The Dove Foundation - Part Two
If you missed my previous post about The Dove Foundation, you should take a moment to be amused. Then return here for "Part Two".You see, I got a bit curious about this phone conversation, because - as you can tell from reading the previous post - there was something that just seemed "not quite right" about the whole thing.
So I did some reading.
Turns out, I got the name wrong. Her name isn't Candy. It's Cammie (or Cammy, whatever). Not that it matters. Because, you see, Cammie is not a real person.
At least, that seems to be the general consensus. I read on one blog where a former "telemarketer" for The Dove Foundation explained how it worked. There is a library of stock responses which have been recorded (perhaps by someone named Cammie?), and stored for use in phone calls. And a single operator has a touchpad with which he brings up an "appropriate" response.
Why? That's a good question. I mean, what do they gain by having a prerecorded voice, if they still have to have a human operator? Very simple. Since the human operator doesn't have to talk, he can (in theory) pay attention to three or four conversations simultaneously.
Now, I didn't see anything on the Dove Foundation website confirming that this is how it works (but if it is how it works, would they confirm it?) but if you go back and re-read that bizarre phone call I had, all of a sudden, it all makes sense.
In fact, it's about the only explanation that helps make any sense at all out of that phone call.
That's why Cammie kept repeating herself - because her stock answers have stock phrases. That's why the whole thing sounded mechanical. Because it was. And why did she unceremoniously hang up on me? Probably because the "operator" lost the thread of the conversation and couldn't make a selection.
Dropped calls is one of the common complaints about this outfit.
I find this horribly insulting. While for some bizarre reason they think I ought to give my full attention to their call, they are only putting 1/4 of a person on the other end of the conversation.
In other words, the Dove Foundation has just declared me to be worth as much as one fourth of a telemarketer.
The audacity and arrogance of this way of cold calling people is insulting.
Here's the real kicker...last week I watched two movies that have a "Dove Foundation" stamp of approval on them.
And now I find myself thinking: If I ever made a movie, if the Dove Foundation wanted to "approve" it, I would refuse to put their stamp on my movie, because I wouldn't want my movie to be guilty by association with an outfit like this.
And yes, I did find several sources that made reference to The Dove Foundation's $70,000 fine for telemarketing violations, so I suspect that's true as well.
On another subject. Things went very well this morning at West Bethel (where I was preaching). I got to the church and looked at the bulletin, and thought "Oh, the first song they're singing fits perfectly with my message.". Then I looked further and thought, "Oh, not only does the second song fit with my sermon, I'm actually going to refer to that song in my message." In fact, all the songs and Scripture readings went along with my theme.
When the fellow who picked the Scripture reading (who was not the same person that picked out the songs) asked if I had a Scripture for him to read, I asked what he had picked out. When he told me, I just chuckled inwardly, because while it wasn't my main passage, it was a passage I planned to talk about briefly. So I told him, "That'll be fine."
I spoke from Romans 8, which talks about the groaning of the creation, the groaning of mankind, and the groaning of the Spirit. It was a blessing to be able to share, and a blessing to see how God worked the service together, and a blessing to see the looks on people's faces as I could tell they were thinking about times of groaning in their own lives. I know there were several people who were blessed and comforted by the service.
And THAT just makes my day.
Posted On Mar 25, 2007 at 5:08 PM
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