I just totally blew up at a telemarketer.

[wroberts189]

Yes we are on the D.N.CALL list.

They called three times this morning. Caller ID said "Rewards Inc 1-213-710-8139" ..I knew it was not a client or a vendor just based on that and as usual no message was left.

This new tactic has been going on quite some time now... hit an answering machine? ...just keep calling again and again. They all do it now.

Letting it hit the machine is not an option if they just keep calling. They will call and call ..interrupt you over and over.. is it a customer? Run quick...look at the CID. It is them AGAIN!

Besides my stopping by DU a few minutes here and there ..I am deeply involved in complicated matters (ie: struggling to pay bills and keep customers) and the phone ringing is torture. Some client with a billing issue? Tech support? ... no it is just someone trying to defraud me.. a fake charity for diabetics:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-213-710-8139

But I blew up before I knew that. The lady asked if I was someone ..I said no. "Oh ...well who am I speaking with?" I gave her my name knowing full well where this was headed.

So she then launches into her pitch. Carefully crafted to not let me get a word in until she finishes.

To quote the worst President in history .. "I have seen this movie before".

I cut her off and totally scalded their repeated early morning call tactics then lectured her that by wasting my time, causing me undo aggravation, and possibly incurring me financial losses she was in fact accruing karmic debt she would own..if not calling a very rich lawyer that has a fever for the cow bell.

(ok I am kidding on that lawyer/cowbell part. http://www.funnyhub.com/videos/pages/snl-more-cowbell.html )

Seriously though she just hung up on me. Then my poor wife had to listen to 15 minutes of me imitating Howard Beale. (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechnetwork2.html)

So now I sit here..typing out some rant in the DU lounge because I feel guilty for yelling at some lost soul for taking a low wage job that I would never do. While the real jerks count up the money.

Miraculously avoiding the draconian financial laws that envelope all of us... all of us that do real work for their money that is.

end rant/


On edit.. I hate the !@#$$ phone.

[JVS]

1. Congratulations. You acted like a putz toward someone who is not in charge of what number comes up.

The reason it calls over again later when there is an answering machine is that the calling system can identify automated pickups and automatically hangs up and puts your number on a call later list. Only calls that are picked up get patched through to a person, and that person is told to run loosely by the script (you can change phrasing of most things to sound natural) , and can be unknowingly monitored by their boss at any time to be sure that they are sticking within the boundaries of the script, which usually involves trying for a yes multiple times before giving up. So essentially you yelled at someone who is in a conversational veal crate.

[Deep13]

8. We are all responsible for what we do.

If someone takes a job that essentially entails pissing people off, then she has to expect that people will be pissed off at her.

[kayakjohnny]

34. You are so right.

Thanks.

If that's what you settled for, then that's your lot in life.

We all make choices.

Feel free to upgrade your life at any time.

And that goes for myself as well.

[REP]

10. Predicted dialer - you win the cookie!

If there's no response, the automated dialer puts it back in queue.

[wroberts189]

13. No ..I expressed the honest frustration of being interupted so much I was forced to answer.

Telling the "veal calf" the honest reality of the situation. I took no pleasure in it. It was spontaneous.

They should either leave a message or stop calling. Calling someone until they pick up is harassment pure and simple.

[gratuitous]

2. I no longer feel anything toward these vultures

And while blowing up at them is fun, so is wasting a LOT of their time, to-wit:

1. What is your name, please?
2. What company are you calling on behalf of?
3. What is your supervisor's name?
4. Where is your company located?
5. Are you aware that there are severe legal and even criminal sanctions for telemarketers to call numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry?
6. Let me speak to your supervisor.
7. What number can I reach your supervisor at?

Remain relentlessly cheerful and polite. Deny that you are "yelling" or "harrassing" them. When you get to the end of the questions, go back to the top and start all over again. If you capture their phone number on your caller ID, give 'em a call back. I'd be digging ditches in Minnesota in January wearing sneakers before I turned to this crap to make a living. No mercy. No quarter given.

