Three Weeks of Hell

[GiftShopGirl]

So I recently got hired at a telemarketing/fundraising company - and I recently quit. Holy Jeebus. I can't even begin to describe how soul-crushing this job was.

I was supposed to call alumni and ask for donations to my college. I did NOT realize how mean some people could be.
1. People chewed me out (with lots of four-letter words) because their family had been going to our school for so many generations, but their child wasn't accepted, as though I personally had rejected them (bawww somehow it's my fault your kid is stupid).
2. People chewed me out because I called for dead people (Of course I'm very very sorry to hear that, but how am I realistically supposed to know?).
3. Some people chewed me out just for calling (it's Sunday! it's Monday! it's Tuesday! it's dinner! it's football! it's ice cream! holy shit, why didn't they just not answer the phone?)
4. Some people even accused me of not really working for a company, but of actually being an identity thief! And then they'd actually chew me out for being an identity thief! And we're not allowed to hang up, so I had to sit and listen to the tirade and be berated over and over again.
5. People were so mean to me, I actually found myself writing "I hate my life" over and over again on my scrap paper. I'd written it two hundred times without realizing it. I realized maybe I should quit.

And then, something happened that pushed my idea from a fleeting wish into full-out quitting. See, I was bringing in the most money on nearly every night those 3 weeks, because I found a trick that worked. I used my Ask Levels (we have to ask for $100, then $75, then $50, then $35), but I used to say "Could you give a gift of $100 or less?" Well I brought in the most money for several nights, as I said, and all was good. Then that night, right after I realized I should move on, some super bitchy manager came over and chewed me out! She said, "GiftShopGirl, I have a real problem with you saying "or less". You have to follow the ask levels! Do you understand that? Can you understand that?" Like I was some sort of drooling ape without even the slightest comprehension of the nuances of semantics. No, I understand, but people on the phone see it as an opportunity to give without feeling pressure to give more than they can afford (and thus hastily hang up), and no manager before her ever had a problem with it. Maybe, possibly, it might be working since I seemed to be making more money than anyone else. Consistently. She was the straw that broke my back. I didn't come back the next shift, the next shift, or the next shift, and then I just quit. Good riddance.

[Can I have a cheeseburger]

That manager should be fired. That is not how you treat someone who brings in the money, and there's nothing unethical you were doing so it's not like the manager had an argument against you. It's like telling someone at a pizza place not to offer pop or extra toppings.

[tropicsgoddess]

I don't blame you for quitting that job at all. I worked at a job similar to yours but the difference was it was for charities supporting the EMS, firefighters and police officers. I quit after a couple of days since I knew I wasn't cut out for it. That manager should be out the door for treating people like that.

[Stormraven]

I did Business to Business Telemarketing (though we were told it wasn't 'telemarketing' - they called it 'telesales', though we didn't actually sell a gorram thing.) for about 9 months. Not too bad, but I fairly quickly realised that I wasn't cut out for it.

I don't think it could hope to reach the levels of suck that normal telemarketing reaches. And by that, I mean the levels of suck visited upon the poor phone person. I only had to deal with gatekeepers, and most of my calls weren't rude. I could never do individual telemarketing.

[chainedbarista]

i had a brief moment of telemarketing hell selling coupon books that apparently, no one wanted or wanted me to call about. i lasted three hours and left feeling lower than a snake's belly. never again...

[Samaliel]

I know your pain. I lasted one week more when I was a telemarketer and what I had to sell was so close to being a scam without going over the line, it was truly soul sucking...

I'm pretty sure that manager was related to the self-appointed rocket scientist who came up with that brilliant call script, so everyone'd better stick to it.

[Andara Bledin]

1. People chewed me out (with lots of four-letter words) because their family had been going to our school for so many generations, but their child wasn't accepted, as though I personally had rejected them (bawww somehow it's my fault your kid is stupid).

They should have donated more. That's a far bigger criteria than academic potential ever was.

5. People were so mean to me, I actually found myself writing "I hate my life" over and over again on my scrap paper. I'd written it two hundred times without realizing it. I realized maybe I should quit.

Um, yeah.... I think that's a pretty good indication...

She said, "GiftShopGirl, I have a real problem with you saying "or less". You have to follow the ask levels! Do you understand that? Can you understand that?" Like I was some sort of drooling ape without even the slightest comprehension of the nuances of semantics.

Since she was the proverbial straw, you should let the higher ups know that it was her fault that you never returned.

She sounds like she could use a little payback.

I had a telemarketing job for a few weeks. I was really good at it, and I enjoy being on the phone, plus I didn't get anyone chewing me out (was cold-calling companies asking them to buy computer-related supplies; ink, toner, paper, ribbons, etc). I ended up quitting because I had to be in at 6 am (I don't even like to be conscious at 6am), and we had to dress professionally. For a call center job. I didn't have the wardrobe.

^-.-^

[tamezin]

"GiftShopGirl, I have a real problem with you saying "or less". You have to follow the ask levels! Do you understand that? Can you understand that?"

