Strange things people do


zil
 Share

Recommended Posts

I remember fifteen or twenty years ago getting some sort of sales or survey call -- on a Sunday. I was appalled, and let the caller know. "I don't take calls like this on Sunday!" I understood that not everyone feels that way, but when did it become acceptable to make unsolicited sales calls on a SUNDAY? (Answer: Fifteen or twenty years ago.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Vort said:

I remember fifteen or twenty years ago getting some sort of sales or survey call -- on a Sunday. I was appalled, and let the caller know. "I don't take calls like this on Sunday!" I understood that not everyone feels that way, but when did it become acceptable to make unsolicited sales calls on a SUNDAY? (Answer: Fifteen or twenty years ago.)

What I don't understand is how it is that the telephone solicitors couldn't catch the clue when the "federal do not call list" was created.  I mean really, just how big of a club do we need to beat this clue into you?  (Answer: Bigger)

PS: I begin to feel I need to post my answering machine message here (since the thread has turned this way, and it is somewhat strange).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/5/2017 at 4:27 PM, zil said:

What I don't understand is how it is that the telephone solicitors couldn't catch the clue when the "federal do not call list" was created.  I mean really, just how big of a club do we need to beat this clue into you?  (Answer: Bigger)

PS: I begin to feel I need to post my answering machine message here (since the thread has turned this way, and it is somewhat strange).

The more you know....When I did outbound sales calls for a major meat distributor for the holiday season, our class was told multiple times that if a person says, "take me off of your call list," we would have to answer to the Federal Trade Commission if we did not take them off.  Now, just hanging up or being sassy would not be enough to take them off the list.  Granted, this was almost five years ago, and regulations could have changed.

 

Nebraskans have a great affinity for vanity license plates.

My sister and I used to wave at cars on the interstate when we took vacations.  I remember one time, a guy and a girl sped up to pass us after we passed them, and the passenger leaned in front of the driver to wave back at us.  haha...for some reason, we felt embarrassed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

In ??, there is a website, where you can put your name in the do not call list.

Yeah, there is in the US too.  It doesn't work, nor is it supposed to work for people who aren't "commercial".

8 hours ago, seashmore said:

The more you know....When I did outbound sales calls for a major meat distributor for the holiday season, our class was told multiple times that if a person says, "take me off of your call list," we would have to answer to the Federal Trade Commission if we did not take them off.  Now, just hanging up or being sassy would not be enough to take them off the list.  Granted, this was almost five years ago, and regulations could have changed.

There's no human there for you to tell this to.  Try as you might, you never get a human.  And, of course, there's no automated way to say, "take me off your list".  Demons.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've been working on these two overlapping projects at work for eons (±1 age), and I finished everything that was assigned to me, so I thought I'd work on this report that we need to change.  So this morning, I started researching the tables, to remind myself of relationships and data.  And then I decided I needed to look at the current report to get a rough idea of the order in which the various data should be displayed.  And lo, and behold, the changes I figured I'd work on, I had already done.  Sometime.  Ages ago.  Sigh.  Apparently I need to take more naps.  At work.  I don't normally do this, but then projects don't normally take eons, so I'd say this is a strange thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/5/2017 at 9:56 AM, a mustard seed said:

Some strange things people do that I've only noticed since working at a call center.

I'm always looking for a "hello?" when someone picks up the phone because a lot of times the phone system will mess up; it'll stop ringing in my headset but nobody has actually picked up. Sometimes people will pick up the line and just sit there silently, and while I'm still trying to figure out if it's an answering machine, a system malfunction or if someone is actually there, they'll all of a sudden in a really annoyed voice say, "HELLO???" like I'm the idiot who just answers my phone without saying anything.

