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chibikaijuu
2007-01-20 12:50 am UTC (link)

It baffles me that C_S, a community of people who have come together to bitch about being abused by strangers, and who will defend people who do pretty much any job in the entire world, think that it is not only okay but it is in fact *correct* to be verbally abusive to telemarketers, because they are the scum of the Earth, somehow, by calling your unlisted phone number, rather than being a middling annoyance that is dealt with much more quickly and neatly and permanently if you are polite or screen your calls.

That is not actually the longest sentence I have ever written.

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aposiopetic
2007-01-20 12:59 am UTC (link)

I don't get it either. Maybe my house has had it well, but telemarketers are, at worst, a mild nuisance. If people in there gripe about people paying for small orders with large bills and actually ordering items off the menu (which yes, are annoying), I don't see how on earth they think it's acceptable to be an unmitigated douchebag to other people who are only doing their equally shitty jobs.

I really don't understand the ones who purposely scream and blow air horns into the phone. Who the hell raised them to think that that was okay?

When my mother was going back to college when I was eight or so, she once had a bunch of words and seven commas to put them all into one sentence as a homework assignment.

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	elemcee 2007-01-20 01:03 am UTC (link)
	I always wonder how many of the poor abused posters at C_S actually are really awful customers themselves, sometimes. But, yep, here's some confirmation. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jrs1980 2007-01-20 01:07 am UTC (link)
	Part of it, I'm sure, is that the mod has said that since telemarketers don't have actual customers, but rather potential customers, it's okay to verbally stone them. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2007-01-21 12:41 am UTC (link)
	I fail to see how its different from any of the stories where its just a random person who's not actually buying anything from a C_Ser being an arse to them. Does that mean its okay for me to yell and scream at various salespeople just because I'm not actually buying anything from them? djs_specs@LJ.com (Reply to this)(Parent)

	thesilentsenshi 2007-01-20 02:15 am UTC (link)
	I don't get it either. I'm generally polite, though maybe sound mildly annoyed if interupted. But even when I'm annoyed, I just say no, not interested. If they don't take that as an answer, then I could see being pissy/bitchy, but otherwise, not really. (Reply to this)(Parent)

antigone
2007-01-20 01:06 am UTC (link)

Speaking of screening calls, the OP's post was hilarious when s/he said: "In fact some people have sensitive ears and hearing your three year old "singing" (cat's dying is what it sounded like) every day for over a week because you were never home is NOT FUN!!!".

I doubt those people are never home. Most likely, they are right there when the OP calls, screening. The fact that it is a very annoying out-going message just makes it that much funnier.

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	thesilentsenshi 2007-01-20 02:17 am UTC (link)
	I'm betting it's done on purpose, and their real friends mostly call their cells. Our message machine still says I'm using the internet and tying up the phone line, even though we've had dsl for years. xD (Reply to this)(Parent)

	chibikaijuu 2007-01-20 01:12 am UTC (link)
	*listed phone number, I meant. If your number is unlisted and you're still getting unsolicited calls, you have a right to be significantly annoyed. I think I combined a couple of ideas in my head and my fingers didn't quite get the messages. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

breecita
2007-01-20 04:41 am UTC (link)

I have to pay a few bucks a month to keep my number unlisted, and we got our first solicitation literally 48 hours after we hooked up the new number. Even though I'm on the Do NOT Call list.

And now we're getting auto-calls from some Family Values group who wants to tell us that the gay people are GOING TO RUIN EVERYTHING with their pro-choice evil henchmen, and would we stay on the line to discuss it furtuer and pledge money to help out?

Maybe I'm just crabby, but I'd prefer to not get phone calls until the Gay Pride Parade marches into town and starts holding down innocent bystanders so the pro-choicers can force abortions on them.

When that day comes... call me up and ask if I'm concerend.

