Is it just me, or are the telemarketers working overtime?

The fax people do my head in. Junk fax after junk fax!

theyre trying to beat the Do Not Call List deadline?!

don't dis tellies, this was my profession for the first sixth of 2003!

Interesting - I tried to find the webpage for the service that allows you to opt out of (most) telphone marketing, but found the same service offered to the other side, i.e. info for telemarketers about people opting out. It's here.

Ah, here's the info for getting off telephone lists.

And for British people.

Aargh. when I was visiting my mom earlier in the month, the telemarketers ringing our house started getting really chippy when I mentioned the Do Not Call list.

Suzy: 'Are you a telemarketer?'
Telemarketer: 'I'm calling to offer you financial services blah blah'
Suzy: 'You do know we're signed up for Do Not Call?'
Telemarketer: 'That doesn't come into effect until the 1st October, ma'am.'
Suzy: 'Don't backchat me when they're taping you. [to imaginary recording supervisor] Do you seriously expect to sell anything to anyone if you talk to people like that? We don't buy financial services from cold-callers, as if. Capiche?' [hangs up]

Before you all pile in remember I've had those lame phone jobs *and* done market research phone interviews, but I *go ballistic* when some Kev phones up to offer whoever it is that answers a fucking loan.

Masked Crusaders working overtime fighting crime (fighting crime)
Secret raiders who will neutralize till the day arrives (Out of sight)
Trakker’s gonna lead the mission, and Spectrum got such super vision!
Mmmm-Mask is the mighty power that will save the day
Mmmm-Mask--no one knows who lies behind the masquerade
Mmmm-Mask--always riding hot on VENOM’s trail
Come see the laser rays, fire away!

(Sorry, the thread title reminded me of that cartoon theme song and I looked it up and remembered how great it was and how it made absolutely no sense. It is kind of like Rush's Tom Sawyer.)

Does the Do Not Call thing still apply when they're just dialling randomly generated numbers? If so how?

Hey phone workers! If somebody is rude to you on the phone, just apologise but write down their number and subsequently phone them 28 times from a phone box or something! (Like, if people don't want to be bothered why do they even answer the phone?)

Archel - no

(If somebody said to me "You do know that..." I'd say "What, it was in the paper? You're right, I should know that!")

Hey phone workers! Q's setting you up for stalking charges!

Dude, it was one of the funnest jobs I've ever had. I was the whitest person who worked there but i became friends w/ everyone there and they said that I'm a brother!! And everytime the news or Iraq was discussed, people would point at me! Most of my coworkers, including my manager-boss, had all been in jail and were ex-criminals! I worked right on Wilshire boulevard and would walk past the Ambassador everyday!

Almost everyone except for me used to lie and make extreme sales. And as soon as they got off the phone they started the "bitch-ass motherfucker fucking ho, i didn't wanna fuckin help u anyway, you fuck," etc. The girl I had the crush on (who was a lesbian whom i started a thread on who had been dating two girls at the same time in the 50 Cent video) changed her name from Chaunte to Angela on the phone in her introductions to seem "more white," that seemed to be working for her actually.

And then the people u called were invariably really old deaf ladies in the South who would start talking to you about their entire life histories and family sagas since no one had talked to them in decades, etc, or really really rude and pissed off men who would always threaten to call the police on you. A lot more in the second category, who would swear at me and tell me off all the time in the most demeaning ways possible. And then there were the psychos...

Not that I don't maintain the hypocrisy of hanging up on the ones who call me; I know all the computer tricks they do to keep u ON the list! Unless you specifically request to be taken off, the policy is to just click away and keep you on for another person to bother you later.

I actually used to do this way back when I was 19 too, but actually got fired from that one! I was making all sorts of sales but refused to read the RIDICULOUS script they were forcing everyone to follow (which made u ask "hows the weather there? can u send me some sunshine??" before u got to the meat of the matter so u could "establish rapport" -> you could bypass this if you got a really angry male voice picking up the phone, but the rest of it was stupid too ) and so they said "its either our way or the highway" and fired me, but I didn't care since I knew my way was better.

the meanest thing you can say, btw, is "get a real job." that really stings

The weirdest call I made was this old lady who kep talking about how her son got killed in an accident for almos 40 minutes - she was going to say yes but then my manager realized that I was talking to one person for so long so he cut me off!

No actually the weirdest call was this answering service that said "you have reached the psychiatric hotline...we are not here right now but to leave a message..if you are bipolar press 2; if you are schizophrenic, press 3; if you are suicidal..."

I can't believe it ... a grand total of No (that's right ... zero ... zilch ... zip) calls today. What bliss.

I feel badly ... the one time I was ever even semi-rude to a telemarketer, I answered the phone a fight with my S/O (bad idea). The call was for him. I told the caller that he was in a coma. They asked when would be a good time to call back. I said 'Sunday.' I don't know if they called or not.

I just blew off someone from the Pennsylvania State Police Association, or something like that. They keep calling me and I keep saying I have no time to talk. I finally said: look, if you want to mail something out to me, that's fine, but I can't take these kind of calls.

Doesn't the no-call list apply to charities? Maybe the PA State Police Association doesn't abide by that list. (Wait, weren't like a hundred or so PA state police officers recently convicted of stopping women and forcing them to have sex? Seriously, there was a ridiculously huge sex scandal, not a hundred, but more than one or two.)

Or maybe it was one officer with lots of convictions. Never mind.

i never used to get telemarket phonecalls till recently, now i get heaps! i think they are farming them out to india from here in australia, it always seems to be indian marketers. grrrrrrrr i hate people trying to sell me stuff when i'm eating my dinner!!!

I sure don't miss working for the Red Cross, trying to solicit blood from people who had been dead for months.

And that's what the good telemarketers do.