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]

it is company whose product is being advertised

right ... I'm saying for the amount sent ... like a spammer that sends a million emails for Viagra ...

or, individual payments of $500 would work too ... the companies simply will not take the risk ... they will stop immediately ... make it unprofitable ... one fell swoop and 50-60% of all U.S.-based apam will stop like that ...

I support CIA and Special Ops teams to take out foreign spammers ... LOL

[DB]

Why is it I still get junk faxes???

Ink cartridges and discount vacations...

[Bobby777]

very good ... and very effective ... used it a number of years ago when my idiot project leader went home every night about 7:00 p.m. ... I'd work until 2:30 a.m. the following morning (or later) and he'd start calling me after I'd had maybe 3-4 hours sleep about 7:30 the next morning ... happened all the time ... I never told him ... just let him keep dialing that phone jack ... he was an idiot anyway ...

[Bobby777]

listen ... do this ..

1) Collect ALL faxes for each business
2) Contact the FCC ... phone numbers on the web / yellow pages
3) Report all offenses ... it's busy but they WILL get to them ...

good luck ...

Sharper Image used to have a device that required a four-digit code from callers ... you give your friends and family the code and nobody else ... they don't get through ... don't know if those are still out there ...

[DB]

Most have toll numbers in New York to call to get off their "list".

One of these days I might call the FCC, it would seem pretty hopeless.

[Conservative4Ever]

I had the same problem at my office. Started to call the toll free number listed somewhere on the spam fax to remove my fax number. It does work. My junk fax stopped after a few weeks.

Red

[Riley]

Why is it I still get junk faxes??? Ink cartridges and discount vacations...

Jumk faxes for INK CARTRIDGES??! That's kind of like throwing a brick through someone's window with a note attached that says, "Broken windows? Call ACME Glass, 555-4567"

I find it similarly amusing that I get spam for products that are supposed to eliminate spam.

[Michael Barnes]

re # 8

Hey, no worries here...I think there are many on this board that didn't even think abotu searching for the title of this thread!!!! Just wanted to link the earlier thread..that's all...

be good..

SVR4

[Bobby777]

always a good idea to link to original thread ... I'm all for that ...

now, if we could just spam the spammers and call the telemarketers ... hmmmmm ...

[Bobby777]

That's kind of like throwing a brick through someone's window with a note attached that says, "Broken windows? Call ACME Glass, 555-4567

wow ... new business opportunity ... LOL ... kinda like the Mob ... we'll beat you up unless you pay us the money not to beat you up ... and then, occasionally, we'll toss in a free beating to show you what you're paying to avoid ...

[Clemenza]

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.

Join the club, although I lasted a bit longer than you (three days).

[Riley]

It was some kind of policeman's ball raffle thing that we were supposed to sell. We were expected to be evasive when directly asked if we were cops.
There was also some kind of card game that we were supposed to play while we were on the 'phone. I bailed, went home, had a stiff drink, and took a long, very hot shower.

I just couldn't eat that much s**t. The whole thing was shifty.

[Clemenza]

The closest I came to true desperation was selling knives for the Vector corporation (earn $15 an hour!). Even I wouldn't sink that low!

[Riley]

The closest I came to true desperation was selling knives for the Vector corporation (earn $15 an hour!). Even I wouldn't sink that low!

Oh man. I went to one of their 'presentations'. They refused to call it the business, or the company. It was to be referred to as 'The Opportunity'. We had a 20 year old kid with a hundred dollar haircut giving us this spiel.

I listened attentively and politely, and left at the soonest possible time. Good grief, there's a lot of this nonsense out there.

In that dry period in my life, I ended up delivering things in bobtail trucks. Even that had its cheesy moments, when they'd try to overload me and give me instructions on avoiding weigh stations. I flat-out refused to do this, and I refused to drive an overloaded rig, which made me a 'troublemaker'. Aghh.

[Djarum]

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.

No, but providers sure can. Whoever is relaying the spam should block mail ports for the offender, starting at the backbone level. Once an ISP lost the ability to send mail, they would crack down on the spammer in a hurry.

[Keyes2000mt]

I'd say 90-95% was pretty accurate in my case. But our area tends to have less money for telemarketing.

Word of mouth on an item like the gift books wouldn't get them all out. They were $40, about $8 of which was commission to the telemarketers. Obviously they'll find ways to cope.

[Keyes2000mt]

Good thing, it's a scam.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

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

I spent some time in CA earlier this year taking care of my folks. I just couldn't believe the crap that they get almost 24/7. It never stopped. 10 am -- 3pm -- 6pm -- 9 pm. They let the answering machine take the calls and when they're in the mood, filter through all the hangups and call back. Naturally, when the do-not-call list came out, they were one of the first to sign up for it.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

No, but providers sure can.

This really opens up a nasty can of worms. On the one hand you want the provider to deny spam mail to your account. On the other, you want privacy. Who can say that a piece a mail from .ru is actually spam? Maybe you requested some literature from a company there. Is the provider now to act as your Mommy and Daddy by reading through all your mail before you get to?

What about those companies that hang directly off the internet -- their provider is just supplying them bandwidth and nothing more. The company has their own mail and web servers. Is the provider in this case authorized to inspect company confidential e-mail when they're not storing it on their servers?

[Phaedrus]

Why don't I get telemarketing calls on my cell phone?