Yet more telemarketers...

[kmyers]

I am proud to say that I can drive any telemarketer to hang up on me. It can be as simple as talking about myself in third person like Royalty: Kenneth appreciates your call. Kenneth is interested in hearing how you may be able to help Kenneth.

At some point I will unleash this one on them.

Kenneth Myers has existed from the morning of the world and Kenneth Myers shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although Kenneth Myers has taken the form of Kenneth Myers, Kenneth Myers is all men as Kenneth Myers is no man, and therefore Kenneth Myers is a god.

That is an ancient quote from the Roman emperor Caligula. I love history.

Dealing with me is like dealing with Hank Kimble from Green Acres, drives them nuts and they hang up. To paraphrase the movie Ruthless People, I can make Gandhi strangle me. LOL

 

[BigBoy99]

Got a call last night, talking about not having coverage. I asked what kind of blankets there were selling. Did they have any wool and polyester blends? They hung up.

 

[cballman]

Depends on what kind of mood I am in if I talk or not. Got one the other day. Lady started talking about hearing aids and wouldn't shut up. Ask her nicely and told her I was not looking at the present time. She started talking more I then told her that maybe she needed the hearing aids cause she didn't hear me. Then hung up on her. The problem with these calls is that I pay for the phone lines both landlines and cell lines not them. I wil be as hateful and hurtful as I want to. My choice

 

[Smoke]

I've said before that I used to work as a Telemarketer. I've had people do everything you guys are talking about in this thread and I wish I could get the point across that it accomplishes nothing .

When I got a call where the caller started screaming at me or whatever I'd go straight to the script and no matter what you said I'd repeat the same line over and over and over and over and over again. I would sit there on my phone and listen to your blood pressure spike while I watched Comedy Central on the overhead. I. Didn't. Care.

After you hung up I still had all your information on my computer screen until I closed out the call. I could put a note in your file that said that you were not only really interested but that you wanted information on other products and services offered by my employer. In short I could make your phone ring all day long. If I was working inbound (you called me) and you were a jerk I could and did lock you out of your own account or transfer you all over the building and keep you on hold for 20 minutes at a time.

I didn't do this to everyone I dealt with just the jerks. The people that cussed me out or threatened to sue me (yeah, let me know how that works out for you). We were never permitted to hang up. The call would time out after a certain time but I couldn't end the call. So if you put down the phone I'd watch TV (and get paid) until the call timed out.

The point to all this again is that you really can't do anything significant to a Telemarketer and that the best way to avoid the issue is to simply not answer the phone. I mean there's a reason some of you are getting 5 or 6 calls a day and I don't get that many in a month.

But hey, if you want to scream at some random Telemarketer be my guest

 

[johngalt]

I've said before that I used to work as a Telemarketer. I've had people do everything you guys are talking about in this thread and I wish I could get the point across that it accomplishes nothing .

Most of the robocalls I get leave a message where part was cut off, but I caught a fragment something to the effect of 'push 2 to be removed from the list'. Since I didn't answer, too late for that.

I tried to answer a couple times, but their robocaller was so messed up/overloaded that it hung up on me before I could tell them to take me off the list.

So will they actually remove me from the list, or does it just get me on a 'hey, there is a live person there' list and sign me up for even more calls?

 

[Smoke]

Most of the robocalls I get leave a message where part was cut off, but I caught a fragment something to the effect of 'push 2 to be removed from the list'. Since I didn't answer, too late for that.

I tried to answer a couple times, but their robocaller was so messed up/overloaded that it hung up on me before I could tell them to take me off the list.

So will they actually remove me from the list, or does it just get me on a 'hey, there is a live person there' list and sign me up for even more calls?

If the call is an actual criminal scam obviously pushing 2 isn't going to do with anything.

If it's a legitimate telemarketing firm they'll put you on the list but they can still call you up to three times a month and they will.

Also if you have any kind of business relationship with that company the no call list is meaningless. And the business relationship could be you clicked on one of their links on the internet.

The best thing to do is to put yourself on the no call list and screen your calls. Screening your calls does work it just takes time. I mean if no matter what they never get a live human being on that number sooner or later the predictive dialer is going to notice that and remove you from their list.

And like I said my previous post don't talk smack to the telemarketer because they can make your phone ring and ring and ring and ring and they will.

 

[BC38]

I pick up the call but don't say anything. If it is a computer call, it will make a few beeps and clicks and hangup -then I block the number.

This is what I do too - all except for bothering to block the number - that's pointless since the number displayed is bogus 99% of the time anyway.

Question for ya' Smoke. I know that a lot of the robodialers "listen" after you answer the phone and don't start their recorded spiel, or connect the call with a live telemarketing person, unless and until the robodialer "hears" someone say something. After about 30 seconds of not "hearing" anything they disconnect.

Any idea how THAT call gets flagged in their system? Bad number? Active number? Something else?

 

[Smoke]

This is what I do too - all except for bothering to block the number - that's pointless since the number displayed is bogus 99% of the time anyway.

Question for ya' Smoke. I know that a lot of the robodialers "listen" after you answer the phone and don't start their recorded spiel, or connect the call with a live telemarketing person, unless and until the robodialer "hears" someone say something. After about 30 seconds of not "hearing" anything they disconnect.

Any idea how THAT call gets flagged in their system? Bad number? Active number? Something else?

I don't know. I know that a bunch of times the call would connect in the middle of the answering machine greeting or after the person had said hello.

I know some will dispute this but the company I worked for was "legitimate". We didn't use a predictive dialer, when your phone rang I had your name and address on the screen in front of me before the call connected (we called MidLothian Virginia a lot) and I knew the name of the person I was calling for. So we already knew we were calling a legitimate number.

I'm not sure how many time you have to ignore the auto dialer before it will weed you out but I know it will eventually.