Anyone else hate telemarketing?

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That had to be the most boring job I've ever had. Newspaper subscription. Only good thing, they'd let us smoke together at break, and those high school dropouts had the good stuff for cheap. But that didn't make up for it, so I left. Couldn't take it man. At least I have sales experience I guess.

If boring is your biggest complaint, you had a sweet telemarketing gig! I've done that a couple of times and it was always extremely high stress. At one, the supervisors walked up and down the rows behind you, to make sure you never stopped or slowed down and that you were being suitably aggressive in pushing the sale. If you didn't make your quota of closed sales by the end of the week, you were automatically fired.

When I hear people complain about telemarketers, I always tell them, if you don't want to hear the pitch, just hang up. The telemarketer won't consider that as rude, it just frees them up to go on to the next number on their printout. Yelling at them only adds to the stress of a job that they wouldn't be doing unless they were desperate for a job. I'll never even apply for a telemarketing job again, that's the worst way to make a living. I 'd rather clean out animal cages.

Interesting, I thought this would be a thread about being on the receiving end of these calls. I always used to tell them "he's not here" when they ask for me, and I am sure there's some legal significance to making sure they reach the assigned user of the phone numbers they call. So don't be mean or rude, and be quick to end the call so you don't eat too much of their time, you say.

YES

What made it worse was I sucked at it! These little Bosnian girls wouldn't do anything special yet they always closed the deal. I worked there for nine months and always felt I was in a slump.

I had a job once, making cold calls for a company that cleaned chimneys. I had not been so rejected, sworn at and called names since I lived with my family! At the end of the day, I just wanted to go home and cry because people had been so obnoxious to me. On the third day, after getting berated yet again, I just decided "I can't do this," and I got up and walked out.

Technically I didn't do telemarketing. My job was cold calling and trying to get people to take political push polls. Half the time I'd call people, they'd get really pissed off and say "I'M ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST. WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME?" Then I'd have to tell them "That doesn't apply to us, because we're not selling anything" which would just piss them off more.

Some people who would actually take the survey would get angry at it eventually, because it would be dissing the candidate they liked. There would be questions like "[Career Politician A] was caught taking $1 million dollars in bribes from oil lobbyists. How does this affect your opinion of [Career Politician A]?"

It was a pretty crappy job. I did for a month in the summer before my senior year of high school. I would've kept doing it, but they required you to be scheduled for at least 28 hours/week, which was too much.

I like telemarketing/survey taking/collections myself.

Then again, it's very much a matter of personality. One helpful by-product of my difficulty with social cues was a rhinoceros hide - I just never took it personally when people yelled at me.

People do indeed get very nasty sometimes - even when you're just calling to ask for their opinion. I've had people outright lie and say call them back later at a given date and time when they had no intention of taking our call. Of course some people have also yelled at me and sworn at me like drunken sailors.

It seems relatively few people understand that the rules which apply to telemarketers - such as the Do Not Call List - don't apply to survey takers. Many people just don't like getting any kind of mass call, even if the caller is not trying to sell anything.

Some Aspies, like me, do especially well with work like that. (That's part of what inspired me to start my own business.) And of course some NTs - not always for the same reasons - do as well.

And on the other hand some Aspies hate that kind of work, as do some NTs.

Avengilante, I hear you loud and clear. With this kind of work - especially sales, telemarketing and certain types of collections - they put you on quota, and have no qualms about kicking you out if you fall below. Even with survey taking, they may not fire you but they may not pick you for many projects if you're not among the most productive, and that may mean you don't work for days or even weeks or months on end.

RhettOracle, was that by any chance Kick Ash Chimney Sweep & Repair, on Long Island? I telemarketed for them a couple of times in the early 90s. Their office was closed once due to...

...wait for it...

...a fire.

Last but not least: If you ever get an offer of a credit card or a loan or a sweepstakes/lottery prize and you're asked to pay a fee in advance - run/hang up/rip up the letter! In all probability it's a fraud.

Cheers,

No, this was a place in Toronto, Canada, whose name I don't even remember. It looks as though Kick Ash should have had their own chimneys cleaned, huh?

I just remember thinking that having no job would be preferable to putting up with one more second of that crap. I think they had new people working for them every day. That's the kind of turnover they had going for them. It's a wonder they managed to stay in business!