raeanna74

I read an article in last Sunday's paper. It gave a phone number that I really think I'll use. Apparently the author gave out a phone number to the same place before and got people all upset because of it. It's for the American Teleservices Association, one of the companies filing the lawsuit to stop the National Do Not Call Registry. Last time he gave out their number they got thousands of calls and their staff spent 5 hours a day for 6 days clearing out voice mail messages. Voice mail? You mean they couldn't even answer their own phone? Their main complaint was that they did not recieve any warning of these phone calls. lol Like we receive any warning?

The number for anyone interested in calling it is (317)-816-9336 at least until they change it again. lol

Here's their website should they change their number on us.http://www.ataconnect.org

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rider6061

sweet revenge!!!

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Redlemon

The article you reference is the weekly humor columnist Dave Barry, and the current article can be read here. Although he is funny, the phone number is real.

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raeanna74

Thanks for that mention. I apologize for not giving him proper credit. Thanks for the link as well.

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Cynthetiq

It just reminds me of two of the funniest bits on Seinfeld, both of which have to do, obviously, with telemarketers.

Telemarketer: Hi. Would you be interested in switching over to TMI Long Distance service?
Seinfeld: Oh, gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later.
Telemarketer: Uh, sorry, we're not allowed to do that.
Seinfeld: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home.
Telemarketer: No.
Seinfeld: Well, now you know how I feel.

Also:

Telemarketer: Would you be interested in a subscription to the New York Times?
Seinfeld: Yes. [Slams down phone.]

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Midnight_Son

the number has beed disconnected.......huh

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micah67

It was busy when I tried it the other night. Too funny...

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LittleOralAnnie

Telemarketers are people too. Even though they piss me off at times I realize they are just doing their job, albeit a crappy one to have. I don't think it would be fun or amusing to try to get revenge on them, that is a very unhealthy way to deal with
things..

Great Scott

Here in Finland they have this wonderful phone contract where you get more money when people call you. I think that would be a great system to have when the telemarketers start calling. Just give them the number of that line and let them call and babble all they like.

Moreland

Here in the UK we have the telephone preference service (tps) which means you can be taken off cold call lists and if somebody rings you, you can complain to tps and they will slap them on the wrists.

troit

Its amazing what a little bit of research can turn up. Here is ATA's


Toll Free Number: (877) 779-3974

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idiotgene

Too true. I worked as a telemarketer for awhile because it was the only job I could get. I'm only 18, but the majority of the people working there were laid-off steel workers, older women, and poor people. I never realized how something so trivial as a phone call could piss people off :/

madsenj37

Go you.
Fuck telemarketers.

They always try to sell me even after I have declined.

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asshopo

Heh, one of my friends LOVES telemarketer calls. He will let them go thru whatever they are selling, ask all kinds of qestions, take their time (he has alot of time on his hands) and then at the end says, "actaully, I was never intrested" and they get all pissy and hang up .

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G5_Todd

LOL.....i hate them with a passion....so damn annoying

skysooner

I have virtually gotten rid of telemarketers by blocking calls that return private or blocked phone numbers. It only costs me a couple of dollars a month and keeps us from getting those annoying phone calls anymore.

RoadRage

After having to deliver pizzas to them in person, I can give you some details about them.

They are not people.

They are some type of subhuman bipedal anthropoid ape, but not people.

They think themselves better than us, that we should be at their beck and call (literally), and even worse, the fuckers won't tip.

They will gladly eat their own, firing people whose sole crime it was to acutally MAKE a day's goal and earn the bonus. (I have two cases of this as current co-workers.) They have "layoffs" within a couple of days of a promised raise, but will still have the "NOW HIRING" sign up the entire time.

The few who are actual humans just trying to make some money to survive will either leave quickly (voluntarily or otherwise) or be poisoned and de-evovle into a telemarketer. Truly a sad day when that happens.

The "two million" jobs the telemarketing industry claims will be lost is one purely bogus number. A "job" is one person working on one client for at least one call. A telemarketer might work a dozen "jobs" within an hour. The actual number of people employed in the telemarketing industry at any one moment is closer to 300K than 2M, and the "Do Not Call" list threatens only the portion dedicated to outbound "cold" calls, less than 50K people.

I don't have to worry about delivering to telemarketers any more. Our restaurant received a threatening letter from a telemarketing firm stating that we were to never set foot on their property again or we'd be sued. Then they had the gall to try to order pizza from us that evening.

Except that they never sent it.

It's amazing what you can do with some linen paper and a good forgery of a company's letterhead.

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Rubyee

I used to be a telemarketer, both inbound and outbound. I will never go back to being a telemarketer again. The problem is, that with inbound calls, you will get just as many irritated people, and they are the ones that called you. I will say, though, that it is fun to listen to their rant when they call, and tell them that I would not buy their products because either A) I feel that the beliefs expressed by their manufacturer or seller is wrong and children should never be molested, of B) that I am banned from buying any of the afore mentioned product by federal law. It gets some interesting responses.

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