And I can treat telemarketers however I want. If you call my house, I can do whatever I want with my phone that I pay for on the phone line that I pay for.
As others have said there is absolutely no reason to be flat out rude to a telemarketer. It doesn’t do anybody any good. You might end up getting a call back anyway. If you don’t want them to call, then it doesn’t take anymore energy to politely say not to call back than it does to yell and scream and start working on a heart attack. I can’t imagine all the yelling makes anything better. If it’s an inconvenience for a minute is that also worth getting stressed about?
I work giving surveys over the phone, so trust me, the yelling gets to the person more than it gets to me. Go ahead and have fun with the caller, I like it when people joke around when I call. It gives me a short break from the monotony of dialing. We aren’t allowed to hang up at the current place I work (unless someone is “abusive”), so if someone just wants to start talking and describing quantum physics or what they had for breakfast and whether or not it was any good, that’s fine with me.
I’ve heard the saying about how you can tell what a person is really like by the way they treat the waiter/waitress. I think the same can be said for how someone treats another person over the phone. I know that there are circumstances where something bad might be going on or someone had a bad day, and that’s understandable. Just being a jerk for no reason is ridiculous.
I worked at a newspaper a couple of summers ago. The woman that called for collections on overdue accounts told me something that happened to her. She took her daughter in to the doctor. While the nurse was measuring the daughter she was talking with the mom and asked what she did. The mom explained that she called collections for the newspaper. The nurse got really red, and said “I’m so sorry. The other night I think you called me.” The nurse was apologizing for her behavior because she was extremely rude when she hadn’t paid her bill. When you put a human face on the other end of the line maybe people will be a little more civil.
This might be easy to do if they only called once in awhile. Unless you have saintly patience, getting seven to eight calls a night from telemarketers becomes incredibly infuriating and the average person gets fed up with this sort of thing night after night.
I do realize that the people who call are trying to earn a living, but then, so are drug dealers. Just because it’s someone’s job and they’re earning a living it doesn’t automatically make it justified. Yes, I’d be annoyed as hell if someone came into my workplace and started swearing at me (I’d call security), but in this case, such an intrusion would be unprovoked. Had I done something earlier in the day to piss that person off, he might have a valid reason to yell at me. Since telemarketers are the ones who make the first move, I’m entitled to respond to their offensive calls as I see fit (very rude and nasty).
Cite? 
Seriously though, what I say is this: “We do not under any circumstances accept unsolicited calls at this number. Please put my on your do not call list”. I then hang up.
As an aside, here is a little jack secret fact that I will let everyone in on: This whole problem would go away so fast that your heads would spin if nobody ever, ever bought anything from Telemarketers.
We should save our anger for the idiots that encourage these folks.
I live at home, so most calls are for my parents. When they ask for my parents’ official names (very chinese sounding) instead of the adopted english sounding ones, I know it’s a telemarketer and tell them they’re not home.
I answered a weird one the other day. Someone called asking for my dad. He was really not home that time so I said something along the lines of “He’s not home right now.” I must have sound suspicious because the lady on the other end said “It’s just a customer service call. Thank you for your time.” I’m like “uuhhh…? Did I need to know that?” Usually, when I say “He’s not home rigt now.” they say “Okay” and hang up.
Also, I’m ashamed to admit this, but I worked as a telemarketers for two days. I hated it. I wasn’t cut out to be a “telephone sales representitive.” Not only did I not get any training, therefore had no friggin clue what I was selling, but the supervisor was horrible. But that’s not my point. People who tell you they have to have their supervisors put you on the DNC list are shitting you. We had computers and a program, and if you said “Please put me on your DNC list” we click on one simple button and you’re off the list.
I just don’t answer. strangely, though everyone tells me that if I don’t answer and tell them to take me off their list, I’ll keep getting calls, this hasn’t been the case. I very rarely get any telemarketing calls anymore.
I’ve heard the saying about how you can tell what a person is really like by the way they treat the waiter/waitress. I think the same can be said for how someone treats another person over the phone.
I agree.
Here’s one:
TM: Hello Mr. CC?
CC: Yes.
TM: This is the sheriff’s office, this call is being recorded.
