Don’t you hate those annoying telemarketers? What is your favorite way to respond to those SOBs? here is one to start.
- hello this is yankees second base
How bout you?
My dad has one of those “zappers” that supposedly deletes his phone number from their computer. I doubt it works, but it brings him a lot of joy.
My brother berates and shouts at telemarketers.
My nephew hangs up without comment as soon as he has them pegged as telemarketers.
My cousins in California are telemarketers. We love 'em anyway!
I live in a really poor neighborhood and get almost no telemarketers any more.
Here’s how.
My attitude is that, while telemarketing is annoying, I actually can choose not to let it get under my skin. The telemarketer would probably take a different job if he/she had other options - at least they’re not on welfare. I think they deserve basic courtesy.
So I just wait for them to ask a question or pause for breath and I say, “I’m not interested in [getting another credit card / changing my phone service / buying any vinyl siding]. Thanks. 'Bye.” Then I hang up.
It’s curt, but not rude (IMO). If the caller gets pissed off because I hung up on them, then they’re too sensitive for the job.
“Put me on your do-not-call list.” Not quite the visceral satisfaction of a clever and nasty response, but it guarantees you don’t hear from that particular telemarketer ever again.
(Note: this isn’t the national do-not-call list that’s been temporarily suspended. It’s an earlier law that all telemarketers are required to abide by – big fines if they don’t)
Thanks to the miracle of CallerID, I don’t have to talk to them any longer. Life is good.
>click<
I hang up as soon as I hear that few second lag of dead air that tells me a telemarketer is about to pick up the call. I’ve got caller ID too, and if the baby’s not sleeping I just let it ring. On the off chance it’s someone I actally know and want to talk to, they’ll leave a message. The absolute worst is the pre-recorded crap calls. Every day when I get home from work there’s at least three or four of those damn things clogging up my answering machine. And you can’t even tell them to put you on a do-not-call list. Those things should be illegal if you ask me. If you’re going to relentlessly annoy me in the hopes of selling me useless crap at overinflated prices at least do so in person so I can tell you exactly where to shove it! Gah. :mad:
I said “put me on your do not call list” last night to the freaks at AT&T who have been calling us 3 times a day for the last week and he started to say, “Well, okay, sir, but don’t hang up because I need some information to put you on that list…” Like hell they do. You have my number. Don’t call it again.
Bastards. They call again, I tell them I’m calling the state attorney general. (They found a PR godsend in promising to prosecute telemarketers.)
Tip;
Keep a list of all the telemarketing companies that call you. Write down the company name, and the name of the marketer as well as the date which you told them to put you on the do-not-call list.
If these companies call you back, you then have evidence for the A.G.'s office of thier offences. As well as stuff to rattle the hell out of anyone who calls back.
In looking at who I’ve written down, I find only one company who has called me back. Our local newspaper. So asking to be put on the list is in IMnsHO actually effective.:eek:
I tell them I am busy at the moment, but if they can give me their phone number, I can call them back while they are having dinner.
Some of them are really, really good at working your psych. I have a couple of them that will leave a message saying …
“I have called you 3 times now and you haven’t returned my call”. Man, do I feel guilty or what? HA!!!
I tell them that I’m dead. I’m still wondering if I can get in trouble for this, but so far haven’t. Be my luck one day a hot looking woman would be looking for me and she thought I was dead.
Caller ID is nice, and I got it for this very reason, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. I was getting 7-8 calls per night and every time one called and my display would read OUT OF AREA I would still get pissed just knowing they were calling. Meanwhile, I’d have to wait for the phone to ring 3 to 4 times, followed by the answering machine picking up. They never leave messages, of course. Now that I have a service called Privacy Plus this screens out about 99% of them, the ones that came up as OUT OF AREA. The only ones who get through are the local ones like carpet cleaners, lawn care, windshield replacement, etc.
Now that I have a friend living with me I let him take all my telemarketer calls that get through. He loves to mess with them. Most of the time he’ll pretend he’s Beavis and Butthead and talk to the teledrone like this. Most of them get pissed and hang up.
