I blame the people who do wind up buying whatever the telemarketer is trying to push. If there wasn't at least *some* money to be made from it over and above the costs involved, companies wouldn't bother.
As somebody who has worked in sales for about 10 years now, I can honestly say, no I do not get mad if a telemarketer calls. On a few rare occasions I've even bought things from them. You just never know, sometimes if you listen to them for 30 seconds, you might realize that they are selling something you were already planning on buying. That being said, there are certain times that I get irritated if a telemarketer calls. After 7:00pm, do not call me. Before 8:30am, do not call me. I understand they have sales quotas to meet, just like I do. That's all well and good. I'll do you the courtesy of listening for just a minute. If you can't interest me in the first 30 - 60 seconds, I'm sorry, maybe you had a great product, but you just aren't good enough at your job. If I'm not interested, I will simply tell them I'm not interested. Don't try and harass me, don't hang up and call me right back. I've actually gotten good deals from telemarketers before, but truth be told it's been ingrained in us as a community to find our time so unbelievably valuable that we'd rather sit on the couch twiddling our thumbs in silence than actually give somebody 30 - 60 seconds of our time. I've found more often than not, the customers are the rude ones. You know some people don't even know why they hate telemarketers? About a month ago I was at my buddy's house when he got a call from a telemarketer. He was so mad that he got a call from a telemarketer for about 5 minutes after it happened. 20 minutes later he gets a call from a wrong number. I asked him why he was mad about the telemarketer and he says, "Cause they just waste my time man." I then informed him that he spent almost an entire minute on the phone with the person who had the wrong number politely explaining how long he had the number and that nobody by whatever name had owned this number in the last 8 years. That's literally 40 seconds longer than he spent on the phone with the telemarketer, yet he wasn't mad at the person with the wrong number. But to think yourself better than a whopping 30 seconds of time for somebody else? How selfish do you have to be to think that another human being doesn't deserve 30 seconds of your time? If you're not interested, just tell them you're not interested. Hell it's the phone, if they try to get pushy, just say, "No thanks!" and hang up. All that being said, I never have been a telemarketer and don't think I ever could be.
I get a call yesterday, likely from India, telling me that they are representing my phone company and that they want to sell me a device that blocks those nasty, annoying, tele-marketing calls. I got a very hearty laugh out of the propostion, before I hung up.
For the most part, I am quite polite to these people, but the scenario you paint has yet to occur. I guess it varies on where you live, what kind of offers are presented, but all I ever hear about are cheap travel deals, or insurance scams.
Fair enough. I've found that usually the call goes something like this; "Hello?" "Hello sir I'm (name) calling from x company. Do you currently have a home phone?" "Yes I do." "Well sir we have a special promotion right now on such and such box that can block all those unwanted telemarketers." "Truth be told, I only receive a few of those a year, and I really don't mind them. Thanks, I'm sure you have a great promo but it's doesn't sound like something that would interest me." "Ok thank you sir, have a nice day." Usually... Not always. There are the scams as well. To those I simply say, "Hey sounds great but no thanks," and hang up. I also laughed at the idea that a telemarketer was offering your a service to block telemarketers. That is pretty rich right there.
