Today, while I was walking around my house, I heard the phone ring so I picked it up and answered it. On the phone was a very polite lady that said she was calling from a market research company. When I was younger, I would have just hung up the phone and not think a second about it. However, when I was at college, I worked for a company called Discovery Research Group. It was a company that did phone surveys. My job was to call people from a list of phone numbers, ask them to spend a little time with me on the phone while I asked them their opinions. We never sold anything, just asked questions. Companies would pay very good money to find out if people knew about their products. Some surveys were very boring, but others were actually very interesting. I really hated the job but it was the only job at the time so I suffered through it.
Because I worked for DRG (Discovery Research Group) I have a soft spot in my heart for phone survey people. Whenever I get a call from a phone survey person, I always try and take the time and complete it. I have been on the other end of the phone, and I know that the person gets paid based on how many surveys they complete.
I don't have any compassion for people that try to sell me something over the phone. When I find they are trying to sell me something, or trying to get me to donate to something, I say "no thanks" and hang up the phone.
