I just received this phone call.
Telemarketer: Good afternoon, can I speak to Miss Shen?
Qiaoyun: Speaking.
Telemarketer: Miss Shen, I’m happy to tell you that you’ve been specially selected to be a member of the new American Express Kris Flyer Gold Card.
Qiaoyun: I see.
Telemarketer: May i know if your yearly income is more than 40k?
Qiaoyun: No.
Telemarketer: Er… including bonuses and allowances?
Qiaoyun: No.
Telemarketer: *slight pause* Oh. In that case, we’ll let you know if we have other promotions in the future. Bye!
WTF.
I haven’t even launched into my “I’m not interested” speech, so where does he get off being not interested in me first?
What the hell.
What happened to “specially selected”?
Telemarketers are getting more idiotic by the day. If you’re working as one, please quit before your soul gets eaten and your brain turns moronic from the demands of your job.
I ganna the same thing from them.
But when they ask for my annual income, my reply to them was “How you all select people one? Anyone choose huh?”
Hmm I met this a**hole from Standard Chartered Bank, doing Corporate Banking. He approached the door of my company. Since I know by the look that he’s a door-to-door salesperson, I told him that I wasn’t interested.
Guess what’s his reply? “Do I look interesting to you?” Seriously, it’s a really rude remark and his facial expressions were that of sarcastic nature. I was like “Screw this guy”.
What’s with sales ppl these days?
the funny thing is that they say we are selected. I’ll always say “alright! ok how can I get it? what, my income? don’t you have it already? what, you don’t have my name? so how did you select me? was my number interesting looking to you?”
it’s not their fault, but their bosses should really change the sales pitches
rn: Ask the fella out and show him/her your walking stick!! lol!! Scary!
This is hilarioius!
I have had many offers to get a gold card but time and again, I decline.
I don’t see a point in paying nearly double the annual subscription when your credit limit is capped by MAS at double your monthly salary i.e. classic and gold cards will have the same credit limit.
whenever i get a coldcall like that, i try my very best to be polite. Imagine yourselves as a coldcaller…getting so much negative reponse (hundreds a day?)….its a sad way to make a living…given a choice, who’d actually aspire to be one???….nobody right????…so show a little kindness to YOUR coldcaller…it doesn’t cost a thing…peace out….
:)
well. .. no words can express what I felt .. hahahaa :) anyway .. like Fish said .. now susah cari makan .. but ar .. sometimes, the calls really irritates people :)
I got exactly the same call from HSBC today. Only this time 30k annual salary enuff already. Not gold card so more.
What to do? Miss Loi is a 2nd-class citizen.
It is not easy being a telemarketer too. My boss always give such callers a torrid time over the phone. So when I get a call, I try to be nice….especially if she sounds nice haha But really, it does make their day slightly better if we reject them nicely or something. I ended up befriending a telemarketer because she just bumped into too many people who hung up asap or told her off. I just…listened and made her laugh. In my job, sometimes I have to endure certain bosses so when I meet a nice boss, I appreciate it a lot.
I didn’t even give them time to start.. The moment they start with “Hi, I am calling from *** Bank.” Immediately I told them straight in the face that “I am not interested”. Haha..
Short Pain rather then Long Pain. Since I am not interested in the first place.. :)
I had a friend whom a telemarketer called him too. Similarly, they asked him if he earns 40k and above per annum. My friend replied yes(he lied). He told the telemarketer he was some CEO and all that. When the telemarketer told him to sign up for the credit card thingy, my friend said he was going to china to meet a client and bla bla then, hanged the call. haha!
ah.. good thing I didn’t take up any telemarketer job. :P
Aiyayah, I pity people working as a telemarketer now, I didn’t know so many people actually dislike them! I personally enjoy listening to those selling some spa or club membership. Their voice can sometimes be so sweet I couldn’t bare to hang up on them.(I know, their sweet voices doesn’t really mean they look cute) Yes, I know some of them can be irritating and/or rude at times, just hang up on those. Please give them a break, they’re just doing their job! (,”o c”,)
No, I don’t work as a telemarkerter.
DK: Haha… do they give you satisfactory answers?
Ethan: Wow, that’s really, really rude. I wonder how he survives in his job with this kinda attitude.
rn: Yeah, I think so too. I should have asked the fellow more questions, but I guess I didn’t want to waste time talking to an idiot.
JayWalk: Nowadays it’s easy to get a waiver on subscription fees since credit card companies are so desperate for business. So it doesn’t matter what card you hold… most of the time don’t have to pay. Heheh.
