off-topic: phone hangups

[Kendric Beachey]

On Thursday, 30 May 2002 22:39, Seth Dimbert wrote:
> This whole Telemarketing thing strikes a nerve with me since I work in a
> similar industry.

While we're striking nerves here, some of what you said struck some of mine.  
Please try not to take this too personally.  :-)

> I work for a marketing research firm. We conduct opinion polls and recruit
> consumers to participate in taste tests, focus groups, etc. We never, ever,
> try to sell anything and we train our interviewers to be respectful and
> considerate.
>
> But, as you can imagine, laws like the ones many of the people in this
> forum are clamoring for would kill our industry

GOOD!  I hate your industry!  I hate any industry that thinks the only way to 
exist is to call me on the phone!

>, undercutting the primary
> avenue the consumer can use to share his/her opinions with the
> manufacturers and providers of the products and services (s)he consumes.

I would much rather do such things of my own volition, not because someone 
called me up when I was in the middle of something else.

> What's the point
> of having a phone if you don't want people to call you?

I have a phone because I DO want CERTAIN people to call me.  People that I 
know personally.

> Maybe they're
> selling something you want.

I highly doubt it.  Even if they are, I will not buy anything over the phone 
if I did not initiate the call myself.  How do I know the guy on the other 
end isn't some convict on a pay phone in the federal pen?

> Anyway - sorry about the rant - I can answer the original question. When a
> telemarketing firm calls you during the day and hangs up when you answer,
> it's because they don't want to talk to you. They're conducting a Message
> Campaign, in which all they try to do is leave messages on people's
> answering machines. There is no large phone center with hundreds of agents;
> there is just a PC, connected via a phone switch to a telephone system. It
> calls answering machines and leaves messages.
>
> This technique is often used by the time-share resort industry. The message
> usually says something like, "Sorry I missed you. Please call me back so I
> can tell you about the vacation you've won." Then, when you call back,
> you're invited to the 90-minute sales presentation in Nowhere, MO, three
> hours from your house.
>
> They figure that this is cheaper than paying people to call you... This way
> the live operator only talks to live prospects.

I have gotten a few messsages like this.  Probably ten or twenty in my whole 
life.  The other 99.999% of the time I let the machine get it, the phone goes 
dead without leaving a message.

At any rate, such a practice should be flat-out illegal as far as I am 
concerned.  If they could make junk faxes illegal, I don't see why junk phone 
calls, junk e-mail and junk snail mail shouldn't be knocked out too.

All this reminds me:  I saw a little telephone gadget for sale a couple years 
ago--you would hook it up to your phone, and when a telemarketer would call, 
you'd press a button on the gadget and put the phone back on the hook.  At 
this point, the gadget would play a message to the telemarketer, reciting all 
the magic verbiage to get you knocked off their list, and then hang up.  If I 
ever see it again, I'm going to buy it.  My wife thinks it's a waste of 
money, but my time, peace of mind and lower blood pressure are worth it.

-- 
Kendric Beachey
ak at kc.rr.com

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