Hey, kellibelli. (I’m still smiling for you.) Just to cover all the bases, I wanted to rant and, hopefully, get an answer. I’ve never heard of the “take me off your list” line but I’ll try it. BTW, the phone ringing when I originally posted wasn’t a telemarketer. Good thing too, being in rant mode and all. If I’m curt with the telemarketers, it’s because I get 5 or 6 calls a day. I mean, there must be someone else in the phone book! So, starting today:
“No thank you. Please take me off your call list.” (Repeat as required)…
First, I LOVED the thread title, it reminded me of a series of articles that Reader’s Digest did a few years ago, ‘The Colon and You’ ‘The Pancreas and You’ and here is yours, ‘Telemarketing and You’ pretty close to the colon!!
The law does require telemarketers to leave you alone if you tell them to take your name off their list, but it is only for a year.
Something that has stopped a few to my home is just listening to the first sentence. A lawn company called and their first sentence was; ‘We’ll be in your neighborhood later this week…’ and I quickly jumped in with, ‘Oh that’s okay, I don’t mind’ and I hung up. Same with a siding company that started the same way, except this time I told them it was kind of them to warn me, but they didn’t need my permission anyway. Followed by a quick hang up.
The Caller I.D. thingie has helped too, it startles them when I pick up the phone and say ‘Wow, Whoosis Mortgage Company, you know I just couldn’t do business with someone who’s name is so nonconformist’ And then I hang up. They really don’t like that, and I usually don’t hear from at least THAT company again.
I actually had a telemarketer hang up on me once with me asking her what she was selling. She said she wasn’t selling anything, she was only wanting to ‘share some opportunity with me’ I started nitpicking how was she being paid if she wasn’t selling something, and she got mad, called me a name and hung up. It made me SO sad
“Honestly now, Chaplain, you wouldn’t want your sister to marry an enlisted man, would you?”
“My sister IS an enlisted man, sir” the chaplain replied.
Asking for the supervisor and telling them to take you off the calling list will work after a time. But in the meantime, my wife advised me that for every time a company calls after! you’ve told them to remove you, you can sue them for $500.00. If I had known this, I could have collected about $3000.00 of a credit card company. They kept calling, and I kept saying, “give me your supervisor, remove me from the calling list.” Also, to get rid of all those credit offers in the mail, take the page you sign, write, ‘remove from mailing list’, and put it back in their ‘postage paid’ envelope and send it back to them. I use to get 2-3 pieces a day for credit cards, free offers, all kind of junk.
Now I get about 1-2 week.
I pity the fool that brings a knife to a gun fight.
As a footnote to the mailing list. In the signiture line, I write VOID. That way they can’t say I ever wanted it. I also had one instance, where NOT replying, caused me to get the product. So you have to read the fine print.
I pity the fool that brings a knife to a gun fight.
{{{Listen, it takes less time just to say “the line” and hang up than it does to be rude.}}}—Green Bean
True enough. But it’s far more fun to mess with their minds (“I don’t get out much. What’s the weather like where you are?” “How long have you lived there?” “Oh! I don’t trust banks…I keep my money at home.” “What’s a credit card?” “Can I send you cash?”) and finish up by asking for loads of identifying information. Then drop “the line” and mention things like civil suits and summons.
–Kalél TheHungerSite.com
“If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.”
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
Caller ID works for me. Also, my phone does not ring if the caller blocks the caller ID. Call your local phone company and see if this service is available to you.
The odds that the bread will fall butter side down are directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
Ask to be put on the the “No Call list” and ask for a copy of their “No Call” policy in writing.
When filling out warranty cards, be sure to check the box that asks to check here if don’t want to be contacted about “important product updates,” etc. The same applies to online “marketing preferences.”
Caller ID. Most of them know better than to be an anonymous call–Caller ID can block those–but they always come up as “Unavailable,” at least here in southern CA. I don’t answer those, and good thing. Right before the election, I was getting at least one a day. On one Saturday, I came home to find they’d called me 6 times in a two hour period. Dead giveaway that they’re telemarketing: they call once, and when there is no answer, they immediately call back again. Three of the calls on that Saturday were within 2 minutes. And of course, they left no messages. Amazing.
Here in the Omaha area there is a service available from US West that can help with this problem. When you dial the person’s home phone number, an operator-type voice comes on and says, “This number does not accept soliciations. If you are a solicitor, please hang up now and add this number to your do-not-call list. If you are not a solicitor, please press ‘1’ now”. And after your press “1”, it starts ringing.
It’s a few extra bucks on the phone bill, but it’s well worth it, IMO. No more running to the phone only to find it’s a salesperson.
