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BTW...the fastest way to ensure you get more telemarketing calls is to be rude to the agent. It's the equivalent of being rude to a waiter...you'll feel better, but you might not want to eat the food.
I'm not AT ALL saying it's right to keep you on the list for revenge, I'm just saying it happens.
Not to derail the convo, but telemarketers are not as annoying as those customer service people who would absolutely not let you cancel whatever service you have with their company. This annoys me deeply. So I'm calling you to cancel my account and I have already made my decision and your job is to simply cancel my account, but hell, no!! I'll get all kind of reduced offers, they will pull out some clause out of the agreement to show I can't cancel or else I get to pay a $500 fine, etc!! Gosh, it's never ending!
Not to derail the convo, but telemarketers are not as annoying as those customer service people who would absolutely not let you cancel whatever service you have with their company. This annoys me deeply. So I'm calling you to cancel my account and I have already made my decision and your job is to simply cancel my account, but hell, no!! I'll get all kind of reduced offers, they will pull out some clause out of the agreement to show I can't cancel or else I get to pay a $500 fine, etc!! Gosh, it's never ending!
When I went to cancel my Tivo service I knew they would pull this. Before the agent got a word in I raved that I loved Tivo but was sadly moving to Spain. Oh, and I'd already asked all my friends and none of them wanted the box.
The response was twenty seconds of silence and a meek "I'll cancel that for you."
I pay good money for my telephone. The very argument behind your post shows the measures we're forced to take now that these people have intruded into our lives. Now rather than assume that it's a friend or a relative calling, we have to screen our calls to avoid these grifters. In what rational and sane universe should we have to do this? To me, pathetic is the idea of your looking at the number on Caller ID and hiding.
I sympathize with the feeling of being increasingly "put upon"/"imposed on" by these unsolicited & unwanted intrusions.
People who prescribe CallerID as the solution may not take into account that the service costs extra, every single month-I'm expected to pay extra, just to be let alone ? Having CallerID would likely raise my expectations of not being pestered, which would lead to greater disappointment & frustration over instances where it didn't work, wasn't useful (for whatever reasons). I'm already on DoNotCall registry, FWIW.
It's like another "arms race", with telecommunication devices: having to be suspicious of every attempt made at contact, because of the proportion of commercial material vs. personal (desired) correspondents. Remember when the (postal/snail) mail used to be predominantly actual mail, rather than mostly "junk" mail ? Now it's like that w/email...
Reminds me of this excerpt from Brian Christian's "The Most Human Human: What Talking With Computers Teaches Us About What It Means To Be Alive", 2011:
Quote:
pg.9: "I hate that when I get messages from my friends I have to expend at least a modicum of energy, at least for the first few sentences, deciding whether it's really them writing. We go through digital life, in the twenty-first century, with our guards up. All communication is a Turing test. All communication is suspect."
I pay good money for my telephone. The very argument behind your post shows the measures we're forced to take now that these people have intruded into our lives. Now rather than assume that it's a friend or a relative calling, we have to screen our calls to avoid these grifters. In what rational and sane universe should we have to do this? To me, pathetic is the idea of your looking at the number on Caller ID and hiding.
This is my way of fighting back. Because if I don't pick up the phone, guess what? They keep calling, ignoring the fact that I'm on Do Not Call Registry, 6, 10, 15 times a day. And if I pick up and simply say, "I'm sorry, I'm not interested," they either try to give me the full-court press or they just keep calling, despite being told to take me off their list. In that sense, lying to these people and telling them I'm dead is actually the smartest move of all. Because they'll take me off their lists when a simple request won't do it. After all, no point calling a person who is no longer alive.
Let me guess. You're one of these parasites. Congratulations on your career choice. Because if calling up several hundred people a day to bamboozle them into giving to some dubious charity is not pathetic, I don't know what is.
Hah, you guess wrong, but you're not very good with people now, are you?
I treat people who call me with respect because at least they're trying to make a living, and when I ask them not to call me anymore, they don't. You treat them like they're idiots by telling stupid transparent lies, and you keep getting more calls. Whose system works better here, yours or mine?
Hah, you guess wrong, but you're not very good with people now, are you?
