Telemarketing call stories

[Laura's Babies]

I knew there were some good ones out there...MORE! MORE! MORE!

[Uabassoon]

I have a story from the other side! When I was younger I worked for a company that did phone surveys. So I called and a man answered when I asked if he would be interested in the survey he asked me to give him a good reason as to why he should. I explained that I was in college and I needed this job to earn some extra money for school. He then got excited and explained to me that he had a son in college too and if I was interested he could introduce us! The entire survey he kept talking about his son and how I sounded like a nice, hard working girl and we would be great together. His son sounded like a total dork! When his own father describes him as having a "great personality but a few social issues" and is trying to hook you up with a stranger on the phone you know the guy has some problems!

[Jessika]

When my sister and I were much younger, before the "no-call" list came into play, my parents would get so many telemarketing calls. Normally they'd just give us the phone, because as anyone knows kids looooove talking on the phone to anyone who will listen.

One day my parents were out and I was watchin my sisters when we got one of those infamous calls. When they'd asked if mr or mrs X was home, I started sounding choked up and tried to sound brave and told them my parents had recently been killed in a terrible accident, I forget the details, but the lady sounded very concerned, and sorry for bringing them up and making me upset. Oddly enough after that call we hardly received any more

[columbine]

I used to love to toy with telemarketers, shouting in a fake Eastern Euro accent and acting like I couldn't understand them. But then I started meeting people who couldn't get any job but telemarketing, and it's just such a lousy situation that I couldn't be rotten to them any more. A lot of the time the working conditions are ridiculous, with supervisors standing over them with stopwatches and only one bathroom break a day allowed.

Now I just say "I never respond positively to telemarketers because it's not a practice I want to encourage," or if it's one of those fake charities, "I never make contributions over the phone," and hang up without wasting any more of their (or my) time. These days most of them have such thick Spanish or Indian accents and such awful connections that I can't understand them anyway.

[pitc9]

When people call selling meat (like Omaha Steaks) I tell them I'm a Vegetarian. That shuts them up quickly!

[shepgirl]

Those replies are killing me-------I never know how to get rid of them and sometimes I get so upset when I've jumped out of the shower to answer the phone only to hear a telemarketer's voice. All these hints are going to be so much fun to use...

[Carol Bulger1944]

Well, once when they called and ask if this was the lady of the house I ask which lady do you want, this is a whore house......They hung the phone up in a hurry!!!!!! I know that sounded bad but it's a quick solutation to the problem

[Uabassoon]

But then I started meeting people who couldn't get any job but telemarketing, and it's just such a lousy situation that I couldn't be rotten to them any more. A lot of the time the working conditions are ridiculous, with supervisors standing over them with stopwatches and only one bathroom break a day allowed.

That's how I feel too. Tucson has a ton of call centers because we have what is considered a neutral accent. They usually pay around $10 per hour which is a good starting rate for a job that requires little to no skills to get hired. Most of the people working there are single moms because it's an easy job and if you don't have an education or a trained skill it's hard to find a job that will pay more than $10 around here.

[IRescue452]

We get the car warrenty place too several times a day. Sometimes it shows up on the caller ID as a cell phone. They must pay people to work from home and give them phones I swear. I'd love to find out exactly which company this is (scam I'm sure). Next time I might tell them I'm disabled and don't have a car.

If they ever start faxing stuff to us, we'll remove the paper until such time when we need to use the machine and we know who's sending stuff.

[Jessika]

Yeah the car warranty people... we get letters from them in the mail CONSTANTLY... even for my car... and it's eight years old!! The warranty on that expired before we bought it LOL