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	suziecroft 2007-12-25 12:47 pm UTC (link)
	From what I can tell, it looks like she ~~is a telemarketer~~ works for some kind of company that rings you up and bugs you about random things for oh so important "research". (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hallidae 2007-12-25 01:36 pm UTC (link)
	::snrrk:: I don't know why, but I suddenly get the mental image of those women in.... was it Animaniacs or Tiny Toons? "Woulja like to take a sur-vey?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ecchaniz0r 2007-12-25 03:26 pm UTC (link)
	Animaniacs XD "Would you ever consider seeing a bean-eating movie with George Wendt?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	zaliesiren 2007-12-28 05:04 am UTC (link)
	"Would you eat beans with George Wendt?" ((Sorry, that's just my favorite Animaniacs episode EVER)) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ealusaid 2007-12-25 06:26 pm UTC (link)
	Which is totally a more positive customer experience than waiting tables, y'know. No one's ever a dick when you call them up at dinner. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	blue_penguin 2007-12-26 01:09 am UTC (link)
	It isn't telemarketing. We will not ask you for any money, we merely want a few moments of your time to-- Sorry. Reflex. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hallidae 2007-12-26 02:17 am UTC (link)
	Few moments, my ass. The last time I agreed to a phone survey, the questioning lasted 45 minutes. Please tell me that's not the norm. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

blue_penguin
2007-12-26 02:21 am UTC (link)

Depends on the survey, but, uh... yeah, that's about normal. That said, it's not usually the telesurveyor's decision to lie about it -- at least at the company I worked for, we always had a script that we were following, and we weren't allowed to depart from it. (And I, at least, always tell people how long it's going to be if they actually ask about it, because there's no rule preventing me from doing that. ... But enough of me trying to redeem myself.)

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	tephra 2007-12-26 03:01 am UTC (link)
	I shall remember this should I get one of those calls now. We ditched the land line and only have our cellphones now, damn that would bust a hole in my minutes. O.O (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	jaseroque 2007-12-26 02:49 pm UTC (link)
	You have to pay to receive calls? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

also_not_a_pipe
2007-12-26 04:28 pm UTC (link)

Most cell phone contracts in the United States, you pay for a pool of minutes to use for anything. Some of the providers now are offering unlimited calling between phones on the same plan, or on the weekends, or after a certain time in the evening depending on which plan one goes with, but you still have that same limited amount of regular-time minutes covered under your monthly fee. If you use more than that, they charge you out the butt for them. And they pretty much count on you not thinking about that. I worked "technical support" that turned out to be sales and billing for one of the major US phone providers, and they more or less told us "don't directly tell them what they'll be billed for unless they ask you." Lasted three weeks there because the whole business just seemed so unethical to me.

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	jaseroque 2007-12-27 12:43 am UTC (link)
	That's surreal! We pay to make calls, of course... but certainly not to recieve them. Our plans offer some of the same bells and whistles, though I'm not on a plan, just on a pre-paid, so I don't really know that much about that. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mary_mac 2007-12-28 06:31 pm UTC (link)
	This explains quite a lot about the way my friends from the US used their phones in the UK... And I thought that Vodafone's wanky behaviour over cross-border/European roaming was bad. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hallidae 2007-12-29 02:05 pm UTC (link)
	To give you another idea of their stupidity, I have to pay more to make a daytime call to somewhere in the city I currently live in than I do to make a call home (six counties and a couple hundred miles away), because AT&T are being assholes and won't let me change my number's area code to the local one. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mary_mac 2007-12-30 03:31 pm UTC (link)
	You have area codes for mobile phones? Doesn't that, like, completely defeat the purpose? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

hallidae
2007-12-30 03:42 pm UTC (link)

My family, and my cell-phone, are registered in area code 865. I'm currently living in area code 423, which is in the same stupid region of the state. It's just another way the companies can nail you with roaming charges and higher fees, and they re-use numbers by just assigning them different area codes (which is why I'm getting harassed by someone in area code 424, all the way in goddamn California, who thinks I'm her husband's bit on the side).

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	mary_mac 2007-12-30 03:47 pm UTC (link)
	Oh wow. I have my number, which works all over the UK sans funny business and everywhere else with the appropriate international code. Ye gods. Area codes. Insane. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rachel_pi 2008-01-05 07:25 pm UTC (link)
	Yep! I didn't realize that you didn't have to pay to receive calls for a couple months, but it was a very exciting discovery. :) I was also excited to learn that texting was actually cheaper. We had to get a special texting package at home, because it wasn't included in regular cellphone minutes. Also, I hate US mobile companies. Just want to add that. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mary_mac 2008-01-05 07:33 pm UTC (link)
	boggled I'd say I'll never complain about Vodafone again, only that would be a lie. Still. Wow. (I do, however, believe that if you can't make your network coverage contiguous with the border, then you shouldn't damn well charge me roaming for being on the side I'm supposed to be on. I think that's called fraud.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

rachel_pi
2008-01-05 07:45 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, the US cellphone market is due for an overhaul, I think. I also need to find a place in London or Cambridge to get my US cellphone unlocked. It'll work in Europe, but of course AT&T can't unlock it for me.

I've actually not thought about it all that much, but in England, cell phones all have the same initial digits, don't they? I wish the US could do something like that, like make one area code for cellphones.

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	mary_mac 2008-01-05 07:56 pm UTC (link)
	Any of the non-network mobile phone shops will unlock it for you. Not so sure about the network ones though. Or a sufficiently geeky friend. All UK mobiles are 077 or 078 depending on how old your SIM/network is. Mine's knocking on for ten year old, its 077, my friend's is new and is 078. Landline and mobile numbering are entirely separate here, though. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tephra 2007-12-26 06:28 pm UTC (link)
	And to receive text messages. My cellphone use is so little even with no landline that it's cheapest for me to use a prepaid service and they don't give anything away free. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jun_motomiya17 2007-12-26 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Most of my surveys only take 20 minutes to do and are for the state's Department of Health. If they take longer than that, it's not our fault, it's because the connection is bad and I have to keep repeating myself, or it's because the person I'm talking to can't answer a simple "yes or no" question. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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