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molly.com
Friday 30 July 2004
why being polite is a waste of time
SALES CALLS SUCK, we can all agree on that. But what’s with the trend of sales callers who hang up on you if you politely say you’re not interested?
So I get this sales call today, and tell the woman reading from her prepared script that I’m not interested. Instead of saying “thank you” or “goodbye” she just – hangs up. Dead line. Took me a second to even figure it out.
Is it just me who finds this really rude?
I’m trying to be nice because goodness knows telemarketing jobs can’t be fun. I did it for one day in college years ago and hated it so much I left and never looked back. I know a lot of people in customer service and tech support phone jobs, so I’ve heard their nightmare stories of mistreatment and I always want to do the right thing by simply being polite to the poor sucker on the other end of the line.
Which one might think meant something. But apparently not. It’s just unfathomable how telemarketers find it completely okay to call me up any time of day, and despite my efforts to be polite, determine that it’s okay to do that most impolite of actions: hang up.
Filed under: general
Posted by: Molly | 14:48 | Comments (33)
Molly, I agree that it is rude, but it could be that the industry is under so much quota-oriented pressure that hanging up, rather than making pleasantries, is considered good protocol. :shrug:
I always feel that the telemarketer wants to hang up on me. They’ve got that finger on the button, itchin’ to do it, but first they have to find out if I’m a buyer or not.
They’re hoping I’m not, of course. See, if they think I’m a buyer, they have to run through their script. And frankly, that’s a waste of their time – a rejection adds to their already stressful day – what a hastle.
Now, out of the goodness of my heart, I just make it easy for them to decide to hang up. When I determine that the person calling is a telemarketer, I start the conversation with “What are you wearing?” Doesn’t take more than a second or two to hear that click.
That’s just me, though. Not many people are that courteous to telemarketers.
I had a guy selling windows over the phone, and his technique was to call me “Mr.Ford sir” every five seconds or so and speak very quickly.
Far from convincing me to purchase new windows, he did place in my mind the disturbing image of a suffering bat, emitting grizzily high pitched screams.
I bet that guy earns more than I do.
Ha! Funny ’cause that happened to a fellow I work with just today in fact. It would chap my ass, but at the same time, I figure any telemarketer that’s half-awake knows how much most people despise them, so I can’t blame them. They certainly don’t expect you to call back and demand MORE time with them.
I like Keith’s approach though.
I don’t mind them hanging up, the conversation ends there (hopefully). What annoys me more are those who continue with “But Miss Evans you won’t get a better offer than this” even though I’ve politely said no. I hang the phone up on them instead
I live in the Netherlands and we’ve had a whopping total of 4 telemarketers over the past 18 years, but what Keith does is just so hilarious that it almost (almost but not quite) makes me wish we had more of them here.
dont complain about them hanging up on you because if you find these calls irritating if they hang up on you surely the calls over quicker therefor less irritating. Also why are you wasdting your time complaining about something that appened and took up under a minute of your time that you hate any way and would rather forget about?? answer that!
I’m sure Molly is free to do whatever she likes on her own site. I agree with her, I’d find it rude, but I suppose they have quotas to meet and saving a few seconds might just help that, even if it means sacrificing common courtesy.
$5 says Molly Young is a telemarketer (who deeply despises her job).
I let the answering machine pick up the call. If I know the caller I engage the handset, otherwise it goes to the bit bucket. Also, I have subscribed to the national and state “do not call” lists. If one does make it through I simple hang up. I can’t imagine actually buying something, actually divulging information, to some anonymous voice on the phone.
My theory on the suddenly rude salepeople is that they are hanging up before you can request that they take your name off their list. Missing a sale is one thing, but actually losing value from their list would be a bad thing.
I put them on hold. Usually after Bjork’s first rendition of Leaving on a Jetplane, they have hung up.
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All of you people deserve what you get when telemarketers call you. There are so many rude chumps out there its crazy. Im polite majority of the time but its not given back, especially from old geezers. So many people tell their sob ass stories of why they can’t help but then when I try and say something, they hang up in my face, when I was courteous enough to listen and understand. I have almost no respect for the people I call….. they deserve it.
Well, I am not interested in any telemarketing, so I just hung up whenever I don’t who the hell is on the phone.
molly. politeness works on all poeple but the rude ones.So politeness isn’t a waste of time, just on people who don’t deserve it.