[Ineeda]

5. I politely remind them that

violating the federal do not call list could impose a ten thousand dollar fine for each offense (which is true.) I do this even to local small businesses, such as house painters and window installers offering 'specials.' Yeah, times are tight for them and they're trying to stay afloat but there are only two exemptions to the DNC list: charities and companies that you do business with (phone co., etc.)

[fizzgig]

7. market research and polling is also exempted from the do not call list

[wroberts189]

14. I have considered that route but it is an endless battle.

And I would end up wasting my own time as much as theirs with mine being more valuable.

It is a new caller at least twice every week.

You are right.. they are vultures.

[gratuitous]

17. They usually ring off before you get to question 3

But I figure they're losing time getting crap from me, I keep my blood pressure down, and I figure the investment of time is worth it, since they're likely to call back if I don't give them a reason to quit calling.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Don't feel bad - they're pond scum. Backwater shitbags. Parasites and leeches. Fuck 'em.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all the old liberal line "Oh, those poor people just need a job and deserve compassion" but that's pure bullshit.

They can go find an ethical job.

The economy is in the shitter, but there are legitimate jobs still out there.

We could use the same ignorant and irrelevant argument to defend heroin sellers and child pornographers.

[rcrush]

4. The telemarketing firm in my city seems to be the only one hiring right now

That and the other department store call centers for bill collectors. Those jobs are popping up all over right now. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I started treating them like human beings when my brother became one and told me what the experience

was like. It was a crappy job and he hated it but he had to pay the bills somehow until he could find something else. (Which wasn't child pornography, luckily enough.)

[REP]

12. A long time ago, I worked as one of those baby-raping grandma-shanking scum

It was during another recession, my industry had died, I didn't have a car and that was a job I could get to that was hiring. About half the detainees employees were like me - for some reason, working as phone whores and hating it - but some seemed to love it. And strangely enough, one of those who prided himself on being super aggresive did die while working there. He was not missed by me.

Justice was served; I then worked for the phone co on inbound customer service, where I was called every combination of bitch, cunt, whore, motherfucker etc on a daily basis for personally stealing pages of bills ("please turn over page 2 and you'll see page 3" "Oh" click) for years until I was injured so badly I was retired. Yay!

[wroberts189]

19. Thx..you are right ..For years I have tried to be polite. It just does not work.

They appear to have a response to everything in their little script flowchart.

"Listen if this is a marketing call we are not interested at all please take us off your list"

Responded to by ..."No we just wanted to offer you a free 30 day trial of ..blah blah blah.."

Or something similar.

They have forced me into being completely hostile to them as soon as they call. A state of mind I should be avoiding.

[Ineeda]

21. After the first polite 'no thank you'

I have said 'you speak English very well' whereupon they say 'thank you.' It totally disarms them and I then say, "so, what part of 'no' do you not understand?" Then there's a click. LOL

[wroberts189]

23. A lot of good ideas in this thread.. this is another one.

Problem is it is not the same perps.. one day its a "lower your interest rate" scam... next day its a vehicle warranty scam... next day its my friendly credit card company selling "credit protection".

I have reported numbers to the DNCL ..only to find with a quick google search they are already well known and have been reported on for years.

One of these scams actually called the AG and politicians of several states.. big mistake:


http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/12/mo_auto_warranty.html

[valerief]

40. Ha! Good one! nt

[Gormy Cuss]

27. Telemarketing is legal. The other jobs you mentioned aren't.

I hate it, but it is a legitimate business practice.

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. I don't judge ethics based on "legality".

When abortion was illegal, was it therefore immoral?

:eyes:

And everything the Wall Street bankers did in the last few years was legal.

Doesn't make it ethical.

[Gormy Cuss]

31. And telemarketing is a legitimate job, even if you find it unethical.

:eyes:

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. It's a LEGAL job. Doesn't mean it's legitimate.

