Yet more telemarketers...
- Thread starter johngalt
- Start date
This REALLY irks me.....
My wife is somewhat 'generous' when talking to people who call or come to the door. Her name is Dawn.
The phone rings, I pick it up and say hello. A guy says cheerfully, "Hey Dawn?!
I could say, "What the hell are you doing calling my wife?" but instead I just say, "What makes you think this is Dawn?" and hang up.
My wife is somewhat 'generous' when talking to people who call or come to the door. Her name is Dawn.
The phone rings, I pick it up and say hello. A guy says cheerfully, "Hey Dawn?!
I could say, "What the hell are you doing calling my wife?" but instead I just say, "What makes you think this is Dawn?" and hang up.
The answering machine screens the calls. If it's important the caller will
leave a message. The ID tells me if someone I know called but didn't
leave a message. The phone always rings right in the middle of the
punchline on your favorite TV program. (Murphy's Law)
leave a message. The ID tells me if someone I know called but didn't
leave a message. The phone always rings right in the middle of the
punchline on your favorite TV program. (Murphy's Law)
LoboGunLeather
US Veteran
Home phone has caller ID and voice mail functions. Cell phone has caller ID and voice mail functions. If I don't recognize the number I don't answer the call. If the call is legitimate I will receive the voice mail signal, review the message, and return the call. No voice mail means the call wasn't important enough for me to bother with.
Occasionally a call will get through to me. If it is a telemarketer or scam caller I usually just click off, but sometimes I will play with them as long as it amuses me to do so. "Before we continue I will need your credit card number and security code, just to verify you are who you say you are, and so I can do a little on-line shopping later" (no one has fallen for that one yet, but it does throw them off their little scripts).
My basic rule is that it is my telephone, not their telephone, so I will not allow them to control the use of my telephone.
Occasionally a call will get through to me. If it is a telemarketer or scam caller I usually just click off, but sometimes I will play with them as long as it amuses me to do so. "Before we continue I will need your credit card number and security code, just to verify you are who you say you are, and so I can do a little on-line shopping later" (no one has fallen for that one yet, but it does throw them off their little scripts).
My basic rule is that it is my telephone, not their telephone, so I will not allow them to control the use of my telephone.
Bozz10mm
US Veteran
We get several calls a day from unknowns. It's gotten to the point where I'm blocking entire area codes, even my own. They use (spoof) our area code and exchange in hopes we will answer thinking it's a relative or neighbor. Ha, we don't have any friends, relatives, or acquaintances in our area code.
We started getting these unwanted calls in 2009, right after we moved here and got a new number. I added our number to the national DNC list, but it had no effect. The Do Not Call list is for legitimate businesses, and doesn't slow down the charities, debt collectors, political calls, or scammers.
In fact, I am convinced some of them use the DNC list as a source for legitimate numbers.
We started getting these unwanted calls in 2009, right after we moved here and got a new number. I added our number to the national DNC list, but it had no effect. The Do Not Call list is for legitimate businesses, and doesn't slow down the charities, debt collectors, political calls, or scammers.
In fact, I am convinced some of them use the DNC list as a source for legitimate numbers.
The way I look at it is these calls are a form of harassment and you should be able to deal with them any way you want. I will either not answer or if I do answer I'll wait for a real person to get on the line and then blow my cop whistle into the phone.
joeintexas
US Veteran
I'm with the just don't answer group. If I don't know the caller I don't answer, let the voice mail feature take care of them.
jmr986
Member
I have a landline we rarely use. It has an answering machine. Any call on that phone rolls to VM we never answer.
On the cell if it's unknown I don't answer. Depending on the mood I'll press 1 and talk to a rep. I love screwing with them. Sometimes I pretend I'm hard of hearing. Other times I just feed them the wrong information. That really pisses them off. Time is money, I figure if I tie them up it's costing them money, and I get some satisfaction. Seems to work at least for a few weeks.
On the cell if it's unknown I don't answer. Depending on the mood I'll press 1 and talk to a rep. I love screwing with them. Sometimes I pretend I'm hard of hearing. Other times I just feed them the wrong information. That really pisses them off. Time is money, I figure if I tie them up it's costing them money, and I get some satisfaction. Seems to work at least for a few weeks.
Are they so critical that you can't wait the minute or so it would take to let voice mail screen the call?
I used to be a telemarketer and I can assure you that the easiest way to get them to quit calling you is to quit answering the phone when they do.
It doesn't happen over night. I quit answering unknown numbers about 5 years ago and I'm down to maybe 3 a month.
Yelling at the telemarketers does no good they'll make sure you gat called all day long
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
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
cballman
Member
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
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
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
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OP
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.
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?
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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.
