The best answer I’ve found is probably to recent for that 1996 classic repost (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a960927.html): use a cell phone. It’s illegal for telemarketers to call any phone where the recipient pays for the calls and there’s something like a $500 charge per call to back it up.
Obviously, this isn’t for everyone but in my case I found that it actually cost slightly less for a cell-phone than the home phone service I’d had previously once you included some of the additional features like voice-mail and caller ID. An additional plus was never having to deal with PacBell again…
Basically it gives a recorded message of “we don’t want telemarketers to call, please place this number on your don’t call list” and directs anyone who is not a telemarketer to “dial one on their touch tone phone”. This type of thing could be easily implemented in a ansering machine type of device without having to use the phone company I would think.
I have also seen some shareware programs that help you keep track of phone solicitations, since in the US
if they call again after being asked to place a number on a "do not call" list, the callee can get a few
nundered bucks of damage.
http://rynosoft.com/enigma/
(edited to fix link - if a link has punctuation in it, for example a comma, you need to include a {url} and {/url} around the link to make sure it shows up properly, where the { and } are [ and ] - read the vB code page for details)
[Edited by Arnold Winkelried on 10-01-2000 at 01:11 PM]
I work tending computers at a telephone survey company. Before everyone jumps down my throat, we don’t sell anything. Ever. No money involved at all. In fact, sometimes we pay people.
Anyhoo, lists and such may get you so far, but we don’t use anything like that. We have a computer that spits out random 7 digit phone numbers. No lists, no names, no information on anyone before we call. Frankly, we don’t need it. Our dialing computer filters out all the unconnected numbers, no answers, etc. If you tell us to take you off our list, we no longer call that number on that project, but there’s nothing stopping the computer from spitting it out again for another project. Actually, we are trying to put something together that will allow us to permanently remove numbers.
One very important note: the laws are VERY different for telemarketers vs surveyers. If you’re calling to get money out of people, you do have to keep the no-call list, you can’t call past 9pm in some places, etc. But we’re not subject to those laws because we’re not after your money.
Oh, and as for all those witty retorts that will supposedly so devestate the person calling you? They’ve been done. To death. Ever dialer here has heard them all until they can recite them in unison with you. Please, for the sake of all involved, just hang up.
I have used the techniques outlined on this site, and I’ve found them to be extremely effective. It takes a bit of effort on your part, but the freedom from random phone calls is immeasurable.
I work for a service provider in the UK (British Telecom) and they offer network services specifically designed to deal simply, effectively and more importantly, immediately with such calls. The most effective is a service which rejects all calls where the caller witholds their number, and this includes, in my experience, all telemarketing calls. basically the call is rejected at the exchange. there is also a service by which you can barr any call you wish, witheld or no. i would imagine that us service providers would provide services similar to this, they are very simply set up and operated via your own phone through a digital exchange. worth checking out.
The State of Tennessee , usually so backward in many respects, has created a central clearinghouse for people who do not want to be called in their homes by telemarketers. The consumer registers, & there is a fine for violaters.
Don’t have the number handy. I’m already signed up.
I screen ALL my calls. Don’t even pick up anymore.
My girlfriend has call screening. Only numbers the machine recognizes ring; the rest go right into an answering machine.
If all else fails, I have one final screen. If the caller asks for “Mr. Smith” (as opposed to “John”) then it’s a pretty safe bet it’s not someone I know. So I just tell them “I’m sorry, he’s not in. May I take a message?” A marketer almost always says o, and the call is finished in moments.
In Connecticut you can sign up for the Department of Consumer Protection’s Don’t Call List. I dunno how effectiev it really is but since I signd up the telemarketing scum haven’t been nearly as obnoxious. The link is: http://www.state.ct.us/dcp/nocall.htm
