Grrr

[Homicidalheathen]

So I only give out my home phone to buisnesses and job type calls. I answer and no one says anything. They just f*cking sit there. I say Yes? And nothing.

So yah, I start barking in their ear.

Damn where is my whistle when I need it...

[Scary Guy]

So I only give out my home phone to buisnesses and job type calls. I answer and no one says anything. They just f*cking sit there. I say Yes? And nothing.

So yah, I start barking in their ear.

Damn where is my whistle when I need it...

They forgot how to speak what little English they know.

I used to answer and just say the word "Cactus" over and over.

and then I found http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

[Homicidalheathen]

Snarf! I gotta use this.

Yah the other day it was some oriental lady and I asked if she had any ramien noodles for sale.

I dont think she got it.

[BrassFusion]

if you guys think it sucks to get calls from telemarketers you should try being one.

if you're not interested, just hang up. it's best for everyone

[sinmantyx]

Yeah, seriously - don't be fucking jackasses.

The reason there is a silence before they get on the phone usually has to do with how their phone system is set up. If there is too much of a delay, they may not be hearing you or may not be connected, etc.

Using a whistle is FUCKING MEAN. You are giving someone pain for wanting to work for a living - usually not getting paid that terribly much. I used to work in a call center. It was brutal and the turn-over was very high. The constant abuse took it's toll on many of my co-workers. Why work at a call center: it was one of the only entry level jobs in the area that paid more than $5 an hour at the time.

People worked there in order to support their families and avoid going on assistance. People don't work at call centers because they really want to piss you off, as if it is somehow their calling in life. It doesn't matter what country they are calling from: people work to support themselves.

After that, I worked at a Relay for the Deaf. Yeah, I loved getting abuse there from people too stupid to listen for 3 seconds to realize that a deaf person was trying to call them...and then too stupid to realize that ASL was not English and assume that the deaf person calling was "retarded".

If you really don't want to be called again: be relatively polite (if you abuse them immediately, they may just put you down as "not called" because it's the only way to get back at you for being a dick - trust me, it is extremely psychologically taxing to constantly take abuse with no means to respond), make sure they identify the company they are with, request that you are taken off the list OR if you really want to make sure that you aren't called again: claim you are dead.

With all sincerity: using a whistle is like punching someone in the face. It's very uncool.

[sinmantyx]

and then I found http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

Actually, fun shit like that would make my frickin' day. Look at all those "I-transitions" -- way too fun.

[Homicidalheathen]

I telemarket at times and get mean stuff so I do it back sometimes because...I remove you from my list if your mean once. Some keep calling so.....they get it big time.

Here is a good one.

Pretend your an old lady who has dementia.....thats what my sister does...she goes on and on about her cats....and ufo's.....its funny.

But this one lady keeps calling and I was nice, now I hang up on her....one more time and its the whistle. She is selling credit cards.....and has called like 15 times now! Hello!

In telemarketing time is money. Move onto someone else who might want it idiot.

[odims_sphere]

I hate when the telemarketers call and even before I can say hello i get an automated message, "Please hold for a very important call" then I'm on hold for five minutes. WTF? So I patiently wait until the person actually comes on the phone and just as they start their schpeel I say "please hold for a very important customer." then set the phone down for 20 minutes or so. Long enough for them to get tired of waiting and hang up. I have no problem if they just call and try to sell me whatever it is they are selling but don't call me then fucking put me on hold that's just rude.

[BrassFusion]

a lot of times, they don't control that shit. and if they pick up the line and there's no one on it, they'll hang up right away, so you're not really wasting their time.

[sinmantyx]

But this one lady keeps calling and I was nice, now I hang up on her....one more time and its the whistle. She is selling credit cards.....and has called like 15 times now! Hello!

If she is calling from the same company and you have told her not to call, she is most definitely violating the law. (Even the more lax old laws - I don't know much about the newer ones.)

Don't do the whistle: just write down the information and explain to her that you will contact authorities if her (or anyone from her company) calls you again.

[sinmantyx]

I hate when the telemarketers call and even before I can say hello i get an automated message, "Please hold for a very important call" then I'm on hold for five minutes. WTF? So I patiently wait until the person actually comes on the phone and just as they start their schpeel I say "please hold for a very important customer." then set the phone down for 20 minutes or so. Long enough for them to get tired of waiting and hang up. I have no problem if they just call and try to sell me whatever it is they are selling but don't call me then fucking put me on hold that's just rude.

