posted on August 17, 2001 03:15:44 AM new
I can't be the only one fed up with these. Those phone calls from your credit card companies offering a service (such as credit checkng or shopping benefits)--and saying "try it for 30 days! If you don't like it, simply call our 800 number & cancel it." Like I'm going to remember to do that...
And, no, I don't want to switch my long distance company.
No, I am not interested in a timeshare & certainly don't want to sit through a boring presentation & the hardsell afterwards--no, not even for your schlocky parting gifts.
And no, I do *not* need any more life insurance. "But," they say, "this life insurance is free (or costs only pennies), and you can always use more." No, I can't. I have no children or any close family remaining. "But you can always designate a beneficiary." No, my best friend's two children are already named as my beneficiaries for 99% of my assets--any more and they might begin to be tempted to bump me off early for the proceeds...
I get bombarded by these offers every single day--several times a day. I wish I could set my phone, as I can my email, to weed out junk calls so it would never even get to the point of ringing...
posted on August 17, 2001 04:40:27 AM new
Hi bunnicula,
I know how you feel. I have added to my phone a service called Privacy Detector. If a call comes through with unknown name, it does not ring at my home, it rings at the number for the privacy detector, and the person can stay on the line, it rings through to my home. They have to say who they are, and if it is a salesman, you can hit a number on your phone, and it tells them that I do not accept phone calls from salesman.
If it is from family or friends, they only have to say their name, and I hit #1 on my phone and it goes through to me.
I have not had a single call from sales people since I have had it installed. It is worth looking into. I was getting so many of them, and some would not take no for an answer.
posted on August 17, 2001 04:50:58 AM new
Chevytr I sure wish we had this Privacy Detector over here because I could use it myself. But I have never heard of it so I don't think we have anything like it in Australia.
You know the ones' that really bug me are the ones' that ring and get offended and defensive when you are not interested in what they are selling. I had one of them ring this afternoon, and she says that they sent us a letter about some you beaut thing that they are selling, and as we have not returned the application form she can sign us up over the phone. It would only take a minute or two to sign me up. Don't they understand the word NO!!!
I know....The last straw for me was when an organization called and wanted me to give money. When I said no, they started yelling at me, and saying "What's wrong with you, don't you care about our teenagers?"
That was it, being yelled at was enough! If you gave to everyone that called, you could go broke!
posted on August 17, 2001 05:12:00 AM new
We get a lot of begging calls on our business line as well as our private one, and I try to stay calm and polite but sometimes they only deserve a harsh response. At times that is all they understand and hopefully it will be enough to make them think twice before they call my number again.
posted on August 17, 2001 05:56:58 AM new
One way out of all the charity calls is simply to tell them you make no donations over the phone, and to please send the info by mail...then hang up. Oddly, they never seem to mail anything. Who could afford to donate to every group that calls?
As for promotional calls...I've changed from "no thank you"...hangup...to "no thank you, please take me off your list"...hangup. No conversation with those folks, at all.
posted on August 17, 2001 06:04:14 AM new
Phone solicitors.....AGH!!!!!!!!......Can't stand 'em!.....Lately, the calls that I've been getting are from people with accents so heavy I can't even understand a word they are saying, which REALLY adds to the pleasure of conversing with these companies - NOT!
I typically screen my calls for just that reason. I can have between 5-10 hang ups a day!...If I do pick up the phone (accidentally!) I simply tell them that "I" am not home, ask what the call is in reference to & if they would like to leave a message (I've yet to get one who actually leaves a message!) and then I explain to them that the homeowners will NOT do business with phone solicitors. Maybe it cuts down the amount of calls, maybe not, but it does make me feel better
Chervytr, your "Privacy Detector" sounds great!...Is that a service offered from the local phone company or a telephone add on device?....I would LOVE to have something like that...Of course, I'd never hear from my mom again, cause she can barely figure out how to leave a message on my machine, and would probably freak & hang up if she had to figure this one out, but it seems like a small price to pay to regain phone control!
posted on August 17, 2001 06:09:16 AM new
I do not use my phone for business so if I get one of these calls I just set the phone down real easy and go about my business and come back later to hang up. I leave it to them to figure out there is nobody on the other end. There is no way they will listen to a polite no - so I don't bother any more.
posted on August 17, 2001 06:54:05 AM new
Rancher,
Privacy Detector is offered by my local phone company. It is worth it. The great thing about it is not every call will go there, only the phone numbers that show up unknown name or unknown number. Most of all of the residential phones will come through with their name and number, but solicitors come through either with or without a number, but unknown name.(they don't want you to know who is calling)so those go through the privacy detector.
So if either the name or number does not show up, then it goes to the privacy detector.
posted on August 17, 2001 08:24:38 AM new
We have a svc here available called Privacy Mgr which, I believe, is the same. The problem is that all your friends & family that have 'private' numbers have to know (or remember without getting frustrated!) to hit *82 or something like that to call you. It's tough for older folks...But it is a very good alternative that I'm thinking of trying too.
So....Having finally gotten completely fed up with this crap I got me a big, loud whistle. As soon as I know it's a telemarketer I blow it as hard as I can then hang up. Amazingly, after years of fielding these calls and trying to politely get them to stop by every other means to no avail, this seems to be working! The first time I felt horrible, the second time I felt bad for a couple of minutes, now I don't give a hoot.
You know, when you pay extra to have unlisted phone numbers (we have 2 phone numbers so it's telemarketer hell times two!) you should NOT have to deal with this! I once had one whom I asked, innocently, 'this is an unlisted number; how would you have gotten my phone#?' This b*tch responded in the snottiest tone imaginable, 'I just guess I'm psychic' and hung up. Grounds for murder, I'm thinking! Because you have no recourse to call back and report her rudeness or anything! Wish I had the whistle then!
[ edited by Triggerfish on Aug 17, 2001 08:28 AM ]
posted on August 17, 2001 08:26:08 AM new
I've used just my answering machine for years. If it's a friend, they know to give me a minute once I hear their voice. Solicitors hang up. A business would be tougher, and I sympathise. I used to use the line, "I don't want you to waste your time on me, so please call someone who might be interested. Buh-bye."
posted on August 17, 2001 11:53:04 AM new
The State of Oregon has what they call a "no-call" list. For Oregon residents, one pays up-front $6.50 a year to be not called by solicitors of any sort, and $3.00 renewal per year. Oregon State's Attorney General is constantly levying large fines in the tens of tousands of dollars range for offences by telemarketers -- even when they are from other states! That means that if you have been paying the telephone company every month to NOT LIST your telephone number in any public directories in order to help avoid telemarketing calls, now you can have your number listed so that friends and family can find you, but telemarketers can't call you without MAJOR PENALTIES that the state is will to go after them for!
The idea was first brought up in the State of Washington, where Governor Gary Locke(D) has been promoting all sorts of Consumer Protection programs, including sueing SPAMMERs!
posted on August 17, 2001 03:22:22 PM new
My public service announcement of the day:
You can get off many of these telemarketing lists by registering with the Direct Marketing Association's Telephone Preference Service (they have a Mail Preference Service, too). Send in your information and tell them you don't want calls, and marketers who are members of the DMA (which is a whole lot of them) will put you on their "do not call" lists.
It takes a few weeks for the calls to taper off, but I've done it and it works. I re-register every time I move.
posted on August 17, 2001 06:29:07 PM new
Oregon is wonderful, but we're getting more crowded every minute-- so let me tell you about the huge forest fires, big property taxes-- etc. :0) Come visit us, sure! No sales tax-- so be ready to buy lots of cheap stuff!
What comedian am I thinking about who does the bit about telemarketers? They call and he says that he is interested in signing up/buying whatever they are selling if they will give him THEIR home number so he can call them at his leisure.... Cosby? Dennis Miller? Who is that? It is stuck in my head but I can't picture who did it and I know I did not do it justice in describing it. Hopefully someone will know so I can stop thinking about it! TIA
posted on August 17, 2001 09:00:58 PM new
You know what gets me is these credit card companies. They call, I tell them I just got laid off and they still try to get me to get a card! Um, and how exactly am I supposed to pay the bill?!
posted on August 17, 2001 09:38:22 PM new
Wow, I really like your idea gravid! I used to do what toke said and ask them for information on their company before I would decide anything.....it's always worked for me, but I'll try your approach too and ask them where they're located....Thanks!
posted on August 18, 2001 07:44:54 AM newartsupplies, Oregon has had that o9ld sort of "no call" program in place for many years. It keeps them from calling you for one (1) year only and you have have to tell that to each and every one of the ten thousand or so telemarketing companies that each year? Bah! It's a load of crap!
