Thanks for the encouraging words. I realize the nature of /. I just failed to take it into account when I posted my comment and subsequent replies. I could have posted AC, but I just ultimately decided that this was not something so bad I needed to hide behind that. Obviously, I was wrong about that. Oh, well, live and learn.

I could have easily posted AC, but didn't feel like I had done anything that required anonymity. I actually briefly considered doing so, but decided that if I was going to defend an unpopular position, it would be better suited to have my name attached to it. At least that way, I don't have to worry about other AC's posting and claiming to be me.

The moron comment was specifically intended to people who felt the best way to spend their time on the phone with me or another agent was to harass them instead of a) Asking to be removed from the calling list or b)Asking to speak to a supervisor, so they could get the information they could use to make sure they were removed. And, yes, we gladly gave both our address (we were a contracted call center) and address of the company we were working for to those who asked. I am not disputing that there are bad companies in the telemarketing industry, I have dealt with plenty on my own phones. I am simply asking that people not treat every single one like they are the absolute scum of the earth because they need a job.

I am well aware of the privacy implications of posting that information on my website. However, until now, the only people who seemed to visit my website were people who already knew me personally. If I was worried about people finding that information, I wouldn't have posted, and also would not constantly include the web address of the page on message boards, forums, etc. However, I have not updated the page in 3 years, and some of those things have changed. I am not planning to update it again before Yahoo pulls the plug on geocities.

I don't consider my post a flame, just a different point of view toward the subject (Telemarketing, not the warranty calls.) As for posting my e-mail address, I don't mind too much. The worst that will happen is my spam filter will be more busy than usual.

My company did not cold-call anyone, we only called former customers to either let them know about new products they might like or to see if they needed to reorder products they had ordered in the past.

The companies I represented were Blue Stuff, Inc. and Time Life Music. For blue stuff, we sold a menthol-emu oil cream that could help people with various pains. I never used the product myself, but heard plenty of customers tell me how useful it was for them (I also took inbound sales calls for Blue Stuff.) On outbound calls we would offer various sizes of Blue Stuff at a discounted rate. The particular offers carried, and since it has been 4+ years since I left the company, and even longer since I worked that campaign, I can't recall the exact numbers.

For Time-Life, we called people who had previously ordered either a music or video set (We saw their order history on our first page) to see if they were interested in other sets based on the type of music/video they had purchased before. The pricing was standard for TL. ~$130 for a box set, or ~$15-20 for individual volumes. People who ordered had a choice between the set or trying the discs one by one and keeping what they wanted.

I will decline to answer about the validity of the phone number. If that is what you think is the best use of your time, then I suppose that I can't do much to stop you. However, if such things were to become problematic I would be sure to let my phone company know the numbers to block. If this failed to work, I would contact the police.

Actually, I never worked for a company that did any cold-calling. We only called previous customers to see if, for one company They wanted to place a new order for the products they ordered before or, for another if products based on their previous purchases would be of interest to them.

What exactly makes the job immoral and unethical? I will admit that I myself have been annoyed by some in the industry who could care less about regulations, but the company I worked for did nothing to show either of these things. When I worked in QA, if I saw/heard anything even remotely questionable it was immediately reported to both my manager and the rep's supervisor. The problems rarely surfaced again after that. I really hate that people generalize an industry because of a few bad apples.

I used to hate people like you. I worked for a telemarketing company for a while. It was bad enough when I was on the phones and had to deal with you, what was even worse is being in QA/Mgmt and having to listen to the other reps deal with it and have to give negative reports because of their inability to do their job because of morons who couldn't simply ask to be removed.

Since you referenced we in your post, I will assume you are from the US. Given that, I think it may be a good idea for you to brush up on history a little.

The Bill of Rights was a very specifically written addition to the constitution. The reason it was not in the original document is that most of the states already carried these rights in their state constitutions and the rights were considered self-evident. (i.e. they don't need to be specified) However, there were those worried that in time the government would "forget" these rights and so they were drafted by a convention to be sure that everyone remembered them.