Something is clearly different in our experiences. The telemarketers were unbearable by the end of the 90s. I think it’s easy to forget just how bad it was back then.
I do actively opt out of whatever marketing I can. One crowning achievement was to get a letter from Capital One saying they would never send offers to me again.
Whenever I provide a telephone number, I make sure to ask the person receiving it to check the “opt out” box.
And I occasionally contact places where I have accounts and reaffirm my “opt out” status. Maybe those activities have more of an effect than I thought.
This is when you tell them that they can take you off their calling list, or you will cease to be in a business relationship with them. Now, sometimes the phone jockey will insist that s/he can’t take you off the list. Then you call the headquarters, and tell them that you wish to cease being one of their customers. You’d be amazed at how apologetic they are…and how quickly they’ll take you off the list. If they say that they will need 30 days (or whatever) to do this, you just say that it will take you considerably less than thirty days to find another business to do your business with. Because they CAN take you off just about immediately, they just want to get a few more calls in.
Or you can ask to speak to their supervisor. This is what I finally had to do to stop the Lupus Foundation folks from asking me for cast-off items every week. Just how often do they think I change my wardrobe and home decor?
I don’t really care how many of these calls I get to my land line, since I don’t tend to answer that one but I do care if I get an uptick in calls to my cell, to the point that I go over my minutes and have to pay for them. We don’t have that many minutes available and I’d be really pissed if more than just a couple were taken up by these jerks!