Well, this is a sticky situation.

I run a very professional center, the only person that is *allowed* to hang up on the customer is a sup or manager. What would happen is that IF a customer is being abusive or rude (i.e. sexual innuendos, swearing, threatenning etc.) the rep can hand the contact over to a sup or manager and let us deal with him. If they are being one of the above, we tell them we will disconnect the call if it continues. If it happens again, *click.*

That is not to say that reps, even in my center, don't occassionally hang up on customers. If we catch them it is a disciplinable offense.

You probably experienced a rep that is tired of getting lied to, though this does not excuse it. We get exchanges like this all day long:

Contact: "Hi there, Jones residence"
Rep - "Hello, is Mr. Jones available?"
Contact - "ah, he no here." (pathetic attempt at random foriegn accent."
Rep - "ok, is this Mrs. Jones?"
Contact - "UM, no hablas ingleis"

This gets irritating.

Really - if you want a particular telemarketer to stop calling you, say this:

"This is (your name) and I am requesting that you add us to your Do Not Call list and send me a copy of your Do Not Call Policy. Do you have my address handy?"

If the company is at all reputable, that will end all calls within the next 15-30 days.

Mr. Yuk

I could tell you guys some stories...

We have had several instances of the contact becoming enamoured with the telemarketer. On one in particual (male contact, female rep) you can hear the audible sounds of him, uh, enjoying himself in the background...

We have had absolutely INSANE contacts. Instances where they went off into some crazy side conversation and never came back.

We have called celebrities (who are usually jerks)

We have talked to easily 13-14 members of a household. This usually happens with Hispanic families.

Finally, we have called 911 several times on people who were involved in fights, robberies, spousal abuse, or medical issues while on the phone with us. This happens 2-3 times a year.

Mr. Yuk

About 20 years ago I was pestered by the telemarketers at Citibank insisting I must purchase credit card insurance. I had been resting when the phone rang. I got up too quickly and felt faint. I told the person I didn't feel well, wasn't going to buy this insurance AND I thought I was about to pass out. Next thing I know I wake up to the sound of beeping phone and a very sore bump on the head. I was home alone. Do you think this person would have called 911 had it been available then?

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At the time she was living with her boyfriend (they are now married) and the telemarketer asked her if she was "Mrs. Smith." She then went off on this whole spiel about how she wasn't but she did not know why because they had gone out for like 8 years and she was so frustrated because he wasnt ready to get married but she was sure they would one day... and on and on... I am actually surprised the telmarketer did not hang up on her faster... maybe she stunned them so much they just could not hang up... something like a deer in the headlights! LOL...

This was pretty hysterical! I have some friends who are married, but she kept her own name. So now when he answers, and someone asks if he's "Mr. Jones" (her name) he says "no" and the call ends - and vice versa.......

Mama Fox

We definitely would have. I can't say for any other companies. There are a lot of fly by night operation out thee, especially 20 years ago.

Mr. Yuk

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We have had several instances of the contact becoming enamoured with the telemarketer. On one in particual (male contact, female rep) you can hear the audible sounds of him, uh, enjoying himself in the background...

Oh lordy, I used to work for a company that ran the personal ad sections of over 300 newspapers nationwide... Including the sexual personal ad sections. The stories I could tell you! :D I actually kept a notebook of all of the funniest ads I took down, it's always good for a laugh!

-gollygee

We're on the National Do-not-call list and the state one that preceded it, so I don't get that many telemarketing calls (except for the non-profits and the "marketing surveys") in English. We do get these Spanish ones...so either they ignore the do-not-call list or they are somehow exempt.

I also think that they realize pretty quickly we're not their target audience, so all-in-all it's usually a pretty short phone call. When they call during work hours, it's also a pretty fair bet Mr. Dewberry's not going to be here. But even if he were, he's not the Hispanic person they're looking for.

The one that I got into an argument with needed for his survey a Hispanic woman between the ages of 25-49. When I explained that no one in the household fit that description, he got belligerent with me about the last name (which I don't go by). I just think it's funny, because it points out once again, the underlying trouble with using things like names to market to people.

