There's enough negativity in the world. I try not to spread more of it. If you shit on a telemarketer, then the telemarketer will feel like crap and just go shit on other people in their lives.

If you hate telemarketers, put your number on the do not call list. Invest in caller ID or get an answering machine and only pick up the calls you want to get.

The people calling you are paid poorly and are doing it because they can't get a better job. Insulting them is like walking past a ditch digger and spitting on them.

No No No No, never ever express interest, or say yes, it only keeps this plague alive. The same with spam emails. Every person that responds, kills 10,000 kittens..

If you really are interested, make a mental note of it and contact the company independently.

I used to be a Telemarketer - Pretty darn good at it too. I could have sold Jesus a Bible.

I became one during one of those transitioning phases of my life - I retired from the U.S. Air Force and couldn't get a job. Since electrocuting pigs wasn't my thing I opted to pestering people - which I actually enjoyed (I know, I'm a prick). I discovered I was real good at talking shit and selling even more useless shit that people never needed or had no clue what they were buying (like Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance - most uselss shit on the planet - next to Obama and Rush Limbaugh).

Anyway, I used to love getting old geezers on the phone like you - made for a nice break in the routine. I lost my job because I had one on the phone for almost an hour. We talked about everything... It was a great conversation!

I agree with Dana and Sundae. I had friends that worked throughout college as telemarketers because they were the most flexible about the hours they could work. If someone is really pushy or ignores my comment of "I'm not interested", the worst I do is hang up. They don't need to be harassed and made to feel like shit just for doing their horrible job. The job itself is a punishment enough.

Well said bbro - as one who spends a great deal of time on the phone calling businesses, lemme tell you, its a GRIND.

I avoid answering, when possible. If I do answer, I listen until they pause, then say "no thank you". If they continue, I say "no ........ Thank you". If they then say anything except "goodbye", I say "goodbye" and hang up.

But there was this one time - not at band camp - when the caller asked me to buy lightbulbs that last for years. I told her no, because I was entering the military the very next day (a lie). The caller asked if I would like to buy some for my parents. I again told her no, that I was going into the military because both of my parents died in a tragic car accident the week before (also a lie). The caller quicker said sorry, bye, and hung up.

Gay phone sex? Not that there's anything wrong with that. :D

I never knew there was such a thing as a gay phone!!!!!

this thread gives me deja vu

I'm posting to let you know about a great deal we are currently offering on deja-vu protection. Did you know that 95% of people lose their deja vu simply because their original dealers didn't want them to know that it was necessary to get it undercoated? Fortunately for you, we are now able to offer this protection retroactively for a mere 199.99 per month and a lien of your firstborn

I know I've seen that offer before....

but i bet your parents haven't seen it.....

I once made a political fundraising telemarketer cry. They made the mistake of calling me up when I was near my computer, so I looked up a list of all the pending congressional bills at the time and started asking what their position their candidate took on each. I didn't yell, I didn't swear, I wasn't really all that mean, I just pushed them so far off-script that they couldn't handle it. They hung up on me.

Well, I am on the no-call list, but it does not seem to matter to some, and I do not have caller id, largely because I am too cheap to get it.

Personally, I think that a job should serve a useful purpose, and I do not telemarketers qualify.

I remember a call I got from Life Alert. "Someone in you family has said that you need Life Alert." Not true, but it was a recorded call, so I just hung up.

Well, clearly from the perspective of those companies who use telemarketing, it does serve a useful purpose. If you mean that a job should be useful to society then there's a damned long list of jobs which are of very questionable value. At the end of the day, though, whether or not you think someone's job serves a useful purpose, it is still their job.