I pick up the phone and wait until somebody says Hello.  If it takes a while, it's a telemarketer so I just hang up.  ;)

My suggestion:  Say Hello, doesn't matter if it's picked up or not.  You can always say Hello again when the real pickup happens or carry on if it's the machine.  But, I might still hang up on you because there's that delay between me picking up the phone and the telemarketer's call system actually registering the pick-up (I programmed systems for telemarketers in my wild days) that is very detectable.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, zil said:

We've been working on these two overlapping projects at work for eons (±1 age), and I finished everything that was assigned to me, so I thought I'd work on this report that we need to change.  So this morning, I started researching the tables, to remind myself of relationships and data.  And then I decided I needed to look at the current report to get a rough idea of the order in which the various data should be displayed.  And lo, and behold, the changes I figured I'd work on, I had already done.  Sometime.  Ages ago.  Sigh.  Apparently I need to take more naps.  At work.  I don't normally do this, but then projects don't normally take eons, so I'd say this is a strange thing.

LOL!  This happened to me a lot during the Y2K days... I pick up code to modify and certify only to find out after a bit of the research that I've already done it before.  My organizational skills were sadly lacking in those days.

But something strange that happened to me at work... I was assigned a project to migrate an application to a different platform.  So, I went looking for docs, couldn't find it, went digging through the code, and complained the whole time to my co-worker how whoever wrote this spaghetti must be an idiot... only to find out after a while that the idiot is me.   That's what happens when you've been doing the same job for almost 20 years.  Hah!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/8/2017 at 9:02 AM, zil said:

Yeah, there is in the US too.  It doesn't work, nor is it supposed to work for people who aren't "commercial".

There's no human there for you to tell this to.  Try as you might, you never get a human.  And, of course, there's no automated way to say, "take me off your list".  Demons.

 

It is supposed to apply to all Sellers, Telemarketers, and Service Providers (like those people who provides data to sellers and telemarketers).  Charities, political campaigns, and surveys are not considered Telemarketers.

All telemarketers are required to drop the call immediately when the customer says they are on the Do Not Call Registry or if they state that they want to be put on the Do Not Call Registry the telemarketer is to end the conversation immediately with instructions on how to register.  This does not exempt automated telemarketing systems (I had to progam this thing into the system once).  So, if you get these calls when you're on the DNCR, you can gather the phone number info and any other pertinent info about the call and file a complaint to the FTC.  You can even sue and possibly get awarded money.  I know one of the ambulance chasers in my town is advertising on this.  The telemarketer can get charged $15K per INCIDENT (one call) if you can prove they called you and they did not drop the call immediately after you told them of your DNC registration.  And if you've been registered more than a month, you could file a complaint that the company failed to update their systems with the latest DNC registry.  The trick is... usually the companies that call you even when you're in the DNCR are fly-by-night telemarketers...

 

 

Edited by anatess2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, zil said:

We've been working on these two overlapping projects at work for eons (±1 age), and I finished everything that was assigned to me, so I thought I'd work on this report that we need to change.  I don't normally do this, but then projects don't normally take eons, so I'd say this is a strange thing.

Zil working on something? At work? Yes indeed, that does sound very strange and most unexpected!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@mustardseed I tend not to rate my likelihood of recommending things very high because I don't give many recommendations. If I give a seven, that is high praise.

I was asked to rate how likely I was to recommend the training for my new job. I gave it a zero because while I liked it and think it was fairly well done, I can't think of a single situation in which I would recommend said training. The job? Maybe. But why would I feel the need to recommend the training that getting the job automatically brings? I felt a tiny bit bad for that rating, but I couldn't honestly say anything else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, SilentOne said:

@mustardseed I tend not to rate my likelihood of recommending things very high because I don't give many recommendations. If I give a seven, that is high praise.

I was asked to rate how likely I was to recommend the training for my new job. I gave it a zero because while I liked it and think it was fairly well done, I can't think of a single situation in which I would recommend said training. The job? Maybe. But why would I feel the need to recommend the training that getting the job automatically brings? I felt a tiny bit bad for that rating, but I couldn't honestly say anything else.

