Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Don't Speak...


I suppose I am about to put my ignorance on full display again.  Yeah, like it is never clearly apparent, but all snide remarks aside, I have recently discovered something quite amazing, which is that more and more call centers are using an [auto-dialing program]

The significance of that is if you remain silent after picking up the phone, the line will go dead after a few seconds.  Whoa, I had no idea that don’t speak until you are spoken to carried so far!

Okay, an even more effective way of dealing with robocalls is to just hang up the phone immediately after picking it up, but what if the call is coming from a legitimate source and the caller-id is just messed up?  Calls now made on my mother-in-law’s new cellphone will show up as coming from an unidentified caller when her number is fully registered.  No, you do not want to just hang up on her like that—trust me.

If you are curious, the way these auto-dialing programs usually work is a number in their database is dialed by the computer, and if someone actually answers on the other end of the line, either a prerecorded message kicks in before the call is forwarded to a live person or it goes directly to a live person.  I am quite sure you know what happens next.

On a related note, I have come to the conclusion that any charity that employs outside call centers to solicit donations should not be supported.  For it is not at all uncommon for well over half of the donated funds being kept by the call centers as payment for their services, and even if it is not nearly so high a percentage, paying people to gather funds is not going to whatever the charity is supposed to be supporting.  Besides, if you ever give through a call center, your name and details are sold to other charities, which draws other buzzards to your location (so to speak).

This has been another public service announcement.  That is all.

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16 comments:

  1. I don't know if I should admit to this or not but I worked for a telemarketing company for 9 years so I'm very familiar with the system you're talking about. There are a lot of stories I could tell about that job.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Ann!!! Arlynda was working in MCI's telemarketing department when we first met, but they did not have any autodialing going on back then. She was a lot happier when she was transferred to customer service, but the overall attitude of the company finally got to her.

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  2. And I thank you for sharing your observations. It does explain why some of those annoying, unsolicited calls do switch off shortly after I pick up the phone and have time to tell them to #$%&-off! :)

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Lee!!! Hmm, I wonder if there is a program for our ends of the line?

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  3. Thanks for this public service announcement.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Stephen!!! You are most welcome. I live to serve.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Anthony!!! I hope it proved helpful.

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  5. A very interesting, and somewhat amusing service announcement, thank you! I believe we're going to one day out-tech-ourselves! The bubble always has to burst you know. One lucky thing for us is we do use cell phones, (well you can't exist in a world really without it right?!) But we have a land line yet, and we have a phone that takes messages and plays them as the party speaks ( there are times I call just to say hello to my animals) but we can clearly pick up or not! So telemarketers Ha! Ha!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Karen!!! Well, I don't have a cell phone yet. Of course, if I left the house more than once every couple of years or so, I would definitely have one. I sure wish I had one while out there on the truck!

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  6. i detest robocalls. i've gotten to the point where i've memorized some of the repetitious numbers and click on and off immediately to hang 'em up. no mil worry for me. :)

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear TWG!!! Hopefully, we have been dropped from the Cardholder Services list. Groan.

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  7. A friend taught me to say this: "We do not make donations over the phone. Please put us on your Do Not Call list."

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Linda!!! Alas, if I only had a dime for every time one of us has tried that... (LOL?)

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  8. Use an ansafone, they switch off.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, my dear Adullamite!!! We just might have to look into that.

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