Telephone calls: solicitors/wrong numbers: How do you answer phone?

I just politely hung up on a solicitor a few minutes ago. I have our home phone and cell phones registered to the do not call list however my understanding is many companies/organizations are not covered by that restriction. I know that you are suppose to gather pertinent info from the calls and report back to the do not call people but I just don't want to be bothered. We leave answering machine on 24x7 to screen but after hearing hangup after hangup I get annoyed and start answering, no cursing but I am not very nice. I was wondering how the members have been treated by the solicitors thruout the country.
I have what I think is a great idea but when I mentioned it to the telephone company they reacted like I had two heads. I don't know the logistics of how it would be set up but this is how it would work. You setup your number with a password, you give the password to everyone that you want to receive calls from.
When someone calls your number, you are prompted to key in password or the call will be disconnected. A fee would be charged by the phone company to pay for this service. Nothing is free in this world? What do you think?

Just give everyone that you want to receive calls from your cell phone number and disconnect your landline. Problem solved.

I would not use this service personally. I think the solution would be more time consuming than the process of dealing with unwanted calls. If a telemarketer calls and they start their speech, I just speak over them, say "No thanks, take it easy!" and hang up. It is generally rude to interupt, but I would think that if I was telemarketing I would prefer to end a non-sale call sooner rather than later. When I was growing up my Dad had a great method of taking care of these people. They call and say "Mr. Smith how are you doing today?" And he would say something like "Well my prostate is acting up again" or "Well I ate some bad sushi and I have spent the last 4 hours on the toilet." That really throws em for a loop and often they will offer to call back another time. Some of em don't even listen and just say "Great, I'm calling today because.." Anyway, it worked for him.

These type of calls are also coming over the cell phone. They are using auto-dialing machines covering every number combination.

It is a good idea. I hate to break it to you, but it is not an original one. IIRC some phone service providers already offer the service. As to the poster on the cell phones, does not work, I am on DNCL and still get them on my cell. I am now landline-free for life.

In AZ the owner would not put the house on DNC. And then moved away! So I had fun with the soliciters. One I used a reverse of the old "Donkey Kong" gag and just kept saying "Donkey Kong" to the guy. Took several replies before he hung up. Another asked for the owner by name, told the guy he was not around because a piano fell on him. That guy was one I would hire because he replied how terrible he felt, didn't miss a beat, wish I recorded it. Another I said the owner was home but busy shooting a gay-male porn flick in the back room. She gave a snarly, "thanks" and hung up.

But the best ever was what this guy did.

While watching that video my wife is under the hair dryer in the other room. My laughing was heard by her. that was crazy funny.
Thank you so much for making my day!

Quote: P90

Just give everyone that you want to receive calls from your cell phone number and disconnect your landline. Problem solved.

That's what I did. I've never had to deal with a unsolicited sales call since.

Quote: only1choice

I have what I think is a great idea but when I mentioned it to the telephone company they reacted like I had two heads. I don't know the logistics of how it would be set up but this is how it would work. You setup your number with a password, you give the password to everyone that you want to receive calls from.
When someone calls your number, you are prompted to key in password or the call will be disconnected. A fee would be charged by the phone company to pay for this service. Nothing is free in this world? What do you think?

Radio Shack has (or had) a device that would do exactly that. You hooked it up at the point where the line comes into the house, this way all the phones don't ring until the password is entered.

Of course, this only worked for land-lines.

A better solution is Caller ID. Don't recognize the name? Don't answer!

---

A few years ago at work, we had a company calling to sell us something, and we kept telling them to put us on their Do Not Call list. Every few months they'd call again.

Eventually, we gave up, and made an appointment for the salesman to come to our office.

When he showed up for the "meeting" we told him to tell his boss that his boss just wasted his afternoon because they refused to stop calling us. He got very defensive and tried to show us whatever it was he was selling. After a couple minutes, I told him he's got 10 seconds to leave, or I call the police.

He left and we never heard from them again.

I used to get telephone solicitations from Great Expectations, a dating service for singles. I would tell them that I liked "Cold Meat" which is a certain subculture's expression for engaging in necrophilia. I thought this would end calls for a dating service but it seemed they increased. I've always wondered what sort of dates they ever arranged for people.

I used to get calls for a ski resort in Canada but would tell them I'm out on bail on a manslaughter charge and am not allowed to leave the USA... they still kept calling.

Or a guy calls up and asks for some girl ... I tell him "she is taking a bath".

There are so many exemptions to the do not call list that it's not as effective as it was designed to be. I usually politely ask telemarketers not to call again. Time is money to them so they usually comply. Occasionally I'll put them on "hold" by putting the phone next to a speaker with loud music. Other times I'll ask them for their home phone number so I can call THEM at dinner time. They really don't annoy me that much.

For the past several weeks I've been getting recorded calls from 1-800-836-3570. They are a scam debt collection company from Norwell, Ma. They want me to call them concerning a debt which I assure everyone I do not have. I refuse to involve myself in this scam by calling them and I have notified my state's attorney general. Google the 1-800 number of these scam artists.

The other day I got a call from a bank I have an account in. they were trying to sell me some kind of insurance against identity theft and/or loss of a credit card. Well, by law, and common sense policy, banks are obligated to protect against identity theft. And they have to replace cards that get lost or damaged. So why offer an additional service for a fee that's already covered by the myriad other fees they charge? (Don't answer, that's rhetorical).

But when I said "Thank you, but I'm not interested," the guy calling pressed with "Oh, you're not interested? Do you realize how irresponsible that is?" And launched into an angrier version of the sales pitch.

At this point I interrupted to say "Are you telling me the bank I keep my money at provides no security whatsoever? Regardless of regulations? If so, please transfer me to whoever can cancel my accounts right now. Then I'm calling CONDUSEF (that's a government agency tasked with some banking regulations as concerns customers) and reporting you. Whats' your name, by the way?"

And he hung up :)

But usually I wait for a pause and say I'm not interested. If they press on, I hang up.

Quote: only1choice

These type of calls are also coming over the cell phone. They are using auto-dialing machines covering every number combination.

I haven't noticed that. Unsolicited calls on my cell are very rare.
Besides, cell phones are much better when it comes to identifying the caller, and you can set different signals for numbers in your address book and others (pick something less distracting for latter).

My business number gets a lot of sales calls. About 60% of them begin this way:

Me: This is Mike
Salesman (after long pause): Is Mike there?
Me: What did I say when I answered the phone?
Salesman: I don't know.
Me: If you're not going to listen to me then I'm not going to listen to you <hang up>.

Before I did this I learned the ratio of such calls that were totally cold junk sales calls was 100%.

For the other 40%, if I know the call is going nowhere, but I can't politely escape, I put the guy on speakerphone and just go about my work. If he says anything to indicate it is my turn to talk I'll just say "no thanks," even if it was a question.

Quote: P90

Just give everyone that you want to receive calls from your cell phone number and disconnect your landline. Problem solved.

Not necessarily. There are a finite amount of telephone numbers available. If your "new" cell phone number recently belonged to someone who gave it away freely, you're in the same situation. I believe my current cell phone number falls under this category, as the calls started rolling in shortly after I got it.

A couple weeks ago I changed my voicemail greeting to this sound in an attempt to combat the endless political calls I was getting daily. The theory is that when a robocaller hears the SIT, it thinks the number is no longer in service and will discontinue calling it as a result. I still can't say whether this is theory or reality, since the calls pretty much stopped as soon as I changed my greeting, before any of the robocallers actually heard the SIT.

I never give my cell number to anybody. When I have to enter
a number on a form, or when I buy something, I have an internet
answering service number thru Google that I put down. Then
if somebody calls I get an email from Google that has a transcript
of the message. I never talk to anybody this way.

For the last 5 years I've been getting calls from collection agents looking for my husband's son, who used to give out our number as his. I Call Block as many numbers as I can but there are so many agencies looking for him and some of them use multiple incoming numbers that I can't block them all.

Sometimes I don't bother to answer if I see it on Caller-ID, but if I'm in a generous mood I'll pick up once in a while. When they ask for him I say this isn't his number and give them the number of his probation officer. His wife, tho, has been stupid enough lately to publish her cell number on her Facebook page so I'll be giving out that number next time.

I once heard that if you let your answering machine take a call and a robot call hears the words "hello" or "hi" it will go into its spiel, so I never start my outgoing message with either salutation and usually the robot will hang up as soon as the machine kicks in. It doesn't work with political robot calls tho; nothing stops them from leaving a 10-minute message.

I used to get a lot of robot calls from a company hawking security systems. They broke every rule of telemarketing as set up by the gov't, in that they would call on weekends and after 9pm, called even tho my number was on the National Do-Not-Call list and I had never had a previous business relationship with them or any other security company, never said their company name, never gave an "opt out" option, and never mentioned their phone number so you could call them and tell them to stop calling you. If I blocked one number they called back on another. I filed online complaints at the FTC website more than once and eventually the calls stopped.

I typically use one of three tactics depending on my mood:

1) I interrupt them and tell them my billing rate is $200 per hour so I need them to give me their credit card information before we can move forward. Once the charge is approved by my Paypal account, they can call me back. I also ask how many hours of prepaid time they would like to purchase.

2) I also use Wiz's approach of putting them on speaker phone and ignoring them until there is a pause. Except when I do this and there is a pause, instead of saying "no thank you", I just say "I don't understand why you are calling me" which usually results in them moving to the next section of their speech at the conclusion of which they pause again and I say "I don't understand why you are callling me". Rinse, repeat.

3) Or if I am busy at the time I just answer the phone and after hearing "May I speak to the individual that makes office purchase decisions?" I just put the phone down on the desk and hit the mute button.

Things I have done to telemarketers:

- Start talking in a foreign language.

- Tell them to hang on and then put the receiver down until they hang up.

- Tell them I'm glad they called because no one ever calls me. I then ask them if they will be my friend and could I call them to talk.

- Tell them to get a REAL JOB. They usually say this is a real job. This really enrages them and usually starts an argument about what they are doing.


One time a woman with a heavy foreign accent tried to get me to sign up for the DISH Network. I told her I already had dishes but I was looking for a good set of pots and pans. She said she wasn't selling dishes. She was selling the DISH Network. I repeated that I already had dishes. This went on for about 5 minutes. Then I went into the 'will you be my friend?' routine. I never got another call from the Dish Network again.

Quote: 1BB

For the past several weeks I've been getting recorded calls from 1-800-836-3570. They are a scam debt collection company from Norwell, Ma. They want me to call them concerning a debt which I assure everyone I do not have. I refuse to involve myself in this scam by calling them and I have notified my state's attorney general. Google the 1-800 number of these scam artists.

This site is going to become telemarketer hell at this rate. Many fun responses.

But on the collection thing, be careful not to totally ignore it. When I lived in AZ some place called my parent's house looking for me about a debt. Well, it was a fake one opened in my name. I got it straightened out, but had I blown it off it would have been a major hit at the bureau.

As an aside, another relative got a call from a place looking for her brother's former wife. She thought there was some amazing system that they found her. I explained how skip-tracing workd and they just started calling any listed number with the same last name, hoping for the best. Explained to my parents that is how they found them.

However, I can't wait for DISH to call me......

This is getting off topic, but worth mentioning. My father and one of my brothers share exactly the same name, except my brother is a "jr.". Anyway, at one time my brother had a penchant for not paying parking tickets and maybe other debts, and searches turned up my father only, who they pinned the blame on. They were very slow to accept the truth as an excuse.

The moral of the story is to not name your children after yourself. I also think it is kind of egotistical.

I just got a new credit card because its no interest
for a year. I'll use it for a year and never use it again.

On one of the pages of the agreement it says it shares
your personal info with just about everybody. People
who are affiliates, people who buy lists, everybody. Good
luck with my Google phone number, nobody home but
a robot. I also use my 'chump' email account for stuff
like that. A place I never send personal emails from. Spam
me all you like.

Quote: Wizard

The moral of the story is to not name your children after yourself. I also think it is kind of egotistical.

Funny you should mention this. Among Mexican Jews (and I think Jews in general, but I'm not certain), there's a taboo against naming children after a living relative. While among gentiles, it's common to name a first-born son for his father.

i usually just ask the telemarketer to call me back on my home number
and then give them the number to a collection agent or a singles party line.

This thread reminds me of a hilarious bit accessible on youtube called Tom Mabe murder scene prank call.Not sure how to post a link to it or I would.I have a hard time listening to this without breaking out in laughter.It is about a guy calling Tom Mabe telling him about an incredible deal on a satellite system and Tom tells him he has just dialed a crime scene.Definitely worth a listen.

someone already posted the link earlier in the thread...
page 1, AZDuffman

A bit on the late side, but I can tell you that if you're on the DNC list, it's only effective to a certain point. One of the loopholes in the DNC laws is that companies are able to call anyone who they had a previous business arrangement with at any point in the past 18 months. When I worked for a major newspaper, they would sneakily have a delivery person deliver a newspaper to a person. As long as they did that every 18 months, they could continue to call and harass that person for a subscription, even if that person signed up on the DNC list.

I am the kind of person that likes to mess with the solicitation calls. One thing I can warn you about, from previous experience, is to never EVER say the word "yes" at any point during the conversation. They record the calls, then will manipulate the recording to show that you said "yes" to a question about signing you up for some monthly-based service. Then you either start receiving bills, or they start billing your credit card, or even phone bill. And, if you think they can't bill your credit card without you giving them the information, you are incorrect there. Since phone number lists are generated by just about anybody, credit card companies do create and sell client lists, sometimes with credit card information. Legally, they purchaser cannot charge anything to your credit card without your permission, which is why they get you to say the word "yes" over the phone. On the flip side, it's easy to fight. They pretty much gave in when I called and confronted them on it, but I'm sure it works for them in numerous ways, from people who just don't have the heart to fight it out.

My favorite thing to say to a solicitor is that I'm dead. They ask for me, I say, "he dead." And keep repeating it until they hang up. My second favorite thing is to get them to go through their sales pitch as many times as possible. As someone else said, they don't really want to waste their time on me if I'm not going to end up in a sale. So I try to get them to go through their spiel as many times as possible just to waste their time. Asking questions or for clarification or whatever.

On my business line, I'm a bit more crude and gruff with the solicitors. My favorite is the companies that call and tell me they can provide business financing for my up and coming business. I let them know that I'm very interested, and how much money can they loan me? I have a plan to open up a string of whore houses. I already have a line up of very beautiful women, of all shapes, colors, and sizes, and if you can provide me with the start up loan, I will make sure you get two of the best b*tch*s anytime you want! If it's a guy, it usually ends up making him laugh, and then I hang up. If it's a girl, she gets pissed off, and I hang up.

Other times, I just cuss constantly until the person hangs up.

The more recent trend of calls where it is a recording that asks you to call a number or press 1 to be transferred to someone, I haven't found a way yet to combat / have fun with those.

I think the best thing I have ever seen is: My ex-wife and I were at some friends for dinner one night...the phone rang, my friends wife answers it and gives my buddy a look and comes to stand right next to him..all of a sudden my buddy just starts screaming "you B%^&*, I told you what will happen if he calls here" she replied with some screams and "please don't hit me, please...och your an ASS$%^&". She then calmy says "please don't call here", hangs up and they both start busting up.

My ex and I were like "wth" then, almost at teh same time they both say "telemarketer".

I have yet to try this one, but always keep it mind. lol

I think it would be ideal to loop the first 30 seconds. The remaining 2:40 isn't terribly funny.

I live with them, mainly because I don't mind participating in surveys, although it does get a little annoying when somebody is asking about a local election and it's painfully obvious the person not only lives nowhere near me but knows nothing about the city besides the name (and probably pronounces that wrong as well).

You would be surprised how well "No" works. (My usual "excuse": "I use up my charity budget through my job" (and I do - $20/week out of my paycheck goes to various charities). You also don't want to know how many times I get calls from local newspapers saying they would be delivering the paper for free for a period of time (and this is legit - there's none of this "oh, and you have to jump through hoops in order to stop the deliveries, with charges, after that" stuff); a simple "I never have time in the morning to read newspapers" works incredibly well.

Then again, I may have some sort of "magic touch" - I have even gotten Jehovah's Witnesses to stop coming by on a regular basis.

There is an app for Android phones called Mr Number that will caller-id both land lines and cell, and allow you to block those that are unwanted. The free version is pretty decent, the paid version has a lot of features that I wouldn't use but that someone else might. Because the IDs are crowd sourced, when a number gets reported as a spam call it shows up during ring as such. If I get a spam call, I report it, and it gets reported as spam for everyone else, too. Then instead of answering you hit "block", and that number will never cause a ring again. It takes about 3 weeks to really notice the difference, but now I get maybe one spam cell call every 6 months.

Take advantage of the potential of hive mind, I say.

I usually have fun with the telemarketers...but only when they're located in the continental US (american citizens)...a LOT of the time it's foreign (3rd World) countries and they're just trying to feed their families...so I will allow them to give their statement and just keep saying "WOW! Tell me more!"
When it's American citizens, I usually will converse with them (if I can)..ie: (if it's a woman) "Are you currently seeing anyone?" (if it's a man) "Did you catch the game last night?"
Most of the time THEY will hang up.

Quote: EvenBob

I never give my cell number to anybody. When I have to enter
a number on a form, or when I buy something, I have an internet
answering service number thru Google that I put down. Then
if somebody calls I get an email from Google that has a transcript
of the message. I never talk to anybody this way.

Everytime I think I have a mental picture of Bob he does something like this and I have to start all over again.

I think it's funny that he can jump through those technical hoops but can't seem to enable the text wrap function. Just a few weeks ago he was looking for a new computer - either the old one kept going or he seriously degraded the video capabilities of the new monitor...lol. You always keep me on my toes Bob!

Quote: Woldus

I think it's funny that he can jump through those technical hoops but can't seem to enable the text wrap function.

Its much easier to read posts where the sentences
are 10 to 12 words long. Most paperback books are
about as wide as my paragraphs. I've explained this
a dozen times, why are people too dense to get it?
I'm also not the only one, there are half a dozen
others here who do the same.

Whats really funny is people like you who have a low
tolerance for those who don't do everything exactly
like you do.

i find that
it is easier
to read them
at this width

Quote: WongBo

i find that
it is easier
to read them
at this width

In fact, it is. I read your sentence in less
than a second. My brain saw all the words
at the same time and understood them. I
used to be a speed reader, there are all
kinds of tricks to read faster.

do you remember the evelyn wood speed reading method?
i had her book READING SKILLS when i was in my teens.

I remember reading about an experiment that was conducted on reading comprehension for speed readers. Two speed readers and two with no such training were given the same text to read. Naturally, the speed readers blazed through the material and felt they understood it well. They were even asked to read it again, which they did. The other two individuals were plodding along and becoming frustrated with their lack of understanding.

It was finally revealed that it was a bogus text. The researchers had taken two texts on the same topic (but with opposing viewpoints) and merged them, interlacing alternate lines from each original. The speed readers detected no problem at all and believed they understood what was being presented, even though there were opposing positions being presented almost on top of each other. The slow readers just stumbled through the lines in cofusion.

I don't know whether that experiment really proved anything, but it didn't build any confidence that speed reading was something I wanted to pursue.

I don't speed read anymore, I miss too much
nuance. Speed reading is counter productive
when reading for pleasure.