Are there telemarketers?
10 March 2003 by danielbowenAre there telemarketers in Australia? - Sarah
Oh God yes. And like telemarketers from all over the world, they ring up at the most inopportune moments to try and survey you on topics you’re not interested in, sell you stuff you don’t want, or ask you to donate to charities not worthy of your kindness.
Sure, you can tell them to go away, but the next one who calls doesn’t know that. You can also tell a bunch of them to go away by getting yourself onto the Australian Direct Marketing Association Do Not Call list… which works for some of them, but of course not for the companies who aren’t in the ADMA, and tend to just pick names out of the phone book. It seems a silent line is the only way to defeat them.
Sorry, I was on the verge of a rant there. Anyway, the answer is yes.
October 17th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Being a telemarketer myself, I find that in Australia most people are quite courteous and just say “sorry, i’m not interested” and actaully say goodbye to me, which scores them onto the DNC (no not call) list. If they are rude, patronizing or just hang up on me, i’ll put them on the CB (call back) list. If you don’t take the time to listen to me, how do you know you’re not interested? I’ve had hundereds of customers telling me they’re not interested, and when they find out what i’m actually talk about they’ve bought what i’m selling!
The truth is, we don’t only call at meal times. We don’t call before 9.30 AM or after 7.30 PM. We call Australia wide, and it doesn’t matter if you have a silent number - You will still recieve a call from us. It is not a deliberate vendetta to annoy the crap out of you, it’s my job which I earn my living and it sucks, but I bet you’re glad i’m not sitting around on the dole spending your hard earned tax money.
Some people are so pathetic, for example “OH MY GOD NOT A F***KING TELEMARKETER!!!! JESUS YOU’VE CALLED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF F***ING DINNER TIME YOU…….” Well, settle down a bit, you’re acting like a 5 year old kid who isn’t getting what he wants. You got a phone call for god sake! If you just said “sorry, but i’m not interested thanks” it would be all over and you’d never get a call from us again, because youre genuinely not interested, and it’s a waste of time us ever calling you back. If you’re incredibly rude to us, you’ll get called back again and again and again. What goes around comes around. It’s really not the end of the world if you get a call from a telemarketer! Some people blow things right out of proportion, making it sound like some enormous tragedy has occurred just because you’ve had to get up off your ass and answer your phone.
October 17th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Interesting comments Luke, thanks.
How call centre management decides that 7:30pm is dinner time, I don’t know. I usually eat at 6:30.
And while an individual centre might note when I’ve said “No thanks” and not call me again, it’s very clear that that information is never shared with the rest of them. And like most advertising, it would be bearable in isolation, but when it’s continual, it’s really annoying.