bought something from a telemarketer? Or a door-to-door salesperson? Or, god forbid, a spam? I just had some poor guy at the door trying to sell me some books that I can’t imagine wanting. I mean, somebody must be buying stuff through these methods or they wouldn’t keep doing it, right?
Depends what you count into those categories.
Do you count neighbor kids selling candy/wreaths/girl scout cookies?
I’ve bought plenty of that stuff, though not nearly all.
As for phone telemarketers or internet spam, never gotten anything from those. Always hang up on the phone ones, and now I eliminated my home phone and went with a cell for that one so I dont even get any of those annoying as hell calls. Used to get about 25/day, some days even more. Anything from house related stuff, surveys, charities on down to scams of various sorts would call.
Door to door is actually now banned in our area for most things, was getting out of hand with the magazine/meat/seafood/wood sellers and so on. Have bought a very rare few times, most times I send em packing.
Kids selling candy for fundraising is an exception, but I wouldn’t send my kids out to do that. As a parent, I’d rather just pony up more money than have them knocking on strangers’ doors. Candy’s not a good example, though. That shit is always tempting.
I supported a family of 4 for nearly a year telemarketing credit cards–AT&T Universal Mastercard to be specific. People buy things. I never have, but plenty of people do.
Heh…I am a telemarketer. It pays the bills while I got to school. It’s actually a really fun job, because most of the people I work with are college students and yes, people do buy from me. Lots of people. You’d be suprised.
I have to come clean a little bit on the telemarketing. I actually used to have a job working with the inbound and outbound telemarketing vendors that my company (at the time) contracted with. I used to visit call centers and do a lot of monitoring so I know how difficult it is – particularly outbound. I have a lot of respect for the people who can pull it off. They are hard to find and hold onto. And I know people do buy stuff that way, but I never have and can’t think when I would. I have sometimes stayed on the phone long enough to hear how well the rep handled the pitch and if the script was any good. If they did a good job, I’d tell them – but I never bought anything. What do you sell Merlin?
I have a friend who’s a spammer and makes a very nice living doing it, so apparently people do buy from spammers.
I hit on a telemarketer, and we ended up chatting for two hours. Eh, I didn’t have anything better to do.
But I still didn’t buy anything.
hey nephorm thats cool. i did that same thing and we ened up talking for like 40 min.'s and ended up giving me her number. hahaha why can’t it always be that easy. i even hooked her up cause when her sup talked to me i told them how professional she was and how great of a job she did. i give telemarketers respect as long as they give me respect. after all i’m a telemarketer my self (in bound how ever) and i know what they go through. but if i get the pushy ones thats when i end it vary quickly.
I buy from kids selling door to door all the time. Then again, I live in a relatively small town. I’ll even admit that I’ve bought from infomercials, love my dehydrator and my hit song cds.
Telemarketers, Thank GOD I live in Colorado. We’re now a no call state and it’s heaven. Before that, I’d never bought from them because I never gave them a chance to talk before hanging up.
I have a lot of fun with the telemarketers that call me, and I’ve even made a few business contacts that way (EXTREMELY rare). Just remember, the person asking the questions is in control of the conversation. Don’t give control away.
As for the kids at my door, I only buy from the ones that are local that I know. I’m not about to open the door for any old schmoe that walks up to my house. And I let them know exactly that.
I sell for MCI. Just tell people to change their phone service, half of the time at a greater cost to them. It’s all in your approach and confidence, not the actual product - just like everything else.
I have a policy that I refuse to buy anything that is marketed to me via spam or telemarketing. It’s that simple. I even told my credit card company that if they kept calling me, I would drop their card in an instant, even after 20 years with them! (They stopped, by the way.)
So why don’t we start a national campaign? “Just Say ‘No’ to Telemarketing.” If we could persuade people to stop buying, the telemarketing would stop being profitable.