Doofus of the Day: A Telemarketer Complains People Are Rude and Makes Threats Against Those Who Hang Up!
A woman who made donation calls for different non-profits offers 5 things she knows about you just from speaking to you.
By [Some Telemarketer]
Ringggg.
“Hello, I’m calling on behalf of the….non-profit organization.” [non-profits are exempt from the Do Not Call list—VB]
Phone slams.
“They’re not available.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t at the moment.”
“Would you please just stop calling?”
“I can help you out with $18.”
That’s me on the phone. The one who constantly calls asking you to donate to one cause or the other, do this or that and explain how important an organization is.
You receive these calls with a touch of annoyance, courtesy or apathy. We callers can let you know it goes way beyond that one phone call. Here are 5 things we wish we can tell you about our conversation.
1. We get to really know you.
Your response tells us a lot about you. We are from the community calling people from the community we know. We know your prominent position. Many of us have dealings with you. We may be your former students, your friend’s child, in your class, a customer, know of your child for a marriage proposal. It is very telling how you answer your phone. We can immediately tell your patience level, function under stress or annoyance and other pivotal traits by your dealings with us. We remember it and it makes a difference in how we view you and respect you. If a teacher preached a concept to us, all it takes is a phone call to tell if they practice it. We can tell the nice people from the nasty and those who are nice to know but you don’t want to anger. Your response to our simple “Hello” is more important than you may think. [This sounds like a threat!—VB]
2. It’s worth your time to answer the phone. [BS!]
It happens more times than I can count. A child picks up and we ask, “Is your parent there?”
“Who’s calling?” they reply.
”_________ Charity.”
“(yell) Ma, ____________ is on the phone. Oh, she’s not available now/not home.”
Besides for the obvious minuses of teaching your child to lie and develop a negative attitude toward giving Charity, that wastes your time even more as well as ours. Any call we make that is not answered with a Yes/No response goes in the pile to call again. We will keep calling and calling until we get an answer. It aggravates us as much as you but the organizations usually resort to phone calls out of desperation and they hold hope against hope that you will be their lucky call.
There is no such thing as us taking a hint from always reaching the answering machine or the answer you are not available. It just puts you in the pile to be called again. If you tell us to call back in a half-hour or when your husband is home, we will. It is so much more worth it for you to just answer and simply say no then to keep ignoring. This leads to my next point…[which is: More threats!]
3. There are many ways to say “No.” [How many ways of “No!” don’t you understand?]