I am generally polite with the people who do call, but I'm not going to respond to their pitch, so I try to be quick too.

dewberry

My teenager LOVES it when telemarketers call... she VERY QUICKLY hands the phone to her 2 1/2 year old brother and then stnads next to him busting a gut laughing. Its cruel... but lots cheaper than a movie and popcorn. So I let the show continue - and they always hang up first.
mff

Well, we have caller ID so we just don't answer the phone if we don't recognize the number, but I've always wanted to do a sort of Monty Python routine with the telemarketers but have never had the guts. I know they're just earning a living, but what I hate is the calls that are "allowed" by the Do not call list. For instance, if AT&T is your phone company, they can call you all they want to try to sell you extra services, and the political ads are exempt too.

I dream of an Argument Clinic sort of thing:

Tele: May I speak to Mrs. Knit Wit?
Me: I told you once.
Tele: I beg your pardon?
Me: I already told you.

And so on...

Knit Wit

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That's excellent! Now, how can I make them do that?

For real! Because I am definatley ALWAYS the one doing the hanging up... and since I've beeen doing this job thing lately and I've been setting up my repayment for my student loans, I can't tell which ones are calls I NEED to take and which are telemarketers... so I've talked to a lot of people I didn't want to.

You do not need telemarketers to hang up on you. Remember, I punish mine if they do so.

Simply ask to be put into THEIR DNC list. Right down the name of the company and their contact number.

If you receive a call after 30 days from the date you requested it, they are breaking federal and some state laws, and you can make $500 out of it.

We take DNC requests very seriously. My reps placed over 50k calls out of this center a day. figure about 800 DNC requests. 400k is a lot of money to be fiddling around with.

Mr. Yuk

If you receive a call after 30 days from the date you requested it, they are breaking federal and some state laws, and you can make $500 out of it.



Is there a time limit associated with these lists? I've requested to be removed from this one not-for-profit's call list in the past. Why? Because they basically harass me. They call several times a day for weeks at a time and I see them on caller ID and I ignore them and don't pick up the phone. So, at some point when I'm sufficiently aggravated, I'll pick up the phone and, admitedly rudely, tell them that they are harassing, that they've called x number of times in x days and I want to be placed on the No Call list. That usually gets me a couple months of no bothers--maybe up to 6 months. Then, the calls start again! GRRRRR.

Amyrica

They shopuld not be able to call back for a MINIMUM of three years, if you are dealing with the same company.

The proble lies in the facts of how NP's do business. Frequently they have many different vendors calling. Because NP's themselves are xempt from federal statutes, only the tele-marketing company is liable to hold true to these laws and even then there is a lot of grey areas.

What is probably happening is that you are on several internal lists. These are lists that circulate within the TM company about every 6 months based on productivity and lead flow. The best thing to do in this case is to talk to a supervisor and ask them to send your number to their help desk to ensure your number is not dialed from the dialer. This is a static, coded change in the dialer and will result in you never being called from that company again.

What Non-Profit is it?

Mr. Yuk

Their caller ID says CURE CLOTHING. They want me to donate clothing and items for their organization.

Amyrica

Oh, that sounds like a very local thing, probably run by one of the little sweat shop telemarketing places. A major vendor would never take that campaign. You're lucky you're getting 6 months out of the DNC requests.

Mr. Yuk

I asked Cure Clothing to stop calling once and the guy said they did not have to since they were a Non-Profit... you have to love that.

Best way to hang up on somebody is to hang up in the middle of YOU speaking - then it sounds like you just got cut off.

"OK, now, sir, what I am going to ask you do is... click..."

Then when they call back odds are very good they'll get one of the other 150 cube cattle and you don't have to deal with them.

Mariette
(much happier in a salaried job where I can visit the washroom any time I want ;)

I (the Sprite) used to work at a place that did credit card offers and always got some crazy stuff. The funniest one I can remember was this guy that, when I asked for his wife, said, "Well, what do you want her for?" and when I started to tell him, he just kept saying, "Whadayawant, whadyawant, whadayawant" then finally ended with "blahblahbuhbuhBUH!" and hung up! Frankly, after a night of hang ups and rude comments, that was the funniest thing I had ever heard. I actually was pretty good at it, but I started to feel a little guilty about it. People kept saying I had a nice speaking voice and I started to think that they were getting cards because they LIKED me, not needed a card. In the end, I finally quit there over the pressure to sell, even when I felt like the people couldn't afford it.

