I can't believe what just happened tonight.

I got a call from a telemarketer from my former employer. At first I'm like, why is my former employer calling me. And I'm totally pleasant, and then the man, "James" says he's calling me to thank me for purchasing tickets to a recent concert. I respond, James, I didn't go to that concert. And he's like, oh did you purchase tickets though. And I said, James, no I didn't purchase tickets, and the organization recently laid me off, and I don't have a new job yet, so I can't buy tickets to any upcoming shows either.

Well, the poor guy was super embarrassed as he had no idea.

So, this was insulting for two reasons. One, they should have put my number and mailing address on a suppression list the second they fired me. Why would they put a disgruntled ex-employee that is suing them on a telemarketing list? That's a waste of time for their telemarketers. And they are paying a firm to do their telemarketing. Great way to waste donor's money and tax payers' money, since they receive both city and state grants.

Second, I tried numerous times to educate them on how to properly segment and target audiences for these campaigns. But they didn't want to listen because they are young and stupid and think they know everything from their three years of experience as a development assistant. I won awards for my work in direct mail and annual fund development because I am a master of segmentation and list building. It's actually not difficult work but here's the thing: They wanted a list of all the people who bought tickets to a certain concert for the telemarketers to call. Now if I was on that list, and I didn't purchase tickets, how many other people are on that list that are not part of the target group? I would wager that the whole list was probably crap. It's not hard to pull a correctly segmented list and do your due diligence to have someone check your suppressions (that means a code you put on someone's record so they don't pull into the list) and to do some random checking against the database. You pick like 20 records from throughout the list to check against the database itself. If there's a problem, usually you'll unearth it by doing a spot check. And it only takes a few minutes.

So it's insulting to be laid off because they "don't need your skills and expertise," yet they are making major mistakes like that. Do you know how many people you piss off when you put them on a list incorrectly? I sent a correct list to my mailing house once and they put an incorrect ask amount on a fundraising piece that only went to about 100 people. The second I got a call from a donor complaining, I apologized profusely, mailed them all a personal apology hand-signed by myself, and took all their calls personally. I could have lost all those donors because they were pissed but I handled it so sincerely that we didn't lose any. But I can guarantee this organization won't do that.

And the thing is, when the word gets out that you treat people badly, it kills your reputation as an organization. And they already have that reputation, they are just screwing up more and magnifying it.

I vented this to a friend and she was like, just wish them what they deserve. And I replied that I actually don't wish them any ill will because I don't need to. They are screwing up enough on their own.

Okay, just had to vent that out. It made me so mad tonight to get that call. Seriously, why don't you put a suppression code on someone who is suing your ***?

Seesaw