Salespeople, like them or not?
It depends on who they are and what they're selling.
We have reps from a couple different
sign supply companies that visit us and go over any issues with certain products or service on our account. Same goes for the couple brands of electronic variable message centers we use. For the most part we get along with those people just fine. It's a long term supply relationship.
We'll get yearly visits from a couple people selling ad space in the phone books we use. Nothing too bad with that as long as they don't screw around with the ads we put together. I had one experience where some idiot decided to change a bunch of the typefaces in my ad design, despite the fact everything in the Illustrator file was converted to outlines. The schmuck just had to play with it anyway. Man I was angry. We got a full refund on that ad. That company went out of business a couple years later.
Other sales people don't fare so well. Despite the lettering on our door saying "No Soliciting" some sales people walk in without any prior appointment and try selling us something anyway.
I really can't stand telemarketers. My disgust is directed more at the telemarketing businesses and management than the people stuck with the really bad job of doing the calling. But if the caller wants to get pushy I'll start getting angry. Often, the very instant I sense the caller is a telemarketer I'll immediately hang up. And that's actually doing the telemarketer a favor; it quickly gets him onto the next call. They have to make so and such many sales per hour. If I want to be a real jerk about it, I'll string that telemarketer along for several minutes making him think I'm going to buy and then hang up. Boom. He lost money.
Phone companies, AT&T in particular, are among the worst when it comes to telemarketing nonsense. They call constantly wanting to switch your phone service. And the devious sales guys may not even be with AT&T. They may just be someone who wants to tag your phone bill with all sorts of nonsensical charges. It's criminal that kind of stuff is still kinda sorta legal. The direct marketing industry knows who to pay off in the government to keep that stuff going. They're also involved in paying scumbags in former Soviet states to come up with lots of
computer malware to push ads, steal personal data, etc.
