Good guys: 1
Annoying nut-fvckers: -2

gr8 quote:

"I am absolutely delighted to put it to a telemarketer," said Hakala.

Hahah, once I told a telemarketer that wanted to give me a free grave that I didn't die, in a perfectly calm and normal voice. The conversation continued, me plainly saying that I've been on the earth for millions of years and have tried to kill myself out of frusteration many of times (with no luck). Hah, told her if I ever felt like I was going to die I would let her know.

Wonder if this law exists in Illinois? If so, I'm rich.

Heh, heh, heh... Clean 'em out!

Telemarketer: "We would like to offer you a special promotion in long distance rates!"
Me: Sorry, i do not have a phone
Telemarketer: *a little dissapointed* "Thanks for your time"

*click*

I always forget there's money to be made right after I hang up on a telemarketer. Annoyance always beats greed. Dammit.

telemarketers are my oly friends

Ironic when you consider he works in magazines and a big chunk of magazine sales is from telemarketing.

Aha! Khaddy, I said the exact same thing to a solicter once! He didn't seem phased and kept trying to sell whatever he was trying to sell. I said I needed to get a pen, came back 5 mintutes later, said I couldn't find one and just stopped the conversation. Messing with telemarketers is fun!

You know what, telemarketers dont even call me. but someone calls at like 12:58p everyday and doesnt say anything. and i did *69 and my mom answered.

That's funny cos yer mom paid me a call just last night.

"Have we called you at an inconvient time?"

"No."

"Oh. Sorry. I'll call back later." (click)

Telemarketing is the single most annoying thing in the world. Other than a splinter in your eye, anyway.

I have an unlisted number.

Should have tag.

Telemarketers are scum.

Now, now, Undertoad, that's immature. Besides, his mom can't have been at my place and yours last night. You must be confused.

*inconvenient

I need to type slower

I like to spend the half hour or so it takes for them to say their piece, get them all riled up thinking they've got a sale, and then simply say "no" and hang up.

I lead a sad and lonely life.

I have an unlisted number

That doesn't mean that there aren't certain parties you don't know who do have you phone number.

Ex.: the Privacy Manager service. Sure, you get the service, but then the service provider gives away your number to many telemarketers.

Only thing more annoying than a telemarketer calling is a RECORDED telemarketer calling. Maybe even worse than a splinter in the eye. Not sure on that one.

"Please hold for an important call from the company with the dumbest marketing dept evar" *click*

I liked Seinfeld's solution. Tell them you'll be glad to talk about buying if they give you their home phone number and what time they sit down to eat dinner.

Ok, kind on/off topic: My phone was dead when I got home from work today and I didn't realize it until I tried to log on to fark. When I finally figured it out, I called my phone company and they gave me the blow off, "yeah, we are aware of a problem in your area, however if it turns out to be a problem with your phone line, we will charge you for a service call, thank you for calling." I asked how long I should expect to wait. "The problem will be corrected by 7 pm tomorrow evening." I waited three hours and couldn't take it anymore so I called again (BTW, I'm doing all this calling stuff on my cell phone). After 15 minutes of waiting I tell the the next available representative (in my sweetest voice) that I understand there's a problem in my area, but I am a diabetic and I desperately need my phone, "just in case". She says, "oh you really need your phone." "uh huh," I respond, innocently. Well, 2 seconds later MY PHONE IS WORKING. Ok, it might be a huge coincidence, but I'm thinking phone people take illness very serioulsy. Just FYI. I know, I'm going to hell...but that's where all my friends will be.

I have an unlisted number

That doesn't mean that there aren't certain parties you don't know who do have you phone number.

Ex.: the Privacy Manager service. Sure, you get the service, but then the service provider gives away your number to many telemarketers.

I do make a habit of lying about my number to all companies that don't need it. Of course, you can't avoid random dialers, but I rarely ever get calls.

i know Qwest sells your telephone number to outside companies as soon as you sign up, even if youre unlisted. i got my phone hooked up, and literally had telemarketers call the next goddamn day. i called Qwest and asked why they already had my number, and then had to suppress my urge to kill 35 people when she blandly answered "because you didnt say we couldnt sell youre number. you have to opt-out".

farking assholes.
die Qwest.
please.

"Why are you threatening me? I'm going to call the police if you don't hang up!"

Does anyone remember that adam sandler bit from "theyre all going to laff at you" where he calls his teacher and the teacher is like OMG! who is this? hello? im going to hang up!...im going to hang up!...im... anyone?

I feel ya, Young_Fart.(not literally! gt your mind outta the gutter!)
Lunatic Tassle, that's quite a story!
I'll have to rememeber that trick!

Dattaway: How can you call the police if you're on the phone with them?

Telemarketers are not "scum." The job they have to do is lame, and it's annoying, and the fact that the job needs to be done is scummy, but by and large, the people who do it are just trying to pay the rent.

I'm not one of them, and by all means, keep on doing all the funny pranks you can think of when they call, but they are not "scum": at least not for doing their job.

Biggyfred: Yup, Qwest sold my number immediately also. The telemarketers call me by name. No shiat, you can "opt-out". I'd opt out of their service entirely except for my Internet connection.

Once I had my "linebacker" option cancelled, and my phone went out the next month. I have NEVER had that happen before--when I always had the stupid linebacker service. But funny, when I got the phone reconnected six months later, there was no problem in MY line--the service was turned on outside and everything worked fine. I cancelled the linebacker again (which the guy at QWest had talked me into, again) and told them not to disconnect my phone this time!

