This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
Calling all idiots
To all the asshats who complain about telemarketers calling you….you are fucking idiots. For all the whining and complaining you people do you are none to bright. If you don’t like being called then ask the company calling you to remove you from their
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i was in the same boat and i got told off at random, and we wern’t allowed to defend ourselved, usually the cocky jackass would hang up after his rant so i couldn’t. i began to take it personally, then it occured to me, i am usually the first phone call of the evening after being stuck in traffic, being humilated by the boss and the big shot at work, stuck in traffic again, fighting with the teenage daughter who don’t care anymore, some people are at their wits end and need to vent, unfortunately for us poor souls at the other end of the phone, we usually have to put up with their lifes imperfections. i don’t like when telemarketers call, but i do participate in surveys for companies. being polite is surprisingly not that hard. when i am getting torn into…” you always call at suppertime” …” sir, did you want me to take you off the calling list so you won’t get calls from this company anymore?”…”yeah”..” sir that’s all you had to say” then they feel like tools for geeking out. what people have to realize is that the person on the other end of the phone is getting paid to do this. as in, paying theur bills, feeding their kids and keeping a car on the road, the people we call have to realize that this is a livlihood like any other, and all you have to do is ask us to put you on the do not contact list, it’s that simple. imagine having a job where you get bitched at all day. you’re heart would wear thin after a while. so while we as the callers, have to understand that it isn’t personal most times, we are just the faceless voice so they can let off some steam, you also have to realize we have a job, and how ever inconveincing it is to you, acting like a human being rather then an ass will help you out better, y’know, ya catch more flies with honey then ya do with vinegar. actually you’ll cat more flies with lemon dish soap then you do with anything, but that makes the cliche sound stupid. we aren’t askin much, just try being nice about it when you wnat us to stop calling you, if you say to take you off the list we can not call you anymore, it will be against the privacy laws. common sence isn’t that common.
I also work the phones on a part time basis. We’re not all telemarketeers. I don’t sell anything and wouldn’t work for a company that asked me to do telephone sales. I’m lucky enough to have that choice. When I call it’s for research purposes ONLY and we always make that clear in our introduction. All we want is your opinion. We are polite, cheerful, respectful, and we work for a professional marketing research firm. Your opinions are important. You may be the only person in your immediate community who is given the opportunity to have real imput into a matter that is of great concern to your community and communities like yours. The research could affect such things as funding or planning for your school district, your medical services, transportation, tourism, parks and any number of things that are important for you and your neighbours. To instantly assume that every call you get from a business is a sales call is unfair to both you and I.If you’re not interested after the introduction, PLEASE say so. We will thank you for your time and not bother you again. It’s just that simple. We insert a N/I on our call sheet and the chances that we call your number back within the next year or so are extremely remote. Please do not put us off by saying something like this is a bad time, call back tomorrow or the next day. We WILL call back – it’s our job to call back. If you schedule a call-back time and have the answering machine pick up, we will keep trying until a person answers. Why put yourself and me through such a ridiculous and unnecessary charade? So much time, money, and energy (on both sides) is wasted on telephone tag. When you try to intimidate or lash out at someone calling your home, you’re lashing out at a person who is trying to earn an honest living. If that in any way makes you feel superior then I’m sure as hell glad I don’t live in your skin. Please rest assured that you won’t intimidate or upset us. We will simply mark the call as “rude” or “hung up at intro” and escalate it. Then you’ll have to deal with a supervisor – best of luck to you on that one LOL. Most of the people I reach are just a joy to speak with and provide valuable and intelligent responses. Your rude response will not take that away :). As PERSON on the other end said in her post, we don’t have you under surveillance. Don’t be paranoid. If you’re on a list (as in the PERSON’s case) politely ask to be removed. By law, he/she has to remove you from the list. The End. In our case, unless you have been pre-screened and agreed to participate in further research with us, we do not have you on a list. We don’t have a clue who you are or where you live (besides the general area – county). Your telephone number has been randomly generated by a computer. Your number is what we call a “cold call”. Many of the cold call numbers we dial are businesses, cottages, or numbers not in service. We cross these numbers off – do not call back. We are looking for REAL people in a particular demographic (target population). If I’m calling to speak to MEN in Nova Scotia about a given subject and a woman answers who lives alone, I cannot persue the survey with her (much as I’d like to). I cannot even pass it on to a co-worker beside me who is calling WOMEN in Nova Scotia. It’s that demographic specific. So please consider this side of the coin before hanging up or being rude to the next person who calls you. It’s not an easy job to do and you and your community just might benefit from that call. Regards.
Obviously you people have no idea how annoying it is to be called up by a total stranger and:1. be asked questions about how much money you have to invest.2. be asked over and over again to sign up for some credit card feature you don’t want and then being asked to justify why you don’t want it.3. be called in the middle of supper by someone claiming they are from the Police Department and being asked for by name, rushing to the phone because you think it is something important, and then finding out it is someone trying to sell you something.4. being asked to justify for the millionth time why you do not want to pay for something you don’t want.5. being called by someone related to my bank and being told that I am an idiot for buying mutual funds.I realize that people on the other end of the phone are just trying to make a living, and for a long time I would answer the phone and listen to the spiel just to be polite. But, you know what that got me? TEN TIMES AS MANY PHONE CALLS. It is at the point where I no longer answer my phone because I get so many calls. Sure, you can ask to be taken off their call list but the calls won’t stop coming because your number has already been given or sold to dozens of their affiliates. I can’t wait until Canada gets a don’t call registry. I will be the first to sign up.
If you are that violently against telemarketers calling you, do what I did. Suck it up, change your phone number (costs about $35…Aliant will break up the payments on your bill over 6 months), and pay the $5.95 per month to be UNLISTED. If a company gets your phone number and calls you after that, then you gave your phone number out, and it’s your fault.The peace and quiet is well worth the $5.95/month.
“Person on the other end” – the process you wrote about to remove your number would be a great idea…..if it actually worked that way. There have been several companies that I have requested to remove my name/number from their lists. But the calls continued – way past the however-many-weeks they said it would take to get me off the list. Either that, or they give you some bullcrap about having to make the request in writing to the company. I didn’t want my damn number given to them in the first place, so why should i have to go through all that trouble to get it removed????