XDaigoX: Why do I deserve your sorry ass calling me? If telemarketers (TMs) never call, then they wouldn’t get hung up on. It all started way back when families had dinner together at 5-6PM. Some sorry ass fucker like you calls the house to tell me about some guy I should vote for. Listen ass wipe, don’t call and bother my life and I won’t hang up on your sorry non educated life. Get a degree and a real job then you won’t have to call anyone unless you’re going to fire them.
You’re the chump who didn’t go to school and is calling people during their time of rest to bother them about buying some piece of shit product that you would never buy yourself…..
HAHA! Anger management issues anyone? ^_^ I’m a telemarketer, and I’m also a Best Buy home theatre division supervisor, as well as a weekly volunteer to help recovering cancer patients, and recovering addicts as well as their familys with daily life and emotional support. And I am no less important or more important than yourself. I find it hysterical that we as a group enrage you so much considering the fact that you only see a very small picture of a very small inconvienience in your very small life. I say that not to insult the importance of your family, friends, or career but simply as a matter of perspective. You are far less important to the world as a whole than you think you are and suffer from a gross lack of humility. I am guilty of the same in some situations. However I also find it quite humorous that you consider the above post to be made by an UNeducated individual considering you yourself find it necessary to create words out of the blue to make your point. ([SIC] non educated) Oh, and by the way, I have never attended a single university in the span of my short life on this planet with a humble 26 years under my belt and I can say with almost complete certainty that if i were to meet you and converse with you on whatever subjects you find the most appealing I would find myself having a one sided conversation with a man in love with the sound of his own voice, enamored with the ill percieved glory that is Peter Zines.
Haha. Peter, thanks for you post. Its funny to see a grown ass man cussing like an animal over the internet. Btw, im assuming your an old ass man, like your assuming im a uneducated chump, who never went to school.
XDaigoX,
I find your generalization to be very offensive. I went to school for sixteen years and obtained a Bachelor’s degree. I never took any breaks after high school. I worked hard, studied hard, and made excellent marks in all of my classes. I wanted to do well and I was constantly trying to better myself. However, where I live there are no options available in my chosen field, and so I must work in order to save money so that I can someday return to school.
I do work as a telemarketer. I call customers of a certain local phone company and try to get them to upgrade to a different plan. I am not a horrible person. In fact, I dislike calling these people at home. I feel badly about bothering them and i hate the fact that much of society hates me for doing what my job entails. But, this IS a job for me. It pays the bills and it has the best hours and wages available to me in the city. Before I had this job, I had no money, was past due on my rent, could not pay my phone bill, and nobody else could hire me. I needed a job, I found a job, and I accepted that job. I do not think that this was despicable or a horrible thing to do. In fact, I believe that my ability to help myself out of a bad financial situation was quite admirable on the whole. With that in mind, I think that it’s unfair to blame the telemarketer. They are simply doing a job and in most (if not all) cases would rather be doing something else. Instead, blame the companies who generate the lists. The worker is simply doing what he or she needs to do so that they can survive.
I had a dream where I was running up into the sky, almost like flying. There where others beside me, behind me and in front of me. All of us where headed in the same direction. I guess the objective was to climb the skies, climb until we got to the very top (Heaven?). It was almost like a race to reach the top. Finally I reach the end of the skies, there is a white wall, I and others touch it and then people begin to free fall back down to earth. I watch others willingly fall, they look happy to do so. I fall with them, it feels like I fall for but a second. I can feel the wind rush past me and I’m aware of the weightlessness of my body as I fall to the ground. Talk about having a weird dream.
To the idiot Pete Zines. I am colledge aducated (sales & marketing degree) and make about 100 (at least) to 500 dollars on hour calling referrals over the telephone. I am a referral manager for a sales company. I make more money than you, loser. get a life. Have a nice day.
thank
thankkkk
thank
talk talk
your friend my friend
whoever posted this first i know it was 4 years ago and is never gana read this and i didn’t read everyone else’s so someone may have already said this. Seriously? your subject matter is 1 person on 1 day? maybe a little hasty generalization going on there? and if it was that obvious that she was reading maybe she was really new and was having a bad day learning the business(learning to cope with rejection)