Cold calling
Face to face.
Some call centres also operate a face to face approach.
Instead of being called at home they will collar you in the street.
I did my stint at that and was a miserable failure.
We were supposed to get a minimum of 8 sign ups an hour.
After a long cold stint in the pouring rain in a city centre I contemplated 2 options.
1/ step in front of a bus to end the agony
2/offer BJs if they would sign up to pay £2 a month to whatever cause we were promoting.

I did neither and was 'let go at the end of the month'

Due to an administration cock up they paid me an extra months pay, that I gratefully pocketed and decided to be extra nice to the poor sods still out there on the streets, seeing as how I knew how it worked.

Instead of sailing by with a curt 'no thank you' I stop and say 'sorry I cant sign up but ive done this job and I know how hard it is and good luck.
Usually ends up in a conversation of how crap it is with commiserations.

Last time that happened I made my usual 'no thank you' and before I got any further the poor guy blurted
'But we will pay you £5 for 10 minutes of your time"
No shit!
Now I was waiting to meet a friend and explained this, he said no probs, you can call them or if they call you, we can halt the survey.
So off I trotted following the guy into a pub.
I had a moment of WTF, im going into the back room of a pub with a strange guy , but I'm sure I'm not a suitable candidate for the slave trade and I'm big enough and have some army training to fall back on if things get a bit Fred Westish.

Just as the survey ended my phone rang.
'Where are you?"
Me.... I'm upstairs in the back room of a pub with a guy who is giving me money"

Choking sound down the phone
Me, "meet you in a minute"
I take my £5
We meet, I explain.
Just as another guy approaches me.
I say Ive already done it, he asks if I know anyone else who wants to take the survey.
I point to my friend and she goes off to earn £5 to talk about orange juice for 10 minutes.
I sit on a bench and watch the other poor sods try to reel in their quota.
And watch the people rush by brushing them aside saying no.
I want to say, go on do it, you get paid.


But my tolerance doesnt extend to cold callers ringing me at insane O clock.
In spite of knowing the other side they get short shrift I'm afraid



flip, thats a long post
apologies
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 1:04, 6 replies)

The worst pitch in the entire universe for this sort of work
is the one just near Warren St tube, opposite UCLH - Its really not idea to try and collar stressed out relatives as they wait for news of their loved ones.

I overheard this once:

OXFAM BOD: Would you like to help save the planet?
BLOKE: Fuck off.
OXFAM BOD: There's no need to be so rude, sir!
BLOKE: My wife's just fucking died. Now fuck off.

As for getting paid to talk about orange juice - sounds great, just as long as they don't want you to drink any of that evil, vile Satan piss.
( SpankyHanky, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 9:45, closed)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Not at the poor guys misfortune at losing his missus (subject to debate)..

But at a new addition to my arsenal of 'stop annoying me in the street you cunt' comebacks..

*kerlikk*
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 10:07, closed)

Orange juice is nice!
Unless you drink a litre of it and the laxative effects kick in.

*ouch*
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 1:12, closed)

I have no sympathy for 'em.
If they insist on interrupting my cigarette-and-a-good-book time when I've just stepped out of the office for a break, they deserve everything they get.
(wellgroomedwookiee is a filthy-minded hobgoblin, Mon 7 Sep 2009, 15:44, closed)

I've been paid to eat chicken wings and drink orange squash
also eat chocolate

there was a hotel in Leicester that did this sort of thing quite regularly, as a student I'd often wander down there if I was hungry and skint
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 10:11, closed)

Sounds good
Pity I didnt know of places like this in the past
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 1:14, closed)