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.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I Was a Telemarketer
Having a number of medical problems I am reduced to doing a lot of pretty awful low paid jobs and still the ends don’t meet when I saw an ad for telemarketers that actually paid you an hourly rate and it was good money well atleast good compared to what I was getting on my last job So I applied and was hired, when I got there I found that there were 16 of us all in this one room and this woman who was the boss it was all laid out like a classroom with us all facing the teacher but she was no ordinary boss, there was this kinda weird air of Oh we’re a happy bunch of guys and the old hands are all joking and yelling out to each other and making fun at the boss, and then the job started BANG they turned on the stereo playing 80’s rock as loud as you hear it sitting at the front row at a concert and then we’d have to start ringing people selling well resonably priced holidays but the noise, you had to scream to be heard over the phone and the people we were ringing Well nearly everyone I rang was like 90 in a retirement village and I was expected to convince these people who many were clearly sick and frail to pay for a holiday, all the while I’m nearly pushing the phone into the side of my head straining to hear what the person was saying and all the while I had to ignore whatever they said and just keep reading this script and every now and then someone would make a sale and the Boss would get all excited and we were expected to stand up and clap and cheer, during the lunch break I asked whos whacked out idea was it to have to have that goddam music so loud and they said Oh it’s all phsychological it’ll make you feel happy and the customers on the phone will be more relaxed and make the whole transaction sound more exciting.
A couple of times I nearly sold some poor person the stupid holiday as it was clear that they were’nt well compus mentus and I just could’nt go through with it, BUT I NEEDED THE MONEY so I kept going back to work I figured I’d keep going until they fired me maybe 3-4 days but on day 3 my voice quit on me I simply could not yell down the phone any longer, I pleaded with the boss surely we could have the music down to a dull roar, I noticed many of the old hands were actually seated right next to the speakers and it did’nt bother them, well by the end of day 3 I was sacked and I was glad, but from what I picked up on my 3 days on the job the business was a good one they were making roughly $8000 a day and out of that $8000 they were paying the wages of 21 people, now I know what the telemarketers were making but there were 3 others who did data entry and general paperwork plus the boss and her boss ( why I don’t know one boss is enough) and then their was the owner a woman apparently she owned the whole place on her own and when I think about it was such an easy idea flogging someone elses product which they themselves can’t sell and they must go through telemarketers very quickly if their offering such high wages to attract more but what do they care theirs plenty more where I came from and they just sit back and do their big cheer whe one of us fools makes a sale and they pocket the true profits and we have to live with ourselves for selling a holiday to a sick and frail old person