Slashdot Mirror
Dave Barry Strikes Back Against Telemarketers
ikkonoishi writes "The Miami humor columnist Dave Barry in his column
here encouraged his readers to exercise their constitutional rights to call a telemarketing firm which had declared the National Do Not Call List unconstitutional. Well it seems to have worked." Needless to say, the targets of the prank were none so keen on being called themselves.
I have oftened wished that I could do what Dave Barry has done. Particularly annoying are the recorded messages that I continue to get on m business line. On occasion I have called the 800 numbers to express my displeasure. Simply calling in ones and twos isn't going to work. What we really need is for someone to organize a web site where people can report these incidents. If we all band together and call these companies 800 numbers simply to express our viewpoint then maybe this activity will become too expensive for companies to exploit anymore. Anyone up for it?
Maybe we can simply get a dialing machine and have it call the telemarketers non-stop.
This is cool, and beautifully ironic, but...
Telemarketers don't make money answering phones, they make money calling people. They don't have to answer phones to make money. So this probably didn't actually put a dent in thier operation.
Everything seemed to be going so nice
'till the end of all beings punched right through the ice
Dave has interfered with these people's ability to make a living. Indeed, he may well have cost a number of jobs with this article! At the end of the day, the innocent collateral damage is going to mean that many people don't eat because Dave went after another cheap laugh and went on the attack.
Do the ends justify the means? No. This is the kind of dangerous thinking that brings abortion clinic bombings, the ongoing fighting between northern and southern Ireland, the danger in the Middle East, and countless other bloodbaths.
Dave's had his fun and done his damage. Is this really something that needs to be worsened by giving ideas to the industrious- but idle-minded masses on slashdot? The damage can only be worsened here!
Laugh if you must, but sit back and don't make this any worse than it already is!
Why are the telemarketing companies worried? This list of people who do not wish to be called, are probably people who wouldn't buy anything from them in the first place. This list should be welcomed as it prevent them from making 30 million calls on which they will not make any money on.
For those of you too lazy to read the articles, here's the phone number to call: /. their phone system!
1-877-779-3974
Let's
--Quentin
We had recorded the message from 1-800-call-spy about (13 years ago) and put that on our answering machine. One of my roommates still has that and assures me that no-one call him the second time around. (Assuming a live person listens to that message).
I'm not sure if the number is still active (I don't live in the US anymore) and I'm not sure how serious the response of the Home Land Security (or who ever runs that number) is. Dial at your own risk!
grinning, ducking and running...
We're sorry you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is not in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check your number and try your call again.
Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Convention
Don't bother, you'll only get a recording saying the number has been disconnected.
I hate talking on the phone. It interrupts me when I eat, watch TV, surf the net, code software, play games, cook, sleep... ie when I live my life. :-D Also, some people I know, will call me and talk for hours, and I'm too nice to stop it after two hours. So it continues. Especially some people who love to talk about Linux and anime. I get it. You like anime. Now let me sleep. Ahhhh always feel so good after venting.
Using the internet seems like a much more effective method.
With today's computer hardware it would be trivial to just whip together a program which would do the calling.
Then you could just distribute the program on a blog of some sort.
On your blog you could coordinate the readers to set their software to call certain numbers at certain times.
Better yet.
You could have you software automatically check you web site to see if there are any 'Call Worthy' events.
Maybe when people sign up for account they have a preferences section which they can choose the type of events or companies which their software should call.
Anyway you get the picture.
i've been told by several salesweasels that they love seeing a 'no soliciting' or 'no salesmen' sign because those people lack the time/motivation/temperment to say *no*. if you were really good at telling the salesperson 'no' and leave, don't comeback, don't call back, etc, they wouldn't need the sign.
probably the easiest people in the world to see to are the people on the do not call list.
eric
Can you get in legal trouble for instigating a DOS attack on someones phone system......??? Well, Alice, here in wonderland you can get in hot water for just discussing certain forbidden subjects (circumvention tech, etc)....
nt
PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
Due to the outstandingly positive response to recent media events, the American Teleworking Association has taken steps to protect its constitutional right to protection from unsolicited calls by registering with the National Do Not Call List.
"We were shocked by the intrusiveness of these unsolicited calls", commented Tim Searcy, ATA Executive Director. "None of us could get any work done! Our heartfelt thanks to the Federal Government for their foresight in creating such a resource to protect people like us!"
Returning to work today, ATA employees are looking forward to a day of uninterrupted work now that they are protected from such intrusive unsolicated calls.
Don't think that the telemarketters don't know their own business.
Even if you only get a recorded message, they pay toll fees for every incoming call. Once you start hearing a busy signal, their cost is zero.
Livelyhood? Let me guess, you're one of the people spamming or phoning millions of people who don't want to know about the crap you're peddling. You see it as your right to intrude on people's time and privacy in a sad attempt to make money selling something someone else creates the value for. Maybe you consider yourself an entrepruneur, but you're a bottom feeder at best - go get a real job and stop pissing people off for a living.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Dave's not the only one pissed at telemarketers. Here's what I propose we do to them. Of course, this is probably the best solution.
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
But in a guy sort of way.... and "The National Do Not Call List" sounds like a great name for a Rock & Roll Band.
Too lazy to create a sig...
Not to be left out should be the fact that you should call the telemarketers and talk like a pirate next Friday as Mr. Barry suggests!
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
On their site, they list a new contact number:
(866) 500-4272
As others have pointed out, their old number has been disconnected.
--Quentin
Dave Barry has a good idea here - just as spammers get their details posted on the web and people sign them up for all sorts of unsolicited (e)mail, phone numbers of members of the American Teleservices Association should be made available so that they can experience the joys of unsolicited calls. Obviously, they won't be on the 'do not call' register, so it should be perfectly legal.
The autoanswering machine is auto-answering my call. Well, let's flood their tapes :)
Less is more !
If the numbers that the telemarketing industry is throwing about are even half right, this could end our current economic recovery. Telemarketers alledge that they create several billion dollars in sales every year, several billion dollars that will go up in smoke in October. That plus a huge boost in unemployed (and otherwise unemployable) persons is a very bad thing. Be careful what you wish for.
It's pretty hard to screen your calls when they block caller ID.
no big sig
It is too bad Slashdot doesn't have a -1, Shill moderation... I would use it on you.
I mean, to compare a grass-roots protest of an organizations business tactics to the senseless slaughter of thousands of civillians is the sort of logical leap that only a maniac (or a shill) could make. Dude, get a clue. Telemarketers are leeches on society. The list of people that telemarketing benefits is very short, and consumers are most definitely not on it. I get the feeling, though, that if I could check the payroll/stockholder's list of all the telemarketing firms everywhere that I would eventually stumble across your name.
The function of a telemarketer is to sell products at inflated prices to impulse buyers. If you ever find yourself listening to a telemarketer spiel and thinking "This sounds useful" hang up immediately, and Google for the same product. Odds are pretty good you will find something better, cheaper, or both without looking too hard.
That is the whole purpose of telemarketing: To push overpriced products onto people who are dumb/suggestible enough to buy something from a stranger who called them randomly on the phone. How do you know it isn't somebody playing a prank? Or collecting CC#'s for fraud purposes?
While I understand this doesn't mean ALL telemarketers are evil lawbreakers, I do know that all telemarketers are ANNOYING and are selling things that a careful shopper could get much more cheaply by doing a tiny amount of research.
Who did what now?
Since those guys have turneed off the 877 number here is updated contact info: Administrative Office: 3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20 Indianapolis, IN 46240 Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272 info@ataconnect.org Legislative Office: 1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200 Washington, DC 20006 Toll Free: (866) 500-4272 info@ataconnect.org give em a jingle.. i am
And their address is published at the bottom of their web site.
Perhaps they'd like some junk mail too.