I agree, sometimes the surveys our clients have us give are rather silly. A couple for this company we do all the time are sometimes 18-28 minutes long and it is SO HARD to get people to take them or stay on them. Not only are they long but they seem constructed by someone determined to push buttons "let's see what we can do before they'll finally hang up" just repetitive, long-winded, and biased as all get out.

I thank you for the advice @anatess2 but the things I mentioned were just silly little things. Not intended to be complaints or like I'm troubled. Just, funny things I've never noticed people do on the phone. For instance, one time, an old lady asked me, "Are you eating dinner right now?" I looked around, confused and worried that she'd heard me chewing before I said my intro(I don't get a chance for a real break, so, I often nibble on protein bars while waiting for calls, just small enough nibbles that I can quickly swallow when people answer) and I said, "No?" And then she said, "Well I am." *click* And immediately after, I was like, "Ooohh! Burn!" I'm still impressed by that lady's saltiness, lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, a mustard seed said:

I thank you for the advice @anatess2 but the things I mentioned were just silly little things. Not intended to be complaints or like I'm troubled. Just, funny things I've never noticed people do on the phone. For instance, one time, an old lady asked me, "Are you eating dinner right now?" I looked around, confused and worried that she'd heard me chewing before I said my intro(I don't get a chance for a real break, so, I often nibble on protein bars while waiting for calls, just small enough nibbles that I can quickly swallow when people answer) and I said, "No?" And then she said, "Well I am." *click* And immediately after, I was like, "Ooohh! Burn!" I'm still impressed by that lady's saltiness, lol.

I'll give you advice anyway!  LOL!

So, when I worked on a telemarketing system, I volunteered to do telemarketing so I can have a better understanding of the telemarketer's experience with what I coded.  So, I sold Medicare supplemental insurance.  I was calling people at least 65 years old.  And I had the funnest time.  These guys will talk to me for hours if I let them!  I've had several blind-date proposals for their kids/grandkids, several requests for in-home visit so they can understand the package better, and even requests for me to pick up groceries and stuff!  And there's never a day where I don't get at least one story-telling.  I had one that told me about his experience in some war where he got shot and he had to run for his life across a country border while injured and so he has this disability/pain or some such and 30 minutes later of story-time he wants me to make sure the supplemental coverage will cover that injury or some such...  I wasn't part of the telemarketing team so I was recorded but doesn't have to meet some daily quota or some such.  It was fun!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/5/2017 at 6:19 AM, zil said:

When I'm driving alone (which is the vast majority of my driving), I crank the music up as loud as it will go (so that I can't hear myself) and sing along (at the top of my lungs, with whatever emotion is relevant to the song).  I'm reasonably certain I'm not the only person who does this (though I don't often notice others doing it, and TV would have me believe everyone else is laughing at me while I do - which is fine by me, because, to quote one of my favorite sing-along songs, it makes me happyyyyyyy).

 

@zil a friendly warning - its best not to try this in Montreal

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-man-ticketed-for-singing-in-his-car

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, askandanswer said:

@zil a friendly warning - its best not to try this in Montreal

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-man-ticketed-for-singing-in-his-car

Wow.  Just wow.  Fortunately, I have no plans to go to Canada.  Did I say wow?

Meanwhile, if someone attacks you in a public place, and you scream for help, will you get a ticket?  If you witness one person attacking another, and you scream for help, will you get a ticket?  If you're in a movie theater, watching one of @mirkwood's favorite movies, and scream at the appropriate moment, will you get a ticket?

I don't know why in the world @Sunday21 would be frightened of Utah gun laws when the cops in her own back yard can give her a ticket for something as vague as screaming in a public place (and apparently, the interior of your car is a public place, so I'm thinking this must mean that anyone who wants to can just climb on in, maybe break in, after all, it's public property...).

PS: Equally frightening is that I actually have that very song, on a 1990s dance CD (I'm guessing it was purchased in a kiosk, in Moscow, in the 1990s, by my next door neighbor (the one who went with me to steal back the embassy car from the airport police), who then gave it to me - he liked such music).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share