The Fish Pond . . .

[Libertine]

I wanted to tell a little story about a fish pond. Seems many years ago there was a guy who liked fish. But he soon got tired of running around here and there to catch his fish. So he decided to make his own little fish pond.

Over the years he dug it a little bigger and stocked it with fish. First the fish came from his own immediate neighborhood - fish from the zip code he lived in. But gradually the fish came from 100s of zip codes from Washington State to Washington DC.

As he went along he learned of better ways to catch his fish. It didn't take too long to learn that catching fish that were too small, less than 4", was a waste of time and didn't taste very good anyway. So when a smaller fish bit the hook, he painted it with a luminiscent sign that said "do not catch" before he threw it back.

Life was good. Whenever he needed a little protein he threw in his hook and soon had dinner. As long as he took care of his little pond, treated the fishes right, areated the pond and made sure there was some food for the fish, he had a nice little food supply. In fact, as he got older, he was counting on his little pond as a source of food for the rest of his days.

But some of his neighbors didn't like the fact that there were some fishermen that spent too much time hooking the little fishes under 4". It hurt their feelings to know that little fishes, that weren't very good to eat anyway, were being hooked. Some of them got really upset about it. So they all went to the Mayor and complained and complained about the little fishes being hooked. And the Mayor, being a politician, had a no brainer - lot's of sensitive souls who would vote for him if he would make it illegal to snag the little fishes that didn't taste very good anyway.

So, the mayor and the city council passed a law that said any little fishes that didn't want to be hooked could come to him. All they had to do was to say they were less than 4" in length and the mayor would put their name on a list. Every fisherman had to buy that list, then check every fish before he threw the hook in so the fisherman wouldn't accidently hook a smaller fish. Because, if he did, even by accident, the Mayor would send out a deputy who would collect $11,000 from the fisherman.

Life became not so good. When our pond builder was at a town meeting and some of his neighbors were congratulating themselves on getting the mayor to pass the "do not catch" law, he pointed out to them what it would mean. His neighbors, most of whom had never built a pond themselves, pooh-poohed his remarks. When he pointed out that the price of fish would go up he was told that it cost nothing to measure each fish before the hook was thrown in. When he pointed out that the $11,000 fine for even hooking a 4" fish would encourage poachers he was dismissed as an alarmist. After all, all that mattered was that they no longer had to have their feelings upset by thinking about a 4" fish being hooked.

Our pond builder still has his pond, of course. But now he either has to measure each fish every 3 months or throw his hook in and risk the deputy coming out and taking $11,000 if he even accidently hooks a 4" or smaller fish. Our pond builder had always taken care of his pond and his fishes and had been marking the smaller ones all along anyway as they showed up. You can imagine what he thinks of his neighbors. I believe these neighbors have Bible and somewhere in that it says something about "they know not what they do."

JEH

 

[WVBill]

Now tell that same story from the point of view of the fish.

Not so nice is it?

 

[JTD]

Interesting story. In the real world the fisherman did not create the pond, stock it nor feed it. He exploited it for his own gain disregarding the interests of the fish and their privacy, disrupting their communication at dinner time and being totally obnoxious about as he thought it was his God-given right to do it. In this case the interlopers were right.

 

[DocHeb]

... and all was fine at the fish pond - until the fisherman changed his fishing method. Rather than using bait, he now snagged the fish- that way the fish didn't have a choice about taking the bait or not. Despite attempts to stay away from the snagging hooks they were still caught, sometimes being pulled away from a meal they were eating, or from even more intimate moments. The fish tried to ask the fisherman to stop snagging them indiscriminantly, but he didn't listen. Then the fisherman decided he wasn't catching enough, so he invited all his friends over, and they were snagging too. Soon there were 48,000,000 snagging hooks being pulled through the pond every day, all going after fish that were not given even the satisfaction of eating some bait or given a choice about being snagged. Then the fisherman decided that having so many friends over to fish was labor-intensive, so he rigged a computer controlled machine to pull the snagging lines faster and faster. If the fish thought the fisherman didn't listen, imagine the computer's response to their pleas.

Of course you know how the story ends: The fisherman found he could send snagging email even cheaper, baited with Spam, further infuriating the fish. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

What's a poor fish to do?

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

What is your Home Phone number???

 

[JazzDad]

I'm reminded of an old story. This is said to have occurred years ago. A neighbor was visiting on the front porch, when the telephone started to ring inside the house. The visitor asked, "Aren't you going to answer it?" The owner replied, "I had that phone installed for MY convenience."