One thing I thought about doing: Talk to them v…e…r…y s…l…o…w…l…y. Act like you’re a potential customer and ask lots of insanely ridiculous questions, use over-complete, redundantly worded sentences while talking ever so slowly. This would surely drive them mad and hopefully make them quit.
Lately these fuckers have been telling me they had to get their supervisors to place me on their DNC list. Do you know the specifics of this law? I’d love to have something to back up my rants with.
I say “hang on just a minute, I have to change phones the battery is almost dead on this one” then I put the phone on my daughters piano and let her practice. They generally hang up and don’t call back. Actually I get very few calls now…LOL
Wait for them to talk and then talk over them. Then when they pause your pause, then when they start talking you start talking and keep interrupting each other.
They get so pissed off when they figure out you’re doing it on purpose they hang up on you.
My most annoying telemarketing experience was when some real estate office called me three times within about 15 minutes. Apparently they must have gotten their calling list screwed up where everyone had gotten the same cold call list. The third person who called was greeted with a number of profanities that actually offended her. She proceeded to say she didn’t know the other two people had just called me to which I said, “if you’re getting this rattled by me this early in the evening, maybe you should consider a job that doesn’t suck so much”
If I hear the auto-dialer delay, I either hang up, start yelling before they speak that they better not be trying to sell me anything (they get all flustered and don’t know what to say), or, I berate them for making me say hello more than once and explain how rude it is. One company actually called me and put me on hold while I waited for an operator…that one got an earful.
That or I ask to be put on their do-not-call list. I then go on to say that I’ve already asked to be put on the list and this is the 3rd call I’ve gotten that day and that they must be uncaring sick bastards, and now that I have the telemarketers name I am contacting my lawyer and holding them personally responsible for violating the law…which of course is all bullshit, but what do I care. I’ll cite all kinds of made up laws and codes that they’re violating and tell them their company must not have told them they are now personally responsible for any violations.
I know they probably just laugh, but here’s hoping that once in while I get one.
Good morning Mr. X how are you today? How would you like a FREE chance at winning a round-trip flight and hotel accommodations for a week at Disney World? You would? All you have to do is send me $47 to be eligible for this FREE drawing to win this exciting vacation. (Oh, I forgot to tell you, if you “win”, you “win”, that’s all, you still have to pay for your own air fair and hotel room, but hey, you WON!!!).
Good morning Mr. X how are you today? I represent the largest credit card bill consolidation business in the world. If you would like to consolatate your credit card bills into one easy, low monthly payment, all you need to to is give me your credit card numbers and your current balance.
Mr. X: Umm, OK, 1203…
:smack:
The easiest is to say you’re not there. When you hear someone stumble over your name (like they’re not familiar with it) just say “no, he’s not…can I take a message??”. Real helpful like.
Or if they get through and want you to buy something tell them you have to ask your wife and she’s gone right now. Or tell them you’re broke and just declared bankruptcy.
I really hate the calls but I feel sorry for the people calling. They’re desperate (must be) for a job.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about a legally blind guy who could only manage to get a job as a telemarketer. I knew a guy in college who did it over a break period…he lasted about 2 days. Said he couldn’t handle it. So don’t be too cruel. There but for the grace of God.
My husband, when they ask for him, says, “Hang on. I’ll get him.”
When the phone starts the boop boop boop off the hook thingie, he hangs it up.
Probably doesn’t do much as far as discouraging them, but it gives him a great deal of satisfaction. 
If there’s dead air, I just hang up before they start talking.
If they start talking and I figure out they’re a telemarketer, I say “No thanks, I’m not interested but have a nice day” and I hang up. 90% of telemarketers will keep talking after I say this, trying to keep me on the phone, so as I hang up they’re usually still talking to me.
I did my part, though. I’m nicer to them than most people they call, it’s their problem if they don’t go “Oh okay thanks bye.”
And yes, bri1600bv, you’re right. Many of them are desperate for a job. Telemarketing is huge here in WV, and you’d be surprised at how many people here are doing it that have 4 year college degrees.