creative ways to get rid of telemarketers

Salma

Salma

Well-Known Member
Jan 16, 2009
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Hello all,
I am looking for a creative way to handle telemarketers who call me at least 5-6 times per day. If I answer and swear and curse at them, they call MORE frequently. When I call the number back it is "out of service".
Suggestions...........?
 
Igor Galanter said:
Register on " No Call list". Not much but still help and you are allowed to complain about violators.
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I have put my number on that stupid list several times already. I can't even complain about violators because they are using a bogus internet line so no numbers can be traced. Guaranteed they are sitting in one of the bazillion call centres somewhere in India. Good luck finding them.....
 
I've heard of people blowing a loud whistle into the phone every time a telemarketer calls. In fact, while typing this, they just called me AGAIN for the third time in the last hour.
 
When we know for sure that it is a telemarketer calling, we answer...

"County Morgue"

There is usually a pause and then either a click, an apology or, if they are persistent enough to ask for someone, we ask them if they know which slab they are on.

They never, ever call back. :D
 
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We have a phone extension that is just for those kind of calls.

If you call our business asking for the owner or are deemed to be making a sales call, we just transfer to voicemail.

Oh, and we have never checked the messages on that voicemail account either. For all I know, the mailbox is full.

If they call back, we say sorry, and transfer them back to voicemail again.
 
hauling_ass said:
When we know for sure that it is a telemarketer calling, we answer...

"County Morgue"

There is usually a pause and then either a click, an apology or, if they are persistent enough to ask for someone, we ask them if they know which slab they are on.

They never, ever call back. :D
Click to expand...

Love it!!! I was thinking something along the lines of "Homicide. Detective (so-and-so) speaking." or maybe pretend to be a RCMP international crimes division, or something related to law enforcement. Would I get in trouble for that?
 
When I got them on my home phone I would just say "oh they are just walking through the door" put the phone down and go back to doing whatever it was I was doing after a minute or so you hear them yelling HELLO on the phone and they eventually hang up. After a few of those you get taken off the list because you are wasting their time.
 
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when I accidentally pick up the call...I like to quietly whisper (in a frightened voice) to the person & explain that when my wife catches me talking on the phone she gets mad...

then when they start talking I say "shhh keep it down or she'll hear us"...

sometimes takes multiple attempts but you can usually get them whispering back to you...

then let them get out a sentence or 2 and quickly announce "oh god she's coming" and hang up

I can't guarantee it'll get rid of them...but it's fun!
 
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If I am in a mood to actually answer the phone, I'll tell them how glad I am that they called and waste their time for a few minutes. They actually will never know who they've called because they're not actually dialing numbers anyway.

If they can waste my time, I can waste theirs just as well. AS IF I am going to give any personal information to someone on the phone who I've never met, from companies I've never heard of ...
 
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Sometimes if it's slow I put it on speaker phone for the office to hear (if it's slow...nothing but professional here! LOL) and let them do their song and dance and then start with really incoherent stuff. The last one was for duct cleaning....I let him say his piece..answered all the questions then when he asked if he could send the tech out to do the cleaning I told him "I don't know....you better ask the owner....I only rent".....dead silence on the end of the phone....then he hung up!
 
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I remember a while back when I was a kid my sister, cut them out.

Telemarketer: Can I get mrs. ''My mothers maiden name''
sis: Yes hold on
(puts on hold comes back about 2 minutes later)
sis: I am sorry, but she is deaceased, can I take the message
TM: Oh, I am terribly sorry to hear that. It will be ok for now.

Nobody has ever called for the following 2 years.
 
My standard answer at the office is, " I'm sorry but all those decisions are made in our corporate office in (insert city here)" and say thank you for calling and hang up before they have a chance to say anything. They then know that they won't get a decision maker at your number so they won't call. Calling to ask for a number is what's known as a wasted call and they don't like making those. 0% chance of a sale.

On a side note, those folks who come in the office with duffle bags full of junk looking to sell get asked if they have "tube socks" (they never do) and then get told not to come back until they have tube socks. I haven't seen the same guy twice. If by chance they do come back, I will tell them too late I had to buy some last week from Walmart!
 
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Speaking of duct cleaning ... sometimes I start yelling them about ducks being in my house. I tell them I don't want them to be cleaned, I want them to get the f--- out of my house!!!

I find that between duct cleaning and window/door companies (or so they say) it makes up about 70% of the telemarketing calls we get at home.
 
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