I know we’ve discussed at length before whether telemarketers are just human beings doing a hard job for peanuts or the most annoying scumbags in creation, but let’s go in to detail on what I like to think of as the three categories of unsolicited nuisance callers - although only one is technically a telemarketer.
The first, the seller; the traditional annoyance calling up and trying to flog something you neither want nor need.
The second, the surveyor, some company that doesn’t want your money, but rather just a few minutes of your time and opinions,
The third, the scammer, who masquerades as a service provider to defraud you of cash.
So, you’re chilling out at home minding your own business when one of these jokers calls you. How much verbal GBH in the earhole do you give them? On a scale of 1-5 on my rude-o-meter, 5 being as vile as you can be and 1 a mild rebuke.
Inspired by a call from category number three, where I told the caller some rather harsh things - the other half said I should just have hung up, but it was rather fun so I want your opinion.
I say, “I’m not interested, please don’t call again,” and hang up. If they talk quickly so that I can’t geta word in, I just talk over them and hang up.
I went with House on the usual telemarketer. Surveys aren’t a problem, so far when I say no they say ‘thank you’ and hang up. Scammers I’ll just hang up on.
Surveys get a “It depends.” If I have the time and it’s a political survey, I’ll fuck with their data a bit.Telemarketers get vented on if there is actually a human at the other end rather than a robot. Scammers get fucked with as well.
I said other - if I’m at work, I’m polite but cut them off as soon as possible with a “not interested, remove us from your list”. If I’m at home, I either don’t answer, or I hang up without a word.
I’m a combination of these two. Sometimes, if I actually do have a few minutes free and a caller with a survey is actually on the phone when I say hello, I’ll do the survey just for fun.
I wanted to answer the poll, but I couldn’t, because there’s no way to say “N/A” without calling you an idiot, and I’m too polite to do that.
I did the survey thing years ago. Hated it. I’m polite and kind and helpful to people who called me asking me to do a survey. I can also tell a real survey from a telesales call disguised as a survey; those people get the full Wrath of Phnord.
Telesales calls get politely refused, ONCE. After that, war is declared.
It depends on the day (and how many times they’ve called me that day/that week). Some days they get a polite, “Not interested,” and hang up. Other days I get a little more owly. The scammers who call here may get something like, “I don’t fucking have a PC, and it doesn’t have any fucking viruses,” and hang up. I hate those slimy scamming bastards.
Most of these calls just go to the machine, but once in a while, if there’s nothing on TV, we come up with ways to torment the sellers and scammers in as hilarious and time-wasting a manner as possible. Survey calls are almost always political and related to local races, so we’re pretty polite to them, just telling them we don’t care to participate.
I am politely stern with most of them. I don’t mind surveys, unless they turn out to be scammers or have an agenda at the end of it.
I have occasionally got calls from people not named Steve, who tell me that they have somehow detected my computer is sending out viruses, which is clever; I had no idea viruses provided phone numbers. Those callers can fuck off and die.
Sellers - completely neutral, with a polite “not interested, thankyouverymuch.” No reason to be shitty to someone doing their job, but neither am I friendly.
Surveyers - Mr. Rogers, whether I choose to respond or not. No reason not to be - they don’t bother me much.
Scammers - Just hang up 9 times out of 10. Picard or Cowell otherwise.
This, plus I’m on the do not call list. I have a house phone pretty much solely so that I have a number I can give out to things that require it but to whom I don’t wish to talk to.
If I do happen to accidentally pick up, my first instinct is just to hang up. Why waste either of our time? I know from experience that saying “sorry I’m not interested” doesn’t work, and I likely wouldn’t get the chance to even say it without either interrupting or listening to a long drawn out schpiel. Telemarketers may be cheerful in tone, but their behavior is never polite, so there’s no need for me to warrant them social niceties. That said, they are just trying to make a living, and aren’t usually rude in an offensive way, so I don’t see a need to be aggressively mean to them either.
I don’t mind taking surveys though.
How do you tell if its a scammer?
The thing that fucking irritates me is that there is someone who periodically calls my house, from an unlisted number, and leaves no actual message, but after a short time makes the “off the hook” noise on my answering machine until the allotted time runs out. What the hell is that?