How Do You Deal With Telemarketers?

I get your point, these people are only doing their job. But let's face it, they're still very annoying. So I do pretty much what you do. Or least that's what I used to do when I did used to get these nuisance calls. I would answer, and as soon as I heard it was them, I'd curtly and very firmly say that'll be a resounding no, then promptly hang up. After a while, the calls stopped coming.

 

With caller ID I don't pick them up, but sometimes I get texts too. In the past I have pretended not to be me and tell them that the person has moved or died, and then hang up after telling them to remove me off the list.

I did work in one place and they used to make us call people up and I refused. Basically it was to get their email address so we could email them each week the weekly newsletter. It was ridiculous because some people didn't want to give an email address and we still had to leave messages for them.

 

I'm never rude to people who are just doing their jobs, so I just don't answer. Let them move on to the next 400 rude answers they're going to get, I won't be one of them. If I answer accidentally, I try to find a nice way to say no to them.. which sucks, because I always feel bad for it lol.

 

Fortunately its not something that I have to deal with anymore..

As the simplest and easiest way I have found of dealing with this problem is - as most countries now have a National Do Not Call Registry - where you can register both land line and cell phone numbers for free and doing that will block all calls you don't want to receive - to always get your numbers registered there as quickly as possible each time you change to a new number - particularly as its about the only way to guarantee not getting unwanted calls.

Or alternatively - although some phones do now have inbuilt blocking systems - as there are now many number blocking apps available - installing one of those on your phone - is another option well worth considering.

 

I will admit that I was once that telemarketer. I was broke and at college - that's my excuse and I'd like to take the opportunity to apologise for all the disturbance I caused to people's quiet evenings,

These days, I just put the phone down on them although amittedly, they don't call that often as I'm careful with my phone number. When registering with WAH and PTC sites, I use a different number.

 

I have an app on my phone that tells me if it is a marketer. If they leave a message I will return their call and ask to be taken off their call list. If not, I ignore them completely, since they call while I am usually working.

 

Thanks to caller ID, I usually do not even answer calls from phone numbers I don't recognize. I let it go to voice mail as the telemarketers will usually not even bother to leave you a voice mail. If it is an important call, I will call the person back. Telemarketers usually call from 800 numbers too, so they are easily avoided. I do not like wasting my time listening to some sales pitch.

 

That's a bit rude, but that's your method and if it works for you then so be it. As for me, I just listen for a bit before saying frankly that I have no interest in purchasing the product or availing of the service they're offering. If they still insist, I'd also insist in firmly saying no. I'll only hang up if the agent is being too pushy for my own good.

 

What a coincidence. I just answered the phone a short while ago. It's the telecoms company asking if our phone is working well. When I answered to the affirmative, there goes the sales spiel that they have an ongoing promo on the new internet package... and some other products. I politely said we are not interested before putting down the phone. We actually have an answering machine to handle telemarketers so we do not lift the phone when we suspect the number in the caller id to be from a call center. They can leave a message though but they never do.

 

I also did a stint as a telemarketer. It was an incoming call center but I had a script that had to be utilized and the goal was to upsell from the offer they were inquiring about. It's not an easy job and getting the entire script out without too much trouble was part of my pay structure so I am easy on telemarketers usually. I am on the do not call list though so sometimes I ask where they got my number and if I requested the information. Usually, that is enough to have the caller get to the point or admit their error.

 

I usually say no thank you and hang up. If the same company calls me again, I ask to be put on their do not call list and hang up. If they call back again, I tell them that I was already put on their do not call list and if they call me again, I will seek legal action. There is a number that you can put your phone on a national do not call list, but all it takes is for you to put your number on a website to void that registry.

 

I try to be as polite as possible and ask them to put me on their do-not-call list. I mean there is no reason to get angry at the person on the other end of the phone, he/she is stuck with a crappy job and probably enjoy calling people all day long even less than people getting called.

 

Like you said, telemarketers are just people trying to do their job. I can respect the fact that they are trying to make a living. For this reason, I try to always treat other human beings with respect. Most often if someone is calling me with an unknown number I do not answer my phone. Furthermore, many telemarketing calls I receive are actually robots, not human beings, therefore I simply hang up. On the rare occasion that a human telemarketer calls and I answer, I politely say "No thank you, I'm not interested," and I hang up.

 

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by government. I got a cheap phone message taker that does not use tapes and is very good. You can let the message taker take all calls and pick-up on calls you want to pick up on. It's is easy and safer to have a message taker. Check online for sales and specials too for message takers that makes life more pleasant and keeps you away from telemarketers.

 

In Canada we are on a Do Not Call list which is suppose to abided by. I found since we registered the number of telemarking phone calls has decreased considerably. If we get telemarketers from overseas and they are quite aggressive my husband will sometimes pretend that he doesn't understand them and question them repeatedly, this usually makes them hang up on him and stops them from calling again. I find some telemarketers can be very aggressive on the phone and threaten you. I usually ask them to stop calling and ask them to remov us from their call list. Sometimes this works.

 

Non-profit organizations can still call you even if your are on a DO NOT CALL list as long as they get your number . . .

If you hang up on a Telemarketer odds are s/he'll call again. So hanging up on them most obviously will not solve your problem. I've also heard that being rude to telemarkers makes them even more eager to call just so they can annoy you. When you answer their call [if you have to] politely inform then you are not interested in whatever it is they are selling and that they shouldn't call you again. If the same person calls a second time, you could play him/her some music

 

I don't have a functioning phone most of the time, so I don't get any telemarketers anymore. The worst I get is spam email. Life is good.

Back when I was living near a phone I would just say 'Not interested, thanks,' and hang up before they could try and convince me otherwise. Not the most polite way to deal with them, I suppose, but certainly not as bad as some of my family. My dad pretends he's some Eastern European immigrant with no proper grasp of English, and keeps jabbering away in nonsense language until the telemarketer hangs up. He's also pretended to be a pizza place, which makes for a confusing opening dialogue.

 

I don't answer the phone unless I have a pretty good idea who is calling. If I don't recognize a number, I think, if it is an important call they will leave a message. I have done telemarketing in my life, so I have sympathy for them, but that doesn't mean that I want to talk to them. Some places will spam your number with repeated calls, or robocalls, and I really hate that!

 

I have done telemarketing, and I enjoyed it. It didn't bother me at all if people hung up on me. I just went to the next call. Don't feel too sorry for the callers. If you are cold-calling people, you know there's a good chance you'll be annoying them. As such, you kinda expect to get yelled at, or hung up on occasionally. It's not a job for the thin-skinned. When I get a call now, I just politely say, "No thank you," and hang up.