"You called me unsolicited so I can waste your time"

[jackfaire]

If this were 1985 and you had to answer the phone every time to know if was Aunt Judy or someone selling Aluminum Siding then I could maybe....maybe understand this argument.

My dad had a rule in our house at dinner time you don't answer the phone. After caller ID if you don't recognize the number you don't answer the phone.

Period. You know if you're expecting a call from a number you don't know.

Yet people delight in messing with people desperate enough to work telemarketing. I don't understand this mentality? You answer the phone presumably because you were interested and then instead of a polite "no thank you" followed by disconnecting you proceed to mess up the person.

Can you imagine if anyone did this to anyone else? "Free sample" and then the person starts throwing a hissy fit they would be treated like an asshole. But they do it over the phone and suddenly they are a hero? I don't get it.

[mjr]

I think some of that is because of the work environment telemarketers have to endure. I know that they're "just doing their jobs", but a lot of people feel like telemarketers are very pushy in their sales tactics.

True story: I had gotten laid off from a job. So during the course of my job search, I was getting a lot of calls from "unknown" numbers that just ended up being tech recruiters.

Well, the mistake I made was answering when the guy called (someone who said his name was "Ray"). But I thought it may have been a recruiter that I sent a resume to.

I told the guy flat-out that I was out of work, and didn't have any money.

He persisted, and so I hung up on him.

We rarely even answer our home phone anymore. I mean, we have one, but usually it's spam/scam calls.

[MadMike]

For the sake of argument, let's just assume that scammers don't exist. I'm sure we can both agree that scammers deserve whatever comes to them.

That being said, the industry brought it on themselves. A polite "I'm not interested" is somehow interpreted as "Please tell me more." I used to try to be nice to them, but all it got me was more pestering. But I never actually went off on one until he woke up my son, who was a baby at the time, and wasn't easy to put down for a nap. No, I didn't get mad because the phone rang. It could have been anyone, and they had no way of knowing. What happened was, I answered the phone quickly and as quietly as I could, and when I realized it was a telemarketer, I told them the baby had just gone to sleep, and I couldn't talk because I didn't want to wake him. Any decent person would have understood, but this one kept trying to keep me on the phone anyway, and my son woke up. So I ripped into the telemarketer, and I'm not sorry for it.

At least these days, Caller ID helps weed a lot of them out, although many of them are spoofing numbers now to make you think it's some local residence calling you, or sometimes it's even my own number. I answered one of those by mistake once, because I saw my name, and thought it was my dad calling because I'm a "Junior." And the Do Not Call list helps too, although not against charities, people claiming to be charities, and politicians. Some bullshit about it being "free speech" if they're not trying to sell you something, but I don't see how anyone else is entitled to free speech on a service that I'm paying for. Basically, any telemarketer that calls me now, I assume to be a scammer, and I treat them as such.

[jackfaire]

That being said, the industry brought it on themselves.

Except the "industry" isn't who calls. Most of the people I worked with were desperate and it was work as a telemarketer or be homeless. There were a lot of them that were single moms who had mouths to feed and a boss saying "You make these sales or you're out"

Hanging up is perfectly acceptable. Baby sleeping ringer shouldn't be on. (I understand if it was back when ringer being off wasn't an option)

I have worked in just about every kind of call center there is and the people who get shafted by pissed off customers, callers, and people being called are never the ones that deserve it.

Frankly I did a decade of working in an inbound call center and I am considered a Unicorn in the industry. Most people can't handle the constant abuse from people.

It's why I don't get people taking out their anger at people they will never speak to on people more desperate than themselves just to eat.

[protege]

That being said, the industry brought it on themselves. A polite "I'm not interested" is somehow interpreted as "Please tell me more." I used to try to be nice to them, but all it got me was more pestering.

That's exactly it. They created the situation. What's so hard to understand when I say "I'm not interested?" I've said I'm not interested, I don't give a shit about what you're trying to sell me. Continuing to talk--or talking over someone--is rude. I've tried to be nice, and when that starts, you've pissed me off. You call my house, waste my time, and get rude? Fuck that.

At home, I have no choice but to answer the phone. If I don't, it keeps ringing...which drives the cats nuts. Why? Because the previous homeowner had some hearing problems, and there are annoyingly loud bells installed in the kitchen. Can't remove those, without ripping up the ceiling to get at/remove the wiring. No way to turn them off either.

I don't care if they're under pressure to get sales. That's not my problem. Case in point, when the local Post-Gazette did their subscription drives--is it really necessary to call me a dozen times a day trying to get me to sign up? I look through my call logs and there are a dozen calls. I told them the first time that I wasn't interested, yet they kept calling. Again, fuck that. They only quit when I threatened to come after them for harassment, and demanded $500 a call.

At least these days, Caller ID helps weed a lot of them out, although many of them are spoofing numbers now to make you think it's some local residence calling you, or sometimes it's even my own number.

The best, has to be one I got at work. It actually *said* "Telemarketers" on the ID

And the Do Not Call list helps too, although not against charities, people claiming to be charities, and politicians.

The DNC list is a joke. Otherwise, the industry would have died. Instead, they find ways around it...and make themselves harder to deal with. Then they whine about how recipients of their calls are "rude" to them. As for the "free speech" issue, that's bullshit. I'm paying for the service. As far as I'm concerned, free speech stops at the curb. My house is a dictatorship, and telemarketers are invaders. They have no free speech.

[mjr]

That's exactly it. They created the situation. What's so hard to understand when I say "I'm not interested?" I've said I'm not interested, I don't give a shit about what you're trying to sell me.

This is why I hung up on a guy. As I said earlier, I was expecting calls from tech recruiters during a period where I was laid off, so I was getting a lot of calls from unfamiliar numbers (i.e. recruiters). I told the guy flat-out that I was laid off and didn't have money. He kept going ("not even $25?") so I hung up on him.

I look through my call logs and there are a dozen calls. I told them the first time that I wasn't interested, yet they kept calling. Again, fuck that. They only quit when I threatened to come after them for harassment, and demanded $500 a call.

I did something similar once. I was at work, and I think I got the same call 12 to 15 times over the course of about 3 hours. On the last call, I answered and a guy with a certain accent answered. I told him that that if they kept calling me I was going to sue for $100 million. His reply: "Oh! I would not like that!" I also managed to track down another number for that company, apparently a "customer service" number, and complained (politely) to them. The lady was very nice, actually, but understood my situation and said she'd take care of it.

The DNC list is a joke. Otherwise, the industry would have died. Instead, they find ways around it...and make themselves harder to deal with.

I've said that same thing about the DNC list. Though at one point I actually had that as part of my voicemail message. My message was something like, "Hello, this is <mjr> at <my number>. This number is on the Do Not Call list. Blah, blah blah..."