I used to be civil to telemarketers because deep down I knew these folks calling me were just doing their job. Now I'm going to be ruthless. They will beg not to have to dial my number.
I was never civil to them in the first place. They call me without my wanting them to, and I've always been pretty rude to them. After all, they're invading my home. Now I'm going to be even nastier to them.
Yeah- let's make the 19 year-old kid putting himself through college and the single mom working her second job pay for filing this law suit. How dare they hire those high-priced attourneys.
I know what you mean, and I know my anger is misplaced, and I know being a telemarketer is one of the worst jobs on the planet. I always ask to be removed from the call list first, and it's when the person who called says something like "are you sure? You're missing a great opportunity" that I lay into them. What can I say, I'm a Jim Florentine fan.
[George Costanza] Telemarketing is killing civil Meridian. [/George Costanza] Seriously though how do I get all of these mother*#*#*#*#ers to stop calling my God damned house?
So you'll convince the 19 year old college student to pick up yet another student loan. You'll get the single mom to get a second job at Denny's. And you'll get even bigger a-holes calling you. Any of you folks ever heard of Caller ID?
I understand your point, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't want telemarketers calling me. Apparantly around 50 million other people feel the same way.
You know I have had this conversation with other friends and it is just irrational. I try to explain that these are low paid workers etc. and all they can see is that someone is "invading their house". These friends are otherwise rational , liberal and compassionate people but on this subject they go nuts. I have given up trying to convince them otherwise. On an economics note this law was going to have serious detrimental affects for the economy. They estimated millions being laid off and these are the folks who can least afford it. Question- those who hate Telemarketers - do you hate door-to-door folks also? As an aside - my solution has been to ditch my land line altogether and get a cell phone. If on the rare occassion I am called on the cell - they hang up fast when I tell them they are calling me on a cell phone.
Actually it is a good thing in my opinion. Not cause I enjoy telemarketers but I don't trust them to follow the law (especially the ones not based in the states). The list that was generated was incredibly insecure. It was to be available on the web because telemarketers would have been required to update their DNC lists monthly. If the federal governments track record is an sort of indicator then its reasonable to believe that information available on the web is not exactly secure. So what one has then is a list of millions of names and telephone numbers - for free. This also creates a huge list of people that value privacy and puts it in the governments hands. Again, not an entity known for its respect of privacy. Furthermore, there was no controls or verification needed to add a number to the list other than an email address. I know of many people who added numbers (like, say, the number of the New York times) that definently weren't theirs. The intent was good but the system was horribly flawed. I'm glad it was slowed down though its unfortunant it was due to them caving to the lobbies rather than acting with concern for the people.
My sympathy towards drug addicts does not extend to allowing myself to be mugged. My sympathy towards the working poor does not extend to pretending a telemarketing cold call is a conversation where the rules of civil society apply.
Maybe we could round up all the illegal aliens, and then they could get these chumps to go take the jobs that illegal aliens now occupy. For question no. 2, I especially hate door-to-door mormons. The neighborhood kids selling cookies get a pass.
I appreciate that there are needy people working in these jobs. Needy people also work at McDonalds, car washes, and numerous other jobs that I don't happen to give my money to (does this disqualify me from being liberal?) that's not the issue. If I don't want to receive solicitation calls, why should I have to? I also can't figure out why the telemarketing industry would want to call someone who has specifically asked not to recieve these calls. Who's rights (and I know that the word "right" in this discussion might be a bit murky) is more important? The telemarketer's "right" to call me every *#*#*#*#ing evening and weekends (incl. Sunday) as part of some percieved free speech excercise or my rights to peace and privacy? I do have caller id, but that isn't the issue, the onus should not be on me, espeically when an acceptable consumer oriented remedy has been suggested by the FTC. While I'm reluctant to just site the sheer mob numbers, as you could find millions of people who support just about anything, it is relevant that 50,000,000 people are in favor of a Do Not Call list.
I had a telemarketer call for my girlfriend. I immediately knew it was a telemarketer because they mangled both her first and last name. I tearfully explained that she had recently left me to shack up with her yoga teacher and that I didn't have that number.
Really? I mean, what did they really produce? It's like those studies of the economic impact of a sports stadium. They're always nuts, because they never take into account that alot of the money people will spend on tickets and stuff to games would otherwise go toward other forms of entertainment, like movies and restaurants. The telemarketers are paid from the profits of whatever product they sell. People will still need the products. The only economic "loss" is the loss of efficiency. I'm willing to put up with that to have some peace and quiet at home. As for telemarketers, I always use the bit from Seinfeld. TM: May I please speak to superdave? SD: That's me. TM: I'd like to sell you some.... SD: I'm kind of busy right now, can I call you back? TM: Well, these phone lines don't accept incoming calls. SD: Can I call you at home then? TM: Well, um, that's.... SD: What, you don't like people calling you at home? <click>
So just because the telemarketer employees are low-paid, we should just be "good liberals" and put up with it? You'll have to put me on that list as well Whose They? Most call centers in this country handle incoming calls, rather than placing unsolicited outgoing calls. None of those people are going to lose their jobs. a) I don't hate the people who call - I hate that they are calling me b) I assume by door-to-door folks you mean Mormons? Those are the only people who have knocked on my door in years. So you are costing them jobs by hurting their chances of meeting their quotas.
I always just tell telemarketers that my parents aren't there. Which is true, as they live thousands of miles away. I love that Congress is actually trying to act quickly on this issue, though. All the rest of America's problems, they drag their heels on, but telemarketers...hoo, boy. We need us some more legislation but quick!
In a way, yes. But in another, more accurate way, no. I used to be a telemarketer. Trust me when I tell you, unless the telemarketer is a thin-skinned newbie, being rude does nothing. It may make you feel better, but it really doesn't affect the average telemarketer. I used to feed off it. If you really want to get under a telemarketers skin, the best thing to do is talk to them for a long time, make them think they've got you, waste a bunch of their time, then just say you've had a change of heart and hang up. Nothing is more annoying to a telemarketer. Plus, it's really fun.
I like the metaphor, but I believe Alex is thinking about call centers, not telemarketers. I have heard that both the credit card and airline industries make significant use of the prison population to process incoming calls, but I am not aware of convicts being used to make outgoing calls. Also, I think Scoey's tale puts to rest the "concern" expressed by some on behalf of telemarketers. It's also consistent with my experience of a particular subspecies of telemarketers. They used to be called paper pirates, but they do a lot more than sell crappy copier supplies. They exclusively target businesses and will use deception and intimidation to get useful names and other information for their nefarious purposes. They'll give you a call back number, but it's usually out of service, and they're rude too.