THEY are not putting you on hold - the automated calling system is putting you on hold.

[Scary Guy]

Actually I really would like to punch them in the face. I should find my whistle.

Or even better that thing they used in the one James Bond movie where they cut the guy's audio and killed him with a high pitched squeal in the UN.

It's a good thing I don't answer the house phone anymore and just use my cell

[mallochai]

I like to use a very simple tactic.

If I have to wait, I hang up. If I talk to a real person I give them a little talk about how I'm not interested, thank you, and please remove me from your calling list. If I get repeated calls from the same business, I get steadily more adamant. This usually means I don't get a call more than three times. I almost NEVER got telemarketer calls in alaska. In Beaverton though, I have a recently transferred phone number, so I get calls for Bruce and Michelle an awful lot. "Sorry, they don't live here, please don't call again."

I'm actually more satisfied by telling them straight up not to call me again than I ever was just hanging up or yelling at them. It makes me feel accomplished.

[sinmantyx]

I'm actually more satisfied by telling them straight up not to call me again than I ever was just hanging up or yelling at them. It makes me feel accomplished.

It should: 9 times out of 10 it is probably more effective. That's pretty much what I do as well.

My husband kept saying, "I'm not interested at this time."

THAT annoyed me. He used to work at a call center too: he should know better. He might of well have said, "Would you call back over-and-over again until my wife happens to answer the phone and actually deal with you."

[BrassFusion]

when i worked as a telemarketer, i knew the numbers game. the more calls you make the more fish will bite, and if someone interrupts you to say they aren't interested, stop wasting time with them and move on to someone who's more desperate for whatever you're selling.

[sinmantyx]

when i worked as a telemarketer, i knew the numbers game. the more calls you make the more fish will bite, and if someone interrupts you to say they aren't interested, stop wasting time with them and move on to someone who's more desperate for whatever you're selling.

Yep.

The call center I worked for sucked however. We had a set number of "nos" that we were supposed to go through: which they even admitted was slightly more than their contact with the company stipulated.

I did not like that place at all. I did not stay long.

[know_buddy_kares]

I hardly think telemarketing could be considered working for a living, you just sit there and call numbers. It's about the worst and rudest form of advertisement. You don't call someone's personal phone while their at home to try to sell them shit, they're doing home things. These companies just need to send junk mail so you can just trash it if they want to be that cheap with advertisement. messing with telemarketers is a very fun way to relieve being bored too. The crueler, the funnier. If i ever have kids, before they hit puberty, for every telemarketer call i receive, i'll hand the phone to them and tell them to scream as loud as they can in that high pitched shrill kids can do. maybe that will get those people motivation to find real work instead of messing with people while their trying to relax or have dinner at home.

[BrassFusion]

it's a shit job, for real. it's painfully boring and lame and that's why they hire so many foreigners to do it cuz privileged americans don't want to.

now, this should be obvious (SHOULD), but it seems like people forget that the person calling them is only hired by the person who's got shit to sell. they're the unlucky minimum wage messenger (in my case, for the three weeks i did it, sub-minimum wage). i didn't just put my finger down in the phone book, i was given that stupid list by my stupid boss-guy. i wasn't terribly good at selling shit (never was, because i hate misleading people), but i was the friendliest sweetest telemarketer MOST of my targets had ever spoken with.

and that's why i quit after such a short time

[know_buddy_kares]

well i understand that, and glad you didn't stay with it. You realized... "OOPS" and got out. And I hate foreign countries having jobs. Like getting someone literally IN India on a tech support line. So if their foreign... It'll make my satisfaction for doing something cruel over the phone all the greater. If one hates telemarketing calls, then the logical thought to me would be to not work for one. Especially at min wage or even sub min wage, i'm suprised you put yourself through that.

[sinmantyx]

well i understand that, and glad you didn't stay with it. You realized... "OOPS" and got out. And I hate foreign countries having jobs. Like getting someone literally IN India on a tech support line. So if their foreign... It'll make my satisfaction for doing something cruel over the phone all the greater. If one hates telemarketing calls, then the logical thought to me would be to not work for one. Especially at min wage or even sub min wage, i'm suprised you put yourself through that.

