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From: cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Telemarketing Droids
Message-ID: <10461@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 5 Aug 90 04:02:55 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 542, Message 1 of 11


john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:

> Our gentle Moderator is precisely correct. This is exactly how I
> handled the {San Jose Mercury} and their telemarketing-run-amuck. So
> far it seems to have worked. It went like this: [Oh god, Martha,
> another story...]

Do newspapers have some kind of secret agreement to use sleazy
tactics?

Last year, I got a call ... the fellow says "Hi, this is George, with
the {Anchorage Times}. I spoke with someone there last week, and they
said I should call back today about starting your subscription."

Innocuous enough, I suppose ... but not good enough. I replied,
"George, let me fill you in here: I live alone, just me and my
answering machine.  If you had talked to _anyone_ last week, t'would
have been me. So you're lying to me right out of the box. I don't like
your paper, I don't like telemarketers, and I'd appreciate never
hearing from you again. Have you got all that?"

George mumbled something, and I hung up. Must have worked, though ...
I never got another call from the Times.


    Roy M. Silvernail   
    now available at:   
 cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu