Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for July 12, 2021

Free quotes on extended auto warrantees!

Looks a tad bit ad-hoc(k).

I knew someone who worked at a legit telemarketing job briefly. According to her informed opinion, shoveling pig poo would be preferable. In the summer. With a small shovel.

When I get a call from “Microsoft support”, I sometimes enjoy drawing out the interaction with the scammer on the other end of the line, but usually, I just hang up. Or say “You’re not just a liar, you’re a BAD liar” and then hang up.

This one’s missing a dump truck barreling down on the guy…

It appears traffic has been blocked off and parked cars moved so the telemarketers could have their (his?) parade. From the amount of irritation and frustration it undoubtedly generated, the Telemarketing Parade was a smashing success.

Parking meters? I haven’t seen those in decades.

It was a bad call.

Where’s the torches and pitchforks? Nah, just pretending he doesn’t exist is about right.

Even though I had a stint or two in telesales, I STILL give the telemarketers that call me no mercy, telling them off for the fraudsters they are and hanging up on them.

Yell at that guy, “Would you like to upgrade to a better road?”

I’m surprised that even ONE person showed up

He appears to be walking The Road Less Travelled.

There’s no reason to berate the hapless employees who really need the inadequate money. It’s the schemers who assign them the task who are to blame.

At the risk of being called a racist, I thought most telemarketing is from India. This guy is a whitey

I’m impressed – they got a 100% turnout from their supporters.

I don’t answer a number I don’t know. If it is important they will leave a message.

They closed the street for that? (You’d think they’d want the telemarketers playing in traffic.)

You could not pay me enough to do the job of a telemarketer and yet, it’s a minimum wage job.

Fortunately, many are spared being chained to the oars. They have been replaced by robots.

Like most, I let caller ID screen my calls. I have special ring tones programmed for the 90% of people I want to talk to.

Politicians taking contributions from telemarketers to not control them should be leading the parade

Unanswered calls increased a bunch last week. Seems they work in waves. Heavy numbers for several days, then days without a call. Guess those days they are spending the loot from the folks who actually fell for the scams. When they’re spent out, they plug in the robot for another round.

A business suit and tie? Wow. I picture the douchebag in a sweaty mumu and greasy hair that has never been washed.

…but a suit? Really?

As much a telemarketers are reviled, they must be effective at finding the gullible. They are still doing it.

My wife replaced her Samsung S5 Active, the new phone displays “telemarketer” as needed. I just ignore calls not in my list.

To be perfectly fair… telemarketers deserve their own parade… through a mine field

Streets are too clean. Would have expected all sorts of crap being thrown at the guy.

Young and naive, I worked legitimate telemarketer job once. Between the abuse thrown into my ear by the potential customers and the supervisor walking around shouting for “MORE HUSTLE” like a hockey coach, I tried to quit two hours into a four hour shift. They asked me to stay three hours to make some payroll paperwork easier. I did and thus ended that career.

I once took a few minutes to politely challenge a telemarketer from India (with an obviously “adopted” American first name) if he wanted to go through life knowing he was trying to take advantage of people and take their hard earned money, and did he want that to be the story of his life. He actually listened and did not just hang up on me. Another time I told a credit card scammer I was on the Do Not Call list so he owed me money. He said, “Good luck collecting!” and hung up on me.

Tell them that your credit score is less than 10, they will hang up, promise.

True confession time, folks…..

Back in the 80’s…..I worked part time as a telemarketer for both AT&T….and MCI as well.

“Dial and smile”…..300+ calls a shift. Out of those 300, you’d be lucky to normally get 6 or 7 to agree to the trial (Anyone remember “Friends and Family”???) Horrible work, but I needed the money. I never lied to anyone, never tried to “slam” anyone.

We all have our dark pasts……. : >)

So glad for voice mail. The wife has fun and answers in Spanish

I get quite a few “Hi Grandpa, I’m in jail.” My wife and I must be on an old peoples list somewhere.

Oh hail, O mighty Caesar, The virgins protest and refuse to march in the parade. One is sick, and the other one refuses to march alone..

The last one involved some nasty lynching threats.

One otherwise quiet day I received numerous “Missed Calls”, with legitimate sounding names, from phone numbers in my area code. So I did a little research. All of the “callers” had died in the last few months. The scammers must go through obituaries to collect names, and then match them with the correct phone numbers to use for their spoofing.

Must be dinnertime and they’re all busy calling people.

Looks more like the warmup for this years Death Race 2021…

I have a screening app, most scammers (read telemarketers) just hang up, but occasionally one will leave a message, the delete button works just fine, when I get around to it.

I don’t get this. What’s being rebranded (given a new name)?

Fairly sure this is actually a documentary:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5688932/

Growing up we had one phone in the house and it was on a party line so it was shared by a lot of people. So we used it sparingly. And we only answered when it rang our code (two rings in succession). We didn’t run to the phone and pick it up just because it made noise. We [older folks in particular] need to get back into that frame of mind — just because the phone rings, it doesn’t mean we have to answer it. Even landlines can have caller ID. If we aren’t expecting a call, then there is absolutely no reason to answer the phone. It’s YOUR phone, YOU can choose whether you want to talk on it or not. You have a phone for YOUR convenience, not other peoples’. Don’t bother answering unknown phone numbers — it is YOUR time that is being wasted, not theirs (they are paid to dial and talk). And it is YOUR blood pressure that is important. Why get worked up and angry when you don’t need to be? Just ignore the ring or mute the phone — walk outside for a few minutes, check on the laundry, pet the cat. It is amazing how much better a day feels when you realize that you are in control of the phone.

a long time ago I work in a telecom company, there was a policy that if possible we would avoid disconnecting a customer call during the maintenance window (12am -5am). there was one call that wouldn’t drop so went to monitor it to see if it was just a hung circuit. Turns out there was a telemarketer just hammering away at some old lady to give money to some special interest group.

TO: WILEY, CREATOR -

PLEAS READ THROUGH THE POSTS – YOU HAVE SOME GOOD MATERIAL HERE………

I’m actually perversely grateful that telemarketers have driven so many people to letting calls go thru to voice mail. I do a lot of phone banking to (supposed) supporters of my favored political candidates, and I would frankly much rather leave a brief, efficiently prepared message than have to engage in a conversation with an actual person.

The exception to this is that very occasionally I’ll get a live person who was unaccountably on my call list by mistake and doesn’t like my candidate. I always try to find out why, so I can pass that info up the line to the people who are shaping the candidate’s message.

In college my social studies class had to do a survey using random numbers from the phone book. Unfortunately, this was right at the start of the caller ID era, so it was a complete failure.

Reminds me of an old Far Side. A meeting of the people that hated “Dances With Wolves”. There were only three people in the meeting hall.

Proving the uniting power of a common enemy.

Telemarketers don’t realize (808) means Hawai`i. They call at CA 9 am when it’s 6 am here.Answer: Answering machine. They hang up.

i have been a telemarketer or 30 years…current gig…inbound for state, looking up doctors and specialists for children with disabilities

The Telemarketers couldn’t get the day off to be In the parade.

They have to work on All Holidays because that’s when the most people are home to pick up the phone.

If it’s a non-local number I don’t recognize and they don’t leave a message, then I block their number.

Nomorobo works with most carriers and is free for land lines. The phone rings once and then hangs up.

My best discussion with “Microsoft” ended up with the guy at the other end thoroughly upset and insulting me, because I accused him of being Indian whereas he was Pakistani.