When the world's got your #, there's simply no escape. The telemarketers ( and thier cousin spam slingers) hound you day in, day out.
Being polite gains me little slack......

Lately I've asked a number of them if the calls were being recorded, which is where i can state that any further contact will constitue harassment blahblahblahblah...leaglities... blahblah ....attorny generals ofice etc.

Of course should they say the call is not being recorded i can repeat thier number back from the ID stating that my comupterized scan-a-dope CD can identify addresses.....blah blah {death threat}...blah,blah......personal visit.

Any advice on this, I'm not dealing with it very well.....

Tell them you're very busy right now, but you're also very interested in their wares, but if you could have their number at home you'd be happy to call them back tonight.

Then, when they decline, say:

"What, you don't want to be bothered at home?"

(From Seinfeld)

Also, Call Intercept (Verizon) works great for 'em too. I used to have it, but no longer do, it has seemed to have done its job and now I'm apparantly "blacklisted" on the telemarketer's lists as a "no sale"...

Buy a Tele-Zapper. I know several people who used this and swear that after a month or 2 the calls almost completely stop. I just say no thanks and hang up, not even giving them time to tell me what I "won" or the "awesome deal" they have for me because I'm so special.

When I receive a telephone call where someone is trying to sell something or whatever, I ask for their name and tax ID and this really stuns them and most of the time they ask their stupidvisor to get on the line and then the fun begins!

I ask all sorts of questions, in addition to the Tax Id, I ask for their social security number, and on and on until I lead them to tears and then I hang up!

I also ask them to remove my name from their list.



[This message has been edited by Joe Tedesco (edited 04-22-2002).]

I am nice person, at almost all times. When the phone rings and they start their line before I can even finnish saying hello, I then interupt them by asking if this is a sales call, yes or no. I ask repeatedly untill they stop talking and I get a yes or no answer, and when I get a "Yes", I tell them I"m not intested. If they take that little hint, and say goodbye gracefully, they are off the hook, and my phone is back ON the hook... if they don't take the hint, I say a firm "Thank you, Goodbye", and hang up. Even if I don't ask to be removed from the list, call backs don't happen often. Just my way of dealing with this annoying little detail.

Guys,
Tell them to remove you from their call list. If they call again, you can take them to small claims court, and they will have to render to you $300.00
If it gets to that, and it usually doesn't, there are plenty of places on the net to tell you how to file. I've never had it fail.
According to federal law, they can not call you for something like 12 months, HEY! Where's our new mouthpie......er I mean attorney?

To telemarketers, time is money. I started a policy of being a "time-waster" a few years ago, and the effect it's had over time is amazing. I talk to them, ask all kinds of foolish questions, tell 'em stories, etc. Then, of course at the end comes the kicker... deadpan I tell 'em "you know, I'm not at all interested, but I'll waste some more of your time if you want". Now, I can't remember the last time someone tried calling to sell me a newspaper subscription, although I still do get the occasional automated recording dialer...

'Gigs

My line is...

Oh, I'm glad you called. I have a time share in Arizona available for the 2nd week of August. I can let you have it for a low $1,500.00. The desert is so beautiful that time of year, and the temperatures are quite bearable in the evenig when the Air Conditioning is working properly.
Once they express dis-interest, tell them that you understand their apprehension, but by signing on, they are helping you to earn money toward a college education.

I usually wait until the first break in their conversation and say, I'm sorry, I didn't get your name, would you please start over again, and speak slowly because my hearing aid doesn't pick up very well any more.
That usually stops most of them.

"I'm sorry, I'm on the other line right now. Can you hold just a minute?"
Of course I don't have hold, (or another line) and I just hang up on them.
I sure hope they wait for me to come back on
I also tell them that I sell home loans and Viagra online.

I didn't think Howard Stern was an electrician?!

I've heard of a callee turning the tables by trying to sell the telescum special high-performance ear cushions and industrial shoulder rests.

Or, maybe you could try asking, in an appropriate voice, {regardless of gender on the other end} "What are you wearing right now?"

First I say hello. Then as they start their spiel I say hello? hello? Then I just hang up.

I just tell them that I will not buy over the phone unless I make the call. Then hang up.
Since I started this calls went from 5-8/wk to none in past 4 months.

whew!, i guess i'm not alone......

Thanks, Officer Bill.
Well done.

A few years ago my mother-in-law died of cancer. During her extended illness, she spent some time in M.D. Anderson here in Houston. M.D. Anderson is one of the best hospitals in the world. Well, these telemarketers would call on behalf of M.D. Anderson, and I would buy magazines from them. Anything that had to do with M.D. Anderson, I would open my wallet for because of my mother-in-law. It was automatic......M.D. Anderson......my wallet would "dang near" fly out of my back pocket. I have stacks of magazines in my bathroom that I never get to read because I have so many subscriptions.
I finally put my foot down, (if you can believe that) and said, "Enough is enough."
These people were calling me every week.
So, in the spirit of Mr. Gigs, I became a time waister. I don't drink alcohol, but when they would call I would tell them that I was drunk. That didn't make any difference to them until I started waisting their time. They would ask me about car magazines, and I would tell them that I love to drive drunk. I asked them if they sold girlie magazines, they responded, "Well, we have Playboy." I said, "That's not dirty enough for my wife, she likes Hustler(she doesn't by the way)." Finally, I kept them on the phone so long, that they were trying to get off the phone with me, and I wouldn't let them. That happened a few times, and they haven't called back again.

Best Telemarketological Regards,
Doc

There have been some great responses, to these Telemarketer jerks.
I got a call from one guy in Texas trying to sell me sawzall blades, you know the kind 5000 per pack all come with a lifetime guarrantee.
I asked, Well if they have a lifetime guarrantee why do I need more than one. Since then I have gotten caller ID and these calls come up listed as ' Out of Area ' so I just dont answer it.
-Mark-

Phone companies may offer a "Privacy Manager" screening system handled at their end. This will not allow any calls through to your phone that is not recognized by Caller ID,if they really want to talk to you, they have to leave a message on a service that will in turn call/contact you to see if you want the call. Now I don't know if you have to have caller ID for this feature, but you do have to pay for it. Since I put the service in use, my phone has been totally free of telemarketers! Typically, they use a computerized dialer that waits for a human voice to answer before it notifies a operator that the connection is made.
The U.S. Gov supposedly had a bill to be proposed, that was going to set up a "do not call" listing that affected all telemarketers, instead of you telling each one that calls to not call anymore. But have not heard any more about it.

Nonlinearload
Do you really think we need another federal law to help reject unwanted phone calls ? This is still America, and cant we handle these unwanted calls as everyone has stated above, ie hanging up on them, wasting their time. I mean look what Utility deregulation has cost us, under the auspices of ccheaper rates, Oil companies are now selling Electricity.
No sir,I'd rather hang up on them.
-Mark-

This doo-dad seems to be better than the Tely-Zapper and is less than $50. It seems to have cut down on junk faxes.

http://www.sandman.com/tmstop.html

Hey, Doc,

I have a solution for those unread magazines piling up in the bathroom...
Raisin Bran & Maxwell House

Quite a bit of discussion on this recently at www.telecom-digest.org for anyone interested.

I live in MO and we have a state controlled list. You put your name on the no-call list and the telemarketers are not supposed to call you. It works for the most part. After getting on the list the volume of calls fell way off.

On a related note... Do you get lots of junk mail from credit cards and banks and such? I've taken to writing a big NO THANK YOU on the form and then mailing the whole package back to them in their pre-stamped envolope. They can throw away the trash.

Sometimes I ever send them other poeples stuff - thought they might be want to buy it since I did not.

Try this it make you feel good.

LOL DB!
I've done that. There's this certain credit card company that has spent countless postage over years trying to solict me.
hmmmmmm.......
I gotta ask the postmaster if pre-paid envelopes can be pasted to a brick?!?

In new york state just go to https://www.nynocall.com/index.html

Fill out the form and within 4-8 weeks you will not get any further calls.

If you do get calls as I did.. This was good.. You call New York state complain department and file a complaint against the telemarketer, call verison file a complaint with them and call the attorney general's office and file a third complaint against them.

Never got another call again from them. They were fines $5,000.00 for each call they made to me and were nearly taken out of business..

My way of getting even....

>

James

For the junk mailers I just mail back thier business return envelope with nothing in it. Let them pay for postage twice when they send the junk, and the hassel of opening empty envelopes.

Heh Heh Heh... One of my favorite topics.

I worked for the phone company on a contract at a federal facility and did some toe-to-toe conflict management dealings with a couple of them. We had two full exchanges (the middle three digits of a 10-digit phone number) for a total of 20,000 phone lines and guess who's name was on the bill and who had the phone number listed for billing?... Yep, mine.

