LOL - that’s priceless (but I don’t think I’d be convincing enough)
my most recent conversation
me: Hello?
him: my I speak to Any?
me: who’s calling?
him: Hi Any. (now, mind you, I have NOT identified myself as the person he has called) I am calling from (creditcard company) [ramble] (some words) [/ramble]
me: what are you selling? (as in get to the freakin point, is this about my bill or what!)
him: oh no, Any, I just want to tell you about a special offer for our valued custom…
me: (not letting him finish) sounds like a sales pitch to me. (click)
Where I work, our customers may request a DNT (telemarket) encoding on their account, but we do still call them for billing issues (which they seem to resent - I mean, how dare we ask for fair payment of services provided!)
I am always amazed that people stay on the phone this long I would have said no and hung up after the request for $20. I don’t know if that counts as being rude in this discussion to other posters but I don’t think it rude.
“Hi, Any! Can you spare a minute while I tell you about our special offer for a new memory aid program, only available to a few specially selected discerning people like yourself?”
I’ve seriously gotten into the habit of telling them that I have passed away.
Me: Hello?
Them: Is Mr. Hampshire available?
Me: No, he died last week.
Them: I’m sorry to hear that. Thank you (click).
While it has gotten them off the line quicker it unfortunately hasn’t stopped the number of calls. And I even sometime get this:
Me: Hello?
Them: Is Mr. Hampshire available?
Me: No, he died last week.
Them: Well, can I talk to the current head of household then?
What kills me is that this idiot (and it’s always the same guy) KNOWS I’m going to be rude and yet he figures that if he calls enough, I’ll break down and give him money.
My BIL played a great trick on the telemarketers when he was 10 or 11. They called during the day (when he and his brother were home alone), and asked to speak to his mother when he answered.
BIL: (sad voice) She’s dead.
TM: Oh, I’m sorry. Is your father home?
BIL: <sigh> No, he’s dead too.
TM: I’m so sorry. Do you have a brother or a guardian or someone there with you?
BIL: No. <sigh> They’re all dead. <sigh again>
They actually got a visit from the cops, checking on an abandoned child report.
I am so going to train my daughter to do this when she gets older.
Simply tell them that you allocate funds for charitable contributions at the first of the year and there is nothing left over for solicitors. Say thank you and hang up.
I don’t know what company you’re using for phone service, but Verizon has an option called “Caller Intercept” which is an add-on to Caller ID whereby unknown or anonymous callers automatically get blocked. They have to record a message identifying themselves, and that’s what you hear when your phone rings (if they don’t do this, your phone never rings at all). You can also turn this feature on for all incoming callers who don’t type in a password number (like 2468) and then only supply your friends and family with this password.
Personally, the DNC registry combined with Caller ID/Caller Intercept has just about completely stopped me from getting cold calls from sellers and most charities (I do still get “survey” phone calls). What’s annoying me now are spam text messages to my cell phone, offering loans, medications and telling me to “call 1-900-xxxx-yyyy to claim <exciting sounding prize>”. I have to pay for them!!
I used to work for a phone survey company. Sometimes the cute tricks people play only backfire on them. My co-workers and I would make remarks about funny and deceptive answering machine messages, cranky callers, things of that ilk.
Keep in mind, holding the phone and “wasting” the caller’s time is always really doing that. I loved when someone did this. I would let the call sit and take a break even though it still looked like I had a call on the line.
“Rude” callers, loved them. I would play the game for as long as I could, sometimes getting my supervisor or co-workers to listen in. I even got offered a ticket to California once, since I sounded like such a with-it girl.
Ahh. The glory days.
The easiest thing, really: politely say, “Please do not call this number again and put a note in your computer that I do not want to be bothered.” If they persist, ask for their supervisor and file the complaint then. That tends to do it.
Fact is, we get a finite list of names and as long as you did not OUTRIGHT STATE “do not call me ever again” we would keep calling, and not even with hopes of converting you. Those lists can be expensive and when we ran through names we would go through them again and again (especially on projects from government agencies). Not fun for you, not fun for me.
Just don’t do the air horn thing; that is just plain wrong.
How about agreeing to contribute, just so you can get the name and address of the firm? At least then you can send a letter demanding they remove you from their lists.
You may not like this, but I found this statement on an FCC website: “Tax-exempt non-profit organizations are not required to keep do-not-call lists under the FCC’s rules.”
