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Telemarketing payback

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Buck Turgidson, Apr 23, 2002.

  1. Buck Turgidson

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    Comedian Calls Telemarketers at Dawn

    By Nancy Zuckerbrod
    Associated Press Writer
    Monday, April 22, 2002; 9:28 PM

    WASHINGTON –– Louisville comedian Tom Mabe went undercover at a telemarketing convention in the nation's capitol Monday to turn the tables on an industry he loves to hate.

    He was on the phone calling telemarketers in their hotel rooms before dawn Monday.

    Asked if he felt bad about waking the telemarketers and owners of call centers who attended the American Teleservices Association conference, Mabe said no way. "What they do is so intrusive," he said. "I think it's trespassing."

    Mabe was working out of his home office writing commercial jingles in 1993 when telemarketing calls started to exasperate him.

    "When you're self-employed, you jump when the phone rings, hoping it's a client," he said.

    Mabe, who moonlights as a stand-up comic, decided to get even by recording his conversations with telemarketers and playing pranks on them.

    He told a telemarketer trying to sell him an alarm system that he was robbing the place but suggested the man call back later.

    And Mabe told a caller trying to sell him a burial plot that the man had perfect timing, because he was considering killing himself. The telemarketer asked him for credit card information, Mabe said.

    Mabe put together a CD of his recorded calls and said he sold more than 50,000 copies. A few years later, the now-defunct label, Virgin Nashville, released two other Mabe recordings.

    "I decided if they're not going to allow me to make a living, I'll make a living off them," he said.

    Mabe hopes some of his calls to the telemarketers attending the Washington conference are funny enough to launch a fourth CD.

    He called the conference attendees in the middle of the night offering to sell them a sleep aid and pretending he was calling on behalf of the "Telemarketers with Insomnia Foundation." None of the people who picked up the phone were amused, with most hanging up and calling him a jerk.

    Matt Mattingley, director of government affairs for the American Teleservices Association, says he wasn't too disturbed by Mabe's actions.

    "There are a number of anti-telemarketing groups. This is America. They're certainly free to do and express what they feel their views are ... but do they make an impact on the business? No."

    Mattingley said last year the telemarketing industry contributed $661 billion to the U.S. economy in sales, taxes and jobs.

    Mattingley said much of his attention these days is devoted to opposing so-called do-not-call laws.

    Under federal law, companies conducting business by telephone are not supposed to call a consumer who has requested to receive no more calls from that seller. But the federal government is considering a proposal that would let consumers call one toll-free number to stop most telemarketing calls.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31176-2002Apr22.html
     
  2. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    Lol!
     
  3. rockHEAD

    rockHEAD Member

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    haha... i love it! :D

    we have this security company that calls us every night 3 times a night, I'm considering using the "I'm just robbing the place" line, but fearful they may actually call the cops!? :confused:
     
  4. Sonny

    Sonny Member

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    I had a damn credit card company keep calling trying to give me a new card. I told them No. They hung up and called back asking for my wife. I told them No. They hung up.

    Next day, they called asking for my wife. I told them No. They hung up. They called back and asked for me. By now I was irrate. I told them to F-off. This kept going on for a few days. Then I put in a complaint to the BBB. Then they called back again, I told them I complained to the BBB, they don't call anymore. :)
     
    #4 Sonny, Apr 23, 2002
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2002
  5. Hey Now!

    Hey Now! Member
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    good to know clutch is on our side....

    if it's the same guy, i've heard him on howard stern, and the calls are hilarious. in one, he drowns his invalid grandfather while on the phone; in another, he pleasures himself, getting off to the caller's sales pitch. "yeah, financing, uh-huh, talk slower..."

    gey-rate stuff.
     
  6. countingcrow

    countingcrow Member

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  7. countingcrow

    countingcrow Member

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    I just found a lot of Tom Mabe's stuff on Kazaa. I am downloading all of it now. Good stuff.

    Any of you ever heard of Roy D. Mercer? He is even better with his prank calls. You can find a ****load of his best stuff on Kazaa also. Download it! You won't regret it!
     
  8. Special Patrol Group

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    That's Jim Florentine. My favorite is The Touchtone Terrorists. They actually hijack calls that people make to customer service departments. I don't know how they manage it, but its hilarious.
     
  9. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    I signed up for the Texas Telemarketer no-call list...anybody know if that's gone into effect yet???
     
  10. HOOP-T

    HOOP-T Member

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    "WHO IS THIS AND WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME AT THIS HOUR?"

    "Mabe, Mabe no."
     

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