Apparently my job is not real work

[draggar]

I really don't know. I'm thinking it's illegal to use the auto-dialer to just call any possible number at random. I think you have to program it to comply with the DNC list, but I'm not sure.

In the US it is not, it's just illegal to use an automatied voice system to call the people. It is also illegal to solicit to a medium where the receiver pays for the call, such as cell phones, faxes, 800#s, etc..

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/h...7----000-.html

(Yes, I've had some battles while doing callbacks for my company, which is a wireless provider).

Although any good lawyer can wiggle a way out of this.

Also, you only have to tell them *once* to stop calling you, anything after that is harassment. The "It'll take 4-6 weeks to get you out of our mailing list" is completel bullshit just to cover their rears incase they decide to call you again.

[Jester]

Regarding the "not a real job" thing, my buddy Popcorn addressed that a while back. Popcorn is a bartender, and we were talking about that whole thing, and he had the greatest commentary on it. To wit: "All my friends back home keep telling me to get a real job. But I like what I do, and they are stuck in jobs they hate. More to the point, I am actually making more money than a lot of them, I work hours I like, and I have fun at work. If that's not a real job, I am all fine with not having a real job, thank you very much!"

In the US it is not, it's just illegal to use an automatied voice system to call the people. It is also illegal to solicit to a medium where the receiver pays for the call, such as cell phones, faxes, 800#s, etc..

Amusingly, I have received automated voice calls on my cell phone. Of course, if I the call comes up as a number that is either (a) not in my address book or (b) not a local number, I flat out don't answer it. So that way their prerecorded telemarketing message can talk to my prerecorded voicemail message. I love that, as it gives me an inner sense of balance!

My telemarketing career was very short. Four weeks, four jobs. And I was out. Although I consider myself an excellent salesman, I just could NOT do that job. I hated every minute of it, even in the nicer jobs that I had. The ones that weren't so nice just sucked. Manager types beating staff senseless verbally for everything and basically treating us like idiots.

My mother has the greatest telemarketing defense ever. She still has my father's last name, but the phone is in my stepfather's last name. Anyone who knows her knows that. So the typical telemarketing call at mom's house goes something like this:

JESTER'S MOM: "Hello?"
TELEMARKETER: "Good afternoon, Mrs. Stepfatherslastname, how are you today?"
JESTER'S MOM: "I'm sorry, but there is no Mrs. Stepfatherslastname here. Goodbye."

And that, as they say, is that.

[aurora34]

Hi everyone, first post!

I once had a job selling public service announcements for a radio station. I wasn't very good at it, the "hard sell" mindset tended to elude me. I didn't find it very easy to, as my bosses put it, "overcome objections." I just didn't have it in me to browbeat someone into spending a couple of hundred dollars after they've informed me they would very much like to contribute to whatever cause I was shilling for that week, but they were short on cash after having open-heart surgery.

The other morning (Saturday) I was woken up out of a sound sleep by someone wanting me to subscribe to a local newspaper. Generally, I try to be polite to phone workers, because I figure they have to pay their bills just like anyone, so why be obnoxious? So the woman on the other end of the phone said "Hello, this is so-and-so from the so-and-so Gazette, how are you this morning?"
"Fine, and you?" I replied.
Several seconds' silence.
"Thank you for asking," she finally said. "I've been working this job for four months, and do you know you're the only person who has asked me that?"
I swear to you, that about broke my heart. Not to the extent that I bought a subscription, but still.

[Estil]

Well, we now have do-not-call laws (both federal and in my case state), so for the most part if you get pestered by a telemarketer, it's your own fault. :P

[AFpheonix]

I have to say, you have more intestinal fortitude than I do, if you can work that job and not run screaming from it the first day.
I didn't even particularly like selling girl scout cookies when I was younger, and I had a product that people actually wanted!

[aurelemsrealm]

An update.... I have since returned full-time to the c-store job for better money and better hours. They've been asking me to return, and several regulars have said they were glad to see me return. I'm really more at home in a retail setting, but it was nice not having to look at the idiotic SC types in person. I don't know how many vulgar jerks I hung up on before they could get to me. LOL!

I did have some cool coworkers and supervisors. The supervisors had to stay on us because it was their jobs, but they did at least seem sympathetic and accommodating when possible. I'm not saying I won't do it again, but at least now I have a better idea about it if I ever have to go back to something like that.

[MrSunshineState]

I'm not certain of the actual law, but aren't telemarketers required to dial by hand?

I thought I had heard somewhere that autodialers were not legal.

(it's too hot, so my Google-fu is not coming into play today)

^-.-^

It may depend on the state. I have done outbound telemarketing before and we used autodialers.