Comments on: Side Hustle Fail: Working a Phonathon

By: Mike - Saving Money Today

Mike - Saving Money Today — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:03:49 +0000

I could never do that job. I’m not a big phone person to begin with, and trying to pressure someone to cough up cash? No way.

The closest job I’ve had to that was when i was in college I worked for a small insurance company making cold calls to potential clients. I had no idea what I was talking about and hated every minute of it.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:33:20 +0000

haha, inside scoop on Discover Card, what! that’s pretty interesting. never thought about companies calling up and bugging their OWN customers. target rich environment for sure though – i bet they get a lot of upsells. thx for sharing non-phone girl ;)

By: Jaime

Jaime — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 09:37:42 +0000

I used to have a telemarketing job with Discover Card and quit. People hate doing business over the phone and worst of all, they hate telemarketers even from their own credit card company. Yeah we used to call up current card members and sell them more DC services.

Lots of people don’t realize that even if you’re on the don’t call list, that as long as you have business with someone then you can still call them up. So that’s how DC got around that rule.

It sucked. The experience also hasn’t made me want to buy anything from other telemarketers either. I still say “no thanks” if someone calls. lol. But since we have skype and a pay as you go phone its really rare.

I currently have a phone job that involves no sales. I call up hospital patients and ask them to do a hospital survey, most people are pretty nice, it involves no sales, you get their opinions, the only problem is the survey is so technical that you have to ask every question even on really long surveys and some people get bored and hang up. Most surveys that we have aren’t that long. Thankfully.

Most of them finish the surveys. Because of my phone jobs it has turned me off from being one of those girls obsessed with their phones. I have no interest in smart phones and I have no interest in upgrading my pay as you go phone. I don’t mean to be rude to people that love their phones, but when you talk on the phone all day you really have no desire to pick up your own phone and use it.

Okay technically we use computers, headsets and applications that dial someone’s number but its still a phone job because you hear ring tones, answering machines, etc. I’m just glad that it doesn’t involve sales. I suck at selling and I hated being that pushy credit card person.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:52:56 +0000

@Kevin @ Thousandaire.com – Something similar actually happened to me too. Got trained to work one of those medievel festivals and then never went back to start working. Got a call that my boss and her kids got in a car accident and died :( Didn’t have it in me to go back – was way too sad and freaky.
@Wade – Ewwwww, hate that $hit. One “no” should be enough. bleh
@Jen – Work it, Jen! You are so good at it now!!! wow.
@MyMoneyMess – Hah! I used to get calls from those types of places EVERY week! After almost-falling for it a few times I finally caught on. I really don’t understand why people have to be so shady – especially SMART people. If you’re smart enough to trick people, turn it around and use it for GOOD. You can be just as successful.
@Catherine – Me too. I LOVE talking/helping people, but not selling them or asking for donations…
@Lindy Mint – Yeah exactly – good skills to take down the road, but not fun learning them ;)
@Donny Gamble – Amen, brotha.
@Molly On Money – haha, I will tell her that! in fact, I was thinking of creating a forum so maybe she’ll have a spot there? she can go on and on about money stuff once she gets going, but she’d probably get bored real quick, haha… not so much a fan of it as we are ;)
@Money Reasons – I’m with you on that one. It’s too bad we can’t call people to GIVE them money ;) haha… how awesome would that be?? (actually, we kinda do it at Love Drop – but just once a month)

By: Money Reasons

Money Reasons — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:10:13 +0000

I feel your pain Mrs. eliteedgemoney!

I too did some telemarketing when I was back in college. Everybody was pretty nice, and I even got a few people to pledge, but OMG, I hated to beg. I couldn’t stand the job, so I quit after 1 week.

That said, my buddy made a career out of it… Go figure!?!

By: Molly On Money

Molly On Money — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 20:12:40 +0000

I had a similar job (but skeezier, a for-profit business that raised money for children that had been abused). Once I realized the $ was going in the pocket of the owner I quit.
Can you start a Mrs. Elite Edge Money ‘corner’. Regular posts would be fun!

By: Donny Gamble

Donny Gamble — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:23:43 +0000

I think that everyone needs a side hustle because the main gig sometimes does not pan out

By: Lindy Mint

Lindy Mint — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:57:49 +0000

Oh man, you couldn’t drag me into one of those places! One of my close friends after college had trouble finding a job, and ended up taking one with Target Corporation calling people who hadn’t paid their Target credit card bills. We used to meet up for happy hours once a week and they were always filled with his colorful stories of the crazy people he had to call that day.

If anything though, I guess it would give you thick skin after a while.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:57:09 +0000

It’s probably a great job if you’re good at it and have a thick skin, but I’d hate doing it too.

By: MyMoneyMess

MyMoneyMess — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:15:41 +0000

I responded to one of those “Part time work, Great Pay” type ads when I was about 21. Turned out that the job was selling toner over the phone. They had a set pitch you were supposed to run through and they paid a pretty good percentage as a commission on the sales you made. The problem was that the whole thing was a bit of a scam. Real toner was sent out to the customers who ordered, but it wasn’t what they thought they were getting.

The wording of the pitch implied you were calling from their regular supplier without actually saying that. The whole thing was bait and switch. Being young and naive, it took me a while to realize that this was what was going on. At first I did pretty well, just followed the script and got sales. As it started to sink in that the whole pitch was BS, I couldn’t do it any more. I learned that I don’t have a problem selling stuff over the phone or whatever as long as the sale is honest.