NationStates

I received what I assume is one of those annoying political cold calls. The person on the other end of the line was a woman and she asked to speak to "any male registered voters in the residence". At first I was a tad surprised, then offended, then curious. There were, however, no answers available from the caller, who hung up when informed that there were no males, aside from a snake and a tarantula, in the house.

Has anyone else received such a call? Is this some sort of divisive conservative ploy designed to cause discord between male and female voters? Is this some sort of liberal action designed to do who knows what? What would the purpose of a call like this be?

Like when my mother was doing some transaction on her personal account at a bank and the teller asked '..and does hubby know about this?', to which my mother replied 'go fuck yourself'.

Probably just trying to poll and wanted a certain demographic.

Thankfully, I don't have to deal with them.

Having said that, if a van arrived 15 minutes later filled with criminals intent on emptying your house you'd only have yourself to blame, the correct response to these cold calls is 'yes but he's outside wrestling some bears, you can call back in 10 minutes'.

Bombadil wrote:Having said that, if a van arrived 15 minutes later filled with criminals intent on emptying your house you'd only have yourself to blame, the correct response to these cold calls is 'yes but he's outside wrestling some bears, you can call back in 10 minutes'.

This. I suggest you double check all your doors and windows are locked and keep the shotgun loaded.

Blazedtown wrote:

Bombadil wrote:Having said that, if a van arrived 15 minutes later filled with criminals intent on emptying your house you'd only have yourself to blame, the correct response to these cold calls is 'yes but he's outside wrestling some bears, you can call back in 10 minutes'.

This. I suggest you double check all your doors and windows are locked and keep the shotgun loaded.

I've just released the snake and the tarantula, I think I'll be ok.

Imsogone wrote:

Blazedtown wrote:
This. I suggest you double check all your doors and windows are locked and keep the shotgun loaded.

I've just released the snake and the tarantula, I think I'll be ok.

This scheme start up around election season, call random women out of the phone book and then rob the place because they have better chances of overpowering a woman, like cowards.

Pollsters always want to speak to males, if they can. The sample will not be representative of the population unless it is half male half female. Unfortunately, males are much less likely to answer the phone, and the males they do get are less likely to talk to the pollster, so they always have a shortage of males in the sample. Gals, nobody wants your opinion because you are too easy, you just give it away!

If it is in the new York Yeah there was a brothel that was soliciting over the phone using the ploy of asking if there was any male voters to get around suspicious wives and the like. I thought they got busted Monday though. You better report the number to the FBI for good measure.

I am reminded of the "Microsoft Support" calls from India that convince people if they're seeing a certain file, they have a virus or some serious technical issue, and can charge money to fix it.
Hence, seems like this may have been more of a scam to trick some poor sap into giving away his credit card number. Surprise though: Tarantulas don't have credit cards.

Imsogone wrote:I received what I assume is one of those annoying political cold calls. The person on the other end of the line was a woman and she asked to speak to "any male registered voters in the residence". At first I was a tad surprised, then offended, then curious. There were, however, no answers available from the caller, who hung up when informed that there were no males, aside from a snake and a tarantula, in the house.

Has anyone else received such a call? Is this some sort of divisive conservative ploy designed to cause discord between male and female voters? Is this some sort of liberal action designed to do who knows what? What would the purpose of a call like this be?

Sorry. I got nervous and couldn't think of anything to say.


What were you wearing?

I used to work sales for Dish Network. Horrible business, btw, I was actually fired for not breaking federal law. They supposedly cleaned up their act since then but I don't buy it...

Anyway, usually my calls would be outgoing (and completely random), though some people would call me to decide to subscribe. There were also people who were calling for customer service.

One of the ingoing calls was a follow-up sales call, but he wanted to talk to someone else. I had to spend 40 minutes to convince him that I couldn't transfer him because I didn't know who he wanted (he only gave me a first name), or where this salesman's office was located, or even if he was still working for Dish. Which then turned into a 20 minute conversation about Florida (where I live) and the Miami Dolphins.

Made the sale though.

Tmutarakhan wrote:Pollsters always want to speak to males, if they can. The sample will not be representative of the population unless it is half male half female. Unfortunately, males are much less likely to answer the phone, and the males they do get are less likely to talk to the pollster, so they always have a shortage of males in the sample. Gals, nobody wants your opinion because you are too easy, you just give it away!

I think I should get a career in cold calling

Imsogone, I guess it was indeed just someone who wants a certain demographic. That, or, your opinion is just not important

You should have put the snake on.

