As soon as I found out it was a cold caller trying to sell me something (cold-calling leads of all things,) I said “Thanks, but I don’t want any.”
He goes “How long have you been in the business?”
I say “No. I really don’t want anything.”
He says “What an idiot,” and hangs up.
So, I searched around on the internet, found his company, spoke to the President and told him what happened.
He thanked me for calling and said he was glad I did, and that he’d take care of it.
Heh. Excellent reprisal on your part.
You know, considering that he was cold calling you, who were Not Interested, you have to wonder at the value of his cold-calling leads anyway.
What a maroon!
Vebr
My standard response these days is “IMNOTINTERESTEDTAKEMEOFFYOURLISTGOODBYE” click I have better things to waste my time on than talking to telemarketers.
I like the Seinfeld-type reply:
“Yes, I am interested, but I’m very busy at the moment…if you give me your home number, I can call you back this evening… what you don’t want to be called at home?..Well, now you know how I feel. Goodbye.”
“cold caller” or “cold reader”?
Is that an attempt at a clever insult?
If it is, it’s very good. ::clap clap::
If not, well there’s more evidence for the reading comprehension problem I mentioned.
That’s bizarre.
In that I had to do a shit-load of driving today (about 8 hours) and I was listening to some morning DJ talk about how the telemarketers are getting increasingly combative when they are rejected.
Truth is, I never wait around for a reaction to my “no thanks” comment. In fact, I’ve developed a bionic ear and reflexes for when I pick up the phone and there’s that long pause, indicating it was dialed by a computer. That sucker’s back on the receiver before they can even butcher my last name.
I usually ask them to wait, then leave the phone off the hook and carry on doing what I was before the interruption. Eventually they ring off.
One telemarketer rang three times in 20 minutes, getting the same treatment each time.
So on the fourth occasion I let the answerphone take it.
Telemarketer: ‘You are a bad person. You don’t have a good telephone manner. You have wasted my time.’
:rolleyes:
I get a lot of telemarketing calls at work. People will ask for the model number on the copier so they can sell us some faulty toner. One day, I told him I would find someone to help him and then “accidentally” hung up on him. (I like playing with them. Tee-hee).
He called me back about two minutes later and said, “You didn’t have to hang up on me like that!” in a voice that sounded like he was calling me from inside the house, asking did I "check the children?". Yiiiikes! He was creepy!
:eek:
Cold Callers get frustrated as well. Not that this excuses unprofessional behavior, but frankly, giving the shitty job, I’m really surprised it doesn’t happen more often. (and no, let’s not start a debete on whether or not they should expect abuse for taking the job… Let’s not hijack the rant too far)
Is that an attempt at a clever insult?
If it is, it’s very good. ::clap clap::
If not, well there’s more evidence for the reading comprehension problem I mentioned.
Well Scylla, bug up your ass much?
I have read - re-read and then just for fun read again Happy Heathen’s admittedly lame joke. Having trouble finding the potential insult. We all enjoy you so much more when you’re not being snotty Scylla.
We will enjoy you so much more when you learn to use the quote button fruitbat. Good day.
I find that they’re getting increasingly sneaky. They’ll ask for me or my husband by first name as though the know us,
“Hi! is John there?” I always ask who it is and for some reason my husband and I are never home. Never. I don’t know who those people are living in our house and answering our phone but it’s not us because, apparently, we’re not home.
I like the hang up as soon as you get the computer delay solution. I’m going to try that next time.
Sometimes I talk to them and tell them I’m not interested. I said a quick “no thanks but good luck” to someone calling for some fund that I didn’t want to contribute to. He called me back and said “How do you like it” and hung up in my ear. Geez, even the volunteers get testy.
Hee hee! I love when I get these callers. After they ask for the model number and pretend that we do business all the time, my standard response is, “Wow, that is really interesting considering the fact that we don’t even have a copy machine!” (My company really doesn’t, BTW)
It is the one time I don’t mind getting hung up on! 
I am 30 but have never ever had a driver’s licence so I love it when I get calls/ mail from car insurance people who are getting in touch with me personally because of “my excellent driving record.” Gag.
I also hang up when I pick up and hear static static click click for a few seconds. Hate that.
I had a telemarketer call me with one of those computer dialers and it would hang up on me every time. It did this every 10 minutes for 5 hours. the caller id would come up unknown name/number. So I got privacy manager. It rocks. Now more telemarketers, no more hang ups like that. If thier number doesnt show up on caller ID, they dont get to talk to me.
Cold callers are bad enough, but I really dislike the cold senders. More than once I’ve received a call from the shipping department that some box was downstairs and required a COD check to accept. Since my company only does things through purchase orders, I know it’s a scam and refuse it immediately. I’ve even had people call me later and ask why I refused shipment. As if I’d be so absent-minded that I ordered something for a few hundred bucks and totally forgot doing it.
I had another guy call me about printer toner one time. I told him that we already had a specified vendor, and that he would need to contact our purchasing department if he wished to ship any product into our company. I went round and round with him for about five minutes as he tried to convince me that the entire world would be a better place if I allowed him to ship me toner directly. Finally, he screamed at me that he was shipping it anyway, and that I was hereby signed up to buy a ton of his toner cartridges whether I liked it or not. Of course, nothing was ever sent, and I never heard from him again. I kind of felt sorry for him that his sales were obviously so bad that he would snap on the phone trying to get stuff moving.
Another time, I had a guy from a rather large printer company let me know that his organization used a decent amount of one of my company’s products, and subtly went on to hint that if I didn’t buy some printers from him, his company would cease buying my company’s product. He did this by email. I responded back letting him know that we appreciated his companies business, and that I hoped it continued, but that I had no need of his printers at this time. I knew who he reported to, and blind copied his boss on my reply. I don’t know what happened back at his office, but I soon received a very sincere and sheepish mailed apology.
Hmmmmm… So Pez has a problem with my inability to use the quote button. Glad to see you have a firm grip on what matters in this fine world of ours. Please do make sure I don’t have an apostrophe out of place.
My comment was directed at someone getting unnecessarily pissy over an inoccuous (and no I don’t believe I’ve spelled that right) comment.
To tell the truth I know how to use VB just fine. Call me lazy.
Now please go back, read the comment that precipitated the discussion, and tell me I don’t have a point.
fruitbat, we wouldn’t dream of telling you that you don’t have a point. We don’t know if you do or not. If you do, it is such a very subtle point that none of us can recognize it. Perhaps you would enlighten us, or more specifically me, and explain your point in detail.
Thank you.