Well I was under the radar for awhile, but lately I seem to be fair game. I'm getting more telemarketing calls than I believe I ever have before. "No" doesn't seem to affect these folks so my favorite method of dealing with them so far is to answer the phone like a chicken when I don't recognize the number of the person who is calling. Particularly when it's coming from out of state. Speaking "chicken" seems to get to them. Plus it's kind of fun and if my husband is around when I take the call he joins me and we both speak "chicken". It kind of makes us look forward to the calls.
Good tactic. I usually just put them on speaker and let them spread their BS till they finish, giving the occassional lame "yes" answer from time to time. I feel kind of bad simply hanging up, so to make both ends happy, I let them speak, but at the end I always say: "Your services seem promising, but I'm not interested, sorry."
These calls seem to be slipping through on my cell phone more often lately. I either choose not to answer, or I’ll make the mistake of answering and then hang up immediately, but I think I’ll start asking to be taken off their lists. If it works, great! If not, I’ll just continue not to answer, or to hang up.
Here's one thing that really bothered me. A telemarketer from a bank called me in the office at work. I was wondering what the person wanted until he asked me if I was interested in getting a credit card. Here in my country, having a credit card is just an option, as people still go by with money. It really bothered me because I was wondering how in the world did he ever get my information. I guess it was with the insurance that I got because the person from the other line knew our office number. So annoying. I have to flatly decline him a lot of times even if he was giving me option after option after option. My parents also got calls from hotels, asking them if they want to hold occasions there like birthday celebrations and the like. My parents often would lie and say they are only household help who cannot afford. If I were in their place, I will tell them upfront that I am not interested. Even if they will give me options, I will decline. I will only inquire regarding occasion venues when I want to.
I pretend to take a message. I will even repeat one of the things they say, like the last 4 digits of the phone number, so they believe I'm listening and writing it down. And that's all. I don't have as much fun as a lot of people.
I just hang up. Telemarketers are just trying to pay their bills like everyone else. I have worked as a telemarketer and have grown children who have as well. Thankfully I do not have to do that any more. Just hang up.
I just wait for them to finish their intro and then say "I'm not interested" and hang up. It's a little rude, and I know they're just doing their job, but I save both of us some time and just get it over with.
I had a bill collector after me for a bill that I didnt actually owe and had no intention of paying. Her name was Flo. When a female that was t me answered she would tell at them for pretending to be someone else , and even said one time she would call the neighbors and have them bring me the phone. She was told repeatedly not to call me at work but she did. She was told not to call my house but she did. She was a very vile creature who was getting off on being a horrible human being. If I had known then what I know now I would take her for everything she owned and taught her that there are benefits to being a good person. She is the reason people hate telemarketers and bill collectors. I often wonder what she's doing now. The passion that woman felt for bill collecting probably gave her a stroke by now...
ROFLOL! I may have to share your story with my friends on Facebook! I am on the do not call list and now that I no longer have a land line, I'm not even sure that's relevant. The first time I received a phone solicitation call on a mobile line I was livid. I went off, and the caller apologized. At that time you got charge for the first minute of all calls regardless. Now I can see the number and if I don't know who's calling, I don't answer. If it's important they can leave a message. What's more annoying is the computer calls that are actually for someone else.
I've been running into this problem more and more with my cell phone as of late. I usually get about 1-2 telemarketing calls per day now and it's become pretty frustrating. To make matters even worse, I know for a fact I submitted my number to the Do Not Call Registry years ago, but when I went to double check the status of it recently, somehow I was no longer on the list - so I had to re-add it and I'm keeping my fingers crossed it cuts down on these calls again. I don't know how the hell I got taken off the list, unless your inclusion expires after some period of time. The nice thing about Android phones though (not sure if it's a feature on iPhones) is that you can easily and immediately add these numbers to a "reject list" in your phone. These rejections are handled by your phone itself, and not through your carrier or some registry. For example, Verizon would let me block up to about 5-10 numbers through my account settings when I was on their network. But it was tedious having to sign in to my account, and remove older numbers and add new ones, and prioritizing them in general. Now I just let Android take care of it.
I am probably bothered by calls/emails sometimes because I take surveys and such but I do not provide the number or email to that many places anymore yet somehow they get the home phone number and email anyway. Maybe it was from the past times I did and they never forgot it and passed it on. The crazy thing is I have been getting emails from something called My Life. It says my security has been compromised so I can remove my data but I have to pay a membership fee. I'm trying to earn money yet I have to give some of that money away to undo the damage. So stupid.
LOL! That's funny,I have been getting quite a few calls from a particular company in my country as well. I just don't answer, because I know what they are coming with. lol, since week, I happened to answer the phone and I just politely told the person on the other line that I really mean no disrespect, to either the company or you, but I'm going to switch to another company-so it made no sense to tell me about what "great" products they have to offer to me.
I tend not to answer the phone unless I know the number but this is getting harder as I am job searching and don't want to miss an important call or anything like that! I simply hang up on them now and if I don't get an answer after my second "hello" I hang up then too.
Ooohhh, do your really give your unwanted callers that banter? Do they usually listen? Or do you just say those things to bore your callers and conclude the call themselves? Do they hang up the phone on you because they are getting paid to make calls and do the talking with their sales pitch? I'm not familiar with "Satan's minions". But, in the past, we were able to make good friends with some of them, and not necessarily buying or signing up a contract with them. We use the answering machine.
From the time this thread was started to the present, telemarketing calls have ceased almost completely. This could be due to a local regulation enforcing data privacy, and therefore telemarketers have to play with clear privacy policies and TOS before starting making calls. Now, if some of them call and I have not authorization given to call, the way to go is reporting them to the authority for a fine and legal sanction.
I hate telemarketing calls with a passion. Usually I don't answer the phone, or if they get me by chance, I simply just hang up. Other times I will just tell them to stop calling me. I just think its so rude to constantly be harassed like that. I have actually observed my phone and how many times they call. Sometimes it will be back to back, all in a matter of a less than a few minutes. Very disturbing!
i was visiting my cousin some days ago when a telemarketer called her up. She was very enthusiast talking on the phone and accepting all what he was offering. She turned the speaker on so I could listen the conversation. So that when the telemarketer began asking for personal information he never thought my cousin would begin to play with him... "ermm, excuse me, what you say? Speak out louder"... "ah yes, my credit card, just a minute to bring it here" then taking her mirror to check her makeup instead.... "yes, here is my credit card" <= where? I never saw any. "Hmm let me dictate the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4... ah no, 3, 2, 4,1... or is 7?" numbers coming off top of her head, not for real. To make this long story shorter, she ended up hanging up when supposedly the telemarketer was about to complete a totally fake transaction she was conducting. Of course he tried to call up again, but after hanging up, she redirected her incoming calls to another phone number, one that she jotted down from a public phone. All public phones have assigned a number which is included somewhere in the apparatus. She jots down these numbers and the same redirects her landline to any of these, or give those numbers as her own home or office phone numbers, but happens that nobody ever will answer when calling there because, when you have heard a public phone ringing? This function is muted and the only you can hear when dialing such a number is the calling tone, LOL
I have been picking up habits of not picking up unrecognized number. If it was somebody important or someone I know, their names would either show up and they would leave me messages anyway. Right now, I am not in a situation where I would expect somebody with unknown numbers to call me so it is safe that I ignore unrecognized numbers. No matter how I understand telemarketers' jobs, I found the pushy ones annoying and waste of time too.
I don't answer the phone at all. I've never been on the do not call lists because I have heard too many people complain that it doesn't work and they still receive calls. It can be annoying but I just ignore it.
Aaaahhhahahahahahaha! OMG I am rolling in laughter at what the OP told the telemarketer! Okay, so I've done similar things, I must admit. I have answered some at my parent's house (they are elderly so they get particularly targeted often) and just had a good time with it. One asked if I would be interested in a cruise and I put on my best redneck "shoot yeah I would!" and continued to ask dumb questions about it until "you mean I gotta PAY for it?!" and hung up. Not nice, but fun.
