A telemarketer is a person (or, in some cases, an automated voice known as a robocaller) who calls your home or business to perform one or more of the following tasks:
1. Collect information for a survey
2. Try to persuade you to buy a product or service.
3. Make an appointment with a salesperson, either in person, over the phone, or via Internet conferencing.
4. Persuade you to make a charitable donation
5. Persuade you to vote a certain way or in a particular election.
6. Get you to buy new products or services as an existing customer.
Telemarketers may also take calls generated by advertisements or promotions and then try any of the above methods.
The telemarketer may work from a call center, an office, or from home, and some are particularly persistent in calling during family time or during dinner hour, or much later in the evening than you would prefer. You don’t have to wait to hear the entire sales pitch from telemarketers, and caller id gives you the option of not answering calls from unknown numbers. Alternatively, you can let your voicemail take telemarketer calls so you don’t have to answer calls you don’t want to take.
It’s important to understand the role of the telemarketer, as well as a little bit about their jobs, so you can politely decline their services if you’re not interested. To begin with, telemarketers are typically paid on a commission basis or at minimum wage. Some people enjoy their work, while others have no choice but to do it. Most are using the technique of cold calling, which means they will receive a hostile response from many. It’s not necessary to be rude with these people; simply be direct.
Rather than becoming enraged at the phone salesperson for doing his or her job, politely inform the person that you are uninterested, wish them luck in their endeavor, add a closing statement such as “Good Night,” and hang up. When necessary, go over them to get your point across. When you’re truly uninterested, don’t waste these people’s time by allowing them to go through a sales pitch and then berating them for being rude for wasting your time.
There are Do Not Call Registries in many countries and states, but they do not apply to all types of telemarketers. People conducting legitimate market research, making a politically motivated call, collecting money owed to you, or raising money for a charity may still call your home and are exempt from the Do Not Call Registry in many cases. You can, however, ask these people to remove your name from their call list, and they must, with the exception of debt collectors, generally comply, though this may vary by country.
Many telephone scams have been perpetrated by seemingly innocent telemarketers, in addition to being viewed as unwelcome intruders. Many people now have a negative perception of telemarketers in general, despite the fact that many of them are legitimate salespeople working for a market research firm or a reputable charity.
If you are genuinely interested in something a telemarketer may be offering you, you should do the following:
1. Request the real business address and phone number from the telemarketer.
2. Request the telemarketer’s full name and employee number so that the sale can be credited to them.
3. Conduct an Internet search for the company and confirm its legitimacy.
4. To contact the company, use the website rather than the phone number provided by the telemarketer.
5. If the business checks out, double-check that it’s still doing telemarketing, especially before giving out personal information like your address, full name, or credit card number.
6. If you can’t verify that a company is legitimate, don’t buy anything from them or give them any personal information.
Many telemarketers are completely legitimate, and the products they sell or the charitable solicitations they make are genuine. However, in this day and age of data theft, it’s critical not to be fooled by a good sales pitch into handing over information that could be used against you.