Job Snob

[ImNotDancing]

Just wanted to get a feeler out there for other peoples opinions...

My DF just got a call from a telemarketer and reeled of a whole spiel about the telephone preference service but then ended with the words 'get a better job'.

I was fuming on the other persons behalf, DF may find the phone calls annoying but who is he to deem whether their job is good enough? I told him it's the equivelent of telling me working in retail that one day I'll get a real job. AIBU?

"Literally, all that is needed is a 'No thank you,' or even 'Please don't call me again'."

If only that were true

Boom, my point is that, as neither of us knows what an individual's circumstances are, why not consider that they might not be able to easily walk into another, better job? And that they might be trying very hard to do so?

It just seems to me to be a rather nicer attitude than just slamming them for not having a better job.

moonlight thats an exact example of a phone call I'm avoiding haha

People - buy your family some cordless phones, don't make them get up, sure the telesales people are bad, but give up that second bottle of wine and get your poor old parents a cheap phone!

That's no quite right moonlight. TPS's own definition:

Provides free service allowing UK consumers to opt out of receiving telemarketing calls.

Telesales/telemarketing are the same thing.

That (sort of) used to be the case moon, but now marketing calls are also subject to the TPS, unless you have given your permission in some other way. from the TPS website:

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free service. It is the official central opt out register on which you can record your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls. It is a legal requirement that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so.

Organisations with which you have an ongoing relationship, for example those who regard you as a customer, (or in the case of charities - a donor) may well gather your consent during the early stages of your relationship with them and will therefore be entitled to call you even if your number is registered on TPS, unless you have previously told them specifically that you object to them calling you for marketing purposes.

Though that's just the legal and not the moral side of the whole business.

treacle, I take your point about your parents but you aren't playing entirely fair. In the post I was responding to you say 'I don't think I've ever successfully got someone to take me off their telephone list'.

Perhaps wrongly, but understandably, I assumed you were talking about your experience rather than your parents'.

Only so you are just agreeing with my initial post that the DH was rude but correct?

I think 'get a better job' is a perfectly fair comment to someone whose job is to illegally harass people, although 'get a more ethical job' might be better.

I'm signed up with the TPS and get 4-6 unwanted calls a day. And I can't getpeople to take me off their lists either.

Sorry only I was really talking about both my experience and theirs. I am polite to callers but very firm. My parents are very apologetic to them 'oh, I'm so sorry, but I'm not interested'. But TBH neither approach works. They still ring back.

surely any important calls missed by screening would get picked up by the answerphone?

Yes, probably but what if they forget to check the answerphone? They can go for days without remebering to do it, they're forgetful.

I just hate that it's perfectly acceptable to treat the elderly like shit in their own homes and everyone is meant to be OK with that.

And that's before we even get to my much younger sibling who is mentally ill and in thousands of pounds of debt because she can't cope with persistent sales techniques, they grind her down, she gets confused, and next thing she is signed up to something she can't get out of. But never worry about that, it's just someone earning an honest living.

That's not meant to say my sibling, it's my mum's sibling. Doesn't matter, the point is that no one should be bullying her on the phone into signing up to things she can't afford.

Well I was called a snippy bitch by a cold caller when they asked for mrs x and i said you have the wrong number they went on to ask if i was the home owner and when i said but you were looking for mrs x well arnt you a snippy bitch. Half of these cc are illegal and i know its hard for folk to get a job but they are relentless.

limitedperiodonly That was totally uncalled for and Absolutely true!

A good ruse is to answer with a really thick foreign accent. We are in Fr. and often say 'in a very english accent "Je ne m'interesse pas".

Only once has a cold caller tried to speak English to us (It freaks them out) they always hang up.

Op, what job does your father do?

Fair enough, treacle. I am sorry your parents get hassled like that. Someone suggested a cordless phone so at least they don't risk falling; would that be possible/help? (I know that's dealing with the symptoms rather than solving the issue).

Boom, 'so you are just agreeing with my initial post that the DH was rude but correct?'

No. I don't think it's 'correct' or OK to tell someone to get a better job, for the reasons I've stated.

Barbarian, same issue really, but I disagree that 'get a better job' is a perfectly fair comment to make to anyone (even if what you really mean is 'get a more ethical job'), again for the reasons I've given upthread. Basically, that people may be aware that there are 'better' (more morally admirable) jobs; they may be trying very hard to get one. But getting a new job just like that isn't easy, and in the meantime people have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

onlylovers they have a cordless phone but they forget to carry it with them wherever they go in the house.

I'd never have believed the misery these calls could cause until they became frailer and I started spending entire afternoons at their house, I just can't believe how much the phone rings and how powerless we are to stop it. They don't even have decent mobile reception so we can't just get rid of the land-line.

And they both are of sound mind and have never actually signed up to anything from a cold call. I shudder to think what it would be like if they were known to be easy targets.

Oh, sorry, treacle, I didn't realise that.

hes self employed and does something with phones or something i have literally no clue

Only I didn't say the DH was correct to say it. Only that he was correct in what he said. The difference here being between the appropriateness of an action and the truth of a statement.

So I'm still unsure what you were disputing in my posts. Unless you actually think it's fine to earn a living by distressing others and that there is no obligation to get out of that line of work and into one that doesn't harm others as soon as you can?

Anyone watch that reality show The Call Centre? It was interesting. They all disliked the work to varying degrees, but some of them were making decent money. Awful job. I just say "no thanks" and hang up. The recorded ones starting "hello - this is an urgent message for..." are the most annoying, and make me wonder who on earth responds to them, enabling them to continue.

limitedperiodonly That was totally uncalled for grin and Absolutely true!

I missed that Rezolution. What was my flash of wisdom? .

I understand to some extent OP and treacle. When my mum was 70 she signed up for some outrageously expensive scam to do with replacement windows. It was about £8,000 . That was because my father had recently died after a long and gruelling illness and she was annoyed at us, her children, for not doing some DIY and understandably not thinking straight. Luckily, my brother saw them off.

She lived another 20 years and was never caught like that again. In fact, I'd say she was sharper than me in many respects. Con artists, particularly those who specialise in preying on the vulnerable, are obviously evil, but there are ways to thwart them and make the lives of the elderly comfortable without being a smartarse to people who are making legitimate sales calls.

I only answer calls from people I know, I just ignore all the others.

We never answer our home phone, so I stay free of call centre calls.