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Telemarketers-The
People We Love To HATE |
A
telemarketer is a person who represents a business or practices the
marketing of goods by telephone. However, I prefer the definition, “a
human paid minimum wage to call people in the middle of dinner and harass
them about buying a product that they already know they don’t want to
buy.”
Telemarketers
themselves are not bad people, but when they step into their little
cubbyhole at work and put on their earpiece, they transform into those
obnoxious rat-like creatures of the night that love to tie up your phone
lines. “Telemarketers are a waste of my time,” says Freshman Dani
Partlow.
Many
people may ask, “Why would anyone want to be a telemarketer?”
The only truthful answer is: no one really does. Who could
enjoy a job that involves bothering people despite constant failure? “I
think telemarketers are okay except I think they should ask if you are
interested in their product instead of wasting your time,” says
Sophomore Jon Wong.
Telemarketers may not bother everyone but they are working on it. It seems that the telemarketers are starting to catch onto the technological revolution. The computers may seem fine to most people because they don’t have to talk to someone, they can just hang up; but unfortunately that’s were the telemarketers get you. If a computer calls you and you hang up, the wonderful machine is still on your line. The computer simply stays on the line so that when you want to use your phone, you can’t, you have to listen and wait for the recording to finish. “I can’t stand telemarketers because when they call it’s usually a machine answering. Usually when they call I tell then to stop calling and I hang up on them,” says Senior Oscar Galvan.
“Telemarketers are annoying, they should send advertisements in the mail rather than over the phone,” says Sophomore Scott Hutcheson. Now, to prevent the dreaded discussion with the telemarketer there are a few solutions. 1. Hang up on them (the easy way out). 2. Tell them, “I’m not interested!” and then hang up on them. 3. Talk to the telemarketer. Talk to them like you have known them forever. You may want to ask, “How’s the weather?”, “Where are you calling from?”, “Do you have a family, and, if so, what are their names and ages?”, “Do you like the product your selling?”, and finally, “Why are you a telemarketer?”. Talk to them as long as possible. Maybe 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and may be even an hour. When the telemarketer finally thinks they have you interested in their product then you break the sad and confusing news, “I’m not interested.” The telemarketer will be so frustrated and confused that he or she will never call back. 4. The sure win. Remember these words, ”Take me off your calling list!” Get all the information on the person you were talking to, the company they represented, and the product they are trying to sell. Legally, they cannot call you back within one year of that phone call if you say those words. If they do call back then sue them.