Telemarketers

Is there anyone more hated than a telemarketer? Living in Korea I got to miss out on these assholes. Mind you there was still the text message spam.

Today I got to experience something new with telemarketers. They have got rid of the live person. You get a phone call that tells you to hold on for an important message. The message is their pitch.

What a bunch of lazy fucking bastards. It isn't bad enough you call and bother people at home. Now you have to automate it At least before their was a person to tell to fuck off. Now it is just a useless machine calling for your useless service.

Then you have the great do not call list. The Canadian government set up a list of numbers that telemarketers are not allowed to call. However you can still get calls from Canadian registered charities; Political parties, riding associations and candidates; and Newspapers of general circulation for the purpose of soliciting subscriptions.

Also, telemarketing calls from organizations with whom you have an existing business relationship are also exempt. You are considered to have an existing business relationship with a telemarketer if you:

Purchased, leased, or rented a product or service in the last eighteen (18) months from the telemarketer;

Have a written contract with the telemarketer for a service that is still in effect or expired within the last eighteen (18) months; and/or Asked a telemarketer about a product or service within the last six (6) months.

Telemarketers may also call you if you have provided express consent to be called. Express consent includes:

Your permission on a written form, electronic form, or an online form; or

Your verbal permission.

The last one is a fucking HUGE fucking joke. I once worked for a Funeral Home, yes a Funeral Home. The boss took great pleasure in telling me that we didn't do cold calls and that he had helped change the law so cold calling was illegal. A cold call is when you call someone you have had no contact with, for example you go to the phone book and take numbers to call. We would go to home shows and things like and set up a booth. The company had contests. People would fill out a form for the contest and we would use that information to call them. There was a box to tick if you did not want to be contacted. Most people ticked it. We were told to ignore that.

One day my boss gave me a list of phone numbers to call. I asked where they were from, a no no. He said it didn't matter just call them.

And what do I do if they complain and/or ask where I got their number from? He said just tell them that they must have filled out one of the contest forms at a function. Or a friend or family member filled one out in their name. If they wanted to see the form we were to make one. But hey, we didn't do cold calling according to him. (They were still using forms that had been filled out years before too. When things were slow the boss would recirculate them.)

Using that trick telemarketers can, and probably do, easily ignore the do not call list. What a waste.