American Teleservices Association
1666 K Street NW Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
877-779-3974
info@ataconnect.org
It's not o.k. to do the same wrong onto people which those people have done onto you.
Just because they annoy you, you can't harass them.
If it's illegal then leave the revenge to the goverment.
I mean otherwise it would be like shooting people who break into your home etc.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Call the Chairman of the ATA at home!!!!!!!
Chairman:
Thomas Rocca, (770) 429-1956, 3840 Jiles Rd NW, Kennesaw, GA 30144
(provided by Google)
Sure telemarketing is "evil", but don't compare criminals with people actually doing a *legal* job. Sure, it's annoying for the customer(maybe even more..), but they're not breaking any laws, so the "pretty much" is pretty much a troll.
1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
"We are sorry, the number you have called has been disconnected"
Apparantly they got a new phone number.
(and they're not the two you're thinking of, but I like the way you think) ...for the apologists for the poor telemarketing drones who will lose their jobs:
buggy whips
Go ahead - we'll tell you not to call, you'll say we're trampling your rights, but hey - you're obsolete.
Not to mention "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins"
They're a bunch of double-standard-bearing tools who can't be any more creative about marketing than browbeating anyone they can find to shove home their apparently otherwise unsellable garbage.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Tuff shit. Security ain't worth freedom. Soviet Russia showed that for all to see.
The numbers are extremely bogus. Conservatitve, CPA-like numbers say about 400,000, from which fewer than 60,000 will walk the streets - and I don't mean the phone sex girls, most of whom are too ugly to be seen in public.
What's your phone number? Many of us wanna talk to you.
Less is more !
They themselves, registered in the unconstitutional do not call registry on 9/3/2003:
...
Your phone number with the last four digits 3974 was registered in the National Do Not Call Registry on 9/3/2003. Most telemarketers will be required to stop calling you three months from your registration date. Your registration will (or did) expire on 9/13/2008.
Visit www.donotcall.gov to do any of these things:
-- to renew your registration before it expires
-- to file a complaint
The security on that donotcall website needs a bit of work...
between the Slashdot effect and a DDOS attack. This looks like a willful attempt to crash their computer and drive their help around the bend; it's a DDOS.
Here's a telemarketing situation where I'm just waiting for the payoff. Our office has several blocks of 100 numbers each, most of which aren't in use and are forwarded to the front desk (because a client may have an old number). Some months ago a mortgage company started autodialing our blocks. Our receptionist went from calm to frothing at the mouth in 60 seconds flat, and eveyone else was getting either a hangup call or a voicemail left for them.
I called the 800 number in the voicemail I personally received, got a manager on the line in record time (it helps if you sound like you want to confirm your satellite recon for the imminent airstrike) and explained that we had a block of numbers, that they were calling ALL of them and to please stop right-fucking-now. I then did the usual bit about do not call lists and a copy of the policy (which I never got). The do not call list was tough, since numbnuts didn't grok the "I have several hundred consecutive numbers" part very well.
The next day they did it again. I got another manager on the line, who was significantly less than understanding about the whole affair. In point of fact, he seemed dismissive of the whole fact that I had complained the day before and tha the was perhaps a bit offended that I was trying to interfere with his attempt to rescue a failing mortgage business. I reminded him about the FCC's $500 per call regulation and he got offended. Go figure. Apaprently the fact that the Federal government might put him out of business wasn't a factor in his worldview. I rang off.
And called the local police department and reported a couple hundred harassing phone calls. I leaned heavily on the second manager's attitude toward my request of the previous day and on his utter disregard for Federal codes covering his business. I named both managers in the complaint. These guys are less than fifty miles from us and in the same state, so it could happen.
We have a case number. Some day they'll screw up, and then a telemarketing manager will do the Perp Walk. I'll be sure to put whatever details I can on a website so we can all share the joy.
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
The party's over for telemarketers thanks to no-call lists. I signed up for the Mass do-not-call list which went into effect on April 1st of this year(kind of a nice April fools joke on the telemarketers) and I have had exactly ONE telemarketing call in violation of that list since then! That's right, you heard me correctly, since April 1st I've had ONE telemarketing call(except for a couple from companies that I'm currently doing business with). Now, non-profits and politicians are exempt from the law, but I haven't gotten one call from either of those groups yet. I will boycott EVERY non-profit company that calls me. I will also VOTE FOR THE OPPONENT of every single scumbag politician who calls me. I hope that everyone who has added their name to a no-call list will join me and do the same to any non-profit companies or politicians who call them in direct violation of their stated wish not to be called.
Looks like a job for Mailinator.
www.mailinator.com
Imagine you come into your house and there inside you find your telephone waiting, and suddenly it starts ringing. An uninvited person is calling you.
See why the hous eanalogy is incorrect?
Now, to post something on-topic, why not having a telephone with authentication (like a smartcard, for instance). I know this would be easy with VoIP, but I'm talking about grandma & grandpa. Their telephone would change and they wouldn't notice.
is disconnected now. Bummer.
Man, reading Matthew 5.38-42 makes me really glad I don't live my life according to the bible.
If I get smote on the right cheek, I'm not gonna offer up the other - I'm gonna smote right back, plus enough extra to make sure I never get smited by that guy again. If a guy sues me and wins a judgement, I'm definitely NOT going to offer to double it. I'm not sure what "go with him twain" means, but I'd surely resent anyone trying to compel me to go anywhere. And if I gave to him that asketh, the beggars in Toronto would clean out my bank account before I got to my office!
About 3 years ago I informed a local newspaper(berkshire eagle) that I wanted to be removed from ALL their telemarketing lists. after a few calls bitching to management(they call at 8:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night for christs sake)The calls stopped. A few years later MA passed a do not call registry and we didnt add our address right away. Well allmost to the day the law went into effect guess what happened....YEP I started getting calls again. When I called to get removed I was told "get on the registry,thats what its for" SLAM...yep the bastard hung up on me. Now to get revenge the last time a sister paper called(owned by the same company) I had the guy on the line for about 30 minuites, and ended the call telling the guy"I guess after 30 miuites you thought I was going to buy papers, no papers for me sucker" SLAM
"A towel is the most astounding Mind-boggleing useful thing in the universe, allways know where your towel is"
Are you 100% certain that's the correct "Thomas Rocca"? I'm not the only one with my name in my city, and while "Rocca" may not be terribly common, "Thomas" certainly is.
Would it surprise you too much if the real Thomas Rocca had an unlisted number, and this is just some poor guy who happens to share his name with a scumbag?
Please don't call this guy unless you can be more sure you're not hurting an innocent.
What does it mean to have 2 million telemarketers out of work? Well, if those 2 million people are not putting in their 40 hours a week, then they won't be taking up a total of 40 hours of time each week from a few hundred other people. Imagine what might happen with 80,000,000 more hours of time become available to other people at work, at home, and at the dinner table. Imagine the increased productivity happening at work. Imagine the opportunity to get the home and garden chores done. Imagine being able to actually talk and bond with your family at dinner time. Oh the horror!
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Ok, where is it! I want my do not spam list. My rights are being violated 400 times a day. :-)
It is not illegal. I wish it was, and nobody would have to do this.
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
Hey! Salshdot gets more effective every day! The number has been disconnected.
/. effect!
Hurray for the
You're not old until regret takes the place of your dreams.
I work for the IT department of a small, rural hospital near New Orleans. Which means people call me about problems with everything from their PC to their fax machine. It may not be part of my job description, but I'll try to help them with their problem if I can...
One day a couple of weeks ago, I had a very frustrated message on my voice mail from the director of our Radiology department. It seems that the phone in one of the diagnostic imaging rooms would ring, and when someone would pick it up it was a recorded message from a telemarketing company.
