TELEMARKETERS FEB 18, 2009
My mother was probably one of the first of those annoying telephoners now known as a telemarketer. However in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s this was a relatively new phenomenon. In fact in those days the job was known as Telephone Solicitor. Initially she worked out of the home using none other than Ma Bell’s Telephone book and called people to make appointments for such folk as Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesmen, or awning sales. It was always sales, and the job was good, as my Dad had retired in 1955, and had a limited pension. Mom’s extra income helped with our small family that time-to-time had to rely on surplus foods from the government, which was before the days of food stamps. Sometimes we ate a lot of bean soup, but we got by. Since I had fought with a weight problem most of my adult life, I was surprised when someone who knew me from those junior high school days, referred to me as a “skinny girl.” I had matured earlier than my peers and always had thought I was “fat.”
Well the other day I got one of those annoying calls on a Sunday, and since I do not have caller I.D. on the phone in the basement, I answered it. The poor gentleman on the other end got an earful from me, I am afraid, first for calling on a Sunday, and secondly because he represented Comcast in its never failing effort to make me take up their telephone service. I did tell him that I understood it was his job, and not his fault, but that I did not do business on Sunday, and I considered A T & T’s independent from DTE power lines an asset. While the Electric could go out, and the Cable could thus go out, the phone company seldom went out and when it did, usually it was not at the same time that the electric did so. Thus a separate phone line was a huge asset and I did not intend to disconnect myself from this resource. In fact after the blackout of a few years ago, I went out and purchased a “land line phone” which can work independently of electricity, so I would not be without phone service should another blackout occur. Comcast’s assurance of battery back up, is not insurance enough for me. I felt bad that I had let this young man bear the brunt of my frustration, but he was well prepared and handled his end of things fine, and even has taken my name off their calling list, at least the calling list for Sunday.
Back to my mother’s day. Solicitors were not quite as annoying as computer generated phone calls, or the guy from a third world country, or the person in an office somewhere calling five people at the same time in the hope that one would pick up. My mother progressed from using a normal phone book, to using the City Directory and later on something called Donnelly’s yellow book which listed numbers in our town not by name, but by street name and number, thus making it easier for salespersons to go to appointments. And most people were polite to her including the matron of the county jail, who had a regular listed number. This woman responded to my mother’s pitch by exclaiming, “I don’t need no awnings. I live right here at the jail!”
Later on the sales pitches became more pressing, and as a result, the people on the other end had to become ruder and sometimes just plain hung up. This was long before caller I. D. By the time I was sixteen and old enough to work, sometimes I would go with my mother to some of the makeshift offices her supervisors would set up. One such was in the Harrington Hotel, an old but formerly glamorous hotel in downtown Port Huron. I would imagine that having young girls come to old hotels to visit rooms that salesmen from out of town had rented, was somewhat suspicious, but even then we were still called telephone solicitors. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that I heard someone tell me they were in telemarketing, not soliciting. I guess it was earlier that the term Solicitor fell into ill repute, although it is still used to describe some members of the legal profession. Apparently Lawyers do not mind.
My mother was probably one of the first of those annoying telephoners now known as a telemarketer. However in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s this was a relatively new phenomenon. In fact in those days the job was known as Telephone Solicitor. Initially she worked out of the home using none other than Ma Bell’s Telephone book and called people to make appointments for such folk as Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesmen, or awning sales. It was always sales, and the job was good, as my Dad had retired in 1955, and had a limited pension. Mom’s extra income helped with our small family that time-to-time had to rely on surplus foods from the government, which was before the days of food stamps. Sometimes we ate a lot of bean soup, but we got by. Since I had fought with a weight problem most of my adult life, I was surprised when someone who knew me from those junior high school days, referred to me as a “skinny girl.” I had matured earlier than my peers and always had thought I was “fat.”
Well the other day I got one of those annoying calls on a Sunday, and since I do not have caller I.D. on the phone in the basement, I answered it. The poor gentleman on the other end got an earful from me, I am afraid, first for calling on a Sunday, and secondly because he represented Comcast in its never failing effort to make me take up their telephone service. I did tell him that I understood it was his job, and not his fault, but that I did not do business on Sunday, and I considered A T & T’s independent from DTE power lines an asset. While the Electric could go out, and the Cable could thus go out, the phone company seldom went out and when it did, usually it was not at the same time that the electric did so. Thus a separate phone line was a huge asset and I did not intend to disconnect myself from this resource. In fact after the blackout of a few years ago, I went out and purchased a “land line phone” which can work independently of electricity, so I would not be without phone service should another blackout occur. Comcast’s assurance of battery back up, is not insurance enough for me. I felt bad that I had let this young man bear the brunt of my frustration, but he was well prepared and handled his end of things fine, and even has taken my name off their calling list, at least the calling list for Sunday.
Back to my mother’s day. Solicitors were not quite as annoying as computer generated phone calls, or the guy from a third world country, or the person in an office somewhere calling five people at the same time in the hope that one would pick up. My mother progressed from using a normal phone book, to using the City Directory and later on something called Donnelly’s yellow book which listed numbers in our town not by name, but by street name and number, thus making it easier for salespersons to go to appointments. And most people were polite to her including the matron of the county jail, who had a regular listed number. This woman responded to my mother’s pitch by exclaiming, “I don’t need no awnings. I live right here at the jail!”
Later on the sales pitches became more pressing, and as a result, the people on the other end had to become ruder and sometimes just plain hung up. This was long before caller I. D. By the time I was sixteen and old enough to work, sometimes I would go with my mother to some of the makeshift offices her supervisors would set up. One such was in the Harrington Hotel, an old but formerly glamorous hotel in downtown Port Huron. I would imagine that having young girls come to old hotels to visit rooms that salesmen from out of town had rented, was somewhat suspicious, but even then we were still called telephone solicitors. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that I heard someone tell me they were in telemarketing, not soliciting. I guess it was earlier that the term Solicitor fell into ill repute, although it is still used to describe some members of the legal profession. Apparently Lawyers do not mind.
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