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So my question is, anyone have any funny story’s about what they did to a survey taker or hey even a telemarketer?

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ORIGINAL: MistressOfGa

Actually Windy, it is called the National Do Not Call Registry. ALL companies who make unsolicited phone calls are required to buy this list which costs about 500.00 dollars every 6 months. *The only exception is Not For Profit/Non profit organizations* If you call someone who is on the DNC list, the company can be fined up to 4,000 dollars. Each State has a Regulatory commission that companies are required to register with before making one phone call.

I used to own a Marketing company and was almost fined 8,000 dollars because I wasnt registered with the Tn. Regulatory Commission. I ended up closing my business when the National Registry came along. I couldnt afford to make a bad call. Just because your company is only taking surveys doesnt mean they are not required to be on the list. You are still calling people who have not contacted you and asked you to reply by phone to them. It's called an unsolicited phone call.

In answer to your OP <s> because of my past experience being a "Telemarketer" I am kind to them. They are only doing their jobs. I say no thank you, but in a firm voice. Most of the time that is enough. I am pretty intimidating over the phone <wg>

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ORIGINAL: JohnWarren

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ORIGINAL: windy135
Hi! We don't have a list to take them off. We get their number from a phone book. We are a small company so we don't have a list on a computer or anything our surveys and such are pencil paper

That's incredible. Taking numbers from a phone book is not an accepted research methodology. That is the sort of thing telephone sales people do, but people doing research are held to a higher standard because their results are supposed to reflect an external universe from which names have been selected in a random (I won't go into details here but suffice it to say the procedure is strict and complex) manner.

No attack on you, Windy, but it sounds as if you are either working for a stealth sales organization or a con-game pretending to do research for unsuspecting clients. Neither is good news.

My background: a doctorate in mass communications research with emphasis in statistics and sampling and a senior vice presidency at Erdos and Morgan, a research and surveying firm then located on Madison Ave.

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ORIGINAL: Gauge

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So my question is, anyone have any funny story’s about what they did to a survey taker or hey even a telemarketer?

I have a few things that I have done to poor, hapless telemarketers.

This one guy called and was offering carpet cleaning. I wrote on paper for my wife (at the time) to start yelling and screaming at me. I started screaming at her. Exasperated, I finally asked the guy if his carpet cleaning could clean up large amounts of blood from a carpet. He hung up.

Another victim of mine called me and announced who he was and who he worked for and asked how I was doing. Well, I told him that I had just gotten into a car accident in the morning and that I couldn't get into work. I told him that my boss didn't believe me so he fired me. I told him that my wife was having an affair with another woman. I told him that I found out that the bank was going to foreclose on my house because I was behind in the payments and I would have to live in my car. He tried to get his sales pitch in and I cut him off and said that I thought he wanted to know how I was doing. I told him that I had found a pound of marijuana in my son's room and that I suspected he was dealing drugs. I told him that my mother was ill and that she was not expected to live much longer. I told him I was suicidal. He hung up.

The final one was a guy trying to sell windows. He called and began his pitch. I sat there and answered his questions. I told him that I was greatly interested in his product and that I only had a few questions for him. I explained to him that my wife was a mental patient and she was inclined to trying to escape the house through the windows. I told him that in order to stop this from happening that I wanted to install new windows with bars and I asked if his company could do that. He said that he wasn't sure. I told him that any reputable window company should offer those types of services because I am sure that I was not the only one that needed them. He was flustered at this point. I told him that I had one more question for him. I asked him what his shoe size was. He hung up.

I have my caveat: Let the caller beware.

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ORIGINAL: windy135

Wow Mistress I did not know this.. hmmm I wonder if my company has a way to get around this. We are allowed to tell people we get their names from the phone book. Interesting :)

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ORIGINAL: JohnWarren

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ORIGINAL: windy135

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ORIGINAL: JohnWarren

If you are genuine reseachers, you are exempt from the law. The same goes for non-profit fundraisers and politicians. It's a fairly narrow law.

On the other hand, using a phone book as a universe is a very sloppy way of doing research. If they really are doing research, they are ripping off their customers.

Well I'm just a caller and I can tell you that you sound much more educated on such than the people I'm working for. For some reason I'm pretty sure that the customers come to my company because we do the phone dialing.. instead of mail surveys and such.. JohnWarner could to dummy down the meaning of quantitative and qualitative research the company also does secondary research .. but the main thing are focus groups. thanks much :)

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ORIGINAL: JohnWarren

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ORIGINAL: windy135

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ORIGINAL: JohnWarren

If you are genuine reseachers, you are exempt from the law. The same goes for non-profit fundraisers and politicians. It's a fairly narrow law.

On the other hand, using a phone book as a universe is a very sloppy way of doing research. If they really are doing research, they are ripping off their customers.

Well I'm just a caller and I can tell you that you sound much more educated on such than the people I'm working for. For some reason I'm pretty sure that the customers come to my company because we do the phone dialing.. instead of mail surveys and such.. JohnWarner could to dummy down the meaning of quantitative and qualitative research the company also does secondary research .. but the main thing are focus groups. thanks much :)

Well, there is no legal standard or licences for "research." Some homeless guy can hang a sign that says "Omega Research" on his refrigerator crate and be just as legitimate a company as Erdos and Morgan. That's one of the reasons the AMA (American Marketing Association) spends a lot of money each year to try to educate businesses so they know if they are getting good research or bad.

On the other hand, some companies don't want good research. They want research to come out the way they want it. We did focus groups with both university and corporate librarians about a book that was nearing publications. The publisher would have been smarter to have done this earlier because the almost unanimous decision was that the book was useless.

I was offered a "bonus" if I could "reevaluate" the report. I declined. I pointed out that the report was theirs and no one else would see it. It was really too bad they couldn't use it in their advertising, but that wasn't my problem.

We never received another commission from them.

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ORIGINAL: windy135
I guess I never gave it too much thought. Kinda bums me out that I could be working for such a lousy company .. but oh well it is good experience. I've already noticed that I've gained lot's of conversational practice speaking with so many people I don't know. I can't wait until after graduate school and uhh finally have a career where I'm doing something I'm interested in.. Thanks for the info JohnWarren :)