Where'd that Glibness spell come from?

[Cyrion]

Yesterday, I didn't hang up the phone in time and got stuck talking to a telemarketer. I don't know where the inspiration came from, but I managed to make his day quite a bit more surreal:

He: (sounding like this was his seventy millionth call of the day) Hello. May I speak to... Johnson, Susie.

Me: Shouldn't that be Susie Johnson?

He: What?

Me: Her name. Susie's a first name. Johnson's a last name.

He: I just read the name I'm given. I don't make judgements.

Me: Don't you feel you give up a little of your humanity that way?

He: What??

Me: Judgement. It's what separates us from other animals. The ability to assimilate data and make rational decisions. Squirrels react. Sheep react. People make decisions. Are you a squirrel?

He: No?

Me: Say it. "I am not a squirrel."

He: I am not a squirrel.

Me: What was that?

He: {Sigh} I am not a squirrel.

Me: Now say it like you actually belive it!

He: ??? I am not a squirrel!?. Look, is this getting me any closer to Johnson, Susie.

Me: Of course not. There's no Susie Johnson here. You're a telemarketer, and I'm messing with you. Have a great day!


I can only hope that I got him to say it loud enough that someone next to him on the phone bank heard him. :smallamused:

[MoonCat]

You win the internet sir!

[Comet]

Funny. Sort of mean at the same time, though. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Just don't make a habit of it, is all I'm saying. This was genuinely funny, though :smallsmile:

[Serpentine]

After that, I think I need inspiration. Twice now I've had Indian-sounding fellows call me up and talk to me about how my computer is full of malware and stuff. Dunno what they intended to do about it - I cut them off pretty early on both times - but I smell a scam. Suggestions?

[Mauve Shirt]

When I worked for the Phonathon I reached a person who said they'd donate $80 if I said "I am a pencil" really loudly. Desperate for a donation, I complied. My supervisor looked at me like I was crazy.

[Rhydeble]

When I worked for the Phonathon I reached a person who said they'd donate $80 if I said "I am a pencil" really loudly. Desperate for a donation, I complied. My supervisor looked at me like I was crazy.

Now the real question is.
Did he pay up?

[Cyrion]

Funny. Sort of mean at the same time, though. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Just don't make a habit of it, is all I'm saying. This was genuinely funny, though :smallsmile:

My usual response is to hang up in the break between the autodialler and the real person. That and to have my number on the federal no-call list so that I don't get most of the phone calls in the first place.

[arguskos]

After that, I think I need inspiration. Twice now I've had Indian-sounding fellows call me up and talk to me about how my computer is full of malware and stuff. Dunno what they intended to do about it - I cut them off pretty early on both times - but I smell a scam. Suggestions?
Write up a similar scam, and when they call you, read it back to them. Telemarket the telemarketers!

[AsteriskAmp]

I had some telemarketers call me offering a book or some weird thing, they always began by telling me the Universe as I knew was false and that they knew the truth and it could be mine for some weird price, I normally hung up around here, but then I found this:

{scrubbed}

Each time they called I would began reciting it.
They stopped calling the third time, I managed to reach line 52 with one particularly determined seller.

[Mauve Shirt]

Now the real question is.
Did he pay up?

Yes he did. So I got a piece of candy. :smallbiggrin:

[mucat]

Yes he did. So I got a piece of candy. :smallbiggrin:

"I may be a pencil, but I am a pencil with candy!" :smallsmile:

[Ranger Mattos]

Nice :smallbiggrin:


I had some telemarketers call me offering a book or some weird thing, they always began by telling me the Universe as I knew was false and that they knew the truth and it could be mine for some weird price, I normally hung up around here, but then I found this:

{scrubbed the original, scrub the quote}

Each time they called I would began reciting it.
They stopped calling the third time, I managed to reach line 52 with one particularly determined seller.

Ooh. I may have to try this.


For telemarketers, mostly I just start speaking French, and then if I'm near the computer I put the phone up the the speaker and start blasting Finnish power metal :smalltongue:

[AsteriskAmp]

Nice :smallbiggrin:



Ooh. I may have to try this.


