How come johnny comes up with the best ideas? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Alcohol frees your mind. I know you're underaged, but you should really get drunk sometime. :D

Funny enough i'm not drinking any now, but thanks to you that will change in about 30 seconds.

Hey, always here to keep you drinking. ;)

Only 2 years, johnny, 2 years. I'm counting down the days. ;)

Any stories of what people have done to you? :D </font>[/QUOTE]Well, one tried that sinefeld thing, I was tempted to give him my cell number (what do i care if he calls me?), but I think he hung up before I had a chance to consider it :D

I've had tons of jelous boyfriends who have refused to let me speak to their girlfriends. But most people are actually quite nice and listen to what i have to say.

I think telemarketing in sweden differ from other countries. If someone tells me he dosen't want what I have to offer I ask why, if he has a good reason i say goodbye and hang up, if not, I try to argue with him. If they tell me to bugger of before I've had a chance to tell them why I called I try to refer them to our national free of charge "don't call me" list, if they hang up before that I often mark it down as a 'no' and we'll call back when there's a change in our offer (usually takes about two months). We are required, by law, to compare our list with that one at the start of every project.

What i would recommend you to do if they won't stop calling and won't let you say no is to say that whoever the're looking for recently died. When that happens to me i just say "my condolences" and end the call, then i remove them from the list of numbers.

I'm not that evil, I'm actually quite nice when I call and if someone dosen't want to talk to me i respect that. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Finally, even though I don't do it I know that some of my co workers often use pretty dirty tactics when trying to land a sale. So basically my recommendation to you would be to never ever buy anything over the phone :D

Edit, oh, almost forgot, Its company policy to ask if whoever you're calling is busy and if you are disturbing him/her.

I just felt i needed to defend my line of work a bit :D

[ 02-20-2005, 08:02 AM: Message edited by: bjorn ]

Yes, I know! They always start with 'how are you today?' like that makes the call more pleasant and personal. It doesn't, it just wastes more time, not to mention being presumptuous because they don't know me! Whenever they ask me how I am I just respond with 'what can I do for you?' I'm always polite to telemarketers - it's their job and they're not personally doing it to annoy me, and yelling at them and being rude isn't going to stop their companies from using the technique. Which obviously must work or they wouldn't do it! Dunno how though. But I have a lot of trouble being polite with some - we usually just say 'we don't deal with telemarketers' so they might get the message that it isn't that we just don't want their product, like when they call to 'help us' with our home loan (out of the goodness of their hearts, like :rolleyes: ;) ) but we don't have one, but that we wouldn't want their product regardless because of the way they're selling it. But sometimes they say 'oh, we're not telemarketers!' Uuorrr!! Very annoying! [img]graemlins/idontagreeatall.gif[/img] </font>[/QUOTE]I can relate to this, Aelia. I usually tell them 'no thanks, please don't call again' about 2 lines into their canned speeches and most are quite pleasant and say goodbye, but now and then one will continue as if he/she has a chance to convince me to buy whatever it is. That's when I repeat the 'take me off your list' part and hang up.

Your last part reminded me of a guy who called the other night and my husband told him we don't take marketing calls but the guy insisted he wasn't a telemarketer because we had an account with the bank he was calling for and as such they can call existing clients by the 'do not call list rules'. So we took the call, only to have the guy start trying to sell us financial planning information! He got the boot as soon as he answered 'yes' to the question, 'So you ARE selling something?!' :rolleyes:

You're a polite telemarketer though... I don't mind those. It's the rude ones that keep going after you've told them no 10 times that are truly annoying. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Btw..did anyone ever get called by Domino's pizza, right after you got a pizza delivered ? They've done it a few times overhere, and one time it was nearly 15 minutes after the delivery. I was still eating the pizza when the phone rang. It was someone from Domino's... if i enjoyed the pizza, and if i thought there was room for improvement and stuff for the next time i order. I was like "maybe if you'd let me finish the damn thing first, i could talk back with an empty mouth". [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

I understand they want to know if their customers are satisfied and all, but at least wait until the next day or something.

Lol! Never had that happen here, johnny. Must be a Netherlands thing. ;)

Heh, a group of us were watching a movie in the school sixth form centre, when we all got called in succession by the same guy. Unfortuanately for him, the one who got called first gave him a real hard time. And then he answered all of our phones as well. The poor guy must have been going spare, every number he was calling was answered by a raving psycho killer! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Bjorn,

Thanks for stepping up to defend your profession. Personally, I have nothing against the individuals who call. For the most part, they're normal folks trying to make a living, and someone's paying them to make calls.

I have issues with the companies that do it, and they're the ones I focus on. Stop the companies, stop the problem.

And most companies do have a disclaimer that says they will share your information with other sister companies to provide things you may be interested in. It's a loophole, but it's there. I actually accept spam-type messages from companies I actively use (like my bank or mortgage company). They may indeed have something of interest to me. The others.... pffftt.