Every corporation is full of crooks! They know we have to have their services, so they don't even care if we know that we're being ripped off!

entertaining ideas guys, but whenever you get a call from a telemarketer you should remember that these poor souls are just doing a crap minimum wage job that requires them to read the same script 20 times per hour. true no ones holding a gun to there head but I doubt they'd so this job if they could get something better. If you want to truly make your harrasment worth while try to get a supervisor on the line.

I kind of feel the pain here. I once answered phones for ticketmaster at least the people there were calling me rather than the other way around but dam it sucked!

Anytime someone online wants my phone number, or anywhere else, I just type in 000-000-0000. Suprisingly, it works most of the time. Any other time when they say that it's not a valid number, I just do 123-456-7890 and it seems to work.

...and YOU are charged by Qwest for having an unlisted number. It's like $1.20 a month for not having it in the book, and $2.50 to have it removed from directory assistance also. So they not only sell your name to telemarkers, they charge you to keep it out of their damn phone book too.

Qwest sucks.

And, P.S. they didn't even get my internet connection done. I ended up calling Microsoft to get it.

Naderbot:

Thats why i directed my comments at the industry itself, not those who work the phones. Everyone has to eat.

By the way, can you help me get this splinter out of my eye? I'm expecting an unsolicited phone call in a few minutes.

I used to be a telemarketer during college. It's really not that bad. I called people to ask them to rate their phone service technicians. I'll never forget the guy that said he was "very satisfied" because the technician was "a woman and I got to watch her ass as she climbed the pole in my backyard." Classic.

The job they have to do is lame, and it's annoying, and the fact that the job needs to be done is scummy, but by and large, the people who do it are just trying to pay the rent.

Exactly why they are scum. They need to get a real job. By the way, companies are using prisoners to do telemarketing because they can't find enough "regular people" to do the job, and prisoners are cheaper.

Begoggle: What is a real job? There are plenty of real jobs, including telemarketing, where the outcome is scummy. I think bottled water is a scummy industry--because we wouldn't need it if we hadn't polluted the damn water so much. But the people who provide the service aren't scum--like Altoid said, everyone needs to eat.

In today's economy, people take what they can get. They don't have the luxury of a miniature Begoggle sitting on their shoulder telling them if a job that's going to pay their rent is "real" or not.

Kaiser: Stop calling me! (Uh oh, secret's out)

I strongly disagree, Begoggle.

If that's all someone can get (for whatever reason) it's still better than going on the dole.

I have considerably more respect for people who take jobs like that than those that choose to let the system support them.

I've met a few telemarketers. They are regular decent people. Just they have an annoying habit of talking through dinner. Non-stop. You get past that eventually.

Begoggle: Prisoners need jobs too. And companies just looooove to cut corners. That's capitalism, babe.

I had a blast when I was telemarketing, mainly because we had to follow a script, and we were not allowed to say anything that wasn't on our computer screens. I mean it was strict. We couldn't say "ok" if it wasn't on the computer screen. If people said, "I don't understand" or "I eat playdo" or "what are you wearing," we had to keep repeating the question. It was hilarious because people would get really pissed off, but we had to repeat the same thing over and over, and then we had to write down exactly what their responses were. Those were the days. It's different now because telemarketers talk back.

I hate telemarketers, but I get a certain satisfaction in telling them to put me on their do not call list, and then telling them that I will make a point of never using the company that they are pushing.

Sometimes it really irks them. Not entirely sure why.

But what I really farking hate is getting home, seeing a msg on my answering machine, and discovering that it's a farking telemarketing 5 fricking minute recorded call. You know the kind. It where a taped message plays. Usually meant for you to listen to, and hang up if you aren't interested.

It wouldn't be so dang annoying if my answering machine had a delete msg or fast forward button. Instead, I have to listen to the entire thing before I can get to the next message. If I don't let it play out, it will never go away.

I need a new answering machine. Blech.

I used to call up alumni for my high school's alumni fund, and I'd get some pretty funny responses, and sad ones too. I'd get elderly people whose spouses just passed away (and this was for real, these were the elderly alumni I knew I was calling). One little kid answered the phone, I could hear his mom ask him who it was, when he told her she said "tell them I'm not home," and he said "she's not home." I could've said, "listen you little shiat, you and your penny-pinching mom ain't fooling anyone." But that wouldn't've been such a good idea, maybe.

Not exactly telemarketing, but close.

Naderbot:

There are other motivations for hiring prisoners. Think about it.

The call goes like this:

"Look, before I try to sell you anything, let me tell you that I am about to get released from state prison after serving 30 years for killing a family that didn't want to buy the vacuum cleaner I was trying to sell them. I have your name, phone number, and address. Now. Am I calling at a convenient time?"

"Do you take Mastercard?"
Think I'll put that splinter back into my eye.

Big deal...I did this two years ago...

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?s=118429

To Naderbot and anyone else that defends Telemarketers with "they're just doing their job":

BULLshiat.

I have been a corn detasseler, a dish washer, I've tended bar. I've worked at a gas station, a pizza joint, been a janitor.

In short, before I got a real career going I worked PLENTY of scummy, dead end, grunt-work useless jobs.

But I never ever ever once worked a job that made me harrass others against their will.

Choosing to do Telemarketing is choosing to be a jerk, choosing to annoy people that don't want it, choosing to be scum. THEY ARE THEREFORE SCUM.

And they deserve to rot in hell for it, or have their time on earth made hell because of it.

begoggle ...i think everyone understands where your coming from . i have walked off leaving my phone on the counter while a marketer gave his/her pitch . i bet they get called names a * good christian farker * wouldn't even know ....
but they aren't scum babe , your just passionate about it ;)