Telemarketers on the ropes

MSNBC.Com ^ | 8/11/2003 | By Lance Williams - CINCINNATI BUSINESS COURIER

[Bobby777]

Popular do-not-call list bringing industry to its knees

Aug. 11 — In the past three months, the hallways at Groesbeck-based Tel-A-Sell Marketing Inc. have become a lot less crowded. CEO Edd O’Connor has been forced to trim his telemarketing staff from 72 to 18.

[Bobby777]

I hate to see Americans lose job in any sector ... my personal feeling is this is an univited invasion of persoanl privacy ... and they don't give up ...

by the way, US Gov't, the way to end Spam E-Mail is simple ... a $10 fine per incident by the company responsible for the ad ... that will kill the incentive for ALL of them ... like the FCC that can fine up to $11,000 for unwanted faxing ... yowza ...

[Riley]

In desperation, many years ago, supporting myself, my fianceé and a bunch of cats, I did a shift of this work. I couldn't even finish the whole shift.

I told the supervisor that I didn't feel like I was doing honest work. I apologised and left.

[Michael Barnes]

pssst

[Positive]

"a $10 fine per incident by the company responsible for the ad"

While this sounds like a good idea, take a close look at most of the spam you get. You'll notice that a good proportion of them end with things like .ru (Russia)or any number of dot two letter endings. These are off shore servers and the FCC or Attorney General or States just can't touch them.

[Bobby777]

good for you ... I know people need jobs and I actually *kinda* feel sorry for some of them BUT had a clown with Amoco Oil, DIRECTLY AGAINST MY PERMISSION, sign me up for some credit card insurance garbage ... he was very smarmy about it ... I called Amoco Oil and read them the riot act over this clown ...

Another, from MCI, got mad when I asked him to mail me side-by-side comparisons of long distance ... "put it in writing" ... I told him I'd definitely go with any plan that was lower total cost ... he hung up on me ... so I called back and asked for a supervisor and told them never to call my number again ...

I love the "Seinfeld" episode where somebody calls Jerry:

Jerry says "oh I'm busy now, give me your home number and I'll call you back later there" ...

the telemarketer says "umm, we're not allowed to do that" ...

Jerry says, "I guess you don't want people to call you at home?" ...

the guy says "yeah" ...

Jerry says "GOOD! now you know how I feel!" and hangs up ...

[Riley]

I got a funny one the other day, that informed me that my "t*ts are too small", and offering to sell me pills that were guaranteed to increase my breast size.

Being a man, I got a big laugh out of that. I forwarded it to a few friends who are as warped as I am.

[longtermmemmory]

The problem is the offshore spamming links. Much of the spam is from non-us sources. All the fines in the world issued by the USA would not stop them.

[Bobby777]

search returned only old articles ... I only got two hits ... I think it's hit and miss sometimes ...

[Bobby777]

yeah I know ... first we aliminate all the ones in America ... sink all the spammers and fine all the companies that use the services ... fine the company and they'll drop a spammer like a hot anvil ...

what they do is like the FBI does with Russian hackers ... invites them over for "winning a context" and then nabs 'em ... hehe ...

[Bobby777]

All the fines in the world issued by the USA would not stop them.

it will stop ALL US-based companies that are using the services immediately ... when they have a gov't fine for their spammer sending out 10 million emails, it will be over real quick ...

now those offshore foreign companies, I have an idea ... it may be too radical ... hehe

[Keyes2000mt]

I spent three months telemarketing when I was 19. It was hard work. I was selling an honest product and did pretty well.

The effects of telemarketing scaling down aren't going to destroy the economy. Let me give you an idea of what'll happen. When I went to work, the manager hired 20 people. In the course of the two months that firm operated in my area, 17 quit.

If she'd stayed another month, I would have quit too. I was going to go start college and was working a fast food job at the same time. So you're not going to see 2 million jobs really lost. Most don't really exist permenantly. They're mostly floating jobs that really last no more than a month.

In addition to that, there are still some firms that do client maintenance on magazine subscriptions and they'll be okay.

I think there's a legitimate place for telemarketing with some things like the "Gift Books" I was selling which contained about $1900 in Gift Certificate for local goods and services. (Most people wouldn't use them all but still they'd use enough to make up the price. I did.)

I think some people have crossed over the line and ruined the marketing technique for customers and telemarketers.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I come home to 5-10 hang-ups on my machine a day.

The industry brought this on themselves.  Period.

Boo-freakin-hoo.

[Bobby777]

I think it will force companies to use more print, TV, radio ads ... and that might be better anyway ...

[Bobby777]

I'm with you ... I dislike the telemarketing companies but I do feel a bit of sorry for the (whatever percentage) of people who were trying to put food on the table ... there's got to be something better to do ... yowza ...

[Keyes2000mt]

Some things are hard to sell in 30 seconds. Then again, local radio ads can be pretty cheap, even if it takes minute. Paying twenty telemarketers $7.50 an hour for twenty-five hours a week adds up to $3500 a week to sell $40 gift books. So, in some ways telemarketing is not efficient.

[Riley]

So, in some ways telemarketing is not efficient.

True enough. But somebody is buying the things, or the operation would have died of natural causes already.

[Bobby777]

I have to imagine 95% of people turn down telemarketers ... and don't want to buy the product offered ... you guys that have worked the phones can set me straight on the numbers ...

I say cash is a big incentive ... don't advertise ... just do this ... the Ford dealers remolded all their showrooms ... just give $300-$500 bonus cash, hard cash right on the table after the deal is closed ... buyers will come in by word-of-mouth ... simple enough ...

save what they'd spend on some of these advertising techniques and cut the price of the product ... of course, I'm a big believer that the more money you put in the consumer's pocket, the more they are going to spend and in varied ways ...

of course, companies believe they are competing for the same dollar that another company wants ... and that's true to an extent ... I think of Microsoft as an example ... Gates tried all those tricks to beat Netscape ... the simple fact was he had all the money and resources he needed to build a better product and beat Netscape that way ... of course, as we all know, he took the low road (some say) by making Internet Explorer free with Windows (uh oh, here comes the IE, Netscape, Opera, Unix debate ... LOL) ...

[Jeff Gordon]

Note the "company responsible" for the ad. This is not spammer or the server that sent the spam, it is company whose product is being advertised. The vast majority of the offshore spam advertises products of companies doing business in the USA. This means that when a spam advertising an American Mortgage company originates from a server in Russia and passes through an unathorized relay in Korea, it is still the American Mortgage company that must pay the fine.

BTW: A $10 fine will not stop spam. The fine needs to be payable to the receiver of the spam and must be worth the receivers effort to sue. That, in my mind, would be a minimum of $500.

[bets]

I come home to 5-10 hang-ups on my machine a day.

...thus my unplugged phone. I plug it in only when I want to make an outgoing call. Relatives/friends know they can reach me on email (which I check 2x a day), or in an emergency can call me at work.

[Bobby777]

I only took one product from spam marketing ... I got a sample of Pantene shampoo in the mail ... thought it was pretty good so that's what I buy (can I say that in a macho way? LOL) ...

if the product is good, go door-to-door, or give out free samples at a college ... big samples ... not the 10-cent size ... get people used to using a product ... if they like it and it's a good product, they'll go buy some more ...

of course, many sell insurance and stuff like that ... i.e., stuff that it's hard to give out free samples ...