Telemarketers are one of the annoyances we all live with, and contribute their part to the overall flow of interruptions that it damaging our ability to concentrate on what we want to do. I find it interesting that these days, at any rate here in Israel, these rascals are following in the footsteps of our work-related information overload into the evening hours.
Today I got two calls in my evening – one from a car rental company stating its desire to improve its service to me (actually, they simply wanted to verify my contact information) and one from a health provider whom I cut short before learning what they wanted. The first came at 7:12 PM; the second well after 8:00 PM. Someone was paying the poor agents doing these calls to work an after-work-hours shift so they could annoy me in my own after-hours time.
Many of us are used to take this kind of intrusion from our peers at work, unfortunately; but for our service providers to send total strangers to obliterate our private time really takes nerve. And why are they doing this? Obviously, because they figure that’s when they can find us at home, at our listed numbers that they dredge up from the white pages. It makes perfect sense – once society accepts that there is no such thing as a sacrosanct personal time. As our society, the world over, has done… 🙁
Hi Nathan. In the UK we have the Telephone Preference Scheme; once you register on this, legitimate suppliers will take you off their calling lists. It works. Companies observe it and there is legislation to back it up. Do you have something similar? If not, might be worth suggesting…
I know a lot of people who are too polite to interrupt the telemarketer, so will listen to their whole opening scripted spiel before saying “no thanks”.
I met someone at a party once who had been a telemarketer (out of financial desperation, of course) and her advice was to interrupt as soon as you realise you don’t want whatever they’re selling. (Politely of course – insofar as you can be polite while cutting someone off mid-speech.)
Most telemarketers get commission on a successful outcome (e.g. someone actually books that appointment for the guy to come round and quote for double glazing), and by letting them move onto the next call where they might get a win, you’re actually doing them a favour as well as yourself.
I’ve been using this tip ever since and the vast majority of telemarketers will politely end the call straight away.
TechieBird, that’s excellent advice. I’ve been using a version of it – I actually tell them “I’m certainly not going to buy, so assuming you value your time as much as I do mine it’s better if we disconnect”. In difficult cases I add “Please respect my decision”, which is hard for them to reject without insulting me…
Ian, I think there is some provision here to get off those lists, mandated by law IIRC, but public awareness of it is rather low. Give us some time…