What are you, some divine being? How do YOU know they aren’t satan’s minions? Hmm? Well???
I can call you if I want. Anybody can. And capital letters ain’t gonna change that fact.
Oh, calm down. I’m pretty sure the OP was being facetious, and does not actually advocate murder.
Oh, joyous day! People are not breaking down our doors. I guess, then, we have no cause to complain about anything.:rolleyes:
I would think that the Prince of Darkness would be able to pay me a little better than I’m currently making. 
Well the start of this whole thread is about passing laws to change that fact.
I was going to respond to kambuckta’s post, but blowero already took care of it, and did quite well.
Those of you who are so mellow about telemarketers (e.g. “Chill out, just tell them you’re not interested”) must only get a call once every couple of days or so. If I’m home, I can count on the phone ringing about every 15-20 minutes at most, and, on a significant number of occasions, every 3-5 minutes with telemarketer calls. This is no exageration, although I wish it was. Usually I’m polite, although sometimes I’m downright snippy, and I always tell them to add me to their do not call list. Each telemarketer seems to think that he or she is the only one calling people. Those hang-ups, of which I get at least a couple per day that I’m home, piss me off to no end.
Yes, I realize that there is caller ID, the telezapper, etc. But why should I have to fork out my money to keep them from bothering me? Although I am about to give in and get the telemarketer screening service set up. I hope those fuckers are proud. Actually, I’m thinking of getting rid of my landline entirely.
Jonathan Chance:
“The ‘National Do Not Call’ list will NOT apply to political calls.”
It also has exempted charities.
“No foolin’. You think those politicians are stupid?”
You think charities are? :b Political calls and calls for charity seem a little less common than actual telemarketers, so are not as much of an annoyance.
You must not live in a battleground state during election years.
Ugh.
You can tell it’s getting close to the primary here in Illinois. Since the “National Do Not Call List” went into effect our phone rarely rings during the day, but this week it’s been one recorded political message after another. Dirt Bag Politicians can kiss my ass. They don’t even give you an option at the end to request they not call again.
Lawyers & Politicans (but wait I repeat myself) proudly continuing to be lower than whale crap.
You know, one piece of legislation I would like to see is getting rid of those autodialers. We have one (or more than one) that calls us at least once a day and hangs up. It’s bleeding annoying! My suggestion would be to mandate an automatic message that says the company name and an option to unenroll from their calling list.
I mean, really. It’s called about thirty times and we never get the chance to be taken off the list!
I can’t. My work requires that I be contactable by phone. Telemarketers don’t have “telemarketer” show up on your caller ID so that doesn’t work. And I can’t rely on them being the “Private Number” calls because some of my friends plus my work do not have their number available to caller ID so it comes up 'Private Number"
To be honest though, I get about two calls every three months. They are predictable, one is from Kids with Cancer charity who I donate to and am quite happy to take calls from, the other is from Westpac Bank wanting to sell Life Insurance. All the callers are polite, much like kambuckta described. (You don’t work for Kids with Cancer do you?)
I have heard though, that some people in the US can get several calls every day. That would definitely piss me off, and I can understand those people getting agitated about the whole deal.
I sneak on to your property if I want. Any sneaky person can. And capital ands ain’t gonna change the fact I should’nt even though I am able to if you don’t want me on your property.
oh and the all to standard it seems disclaimer that I won’t nor any sneaky person that I know of won’t be sneaking on your property. I was just making a point.
Well due to tellimarketers I now don’t answer the phone during their legal hours. I check the answer machine instead and call back real people. Telemarketers shouldn’t die, but their bosses and the people who run telemarketing companies are the most reprehensable legal job in existance. Being a telemarketer should be something someone is ashamed of. Like prostitution people may be forced into it by financial need, and should not be blamed for such.
So, this then raises and interesting point; why is it, do you think, that people get so furious about telemarketers? I see all of these arguments pointing out that it is not really that big of a deal, but the anger remains.