[Gormy Cuss]

38. Yeah, but in most meanings of legitimate it fits the bill. n/t

[KamaAina]

6. Best robocall response ever

a musician acquaintance got one, so he whipped out an old, out-of-tune sax and blew a long, sour note into the mouthpice after the tone! :rofl:

[Xithras]

11. I prefer the walk away method.

"Is Mr. XXX there?"

"Yes, let me grab him for you."

Then set the phone down on the table and walk away until you hear the off-hook tone. Telemarketers get rated partially based on the number of people they call a day. Having them sit waiting totally screws up their numbers.

[wroberts189]

16. Only problem with that is I tie up the line and can miss real calls.

Even with voicemail ..it means possible long distance charges calling someone back (who will be a client with a problem now irritated you were not there when they called)

[MrScorpio]

15. Caller ID

My favorite tool

I don't even have the ringer on

[wroberts189]

18. There are some calls I cannot miss...

So I live with the thing somewhere close by all the time. It has to ring.

Damn sad they can call you again and again without leaving a message.

[sakabatou]

20. I tell them I'll sue them, their boss and their entire business

[madmom]

22. My phone company has a message at the beginning of our "line" it says

"you have reached a number that does not accept calls from telemarketers, if you are not a telemarketer please press 1 to be connected" It works well because machines can't understand the command and if they do press 1 and are telemarketers they have a record of them along with their number to report. If a human does connect through I ask for name and tell them they WILL be reported. Haven't had a telemarketer get through in well over a year.

On the other hand my 3 year old grand daughter loves to talk on the phone, when they call my son's house, he gives the phone to her. Needless to say the call never last long.

[wroberts189]

24. That must be hilarious to listen to....

Probably go viral on Youtube.. if it is legal to record the call in your state.

But we are childless. We do have a very vocal kitty though that will meow on cue..hmmm.. you just gave me an idea. I will record my kitty's various sounds into an mp3 that I will play next time.

Taking this a bit further .. I will hunt down some recordings of cows mooing and mix it in..

Maybe add in some dumb quotes from Repubs...


hehe

[LostInAnomie]

25. WHOA! This thread's title totally changes meaning...

... if you misread it so that you don't read the words "up at".

[LostInAnomie]

26. WHOA! This thread's title totally changes meaning...

... if you misread it so that you don't read the words "up at".

[elleng]

28. Say, Thanks, I'm not interested, and HANG UP.

AT ANY TIME, PREFERABLY w/in first 30 seconds.

[jobycom]

30. I got no problem with that.

:rofl:

We should all stop being nice, because that makes the job more tolerable. We want to make every telemarketer despise their jobs so much that they demand thrice the pay or commission. That should put their bosses out of business and make the world a happier place.

And I've done similar work myself. Nice people keep us trapped in crap jobs like that. If the first ten people would have torn me apart instead of being polite, maybe I wouldn't have wasted three months of my life at it.

[jobycom]

32. You're pretty lightweight compared to this woman, though.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d6cd7404fb/crazy-lady-goes-off-on-telemarketer-from-that-happened

[kayakjohnny]

35. Whoa.

Did I mention the word, Whoa?

[ThoughtCriminal]

36. Two words for harrassing, repeat offenders

Air Horn.

If someone repeating the calls after multiple warnings, I have NO sympathy.

[rcrush]

37. This makes me want to get that telemarketing job back

I usually wait till I'm pretty damn desperate to go back to the telemarketing center and work again. It pays ok for the cost of living down here but its just a suck ass job. No one likes sitting there for 8 hours while the computer dials people so they can cuss at you.

I've worked off and on at the place every few years until I can find something that wont make me want to shoot myself. But sometimes the heroin dealer jobs just arent available!!!!

[valerief]

39. If I don't know the number and no name shows up in CID, I don't answer.

I let it ring. Annoying but not as annoying as answering it, validating the number for them, and having them sell the number to even MORE telemarketers.