Wednesday, November 19, 2008

How to Spot a Telemarketer...

...From 50 paces:

* When you answer the phone, you are greeted to 30 seconds of dead silence before a smarmy-sounding salesperson comes on the line

* You are greeted with an automated voice instructing you to, "stay on the line for an important message."

* There is an actual person on the other end, but when asked what company they are calling on behalf of, instead of giving you a direct answer (eg: Acme Company), they respond with, "I have a very important matter to discuss with (insert name)."

I don't know what the deal is, but we have been inundated with telemarketing calls lately where I work. At least two a day, whereas we used to almost never receive them. It's a royal PITA and, as a mail order company, every minute of our time wasted by slime is a potential customer/order lost. Yes, we repeatedly request that they remove us from whatever list our name has suddenly appeared on, but it's difficult to report them when they refuse to give the company name. I swear telemarketers are more evil than lawyers.


4 comments:

Nina said...

Ha! I dealt with one of those today. I have no issue whatsoever to interrupt them and tell them that I am NOT interested. And if I don't get a response within five or maximum ten seconds after picking up the reciever I hang up. If I know the number (I do recognize some of them on caller ID) I just pick up the reciever and hang it up again. I am so not going to deal with them.

Here there is a big database of people that do not want to be harrassed by telemarketers anymore and the companies are not allowed to call if you're registered at that database. Maybe there are something along the lines over there too.

Nina

Jana said...

They're not supposed to call places of business, right? But, like you said, it's hard to report them if they won't tell you who they are. Ack!

Back when I had a land line, I signed up for the no-call list. For about a year I lived in bliss. Then several so-called charity organizations started calling me several times a day and unfortunately they are excempt from the no-call list and don't HAVE to remove you if you ask them to. *sigh*

Which is one of two reasons I no longer have a land line. That, and it was silly and expensive to pay for a land line AND a cell phone.

Guess that's not an option at work though, right?

Heather said...

Nina - Yes, we have a do-not-call list here, but it does not apply to businesses, even though many small business owners have been pushing to be included. I usually wait until the second ring before picking up the phone, both at home and at work, which does cut down on the number of calls I have to deal with, but even that isn't fool-proof. If we had caller ID you can bet I'd be screening ALL my calls!

Heather said...

Jana - I knew pollsters were exempt from the do-not-call list, but did not know about charities. Even so, if you ask them to remove you from their list, they should do so.

BTW, I do not have a cell phone. I know--one of the last people on the planet who doesn't, but I leave the house to get away from people, why would I want to make it easy for them to find me? *G*