I treat people who call me with respect because at least they're trying to make a living, and when I ask them not to call me anymore, they don't. You treat them like they're idiots by telling stupid transparent lies, and you keep getting more calls. Whose system works better here, yours or mine?
Mine. Because something interesting happens when I tell telemarketers I'm dead: They stop calling. I haven't received a single call from the Sheriff's Benevolent Fund (An organization that gives almost no money to actual Sheriffs) in the past month, whereas they used to call every week. That's one less person calling me at home while I'm eating dinner with my family or reading a book.
Maybe you haven't donated to any charities. Maybe your household income isn't large enough to make the target list. But I am a primo target. I own a business and we donate to charities. So my number gets put on a list, sold, and re-sold again and again. So every single fly-by-night charity thinks it's perfectly acceptable to give me a jingle, typically when dinner is being served.
Another thing. The No Call List does indeed screen some callers. But it fails to keep out many, many more due to the incredibly loopholes in the law. Charities, political organizations, newspapers, you name it, are all exempted from this legislation.
What's more, the telemarketers have become sneakier over time. For example, they're now using local numbers in our area for the robocalling. So I look at the number on my caller ID and ask, "Well, who's this?" It could be one of my children's friends. It could be a business contact calling me. It could be any number of other things.
And let's address your pious, self-congratulatory "Treat people with respect" statement. I treat the people I encounter every day with respect, decency, and courtesy. The cashier at the grocery, people who stop me and ask directions, you name it. But since these telemarketers are people who have decided to ignore the fact that I'm on the Do Not Call list, since these are people who have ignored my repeated requests to not call, because these are people who, more often than not, represent iffy charities, then my obligation to be courteous comes to an abrupt end when they call for the umpteenth time.
I pay for my telephone. It will not be held hostage by someone who routinely violates the privacy of others as a way to make a living. And if you want to hold forth on your human decency, do it in needlepoint on a sampler and put it on the wall.
Mine. Because something interesting happens when I tell telemarketers I'm dead: They stop calling. I haven't received a single call from the Sheriff's Benevolent Fund (An organization that gives almost no money to actual Sheriffs) in the past month, whereas they used to call every week. That's one less person calling me at home while I'm eating dinner with my family or reading a book.
Maybe you haven't donated to any charities. Maybe your household income isn't large enough to make the target list. But I am a primo target. I own a business and we donate to charities. So my number gets put on a list, sold, and re-sold again and again. So every single fly-by-night charity thinks it's perfectly acceptable to give me a jingle, typically when dinner is being served.
Another thing. The No Call List does indeed screen some callers. But it fails to keep out many, many more due to the incredibly loopholes in the law. Charities, political organizations, newspapers, you name it, are all exempted from this legislation.
What's more, the telemarketers have become sneakier over time. For example, they're now using local numbers in our area for the robocalling. So I look at the number on my caller ID and ask, "Well, who's this?" It could be one of my children's friends. It could be a business contact calling me. It could be any number of other things.
And let's address your pious, self-congratulatory "Treat people with respect" statement. I treat the people I encounter every day with respect, decency, and courtesy. The cashier at the grocery, people who stop me and ask directions, you name it. But since these telemarketers are people who have decided to ignore the fact that I'm on the Do Not Call list, since these are people who have ignored my repeated requests to not call, because these are people who, more often than not, represent iffy charities, then my obligation to be courteous comes to an abrupt end when they call for the umpteenth time.
I pay for my telephone. It will not be held hostage by someone who routinely violates the privacy of others as a way to make a living. And if you want to hold forth on your human decency, do it in needlepoint on a sampler and put it on the wall.
I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were such a big shot. I guess that gives you the right to act like a jerk and treat people like dirt.
I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were such a big shot. I guess that gives you the right to act like a jerk and treat people like dirt.
No, I treat real people in a quite respectful manner. People who call me repeatedly at all hours of the day and night despite my clearly expressed wishes deserve no such treatment.
I'll answer it with "Hello?" and if it's clearly a telemarketing call, I'll keep speaking to them in Chinese. Works every time.
If I'm not in the mood, I'll just hang up and be done with it.
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