Subj : Telemarketers (was: Driving and such)
To   : DARYL STOUT
From : JOE MACKEY
Date : Thu Feb 25 2021 06:16:16

  Daryl wrote --

>   While the scammers are likely to change their numbers more than one
> changes their underwear, I'm going to keep blocking those numbers.

  I love how quick they hang up when I answer, in an authoritative voice,
"Lt Mackey speaking".  Silence.  I repeat that and "click" they're gone.  I
have the power to get telemarketers to hang up on me!  :)
  A co-worker said he wished he could do that and I said merely answer with
officer/sergeant so-and-so.
  In the late '90s I worked one winter for a survey company.  We weren't
selling anything, but asking about products and services, sometimes
businesses.
  The vast majority of the time the people were nice about it.
  I got Joan Embry's answering machine once.  She was with the San Diego
Zoo and on tv often with some critter.
  I also got the answering machine for a state supreme court judge in the
state of Washington.
  In those cases we just marked down AM (answering machine) and the
computer dialed the next number.
  They were dialed in sequence starting with xxx-xxx-xxxx1 then
xxx-xxx-xxxx2, and so on. 
  We traveled across time zones as the shift wore on, with PST being the
last.
  These surveys lasted from two to five minutes, except for the one
everyone hated, the dreaded alcohol survey.
  Usually the script was "I'm calling about Brand X.  Do you now or have
you in the past used it?  What is your opinion of it?" and so forth, paid for
by the maker of that brand.
  The alcohol survey could last up to an hour or more and almost always
someone would agree when it was close to quitting time.  We could tell when
someone got one at that time for the sighing and language from that caller.  :)
   They went into deep questioning about brands, types, how often one used
it, how they used it, etc.
   I got a fella one time who was drinking at the time and the more we
talked the more he drank and he was pretty sloshed when we finally finished.  I
could hear the sounds of ice cubes put in yet another glass, his pouring
whatever, sipping, etc.
   We had no names of who we were calling or anything.
   Joe

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