For telemarketers, mostly I just start speaking French, and then if I'm near the computer I put the phone up the the speaker and start blasting Finnish power metal :smalltongue:

Better than Finnish power-metal is Finnish Polka, specially if sung by Loituma and if it's Levan.

[Timeless Error]

That was awesome. Have a cookie.


For telemarketers, mostly I just start speaking French, and then if I'm near the computer I put the phone up the the speaker and start blasting Finnish power metal :smalltongue:

That was also awesome. Have a cookie.

[Lady Moreta]

That was both mean and hilarious :smallbiggrin:


After that, I think I need inspiration. Twice now I've had Indian-sounding fellows call me up and talk to me about how my computer is full of malware and stuff. Dunno what they intended to do about it - I cut them off pretty early on both times - but I smell a scam. Suggestions?

Continue hanging up on them?

We don't get many telemarketers at home, and if we do I'm not around to answer the phone anyway so Peregrine gets to deal with it!

I've managed to make a telemarketer to hang up on me before :smallbiggrin:

I'm at work, phone rings, I answer it, a voice starts telling me they're from *telephone service provider* and am I aware of the fact that our plan has changed and we could be making cheaper phone calls.

Me: We're not with *telephone service provider*

Them: *CLICK*

Me: :smallbiggrin: (also thinking 'poor sod, they knew we weren't with that provider and they had to ring anyway).

That's happened more than once, but mostly at work I just hang up on them. I can generally tell straight away just from the voice who's a telemarketer. I hate to say it but they all have the same bad english and the same stereotypical Asian accent.

[Haruki-kun]

We no longer answer our phone. It's always telemarketers and banks. :smallfrown:

A friend of mine used to work at telemarketing, though. He told me, if you're not gonna buy or accept anything they offer you, the best thing you can do is to let them talk and then end the call. Maybe even politely saying "no, thanks, bye". That way they did their job, which was to call you, not to get you to buy the stuff.

[Lady Moreta]

A friend of mine used to work at telemarketing, though. He told me, if you're not gonna buy or accept anything they offer you, the best thing you can do is to let them talk and then end the call. Maybe even politely saying "no, thanks, bye". That way they did their job, which was to call you, not to get you to buy the stuff.

I have done that sometimes... heck I do try to because I know they're just doing their jobs. It's the ones who won't shut up and won't take no for an answer that I tend to get fed up with and hang up on. Them and the ones who call with the bad english and Asian accent, because I already know that they're not actually trying to sell me stuff, they're outright lying to me and telling me that we have our phones with a company that both of us know we don't. That I don't have patience for, so I will pretty much always hang up on them.

[Haruki-kun]

I have done that sometimes... heck I do try to because I know they're just doing their jobs. It's the ones who won't shut up and won't take no for an answer that I tend to get fed up with and hang up on. Them and the ones who call with the bad english and Asian accent, because I already know that they're not actually trying to sell me stuff, they're outright lying to me and telling me that we have our phones with a company that both of us know we don't. That I don't have patience for, so I will pretty much always hang up on them.

Ah... we don't get the latter here. Although I have had some rather rude ones, those I can understand hanging up on.

Oh, and one that got me fed up. He was from the bank, and I needed to do some account stuff, so when he asked me for some personal info to make sure I was me, and I gave it to him, he said it was wrong. The computer had it wrong. >.< I explained this to him and he sent me over to someone who did the same thing, then sent me back to him. No correction was made.

[Lady Moreta]

Oh, and one that got me fed up. He was from the bank, and I needed to do some account stuff, so when he asked me for some personal info to make sure I was me, and I gave it to him, he said it was wrong. The computer had it wrong. >.< I explained this to him and he sent me over to someone who did the same thing, then sent me back to him. No correction was made.

Wow. I'm feeling frustrated for you just reading that...

I did have a co-worker (from a different job) give me something that he found to mess with telemarketers. It was a flowchart of things to do to mess up the flow of their speeches. Utterly hilarious, though I can't find it any more :smallfrown: and I was never brave enough to try it out either.

[golentan]

That was an unkindness.

*Golentan Seal of Disapproval*

[Eldan]

I did a Calvin once.

*Impossibly happy voice* "Good morning, SIR! This is John Q. Smith from Wesellyoucrap ltd.. Did you know that..."
"Ah, yes. I'd like to order two Quattro Stagioni, large, extra cheese."
"What?"
*click*

[Galileo]

OP, you've got the right idea. More people need to know they're not squirrels. It's a real problem these days.


After that, I think I need inspiration. Twice now I've had Indian-sounding fellows call me up and talk to me about how my computer is full of malware and stuff. Dunno what they intended to do about it - I cut them off pretty early on both times - but I smell a scam. Suggestions?

They're apparently trying to sell you a warranty on your computer. I get them just about every other day. The first time I heard her out, then I started telling them I either don't speak English or don't have a computer running Windows. The second option makes them hang up pretty swiftly.

[Eldan]

Also, around here, we get German telemarketers. If I got fifteen minutes, it's fun to put on the most overdone Swiss accent I can and pretend to be an actual customer. Then get them to try and write your name down without spelling it out. Fun fact: strong Swiss accents let you replace all "e"s with "ä"s, all "u"s with "ü", all "au"s with "u" and all "l"s with "u"s as well (the last one is strange, but works when spoken).

Alternatively, the one recommended to Serpentine above:

"Did you know that the list of potential customers you have in front of you could be 15% more effective if you bought our special sorting algorithm? You will sell up two standard deviations more per day if you optimized your *nonsensical statistics gibberish*."


And yes, I've done telemarketing myself before during semester breaks. It's a horrible job, and it pays badly. And you get paid per number of customers you recruit, which is usually about two per day, for a few hundred phone calls.
My current job (sorting letters for 25$ dollars/hour) is thankfully not as bad. Way more boring, but I don't get insulted all the time.

[KuReshtin]

I've had a couple of good ones with telemarketers.

First one was someone calling on my mobile phone telling me that they had a great offer for me to upgrade my current contract.
Since I didn't catch the company he called from when he introduced himself, I asked what company he called from again, and when he then told me the name, it was something that I didn't recognise.
So I asked him if he was calling on behalf of T-Mobile (my provider) and he grudgingly admitted that he did, in fact, not call on behalf of them.
After that, the conversation went south for him, rather quickly.

Me: "So, you're not calling on behalf of T-Mobile at all?"
Him: "Erm.. no, sir, but I can assure you that..."
Me: "hang on a second. So, since i'm on a T-Mobile contract at the moment, and you're not calling on behalf of them, what you're offering isn't, in fact, an upgrade on my current contract, am I right?"
Him: "Well, not exactly, but we can offer.."
Me: "So you're in fact trying to get me to ditch my current contract and sign up for a completely NEW contract with another provider instead."
Him: "That.. erm.. is.. well, yes."
Me: "I'm sorry, i'm not interested."
Him: "But sir, we can offer you a better deal than what you're getting right now."
Me: "Honestly, I don't really think so." At the time they called, I was still under contract with a loyalty discount of £10/month on my contract.
Him: "I'm sure we can give you a better offer. Can I ask you what your monthly contract is costing you at the moment?"
Me: "I pay £7.50/month for my contract. now, I honestly doubt that you can beat that."
Him: *slight moment of silence* "Erm... No, I guess we can't. Sorry to have bothered you."
Me: "No problem at all." *click*


The second one was someone calling from a survey company at 7:45PM on a Friday night. I was just heading out the door to meet up with some friends, but since no one usually calls at that time on a Friday night, I picked up the phone.
The woman on the other side asked me if I had a few minutes to answer a short survey, and I said that I was literally on my way out the door when she called (I had actually been outside the door with my key in the lock to lock the door when I heard the phone ring).
She then said that it wouldn't take very long, and I figured that if it'll be a quick survey, then maybe i could do it, since I was running late anyway.
I asked her how long "Not long" was, and her answer then was "About 20 minutes."
That was the end of that conversation. 20 minutes is not 'a short survey'.
I declined to take part, hung up and headed to the party that i was already late for.

[Mercenary Pen]

I automatically hang up on automated messages- if they can't spare the time to have a real person talk to me, I won't even hear them out... Assuming we have a real human being, I'll make certain they aren't with my bank or some other organisation which has legitimate business with me before hanging up. I do not choose to do business with people who phone me up on spec because working part time on near minimum wage I can't afford to... I don't even really have the time on hearing them out the entire way, so rude as it may be to them, I will cut them off and hang up must of the time- (though I've considered pretending to be a local takeaway for a laugh...)

