I work in a marketing department and receive dozens of unsolicited sales calls each week. One particular salesman has left me multiple messages a week for the past month, often calling daily. I’m not sure if he ever left his company name, but he certainly never  left an introduction or any indication of what service he was selling or what problem it could solve.

He actually reached one of my coworkers and asked her why I wasn’t returning his calls. Apparently he wasn’t getting the message. After he left another message today — name and number only — I snapped and called him back to give him an earful. I told him that he was wasting my time, he had never introduced himself, his company, nor their services. His company’s solutions don’t even pertain to my area, but since he never mentioned what they did, I had to sleuth it on my own. Had he been forthcoming at the outset, I could have directed him to an appropriate party in my company. He then had the audacity to ask if he could schedule some time to speak with me about his company’s offerings. I told him that I had no personal or professional desire to do business with his company, but I did offer up that I would send his email link to an appropriate party at my company. That’s way more than fair.

The irony is that this company, out of Massachusetts, offers “Do not call” compliance services. Apparently I’m not on the list…  

11:30 AM UPDATE: The aforementioned salesman called one of my coworkers to tell him I was short with him. So he’s called and harrassed me for almost a month, called one coworker to complain that I’m not returning his unwelcome and unsolicited calls, and called another to complain about me being short with  him on the phone. Now it’s harassment.

Honestly, I can’t stand any telemarketing or direct mail companies. The only reason they haven’t been run out of town on a rail is because of lobbying. I know they’ll make the argument that DM is effective and drives sales, hence our economy. But I’d argue back that a lot of the time they’re simply able to record sales, where a lot of word of mouth goes unmeasured. Certainly sales like pizza delivery are driven by mail flyers, but that comes at the expense of groceries you might buy at the store or a dinner at a restaurant. I try not to do any business (personal or professional) with companies that bombard me. You all know where I stand on mass-consumption by now anyway…