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Telemarketing jobs are nearly up to 1 in 300. Isn't that fantastic? Nothing says prosperity more than a phone that's always ringing! GDP, baby! That's what I'm talking about.
In all seriousness, please repeat after me:
"No thank you. I'm not interested."
October 16, 2014
Don’t get scammed, hang up on telemarketing fraud
When it comes to telemarketing calls, two things sometimes trouble Iowa consumers: unwanted solicitations, and flat-out fraud schemes.
I hear that.
1. Since I am on the do not call list, I sometimes find unwanted solicitations troubling. At the very least, I rarely want to receive unwanted calls. I know, shocking!
2. Since I once worked at a large public company that cooked the books, I sometimes find flat-out fraud schemes troubling. Brings back painful memories! Flashbacks!
Sometimes I do not find these calls all that troubling though. I can't explain it. Perhaps it has something to do with sarcasm.
In related troubling news, I'm currently in negotiations with a "telemarketer" working out of Florida (based on the caller ID). He's left several phone messages in the last few weeks. He's very concerned about an upcoming criminal case that will apparently get me arrested. It is very important that I call him back. At least that's what I think he said. His English isn't very good. So what did I do about it? I blocked his phone number. Problem solved!
For the truly sarcastic, I will share an approach that I used in college once. I was at my parents' house. The phone rang at dinner time. I answered and the telephone solicitor immediately began a sales pitch about aluminum siding. I tried to explain that the house already had aluminum siding but he wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. He just talked right over me as if I wasn't there. This did give me plenty of time to think though. I decided to listen to his entire pitch and work on my response. When he finally got around to asking what I thought, I said (in the voice of a young child), "I don't know. I'll need to talk to my mommy."
He then went into a huge rant about how I should have brought the head of the household to the phone. And what did he do after that? He hung up on me in a blind rage! Hahaha! I laugh over the absurdity of it. As far as he was concerned, I was just a toddler. He was so rude to me! Might have scarred me for life! Shame on him! ;)
Source Data:
BLS: CES Databases
St. Louis Fed: Total Nonfarm Employees
1 comment:
As a side note, that was the only time in my life that I can remember ever being mean to a telephone solicitor. He deserved every bit of it though.
Telephone solicitors generally don't make good money (unless actual fraud is involved). They are just trying to get by in an economy that basically sucks. I therefore have no desire to take it out on them.
Assuming that they sneak by the Caller ID, that brings me back to my basic response (at the instant I realize it's a solicitor).
"No thank you. I'm not interested."
They might not like my answer, but at least they can quickly move on to the next person. I'm actually doing them a favor by keeping it short.
That said, if everyone replied like I do then the phone would only ring if the call was important. Now that would be real prosperity! Probably not going to happen though. Sigh.
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