Now, if there was only a service available to dispatch those pesky Mormons and JW that repeatedly come to my door in spite of my pleas to be left alone (and the huge sign on my door telling them specifically to go take a flying fuck). I think something like a trap door would be nice.
Prairie Rose
If you’re not part of the solution you’re just scumming up the bottom of the beaker.
The reports are true: if you ask them to put you on the list, you can sue if they call back. Mention this on the second call, get names and titles of everyone you talk to, and ALWAYS insist on speaking with supervisors. Then get papers drawn up. You WILL win if you keep detailed info.
But beyond this, one way to get them off the phone quickly is to interrupt them before they even get started and say “They’re out for the evening, and I’m the babysitter.” Well, the babysitter isn’t going to buy anything… click
Another idea no one’s mentioned which has worked VERY well for me - get an unlisted number. Costs thirty cents more a month and filters out about 75% of the telemarketers. The other 25% get to talk to my machine (I generally screen my calls).
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
Well I have an unlisted number, and it doesn’t seem to help. And the “put me on your do not call list” is a great idea, but it won’t stop the companies who are calling you via an autodialer. My fax machine number is five digits higher than my regular phone number (both are unlisted) and quite often I’ll let a call go to my answering machine, the caller will leave no message, and within ten minutes my fax machine starts ringing. They don’t know who I am when they call by auto-dialer, so I’m afraid if I ask them to put me on their no call list they’ll know my name and call me more often!
The telemarketing calls that really annoy me are the ones where there’s a recording instead of a live person. I thought those were illegal, but I get them several times a year (usually someone trying to sell me a new roof or something equally useless in my current living situation!) What can be done about those?
“The analyst went barking up the wrong tree, of course. I never should have mentioned unicorns to a Freudian.” – Dottie (“Jumpers” by Tom Stoppard)
Wow… the more I read these posts the happier I am to be Canadian. Who on earth gets 5 calls a day from telemarketers? I think I’ve received less than 3 in all of 2000.
I used to get about 4-5 calls a night from telemarketers. I then got a nifty little feature on my phone called “Privacy Plus.” It’s sorta like what Prairie Rose described above, only it kicks in only when an “unknown” number shows up on the Caller ID. From experience I knew that 99% of telemarketers were from “Unknown” numbers. When I receive a call from one of 'em, before my phone ever rings it comes on and says that this number does not accept calls from Unknown numbers. If they want, they can press 1 and leave their name, and the phone will then ring with a funky non-standard ring. When I pick up, it plays back the recording, and if I want to answer I press 1.
I’ve never had a telemarketer even leave a message, and with one exception, none of my regular callers have ever received the message since their numbers are not “Unknown.” It works great!
Two bucks a month here. But then Bellsouth loves to rape you every chance they get.
Anyway, why should you have to pay every month for something that only comes out once a year? Come to think of it, why should you have to pay to have your number NOT printed in the first place? It’s saving them ink, right?
If you can not answer a man’s argument, all it not lost; you can still call him vile names.
–Elbert Hubbard
I live in the U.S. and we rarely get calls from telemarketers. Somebody is selling their numbers in a list. As mentioned before, always check NO on anything you fill out with you address and phone number if it asks about passing you name on for similar offers. That will help keep the harassment to a minimum.
Okay, I’ll admit it. I used to be a telemarketer. Here’s some things you might want to know:
#1) Asking where they got your number probably won’t help. Know where we got ours? We made them up. We were given an exchange (i.e. “555”). Then we’d dial every combination of that exchange: 555-0000, 555-0001, 555-0002, etc. That’s how we got your number.
#2) Asking to be on the “Do Not Call” list will work. I loved when people just picked up the phone and said that. Less work for me (meaning I didn’t have to call that number again).
#3) Messing with us never worked. We found it damn funny when people did that kind of stuff. We’d just say, “Would you just like me to call back when you feel like discussing this?”
#4) At my place, taking up my time with jokes or rants never mattered. I was paid hourly. The bonus I got for a sale wasn’t even worth it.
#5) If you’re going to ask if telemarketers ever actually get any sales…yes. That’s why people still do it.
#6) Telemarketers (most of them, anyway) are generally just trying to make a living. They’re not out to bother you personally.
Karma, what does being Canadian have to do with it? I’m Canadian and live on the outskirts of Toronto? The only way being Canadian enters into it is because we’re too damn polite to treat telemarketers with the torture they deserve!
… Those hookers over on the economically depressed side of any town only prostitute themselves, risk their lives and spread aids and other diseases because its the best-paying job they can get right?
