It takes a few tries to get the registration done (and I was doing this at 4:15 AM EDT, to try to beat the server slowness I've been reading about). However, once you're registered, you're registered. My experience was that this required a bunch of screen refreshes for every step but be patient because it really will work.
If I can make even one person "tolerate" a telemarketer instead of "hating" him - my job is done
But as I said before, having been in sales has changed my perception quite a bit. But that does not mean that I myself dont get irritated at times - but then I always find it very hard to initiate rudeness....
Recently a telemarketer called me up to arrange a free inspection of the outside of my house to point out potential problems. I told him that I had just bought the house and it had undergone a full structural survey and nothing was found to be wanting ! But he kept insisting, and I finally agreed to have an engineer over. When the engineer came, he told me that everything was fine and he could not see why I had even bothered to see him. I told him that the telemarketer was getting on my nerves, there was no way I could convince him, and maybe he should go back to office and have a chat with the guy who aranged this inspection...Needless to say, he was pretty angry with the guy....
Now that is what I called revenge !!
Phoenix32890 wrote:It is the salesman who is initiating the rudeness..........by invading your privacy. One the rare occasions when I DO get a sales call, I simply say, "not interested, please take me off your list", and hang up. I have no obligation to engage these people in conversation.
I give up
This is one sale I am not gonna make !!!
truth
Gautam. From a person who is very hesitant to hurt people's feelings, even when they deserve it, the best thing to do is hang up at the very beginning WITHOUT COMMENT OR APOLOGY. I'm sure telemarketers are not personally affected by this. They get so much of it each day that they do not take it personal. It is sheer egotism on my part to think that my hanging up will have any effect on them at all.
The U.S Federal Government's anti-telemarketing campaign has been tremendously successful. Folks have been signing up at, I believe, something like 160 per minute!
The next target for the Feds should be, as suggested, computer spam. Evidentally the technology is a little complicated but the first step would be to get the Congress to ban the concept of "unsolicited messages."
Next to my desk is a 10" x10" by 30" tall cardboard box. I throw all of my junk mail in there. It gets filled up every three or four days. We used to be able to take it to the recycling center but they won't take that kind of paper anymore.
Can we get the Federal government to please ban junk mail? People are suing junk-food eateries for selling them food that they want; surely Congress can protect us from junk-mail that we don't want and fill up our landfills.
realjohnnyboy- A few years ago, my husband saved all the charitable solicitations that we received for an entire year. Just for the hell of it. The mail filled a rather large carton.
We went through them before we sent donations to some, and threw the rest out. Some charities had sent us a couple of dozen solcitation in one year. Unbelievable!
I just found this thread and have been reading it with great interest. I find I largely agree with Gautam. Telemarketing is just another form of marketing, like TV commercials or billboards or junk mail or spam in your e-mail.
Now, granted, it's an invasion of my privacy. (The 1st Amendment argument is ludicrous. I would argue, in rebuttal, that the telemarketers who claim their right of free speech is being stifled are, in fact, trespassers and should be prosecuted as such. They're coming into my home and tying up my phone line without invitation.) But so is junk mail and spam. Somehow, people get more worked up about being given a sales pitch on their telephone.
I have an unpublished number. I still get telemarketing calls from time to time. I try to be polite. Contrary to what bobg says, these people are not the enemy. They are generally under-employed poor people trying to eke out something resembling a living. The president of the insurance company isn't calling you to sell you insurance. You might well consider him the enemy, sure. But not the poor slob at the other end who is just trying to make an honest buck. I always thank them for calling and say something like, "Sorry but I'm not interested at this time," and hang up.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that many, many years ago I had a part-time telemarketing job, selling Time-Life books over the telephone. Telemarketing was a new thing then. We got minimum wage plus a commission on confirmed, good sales. So, I know whereof I speak when I say these folks are not your enemy. Many of them hate what they are doing. There's no need to be insultingly rude to them.)
Junk mail? I love junk mail. I do a lot of mail-order buying and there are days when, if it wasn't for junk mail, I'd get no mail at all.
I do dislike spam in my e-mail box. But I've discovered that the 'delete' functions works just fine for me and that getting spam is no reason to get my knickers in a twist. I usually delete all spam unopned before I start browsing the legitimate posts.
Life is wayyy too short to get upset over small stuff like this. I haven't registered yet for the donotcall list and probably won't. I generally don't answer my phone anyway if I don't recognize the number that's calling (Caller ID is a great convenience!) If it turns out to have been an important call, after all, there'll be a message on my voice-mail and I'll call back in my own good time.
