Has anyone here every been a telemarketer?

and spoke mostly to voice mail.

I called on election day to people on Florida, via MoveOn.org. You're right, a lot of people did not pick up.

I'd guess that maybe 1 out of 3 people I talked to was actually a DEMOCRAT... probably an equal number of pubs, and a lot of not voting

before upcoming elections. The MOveOn lists were wrong, and we'd call people who had already been called by other MoveOn people.

Hey Howard Dean! Can you fix this?

Took transfer calls from AOL to sell crap to people. For 6 weeks. Hated every fucking day of it, and resolved that I was either quitting or getting promoted... so I got promoted, and got into IT stuff.

And if so, how did you stand talking and listening to people all that time?

It sucked. You sit in a tiny cube and read the stuff on the computer screen in front of you, and try to make your numbers, so you get your bonuses, so it pays better... If there's down time, you can chat with your neighbors some. By week 2 I was dreaming the fucking script.

I sat with a girl who got called a fucking dumb bitch on her first night of training by somebody on the phone... people are so nice when they're talking to an anonymous person.

Hint: If you don't want it, just hang up. Please.

it is a horrible job. Makes you feel so unloved.

It is sooooooo boring, too

:hi:

I saw another DUer had it and I downloaded it from their post. feel free to do the same.

:hi:

that's cute! What would we do without emoticons? Think of the poor freepers on their site B-)

that did market research...but it was all cold calling. I dunno if it's technically telemarketing if you're not selling anything, but I do know that regardless people find you just as annoying. :D

It was a second job, a night job, about 15 years ago. I did "warm" calling for a firm selling the Black & Decker Home Improvement Library and the Singer Sewing Library.

I hated it. I was trying to save money to go to school, but I couldn't stand that job. I worked six hours a night; not enough to qualify for fulltime and receive commissions on my sales. I consistently sold better than everyone else on night shift, and when I wanted to quit, the supervisor told me I *couldn't* quit! I asked for commission. I was told no, only fulltimers got commission. For six bucks an hour, I didn't need the aggravation. I did have a fulltime day job with benefits.

I quit. A few days later, I found another night job, this one with an answering service. That was a much better (and much more interesting) job.

from the telemarketing night job? Did you go mad?

:crazy:

They came in two types: Unbelievably, egregiously abusive and rude OR down-home friendly and given to extreme (boring) chattiness.

I think I suffered from a tiny bit of job-elitism too; I had quite a good day job, and I'm sure on some level I considered telemarketing "beneath" me. Funny, though - I didn't feel that way about the answering service job. I liked that one.

to chat endlessly?

By far, the Southerners were the friendliest.

I found in my local calling that:

- 1/3 of people over 50 answered
- 24% of 45-49
- 18% of 35-44
- almost no one under 35

That data was early on, and eventually some under 35 did answer, but that rate is very low.

I'm baffled. Unless an employee's signed a contract stating s/he won't quit, how can a company force someone to keep showing up to work?

As in, "No! You can't quit!"

I figured if were THAT important, he could get me commission. He couldn't/wouldn't/didn't, so I left.

(Cold Calling)And then I quit. I don't recommend doing it.
Duckie

In a couple varieties... they get a rush out of 'pushing' someone into buying something, they are really chatty and enjoy talking to so many different people, some seem to enjoy the challenge. None of those things applied to me. I felt like I was tricking people into buying crap they don't need...

used to have a job calling alumni from our college for donations and she loved it. She said she just laughed at people who were mean to her. I for one could never do that job.

Did you even make a call?

I made about 5 calls. I don't think I stayed on any of them for more than 20 seconds. Then I thought to myself, "self - this is dumb. You don't like when people like this call you at home, so why would you want to be one of them.

It was a low-dollar operation. No cubicles, no computers to do the phone dialing. Just a quick overview on what we were supposed to do, and what to do if someone actually wanted to buy whatever we were selling, then to the phones.

They tried to tell me I should stay, and I couldn't take the rejections personally yadda yadda yadda. I just said no thanks and kept walking.

It was a 2nd job anyway, fortunately for me. I don't know what I would have done if I had really needed the money at that time.

Back in NJ, I sold subscriptions for the Morris County Daily Record and the Newark Star Ledger. I also set up appointments for ChemLawn. They were all outbound cold calls.

Here in Colorado, I did inbound telemarketing for Convergys, answering the phone when people dialed the toll-free numbers they saw on teh TV screens. I helped people complete credit card applications, and took orders for skin care products, CDs, Winsor-Pilates videos, Dean Martin Roast videos, and all the crap that Billy May shouts about in commercials.