Don't take too much offense: but you talk like you still live with your parents or something. Sometimes you take the job you can get so you have a place to live and food to eat. Not everyone, in every stage of their lives, has good choices.

I stayed there and endured it until I was able to get a different job- because I was supporting myself.

I can't believe you just said: "I hate foreign countries having jobs" -- you want them all to be unemployed and starve?

What's good for foreign economies IS good for us in the long run. It is.

[know_buddy_kares]

Don't take too much offense: but you talk like you still live with your parents or something. Sometimes you take the job you can get so you have a place to live and food to eat. Not everyone, in every stage of their lives, has good choices.

I stayed there and endured it until I was able to get a different job- because I was supporting myself.

I can't believe you just said: "I hate foreign countries having jobs" -- you want them all to be unemployed and starve?

What's good for foreign economies IS good for us in the long run. It is.

No, I don't live with my parents, I moved out when I graduated high school, and even though I'd have some hard times, I knew a job like that would be completely worthless having if it didn't even pay enough to cover rent and other non optional bills. I've worked hard to be able to have my standards when picking a job. Even as hard as the economy is now, there's still opportunities. I actually know for a fact that the complaints about jobs here is always going on, either you all don't have one, or you hate the one you do have. I also know for a fact that some time ago, a friend of mine posted a job offer right here on this board. And only 2 of you sent your resumes to him. That's proof right there that generally speaking, you only have yourself to blame. If the number of people who complain about their job situation really wanted to change their situation, the number of resumes would have been a lot greater than just 2.

[sinmantyx]

No, I don't live with my parents, I moved out when I graduated high school, and even though I'd have some hard times, I knew a job like that would be completely worthless having if it didn't even pay enough to cover rent and other non optional bills. I've worked hard to be able to have my standards when picking a job. Even as hard as the economy is now, there's still opportunities. I actually know for a fact that the complaints about jobs here is always going on, either you all don't have one, or you hate the one you do have. I also know for a fact that some time ago, a friend of mine posted a job offer right here on this board. And only 2 of you sent your resumes to him. That's proof right there that generally speaking, you only have yourself to blame. If the number of people who complain about their job situation really wanted to change their situation, the number of resumes would have been a lot greater than just 2.

I had this job over 10 years ago in a different state. My other job opportunity was working at a porn store getting threatened by crazy people and working from midnight to 8 in the morning. I applied at Walmart and was rejected. Little Ceasers was giving me $5.10/hr for being a night manager: that was up from $4.25/hr when I started. I worked there for over 2 years. I kept trying to find jobs that would actually give me health insurance: none would. They would say they would: but then the moment you got close to the cut-off date: all the sudden your hours would get cut or they would force you out somehow. The call center paid $7/hr which was the best wage for someone with only a high school diploma you could get in that area at that time.

Now, if you go to that same area: starting fast-food jobs pay $9/hr with benefits; because the unemployment rate is so low that businesses can't afford to treat their employees like shit anymore.

I'm sure I could have found something better if I wasn't going to school so I would be able to have a more regular schedule. I also think it's possible that employers wouldn't have been constantly violating labor laws if anyone cared.

Just because there are many choices right here and right now for someone such as yourself and most of the people on this board: doesn't mean that's the way it is the world around.

Now I teach...but I haven't forgotten that getting "from there to here" can be very difficult. Not everyone has the same skills/abilities, privileges, etc.

[odims_sphere]

THEY are not putting you on hold - the automated calling system is putting you on hold.

Either way if my number is called then someone should be on the other end ready to talk to me. How often do you call someone and then say "don't go anywhere, I'll be ready to talk to you in five minutes." Why not just call in five minutes when you are ready.

[sinmantyx]

Either way if my number is called then someone should be on the other end ready to talk to me. How often do you call someone and then say "don't go anywhere, I'll be ready to talk to you in five minutes." Why not just call in five minutes when you are ready.

I think it's obnoxious, too. Just sayin'- avoid blaming the poor sap the company puts in the line of fire for their bizarre decisions.

[odims_sphere]

I think it's obnoxious, too. Just sayin'- avoid blaming the poor sap the company puts in the line of fire for their bizarre decisions.

Oh by no means do I blame the person calling, they are just doing their job, which is why I usually listen to the schpeel when they are there and talking to me right away.