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Why is telemarketing even a job?


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That is what I would call settling for low and having no life nor goals at all but to call people and bother them. Nothing worst than asking strangers for money or wasting their time with worthless promotions. Then at times they can also phone you about a bunch of fake free offers (obviously a script they're reading), someone gets excited and suddenly the next one is a hidden club trial.

 

There are many other jobs anyone can choose. Even working as a housekeeper or at a Burger King fast food restaurant is better. I don't see what's so good about being a telemarketer and have never heard of anyone working in that low-life position happy about it.

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Philosoraptor

It's a job because enough people buy their products when they are called. If they were not making a profit they would not be paying people to call and market their products.

 

People take the jobs because there is a saturated market full of unskilled employees. The jobs you reference are just as saturated as the telemarketing business.

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thefooloftheyear

Frankly it should be outlawed...Marketing of this type is an invasion of privacy...And to top it off, the bogus "do not call" lists just dont work..They have ways now to override it..

 

OK rant over.

 

TFY..

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Frankly it should be outlawed...Marketing of this type is an invasion of privacy...And to top it off, the bogus "do not call" lists just dont work..They have ways now to override it..

 

OK rant over.

 

TFY..

It should. I don't even pick up the phone if it's a number I don't recognize at all. What's worse is they sell information to other companies too and that's why the ''do not call'' list might sometimes be useless. While one company might have taken you out of their list, another company with a different number calls you and another and so on.

 

Last year, one of those telemarketers even had the wrong number (not even the email was right) and they still tried to rebuttal that saying something like ''Oh, I'm sorry I got the wrong number but let me explain about blah, blah''. Wow, not even a wrong number is enough for them.

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I can't understand how anybody would think that annoying people is a good business strategy. Do they actually make any money on marketing this way?

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That is what I would call settling for low and having no life nor goals at all but to call people and bother them. Nothing worst than asking strangers for money or wasting their time with worthless promotions. Then at times they can also phone you about a bunch of fake free offers (obviously a script they're reading), someone gets excited and suddenly the next one is a hidden club trial.

 

There are many other jobs anyone can choose. Even working as a housekeeper or at a Burger King fast food restaurant is better. I don't see what's so good about being a telemarketer and have never heard of anyone working in that low-life position happy about it.

 

I had a friend that every job he criticized or made fun of in his earlier years, he ended up doing at one time or another.

 

Sometimes people have to do what they have to do in order to get by. At least they are trying to make a living and not living off the taxpayers.

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That is what I would call settling for low and having no life nor goals at all but to call people and bother them. Nothing worst than asking strangers for money or wasting their time with worthless promotions.

 

It's pretty much like any other sales job. I recall my dad, back in 60's, moonlighting selling annuities and other investments via 'cold call' either by telephone or in-person.

 

You may not be old enough to remember the 'Fuller Brush Man' but I do. He stopped around at least once a month, ringing that doorbell. That was the 60's version of 'telemarketing'.

 

If there's something to be provided, whether product or service, someone can be tasked to effect that, hence marketing in one form or another. Capitalism at work.

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There is a difference between the annoyance of the tasks for the employee and the employee themselves. Do not confuse or mix the two. A neighbor of mine who is fiercely independent refuses to go on disability ( and truly qualifies!!), instead she takes those jobs that she can maintain her self sufficiency. She has lost her ability to ambulate, yet she can sit by a computer and phone to work thru tasks, Its helpful to her mind . As my grand Daddy used to say, You may not like the lyrics but ahh the composer sure can lead ya to dance :) Think about it.

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thefooloftheyear
It's pretty much like any other sales job. I recall my dad, back in 60's, moonlighting selling annuities and other investments via 'cold call' either by telephone or in-person.

 

You may not be old enough to remember the 'Fuller Brush Man' but I do. He stopped around at least once a month, ringing that doorbell. That was the 60's version of 'telemarketing'.

 

If there's something to be provided, whether product or service, someone can be tasked to effect that, hence marketing in one form or another. Capitalism at work.

 

I am old enough to remember, but I was a kid at the time..Actually some of these guys were quite convenient. The Electrolux guy was always welcomed around the neighborhood. In some of those cases, it gave busy housewives, many who didnt even have a drivers license-(yes its true, I can almost hear all the ladies reading this in disbelief) the ability to shop from home.

 

However the current form of ruthless telemarketing is just criminal, IMO. If you own any business, you will know that NOTHING is more annoying than that.Theyjust disrupt the whole day..Then I always wonder what type of person will spend an entire day on the phone being cursed at and slammed the phone on with the hope of catching some dumbell off guard..Its gotta be a self esteem killer.

 

TFY

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My littlest sister did that kind of work while in college. She hated it! They were required to make so many phone calls per time period. When she was told "NO" she talked to them about other things, kids, pets, weather, what the people did, anything they were willing to talk about. She did have to keep an eye out for the supervisors. The supervisors walked behind the phone callers to make sure the conversation was about the sales pitch of the day.

 

 

The worst of the callers is google. They sub out the phone calls to other companies, who DO NOT take you off the list. I found nothing gets you off their list. I tried to put them on hold, push 9 or 2 or whatever the number of the day is. I put the phone next to the radio speaker and turned up the volumn, I screamed at them, I blew a whistle in their ear. One day, I waited for the next-in-line ******* to talk to me. I pleaded with him to remove my phone number as they were wasting too much of my time. He said he determined if my number got removed. If someone screamed at him, he did not remove the phone number. If they were nice, he did remove my number. He said he understood how frustrating the spam calls were. He also did remove my number. Of course, since google subs the calls, there are lots of people calling other businesses and the process starts all over again.

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I think we're less sociable now and more overloaded with information and technology and our reactions to telemarketing (I join those who find it enormously annoying) *and* people who knock on our doors unannounced, like those door to door salesmen of the 60's, are canaries in that coal mine.

 

I saw the beginnings of that in the late 60's when collecting door to door for the newspaper. This was back when the route carriers (me) had to collect for the paper subscriptions. Ugh...

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thefooloftheyear
I think we're less sociable now and more overloaded with information and technology and our reactions to telemarketing (I join those who find it enormously annoying) *and* people who knock on our doors unannounced, like those door to door salesmen of the 60's, are canaries in that coal mine.

 

I saw the beginnings of that in the late 60's when collecting door to door for the newspaper. This was back when the route carriers (me) had to collect for the paper subscriptions. Ugh...

 

Oh yeah...I remember those times...And you got a quarter for a tip!! Woo HOO!!...LOL

 

I do admit to missing the sultry speaking girls that would call my place of business hawking porn videotapes(this was before discs)..We had loads of fun with those girls..Id ask for the most obscure crap, just to get them to laugh..it'd always be worth a hoot...:laugh:

 

TFY

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Then there was this hot young thing in a short skirt with boobs spilling out who stopped by unannounced to sell me, of all things.....dumpster service.

 

I bought!... after, literally, falling out of my chair right in the shop office. Ah, loved the 80's. :D

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I did it for a good three months when I was in college. It was probably the absolute sh*ttiest job I can recall. Guaranteed, every third person was p.o.'d at having been called during dinner time - can't say I blame them. What's funny is that these were supposed to be people 'we could count on' for donations 'cause they'd done it before. I guess everyone has their breaking point. I was impressed with the two or three (out of about 20) who could consistently bring in the sales. They certainly picked up the slack for the rest of us. Never again.

 

That said, it's a career for some people. I figure if people don't wanna talk, then they don't have to. It's no different than spamming or sending junk mail. It's marketing. It's just making sure people remember your name. People gotta make a living somehow.

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