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	taviblue 2007-01-20 07:35 am UTC (link)
	Tell them you are one of the evil homogays. That's my favorite tactic for when I actually get calls. Switching to cellphone has made my life so much easier. My mom threw a fit when I did that one, though. >XD (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2007-01-20 06:48 pm UTC (link)
	And now we're getting auto-calls from some Family Values group who wants to tell us that the gay people are GOING TO RUIN EVERYTHING with their pro-choice evil henchmen, and would we stay on the line to discuss it furtuer and pledge money to help out? I'd like to know how that isn't harassment, legally. prairiedawn (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	(Anonymous) 2007-01-21 07:20 pm UTC (link)
	Because they're a nonprofit, and nonprofits have hella loopholes. (Reply to this)(Parent)

v_digitalwytch
2007-01-22 08:56 pm UTC (link)

And now we're getting auto-calls from some Family Values group who wants to tell us that the gay people are GOING TO RUIN EVERYTHING with their pro-choice evil henchmen, and would we stay on the line to discuss it furtuer and pledge money to help out?

Oooh, I'd love to get one of those calls, preferrably when my D&D gaming group's over and throw it on speakerphone. Our current group consists of a bunch of Pagans who are quite active in the local GBLT rights movements.

By the end of it, the person who called would be probably scrubbing thier ears muttering 'unclean'.

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	breecita 2007-01-22 09:05 pm UTC (link)
	I clicked through once to ask them to stop calling, but I was feeling a little pissy and only managed to get out, "Why am I getting auto-dialed bigotry--" before they hung up on me. My husband has much more patience and politely asked them to stop calling last time, though they did try to engage him in discussion while he did. We'll see if they call back. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	arionhunter 2007-01-20 04:09 pm UTC (link)
	Honestly, that doesn't do jack, at least with the market research company I worked for. We were given a list taken from their phone books, then scrambled the last two numbers randomly. So if we got an unlisted number, it was pure chance. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	iwanttobeasleep 2007-01-20 01:26 am UTC (link)
	I'm with you there. I mean, I don't like telemarketing, but being mean to telemarketers is just as bad as being mean to a waitress, or a salesperson in retail. The annoyance is understandable, considering they'll call the unlisted, the people on the do-not-call list, and the people who've told them 15 times to stop calling, but jeez. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	thesilentsenshi 2007-01-20 02:20 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, at most they hear annoyance in my tone of voice, but I don't actually bitch them out. I will enunciate the No Not Interested. for repeat offenders. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	visp 2007-01-21 11:27 am UTC (link)
	I wouldn't say it's the same as being mean to a waitress or salesperson, because they don't pop up on your driveway at all hours of the day saying "hey would you like to order some food/buy a sweater?". (Reply to this)(Parent)

funwithrage
2007-01-20 02:06 am UTC (link)

Pretty much any other job in the world doesn't involve coming into people's homes and bugging them. I mean, I'm sympathetic to the people involved--though, y'know, selling drugs is more lucrative and at least people *want* your product--because they're desperate, and I'm not the air-horn-and-screaming type, but if I kept getting calls back after my general "No, thanks," and hangup, I'd probably start yelling as well.

And I think it's an evil scummy thing for *companies* to do.

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	thesilentsenshi 2007-01-20 02:21 am UTC (link)
	So is implanting viruses and spamware, but companies do that, too. Corporation=Evil. Always remember that. x) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	funwithrage 2007-01-20 04:31 am UTC (link)
	If I've learned one thing from Shadowrun...well, no. If I've learned one thing from Shadowrun, it's the "chunky salsa" rule. If I've learned two things from Shadowrun, the other one is "Corporation=Evil." (Reply to this)(Parent)

silrana
2007-01-20 02:29 am UTC (link)

It may not be a problem for some, but before the no-call registry started, we got at least four or five a day, and near the end of the month it was around twenty. We live right in boiler-room central, so we are a local call for about a million telemarketing operations. We finally got an answering machine to screen calls. It took us forever to convince some of our relatives not to just hang up when they heard the machine because we were probably two feet from the phone, but that's another story.

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