OT: Do you hate Telemarketters as much as I do?

[Ilen]

If it hasn't become apparent to you from the responses you receive here, then I'll spell it out: People hate having their lives interrupted by somebody whose only interest is in parting them from their money. If you think this is somehow a bizarre reaction, then I suggest you have much to learn about people.

Then basically anyone who advertises needs to get lumped in with telemarketers, here I am reading a magazine and they are trying to sell me cigarettes? Or I'm watching Friends and somebody tries to sell my Tide.

Or hell, the Fire Department calls and asks for donations.

We live in a capitalistic society; people are constantly trying to part us from our money for some product or service, tis a fact of life. If you can’t handle it without calling people who do so the scum of society you’ve got problems.

It isn't a bizarre reaction, but it is an overreaction.

 

[Tsyr]

Oh man, that's ranging up to two minutes of your time lost a day! No wonder you're put out!

Ugh. I can't believe I got annoyed enough with this thread to chime in. Really, just tell the person pleasantly once that you aren't interested.

This doesn't work. I've tried. As someone else speculated, I suspect they have an unwritten rule not to do this until legal action is threatened.

It's not the percentage of time out of the day. It's the interuptions.

Lets get something strait here.

I'm paying for a phone line for my own use. Not so that you can exploit the money I am already paying to harras me. And now people are telling me that the answer to my problem is to pay more to simply reduce the amount of times people call me? Because I know a number of people who assure me that unlisted numbers at best reduce the amount of calls you get, not elimitate.

Thats true. You do infact have that right. If you want to be a bully and a thug be my guest.

I'm not a bully or a thug. As I see it, they are.

What does a bully or thug do? They harass people with no provocation or respect for the persons right to not be harassed.

What does a telemarketer do? They harass people with no provocation (_I_ sure didn't give them the OK to call me) or respect for my right to not be harassed.

If someone comes into your home and starts going through your silverware drawer are you now a bully to make him leave? If someone is going through your glovebox when you get out to your car, are you a bully to get him out of your car?

I see it as the same intrinsic violation. Is it as severe? No. But by the same token, I'm not gonna physicly harm a telemarketer, even if I could. They didn't do anything to warrent that. (Well, one or two have come close...)

BTW I love your Seal very cool

LOL, you wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out the right combination of filters to get it to look even close to "right".

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Then basically anyone who advertises needs to get lumped in with telemarketers, here I am reading a magazine and they are trying to sell me cigarettes? Or I'm watching Friends and somebody tries to sell my Tide.

I have countered this argument.
Others have countered this argument.

Why do you insist on keep making it?



FD

 

[Tsyr]

With every right comes the duty to use it responsibly - that old, "With great power comes great responsibility" thing that we love Spider Man for

Is being needlessly and intentionally rude a responsible use of your rights?

Nah, probably not.

But neither is what they do.

And Spider Man pales in comparison to Bat Man baby...

 

[Ilen]

The moment they call someone in their home- and that person picks up- they have forced themselves to be listened to. Duration is not the issue.

FD

Uh, no. They didn't force you to pick up; you did that under your own willpower. The discussion to listen to whom ever is on the other end of the line, regardless of who they are, is solely in your hands.

By picking up the phone you consent to listen to the other person, tis as simple as that. And as they have yet to develop a mind control machine that forces you to pick up the phone on their demand, they haven’t forced you into anything.

 

[Buttercup]

What would you rather do? Work 8 hours in the sun for $64 US or sit at a phone for 5 and make the same amount or more?

Were I to find myself unemployed tomorrow, I would choose a lower paying job, or a job in the hot sun, or a job as a garbage collector rather than become a telemarketer. I cannot and will not do something that I consider unethical. See, money isn't everything. In fact, compared to my self respect and my good name, it's nothing.

As I said upthread, having an unlisted phone number doesn't work. I've never had a listed phone number, since I first got a phone in my own name at 18. The calls came anyway. Asking to be put on a 'do not call' list never worked either. And the callers were frequently rude. This is no longer a problem to me though, since the state I live in now has a state-wide do not call list, and if a telemarketer violates it, the attorney general will be pleased to go after them.

