I just got a call from a charity telemarketer (somehow they manage to get past the National Do Not Call list) that I found very interesting. There was a young man talking about veterans and how we should support them. In the background I could hear the characteristic hum of many voices supposedly making the same type of call. I would have been completely taken in, except I heard the magic words "the purpose of this recorded message...". I should have just hung up then, but it still sounded like a real person and I just couldn't do it.
A friend of mine used to work at a customer support call center and she told me that all she did was listen to what the response was from the caller and then select the recorded message that corresponded. All well in good for customer support (well, not really), but to use that technology to irritate poor stay-at-home moms by trying to extract money from our already tight budgets? What is the world coming to?
At least I felt better hanging up after I said "NO!". Really, people...
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When I answer the phone, I give the caller perhaps 3 seconds to respond. I don't repeat my hello because many telemarketers are listening to several calls at a time, and only talk to the person who answers first. If I don't get an immediate response I hang up. If I do get a response, and it is a telemarketer, I give them about 10 seconds to tell me why they are calling, then I politely tell them I'm not interested and hang up. I don't even say goodbye because I have found that if I don't hang up, they try to reason with me and tell me why I should listen to them longer. In the end I'm going to say no anyway, so I figure I'm really saving them time in the long run. I think they would rather spend time with a real customer than spend 10 minutes explaining something, then be told no. I just don't deal with telemarketers. Even if I like the product, I'm not going to buy it over the phone.
AT&T called us ten times in two weeks. I finally handed the phone to Adam to have him tell them to have us taken off their calling list ... we've had three days of peace. I wonder how much longer it will last.
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