Robotic is good, but I recommend G-Man style:
“Your c-call hassss been… logged as a vio-**LA-**tion of the… Do Not Call Lisssst. No regrets, Mr. Freeman?”
nm
I prefer to reply Steven King style:
“This is nine! NINE! This is nine! Nine! This is ten! Ten! We have killed your friends! Every friend is now dead! This is six! Six!”
If they call back, the script continues:
“Eighteen! This is now eighteen! Take cover when the siren sounds! This is four! Four! Five! This is five! Ignore the siren! Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room! Eight! This is eight!”
I haven’t needed to go further, but if they still call back, just continue:
“Six! This is six! This is goddam fucking SIX!”
Lotsa laffs. I keep a script by the phone.
Oooh, SWEEEEEEEEET! I’ve never thought of doing that! Of course, all the telemarketers are in India and probably won’t get the reference, but I will. 
Caller ID for the win. If I don’t recognize the number or where it’s coming from, I let it go to voicemail where I’ll delete it a couple of days later.
We’re on the Do Not Call list too, and I will admit that a lot of the telemarketing calls have dwindled. However, some of them manage to bypass the list by either having a legitimate-looking phone number or company name. And yes, I can tell from which country these phone calls originate.
I get a lot more telemarketing calls on my cell than on my landline. I got both numbers at about the same time, and when I need to give out a phone number, I give out the landline number. I NEVER give out my cell number. My parents had it, my sibs have it, my husband and daughter have it, and the SDMB moderators have it (with the precaution that I never answer my cell). Yet I get a lot of telemarketing calls on the cell.
I have gotten calls from actual telemarketers asking to speak with my dog (they weren’t aware he’s a dog though).
Random dialers or sequential dialers don’t care and you can’t avoid being hit by one. If they claim to be either a political or charity organization, they have no reason to check the DNC list, so they can just rip off another block of numbers.
That would explain a lot.
I’ll do that when the quality of the sound on my cell is equal to that of my landline.
Yep.
I have a $10 dumb phone that i use very rarely. I’m not much of a phone-talker anyway, but even if i were, there’s no way i’d want to hold a long conversation on it.
And it’s not just the cheap-ass phones either. I have friends with iPhones and Samsung Galaxies, on various networks, and from the amount they complain about call quality, i’ve come to the conclusion that smart phones are great for just about everything except actually talking.
About two years ago I started getting some telemarketing calls on my cell - I’ve had that number since 1994, so no idea how they got started so late. Anyway, between registering the number on the Do Not Call List and making to sure to block the numbers manually as they came in (maybe a dozen over a few weeks?), I haven’t had any marketing calls in a long time.
What’s a land line?
It is the way of the Old Ones. You would hold a small bar bell up to your head and “dial” a “number”. Whoever had the number you “dialed” would talk to you.
This is the way I look at it, both our land line and my cell. Both tell me who is calling, and I decide if I feel like answering, which isn’t all that often because I don’t hear well so am not one to do a lot of talking on the phone.
Occasionally when I’m in the mood, I’ll answer the land line when it is showing a telemarketing call, and then just walk away. It seems to bother them to have a line open for awhile like that and it may have cut down on the calls.
You know, POTS.
I do my Yoda impression and use lots of quotes and things like Yoda quotes from Empire Strikes Back. Or I just hang up.
Remember that when we get to Hell, our job will be cold-call marketing. Also, it will always be Pledge Week.
I haven’t had a landline in 12 years, and have a block on my number for caller ID. I program friends’ numbers into my phone with *82 or whatever so they see whose calling. I’ve gotten three or four sales calls in all that time, and just don’t answer any number I don’t know.
This is us. Our phone will announce the caller, plus I can see the display from my favorite recliner, so I know instantly whether the call merits an answer. Most don’t. The constant callers get blocked.
I figure if it’s important, the caller will leave a message. If there’s no message, it was a crap call. Easy-peasy.