I quit getting upset over telemarketers a pretty good while ago, when I decided to strike back. Then, if the caller was male, I’d hand him as creative a death threat as I could come up with on short notice; if female, I’d breath heavily into the phone until she hung up. I’ve been told that all this is illegal, but I was having fun and did it, anyway. So fuck it, arrest me.
But finally, as I am home almost all the time now, it’s gotten more tiresome than fun. Now all I do is set the phone down and let him / her bullshit the atmosphere for as long as they want to. I’ll come back in a little while and hang up. If I remember it.
As far as I’m concerned, any unsolicted call at any time, from anyone I don’t know that does not concern the well being my family, is a gross invasion of my privacy and anyone who does it deserves no better than what I give them.
If anyone ever calls you saying that they’re from Special Olympics, don’t give 'em a dime- they have nothing to do with that organization, they’re just trying to dupe you out of your money. Special Olympics doesn’t call people to ask for donations. My mom, who teaches mentally retarded kids and works with SO, got a call from one of those guys… they’re just trying to rip you off. SO has said repeatedly that they don’t solicit money via calls. Just so you know.
Ownership of a phone is a blanket invitation to the world. By having a phone, whether your number is listed or not, you implicitly accept any and all impositions on your privacy. It may suck, but it’s the way things work.
For that matter, you are the only one who can choose to answer the ringing phone. You are the one who turns the ringing into an invasion. Until you pick up the receiver, it’s noise.
Turn the ringer off, screen your calls, kill your phone, get a screening box which allows only people with a code number to call you, live off a pager . . . or put up with it.
(not picking on you in particular, filth)
To earn extra money, I used to sell subscriptions for a theater in D.C. I got free tickets and we didn’t call anyone who hadn’t either subscribed in the past or filled out a form requesting subscription information. We were very careful with our database, and we would track the “nos” very carefully. This is what I learned (and alenalindsay can correct me where I’m wrong):
If you get called and you just hang up, the computer records a hangup. We can call you again and again until the day you die.
If you say “no, thank you” our theater would record it and not call you any more during the promotion, but that doesn’t stop you from getting called during the next promotion.
The magic words are “I don’t accept phone solicitations. Please remove me from your calling list/do not call me again.” The caller would enter certain information in the database and the person never gets called by that firm again.
Now, repeat after me “I don’t accept phone solicitations. Please remove me from your calling list.”
I need to research the laws pertaining to this, but my understanding is if you say that they HAVE to take you off their calling list. Which doesn’t mean you are off the lists of the 1,000 companies they sold their database to, but hey, it’s something.
Get the name of the company and the name of the caller and a telephone number if possible. If they call you again, remind them of the conversation. And call the Better Business Bureau and report them.
If you want to torture telemarketers, keep this in mind.
These people want to close with you. If they can’t pitch you, they want to get off the phone and move onto a better prospect. You can have loads of fun keeping them on the line, tormenting them with the hope of a sale, and then not buying. One game is to pretend to be really old. When they ask you how you are doing, talk about fake and disgusting ailments you have. Insert your ailment into every pause in conversation - “Would you like to sign up for the service, ma’am?” “Did I tell you about my kidney stones? Feels like I’m pissing a steak knife every time I go to the John! And my children never visit. Do you know my children? They are ungrateful bastards, like you! So tell me more about the service?” Throw in some theatric moans and groans.
If they interrupt you during sex (first of all, what are you doing answering the phone during sex? Can’t be that good!) just put the phone on the pillow and continue having sex.
Stutter hopelessly, as if it causes you great physical pain to utter each sound. C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-can y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-ou t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-…
I’m sure the evil geniuses here can come up with more ways to get them back.
This is exactly right. I used to write the software that the telemarketers would use as they were making the call. The only ones (records of calls) that got any special attention at the end of the day were those who were intereted, bought something, or requested to not be called anymore. Everyone else on the list just got recycled.
