Well, I never!

[travelbug]

Am I correct in assuming that DVC does NO telemarketing, but relies on presentations on property and word of mouth? If so, that is so refreshing and unusual in the timeshare business.

Thinking about telemarketers, I have to share this. My dad is a very polite gentleman who is generally unfailingly kind to strangers. When I visit, it cracks me up to hear him deal effectively (but oh, so politely ) with telemarketers. Typical conversation goes something like this:

Telemarketer: "Blah, blah, blah..."

Dad: "Excuse me, but have we met?"

Telemarketer: " Have we MET?"

Dad: "That's right, have we met?"

Telemarketer: "No I don't think so."

Dad: "Oh, I'm sure we have met before."

Telemarketer: "Why do you think we've met before?"

Dad: "Well, you asked me to do business with you. Someone I've never met before wouldn't expect me to do business with him. That means we must have met before."

Telemarketer: " No, we haven't met before, but I'm sure you'd be interested in hearing about ..."

Dad: "Pardon me, but are you really sure we haven't met before?"

Telemarketer: "Sir, we have NOT met before. But I'm calling today to offer you the opportunity to ..."

Dad: "Well, first let's figure out where we've met before."

Telemarketer: **click**

What a scream! It is the funniest thing I've ever heard. The telemarketer can never get the upper hand because Dad keeps going back to "but surely we've met before if you're asking me to do business with you." His very polite tone makes it even funnier.

Now, as for me, I have caller ID and it's the best money I spend every month! No telemarketers ever!!

 

[ArnyVee]

Originally posted by Doc and Family
Sheri,
Have you signed up for the national DO NOT CALL list yet. It is WONDERFUL. I signed up when it became available here in Louisiana. I have received only one call in the past two weeks from a telemarketer, whom I promptly cut-off by informing him to check the DO NOT CALL list.

Aside from the 'do not call' list, you can be placed on a 'do not send me those darn credit card applications every day' list. Although, not sure if that's the official name or not

Basically, you contact one of the credit bureaus and they have an option for mail solicitations. You provide your name and address to a recorded message and you are removed. The wife and I used to get 3 to 4 'special offers' in the mail per day and now we are 'special offer'-free!

 

[SheriB]

I have signed up for the "Do Not Call List", and while it doesn't officially take effect until October, I have seen a significant reduction in the number of sales calls we get. Most of them now are vacation/timeshare and companies trying to sell me mortgage insurance (since we refinanced in January).
There will always be ways to get around the Do Not Call List. These people are persistent.
Travelbug, I don't think DVC does any sort of phone solicitation. They wouldn't need to anyway, because their product sells itself. And I'm glad we found it on our own. It's funny how DVC has been around since '91, and I had never heard about it until 10 years later. It took another year for us to decide to buy. We're glad we did (although I wish I had heard about it sooner.

Sheri

 

[KNWVIKING]

I do exactly what your DH does. My record so far is 18 min, 39 sec. My DS, who majored in marketing, takes it a step farther. He will actually engage them in conversation and twist the call to where he is actually trying to sell them some non-existant product.

 

[robinb]

Did your DH fill out a contest form at the mall or somewhere else while on vacation? We live abount an hour from the Wisconsin Dells and the local Timeshares have huge contest displays ... "Win A Car!" Really it's ... "Win a Timeshare Sales Call!" .

I have a deep, dark secret. I was a telemarketer when I was in High School. I cold-called people to get them to buy the Chicago Tribune. We had a list of phone numbers: The first 5 numbers were fixed and the sheet had 00-99 on it with places for notes like "no answer", "do not call again", etc. Let me tell you, it's a sucky job. Many people just hang up. Others swear at you. I lasted the summer before all the negative vibes got to me. But ... it was a job! It wasn't a nice job. I was not proud of what I was doing. But I was working.

To this day, I am always polite to telemarketers when they call. They do not call often since my phone number is unlisted and I never give it out to anyone. For those of you who are proud of teasing the telemarketers, let me tell you from personal experience that they are real people with real feelings.

 

[Terry S]

Well, I have a brother who owns about every company in the world. This is how it works. If its a mortgage company. I say "Sorry, my brother owns a mortgage company". and they hang up. If its a window company. I say "Sorry, my brother owns a window company" and they hang up. You get the picture. By the way, my brother really does own that mortgage company and after that worked for the mortage company that called, I started using it for many other companies as well.

 

[kel3420]

several stories:

Before we got caller ID, I would answer at least two sales calls a day. It got to the point, where someone would ask to talk to Mr. or Mrs. X, I would ask who was calling, and if it was a sales call, I would say that this was the maid and they were on a six month cruise. If they just asked for one of us, I would sigh and say, I am sorry, but he/she is in prison for the next 18 months. This would leave them speechless, lol.

My kids knew that if someone asked for my by my first name, generally it was okay to come and get me. If they asked for Mr. or Mrs, they knew it was a sales call and would just take a message. I got a call once from someone who asked for me by my first name, when my kids asked who it was, they gave their first name, just as if it was a personal call. When I took the call, and realized it was a sales call, I ripped into them, that how dare they decieve me like this, and that to THEM, I was MRS. X, not Kelly! They started yelling back at me, and I hung up. Within ten seconds, the phone rang back and a "supervisor" started loudly berating me for speaking in such a disrespectful manner to their employee "how dare I!", called me a B--ch and then hung up on me! Luckily, I had written down the company they were representing, and called the Corporate Office and seriouisly complained, threatening a harrasment lawsuit. They profously apologized and told me that they kept a log on who called what number and that the two people would be fired. They insisted that the "supervisor" who called me was obviously just another kid, and most certainly not a representative from their company. Boy, was I seething.

Thank goodness for caller ID. I don't know why we waited so long to get it, lol.


Since we joined DVC, I receive timeshare info in the mail at least every other week.

 

[SheriB]

I do realize that salespeople/telemarketers are actual people, but I am also very polite when I say no. They are very persistent, and when I get to the point where I'm about to hang up, I do warn them: "Look, I've politely told you no 3 times. I don't want to hang up on you, but I will if you persist." But then there are the totally rude ones that you can't help but be rude back to them.
Several times, when we noticed on the caller ID that it was a sales call, we let our kids answer the phone, "Home of the Whopper, what's your beef?" Or my daughter, who is very good at imitating different accents, will answer with a heavy accent and the people on the other end can't understand her and just hang up.
We don't do it to be cruel to the person on the other end, but the fact that they are calling us is an ivasion of our privacy in our home.
My sister has the Privacy Manager that ncligs was talking about. I may consider getting it myself. It's not very expensive.

Sheri

 

[SleepyatDVC]

Nothing to do with telemarketers, but I'm reminded of my youth when I (briefly) use to answer the phone with "City Morgue, may I help you?" This was on April Fool's Day. Granted most of the phone calls were for me. But I did get one from someone looking for my parents, which put a stop to the whole thing.

When I was adult, I had a college friend who was working at a family restaurant down in Miami. I would call her up and place a bogus food order and then ask that it be delivered to me in NYC! At which time she figured out who was calling her! She fell for it twice and after that it just became a routine joke when I called her at work.

 

[JudithM]

This thread is a stitch !! I am laughing at all the different ways to say "no!" Thank you all for a good laugh today!! Now wait until that phone rings again ...