Telemarketers, Solicitors, and Other Forms of Low Life

This has been on the internet for some time now so many of you have probably seen it.



disclaimer: I don't necessarily agree with all the remarks made in the video

Beth-In a free market, people have the right to sell me something. I have the right to refuse to buy. I also have the right to do what I can to protect my privacy.

(I also have a "No Solicitors" sign on my front door.)

I am on the no call list. I also use the caller id to screen my calls. If I don't know you, you ain't getting on my phone.

I think the phone is there for MY convenience, because after all I'm paying for it. Generally I use the phone to make calls, not to receive them.

Most of the time I don't answer the phone, even if I'm sitting right next to it: "We're unable to care about your call right now..."

With no Caller ID, answering the phone is a risky business.

Should I happen to answer the phone and get a solicitor, I interrupt them, politely say "No, thank you," and hang up before they can reply.

I once recorded our answering machine message with both my "unable to care" comment plus "Your call is VERY Unimportant to us..." Spoken, of course, in my most-pleasant phone voice. Hubby didn't like it, and it vanished the next time we lost power (which happens a LOT here in FL).

My front-door sign says "Beware of Dog" (we have 3 dogs). Works just as well, teehee!

low life?

hmmmm....

you have the right to hang up on, converse with, or not answer anyone who calls you. The folks on the other end of the phone are making their $$$ by placing those calls. I choose not to converse with them. Sometimes they find me in a good mood and I make that point politely. Other times.... not so much. But low life? I don't think so...

"Sorry, we're not interested." <click>

So JPB...

You are saying the reason these people aren't lowlifes is because they are making money doing it?

I don't buy that argument at all.... it seems like a lot of people make money by being lowlifes; Rush Limbaugh and Bernie Madoff for example.

So ebrown p...

Who qualifies as a lowlife in your estimation?

Someone who benefits from causing suffering in others.

I already gave you two examples (other than telemarketers).

Merry Andrew used to work as a telemarketer for Time-Life way back when.

I asked him this am how many people blew him off. He said that maybe one of ten people would even talk to him. They either hung up on him or blew him off.

He also said that he averaged one sale per thirty phone calls.

But he doesn't like them either and will politely dismiss them.

why hate people who are trying to make a living at the bottom end of the wage scale? it's a very unusual situation where someone who has any other employment option will choose to be a telemarketer. the majority of them are paid below living wage standard as a baseline - ability to complete a call will increase that rate somewhat - making a sale puts some of them at a living wage level.

I have pretty strong negative feelings about the companies/agencies who use telemarketing as their sales tool - but calling someone working in one of those job pens a low life - that's harsh. They're working, trying to stay off of the public dime - they deserve some kind of respect for that at least.

When my parent's dog died, they did not take down their "Dog on Duty" sign. It kept all sales people away except for the Mormons.

I think that is a good defination.

Kind of depends - many of these individuals - stretch the truth and even lie to make sale as most get commissions. They often times target elderly who will talk with them and unfortunately cannot afford whatever crap they are selling. I know I did this telemarketing for about a week. I stopped when I got an elderly person saying that they would contribute (it was for a charity - not sure how much went to the charity) as her husband was handicapped - you could tell she couldn't afford to give.

really... I'm stunned.

You, of all people here, think that individuals who take a job to earn some money to feed themselves and possibly their families (and have to endure the reactions of those they call in the process) meet the definition of lowlife?

Stunned is an understatement.

I finally sprung for caller i.d. - I was getting a zillion calls for deadbeats with my last name and same first initial, as I am listed along with another dozen or more.. and not answering them, since I'm not keen on bill collectors. (I was one, once upon a time, when I was about eighteen, for a hospital. Talk about a tame bill collector.) I suppose I have some deadbeat aspects myself, though I try not to. Anyway, if I am somehow at fault, inquire by mail.

I eventually called all those numbers, which flashed on caller i.d. for mere seconds after I reached the phone - never a real person, in person, at the time - and cleared my number, but what a grande annoyance.

As another story, I have had a friend who in some years was in money trouble galore, though he also had good potential for making more (screenwriter, sometime successful director) and was no spendthrift, quite the opposite. He did engage the raging abusing collectors to some benefit, since he was usually brighter, and did pay up given new income along the line... just not always in a timely fashion. It can be tough to be in a "creative" field.

I think the whole set-up of the pens is horrible, but I can't wig out on the people who are calling. I've seen too many people use these jobs as a way to get back on their feet after something's gone kerplooey in their lives. I'm not interested in talking to them, I'm not going to be buying or donating, but I can't get angry at the callers.

Now, the automated calls are a whole other thing. I definitely try to figure out ways to disturb that routine. I'll often just put the receiver on the back of the sofa near the t.v. and walk away when I realize it's a machine calling. I hope I can tie up their line long enough that at least another dozen or so people don't get the call.

I’ve had an unlisted phone number for close to twenty years so it’s not much of a problem. Still, the banks always want to give me their “courtesy call” at dinner. It’s annoying, for sure, and I always decline, but it never occurred to me to ask them to stop.

So, thanks for the thread.

Mr B once wrote some predictive (machine) dialer software for the blood donor industry. Thirty or more calls went out to potential blood donors and the first one that answered disconnected the rest. Every time I took a call that didn't have a human at the other end upon answering (they get two seconds to respond) got hung up on. He'd ask, "Who was that?" My answer... "One of your friends."