Fish: I AM always very polite to telemarketers. (Ok, almost always. When they catch me in a bad mood, I might sound a bit more curt.)
Most of the time, I will allow them to give me a one sentence pitch, then I will say very nicely, “I’m not interested.” If they ask me why, I’ll say very nicely, “I’m unemployed and can’t afford whatever you’re selling.” I even say thank you before hanging up the phone.
I totally understand they’re just doing a job, so I try not to give them a hard time. But when a telemarketer is rude and insensitive like in my case, then I think he deserves to be smacked on the head. But, guess what, being the nice person that I am, I didn’t even scold him and even said thank you to him before hanging up. O_o
SC: Yeah, I find the calls very irritating, especially when I’m waiting for a good news call but every time the phone rings, it’s just a stupid telemarketer. Very anti climax. :P
Miss Loi: Haha.. I don’t even have 30k lah. :P
Dennis: Yeah I know. Read what I said to Fish. I’m almost always polite to telemarketers even though they annoy me because I don’t want to ruin a poor fellow’s day. There was once, I even had a nice conversation with someone who stopped me in the middle of the MRT station to try to sell me insurance. I guess I was in a good mood that day, haha.
But generally, I don’t condone telemarketing. It’s very annoying and invades my personal time and privacy. And sometimes I feel that people deserve the bad treatment if they choose to take up the job, especially if they’re bad at the job. So many telemarketers today just want to make a fast buck. They don’t care about giving good customer service and they are not interested in you if you can’t afford their product. That’s totally wrong, isn’t it? :(
jeremy: Haha. Yeah, I can understand why you do that. I do that myself sometimes when I’m not in a very good mood or I’m really very busy and don’t appreciate the interruption.
eugenemon: LOL. Your friend must be very free that day to make up stories to entertain a telemarketer! :P
uglyfatchick: As a matter of fact, I actually considered being a telemarketer before, when I was very low on cash and needed to pay bills and stuff. :P But I finally decided not to. Rather starve to death than do something I don’t believe in!
Morgan: Heh.. are you talking about telemarketers in Singapore? I’ve never heard a sweet voiced one. All the calls I get are from men (is it their strategy to target opposite sex clients?) and most of the men sound gross. They either talk too fast or too softly or sound too obnoxious, or stammer, or sound unsure. I wonder how they can ever sell anything.
ah.. yes!
I believe it is their strategy to target opposite sex clients!
Most of the calls my boyfriend get are from female telemarketers. He just got one today selling some spa/facial stuffs. LOLs.
Qiaoyun: Nope, they just give me a “eeeerrr….. ” as answer
Lina: Yup, I’ve received quite a few sweet voiced telemarketers trying to sell me stuffs in both Singapore and China.
Oh, I remember I actually received one a couple of weeks ago, she isn’t even trying to sell me anything, she’s working for a company that does surveys. Her voice was so sexy it actually sounds erotic(with all the sighs & panting) if you know what I mean. Now you see why I don’t find telemarketers irritating. c”,)
uglyfatchick: That’s interesting, really. I never realised that all my telemarketing calls were all from males until now, after reading all the comments here.
DK: lol.. that sucks. I think they need more training on how to handle “difficult” calls. Haha.
Morgan: OMG you guys really get calls like that? Us female customers are losing out! I demand to have a sexy voiced hunk cold calling me! Haha.
Wow… after a cold call like that, did you need a cold shower? :P
QY: I really wish I could help.
Mince Pye: Come to think of it, you’re right! I didn’t realize it then but if I wasn’t still in bed with my GF when that call came in I would’ve really needed a cold shower! Come on, everybody’s happy, my GF was pleasantly awaken because of that call too!
Wow… it’s awesome that a cold call can engender such… happy feelings. ;)
Too bad most of such calls hit me when I’m in the office, so no matter how happy they make Mr Happy feel, it wouldn’t be kosher for me to do anything about it… heh.
Mince Pye: Shouldn’t it be the other way round? Like, cold call –> warm shower?
cold call -> by hot female voice -> cold shower…
Yes, that maybe applies to Morgan. But what about my cold call by a lousy cold voice with a lousy cold personality? I don’t need more cold. Hahah.
Then you will feel hot under the collar, so you’ll need a cold… drink.
Telemarketers SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no money, no talk
*hangs up*
I think if you say yes, that dude will lick your a$$ nicely.