I also worked at a magazine sales place. I loved the magazine lady because she ran her own company and only sold to businesses, like doctor's offices and such. If ANYONE gave the slightest HINT of not being interested, we were allowed to politely say "Oh, no problem...you have a great day!", no pressure or anything. She always said "Look, I want people who are going to WANT this stuff, not folks who're later on going to want to weasel out of it." I only quit there in the summers when her office moved to the other side of Buffalo.

The Highlander did the opposite of what I did for a while...intake calls. He had to try and convince folks to KEEP their existing card (which meant they usually called in upset about the card and wanting to cancel it). He ended up quitting when a young guy his age called in and wanted to take back a charge for a $400 flower arrangement that he thought was only $40. When the Highlander tried to question him, the guy broke down crying and said he'd "only wanted to put something on her grave". Apparently, his brand new wife (who was my age) died literally overnight from some terribly rare blood disease and he bought the flowers in the midst of his grief. When the Highlander asked his boss, she told him not to get too involved in the lives of others like this. He walked out, came to my school and hugged me for a good minute before telling me what happened and I told him to never go back there again.

I've become much nicer to telemarketers because of all this. I usually will do the "take us off your calling list" line and thank them very much for calling so they can move on to the next caller. I definitely don't berate the person unless they keep pushing me to buy or do something and if they're really nice and I'm not busy, I'll even do the survey or (if it's a card or something) ask to talk to their supervisor and tell them how polite the person was. After all, we ALL gotta eat, right? Some folks just have to do things they don't enjoy to eat, that's all.

It's funny, I used to get bothered by the *moral* aspect of what we do, I mean we ARE professionally pushy.

But we don't lie, and we follow all the laws and such. I tend to try to think of the telemarketers first, ensuring they can provide for their families...

I think there's a place for all of us, I've been bred in high-pressure sales for ten years. It is rough on the telemarketers sometimes, that's why I try to make the working environment as nice as possible.

I never imagined this would be my career, but after a decade, traveling around the world, and making much more than most people my age, I don't know what else I'd do.

Sure glad I got that programming degree...

Mr. Yuk

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I've become much nicer to telemarketers because of all this. I usually will do the "take us off your calling list" line and thank them very much for calling so they can move on to the next caller. I definitely don't berate the person unless they keep pushing me to buy or do something and if they're really nice and I'm not busy, I'll even do the survey or (if it's a card or something) ask to talk to their supervisor and tell them how polite the person was. After all, we ALL gotta eat, right? Some folks just have to do things they don't enjoy to eat, that's all.

I used to be a telemarketer, I sold credit cards, then I worked taking personal ads, then selling for a total scam company (herbal breast enhancers, herbal viagra, timeshares, etc), then as a survey-taker, then as a collections agent (not the highlight of my life). I totally appreciated it when people who were going to reject the offer got me off the phone as quickly as possible. The best thing you can do is politely say "take me off your list."

When I was doing surveys, we literally had THREE questions to ask people (about their cable installation) and had people off the phone in under 30 seconds most of the time. But if people pissed us off and the supervisor wasn't around, we would just keep clicking on "recall" (which is totally illegal) and let everyone in the department know that so-and-so was an a**hole and to keep clicking recall until they were nice to us. :D It was horrible, but we called it Telemarketers Revenge. I'm ALWAYS nice to the survey people, I feel bad for them, and I get the sales people off the phone as quickly as I can.

But the Do Not Call list is a beautiful thing. Oh and getting rid of your home phone and only using cell phones, that's what my boyfriend and I do now, and telemarketers are not legally allowed to call your cell phone. That's another great trick, if you get a telemarketer on your cell, just tell them it's a cell phone and they're not allowed to call it. That was the only way Omaha Steaks stopped calling me! :D

I see telemarketing as the new retail/McDonald's. Most teenagers are going to get WAY more money as a telemarketer than they ever would at a fast food joint or retail store, plus they get to sit all day, and half the places will let you draw or read (or possibly carve stamps? :D) between calls! It's a sweet gig if you can handle the pressure and abuse! :D

-gollygee

I haven't thought about telemarketers for a while since we don't have a landline anymore, but we actually somehow got them to stop calling without using the Do Not Call List.

You'd be surprised how many telemarketers will apologize profusely for interrupting relations (real or not ; ) and hang up and then never call back. One hung up on my man once he started getting descriptive and vocal... I was sitting next to him watching TV and not really paying attention and I just look over and I was shocked.... what the heck is he doing? The guy hung up and he just busts out laughing, says "bet he'll never call again" and he didn't.

moonduck