Dear People for the American Way, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic National Committee, MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, et al.,
Yes, I sympathize. I'm on your side. I love that your web sites let me send boilerplate faxes to my elected officials expressing cookie-cutter outrage about a variety of topics. (I'm sure that tactic is very effective.) I think you're on the side of Good and Right and the True Spirit of America.
That said, leave me alone! Stop emailing me, and most of all, stop calling me! Stop calling me after 8:00 at night when my young children are in bed! I got two calls last night within ten minutes of putting the girls down for the night. Do you know how incredibly annoying that is? It does not make me think kindly about giving financial support to your organization, that's for sure.
And to all the people who give these or any other organizations money when they call: Knock it off! Telemarketing is not an acceptable practice. You only encourage them and make life hell for the rest of us when you reward their efforts with your cash. Don't make me come to your house.
9 comments:
Don't forget the credit card companies that you do business with. Technically they can call you even if you are on a do not call list because of your "business relationship." We have a co. that has been calling us about 10 times a day for the last week. I know they are going to try to sell us credit protection or some such crap. Last night I got so angry I picked it up. I was going to tell them to knock it off or I was canceling the card. My irritation spluttered when I heard this, "Thank you for being a loyal customer. Please hold the line for our next available representative."
Not only are they annoying, but there's only a computer there! I hung up before anyone got to the line. Ya know what? They called back 5 minutes later. Jerks.
PS. When our kids were small and we worked early mornings, we had a service on our phone that gave people a nice little message after a certain time. I think you can program in a few #s that will ring through. Otherwise they need to know the emergency code to get a hold of you.
I hate that!! I've been getting those calls lately, too. I had been screening calls and not picking up whenever it was them, but finally I got sick of it, picked up, and told them to take me off their list. I haven't gotten a call from them in a few weeks, so maybe it worked. For now, anyway.
And the freakin' Lyric Opera of Chicago -- they're terrible! Airan and I subscribed to the Lyric for several years, but we have neither the time nor the disposable income these days. When we didn't renew, they called constantly! Finally, I explained to them that, while we love and support the Lyric, we spend our evenings at home with our twin girls now. At long last, they stopped calling.
what a great idea -- I should look into that service. I'm amazed by how many calls we get in the evening. I'd love to put a stop to it.
[Knock wood] We hardly get any telemarketing calls right now. I'm sure that will change the instant I have a baby who's sleeping and could be wakened by the phone.
I unsubscribed to Moveon.org after I could not stand the massive deluge of e-mails from them anymore. I felt guilty, but what are you going to do? They were abusing our friendship, so I dumped their ass.
Have you tried the Do Not Call list? We don't have a land line, so I thankfully don't have to deal with solicitors, but whenever we do get one, I'll try the Do Not Call thing. I occasionally get a solicitor calling my cell phone, but I quickly let them know I don't accept solicitations on my cell phone.
Ok, I'm an idiot. I just realized the name of this post is "Where's the Do Not Call list when you need it." Sorry, I should have read that first!
A quick shout-out to everyone from People for the American Way who has visited my blog this morning. Welcome! Feel free to defend yourselves.
What makes some of this worse is the fact that non-profits seem to share their donor lists. When will they realize that generous folks have their limits and that they are killing the goose...
At least the Internet mailings can be easily deleted.
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