Telemarketers, Solicitors, and Other Forms of Low Life

Forums: Charity, Scams, Telemarketers, Solicitors
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I have a particular hate for telephone solicitors. As a result, I have listed my phone number with the government's "Do Not Call" number. Since I have done that, my nuisance calls have gone from a flood to a trickle.

https://www.donotcall.gov/

As I understand it, charities and political entities are exempt from the "do not call" opt-out. And that really pisses me off. We all know that most charities spend a substantial part of their donations on the telemarketers who generate the funds in the first place. IMO, that is a heinous practice, and needs to be stopped.

So what has elicited this outpouring of venom, you ask? It was a call, at 8:30 a.m., from a guy wanting to talk to my husband about donating to some state trooper charity. In the first place, I am already paying state troopers, through my taxes. Secondly, anyone who calls to solicit at 8:30 needs to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.

How do YOU feel about phone solicitations for charities, or political entities? Do you talk to these people? Do you find yourself writing out a check to these guys? Do you get pissed off just having them call? Please share!

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@Phoenix32890,

I dislike police solicitations as well. The worst/funniest was in the middle of a hurricane. The guy calls me up talking about how the local police are so important, etc and I practically scream that I am in the middle of a hurricane with no power and if he was local, he would know that. Silence from the other side.

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They are just people who need jobs to support themselves and their families. I am always polite with them as I figure they have a rough gig and do not need to listen to people being belligerent all day.

Let them give their spiel, tell them you are not interested and hang up. If nothing else, you give them a chance to speak to a fellow human being. Remember that they are people too.

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@Phoenix32890,

I got rid of my land line years ago and only use my cell, so I almost never get telemarketing calls.

My office line is another story however, and we get tons of sales calls in the office. I'm considering turning the office lines into a cell as well, but the price breakdown doesn't quite make sense yet.

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@Phoenix32890,

We simply view the phone number on our phone's id - if we don't know the number, we do not pick up. I do not believe even charities are supposed to call before 9am or after 9pm. We did receive a call after 9pm and told the telemarketer that it was after 9pm - he apoligized and hung up as I guess they can get into trouble for that.

I did receive one call the other day on my cell - I usually pick that up because I've never received a telemarketer call on my cell and I use that for emergency - like for my kids at camp and stuff. It was a telemarketer - I just immediately hung up when they started the sale pitch.

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@Phoenix32890,

I was told by a neighbor, who is a state trooper, that any phone requests for money on their behalf is a scam. It's not actually illegal for them to ask for money, but very little of it goes to the troopers (he thought about 2%). I'm also on the "Do not call" list and I tell anyone who does call to put me on their organization's don't call list because I never give money to anyone who calls me on the phone. I consider it an invasion of my privacy.

I think 8:30AM is illegal for any phone solicitation, and if you can find out the source you can report them to your State Attorney General and they can be fined.

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@Linkat,

yeah, us too

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@McGentrix,

I don't get Conservatives and compassion.

Families losing their house because of unethical lending... they should have been more careful.
Law abiding citizens singled out by police because of the color of their skin... we need law enforcement.
Credit card companies extracting over 20% interest from the poorest families... thats how business works.
People finding out their insurance companies won't cover their disease as a pre-existing condition... well that's life.

I don't get it.... Conservatives can't find any room in their cold hearts for broken families, poverty or victims of racial profiling.

But you have compassion for telemarketers?

... I suppose that's sweet.

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@McGentrix,

Quote:

They are just people who need jobs to support themselves and their families. I am always polite with them as I figure they have a rough gig and do not need to listen to people being belligerent all day.

Oh, I am never nasty. I simply tell them that I am on the "do not call" list, do not respond to ANY phone solicitations, and never to call me again.

Let's look at it from my point of view. IMO, my privacy is being disturbed. Many people are out there supporting families. That does not give the person a free pass to invade my territory.

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@ebrown p,

ebrown p wrote:

I don't get Conservatives and compassion.

Families losing their house because of unethical lending... they should have been more careful.
Law abiding citizens singled out by police because of the color of their skin... we need law enforcement.
Credit card companies extracting over 20% interest from the poorest families... thats how business works.
People finding out their insurance companies won't cover their disease as a pre-existing condition... well that's life.

I don't get it.... Conservatives can't find any room in their cold hearts for broken families, poverty or victims of racial profiling.

But you have compassion for telemarketers?

... I suppose that's sweet.

Apparently you just don't get conservatives as none of the things you list are true with the exception of those wanting attention.

Unethical lenders should be prosecuted, Buyers should beware. I had a lawyer for all my real estate deals. If I can do that, so can everyone.

Law abiding citizens singled out because of race? Referring to Gates I assume. Be nice to the cops and they will be nice to you. Be a dick and you get what you give.

Credit card companies suck. Stop using them.

Pre-existing conditions not being handled by insurance... that's hardly new and it really sucks sometimes. Yep. That's life. Stop getting new insurance.

The human condition effects us all, liberal or conservative. Conservatives like me expect the individual to deal with their problems. Liberals like you seem to want someone else to be your mommy and daddy and take care of you and your problems. It's a matter of personal responsibility.

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since signing up for canada's no call list we get very few telemarketers calling anymore

it's nice but sad, i used to like answering the phone and then holding the earbud to my ipod up to the phone so the folks could listen to opie and anthony or ron and fez or some other radio podcast

now, the few that call, call around the time i'm watching the news, so i click on the cordless phone and put it up by the tv speaker, these poor guys are working and don't get to listen to the news so i figure i'm doing them a service

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@McGentrix,

McGentrix wrote:

Credit card companies suck. Stop using them.

Pre-existing conditions not being handled by insurance... that's hardly new and it really sucks sometimes. Yep. That's life. Stop getting new insurance.

People treating you like crap when you call them at dinnertime to sell them a worthless car service plan.... get a real job.

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@ebrown p,

ebrown p wrote:

McGentrix wrote:

Credit card companies suck. Stop using them.

Pre-existing conditions not being handled by insurance... that's hardly new and it really sucks sometimes. Yep. That's life. Stop getting new insurance.

People treating you like crap when you call them at dinnertime to sell them a worthless car service plan.... get a real job.

True enough, but what is a "real job"? At least they aren't sucking off the governments teat.

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Without going into details, when I was 19, I was talked into magazines that I did not need by a fast talking salesman. It was the best money that I ever spent.

From that time on, no one could talk me into buying anything I don't want, or contributing to a charity that I had not wanted to give to myself.

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I try to be polite because there's no need to be rude, but I usually just interrupt them and say we have already donated and please take us off their list. In Canada they have to do it if you've requested it, and they give you a confirmation number.

I used to get office solicitations at the door, too, but I would tell them we decide our charity at home, so bugger off.

Just kidding. I just told them it was inappropriate at work.

I really get annoyed when all the calls are telemarketers - where are all my friends??

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According to this neat little website that compares the relative worth of money in diffferent years:

http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/

The $75- that I spent on the magazines would now cost over $550-. That is quite a bit for a kid with a minimum wage job, but looking back, it was money well spent.

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@Green Witch,

I just called the Wa State Patrol, the Sheriff's dept. and a local city Police Dept. and asked if they call taxpayers for donations. All 3 agencies said NO and they do not get any money from these charities who mention part of a police agency name in requesting money.

I also do not give any money to phone solicitators.

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And this is from my neck of the woods:

Quote:

•The Florida Highway Patrol Command Officers Association -- a group of 188 ranking and retired FHP command officers -- took in nearly $4.6 million in 2007, the last year for which state records were available, but spent only $162,425 on program services. Ninety-three cents of every dollar contributed in 2007 ended up going for fundraising.

•The Florida Association of State Troopers, which represents at least 850 members of the Highway Patrol, paid nearly 70 percent of the $2.5 million it raised in 2007 to a private telemarketing company. A 2006 tax return shows the association paid its executive director a salary of more than $92,000.

•A Panhandle couple -- Terry and Lorna Morrison -- earned a combined $206,000 over two years for running two charities dedicated to disabled police officers: the Disabled Police Officers of America and Disabled Police Officers Counseling Center of Florida, tax returns show. During the same time frame, the two groups spent about $291,000 on services for disabled police. The 2007 tax returns show that 83 percent of the $1.47 million raised by the groups went to pay for fundraising.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/18615210/detail.html

1 Reply

@TTH,

I did have one call from our local police (which I do like to support) - but it wasn't for them - it was for a charity function they put together. What I did because they said they come to the house to pick up the donation - was to hang up and call the police station to see if it was legit. I did give on this circumstance.

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@Phoenix32890,

thanks for the illustration

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