Telemarketing

tuttle88

So I got a job on Monday (19th), and now its Friday (23rd) and I'm quitting today. I've been cold calling people and trying to convince them to change their phone service. I haven't sold any and I suspect this is because I actually don't want people to buy it. The deal is bad and I don't think you should buy something over the phone without seeing it written down first. Oh also I hate calling random people, they didn't ask for it, they don't want it, and I don't want to do it.

So I'm going to quit and the job hunt will continue.

Andrew

Telemarketing is spam via phone. Did anyone say anything funny to you?

tuttle88

Not really, I haven't been sworn at yet which makes a change from childcare. I'm suprised at the number of children who answer the phone and tell me (a complete stranger) that their parents aren't there and wont be home until 8pm or what ever. Great kid, now I know your address, that you are alone and that you will be alone for the next 4 hours, I'll be round in a bit with a gun. My mother taught me never to say she wasn't there, maybe she was just paranoid but it would seem to me to make sense.

I haven't been there long enough for good stories.

EsonLinji

I once had a job selling raffle tickets on commission which I quit after two days. I felt like scum trying to make all these people buy something. I also only made about $80, which made it a little easier to quit.

tuttle88

I once had a job selling raffle tickets on commission which I quit after two days. I felt like scum trying to make all these people buy something. I also only made about $80, which made it a little easier to quit.

Well in the add this job said $450 not commission based. Turns out it is still incentive based, and since I haven't sold anything I'd get $170.

serendipity

Great kid, now I know your address, that you are alone and that you will be alone for the next 4 hours, I'll be round in a bit with a gun.

On this subject, I once did something similar. My mom just about killed me when I told her.

But on the subject of telemarketing, I have come to the point where I hang up on just about anyone who calls our house trying to sell something. Either that, or I make up a funny story to tell them about why I can't buy their product.

Jason

I sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door for three weeks once. It was clearly a pyramid scheme. I sold a few for $2,000 each, but I felt guilty as hell. I kept that job just long enough to do several interviews for publishing jobs.

HungryJoe

. . . I sold a few for $2,000 each . . .

For $2K, I know one feature those vacuum cleaners should have . . .

HMTKSteve

On this subject, I once did something similar. My mom just about killed me when I told her.

Prostitution?

Erwin

That is why I never answer the phone, if it is important someone will leave a message. Also most of the time I am not at home neither :P

Jason

For $2K, I know one feature those vacuum cleaners should have . . .

Prostitution?

Bingo.

thaneofcawdor

I worked for a telemarketing company about 8 years ago. I lasted 2 weeks. The pay was terrible, travelling to work ate up a significant percentage of my pay, and despite being reasonably good at the job, I hated every second of it. The people working there were nice, but the management was... words cannot describe their ineptitude.

Rym

I worked for a temp agency for a few weeks one summer way back at uni. One day, they sent me to an office for "clerical work." The office was actually a mass-mailing center, but they paid a fixed rate for the day. I finished their "work" in a couple hours and split. I then informed the temp agency that I would quit if they ever sent me to such an operation again. Happily, they didn't. ^_^

(I quit anyway soon after that, but for entirely unrelated reasons ^_~)

Jameskun

I have never done real telemarketing or anything, but I once did a few hours "work" one night making calls for the Red Cross. A friend was doing a blood drive as part of his eagle scout project and was informing people that had donated previously of the drive.

The most amusing part of it, was the list of phone numbers I received had both my high school principal and my best friends mother (who was also there). This made the evening a bit more entertaining, and I made sure to mispronounce the last name of my friends mother (she almost hung up on me) ^_^.

Pilitus

I love the hatred people have built in for this service. The unfortunate thing is that these kinds of marketing work. They suck, and as time goes on, those who it doesn't affect should stop getting so much of it. Those who sell these things don't want to send them to people who won't open them.

And Rym, what exactly was so horrible about the mass mailing center? I worked for a year for a direct mail company in Florida. What I was doing sucks but it paid the bills.

Rym

And Rym, what exactly was so horrible about the mass mailing center?

The people there were all scummy. The copy they were distributing was manipulative and scummy. It was overall a distasteful operation.

More importantly, I hate meatspace spam verymuch more than email spam. Aside from actually wasting physical resources, I can't "filter" it or otherwise avoid it. 90% of the physical mail I get is spam, and it annoys the hell out of me to have to deal with it.

HMTKSteve

I designed a game about telemarketing.