I hope Furn's home state does something similar soon, so he can go back to answering his phone.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Hey i though had long gone from our little corner of the net. Good to see ya

By the way, Thomas tells me you're interested in even more GURPS. How's that going? (Thomas' job takes him off to different parts of the country for days on end, so communication is sporadic.)

[amazon.com mode]
Some items you might be interested in are Reign of Steel (sort of like a Terminator scenario), and Time Travel & Time Travel Adventures (it has both actual Time Travel, plus Paratime--like Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, for instance). Avoid buying Uplift, because they're putting out a revised version 4th quarter this year. From what I remember, you're buying a lot of the remaining Traveller supplements. (By the way, you DO know that I have a lot of the GDW Traveller stuff, right? The original Traveller....)
[/amazon.com mode]

Are you actually getting use out of the stuff you bought? One of the main reasons I'm selling the stuff is because I never, ever, ever used it, and I'm hoping it'll get some use. (Money doesn't matter, because I'm donating the money to charity. As soon as I find one that suits my interest....)

 

[Ace]

Furn_Darkside quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Ace


1- sometimes thats the only job people can get do to illness injury and being plain messed up. Since we don't have social welfare ala Europe unless you want them robbing you or homeless you need to give them something to do.
Or prehaps you would like to employ them?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Oh, that takes the cake.

So I could be left in peace from the phone- I should pay even more money in taxes to these people, who by your description, of which, 70% are loser drug addicts.

Oh, please sign me up.

But why would I want the peace of the phone then? I would not have any money to enjoy my life with.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Its called a social contract. We have obligations to to other citizens whether we like it or not. If you don't have any backup for the trash among us then you have nothing to complain about when they commit crime to take care of themselves.

Moality means looking out for the other guy. There ar two ways you can do this. Create lots of jobs and train people to fill them or provide payoffs.

Othewise you have a permanent underclass. Can you say Terrorist breeding ground. I knew you could.

ITs a threefold choice
Jobs
Welfare
Military and Police and Prisons
The choice we have is how much of either. I would prefer #1 or #2


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2- What would you rather do? Work 8 hours in the sun for $64 US or sit at a phone for 5 and make the same amount or more?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I did work in the sun. It is called self-respect.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not killing yourself for a pittance is called self respect. It is honorable to be a telemarketer, a bill collector, a prostitute or a host of other nasty jobs
Since it is clear you don't want to pay for welfare and begrudge them a living maybe you would simply prefer they died to meet your standard of self respect


Oh Furn I apologize for the formatting here, I still haven't quite got UBB codes down.

 

[Ilen]

I have countered this argument.
Others have countered this argument.

Why do you insist on keep making it?



FD

An ad in a magazine interrupts what I am doing as they attempt to sell me a product. It is valid in response to the post I responded to. He said nothing about telemarketers, simply people who interrupt your life to sell you something, which is what ads do by nature; they grab your time and attention and try to persuade you into buying something.

Of course an spot on TV isn’t the same as a telemarketer, people don’t overreact to the former.

 

[Tsyr]

Uh, no. They didn't force you to pick up; you did that under your own willpower. The discussion to listen to whom ever is on the other end of the line, regardless of who they are, is solely in your hands.

By picking up the phone you consent to listen to the other person, tis as simple as that. And as they have yet to develop a mind control machine that forces you to pick up the phone on their demand, they haven’t forced you into anything.

So... our choice is to be polite to everyone equaly regardless of how annoying they are, or to never use the telephone that we pay for?

Sorry, no dice.

Picking up the phone is sorta what you are supposed to do when it rings... I have no way of knowing who is calling (Don't even SUGGEST caller ID... I believe I have already made my stance known about being forced to pay extra to prevent something that shouldn't happen in the first place), so I pick it up, hoping against hope it's something relevent. But I have no obligation to keep listening, despite what you might claim. I have every right to hang up, or to be an arse if I want to.

Rude? Yah.

Childish? Sure.

But, strangely enough, I've stopped caring.