 I have worked for West telemarketing several years ago, but I was not a telecommuter. I worked for their home office in Omaha, Nebraska. I will give you the heads up on one thing, and the reason I did not like it, and I quit, even before I finished training.
If you have a thick skin, telemarketing can be a great source of income. If you have no morals whatsoever, then West is the place for you.
I remember the last day I was there like it was yesterday. It was about a week into training, and we were going to get on the phones for the very first time. We had spent the last week going over the automated computer system, and how to log everything from orders to customer service complaints. We knew that we were working for several companies "of high reputation" and that was the reason for the extensive training. You see, at West you did not memorize a script, because there were too many clients for that to be feasible. So, for every phone call that came in, the script for the product the person was calling about would immediately pop up on the screen, and you would simply read it, of course trying not to sound automated yourself. This seemed like a great thing, until I actually sat down and experienced this system for myself. There are two products that stand out in my mind to this day. My second phone call was a man calling in for "Girls Gone Wild". While this might not sound like a big thing, it is quite shocking after a build up of over a week of "reputable company" hyping and a stress on professionalism. After about 20 minutes of other calls, I get the call that did me in for working there. It seems that some guy was doing television ads selling "holy water" that was to be the cure all. I had an elderly woman call in and told me that her husband was very ill with cancer, and that she had tried to purchase the water twice. The first time it came in the mail, but it had no effect on her spouses illness, the second time it simply did not come at all. I could not believe my ears when this woman told me that she was calling, not to complain, but to simply order another vial, for she had no time to wait for a refund or risk an extended shipping time on a resend of the vial that did not come. She simply wanted to reorder and pay for rush shipping as her husband was told that he had no time left, and she was desperate.
I told her that there was no way in my heart that I could do it for her. The water was over $60 for a 1 ounce vial.
I actually had to hang up on her as she started to cry and tell me that I was her last hope, actually begging me to place the order.
I asked the supervisor if there was a way not to get products put to me that I had a strong moral objection to, and was told that the job was not meant for me, and that I could leave. So I did.
This was about 10 years ago, so things might have changed, but after being around for a while, it is probably only worse, not better. But I wish you the best of luck.
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