Gee, folks. Why make everything so complicated? Relax, have a sip of herbal tea, pat the dog or cat, listen to the fantastic voice of Maria Callas belting out some choice arias. And, if you have difficulty doing that, just keep saying the serenity prayer like a mantra.
Merry Andrew - you da man !!
I just registered. Thanks Phoenix. Gee Merry Andrew, how do you stay so serene while the phone is ringing constantly and the junk mail piles up for the trash? Think of the mountains of wasted paper that has to be dumped or recylced. Now that there's email and e-everything who needs it? There's so much waste!
Dream, the foundation of my serenity rests on the fact that I don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff.
truth
I agree that one should not get unnecessarily ruffled over the little things in life; but I don't agree with Merry that it's all LITTLE. When I travel and don't use my PC the spam mail will bog down my mail box at the ISP's and I'll be unable to receive new messages. It hasn't quite come to that yet, but my ISP tells me it's only because I always get back on time to delete stuff.
What does bother me, however, is that with spam I cannot talk back as I can on the phone. I generally treat telemarketeers courteously because I do know they are not the enemy, only poor folks trying to eke out a miserable living. But at least I can joke with them. I'm the kind of extreme extrovert who when receiving a wrong number asks "What's new anyway?"
I would love to be able to communicate with the spammers who incessantly advertize penis enlarging pills. I would love to ask them if I could buy a penis reducing pill. But that's asking too much of reality.
By the way, I do not need a reducing pill, but I think it's mildly funny.
I agree with JL that being disturbed is NOT small stuff, especially when it happens constantly. My time is precious to me. I don't want strangers consistently barging into my life, uninvited!
Merry: the book that made the greatest impression on me as a teenager was Orwell's "1984", or whatever year the title of that book was. The concept of having Big Brother watching over us has become too close to the truth. I'm trying hard not to sweat the small stuff, but the phone and mail being used by entities unknown to me feels creepy, and although I feel sorry for the telemarketers, I'm very short with them. I agree with you, Phoenix.
JLNobody -- I agree with you to this extent: spam bugs me a lot more than telemarketers or junk mail.
Hello All,
Bobg again....I find it really sad that there's so much pity for these telemarketing folks. Like they were dragged from their homes and chained to a desk somewhere & forced to make annnoying phone calls.
And Merry Andrew you're the worst of all of them. "Have a sip of herbal tea and say the serenity prayer". Folks like you need to be put thru a tree chipper feet first. And it's no suprise that you spent some time as a telemarketer.....so you can empathize...wah, wah wah.
I have more respect for a whore than a telemarkter. The whores at least provide a service that SOMEONE wants.
And it isn't a matter of getting uptight or "sweating the small stuff"; I don't need any "Chicken Soup" for my soul. How would you like it if I wandered into your home and engaged you in a conversation that didn't interest you??? And when you tried to get me to leave, I became persistent. That is what telemarketers do. Make no mistake, they are trespassers of the lowest caliber. They should be treated as such!!!
No need to insult Merry Andrew, bobg, even if you disagree with him. As a teen, I tried telemarketing as a summer job. You get a list of names and numbers to call, and field the crap. I was about halfway down the list on my second day, and an old woman answers the phone. "Is Mr. so-and-so there?" "Who?" "Mr. so-and-so." "What? My husband is DEAD!" I quit immediately.
I wasn't really singling out Merry Andrew, I did say that "folks like him" should be put thru a tree chipper, not just him specifically. So get off my back!!!!!
I just don't understand why there's such empathy for people who choose to do work that deserves no respect whatsoever.
I was a teen with a crap job once too. Y'know what the difference was?? When I did my job, I wasn't bothering anyone. So I don't wanna hear the whining about "this is the only option I have". There is always more than 1 option.
You wanna engage a telemarketer; or get off the phone w/them while ensuring that their esteem is in tact, be my guest; and have "Welcome" tatooed across your chest while you're at it, cos you're a friggin' doormat.
I'll stick with my tactics thanks.
bobg, I'm not "on your back", and I also have no empathy for telemarketers. Listen...as a teen I tried it out just to make some coin, and it was so wrong for me, and the **** they were trying to sell was indeed ****. Not just that....a big promise was the practically unobtainable "commision", as a supplement to our crap pay. Telemarketing companies are a hair's length away from sweatshops as employers IMO, which may account for why some of the employees are so aggressive. **** 'em I say, anyway. Harrassing people to make a sale is no way to make a living.
Also, bobg, as stated earlier, you simply MUST get some Jim Florentine stuff, buy it or download it...I think you will indeed laugh your ass off
