LOL! Telemarketer put me on hold!

[LizW]

This has GOT to be the lamest telemarketing company ever!

My phone rings. I answer. There's the telltale long pause that's a dead giveaway it's a telemarketer. I wait though, just in case it is one of my kids calling. Then -- click, and the recorded message starts:

"Hello! I have a call for you. Please stay on the line."

(I'm thinking, "WTF?")

Sappy "hold" music comes on. I can't believe it.

After a few seconds of "hold" music, the recorded voice is back. "We're sorry, all our representatives are busy at this time helping other customers. Please stay on the line for the next available operator." More "hold" music.

I bust out laughing and hang up.

We live in a bizarre world.

[BurtWorm]

1. I hang up on every machine

unless it's someone trying to get me to vote for a Democrat.

[Syncronaut Seven]

2. In Oregon it's illegal

to telemarket with recorded messages. Thats why they call us from Idaho now.

[Shirley_U_Geste]

3. New predictive dialer standards

This is a part of the "Do Not Call" legislation.

It used to be that a call center that wanted to run at maximum stats would crank up the dialer to maximize contacts per hour. This led to a lot of "abandons", that is, calls that reached the person dialed but with no telemarketer on the line. You used to just say, "Hello? Helllloooo?...click" and think to yourself, I wonder who/what that was.

Well, little old ladies started to assume that it must have been a crook out in the bushes calling to see if any one was home. Suspicious wives began to assume it was their hubby's girlfriend. It made a lot of people mad enough to complain to their congressman.

So now they are required to play a message if they want to run the dialer fast.

[LizW]

5. God, yes, my mother used to drive me crazy

She'd call me and say, "Someone keeps calling and hanging up on me!"

I finally got her to understand that it was just a computer dialing her and she should screen her calls by letting her machine pick up.

[Melsky]

4. Who would buy something after that anyway

I guess these tactics probably work, but I have a dificult time imagining anyone who would want to deal with a company who calls them, puts them on hold and then tries to sell them stuff.

Then again, I have a hard time imagining people voting republican, and apparently people do that. Oh well, people are nuts! :silly:

[LizW]

6. I can't imagine ANYONE EVER buying anything from a telemarketer

but apparently people do.

I really love the ones who sense that you're about to hang up on them and try to slam the phone down first. I used to say, "NO, thanks," before hanging up, but after having the phone slammed in my ear a few times, now I just hang up right away without saying anything.