If it had happened once, she probably would have wrote it off to a mistake. Instead, it kept calling the number. Continuously. For a half hour, by the time she'd left me that message. Now, as you can imagine, having the telephone in a MEDICAL PROCEDURE AREA continuously ringing is a bad thing. Not to mention that line now being tied up so that in an emergency the techs can't call for help.
I ran (literally) down to the department, picked up the phone the next time it rang, and recorded the call. After about two minutes, a real human picked up the line.
Said human began reading her script when I asked her if she knew what phone number this was. I then told her that at that moment, I was standing in an x-ray room, in a hospital, with a patient who was supposed to be getting tested right now but because we kept having to pick up the EMERGENCY PHONE they were just kind of lying there moaning (at which point the director standing next to me made the most pitiful moaning noises, heh, heh) and we would like to GET HER OFF THE TABLE IF YOU PEOPLE HAD NO OBJECTIONS...
There was a moment of silence, then prolific appologies, a promise to stop the calls, more appologies...After leaving her flopping on the end of the hook for a moment, I accepted her appology, took her name and number, then hung up.
The phone never rang again.
There's just over a year to go before the 2004 presidential election, and everybody in the nation is extremely excited. Except of course the public. The public, shrewdly, pays no attention to presidential politics until all of the peripheral dorks have been weeded out, and it's finally time to make a selection between the two main dorks left over.
So what does the public care about right now? Telemarketers. The public hates them. It hates them even more than it hates France, low-flow toilets or ''customer service.''
We know this because recently the Federal Trade Commission, implementing the most popular federal concept since the Elvis stamp, created the National Do Not Call Registry. The way it works is, if you are a member of that select group of people (defined as ''people with phones'') who do not wish to receive unsolicited calls from telemarketers, you can go to www.donotcall.gov and register your phone number. Starting Oct. 1, any telemarketer who calls you will be locked in a tiny room with a large, insatiable man who will force the telemarketer, repeatedly, at all hours of the day and night, to change his long-distance provider.
No, sorry, that was the original concept. But the law is pretty strict: For each call to a registered number, telemarketers face an $11,000 fine. This program is a huge hit with the public. Already 30 million American households have registered; this figure would be even higher if it included all the Florida residents who tried to register but accidentally voted for Patrick Buchanan instead.
And how has the telemarketing industry responded to this tidal wave of public hostility? It has issued this statement: ''Gosh, if these people really don't want us to call them, then there's no point in our calling them! We'd only be making them hate us more, and that's just plain stupid! We'll try to come up with a less offensive way to do business.''
No, wait, that's what the telemarketers would say in Bizarro World, where everything is backward, and Superman is bad, and telemarketers contain human DNA. Here on Earth, the telemarketers are claiming they have a constitutional right to call people who do not want to be called. They base this claim on Article VX, Section iii, row 5, seat 2, of the U.S. Constitution, which states: ''If anybody ever invents the telephone, Congress shall pass no law prohibiting salespeople from using it to interrupt dinner.''
Leading the charge for the telemarketing industry is the American Teleservices Association (suggested motto: 'Some Day, We Will Get a Dictionary and Look Up 'Services' ''). This group argues that, if its members are prohibited from calling people who do not want to be called, then two million telemarketers will lose their jobs. Of course, you could use pretty much the same reasoning to argue that laws against mugging cause unemployment among muggers. But that would be unfair. Muggers rarely intrude into your home.
So what's the answer? Is there a constitutional way that we telephone customers can have our peace, without inconveniencing the people whose livelihoods depend on keeping their legal right to inconvenience us? Maybe we could pay the telemarketing industry not to call us, kind of like paying ''protection money'' to organized crime. Or maybe we could actually hire organized crime to explain our position to telemarketing-industry executives, who would then be given a fair opportunity to respond, while the cement was hardening.
I'm just thinking out loud here. I'm sure you have a better idea for how we can resolve our differences with the telemarketing industry. If you do, call me. No, wait, I have a better idea: Call the American Teleservices Association, toll-free, at 1-877-779-3974, and tell them what you think. I'm sure they'd love to hear your constitutionally protected views! Be sure to wipe your mouthpiece afterward.
In closing, here's an:
IMPORTANT REMINDER -- Mark your calendar with a big ''X'' on Sept. 19, which is the second annual National Talk Like A Pi
Telemarketers alledge that they create several billion dollars in sales every year, several billion dollars that will go up in smoke in October.
Yeah, and the Russians said that they had several thousand nukes pointed at the US in the Cold War, well, technically they did.
Many, many, many of the silos had water in them up to the missile in the bottom, thus, when launching, would have killed all of the people launching them and left a missile with a nuke on top in burning in a hole in the ground and thirty minutes of rocket fuel burning there with it.
Lighting those suckers would have caused ecological disaster for the USSR.
The lesson here?
Never, ever, ever, trust the information given to you by your enemies. Do you expect North Korea to tell you the truth when threatening you? Expect enemy information to be overinflated. Or downright bogus.
I recently had a problem with an autodialler - I'm in the UK, so I don't know if these are illegal here or not. But I do know they are bloody annoying, especially when they call every five minutes for about an hour each evening. No message, just an immediate hang-up. Since they were withholding their number, I couldn't even call them up to yell at them. And that's saying nothing about all the other junk calls I was getting - double glazing, conservatories, loans, mortgages, the lot.
Eventually I complained to my phone company (NTL), who told me about a little-known service they offer - blocking any calls that have withheld their number. Free service, takes a couple of days to activate, and can be switched on or off with a keypad code.
Not one unsolicited call since. Brilliant.
You must think in Russian.
It's pretty hard to screen your calls when they block caller ID.
Depends - how many of your friends block caller id when calling you?
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Dave Barry is a columnist syndicated from by the Miami Herald.
What I think is hillarious is I receive calls from Sun-Sentinel all the time trying to convince me to buy the rag they print. Sun-Sentinel is Herald's main competitor in South Florida. I'm sure Herald must do the same thing but I've never received calls from them.
It's a bit underhanded, I know, and some people might actually LIKE getting called by telemarketers - but it struck me that it would be rather easy to automate adding every phone number listed in the United States to the DNC registry.
:D
Write a script that hits the page, enters in 3 phone numbers, waits for the mail to be sent to an address it generates on the fly, 'clicks' the link, rinse, repeat.
No telemarketing!
Ok, Bad Idea. I should remember where I'm writing this. Someone is likely to go off and do it.
I have some junk I was going to sell on eBay. Why not call him up and see if he wants to buy it first?
In fact, why don't we all do it?
I mean, that's exactly what telemarketers do, so they can hardly complain if we do it to them, can they?
So don't call and be abusive. Don't call and argue. No, call and try to sell him stuff.
"Hey, Mr Rocca, I was wondering if you need a new 17" computer monitor..."
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Actually, I think the moral argument is pretty good too. As discussed above, telemarketers make money by selling people things they wouldn't otherwise buy, using high pressure tactics and abusing people's goodwill.
I don't see a hell of a lot of moral difference between gently mugging granny for $50, and pressure-selling her $3000 of windows she doesn't want or need.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Barry's tactics are equal to a DoS. The ATA has every right to question the legislation, as long as they remain within the letter of the law. Did Barry know what publishing that telephone number would do? I'm sure. Why does the press leave that information out of their media coverage? To prevent being held liable for this type of attack.
We'll have a manned Mars mission ready and a cure for cancer discovered before Thanksgiving!
Come on man, it's called a 486 and a war dialer.
Now that I think about it, I bet I pissed a lot of people off in the early 90s. It's the middle of dinner and the phone rings "Oh damn a telemarketer" except when they pick up the phone they're greeted by my ever-so-desperate-for-love 486sx.
-----
jonathan barket
- Get a Caller ID Box. Your telco probably will charge you a fee for sending the information, since as they see it, you might decide not to answer the phone based on who is calling and therefore they will not earn the connection charge on the call.
- Block Withheld Numbers if you live in a jurisdiction where withholding your number is still legal. Your telco probably will charge you for this, but it's worth it. {before I had mine blocked, I used to say to Number Withheld: "Are you a paedophile? Because your number is withheld." That saw them off. On my mobile, where there is no such service available, I have to resort to doing an impression of a recorded announcement: "Anonymous calls are not welcome on this line. If your business is important you may ring back without withholding your number. Goodbye."
- Don't say anything if you don't recognise the caller's number. This spins them out, because they think it could be an answering machine. A legitimate caller will ask for you by name. A sleazeball telemarketer will just hang up.
- Ask them how they got your number. This distracts them from the purpose of the call and maybe gets them into an infinite loop.
- If all else fails, remember that it is your line, and you are under no obligation to be polite with unwanted callers. Any obligation of politeness would fall on the originator, not the recipient.
I think the best solution would be for the do-not-call list to be in the phone directory, by placing a symbol next to the numbers of people who did not wish to receive unsolictited sales calls. I'm not so anti-social that I'd consider going ex-directory, because that would jeopardise things for people who might have a legitimate reason to call me {and because I like looking up my name in the new phone book every 18 months or so, it gives me a kick without harming anyone else}. Having the "do not call" list in the phone book itself would be almost foolproof. Everyone with a phone line gets the phone book, so there would be no shortage of witnesses to the fact that your number was on the list. The only downside is that you might have to wait till the new directory was published in order to get your name properly DNC'd. But the telemarketing companies could be made to subscribe to an update list as a condition of their operating licence.Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
While it is desirable to eliminate the even unwanted supper breaking phone calls we should also like to avoid adding an additional 2 million names to the unemployment roll.
If the US were to buy and distribute large quantities of cell phones and satellite phones to the people of Iraq we could then put these 2 million experienced phone callers to work as telediplomats. They could call the Iraqis up day and night extolling upon them the qualities that we think are important. We could do this not only while they are eating their meals but even during their call to prayers.
In short we could give them a real good reason to hate us.
Guys, telemarketing can be a lot of fun if you add some positive atmosphere to it. Just think of it, since the chances of meeting your friend on the other end of the line are pretty slim, you can get away with almost anything: dirty jokes, humiliation, etc. Whenever a telemarketer calls me, especially if the person has a thick foreign (Indian, most of the time) accent, I have fun. Here is how to do it:
:)
a. Pretend to be somebody else, like an old person with a hearing problem or a recent immigrant who speaks poor English. Make the telemarketer re-read the offer and ask stupid questions: start with product related stuff and then move onto personal issues. For example, in the middle of conversation say "Wow, you know, you have a really sexy voice!" Works like a charm
b. If you have roommates, set up a plot. I remember when my roommate pretended to be an abusive husband and I played a role of a wife for unwanted calls. Whenever a telemarketer called us, we would be 'in the middle of a physical conflict.' "The husband" would swear at his wife and beat her (just slap your naked leg for the sound effect); the wife on the other turn would say things like "Stop beating me! I've had enough already" and then she would continue to talk about her personal problems to the telemarketer in between the beatings. Basically, use your imagination; most of the time the other party will hang up.
c. Put them on hold. This is by far the easiest one, unless you're expecting some other call. When you receive an unwanted call, tell them that you're in the middle of something that you must finish asap; therefore, offer them to stay on the line for a minute or so. Then go read a newspaper, drink a cup of tea. This may sound stupid, but this brings positive results: you keep telemarketers from calling other people through your personal sacrifice.
There is more stuff and it usually depends on who is calling and when. Sometimes when I have a bad day, I find telemarketers to be my stress relievers: I bitch and swear at them for several minutes. After hanging up I start feeling better right away.
Well, originally it was a lot like VOIP, but all done in hardware...
You can shoot people who break into your home. It's called self defense. You have an obligation to protect yourself and your family and if you feel your life is in danger and you have no other choice you have a right to kill.
In most states you just have to make sure they're dead. Otherwise you could be sued for their injuries thanks to our retarded legal system. It also eliminates "he said she said" and as a result makes it very difficult to form a case against you should the family attempt to do so.
"Just because they annoy you, you can't harass them."
If calling up and complaining about what a bunch of idiots they are is "harassment" then I guess I can. It doesn't matter what loose retarded meaning the "poor little victim" gives to "harassment," it's perfectly legal to call up and complain to a business about anything related to their company.
"It's not o.k. to do the same wrong onto people which those people have done onto you."
If it's not illegal it is. Maybe you have a moral problem with feeding people their own medicine but here in the real world, there are times when morality isn't an issue.
Unless you find that complaining about a "service" is morally wrong.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
But a recent report indicated about half of the US telemarketing CEOs have put their numbers on the federal government Do Not Call list.
Hmmm. Millions of people lost jobs since Bush took office, 93,000 more payroll jobs vanished last month, and consumer confidence just took another dive.
Telemarketers and the Bush administration are not good sources of unbiased information. And, in other news, a fortune is not waiting for you in some Nigerian bank.
Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
you've been trolled. Sorry, dude, better luck next time. I hope the karma is enough to make up for it.
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Troll.
--
RumorsDaily
Darl McBride, posting to slashdot? Why even bother trying to respond.
When did slashdot cause you to lose your sense of humor and, more importantly common (troll) sense?
^_^
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Sign 'em up on 1, yes that's right, 1 "wedding oriented" website.
Geez, my fiance put *my* work email address on one of those "for some information" and my spam tripled overnight!
How could it be unconstitutional if there weren't any phones when the constitution was written?
Just look at his name.
:-)
Christ you people have gotten so gullable.
And the parent article is a humor piece... no intelligent discussion allowed!!!
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
"eye for an eye" is just what it says. What illiterate people can't grasp is that it was one of the hundreds of laws giving to the legal system of the OT. The laws were never given for the common man to enforce.
If someone poked your eye out you went to the judge and if the person was found guilty, their eye was ordered out BY THE COURT. Just like we do today.
Just because I can go in any law library and read up on laws and punishments doesn't mean I get to go around enforcing the law and punishing people as stated by the law.
Not this obvious explaination will stop you from spouting your ignorance.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
For sure. Replying keeps the Postal Services busy.
If you have two reply envelopes, swap the contents or include some local flyers maybe along with a nice note - "Here, have some of mine".
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
"Greetings, friends. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So use it and send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don't delay. Eternal happiness is just a dollar away."
Which, after a court order, will be changed to:
"Hello, this is Homer Simpson, AKA Happy Dude. The court has ordered me to call every person in town to apologize for my telemarketing scam. I'm sorry. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, send one dollar to: Sad Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. You have the power." -Homer
Would it work to post something like a software license where it says 'by opening this cd you agree to the terms and conditions...' on your door? have it say... 'by knocking on this door you agree that you aren't selling anything, aren't trying to 'save' me from my evil ways, yadda yadda yadda.'
even if it wasn't a legally binding thing, i think it'd be hilarious to come to the door after a salesperson knocks and say, 'did you read the eula?' and make them feel stupid as you point out section a paragraph b line g.
And say stuff like, "Man, how do you do this? If I had that much hatred coming down the phone at me every day, I'd slit my wrists within a week." or "Have you considered a slightly less dirty profession, like prostitution or drug dealing?" or "I'd like to tell you about my personal savior... and yours, tell me friend, have you heard the world of Jesus Christ?" Of course, I haven't got a call from a telemarketer since I had Qwest add the unidentified call blocking feature to my line. Sure it costs me a few bucks a month, but the time I was spending coming up with Jesus speeches more than makes up for it.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
You know, the first amendment doesn't guarantee you an audience...
Your willing to give away your phone number, but not your email address? How does that make any sense?