As I see it, the issue is multi-faceted. First, generally speaking, the school of thought that suggests that we just not answer the phone is dismissible out of hand. I could not even begin to guess how many people out there are waiting for important calls. People waiting to hear if they got jobs, waiting for news about grave health matters of loved ones, waiting for a call from the cute girl they just met. The list is as long and as varied as there are people. That I should have to alter the way that I am using a service for which I pay so that I am not bothered by these folks is unacceptable.
In a similar vein, the caller ID argument is also rather problematic. It supposes that the burden should be on me to spend resources to avoid something that shouldn’t be happening in the first place. I am sure that the phone company loves this, but I find it to be crap.
Also, telemarketers force us to be rude. Every time that I am forced to out shout a telemarketer that will not stop talking so that I can ask to be put on the do not call list, a little piece of the civility and good manners that I was raised to have is taken away from me. Telemarketers as a group (I don’t want to get in to the pointless minutia BS about how there are rare exceptions to the rule) are quite simply part of the reason that we are becoming less gentile as a society.
Since this thread has been resurrected, I’d like to mention that since the Do Not Call list was implemented, I’m in HEAVEN. No more obnoxious salesmen calling right when I sit down to dinner. No more endless stream of hangups and pre-recorded messages left on my answering machine. I feel liberated. I did get a few political calls during the week leading up to the last election, but it’s nothing compared to all those telemarketers who used to call. Some people in this forum were arguing that the DNC list wouldn’t do any good, or that nobody would notice the difference. I just want to say you are SO wrong.
And I don’t know who was saying it wasn’t a big deal; to me it was a HUGE deal.
This one’s easy. Don’t list your phone number on your voter registration. The ONLY thing you get out of listing it are elections calls.
For this past election, when we were making “get out the vote” calls (that I managed to weasle my way out of every time I was asked to do them but once, because I am loathe to make any sort of unsolicited call, even if I’m not selling anything) where do you think we got the numbers from?
That’s right kids, voter registration records. Your local registrar of voters will sell 'em to anyone who’ll pay. And they’re not that expensive.
Easy solution though: don’t list your number. It’s not required.
I sure as hell don’t. 
I like to enjoy myself with the telemarketers. Listen to the spiel, chat for a while, ask some questions, let them know you’re a live one, then fake a doorbell. “Wait a second, it’s the paperboy collecting.” Set the phone down and wait. Sure, it wastes some of your time, but it saves someone else from getting a call, and that person might have actually purchased something, so you’ve saved someone a metric buttload of money on something they don’t need. Because if they needed it they wouldn’t need some asshole to call them and tell them about it.
Hehehe, well met, comrade!
When I get telemarketing calls, I like to try out alternate personas, including the horny French dude who wants to get it on with whoever is on the other line (guy or gal). I ask them what they’re wearing, where they live, where they work, etc. I pretend to get aroused by everything they say. “YES! Dee APR financing… MMmmm, tell me more, cherie… MMmm, you have sexy breath…?” I try to keep them on as long as possible by seeming interested while horny. Then, when I get bored, if I’m at my computer, I start playing an audio sex recording (between two girls and a guy in a pool).
OK, well I’ve only done that once (the sex tape thing… French guy has made several appearances). I usually act like an Indian or Chinese dude who wants to buy things but has really bad English. I pause a lot to look up words in the dictionary (while I’m doing other stuff, like reading the SDMB, for example).
Anything to make the job just a little more undesirable, so that fewer people will want to do it, and perhaps causing them to have to pay more for employees and cut into their profits… Also, as you noted, it wastes their time, which also cuts into profits. They still don’t seem to get the hint, though.
Maybe I should try signing up for that DNC thingie…
I’m trying to imagine what part of your anatomy you’re using to fake a doorbell sound, but it’s making me laugh. 
Personally, I blame Jewish proselytising. 