I only brought up those two programs because it ought to be enacted in your state -- wherever each person is reading this. As far as a Federal consumer protection program goes -- I can't tell you what I think, least the forces of Evil come dashing into here accusing me of bringing up politics wherever I go (and I do!)
posted on August 18, 2001 09:46:26 AM new
My wife got a call from one of those time share organizations and signed us up for the presentation.
We went for two days to Branson, MO and they paid for one night in the motel and a nice meal or two.
But the deal was that we had to go to the sales presentation, which we did. About 2 1/2 hours of hard sales pitches. I wondered what we were doing there. We couldn't afford to be in a time share. Like we're going to be flying to Hawaii one year, the Carribean the next to take advantage of this? Not on our income unfortunately.
But we did get a couple of days in a nice vacation spot for not much money out of pocket.
posted on August 18, 2001 12:56:38 PM new
I was skeptical at first, but this has worked for me:
http://www.privatecitizen.com/
$20 to stop the phone calls (I can pitch the junk mail myself). For an extra $5 I took care of my mother. It was the best present I ever gave her. It takes about a month to notice the difference.
There are also magic words. "Take me off your list," does not work. You may be taken off only that night's list. You have to say, "Put this phone number on your Do Not Call List and the Do Not Call List of every other organization you represent."
posted on August 18, 2001 01:17:57 PM new
In two days time I had 22 phone calls of those 22, 20 were anonymous. Two were from friends who'd forgotten we were going to be away. I hide from the phone. I have an answering machine and caller I.D. My answering machine states what number they have reached and if they are calling to sell or solicite us they are to remove our name from the lists....weather they do or not doesn't matter to me...I just erase the caller I.D. Very few stay on the line long enough to listen to the machine,never mind leave a message.
posted on August 18, 2001 01:30:31 PM new
I'm in a bad spot because of our antiques shop. I have to answer everything. Some "out of area" and "private" calls have turned out to be house calls...either from cell phones, or people with blocked home phones. I need house calls...don't want to miss even one.
The solicitors are wising up...a lot of them are calling from phone numbers that show up on my caller ID... I know they're trying to make a living, which is why I'm polite enough to say "no thank you." I still don't want a lengthy argument though, which is why I hang up after I say it.
posted on August 18, 2001 03:58:48 PM new
If you have the time, you can have a lot of fun with this. Most of these callers work with a canned pitch. So, work it so you can throw them off the pitch.
For example, when they say the name of the company they are calling from, you answer with: who? They will repeat the name. You answer "I don't know who you are." They will try to explain again. Now they are wasting time and the phone room manager will likely have something to say to them.
I think you get the idea. They will end the call as soon as they realize you are senile. LOL
posted on August 19, 2001 10:21:47 AM new
A friend gave us an "Easy Hang-up" and it's been great when we receive annoying calls. I am in no way affiliated with the company, I'm just pleased with their product.
posted on August 19, 2001 10:51:23 AM new
The ones asking how my photocopier or credit card machine is doing drive me nuts!
I bought the copier locally - so there is no need for anyone to check it and the credit card machine doesn't print so I obviously don't need paper for it!
I gave up trying to explain - I just hang up. Sometimes they call back - then I get evil
At the store I get about 10 charity calls a week. Because we deal directly with charities, I have made the rule that I can only give to those who buy off of the store. I normally only do donations by marking that amount off of their invoice. It dramatically cut down on my donations.
The long distance companies I tell them to send me money and I will switch. I am way ahead on that one! Seems none of them ever bother to notice how small my long distance bills are
Hippy wannabe 
~^~
Let's face it, they're the ones calling you. You can do almost anything....and sometimes I do.