In our house, we don't answer the phone. We screen calls through the answering machine. We don't answer the doorbell. If you haven't been invited, it's assumed you are a robber. There's too much evil out there today.

 

[JTD]

Well written tale. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[MossRoad]

JEH,
You are probably a fine, ethical business person with high standards. I can see it in your day to day conversatons here. You are someone that I would probably do business with. However, the blame for the telemarketing situation lies with unethical telemarketers, not the people they call. The people they call have just had enough. I realize that it might impact the cost of services when a business has to spend money on advertising. I'm sure the cost of things will go up because of it. But the cost of everything goes up. The cost of nothing has come down, ever, that I know of, for any appreciable amount of time, for any reason.

As to what can be done about it, I don't know. All I know is I got bombarded by calls, several a night, from people trying to sell me something. Most were polite, but many were not. Those that were not got my goat, so to speak, so I signed up for the Indiana no-call list. The calls stopped. I can go about my day to day life without interruption. Unfortunately, people like you can no longer contact me via phone and I will miss out on your fine services. I will now have to look up your number in the phone book, or get it by word of mouth from one of your satisfied customers. I am truly empathetic to your situation. However, I felt that I had no choice but to get on the list. My quality of life was being degraded by these calls every night.

There is one way around the list that I have heard of. When you contact a customer regarding a bill you can ask them if it is OK to contact them via phone when you have services to offer. If they say yes, you can record this answer in your records and then you can call them within a certain time period. While this helps a little, you will have to start all over with your contacts that you have built up over the years. I imagine that would be very tough on a small business. However, I think a successful business will find ways to overcome this situation. Good luck to you and yours.

 

[fivestring]

"When you contact a customer regarding a bill you can ask them if it is OK to contact them via phone when you have services to offer. If they say yes, you can record this answer in your records and then you can call them within a certain time period."

I like Henro's idea better....

A National CALL list. A person must sign up to be called.
I think it's a crock that I have to spend my time to sign up to NOT be called. RIDICULIOUS!
I h8 big government and thousands of crappy laws but, this situation was created by the sales companies, was made worse by them and was not policed by themselves, so unfortunately the government must step in.

But, Grimreaper, just like MossRoad, I would probably do business with you. You seem to say what you mean and mean what you say; no knives in someone's back.

 

[Libertine]

Mossroad:
Thank you for your kind comments. I would have no problem with a law that required a company to not call someone who had told them (the company) they did not want to be called. I've been doing that for years because it just makes good business sense. Why would any responsible person want to waste their time calling someone they knew ahead wasn't a prospect? Selling, any kind of selling including the telephone, is very much a matter of timing. Further, it depends on who is calling and why. If the dealer you bought your tractor from called you beyond the legal cut-off time in the no call list law, to see how things were going and whether he could sell you anything else, theoretically he could be fined $11,000 for making that one call. In my particular case (and product line) it can sometimes take years to develop a prospect into a sale. A low pressure call every few years, an occasional piece of sales literature, etc. Furthermore, whenever you call anyone you have to keep in mind what's going on with the person on the other end of the line. You may catch them in the middle of something. You can tell they don't want to talk so you say I'm sorry when's a better time. But sometimes they aren't busy and are free to talk. But that's just the way I've always done it - low pressure persistence. My quarrel is with the outrageous nature of the way this is structured. If I accidently call someone on the list, not even knowing they're on the list, I could be fined $11,000 for ONE such call. I have invested perhaps $100,000 over a period of years developing my database. Yes, much of my business does come from referrals. But the way this law is structured is absolutely outrageous, and besides there are exemptions for politicians and charities.

But, Mossroad, that's just my situation. It's perfectly normal that my "neighbors" don't care what happens to my "tiny pond." Nothing wrong with that. But what is so pathetic is those "neighbors" have no understanding, or concern, about the fact they are actually harming themselves. Further, most of them have never met a payroll - they depend on the owners to provide them with work. As I said in the other thread that was closed (probably a good idea as it was getting a bit hot) it will raise the price of things more than otherwise would happen anyway, including from businesses not doing any phone solicitation (I gave an actual example), it will increase joblessness (yes, many will find other work, but some will not), it will increase the number of fly-by-night operations over what there is anyway, it will cause even more jobs than would otherwise have gone overseas to be shifted out of the US. There are a LOT of effects that those in favor of this havn't thought through and seemingly don't care about. Opting out with particular businesses that you don't want to hear from is one thing, but the draconian and destructive nature of this law is an obscenity. Again, Mossroad, thank you for your kind, and if I might say so, rational, response. I appreciated it which is why I took the time to respond to your post.
JEH