SonicDragon Posted June 29, 2003 Share Posted June 29, 2003 Jeeber has been keeping mighty quiet the past few days. You don't suppose the aliens finally got him, do you? Hmmm- you don't suppose all those calls are from aliens? Yikes! Now I'm scaring myself!LOL, it's not the aliens calling us! IT'S JEBER! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibe98765 Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Good, thoughtful posts Cluttermagnet!Lots of good info on the call center insdustry and products here:http://www.callcenternews.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucekrymow Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 For those desiring to take a proactive stance, the attached does the same thing as the popular 'Telezapper' sold here in the U.S. but for free - ridiculously simple and nothing to install.There is a 'Read Me' inside.* Can't attach here, so please click here * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 I got in late last night and had my response back no time at all. They have finally got it down to a manageble level of people signing up all at once.Quite understandable ... we're all fed up with telemarketers and spammers. And that's a fact.I think it would be against the law to solicit those who are on the do not call lists. The biggest problem will be following up and making the complaint. I bookmarked the donotcall.gov address ... it has the complaint department link right there Way to go, LilBambi-Show those pesky telemarketers the door! I think it is going to be downright fascinating to watch this thing unfold. What will the telemarketers do to adapt and survive? I say look for some pretty creative stuff, probably which nobody has thought of before. Kind of reminds me of the UCE spammer mess. Those guys survive, evade, adapt. They are like some deadly mutating virus from outer space! Clever SOBs spread real viruses, hack computers, spread spam like thick layers of manure all over everything and mostly we are powerless to track them down and deal with them. (perhaps with some tougher laws, but don't hold your breath...) They are turning innocent computer owners into spammers right under their noses, especially the poorly secured broadband crowd.BTW I just noticed that not only is Fran a Senior Forum Moderator, but she has reached breathtaking heights of newsgroup posting, earning the coveted "Forum Fiend" award with 1800+ posts at last count. You go girl! You've got nine squares on your attaboy badge now, and well earned! Thanks for all the help and info and good-natured humor. Makes it kinda fun to hang around these parts, even with all these other geeks a gawking! (You done good, Scot- you sure know how to throw a party!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 For those desiring to take a proactive stance, the attached does the same thing as the popular 'Telezapper' sold here in the U.S. but for free - ridiculously simple and nothing to install.There is a 'Read Me' inside.* Can't attach here, so please click here *Good one , Bruce- Thanks! This is a nice, simple method of 'telezapping'. I think the actual devices are way overpriced for what little they do, but cheaply built though they are, they would be of high value to frustrated folks getting buried under sales calls. Somebody must be making a fortune building telezappers for Radio Shack. I will put this .wav on my machine. BTW I see from reading their text file that comes zipped with the .wav file that I had guessed pretty closely how modern dialers do it. Detect energy-pause-energy... for a 'live one' and only (long) energy-(long, single) pause for outgoing message. I have worked as a design engineer for a modem manufacturer (early 80's) and also had a friend who worked as a tech for a local dialer manufacturer. I had a pretty good idea how they would be doing this detection, especially on the hardware side. I did learn a thing or two about DAA's back then (the part of a modem or other device that connects it electrically to a telephone line). It's a pleasant surprise to see I guessed right for once. Excellent post! A 10 for utility and information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Lots of good info on the call center insdustry and products here:http://www.callcenternews.com/ That is an interesting site, all right. It's kind of spooky to read it from the telemarketer's (spammer's) viewpoint. The page titled New Data Tools Enhance Customer Experience is enlightening. This paragraph is very telling: "...a new product for Internet direct marketing...They've got a huge database of approximately 400 million individuals and 225 million households (...note that that's far more than the population of the US...this is indeed becoming a global marketing culture.)" Euwww! They've been spying on me. They want to sell me vacation swampland futures. Let's pretend we're not here and let the answering machine get it. Let's send them tones and pretend we've moved away... Reminds me of my second-favorite Larson cartoon of all time- shows a couple both lying across the living room floor, tongues hanging out, etc. Another couple is seated on the sofa. The caption reads: "Feigning death, the Wilsons finally shame the Smiths into leaving." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbredmound Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Now, the gov site is running really slick. I hit the register button, then raced to my Yahoo acct, and the email was there.As to some of the previous "wonderings", I think we may see a return of the plane-with-banner, an upswing in blimp sales, and perhaps some good-old-fashioned sandwich boards (new jobs for the homeless?).Now those telemarketing "fishbowls" can throw away their phones, and they can all have computers! Maybe, they'll even retrain their crews as hackers, so that they can invade IM networks, chatrooms, forums, etc.sticky...Eat at Joe'sWhen you are confronted by an enemy that is motivated by either religion or money, you've got a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 does the same thing as the popular 'Telezapper'We got one of those a while back and it did not work! At all! I think ours was defective. When you picked up the phone, it would beep, but it wouldn't stop. You couldn't talk on the phone because it just kept beeping and making all this noise. We had to get rid of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 When you are confronted by an enemy that is motivated by either religion or money, you've got a problem.Siiighhh! Yes, yes. So very true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 1, 2003 Share Posted July 1, 2003 (edited) "The ability to profile consumers while they are on our clients' web site or contacting their call center is very powerful. Armed with this detailed information, clients can create a personalized Web experience that results in higher consumer satisfaction, brand loyalty and revenues,'' said Susan Henricks, president and COO of Donnelley Marketing.Donnelly says that their clients can increase CRM productivity by integrating the most accurate and comprehensive consumer content within their own operating systems to focus on a single consumer at a certain point in time; this happens in real-time, online.CRM, like CTI before it, is an enabling technology. IF you have all the correct elements in place, including all the correct integrations and pipelines and data collection tools and analytic segments, you can arrange for a fantastic customer experience during the interaction. But it relies so heavily on having the right data in the right place at the right time. One aspect to getting that right is expanding your existing data to flesh it out, correct it, and augment it with new data sets. Too many forget that the integrity of the data (or the lack of integrity) can make or break an entire CRM or customer service philosophy.Oh, such feel good tactics ... doesn't it just give you goose bumps to know they are so concerned about giving us such a good customer experience.To think they could use such means of gaining information about us in order to help them give an illusion of comraderie and like-mindedness for their contact with us. They have not earned this right.They should not be able, at the expense of our privacy, to glean information to fill "their data mining needs" just so they are able to gain leverage against us in the execution of a sale.If a sales person or other CRM agent has specifically had direct contact with a potential client for a legitimate reason, then take notes from this contact, that's one thing.But to use impersonally gained data-mining to target us and our interests specifically ... to give them an unfair and frankly undeserved emotional advantage is unbelievable.No matter how you sugar coat it ... it is simply a tool to weild to build their bottom line and line their pockets. ---------Cluttermagnet --Thanks for the kind words! Edited July 1, 2003 by LilBambi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted July 1, 2003 Share Posted July 1, 2003 But to use impersonally gained data-mining to target us and our interests specifically ... to give them an unfair and frankly undeserved emotional advantage is unbelievable.No matter how you sugar coat it ... it is simply a tool to weild to build their bottom line and line their pockets. Hi, Bambi-You've got it. Isn't it creepy to hear how they spin it? I guess that people who work in certain unpopular fields develop a sort of standard 'doublespeak' to deal with reality. It is _so_ dishonest. Notice that the entire paragraph, pretty much, is in 'code'. They use words and phrases that would seem to describe things and events far different from what they are actually talking about.IF you have all the correct elements in place, including all the correct integrations and pipelines and data collection tools and analytic segments, you can arrange for a fantastic customer experience during the interaction.Who is having the "fantastic" experience here? I think it is the telemarketer or spammer. This just doesn't sound very "fantastic" for the poor 'customer' (target), who is being taken unfair advantage of and under attack by an overly well-informed, high pressure salesperson. "Fantastic"? I think that what is "fantastic" here is this telemarketer's warped perception of reality. This falls dangerously close to that general area of negative human behavior which is all loosely tied together under the label of "offender behavior". These folks' behavior, at least on some levels, can easily be seen as predatory. You know, 'wolf in sheeps clothing'. Ahhh, yes- the smooth, purring sound of the telemarketer in full voice, having found their mark and moving in for the kill... Yeah, don't we all love the telemarketer's just _soooooooo_ much! "But I just want to be loved!" sobs the fallen spammer. "I hate the person I see in the mirror! Dad liked you better..." Then follows an indignant rant about their inalienable First Ammendment right to cover the entire world with a uniform two foot deep layer of manure- er, spam, telemarketing calls, whatever. I bet they just can't understand how so many people, given the opportunity, are firmly and resoundingly rejecting their practices. Why did we all turn on them? What did they ever do to deserve this?What was the statistic somebody posted here recently? The average telemarketing _worker_ lasts an average 3 weeks before cracking. Yikes! I would not last out the day. How can anyone absorb so much hatred, rejection, and abuse and not get emotionally harmed? Getting back to our executive level worker raving about our "fantastic" sales experience, I can only guess that they develop psychological defenses early on, especially the ability to compartmentize or wall off the crazy sectors like all that doublespeak. It's sort of like a forbidden place. They never take it home. It stays at work. Sort of like multiple personality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 "Long-distance phone companies got an exemption for their nightly slam calls. There's an irony in there someplace. Airlines got an exemption, which I suppose is cool if they're calling to let you know that they've gone bankrupt and your flight is canceled. Banks and credit unions got an exemption, probably to offer the newest consumer credit package: zero-percent auto loans with zero-percent savings accounts. Insurance companies got an exemption, too, so they can call and tell you that your rates are going up as a result of their lousy investments of your premium money in the stock market. Wait, there's more. Charities got an exclusion. Hmm ... I'm beginning to wonder whether this list is really going to cut down on my dinner-time calls after all. Telephone surveyors don't have to honor the list, either. Does it seem like the loophole is expanding? And, I'm sure George W. was happy to note, the new Do Not Call list does not apply to political organizations. Finally, there's the biggest loophole of all: The Do Not Call list can be ignored if the company already has an existing business relationship with you. So, if you once gave $10 to the Tinker Toys for Tiny Tots Trust, you'll be hearing from them again."From a Lockergnome article HERE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgeg4 Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Oral Spam Is there really a difference . JUST HANG UP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 JUST HANG UP LOL. Is that going to be the next, "Just say no." campaign? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Sonic --Sheesh, by the time they finish exempting everyone Tom, Dick and Harry company and organization ... this will be worthless! Merged your Do Not Call List topic with the existing one so we could keep it all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgeg4 Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 QUOTE (littlebone @ Jun 27 2003, 04:47 PM)IAnd Teacher, while we are on the subject. Why is won't apostrophed? I wo not?I think it is a contraction for will not. You can't say willn't very easily. Won't just sounds better. Better ask an English teacher (one that teaches English, not one from England biggrin.gif ) I just teach computers. That keeps me busy enough.Main Entry: won'tPronunciation: 'wOnt; New England, upstate NY, nPa "w&nt, 'w&nt; greater NYC 'wünt; eSC 'wünt, 'wuntDate: 1608: will notMaybe this will help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgeg4 Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Personally, i usually try to be nice to the telemarketers that call. I usually let them talk etc, have a conversation, and don't disrespect them, if i'm not doing anthing important.I feel bad for them. The way i think of it... if your a telemarketer, your not very financially well off and your life didn't turn out quite they way u wanted it to. I'm not saying that being a telemarketer isn't a resonably decent, honest way to make some money... but u know what i mean.They don't know that your eating dinner when they called or that your having a bad day or that they made you get off the couch. If they did call you in the middle of dinner, be thankful that your eating and not working, calling people who are rude to you all day. If they make you get off the couch, good! It's good for you! If your having a bad day, it doesn't give you the right to make other people's day bad too.But, what really bugs me is when you pick up the phone and there is no one there! That's worce than having telemarketers try and sell you something!Just food for thought!(PS, yes, i did sign up for the do not call list. Very fast, no problems. I haven't got the email yet though.I agree 100% sonic I have had some pleasant conversations with some of them .And the others who are not so pleasant I use my second tactic JUST HANG UP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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