations are engaged to do business in areas which the customer enters and contracts for the service. A telemarketer is an invasive and uncontracted for pest, regardless the intent of the hapless caller.
In the second place I know from long experience that those two examples, waiting at table both, done well, are highly skilled occupations of technique and style. Anyone who knows me knows that I am very monetarily appreciative of services provided with skill in any endeavor. Hardly inferior, people who have the skills to perform such services with traditional expertise are artisans who earn every accolade.
In comparison, telemarketers are as garbage can scroungers. If they came to the house I would kick them.
posted on May 5, 2001 06:27:27 PM new
If anyone takes a job that is normally known to be looked down on, knowing they will receive retaliatory comments from those they deal with. They have to accept the job assignment they are taking, and the responsibilities that go along with it. The good, and the bad. It is a job in which another persons privacy is invaded, and their lives are wasted, trying to avoid such attempts to force upon them the "...little slices of death...", as I think was said by Edgar Alan Poe. He was speaking of sleep, but the end result is the same. Parts of your life are wasted doing what you do not want to do, at the hands of someone who has their own use for it. They have come to you, you did not request this invasion in your life. It should be considered theft of your life, preventing you from your life's valued time. Sounds overstated, maybe, but maybe not. How many hours, days, weeks, months, in a lifetime did you lose?
posted on May 5, 2001 07:01:12 PM new
Since I have several brick and mortar businesses, I get an incredible amount of junk calls. Here is how I deal with them:
Dead Air - Hang up immediately
Long Distance - Tell them I only change carriers if they send me a check for $25 for more. If they do, I cash the check - and stay only until someone else sends me money. I am up about $400 on this one.
All Others - I tell them they have 2 minutes to explain what they are selling. After that I tell them to go on or politely tell them I do not want to waste their time - or mine because I will not be spending any money on their product. If they continue I just hang up.
MY ALL TIME FAVORITE:
People from another religion kept coming around my parent's home trying to get them to convert. My father told them he would invite them in and listen to all they had to say IF they let him tell them about his religion first. They literally ran off of the porch!
posted on May 5, 2001 08:26:36 PM new
Top 10 things to do to telemarketers!
10. When they ask "How are you today?" Tell them! "I'm so glad you asked because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems; my arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died..."
9. If they say they're John Doe from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name. Then ask them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located. Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.
8. Cry out in surprise, "Judy! Is that you? Oh my God! Judy, how have you been?" Hopefully, this will give Judy a few brief moments of pause as she tries to figure out where the h-l she could know you from.
7. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan, reply, in as SINISTER a voice as you can, "I don't have any friends ....would you be my friend?"
6. If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money.
5. Tell the telemarketer you are on "home incarceration" and ask if they could bring you a case of beer and some chips.
4. After the telemarketer gives their spiel, ask him/her to marry you. When they get all flustered, tell them that you could not just give your credit card number to a complete stranger.
3. Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask them if they will give you their HOME phone number so you can call them back. When the telemarketer explains that they cannot give out their HOME number, you say "I guess you don't want anyone bothering you at home, right?" The telemarketer will agree and you say, "Now you know how I feel!" Say good bye - and Hang up.
2. Insist that the caller is really your buddy Leon, playing a joke. "Come on Leon, cut it out! Seriously, Leon, how's your momma?"
1. And first and foremost: Tell them to talk VERY SLOWLY, because you want to write EVERY WORD down.
posted on May 5, 2001 08:57:42 PM new
Well, realistically, it should be against the law! Especially when you pay to have an unlisted number.
I want to get a rape whistle, or some very loud shrill whistle. That should work fairly well because I know one thing; asking them to take you off their solicitation list does NOT work at all!
posted on May 5, 2001 09:10:41 PM new
I politely but firmly tell them I'm not interested and leave it at that. I don't appreciate companies that use such marketing practices, but I don't take it out on the person calling me. I strongly suspect that very few set out for a career as a telemarketer, but only do it out of necessity.
posted on May 6, 2001 04:04:39 AM new
Personally, were I a telemarketer, I would appreciate a creative, witty response once in a while. Nothing like a chuckle to make the day a little more palatable.
------
The best reply is silence. Just hang up.
I recall seeing on 60 Minutes, Dateline or one of those shows, where a telemarketing company's contract included a list of all of the usual, polite responses as being positive responses to what they were selling.
If the callee used any of these typical responses instead of giving a creative response or just hanging up, it was considered a yes to the product, unbeknownst
to the callee at the time.
posted on May 6, 2001 07:10:21 AM new
I work nights, so when someone calls in the morning, as soon as I figure out it's a telemarketer, I just say, "Sorry, I work nights and never buy anything from someone who wakes me up." It really doesn't help, but it makes me feel better, and at least they know that I feel seriously inconvenienced.
