How to Discourage Telemarketers!
By barehugs
@barehugs (8973)
Canada
June 14, 2008 7:38pm CST
Three Little Words That Work!
(1) The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please.'
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.
(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!
(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk away. When you get there 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 51 cents postage 'IF' and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes and return to sender at their expense?
Three of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.
6 people like this
17 responses
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
15 Jun 08
This is a specific thing I did, I had a telemarketer call me about lawn fertilizer, all natural. I I was fostering a dog at the time that was a professional stud and I was not allowed to use fertilizers, weed killers etc without getting it cleared for safety.
Well this guy kept tell me it was 'all natural' and therefore safe. Finally, I said come on by, we can talk about it over a cup of hemlock tea. He said 'well that is poisonous'. I said 'yes, but it won't hurt you, it is all natural'
He hung up on me.
3 people like this
@lazeebee (5461)
• Malaysia
15 Jun 08
Usually I would tell the telemarketeers that I'm in a discussion or meeting, to call me back after 6pm. They never do.
As to junk mail - I collect them and send them to the recycling center or sell them to those companies that buy back old newspapers, magazines, whatever paper products.
@irishmist (3814)
• United States
15 Jun 08
I love these tips they sound like a lot of fun! Usually when one of those people call me I tell them my parents are not home. Sometimes they catch me off guard with their words, and when I relize I'm talking to a telemarketer, I tell them i'm busy at work, well this does not work, because they say it will only take a minute of your time, so at this point I say well minute up, then I hang up on them, this gives me a good chuckle. I understand these people have a job to do, but when you say you don't have time or not interested they should not pester you.
1 person likes this
@irishmist (3814)
• United States
17 Jun 08
Yes I understand this, and it is their job, but that does not mean we always have to be nice just so they don't get in trouble with their boss, mny times we have things going on in our lives and just don't have time to take the call, and even if we do take the call and listen to the speil most times the answer will be no anyway, and then again we have to listen to them pitch another speil. And if a person is at work and happens to answer their cell phone and gets a call like this and their boss is standing there, then what? They will be in trouble for being kept on the phone.
@schulzie (4061)
• United States
15 Jun 08
Thanks for all of the great ideas to deal with telemarketers and the junk mail situation. I get so much junk mail that I think I will start doing this right away. I don't really get telemarketers that much, but due to financial stresses right now a couple bill collectors repeated call me every day. I usually don't answer, but sometimes I do let my little girl and boy talk to them. The kids love using the phone and the agent on the phone gets the message that I don't want to talk to them. They do still call but it is funny that my little ones have a "friend" to tell stories to. LOL!
2 people like this
@hellcowboy (7374)
• United States
15 Jun 08
Thanks for the tips,they sound like they would be very devious and helpful,and I will definately try all the techniques you have mentioned,because you can never have enough ways to deal with annoying telemarketers and junk mail.
2 people like this
@hellcowboy (7374)
• United States
17 Jun 08
I know telemarketers can be a real pain,and are like flies once they find you,you cant get them to go away lol,have a good day,good luck in your life,and Happy Posting.
@CEVCEV (543)
•
15 Jun 08
I do fill the postage paid envelopes and send them back, but I usually swap the days mailing around so that they receive their competitors junk mail.
Oh and doesn't it feel so satisfying.
I usually get the phone calls at work and if it's something that I don't want then I tell them.
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
17 Jun 08
We used to have a whistle by our phone because we'd get phone calls all the time when I was a kid where they'd call and say nothing and we'd just continue to say hello and they'd say nothing but we could hear them on the other end. We'd blow the whistle as loud as we could and then hang up the phone. I actually started doing that to telemarketers when I was younger. I got tired of listening to them rattle on and on when I'd tell them I was not interested. So I'd just pull out the whistle, blow it loud and hang up. Usually they'd never call back.
@slickcut (8141)
• United States
15 Jun 08
I have been doing the junk mail thing for quite some time now,and it has cut down a lot on my junk mail.As far telemarketers,i always keep om my answeing machine,when the phone rings i check my ID,if it is a friend i anaswer,if its a 1-800 # i never answer,and i do not answer no name calls at all...I use to get so much junk mail and it has cut it down some...These kinds of things get me mad,i hate to stop what i am doing to answer a sales pitch call...
1 person likes this
@luvstochat (6907)
• United States
16 Jun 08
I always check my caller id and if I don't recognize the number calling then I don't answer I let the machine pick up and they will just hang up. I don't get very many telemarketing calls though because I am on the national do no call list.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
15 Jun 08
barehugs I love it thats just what I will do the
next time I have a telemarketer annoy me when I
am eating my dinner. Hold on please, thats just great'
put them on hold indefinitely. fantastic. also like
the hitting the # button and jamming your number so it
gets lost oh how sad. lol lol lol.
1 person likes this
@Remembering1996 (2219)
• United States
16 Jun 08
When telemarketers call I can see it on my caller ID and just do not answer it and let it ring til it goes to my answering machine. Most of the time it's about some credit card that I have been approved for or some insurace deal what ever it may be I just delete all of them. As far as the junk mail I get that comes in my bills I simply just take the bill out put it aside and throw the rest away.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (168126)
• Boise, Idaho
15 Jun 08
These are great! Dear Andy Rooney.
1 person likes this
@uklizzie (52)
•
16 Jun 08
Great idea, very funny and effective. My sister used to have a sandwich business and everytime she got a call from telemarketer she used to say, 'Thank you for calling. I'm so glad you did. I sell sandwiches,' and then she would reel off a whole list of fillings and kinds of bread.
She never sold any sandwiches to them but they had to listen as they are not allowed to put the phone down.
Some of those calls with no one at the end are made by computer and I've had them at regular times for days on end, until I complained to the telephone company. Then they stopped. In UK we have a telephone preference service where you can have your number put on a list of numbers that telemarketers are not allowed to call.
I like the idea of sending the pre paid envelopes back with other junk mail in them. Thanks for that idea!
1 person likes this
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
16 Jun 08
Why not look at my Telemarketing discussion? I put a lot of ideas for blocking calls. I love the idea of sending those pre approved cards back to the place. Or we could return to sender, right? Have a wonderful day.
Pablo
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
17 Jun 08
These are some cool little tips, and I definitely will be using the first two when I get these type calls!!! But my question is what do you do about the recordings that are trying to sell you something? We have a few calling here all the time about my grandmother's factory warranty on her car being expired. They get on our last nerve because she bought the car used in '04. The warranty only lasted a year after that, and then she got insurance to cover anything else. She isn't the least bit worried about getting another factory warranty, but yet they still call with the "Second Notice" and "Final Notice" of her warranty expiring almost every weekday. If you find a little trick to get rid of them, let me know!!!
@goldflower (156)
• Indonesia
16 Jun 08
Thanks for the tips!!
i might try it sometime.
Currently if someone call me by addressing me with my full name and ask to meet somewhere, i just said that "I'm not interested" and hung up the phone immediately. Rude, yes, but i dont like telemarketer :P