Most reputable companies will check the national do not call lists when preparing their call lists, but some of the smaller shitty ones will not. So telling them “don’t ever call me again” will (eventually) cut down on your calls, but you will never get them to go away completely.
Thats where a mobile phone comes in handy. Anyone who I know, that might need to contact me, has that #. Anytime I need to give a phone # to a company or website or whatever else that leaves me in target customer hell, they get my home phone #, which I never answer, and check the machine about once a week.
Well, since alenalindsay has given us all this juicy info, I won’t feel so bad the next time I tell a telemarketer to go fuck themselves.
While I can certainly appreciate the need to earn money while in college, understand that pissed off customers and their rude comments and reactions are part of the job.
Well, no. By my reasoning, having a front door gives anyone the right to walk up and knock on it. Which they do. You don’t have to answer the door, just as you don’t have to answer the phone.
Ownership of a phone is a blanket invitation to the world. By having a phone, whether your number is listed or not, you implicitly accept any and all impositions on your privacy. It may suck, but it’s the way things work.
This is true up to a point and I suppose there is little if any perminent, legal recourse. Which is the very reason I used to try to give my callers as unpleasant an experience as possible. It was probably all for nothing - I doubt if I came up with anything they hadn’t heard before.
I did indeed tell (profanely) a couple of them to take me off the list. Dunno if they did or not - I still get unwelcome calls. My solution is, when have I something going and don’t want to be disturbed, or just want to cop a few Zs, is to leave the computer on line. It pisses my kids off now and then, until I remind them of how many times they’ve pissed me off over the years.
I don’t see any real solution to telemarketers. So fuck it - might as well have some fun with them. I may go back to cursing and heavy breathing.
Yeah, I know. But consider the sublime joy of telling one of these pimps, through clenched teeth, that you will hunt him down, rip out his liver, and he can watch you eat it while he dies.
A Florida couple recently successfully sued a water treatment company for harassment, getting $5,264. It’s on the Orlando Sentinel website, but when I try creating a link to the story, the link doesn’t work.
If you want to read the story, go to http://www.orlandosentinel.com then have it search for the word telemarketers and click on the link for the story about Laura and Ken Walker. It details how they told the company many times to stop calling and got their name put on the state’s Don’t Call list, and how, when the company continued anyway, they gathered enough evidence against the company to take it to court. As I said, they won, and they didn’t even need a lawyer, so they got to keep the whole settlement.
This is exactly what I do, with one exception: If it’s clear that it’s a charity looking for donations, I politely tell them that we do not give out money over the phone, but if they have some written materials that they’d like to send us in the mail, we’d be happy to look at them. Of course they never do, but at least I’ve given them a chance.
The ones I find particularly despicable are the ones who lie when you ask if it’s a sales call. I once had someone deny that she was trying to sell something, that she was not trying to get any money out of me, then proceed to tell me about the free estimates they were offering on installing new windows. Uh-huh. And If I decide I want new windows, who’s going to pay for them, and to whom? Was she going to pay for them? Were the windows free? The call ended shortly thereafter.
Did you think that lying to me would win me over, you stupid bitch?
Death threats are not something to play around with. I’m involved in a police investigation right now over a death threat I received through AIM… and if someone did it over the phone you can bet your ass I’d call the cops. It takes a special kind of idiot to do phony death threats, and an even stupider one to do real ones.
FWIW, I sent letters to the 2 major telemarketers a year or so ago requesting that I be taken off their list, and the number of calls I get has been drastically reduced. I still get an occasional one, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was.
I wrote the the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) and one other name which I cannot recall. Someone I hope will be kind enough to provide a hyperlink…
Uh, yeah, regarding the replys to my post…
You’re all assuming that all the telemarketers that call you live in your area and your country… they dont. Im not talking about the Sears’ and the local newspaper companies that call you but, do you have any idea where many of the other ones are calling you from?
Just something to think about.
And btw, I dont work in Canada.