She did understand this was a donation right not sales? While I realize you want to collect as many donations as possible you do that by making more contacts, which you do by keeping it short and sweet.

[Mnemjian]

She did understand this was a donation right not sales? While I realize you want to collect as many donations as possible you do that by making more contacts, which you do by keeping it short and sweet.

Yeah, it's almost like SHE didn't know what she was doing! If you were making the most money by doing something different, the manager should have encouraged the other employees to follow your example. Don't worry, though, she probably hated her job more than you hated yours even, but she didn't have the brains to quit

[Andara Bledin]

This thread reminds me of the calls I get a few times a year for the police and fire department charities. They always start at a large-ish number and come down in increments, which is annoying because I always tell them a flat "no" as soon as I know why they're calling.

Now that I know that it's an annoying script, I'm going to start telling their managers that it sucks and wastes everybody's time, and only serves to make me want to never give to them, even when I do have the money. Maybe with enough complaints to the management, they'll get a clue or two.

^-.-^

[HawaiianShirts]

GiftShopGirl, you're completely right. Telemarketing jobs are soul-sucking. I only had one outbound job and, like Samaliel's, the product may as well have been a scam. Once I realized that, I just made the calls for the sake of looking busy until I could leave. That job lasted four weeks. I never looked back.

Well I brought in the most money for several nights, as I said, and all was good. Then that night, right after I realized I should move on, some super bitchy manager came over and chewed me out! She said, "GiftShopGirl, I have a real problem with you saying "or less". You have to follow the ask levels! Do you understand that? Can you understand that?" Like I was some sort of drooling ape without even the slightest comprehension of the nuances of semantics.

Been there! During my six-month stint in an inbound call center, one of the accounts I handled was for a facial care product. Callers could order the core package, and then I was supposed to offer three or four upsell items. One day, I slipped while reading the script and ad-libbed it. The caller took the upsell! So I tried that change on all the calls afterward, after making sure all the legal stuff was still intact (it was). My sales went up. I don't know how I compared to the rest of the company, but I know I was doing better than before.

Team lead listened to a few of my calls and told me that I had to stick to the script. I pointed out that I was generating more sales. She said, "Just read the script." I suggested that one of us should pass my changes on to those who maintain the scripts so that my success could be shared. She said, "Just read the script!" I tried one more time to promote my point, and she said, "I don't care! Read the script!"

I quit the next week.

[Samaliel]

The worst part of those jobs are:
- the person you're asking for is deceased;
- the person you're asking for is underage (WTF? How do you have the name of a 6 years old on your listings?);
- the person already got 3 calls from your platform - bonus points if the script requires you to introduce yourself as John / Jane Smith: 4 persons with very different voices going by the same name in the same company, and management wonders why the callees smell bullshit;
- the person is just plain bitchy - with or without justification (at the end of that gig, I tended to think that merely receiving a call from us was justification enough to murder someone, so being bitchy was fine by me).

No, I don't know how our company got a hold of your phone number and name. No, I don't know why the name registered with your number is that of your newborn daughter or that of your late father. Yes, I do know (or at least, I'm lucid enough not to expect otherwise) my call is bothering you. But I don't exactly have a choice. I don't get to choose who I'm calling. And I need the money.

And the managers who insisted we should be more persistent when the calles said no... Gah...

Now, I just want to go back and florging NUKE the gorram place.

[smileyeagle1021]

Team lead listened to a few of my calls and told me that I had to stick to the script. I pointed out that I was generating more sales. She said, "Just read the script." I suggested that one of us should pass my changes on to those who maintain the scripts so that my success could be shared. She said, "Just read the script!" I tried one more time to promote my point, and she said, "I don't care! Read the script!"

That is the one thing I liked about when I was at the call center. The only thing that was scripted was the cancellation policy and the greeting... otherwise do whatever you did that made the most money. I even had a manager that listened to my point when she said that my revenue per call was a bit on the low side until I pointed out that was true, but my handle time was so low that I was handling a lot more calls and getting more total revenue because of it. The average agent was handling 12-15 calls an hour and making 6-8 reservations, I handled 15-20 calls an hour while making 7-9 reservations (average booking rate was 50% I was at 45%... but with all the extra calls I still made more revenue).

[EricKei]

I used to work for a company that did phone surveys -- no marketing, no sales, no nothing, just "are you satisfied with ___ service?" -- and the people on the other end of the line STILL responded like this. You have my most profound sympathies o_O

*offers a big cup of marshmallows and hot cocoa*

PS - I LOVE taking phone surveys, myself ^_^

[Andara Bledin]

That is the one thing I liked about when I was at the call center. The only thing that was scripted was the cancellation policy and the greeting... otherwise do whatever you did that made the most money.

That's probably a large reason why I didn't dislike the telemarketing gig I was doing.

The only thing they wanted was that you not lie to the customers to get a sale. Beyond that, they didn't give a rat's ass what you did. And since it was pure commission, they didn't care if you made sales or not, as long as you were trying.

I have a commission check from them because I made a sale during my 2-week training period. They were surprised at that, since it seemed that nobody made sales during training.

^-.-^