Death Metal wrote:I used to work sales for Dish Network. Horrible business, btw, I was actually fired for not breaking federal law. They supposedly cleaned up their act since then but I don't buy it...

Anyway, usually my calls would be outgoing (and completely random), though some people would call me to decide to subscribe. There were also people who were calling for customer service.

One of the ingoing calls was a follow-up sales call, but he wanted to talk to someone else. I had to spend 40 minutes to convince him that I couldn't transfer him because I didn't know who he wanted (he only gave me a first name), or where this salesman's office was located, or even if he was still working for Dish. Which then turned into a 20 minute conversation about Florida (where I live) and the Miami Dolphins.

Made the sale though.

Hey I live in Florida!

Palm Beach Baby!

NERVUN wrote:Probably just trying to poll and wanted a certain demographic.

Thankfully, I don't have to deal with them.

This is the most rational conclusion.

Much ado about nothing. Probably, just trying to conduct some study.

Hammurab wrote:

Imsogone wrote:I received what I assume is one of those annoying political cold calls. The person on the other end of the line was a woman and she asked to speak to "any male registered voters in the residence". At first I was a tad surprised, then offended, then curious. There were, however, no answers available from the caller, who hung up when informed that there were no males, aside from a snake and a tarantula, in the house.

Has anyone else received such a call? Is this some sort of divisive conservative ploy designed to cause discord between male and female voters? Is this some sort of liberal action designed to do who knows what? What would the purpose of a call like this be?

Sorry. I got nervous and couldn't think of anything to say.


What were you wearing?

Turquoise uplift bra, turquoise bikini pants, baggie jeans, baggie sweater.

The Blaatschapen wrote:

Tmutarakhan wrote:Pollsters always want to speak to males, if they can. The sample will not be representative of the population unless it is half male half female. Unfortunately, males are much less likely to answer the phone, and the males they do get are less likely to talk to the pollster, so they always have a shortage of males in the sample. Gals, nobody wants your opinion because you are too easy, you just give it away!

I think I should get a career in cold calling

Imsogone, I guess it was indeed just someone who wants a certain demographic. That, or, your opinion is just not important

I'm used to my opinion not being important. I learned that on NSG.

Imsogone wrote:

The Blaatschapen wrote:
I think I should get a career in cold calling

Imsogone, I guess it was indeed just someone who wants a certain demographic. That, or, your opinion is just not important

I'm used to my opinion not being important. I learned that on NSG.

You're the first that actually learned it. The rest of us is still dillusional about it

Imsogone wrote:
Sorry. I got nervous and couldn't think of anything to say.


What were you wearing?

Turquoise uplift bra, turquoise bikini pants, baggie jeans, baggie sweater.[/quote]

In the old days, when I at least pretended to have balls, I would've gone into the moderation forum and posted a thread "Imsogone has posted an image so sexy and intense, it makes Ultra-Porn look like Amish cooking instructions."

But I'm trying to be good about the mods.

But in my heart, you're worth it.

I receive annoying calls everyday from telemarketers, political groups, people doing surveys, and wrong numbers.

One of the problems with random digit dialling as a sampling method is that the characteristics of the sample you end up with (people who answer the phone and complete the survey) isn't the same as the characteristics of the population you're trying to make inferences on (say, all registered voters). That means you end up with a sampling bias. For example, disproportionately many women respond to RDD than men. One of the ways they deal with that is through quotas, so you end up with a sample whose characteristics more closely match the population. Presumably they'd just filled their quota of women to survey but still needed more men? If there were a male respondent in the house, they probably would have also asked about his age and race.

Hammurab wrote:

Imsogone wrote:I received what I assume is one of those annoying political cold calls. The person on the other end of the line was a woman and she asked to speak to "any male registered voters in the residence". At first I was a tad surprised, then offended, then curious. There were, however, no answers available from the caller, who hung up when informed that there were no males, aside from a snake and a tarantula, in the house.

Has anyone else received such a call? Is this some sort of divisive conservative ploy designed to cause discord between male and female voters? Is this some sort of liberal action designed to do who knows what? What would the purpose of a call like this be?

Sorry. I got nervous and couldn't think of anything to say.


What were you wearing?

This. Is getting sigged.

This week I've been besieged by calls from the Lawyer's Bar. There were elections today and the parties wanted to woo me to their side. The current administration even invited me to a party, but it got rescheduled to a time I couldn't attend.

Me personally, I don't mind getting called, but those who do, are going to waste their time.