I'd far rather call those assholes at home, just around dinner time. I think I could make much more of a point about my objections to some asshole invading my private time to sell me shit if I could talk to one of the guys in charge, not some head whose job it is to answer an 800 number, and I'm quite willing to foot the costs of doing so.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Seems as good a word as any.
Once again our "fine" republic is in debt to this great visionary and his tireless production of columns with many correctly spelled words. I have used his free tax advice every year and it was worth every penny. I hope that my fellow slashdot readers will support him in his presidential run because
a) His name can be rearranged to spell "V-Bra Ready" and
b) That would be an excellent name for a rock band.
Once this kicks in and starts working, it's time to add E-mail to the do-not-call system. It can happen; the political pressure is there. It's opt-out, but it's global, government-enforced opt-out. If it works for phones, it can work for mail.
What needs to be clogged is the sales lines. You have to find a sales line that is connected to the buisness in someway. If not sales than the CEO's @work and @home telephone numbers are good too. I despise spam on all levels.
I would really love to see a website dedicated to this as I can't stand spam. Just a list of numbers to call and email addresses to spam. This site should be directed at telemarketters AND spammers.
You heard it here first:
When the do not call list takes effect, I predict the reincarnation of the door to door salesman.
(Besides, haven't you always wanted to know what that telemarketer type person on the other end of the line looks like?)
-Sean
You can send them an email stating your point of view.
NOTE: A well reasoned, polite email will probably have a greater effect than an angry rant (if it has any effect at all).
ATA officials have said about 2 million of the 6.5 million people working at telemarketing call centers across the nation will lose their jobs because of the rules that established the nationwide "Do Not Call" list.
:(
I wonder what all those hot, young 17 year old High School students will do. Probably have to find a job on a porn site.
But the big telemarketers don't open up phonebooks and start dialing.. They buy lists from other companies, many of which you probably have "prior business relationships" with.
Actually when using a calling card, caller ID is often blocked. For whatever reason, a couple of my friends were using calling cards.
no big sig
looks like the past chairman got a new addition on his house. Must be nice, huh?
Someone who understands that economics is about production, not consumption!
You are right. When someone doesn't buy some crap from a telemarketer, the non-customer will spend their money on something else, or they will actually save and invest that money instead.
And when someone takes a sick day, whether they are actually sick or just choosing not to work, that lowers overall production. Of course it is their *right* to spend their days however they want or need to spend them, but it does result in less production.
Is there something wrong with just hanging up on telemarketers? I can detect the sales pitch within seconds of it beginning, and most of them use call machines that make the connection, then pass it to a telemarketer - takes a couple seconds, and if you hear the silence, then the click of the transfer, you just hang up because you know it's a bullshit telemarketer.
Done deal!
They won't be able to overcome that flaw. It'll hurt productivity...imagine having the telemarketer dialing the phone manually. Not happening.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
The Herald site isn't slashdotted, so why post this, and why not post it AC if you really have to?
2 lousy points, was it worth it, you fucking whore?
It's unfortunate that something, such as telemarketing and spam has to get as bad as it does before we as a society can get together to voice our discontent with the situation. Even though telemarketing and spam are exceptionally annoying they are by far minor infractions against our personal freedoms compared to what we endure silently because we have not had one leader step forward to rally us against injustices that plague us every day.
http://www.sco.com/scosource/linuxlicense.html
;).
End users who purchase this license are granted the right to use the SCO IP in Linux in binary format only. The license is available immediately and can be obtained by contacting your SCO sales representative or by calling SCO at 1-800-726-8649.
1-800-726-8649
Ask SCO for information about their products, and to send you a copy of their Linux license before you consider paying for it
...is he talking about the two million people *from India* who will lose their jobs ?
Telemarketing is a shit job that pays fairly well with no real skills required. The only reason it pays so well is that it has to to get folks in the door in the first place. So the worse we are to the individual telemarketers the harder it is for the telemarketing companies to find employees, The more the telemarketers must be paid. So flame on and make it hurt baby
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
1. Be a telephone company
2. Profit
3. Telemarketers make mass calls
4. People get upset and make mass calls back at telemarketers
5. Telephone company $$$Profits!!! even more...
Now if I could only get to step 1
The other day I got a call from a telemarketer who wanted me to change my phone service (for the low, low monthly price of $49.90/month). For some reason I felt compassion for this bloke who called, and I didn't tell him to go fuck himself outright (although it would have been well within my right, since my ass-cheeks had just landed on the toilet seat, and I was ready to unload.) Anyway, so I was nice, and feigned interest, and asked if they had DSL, and yada yada yada. And then asked all the questions that they're supposed to be legally bound to answer (their name, company's name, address, phone number, etc). Around this time, the guy starts to get annoyed, since it's been almost 60 seconds that we've been talking. He gives me his name and address, when I (honestly) realize I don't have a pen, so I ask him to hold on a second. Ten seconds later, I've got a pen and paper, and I copy down his name as well as the company's. When I ask for the address and his employee ID number, he gets all snotty, and taunts me with, "What are you going to do, come up here and arrest me? I'm in Vancouver." I explain, still politely, that he is the one that called me, and that as I understand the law, he is required to give me certain, specific information about himself and his company. When I start to ask for his address again, he get's all pissy, and abruptly hangs up.
Now, normally, I'd say fuck it, and go on with my day, but he taunted me with that "what are you going to do" attitude, so I say fuck him. A few googles for his company (RSVP Customer Care Centre) later, I find the website (after getting arond their silly spelling of "center"), and the name of his boss, the VP of Sales and Marketing. She was very kind and apologetic, and she seemed honestly surprised by Joe's reaction to me on the line; for four year he had been a model employee. And for Joe, fair enough, his job probably does suck with people giving him shit all the time; still, at the same time, there's a certain amount of professionalism that I expect from these guys. Maybe he was just rude because he knew he'd be out of a job when the DNC list goes into effect.
Anyway, my (elusive) point, call their bosses and bitch, especially if they're rude or unprofessional.
My girlfreinds parents bock all of the withheld numbers. Unfortuanly that also includes all phone numbers that the local telco doesn't have a name attached to it, So our old line in the tiny little town I used to live in could not successfully call her parents on the other side of the country. We moved to a larger town and no longer have this problem, but remeber some of these plans have side effects
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
Will someone tell me why those 2 million telemarketers who will lose their jobs MAKING CALLS cannot find a job, instead, ANSWERING the F(*$)#@)* customer service line ?
I work for a long distance company telemarketing. It's true that lots of people will lose their jobs over this list. People act like getting a telemarketer call is the end of the world. I mean I don't sell windows or cruises or anything stupid like that. I sell long distance service, and what better way to sell phone service than over the phone!
I love it when I call people who say they don't do business over the phone. I always ask them if they order pizzas, since that's doing business over the phone. Or how they got their phone line set up to begin with, chances are they had to call for that. I love it when people just press a bunch of buttons on the phone, thinking it hurts our ears or something. I love it when people yell and scream at me, not realizing I have their name, address, and phone number in front me. I love it when I call someone and they think its the biggest deal that I interupted their dinner. If they were so busy they shuoudn't have answered the phone. I love it when people tell me to get a real job, when chances are I make more money telemarketing than they do with their "real job."
Next time a telemaketer calls your house don't get mad that they interupted your dinner, everyone eats dinner at different times, and it's impossible to work around everyone's schedule. Before you yell at the telemarketer realize its usually a college or high school student trying to pay their way through school, or a single mother trying to feed their kid. Maybe if you just listen to them they will have something you are interested in, or you could save money on your long distance bill. If not, just tell them you arent interested and hang up. Last time I checked getting a phone call wasn't that big of a deal.
but these ones haven't...