It was pretty easy to say "You know, as a Federal facility, we're not allowed to participate in any surveys or purchase any goods without going through the extensive legal verifications and a competitive bid process. Can I get your Tax ID number and .. hello? Hello? Oh bummer, lost another one... heh heh heh...

At home, when I get those calls that are just 'dead air' when I answer, I hang up. If they don't have a human waiting with baited breath to talk to me, then I don't give them one on my end either. That's an auto dialer that's waiting on a human voice response.

The heck of the Privacy Plus feature is this - it's usually YOUR PHONE COMPANY that has sold YOUR PHONE NUMBER to the people who they now are protecting YOU from while you pay the ADDITIONAL CHARGE for the privacy service. Man, I wish I was getting the internal company bonus for thinking up that marketing scheme!!! I'd have all the privacy an island getaway could offer!!

The Telezapper is nifty but if you have a regular old answering machine (as opposed to voice mail), you can go to www.privatecitizen.com and record the SIT tones (the sound of a disconnected phone number) and when the autodialer gets the tone from your recording, they mark your number as being disconnected.

As for the human voice on the other end of the phone who calls up and heaven forbid, disrupt the chaos that I claim as my own, I have a number of responses:

1) Hello, Bren. This is blah blah from blah blah company. We're conducting ...blah blah... and we want to know blah blah blah about you (or your home, your credit cards, your whatever). Yeah. Well, I don't share or disclose that information unless I'm doing the soliciting. And, by the way, I do want something... I want you to put me on your 'do not call' list effective today. Can I get your name again. Click. Dang, lost another one.

2) Good evening, Mrs. Buggaboo. We appreciate your donation last year to the blah blah blah organization. Really? How much did I give? Well, I don't have the exact number here right at the moment. Really? I do. Do you want to know how much I gave? Zero. On March 27th, John Smith called and I told him then that this year's money is already committed. Do you see that notation there? I also asked him to remove me from your call list. I have a note of it. (You can almost smell the sweat by now because this guy's thinking 'infraction, small claims court, his quota's gone down the toilet, etc.) Uh, Oh, I do see that (they can't possibly, I'm making it up). I apologize and I'll make sure you're removed.

3) Hi Mrs. B, how are you this evening? Well, I was doing ok.. until my dog just.. oh wait, she's doing it again. Awww, gross!!! I gotta go. click...

4) Is this Bren? Depends, who is this? I'm Joe Schmoe from Capital Co. and we will be in your area... wait, Joe. Where are you now? Really, Phoenix, huh? I've been there. Did you guys get that cold front on Tuesday? We were down Scottsdale back in '92 at blah blah resort. Have you ever been there? Are you in school there or is this your real job? You should really be in radio, you have one of those announcer voices.......

5) Or the cut it short method: Hello Mrs... uh, yes ma'am what was that? I said, "You realize that I had this phone installed for MY communication needs, not yours, right? Well, I don't need anything from you. Don't call again. And by the way, sit up straight and get more sleep, you sound tired."

[This message has been edited by BuggabooBren (edited 04-27-2002).]

You're a piece of work there Bren! LOL!

[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 04-27-2002).]

I just had to post this here.....perhaps all our telemarketers could be persuaded to do thier patriotic duty, and call the Taliban ?

hee..hee....

Fax spam seems to be getting out of hand too.

i have my answering machine set so it rings 2 times then say hello and it gets those telemarketers every time and when that don't work i use alot of the tacktics you guys do a guy once wouldn't stop bothering a friend of mine about basement sealing eventhough the guy told him he didn't have a basement so he came to the guys house and found out. you dont have a basement friend said i tried to tell you that. what a waste of time.

I live in Indiana and we have a “No Call List”. You can get added to it by going to the following link http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral/telephoneprivacy/index.htm it tells you about the groups that can and can’t call you and how to register. It has been great since I got on the list, almost no calls. Before what I would do mostly was answer and if someone didn’t say hello right away I would hang up.

Another funny site to check out is the comedian Tom Mabe, he has been on BOB & TOM many times and he likes to have fun with the telemarketers. His site is http://www.tommabe.com. He has a link on his site to P.E.S.T, which is a group that is starting “No Call List” for different states. Their site has links to the states that have “No Call List”.