Telemarketers.

I have many years call center experience. Not outbound telesales though, mostly just inbound customer service. I've still heard it all. From the weirdo wanking it on the other end, to the very mean person telling me he hoped one of my family members was diagnosed with a fatal illness. I had to go for a walk after that call, actually. You can say whatever you want to me, but don't bring my family into it.

I've branched out from that line of work though, because I didn't want another desk/office job. It is something I can always fall back on though.

 

Meh. I think you're coming off as arrogant here and fishing around for reasons to defend treating people like dirt when you could just not answer the phone instead.

A lot of telemarketers ARE pursuing an education but they have to work somewhere in the meantime. I used to work in a call center - it wasn't quite telemarketing but close enough. I was treated like shit on a regular basis and so were all my coworkers. Half the people who worked there had masters degrees. It wasn't like they were lazy uneducated losers. After working that job I really have no respect for anyone who thinks its okay to belittle someone who is just doing their job.

 

Ok.

And I think you're projecting negative experiences from the past onto me. I'm not rude to telemarketers - I screen my calls.

But I don't hold them in high esteem. There are jobs that I do respect - doctors, lawyers, teachers, academics, plumbers, electricians, researchers, soldiers, entrepreneurs, social workers, custodians, etc. These people have chosen a profession that makes a positive contribution to society, regardless of pay. Telemarketers fall into the other category - professions I consider a net drag on society. This includes lobbyists, advertising executives, pharmaceutical sales reps, investment bankers - professions based on fucking people over.

And ultimately, I believe you have to hold people responsible for their choices - and this applies doubly to their choice of professions. The obese are responsible for their weight. Smokers are responsible for their lung cancer. Greeks are responsible for their debt. And telemarketers for agreeing to pick up the phone and trying to trick the elderly into buying time shares and over-priced kitchen tools.

If they don't want people being rude to them, they shouldn't have thrown curtesy to the wind by calling uninvited. There isn't much sympathy here.

 

What really pisses me off is the outright criminals. You know the heavy Indian accent that opens with "Hi, this is Jimmy calling from the Windows security center, we have detected a security flaw in your Windows installation."

 

Cool, as long as you're not rude. That's all I was getting at.

 

I think you forgot to mention politicians as people who wants to fuck others over oh same thing goes for lawyers and doctors at least where I live.

No telemarketer ever wanted to annoy anyone, the problem is that they are not getting propper training BC companies needs to turn quick money and yes it is true that there is a lot of scammers who operate these companies but not all are, it's just that they forget that selling and marketing is as much about disqualifing prospects as it is qualifing and selling to prospects.
every minute a telemarketer spends on anoying someone who is going to say no is time wasted talking to someone who would have bought whatever they are selling.

Oh and FYI lawyers, plumbers and electricians also use telemarketing services, so I guess you can strike those of your list of respectable people to.

 

I don't share your negative views of politicians as a group. I think public service is important.

Telemarketing by it's very nature is intrusive and annoying. If somebody wanted to learn more about this shitty product, they would have looked it up themselves.

I'm sure some do, but that isn't what the profession is.

 

yep, fuck em. their job is to screw you over if they can. fuck that. ive had sales jobs before and i dont think its ethical to run a business that depends on screwing people out of their money. then again i dont think its right to personally attack the person on the orher end of the phone as they are just doing their job but i do think its unethical of the employer, and i will gladly do what i can to waste the employers time by having their employeees spend extra time on the phone with me, not profiting of course.

lots of these companies mostly pay their employees commission too ... which even further reflects the ethics of the company as well. they are essebtially screwing their employees over too cuz comission sucks.

 

Downunder it is usually a job to get hold of a plumber or an electrician. They have no need for telemarketing services.

 

Yet, the user car salesman or the telemarketer exist on a much higher psychic plane than the narc.

The narc is the bottom feeder of planet earth.

Celebrate the telemarketer. The car lot impressario.

It is the narc who deserves our true contempt.

 

yep, same in the US. you have to call 10 of them 10 times each just to find one that will even talk to you about what you need done.

 

Don't have a phone don't receive mail. It's all a memory. Not a nostalgic one.

 

we seem to have something in common.

 

I worked for a temelarketer a few months ago. They bought their numbers from a number of websites and it was sh*t. They got the numbers withen minutes of people entering on one of a number of websites. the autodialer called them all and the calls were back to back, all day everyday. We had to pitch a overpriced magazine subscription that was a total ripoff. We had to use a specific set of scripts and had to use at least 2 approved rebutals per call when customers try to say no. Most of time the customers would hang up, but a large number of them are *ssholes. Management is no better. they are trying to make a quick buck and if they could they would pay employess far less. Every day we had a meeting, which is just management yelling at everyone for not selling more then they did, because no matter how good of a day it was, it should have been far better. The office was a small building by the airport. it shook every time a train went by. The main team, who did the inital part of the call were packing in one side of the office. There were at least 20 of us in a space ment for 10 or so. People sat literaly sholder-to-sholder. loud music was always playing and we all had to yell into the headsets so the customers could hear us. the sales team, who we sent calls to after we made it through the inital pitch, sat on the other sire of the office. they had slightly better contitions but not much better. The 3 people who ran the place were all related and the employees either 1) had a criminal record keeping them from getting anything better (some were still in jail and were let out daily to go to this job), 2)were bearly scraping by to avoid being homeless (I had been laid off from a seasonl job I had worked and was just trying to make bills untill I found somthing better).
I am lucky I was able to find somthign better within a few weeks and now I work as a cook in a restraunt and fnd it's one of the more enjoyable jobs I have worked in a long time.

 

in a logical world, telemarketing would not be lawful. neither of course, would be the condition those who work there have to deal with.
people should think about those conditions when they buy things from wal-mart, and also some of the big name clothing and footwear companies,
as the people who make them, are often forced to work in even worse conditions and get paid, even by the standards of where they live, even less.

i would also add, that its making everything have to be about money, that creates these conditions and allows them to continue.
of course i think almost everyone sort of already knows that, but sort of lets it slip they're mind, because they've been falsely convinced,
that the things that they want and the way they want to live could not exist otherwise.

 

Just answer the phone "TACO BELL PAT .. MAY I HELP YOU??"

Usually will take care of them!! (They think they have a wrong # (I have gotton rid of some this way))