Legislative Office:
1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
Toll Free: (866) 500-4272
info@ataconnect.org
Administrative Office:
3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20
Indianapolis, IN 46240
Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272
info@ataconnect.org
ATA officials have said about 2 million of the 6.5 million people working at telemarketing call centers across the nation will lose their jobs because of the rules that established the nationwide "Do Not Call" list.
so 5% of the USA's 140 million labor force work as telemarketers? Why did the journalist let them get away with those numbers?
I used to get tons of those too. I'm in New Jersey and my local phone provider is Verizon, and I signed up for their Call Intercept service as soon as it was announced (for an extra monthly fee; it's included in some plans). Any incoming call with anonymous or "Unavailable" caller ID gets answered by a Verizon computer, which (1) plays a recording that says the caller must press 1 to continue; then (2) requires the caller to record their name; and then, if the caller successfully does all that, (3) rings my phone with a distinctive ring (three short rings, in my case). If I pick up the phone, the computer says there's a Call Intercept call and please press 1 to hear who it's from. If I do that, it plays the caller's recording. If I want to speak with the caller, I press 1 again and it connects me. If I don't, I just hang up.
As soon as I activated Call Intercept, the house went eerily silent. No more telemarketing calls. Period.
No, wait...I actually had one person (a real estate agent) go through the rigamarole. One telemarketing call in about two years.
I've just poked around the do-not-call web site and found that as of September 2, they registry has grown to 48 million phone numbers. They got a significant boost in numbers over Labor Day weekend -- when Dave Barry printed his article. About half of the 6 million new entries registered by phone. I had been wondering just how many people out there have not registered simply because they haven't heard about this registry yet.
The web site also mentioned that a large number of people have not completed the registration process by replying to the email that is sent when they register online. (Certainly none of the readers of Slashdot fall into this category.)
Does anyone know approximately how many residential phone numbers total are in use in the U.S.?
Oh, and please mod parent back down, mm'kay?
AT&T local service used to bombard me with three and four phone calls per day.
I used to have the same problem, and also put a lot of effort into trying to make them stop. I switched phone companies, and intentionally went without cable TV and fast internet (both AT&T-only in my old building) for a year as a direct result.
Their telephone harassment was particularly egregious. I've been AT&T-free for three years, and plan to continue to be.
If I walked down the street and cornered people and asked them to give me money, would that be illegal? Especially if I essentially ignored their refusals and became rude, aggressive and demanding?
I'd wager that at minimum they'd bust you for agressive panhandling, perhaps someone might even stretch it into a form of mugging or robbery.
And this is exactly what telemarketers do. On the street, the more aggressive and strong-willed people would walk away or otherwise rebuke them and walk away, but I'd bet that the same people who are bullied into buying from telemarketers would fork over money to someone just demanding it on the street.
What amazes me is why the media doesn't spend more time and effort exposing this "sales technique" for what it is. Surprisingly most articles on DNC lists focus on the "irritation" of the calls, or worse, the untold damage to be done to our economy through the loss of telemarketing jobs. None of them seem to focus on the decepetion, bullying and probably outright fraud associated with telemarketing.
In my mind is inextricably linked to the same business ethos that fueled Enron, WorldCom and host of other "lying your way to wealth" business models that seem to have prospered.
This is especially good with 1-800 numbers, where the recipient pays for it - reverse spam...
That's the category where telemarketers really cross the line into coercion. There a lot of elderly people or people with alzheimers that are in good enough shape to still be in their own homes, but they really don't have the ability to deal with coercive people on the phone.
I know one woman who changed her long distance service 5 times in a month... and they would NOT stop calling her, despite the requests and then orders from her family. She's nice, pleasant, and didn't have the ability to say no. That's the sort of person who this list is really for, and I for one applaud it.
~ Leilah
no, No, NO!!!
1-877-779-3974
"Don't pick it up, don't pick it up, don't picky..."
(866) 500-4272
Seriously, you have yourself to blame. Try thinking with the thinking end.
Anybody got their e-mail addresses?
about something like that... some guy named Bloodninja trying to get a girl to talk like a pirate.
Apart from being pretty twisted, it was hilarious... I don't recall the details, other than the fact that she kept having to say "HAAARRRRR!"
Maybe Bloodninja is Dave Barry's online alter-ego...
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
The single mother should start working as a prostitute.
At least most slashdoters would have more respect for her.
There are a lot of people living on their own, with phones so they can call/be called by their families, but who do not have the ability to deal with telemarketing calls in a sane/sensible way. I'm not talking about people being jerks, I'm talking about people who mentally are not capable of handling someone trying to coerce them into something over the phone.
I'm sure there are "legitimate" telemarketers out there, but the general tactics are just appalling.
For more information on telemarketing fraud and the elderly, check out AARP's site - Telemarketing Fraud Underreported, and their Off the Hook Study.
~ Leilah
The callee speaks very quietly, to try and get the telemarketer to raise the volume of their phone/earpiece. After a few seconds, the callee blows an air horn right into the phone, blasting the telemarketer.
Ever have that happen?
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Put up a "No Soliciting" sign. If anyone comes up to your door and tries to sell you something, have them arrested for trespassing.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Some people have this thing called a "life", The last time a telemarketer called me I simply said "Please put me on your do-not call list" and hung up. I havn't been bothered since since I don't use a land-line. I have gotten a few campaign and polling questions lately (I'm in iowa). I even got my ass out of bed to listen to the begining of a recorded msg from John Kerry... Needless to say I won't be voting for him.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
These very blatantly aren't the telemarketers who've called anyone. This is the telemarketing association that claims to have a constitutional right to call anyone they darn well please. What is being said is that if they do... then so does everyone else.
Ok, now read this sentence: "Of course, you could use pretty much the same reasoning to argue that laws against mugging cause unemployment among muggers..." Where do get the line about wanting to mug people?
~ Leilah
It seems that everyone in his right mind despises telemarketing. Spam too. Ask anyone, and they'll tell you that there are few things they hate more in life. It seems as if there are no exceptions to this rule -- everyone, bar none, hates telemarketing and spam.
But it can't be true. Someone must be responding to this stuff by spending their money. Because for some reason, telemarketers and spammers stay in business. Somehow, it must be worth it for them.
If everyone hated the stuff as much as they say they do, if everyone hung up on the unwanted calls and deleted the unwanted mails in nothing flat, like they say they do, then the problem would fizzle out before long. No one could make money doing it, so there would be no reason to keep trying. And yet, the crap just goes on and on and on.
I've read rumors that a certain small percentage of the people called or mailed actually do respond and end up buying something; usually the figure is put about 10%, or something similarly low. Hard to believe that such a business would be worthwhile if the response rate is so low; but whatever it is, it must be high enough that the incentive for telemarketing and spamming is maintained. Otherwise, there'd be no such thing.
A national no-call list is a nice idea, but I can't see the problem going away altogether as long as the telemarketers and spammer still believe there's a chance to make money. Certainly the spammers are not going to let some trivial thing like a Federal law stop them. (They'll just go on spamming from Antarctica, or wherever.) If we really want the problem solved, once and for all, we have to ensure that there is no future for those businesses, and that would require educating the public, right down to the last man, woman and child, to always follow this rule without exception: If someone calls you or emails you to sell you a product, then whatever you do, don't buy that product!
Always keep a sapphire in your mind
See his post above.
Great. Now they know what it is like to have to change their number after being harrased over the telephone.
Maybe now they have to tell all their friends to let it ring twice, hand up and call again or something like that.
... can this be applied to?
1) RIAA
2) SBA
3) Al Qaeda (no published number, just start calling every phone in Pakistan)
4) The Office of Homeland Defense
5) Democratic National Committee
5) Republican National Committee
Sadly, once the Evil has grown beyond a certain critical mass, mere mass protests have no effect.
Anyone have the RIAA's phone number off hand?
"The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!
