Posted on 09/27/2003 7:05:03 AM PDT by joesbucks
I've read over the course of the past few months the numerous threads regarding the use of telemarketing and the intrusion it has on our homes.
I had a long discussion with my wife who hates the intrusion. I ask her why did they call her? She had no idea. Well, despite the black eye telemarketers get, it's probably the most effective way to get business. Even Mrs. Me admitted that if they called about something that she had an interest in, she probably would buy. BINGO.
But let's look at if from another perspective. You will see numerous threads about how regulation is driving business from our shores to others. How we've taken manufacturing and moved it to low cost countries. Not because of productivity, but because of emission regulations or community groups that complain about the noise, smell or traffic caused by the facility. Even right to know and safety concerns. Changes necessary would be costly and not enforeced across the border or across the pond so companies locate there.
We seen threads about government regulation taking over our lives. Yet when it comes to a minor inconvience, we run to the government for help from the big bad telemarketers.
What's the difference between regulating out a obnoxiouis telephone call but not noxiouis fumes from the plant next door?
What happens when all the telemarketing jobs get exported to Ireland or India and our laws don't extend to them? And the calls continue cause we can't stop them.
What are we to do with all the folks who try to eek out a living working in a humid cramped call center. Many are the folks we drove from the welfare rolls with welfare reform (a good thing). Many are college students trying to earn their way through college. Others are seniors trying to supplement a fixed income. Or the physically disabled who find work in a sitting position reading a script, possibly from the company you work for or possibly even own. Some are just the slugs of life and a call center is the only way they've managed to find some sort of paycheck. What do you suggest they do for a living that's not immoral, illegal or indecent?
I find it amazing that we would rally all day about government intrusion and regulation on companies, yet we have rallied to stop a few phone calls a week or day.
The other thing to remember is that there are several ways that you will still get calls. They WILL NOT GO AWAY. Doing business with a company? They can call. Done business with them in the past 18 months? They can call. Signed up for one of those free give aways recently? You can now legitimately get a call. Charities. Exempt. Local lib dem candidate? Exempt. Pollsters. Exempt. Probably a thousand other loop holes? Exempt too!
By "somebody else" I mean me. Some people pay taxes, some don't, but everyone could use this service, whether they do or not. But even if you pay taxes, you don't pay mine, and you don't pay the share of my taxes that pay for the service only you actually use, if you use it. I have to pay for a service I do not use, for you convencience. If only those who actually used the service had to pay for it, that would be fine. In the mean time, anyone who uses that service is essentially stealing from everyone who pays taxes and doesn't use the service. This doesn't matter to most people for whom the word morality only means whatever they can get away with.
Hank
They would probably get a few sales fron the signs, and it is an exercise of free speach. (Or would that be freedomn of the press?)
Anyway, the phone is my property, and I choose not to let them use it. Now I want a practical way to enforce my decision, and this one will do for now.
Signing up for a phone services is NOT equivalent to putting out the welcome mat. It's equivalent to putting a door on your home so you and your guests can come and go without having to crawl through windows.
Signing up for a phone services is NOT equivalent to putting out the welcome mat. It's equivalent to putting a door on your home so you and your guests can come and go without having to crawl through windows.
The argument is moot. You and your ilk have ticked off the American public for too long with your underhanded tactics. Now you'll just have to deal with the consequences of your actions.
You are the first kook, er person I have heard that has complained about the cost of the no call list. Do you also complain about the cost of the National Weather Service?
1. At dinnertime, I don't answer the telephone, but let the answering machine screen all calls. The receiver is within reach if it's someone I want to talk to.
2. If I answer the phone and there's no response, I hang up, since it's 99% likely that it's the "call-ahead" software that dials the next number in anticipation of the caller's concluding his current call.
3. In the event they actually begin their spiel I just say No and hang up.
That pretty much takes care of my issues with telemarketers. No one should feel badly about being rude to these people. In the first place, hanging up saves them time to call someone else. In the case of high-pressure callers, I say "Hold, please", punch the hold button, hang up the phone, and go back to whatever I was doing when they called.
Thank you for the revealing words.
You are obviously one that believes right and wrong are determined by the number of people who believe or want something. So long as you have the bigger gang, it is perfectly alright to use that force to make others pay for a convenience you could very well take care of yourself. It is not surprising, as I said earlier, this is exactly the kind of thinking one expects from those for whom the word morality only means, whatever they can get away with.
Hank
Your not making any sense. The UN would not have any role in blocking incoming phone calls. That could be done by US phone companies.
By the way radio and telecommunications internationally are not under the auspice of the UN and Im certainly not suggesting that.
The last part of my outgoing message on my answering machine is, "If this is a telemarketing call, please take us off your list."
but I can and I did by signing up for the both the federal and Missouri no call lists. Now stay off my line, slimeball.
True. It's not just the left that has an exclusive on Kooks!
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