You may be one of the few who answered that does...

I've had better P/T jobs, and I've had worse.....

I have a friend that is looking for a P/T job?

The Convergys center I worked at is in Pueblo, which is about 100 miles south of Denver.

That's the extent of my telephone experience.

:hi:

like that.

Teaching doesn't pay enough so that was my moonlighting job. I quite after two weeks of the crap and dishonesty.....

I didn't mind it at first, but I ended up HATING it! I got fired a few times because I didn't make enough sales, but I always got hired because of my voice and how I read the script. I would never go back to it! Let me put it this way: My next job as a graveyard shift security guard felt like a dream job after those years of telemarketing!

On the other hand, I did do some phone banking for the Kerry campaign last year. I wouldn't put that in the same category. I don't like calling people, but I felt like it was for a good cause and it gave me tremendous satisfaction. I ended up having some pretty enjoyable conversations with fellow progressives!

heating oil. It S.U.C.K.E.D.

during the Kennedy era. I was specifically told to hang up if a black person answered the phone because they would "buy anything but not pay." I got in big trouble with the company if I took any calls from afro-americans. I was a smart ass because I took the subscriptions from everyone and then went out in the field and collected the subscription fees...got about the same amount of down payments from my ethnic groups as I did from the WASPS. But they still didn't want to accept the ethnic subscriptions. Money was good, but I quit. I knew something really smelled about their policy.

I smile at picturing you going against their system!

:yourock:

My job was taking catalogue orders over the phone, but we were required to have eight phone contacts per hour. If eight people didn't call in, we had to start calling out to people who had ordered from Sears at any time in their lives to advertise the current specials.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Customer, this is Sears Home Shopping Service calling to tell you about some of this week's specials..."

Surprisingly, about half the people were glad to talk, especially when I called out to rural areas. I called one woman late in the summer, and she immediately ordered socks, underwear, T-shirts, and jeans in five boys' sizes: back to school shopping for her sons.

But the other half of people were not pleased to be called, and I hated doing it. However, if I didn't, the store manager would stand over me and make noise about how I wasn't earning my keep.

That job put me off cold calling for life. I refuse even to work political phone banks unless it's GOTV on election day.

It's bad enough that it is a crappy, low-paying job. The quotas and the pressure make it all the worse!

It was a job for money at night.... wouldn't want to do it again.

Right now I am calling to ask people how they liked their experience at the One Stop Career Center. And most people are happy to answer the questions, because they had a good experience and got free workshops and services.

But few people answer their phones these days, so the quotas can't be met.

And there are always the few nasty people. I swear one woman thought I was her husband's mistress! I hung up on that woman!

They wanted me to start asking at the 500 dollar level. I did not do what they said and I would make my own script saying that there were various ranges of giving and I would usually start at the $100 level. My theory was that if you start from some rediculous level you end up losing the person all together whereas if you start with a reasonable level to some and not to others you can easily get to $20 with out offending or pissing off the person. I think I did well this way in getting people to donate. The "managers" were just grad students anyways so no that they knew much more than I did.

I wouldn't have lasted as long as I did if I had went by the University "script" that was provided.

I am an alumni of 3 universities, and when I am working full time, I am happy to give, but only $100 each. That's crazy for them to start at the $500 level!

Also, some of those university/charity places will back down if you are telling them you're not working, but others will say, "well how about giving $50?" That's always annoying. Some people stick to the scripts too much. OThers are ok and can actually respond like a normal person

Direct marketing, mostly, like those commercials for Time/Life videos and CDs. Also a few credit card apps.

Unbelievable experience.

so much fun. The boss and supervisor were having an affair so they'd go to the local motel for my entire (4 hr) shift. We didn't have quotas, the people I worked with were great (there were only 6 of us and one was my best friend) and we used to drink wine while we were making calls.

This was 30 years ago, I know telemarketing is nothing like that anymore.

I hated it, although most of the people I spoke with refused me politely.

I wouldn't mind taking inbound calls, as long as I wasn't expected to try and sell some special offer of the day, or anything like that.

I worked at a florist the month preceeding Valentine's Day, and I called the customers that bought the year before to "remind" them that Valentine's Day was coming up and the earliest they put in a order the more money they saved.

It was horrible and I hated calling these people, though some men were grateful that I called.

But also while I was there, I learn how to do a few arrangements.

ANd I thought I'd find at least 1 person who likes it. But maybe the people who like it are all Freepers!!