(I'm not insinuating that the original poster is a Jerk)
One time, I received a call from a marketing firm hired by my bank (so yes, there was a prior business relationship) asking about the AOL disc they sent me. They wanted to know if I remembered receiving it, what I thought of the service, etc. (Obviously the disc didn't make it anywhere near my CD drive.)
So when she asked me what I ended up doing with the disc, I told her the truth: "I cut it up and added it to my AOL CD moasic collection." She was caught off guard by that one, but repeated it word for word as she entered it into the DB.
Even today, the thing is pasted up artistically on the front of my wardrobe. I would have liked to see the marketing manager's reaction when they came across that entry.
If followed, would also promote both kinds of Spam, the virtual, and the pulp-and-paper kind.
See if you can follow this one:
I have a physical mailing address, therefore, because anyone can send a letter/flyer/wad-o-coupons to that address as "Occupant", that they have the "right" to do so.
I have an E-mail address, therefore, because (apparently) anyone can send an e-mail to just about anyone at a given ISP's client list using any form of SpamBot, or mass-e-mailing program that uses common, uncommon, or even downright ludicrus usernames before the "@" on any given ISP address, they have the Right to bombard my inbox.
Ain't logic just grand?
Don't you wish that there was a Law requiring any E-mail/Snail-mail/Phone Call to have a verified "Reply-To" field/visible Caller ID, so you could send THEM a Solicited responce to their message/offer/"opportunity of a lifetime"? After all, They contacted You in the first place, so you have the Right to contact them at your convienience and give them appropriate feedback, right?
Right?
Who's with me? *Arrr!*
~X!0
Stop saying that!
Shouldn't there be a way to automate this somehow? I'd love to use one of the old P2's to call up a bank of 800 and local numbers that have dialed me electronically and "spammed" me.
Is this possible and is it legal?
About 5 times a week I get calls like this when I pick up the phone there is a series of beeps, one every few seconds, and of course no human on the other end. Is this just a war dialer? It doesn't make modem noises; just beeps....
C'mon mods. AC notwithstanding, this deserves +5 funny.
HH
--
When telemarketers call, I wait for the first pause and then tell them -- in a really bored voice like I'm reading from a script -- "I am obligated to inform you that because of this unsolicited call, your company will be listed on SLIMEYMARKETERS.COM . You have 30 days to appeal this decision or the listing will become final; see site for details."
If they ask for clarification, I simply repeat the "statement" (hoping I remember it exactly), and say that's all the information I'm required to give.
Very satisfying, particularly if I ask to speak to a manager -- sends them into a real frenzy about 30% of the time (especially when they can't find the site in order to appeal, since I always make sure it's bogus).
Don't insult arms dealers like that.
Alright. Let's welcome our newest member, folks. This is Tim Searcy.
(Chorused: "Hi, Tim.")
Ok. Today we're talking about learning respect for people's personal boundaries. Mr. Ralsky, would you like to start?
R: *I* DON'T HAVE THE PROBLEM!!!11! IT'S NOT MY FAULT I'M GETTING 47 COPIES OF THE LATEST INTERNATIONAL MALE CATALOG!!! IT'S THOSE COX'UCKING SLASHDOTTERS THAT DID IT TO ME!
Ah. Let's come back a little later....
If you were an idiot.
Economic growth does not occur because people are paid. It occurs because more stuff is produced.
Telemarketers do not produce anything - people pay for telemarketing because it either lets them steal customers from their competition, or get people to buy things they don't really need.
Thus, eliminating 2 million telemarketing jobs will *HELP* the economy, as the money that was going to pay them can be instead used on something that will actually promote economic growth, like investing in more efficient production, or just psssing the money you're saving by not doing telemarketing on to the consumer in the form of lower prices, so they can buy more stuff (thus promoting growth).
paintball
It looks like Slashdot did it again. The American Teleservices Association (Telemarketers Association) now has disconnected the toll free number listed in the article. Anyhow, if you still want to exercise your 1st ammendment rights to express your opinion to them here are two offices you can contact by phone: Legislative Office 1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200 Washington, DC 20006 Toll Free: (866) 500-4272 Administrative Office: 3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20 Indianapolis, IN 46240 Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272 But I am sure you all want to email directly to them and tell them how much we appreciate them calling in the middle of dinner. Their key people are: Tim Searcy Executive Director tim@ataconnect.org Bill Morris Finance Director bill@ataconnect.org Lynne McCauley Director of Member Services lynne@ataconnect.org Mitchell Roth Government Affairs Counsel mitch@ataconnect.org Brad Rateike Manager of Member Services brad@ataconnect.org Jason Perry Marketing Manager jason@ataconnect.org Karl Jacobs Manager of Special Projects kjacobs@ataconnect.org Robert Fanger Manager of IT Systems bobf@ataconnect.org And if you don't want to get personal you can always express your opinion to info@ataconnect.org I wonder if there is someone out there with time to find their board of directors home phone numbers so we can call them and ask them how they feel about receiving calls in the middle of supper or their favorite TV show. If you have the time their board of director consist of: Chairman Thomas Rocca Interactive Response Technologies Kennesaw, GA Vice-Chairman Lisa DeFalco TPG Telemanagement Yardley, PA Treasurer Andrew Miller, Apac Omaha, NE Secretary Kathryn Barber Barber Consulting Atlantic Highlands, NJ Immediate Past Chairman Bill Miklas InfoUSA Omaha, NE Directors Stuart Discount Tele-Response Center Inc. Philadelphia, PA Benjamin Harris Unicall International Fairlawn, OH Connie Richardson West/Dakotah Direct II Spokane, WA Gil Stallings Consultant Hackensack, NJ Kathleen Thompson Bank One Wilmington, DE Mark Williams MBNA Wilmington, DE All this information was posted in their web site so I am sure they want us to find them and talk to them.
They've had the number Dave Berry published disconnected, but here is the current contact information from their website (including toll-free numbers):
Legislative Office:
1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
Toll Free: (866) 500-4272
info@ataconnect.org
Administrative Office:
3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20
Indianapolis, IN 46240
Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272
info@ataconnect.org
The old one (877-779-3974) seems to be disconnected.
The new numbers at:
http://www.ataconnect.org/contact.htm
Legislative Office:
1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20006
Toll Free: (866) 500-4272
info@ataconnect.org
Administrative Office:
3815 River Crossing Parkway, Suite 20
Indianapolis, IN 46240
Toll Free: (866)) 500-4272
info@ataconnect.org
This actually happened to me. I was walking from work to the car. It's bad enough they have those little carts set up to sell crap along the sidewalk, but the bastards started going after people "offering" them "free" stuff. I totally ignored one guy that came after me and he took it personally. I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut. I knew if I said anything I would have just went off on him. It still gets my blood boiling today and this was years ago.
Now if I see them I take the long way around, no matter how far the long way is. All I want to do is walk from my building to my car without being harrased by salespeople.
90% of all of my telephone calls are telemarketers or wrong numbers. I usually miss the calls for me because I have to ignore the phone. Of course I signed up for the Do-not-call list, but there are so many exceptions for the list it won't help that much.
We need a national "no begging" law that includes telemarketing of any kind.
It uses the popular formmail.pl script and it's poorly configured. View the source to the page and save it to your hard drive. Then edit the code where the tag starts.
First, modify the action value to include the fully qualified path to the formmail.pl script as such:Then, remove the following lines: Save your changes and open up the page that's saved on your hard drive. Now you can put whatever the hell you want in the form and it actually gets sent. If you want, you can also change the address it gets sent to by changing the following line in the code:(Note: manually modify the code rather than copying and pasting, because Slashdot's anti-troll space-adding would cause it not to work.)
......Of course, this is all just FYI type blathering in the spirit of open source hacking and I do not advocate anybody writing a script to exploit this poor design.
I put my phone number on both the Massachusetts and Federal DNC lists, and since then I've gotten exactly one unwanted call (okay, besides the ones from my senile grandmother):
.
Me: "Hello?"
Him: "Yes, you indicated your interest about in July, and provided this phone number. Are you still interested?"
Me: "Uh, no."
Him: "Oh, sorry. Thank you for your time."
I was quite confused about this for the rest of the day. But it was the politest telemarketer I'd ever met.
My other favorite was the salesperson who called me my first week of college, and asked if I had a visa or mastercard. When I answered no, she asked if I had any sort of credit card at all. After I said no, she said "Uhm... thanks" and hung up.
Something like a big jackboot mounted on a pedestal, for kicking the telemarketer's asses...
Oh well, what the hell...
I seem to recall something about not even the king may enter one's home without being invited to enter. Last I heard, I could walk away from speech that I found offensive. By signing up for DNC that's what I'm doing, walking away. I've been on the Pa. DNC for over a year. One night I got a prerecorded sales call. I'm champing at the bit for them to mention their company name or an 800 number I could call so I could write it down and complain on the state DNC web site to get them fined. neither was given, and at the end, it told me to give my name and phone number if I was interested. They got to call me, and got me to listen to their whole message without giving any information to me that could get them fined. It was a recorded message, and my guess is they got my number from the DNC list. The anger I felt at the end of that call was enormous. I hate those people more than ever, and now I really owe them one. Also, I got a call from Comcast with an offer. As I already get cable from them, they are allowed to call me under Pa. rules. The only thing is, Comcast contracts this out to a telemarketing company. The telemarketing company must have the DNC list, yet they felt compelled to call me in Comcast's name anyway. The next telemarketer that messes with me? It won't be pretty.
This group argues that, if its members are prohibited from calling people who do not want to be called, then two million telemarketers will lose their jobs. Of course, you could use pretty much the same reasoning to argue that laws against mugging cause unemployment among muggers. But that would be unfair. Muggers rarely intrude into your home.
If muggers intrude into your home, aren't they not merely muggers but burglars now?
No TiVo and no caffeine make me something something...
Those people I can have arrested for tresspassing. Our condo grounds has multiple clearly posted signs. I'll just call the cops while they are busy harassing other residents.
Then perhaps I should be looking for another way to make a living? Just a thought boys and girls, but the "think about the poor XYZ" arguement can be used by almost anything. Yes, somebody is going to lose out on this.
Personally, I'd rather pick up garbage or hand out cheeseburgers than do telemarketing, at least those are a public server. And yes, with the abuse you probably taking by pissing off people on a daily basis, plunging those clogged-up toilets might even be a better living as well. Gee, imagine that, looking for jobs that, while less sophisticated, are less offensive to the general public.
A telemarketer hung up on *you*? Do you by any chance live in Soviet Russia?
Or alternately, they might actually make enough money to get out telemarketing when they sue the living crap out of the person who does this. I seem to recall hearing (pun not intended) about such a case, can't find an actual link to it though.
47 USC227 SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITS the use of prerecorded callsing gear to any number other than those who have explicitly authorised it (the latest FCC rule changes remove a previous exemption for religious, non-profit and political use) except in an emergency and goes on to describe emergencies as "safety if life" issues.
It also specifically prohibits telemarketing calls to hospital numbers.
$500 per violation, multiple violations per call mean more charges.
Courts usually regard use of recorded calls as willful violation and apply triple damages to all charges.
Yeah, they might come over to your house and break all your plywood! Of couse, you'd have to lend them the use of your stereo so they could play their "Mortal Combat" remix while they did it.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
AFAIK, I've never seen this argument used as a legal basis to end TM: the simple premise that my telephone service is a paid, private service. Commercial solicitation over a private service I pay for should not be legal. I've never heard of a class action suit against TM's on this principle.
I expect some degree of spam and advertising from web-based mail like yahoo- I don't pay for my Yahoo mail account. But if I *did* upgrade to the paid premium level- then I expect not to receive unsolicited emails (if I never posted my email address to any forum, newsgroup or website) nor see any advertising anywhere on the web client.
Similarly, my paid private voice service shouldn't be a conduit for unsolicited commercial interests.
The only legal way TM makes sense is if I choose to appear on a "Commercial Solicitation OK" list. Then, I need to be compensated for every phone ring by a commercial interest calling me- whether I answer or not! TM's are abusing my time in distraction and using a paid resource in my home- the phone ringer and the single phone line, which another personal contact may be trying to use to reach me during the TM's attempt to call. The remuneration from each TM call ought to appear as a credit on my phone statement- again, only if I volunteer to be on a "OK to call" list.
Telemarketing has *nothing* to do with freedom of speech, or the rights of commercial interests in any way shape or form. It is about exploiting (current) holes in the interpretation of personal privacy rights and abusing private communication services.
Another post in this thread mentioned placing an indicator in current phone books next to personal name listings, a flag that means "no solicitors". Why this hasn't been available yet is dumb-founding, as it is no different than the ability to put a "NO Solicitors" sign on your front door (of your physical home).
Answer it like it's a secret agent "Thank you for your quick response 004, MI6 will be pleased by your efforts for Queen and Country. Your first objective is to contact your liaison, tomorrow night, 1930 GMT, at [insert place here, make it some place weird like Jakarta, Indonesia.] You will receive your instructions there." *hang up*
Any sales guy will tell you that.
If the customer walks out of the store with exactly what he wanted when he came in, you have sold him nothing.
Duh
I bragged about my Karma at a job interview but I didn't get the job.
A headhunter was especially obnoxious so my husband just said 'Go to hell' and hung up on her. A few minutes later she called back and yelled "I just wanted to hang up on YOU!" and slammed the phone down.
Not a real effective sales technique...
I signed up for the do-not-call list. It needed email confirmation before being considered valid. I didn't know until the respond period had expired. Why? It sat in my bulk mail folder because YAHOO thought it was a piece of spam.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Man people are really eager to list "insightful" today, eh? What happened to earning such a rating?
Begging for money is not the same as trying to sell you something. If fraud is involved, prosecute the fraud! Don't be a wimp and prosecute over a stupid and petty thing as calling you; it is not any different than "Mommy, Billy is looking at me!!"
Now, stand on the street and try to *sell* something, then you can start to get close. Just because you don't like TM, and probably can't say no yourself (with or w/o a civil tone), is no reason to be so incipidly wrong.
Why do I suggest you may not be able to tell them no? People that can/do typically do not complain about the suppposed "strong arm tactics" or compare TM to a mugging. They usually complain about the time and interruption.
The worst thing to happen to this country was the abdication of personal responsibility.
Don't like the show? Change the channel. Don't like the TM, hang up, don't take the call, or say "no".
Hell, maybe gather some friends together, pool your money and run an ad campaign "Just say no to telemarketers." Just be careful to not use the phone to do it, or you lose your message.
Like it or not, most TMers are college students putting themselves through school or second working parents, or single moms. Why? It pays better for one. This is not a "felel sorry for them" plea, far from it. However, it flies in the face of the pathetic claims that TMers are evil people out to bilk the poor and elderly from their life savings. It makes people feel better about yelling or cursing the other end of the phone out. People use it to justify something they know is wrong.
You'd rather put these people out of a job than focus on nailing those who *are* committing the atrocities you mention. Mr Pot, meet Mr. Kettle.
--rant on--
But hey, for some people they have to believe that shakey voice on the other end of the phone is a guy with horns a red suit and sitting in a room filled with brimstone, because they can't stand the cognitive dissonance that more governemnt means those people have to resort to telemarketing jobs, as opposed to staying home (if a working married mother), or giving up the TM as the second job they need to cover their living expenses or get out of debt because the government taxes the shit out of them to pay for all these "there outta be a law!" shouts from people who will not stand up and take personal responsibility.
--rant off--
My Suburban burns less gasoline than your Prius.