What do you do when a Telemarketer calls you?

[Endangered Specie]

Poll question: What do you do when a Telemarketer calls you?

[Beaverhausen]

1. say "hold please" then put the phone down till they give up

[Wabbajack]

2. Pretend I'm being murdered

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. I try to

sell them something. Really.

[Mara Steele]

4. The answer is no, and please take us off your list.

Thanks a lot. Buh-bye.

[Endangered Specie]

5. Im afraid I could never be that polite and nice about it

[Mara Steele]

12. I'm a lover

Not a hater :D

[Joylaughter]

6. Hello?

"Yes, hello, Mr. _____, I'm calling from the..."

"That's wonderful!" CLICK

[MissMillie]

7. I simply tell them

that I'm not home.

[rfranklin]

8. Play a track from the Telemarketing Avenger

http://www.prankcallcentral.com/si/244.html

[supernova]

9. I let the answering machine get it

Usually my caller ID says "unavailable" or some third-party business I'm not familiar with so I just don't answer it.

It's rare anyway now, because I'm on the Do Not Call list.

[bobja]

10. None of the above

I let my machine answer and only pick up when I feel like it.

[Yogi]

11. Politely say not interested,

good bye, hang up.

They are just trying to make a buck just like you and me. Some peoples jobs just suck more than others.

[question everything]

13. Often there is no one on the line for maybe 10 seconds

but this is enough for me to hang up.

We changed our answering machine to pickup the call after one ring. If the caller is calling us, s/he will start talking and we will pick up the phone. In most cases, the caller just hangs up.

The only problem is when I am actually waiting for a call and there is a telemarketing person. And, yes, someone calling on behalf of a Democratic candidate is just a telemarketer as those selling a dinner, or something. Too bad that they are exempt from the "do not call list."

We lived in many places but the Twin Cities is the worse as far as how quickly "they" got hold of our address and phone number. I really think that the leasing office sold the info.

It is stupid to feel like a prisoner in one's own home.

[supernova]

17. Delay means a callbot called you

an autodialer called you. :grr: What irks me about callbots is they then have a prerecorded message for you to WAIT ON HOLD for someone to sell you something!! :grr:

Hey, you SOBs you called ME! I don't have to wait for jack shit from you. :grr:

[Endangered Specie]

20. amen to that

[jjmalonejr]

14. I try to be polite enough to keep them on the line for as long as they

care to talk, but act stupid and ornery enough that it's a fairly awkward experience for them.

It never ends well for them.

[will work 4 food]

15. I ask alot of questions, if I have

the time. I am the slowest dumbest person he has ever talked to, that keeps saying I'd like to buy, but I have anuther qwestin.

[yvr girl]

19. It depends

Sometimes I just say no thanks and hang up, but other times I play. I like to let them run out of script. They say their spiel, pause, and wait for a question. I say something like, 'mm mmm'. They continue. Once they stop talking, I say that I'm not interested and hang up.

[name not needed]

16. I breathe heavily into the handset,

and i ask them "what are you wearing?"

[Tardisian]

18. Other...

my husband has his home office radio set to either classical or jazz stations; he'll hold the phone up to the radio until he hears a hang-up on the other end.
Me? I just say "not interested, thank you" if I'm in a good mood; if I'm waiting for an important call and it's a telemarketer, I'll usually just hang up as soon as I hear them start the spiel.
And have you noticed that they wait a minute after you say hello? It's because they want to make sure it's a person on the other end, not an answering machine!

[HawkerHurricane]

21. I've mellowed out a lot.

When I first bought my house in 1998, I was getting 5-6 calls a night, asking if I wanted to change my morgage. Since I was on a VA/CHAFA loan, I couldn't change my mortgage, and it wasn't likely they were going to beat the interest rate I got. I got so annoyed that I started giving my 2 year old son the phone so he could 'talk on the phone'. However, since the do not call list came out, I only get 1-2 calls a week, and I can be more polite. I tell them no, thank you, and hang up before they can say another word.

[No2W2004]

22. Send the phone spiders,

and laugh manically

[Race4Peace]

23. do politicians count?

cuz i got a REAL good one that made him pisshis pants so fucking hard that he...well, that part's left to your imagination.

[Endangered Specie]

25. oh do tell please

:)

[Race4Peace]

27. ok.

some guy around here(Savannah GA) was running for state rep., and i got a call from him
http://www.savannahnow.com/democracy2004/candidates/buddycarter.shtml
http://www.friendsofbuddycarter.com/pages/home.htm

anyway, his motto is "proven conservative leadership"

I told him"yea, yea, yea, proven conservative leadershit"

[LynzM]

24. Having worked as one, I try to be nice

If it's silence, I hang up on the dialer. Get a faster dialer or more agents!

If it's a real person, I let them finish their intro, and then say "thanks, but I'm not interested. Have a nice day." and hang up. The job sucks enough as it is without being mouthed off to, cursed at, propositioned, etc.

[truhavoc]

26. I worked as a telemarketer in college

the worse thing to do is to let them pitch you and then decline...it kills their numbers. If you flat out reject it typically doesn't count.