[Serpentine]

I usually try to be nice. I know it's a crappy job, and I don't even hold it against the Indians doing it. I just wish that telling them, "I will never, ever buy or change anything through an unsolicited phonecall" would make a difference, and I REALLY wish that the companies they work for would realise it's a bloody stupid way of doing business.
So yeah, normally I try to be nice and polite. But this thing... It really does just smell like a scam to me. So I'm not so inclined to be nice.

[Eldan]

I try to be nice. I've done the job, andI know it sucks.

but sometimes? I get called by the same guy three, four times in a morning. That doesn't go.

[TreesOfDeath]

I auto hang up on machines, period.

For telemarketers I immedatly tell them we dont buy from telemarketers and please do not call this number again, then i hang up. Is that the right way of handling it?

[Mauve Shirt]

As long as you let them finish their sentence that's a nice way to do it.

[Orzel]

Me: Before you try to sell me something... How do you like your steak?
Her: ...Well Done.
Me: You sicken me. *click*

I usually just say "Thanks but No" and hang up or sing "the song that never ends" then hang up.

[Cyrion]

That was an unkindness.

*Golentan Seal of Disapproval*

Yes, it was. But when you call me at 8:15 on a Saturday morning for a telemarketing call, you deserve what you get. At least I was friendly about it and didn't chew him out in anger.

[Haruki-kun]

I auto hang up on machines, period.

For telemarketers I immedatly tell them we dont buy from telemarketers and please do not call this number again, then i hang up. Is that the right way of handling it?

It's a way of doing so, yeah. As long as you're not too rude about it. Don't worry about the machines.* :smalltongue:

See, the thing is that... we tend to take it out on the telemarketers, but it's not really their fault. They're just doing their job. :smallfrown:

*I do not, in any way mean to offend any robots reading this. You guys rock.


Yes, it was. But when you call me at 8:15 on a Saturday morning for a telemarketing call, you deserve what you get. At least I was friendly about it and didn't chew him out in anger.

Yeah, I got one of those, too... At 7 AM. <.<

Does the company REALLY not have the common sense to call people during office hours?

[Traab]

I have done that sometimes... heck I do try to because I know they're just doing their jobs. It's the ones who won't shut up and won't take no for an answer that I tend to get fed up with and hang up on. Them and the ones who call with the bad english and Asian accent, because I already know that they're not actually trying to sell me stuff, they're outright lying to me and telling me that we have our phones with a company that both of us know we don't. That I don't have patience for, so I will pretty much always hang up on them.

I used to be a telemarketer, we are literally not allowed to stop trying to sell untill you either buy or hang up on us. We get in trouble if our supervisor hears anything along these lines. "Ok, I understand, good bye" coming from us. So the only way to solve it is to say, "No thank you" then hang up. Dont wait for the telemarketer to accept the fact that you dont want what hes selling, he wont accept it. Just. Hang. Up.

Heh, I did feel bad for one lady, despite all the screaming at me she was doing. Apparently, our computers messed up and had auto dialled her 7 times in the last half hour. Different person each time. I was lucky number 7. :smallbiggrin:

[Velaryon]

I know if I was a telemarketer, I'd appreciate the surrealness of having the person ask me to say "I'm not a squirrel" out loud. :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, I also hang up automatically on machines. I figure that if you can't be bothered to have a real person call me, you don't need my money that badly. When it's a live person, I try not to be rude unless they're pushy. But I also don't let them just talk for a long time because I don't like having my time wasted.

[KuReshtin]

Next time someone calls, I'm going to say that I've changed my name and that I'm now known as Terry Wrist. Or Al Kyder.

[MoonCat]

Next time someone calls, I'm going to say that I've changed my name and that I'm now known as Terry Wrist. Or Al Kyder.

Give credit to the Chasers for that. :smalltongue:

[Keld Denar]

I get called from what I'm pretty sure is a scam. I have a Bawston phone number, yet I live in southern Seattle. I get an automated phone message saying "we are currently installing security systems in YOUR neighborhood". I think to myself...which neighborhood? If its Boston, well, I don't live there anymore. If its Seattle, I think...HOW DID THEY FIND ME!!!! So out of curiousity, I hit 1 on the prompt to speak with a live person. Those people FREAKIN HANG UP ON YOU! Like, if you say anything other than "I am a sheep, here is my credit card number.", they hang up. I even tried to ask to be taken off the calling list once, as telemarketer calls to cell phones is ILLEGAL, and I barely even finished my request before I heard the dial tone. I called the local police deptment to report the scam (seriously, who would buy a home security system from a telemarketer? Thats just begging to have your place broken into!), but they said that they couldn't really do anything about it. So...yea...

[KuReshtin]

Give credit to the Chasers for that. :smalltongue:

Definitely...

Credit where credit's due. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy-S5DzmFy8)

[Kobold-Bard]

...

I can only hope that I got him to say it loud enough that someone next to him on the phone bank heard him. :smallamused:

So rather than politely saying no and hanging up you decided to try and humiliate the guy for doing a job he obviously sounded like he doesn't enjoy and as such is probably doing by necessity.

Nice :smallmad:

[drakir_nosslin]

I used to work with telemarketing to earn some extra when I was in high school and I still remember the offer we had... Every time a telemarketer calls me I start off with:
"Yea, you know that sounds very interesting, but can I just ask you a question?"
*Hesitant approval*
"Great! You see, right now, *newspaper* has a special offer..."
Then I can go on for at least 5 more minutes, most hang up when I refuse to listen to them before I'm done. To the few who hang on I simply tell them that I'll take their offer if they take mine. Never had one agree on it so far.

[Keld Denar]

Nice :smallmad:
Hey, if you can't laugh at people, how are they going to laugh at themselves?

Oh wait...that sounded better in my head...

[Kobold-Bard]

Hey, if you can't laugh at people, how are they going to laugh at themselves?

Oh wait...that sounded better in my head...

It sounds like the kind of thing that would.

I don't mind being hung up on, I don't even mind people being a bit rude, but when people are asshats and treat you like **** for doing a job, that annoys the hell out of me.

[Traab]

You want to hear the oddest thing? I was selling newspaper subscriptions, and you would think that there isnt a large demand for them right? I mean, everyone who wants them should already have it. And yet, we were expected to, and able, to pull off at least one sale per hour. (Helps when you get paid on commision) It always made me curious about the telemarketers that sell some of the really odd stuff. "Can I interest you in a unicorn statuette thats wearing pants? Really? I can? Your country really DOES have too much money!"

[drakir_nosslin]

It sounds like the kind of thing that would.

I don't mind being hung up on, I don't even mind people being a bit rude, but when people are asshats and treat you like **** for doing a job, that annoys the hell out of me.

Perhaps, but calling someone at 8:15 on a saturday isn't just a bit rude, that's unprofessional. Also, he didn't threaten to kill the guy who called, which happened to me at least once every night I worked, and you know what? I'm no worse for wear. Usually when it happened I took a short break and got a cup of coffee. We called it 'murder break' :smalltongue:

[Ranger Mattos]

I did a Calvin once.

*Impossibly happy voice* "Good morning, SIR! This is John Q. Smith from Wesellyoucrap ltd.. Did you know that..."
"Ah, yes. I'd like to order two Quattro Stagioni, large, extra cheese."
"What?"
*click*


I used to work with telemarketing to earn some extra when I was in high school and I still remember the offer we had... Every time a telemarketer calls me I start off with:
"Yea, you know that sounds very interesting, but can I just ask you a question?"
*Hesitant approval*
"Great! You see, right now, *newspaper* has a special offer..."
Then I can go on for at least 5 more minutes, most hang up when I refuse to listen to them before I'm done. To the few who hang on I simply tell them that I'll take their offer if they take mine. Never had one agree on it so far.

These are both great :smallbiggrin: Heh, selling stuff to telemarketers...

[Lady Moreta]

I used to be a telemarketer, we are literally not allowed to stop trying to sell untill you either buy or hang up on us. We get in trouble if our supervisor hears anything along these lines. "Ok, I understand, good bye" coming from us. So the only way to solve it is to say, "No thank you" then hang up. Dont wait for the telemarketer to accept the fact that you dont want what hes selling, he wont accept it. Just. Hang. Up.

Ahhh, I did not know that. In future I'll stop arguing with them and just hang up. I usually do anyway, after a couple of "I'm not interested" repetitions, I'll stop wasting my time now :smallsmile:

This is reminding me of a friend and his response to a certain ISP company that rings and goes "I see you're no longer with us, what can we do to get you back?" - now he actually works for a different ISP and doesn't pay for his internet at all. When they say 'tell us what you pay now and we'll beat it' he promptly goes "well mine is free, if you pay me to use your internet sure!" they usually hang up then...

[Moff Chumley]

I can appreciate trolling telemarketers, but I generally gauge it on "does this person sound like he's enjoying this". If no, I hang up after a sentence. There's been one or two occasions where the person was way too obnoxious, in both cases for political groups, where I got weird. But for someone doing it as a job? I don't wanna be bothered, and they're not gonna sell anything to me, so the faster they move on to someone they can sell stuff to, the better. :smallsigh:

[Eldan]

Yeah, I got one of those, too... At 7 AM. <.<

Does the company REALLY not have the common sense to call people during office hours?

You can't, really. You have to call people at home, and they aren't at home during office hours. We did our calls in the early evening, usually between 6 and 8.

[Lady Moreta]

You can't, really. You have to call people at home, and they aren't at home during office hours. We did our calls in the early evening, usually between 6 and 8.

That's true... still, I'd rather be called between 6-8pm than at 7am on a Saturday morning....

[Eldan]

True... but I also did most of my phone work (I only did four weeks, three out of those) for an insurance company calling actual customers to ask them to upgrade their actual existing plans.
So, people were a little nicer there.

The other job was selling insecticides by referring to a silly-sounding study on how there would be insect plagues that summer.

Yes, I'm an ecologist specializing in insects. The first time reading that so called study was funny. But not for long.

[Serpentine]

You can't, really. You have to call people at home, and they aren't at home during office hours. We did our calls in the early evening, usually between 6 and 8.Right on dinner time. Which is also obnoxious.
I'm thinking, at least when the person seems friendly enough, of just saying "There is no chance at all I'm ever going to buy what you're trying to sell. Would you like me to listen to your schpiel anyway, or would it better to just end this call now?"

[Jan Mattys]

You guys are mean.

Refusing and offer is ok, being mean on a person who's just earning some bucks for a living (a person, I might add, that might as well hate its job as much as you do) is evil.

[drakir_nosslin]

You guys are mean.

Refusing and offer is ok, being mean on a person who's just earning some bucks for a living (a person, I might add, that might as well hate its job as much as you do) is evil.

Actually, I found that it was often more fun to get someone to talk back to you than just hang up. That way I had to use my wits to stay in the conversation. But on the other hand, I had no problem with the murder threats either. Everyone's different I guess :smallsmile:

[Eldan]

"Hello, I am from [Insurance]. You are one of our customers, and it is customary that we call you once a year to ask if you would like to..."
*click*
*beep*
"Hello, I am from [Insurance]. You are one of our customers, and it is customary that we call you once a year to ask if you would like to..."
*click*
*beep*
"Hello, I am from [Insurance]. You are one of our customers, and it is customary that we call you once a year to ask if you would like to..."
*click*
*beep*


You do that for three hours and you'll be happy if people talk back.

[Jan Mattys]

Yes, it was. But when you call me at 8:15 on a Saturday morning for a telemarketing call, you deserve what you get.

No you don't.
You're just doing your job, and you're getting all the hate in person just because your company's marketing strategies still come from the '80s.

An approach like "Listen, I know you're just doing your job, and a boring one, but please fill a note for your superiors: calling potential customers at 8:15 on Sat morning will piss them off" would probably be both more effecting and more reasonable than to chew a poor employee's face.

[AsteriskAmp]

No you don't.
You're just doing your job, and you're getting all the hate in person just because your company's marketing strategies still come from the '80s.

An approach like "Listen, I know you're just doing your job, and a boring one, but please fill a note for your superiors: calling potential customers at 8:15 on Sat morning will piss them off" would probably be both more effecting and more reasonable than to chew a poor employee's face.

You've got to remember that there are different kinds of telemarketers.
Some sell you products. In my house we try to prevent those from reaching my mother, she normally buys whatever they happen to sell. As for me I hang up on them as I've probably seen it in a "Quality Products" TV spam ad.
Some sell you books, I normally listen up to certain point to those, there I either ask for a price and a number to call back to or hang up. If they make repeated calls they get trolled.
Some sell ideas of the don't talk of those in the forum kinds. Those can either get trolled or hang up without response (I doubt these get paid).

And then there is the banks and insurance companies that get handed to my mother sometimes and trolled other times when they make repeated calls.

[Lady Moreta]

"Hello, I am from [Insurance]. You are one of our customers, and it is customary that we call you once a year to ask if you would like to..."
*click*
*beep*

You do that for three hours and you'll be happy if people talk back.

Awwww *hugs*

If it was someone calling from a place that we actually had something with, I'd at least listen - and then probably tell them we were happy the way we were. Unless they started asking for me to prove my identity, then I'd start thinking they're probably running a scam and hang up on them - or at least point out that I'm not giving details over the phone when I only have their word for it that they're calling from where they say they are. If I'm interested, I'll call back myself so I can be sure that I've got the right people.

[KuReshtin]

"Hello, I am from [Insurance]. You are one of our customers, and it is customary that we call you once a year to ask if you would like to..."
*click*
*beep*
"Hello, I am from [Insurance]. You are one of our customers, and it is customary that we call you once a year to ask if you would like to..."
*click*
*beep*

Oh, the repetitiveness of calling people and repeating the same thing over and over.
how I do not miss that.

i never worked as a telemarketer, but I did work in a department where we updated the directory enquiries database that was the basis for the printing of the phone book. Both the white pages and the yellow pages.

I worked there at the time when lots of companies started getting ISDN connections and therefore needed a second telephone line to be installed.
Since the database noticed that a company already had an entry in the phone book when they got a second phone line, we had to call them to ask if they wanted the new phone number listed or not.

A call usually went something like this:

Customer: "Anton's Shower Curtain Emporium, Anton speaking."
Me: "Hi, my name is Christian and I'm calling from Telia InfoMedia."
Customer: "Uuuuhh.. Okay."
Me: "I'm calling because I can see here that you recently got a second phone line for your company, and was wondering if you want that new number included in the number enquiries information for your company, and included in the phone book."
Customer: "No, that's just for our new ISDN/fax machine, so I don't want that included."
Me: "Ok, thanks. I'll make sure that it's not included then. Bye."

Then repeat that for 8 hours a day.

The highlights of the day were usually when the system threw a fit because of an incorrectly entered post code/zip code during registration, which didn't match up with the street address, and we had to call the local post offices to get confirmation of what the correct information was.
There were a few of those post office workers who sounded so pretty. :smallwink:

[Eldan]

I only did it for four weeks, thankfully.

My new job is much more exciting :smallsigh:

I get post boxes full of letters that people sent back and have to sort them by "Address nonexistant", "Person moved away", "Person Deceased" and "Person does not wish further mail from this address."

It pays an average 25$ an hour though, so it's not too bad. I'd make more with tutoring, but no one wants biology or chemistry tutors.

[KuReshtin]

I only did it for four weeks, thankfully.


I did that for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for a year and a half.

[Serpentine]

I iron newspapers.

...

It's actually a pretty swell job.

[Kobold-Bard]

In the immortal words of Rawhide: "Bug fix post".

This invisible post That won't disappear of your User CP = :smallannoyed:

@Serpentine: Who wants their newspaper ironed?

[Serpentine]

It's not just the User CP it screws up on.

The uni library archives. They have to be extra-flat for microfilming. I do current and very old newspapers.

[Kobold-Bard]

It's not just the User CP it screws up on.

The uni library archives. They have to be extra-flat for microfilming. I do current and very old newspapers.

Aaaaaaah. I thought you might be working for some eccentric millionaire who liked a really thin paper. Your actual job makes much more sense.

[drakir_nosslin]

Aaaaaaah. I thought you might be working for some eccentric millionaire who liked a really thin paper. Your actual job makes much more sense.

I'll stick with the eccentric millionaire. Much more interesting :smallbiggrin: