Automated telemarketers

[laughingwillow]

The other day I answered the phone and began a conversation with a telemarketer. However after a couple of exchanges, I got the feeling that something wasn't right. The person on the  other end would speak and then when finished, I could hear some sort of a transition. (like from send to recieve or something.) Anyway, at that point I decided to veer from the apparently scripted route of the conversation just to see what would happen. So I asked the guy if he could hear me OK and his answer didn't seem to quite jibe with the question. Then I asked if he was human. At that point, the machine told me that we were having trouble communicating and that he would call back at a better time. hehe

The thing is, that damnable machine just about had me fooled. I'm guessing it will be tougher to catch a couple of generations down the technology road.

lw

[CJ]

Damn!!!!

Good article in a recent Scientific American about computer generated speech. Don` know if it applies here, but scary, no matter what.

     But in my mind,spotting the shuck says something about human based intelligence, in it`s own right.

[Stonehenge]

Get an answering machine and caller id. Then, don't answer unless you know the person who is calling. Let all others leave a message and maybe you'll call back. You have to protect yourself against those bastards.

[laughingwillow]

LOL Good advice, stoney. But we already have both of those safe guards. But we have a couple of friends who call in from numbers w/o data available and I really don't care ot miss friend's calls due to this. I usually have no problem identifying a modern solicitation due to the pause heard in most systems before the marketer is actually connected. I'm still not sure how this machine handled that problem, but apparently better than the system usung human interaction.

lw

[winder]

A new gimmick in telemarketing now that the "DO NOT CALL" list is in effect is the following:

A company calls offering to renew a magazine subscription at a discount.
The discount sounds like a bargain, so you renew through the calling company's offer.
Then a follow-up call comes to verify the transaction and to offer yet another magazine.
Then another call comes in to offer still more magazines and other stuff.

I must have foiled them by two things:
I only renewed the one magazine.
I did not complete the credit card transaction by giving them the 3-digit code from the back of my charge card - I am not that clueless- rather I asked for a bill.