CC ::gulp::
TM: We are calling in regards to the sheriff’s annual fund raiser.
CC: ::(to myself) Grrrr::
TM: Can we count you in for $100 donation?
CC: I’m would like to help, but I am currently unemployed, so I really have nothing to spare (excellent answer!!!).
TM: OK, let me put you down for $25 then.
CC: Sorry I can’t even afford that.
TM: OK, a $10 donation is our minimum.
CC: I really don’t have it to spare.
TM: OK, good bye.
CC: ::man, what a bunch of crap that was::
"The phone company people are the worst! "
True story.
I owned an insurance agency for a few years. MCI called one day when I was bored and wanted someone to talk to. The guy was cool on the phone and actually got me to dig out my phone bills for the last year. Turns out the rate structure he was offering me would save me about $1500 per year. So I let him switch me over.
I had no long distance for over a month.
When I finally got hooked up with long distance again (different company) I kept getting a bill from MCI for $.06 every month. Never paid it. As far as I know, the guy who runs the agency now still ignores the same bill…carry on.
A Coworker relayed the following:
Telemarketer: “Hello! Is Coworker there?”
Coworker: “Schtew.”
TM: “Excuse me?”
Coworker: “Mawm’s making Schtew.”
TM: “Um.”
Coworker: “Do yew like schtew?”
[click]
Works best if you can say it with a room temperature I.Q. and a slur.
They don’t know what I’m going through, either. They don’t know if I’ve got a sick baby/child that I’ve JUST put down for a nap(not currently true, but it’s been true in the past). They don’t know if I am sick and just managed to get to sleep, but must answer the phone because I’m waiting for lab results (which IS currently true). That 45 second inconvenience is more like 3 hours, as it’s gonna take me another 3 hours to get back to sleep. And I work the night shift, I don’t NEED to be awakened unnecessarily in the daytime. I don’t need the stress.
Telemarketing is RUDE. No two ways about it. Initiating a telemarketing call is rude, and I don’t think that telemarketers should expect politeness when they’ve initiated rudeness. If they don’t like it, they should choose another job. ANY other job. Or go on welfare. I’d much rather pay for someone to be on welfare than to be a telemarketer.
Usually I confine myself to telling the caller to put me on the do-not-call list. However, I reserve the right to be abusive to people who wake me up when I had JUST fallen asleep, and am in pain, and I must be up later on. As far as I’m concerned, that’s NOT a human being on the other end of the line, but a piece of scum.
I pay for my telephone service. Telemarketers are using something that I have paid for, for their own benefit, without giving me any compensation. With survey takers, at least I get the benefit of voicing my opinions, and I’m usually glad to do so if I have the time and I’m awake enough. For instance, I was called about city spending, and what services I ranked the highest. I was glad to let the surveyor know my preferences. Maybe that made a difference in the way Fort Worth allocates its resources. But telemarketers give me NO compensation for my time and inconvenience.
Perhaps my attitude would change if telemarketing firms would pay me to listen to their ads. Perhaps they could subsidize phone lines for people who need a lifeline service, or something. Still, I’d have to have a limit as to how many times I could receive a telemarketing call in a given time period, and I don’t see THAT happening.
Spending a week as a telemarketer did NOTHING to make me hate the practice any less.
I like to make them think that a horrible tragedy occurs in my house during the call. Little kid getting attacked by a dog in the yard… roommate accidentally slicing off a finger while chopping veggies… something like that. I do the screaming and everything.
There was a girl telemarketer who asked if there were any women between 18 and 35 in the house. I said “I wish there were!”, and she cracked up. She was laughing so hard she had to hang up. 
Check out Phone on the Cob for inspiration.
I am getting far fewer telemarketing than even a year ago. But the number of spams is increasing exponentially and I am now getting between 100 and 200 every day. I have a reasonably good filter, but still 15% or so are getting through. I have read that they have a success rate of 1 to 2%, but I find it hard to believe.
Anyway, I feel no obligation whatever to be civil to a telemarketer. I know it is an end-of-the-line job, but they are interrupting me without permission. I think the best may be to just put the phone aside till they hang up. This may be hard on them, but if everyone did it, it would like end it.