Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Mercury Marketing Again Message-ID: <13763@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 17 Oct 90 18:53:19 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: John Higdon Organization: Green Hills and Cows Lines: 31 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 743, Message 4 of 11 On Oct 17 at 2:46, Paul Orgren writes: > Something just occurred to me -- does the S.J. Mercury bother their > own subscribers with the telemarketing calls? Oh, yes, they certainly do. I have been a subscriber at this residence since 1968. Most of my friends and associates are also subscribers and are also plagued with the calls. The line goes like this: "This is Jim from the San Jose Mercury News. Are you receiving the paper OK?" In essence, they are trying to come off as a QC call. Presumably, if you don't take the paper you would so state and then be subject to the sales pitch. I actually fell for this line the first several times. Then it occurred to me that NOBODY follows up on service satisfaction two or three times a week, week after week. And do so calling every line in the house. Of the many e-mail suggestions that I have had, one of them was "Subscribe to the damn paper and then they will stop." Unfortunately, I'm sure there have been non-subscribers who have been beaten into submission. They subscribed to the paper just to stop the calls, and then found to their dismay that it brought no relief. Truth in Advertising would suggest that the Merc solicitor would give the disclaimer, "Consent to this subscription offer will not stop the solicitation calls." John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@bovine.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !