How do you deal with telemarketers?
By BlueStarMom1
@BlueStarMom1 (931)
United States
October 24, 2007 3:56pm CST
One of my biggest pet peeves is telemarketers. They drive me nuts when they call while I am busy or they interrupt my dinner. I especially hate it when they call on Sunday mornings.
I used to just hang up. But then I decided to let them have a little of the annoyance back.
Now if I a busy ( or here on mylots) I still just hang up. But !!! if they catch me at the right moment and in the right mood I play a little.
I will answer and when a real live person finally comes on every time they ask a question I say "WHAT" and everytime they repeat it I us my dumb voice and just keep repeating WHAT?
Sometimes I start talking jibberish,That really drives them nuts, they just keep repeating the same question over and over. LOL
I figure if they are going to waste my time I will just waste a little of theirs.
Other times I use my little fog horn. I bought one and keep it near my phone. When they start talking and think they have finally hooked a live one I just give them about a 2 second blast right in the phone.
Good bye telemarketer.
If you have ways of dealing with them I would love to hear them.
5 people like this
19 responses
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
25 Oct 07
You need to be careful with that. Just because you are on the do-not-call list does not mean that you have not inadvertantly put yourself off of it. IF you put your phone number on any form that goes to a company (application, survey, giving your phone number at the register...) you are giving them permission to use your phone number - not just call you but to sell the number to someone else. It's kinda a pain, but I don't give my number out unless I have to - or they explicity tell me that they do not sell it.
And, if you signed up for the do-not-call list when it first came out, it's about due to expire, so go do it again...
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
25 Oct 07
Cool. I've seen you around and I was pretty sure you already knew that, but I just wanted to add it in case...
@laurika (4532)
• United States
24 Oct 07
Lol, this was really good one.Thank ou for sharing with us.Now I will know how to handle them.The most of the time when they call me I would tell them I am not interested and we would say each other bey and hung up.But few days ago I have really rude woman calling here and when I pick up she ask for some guy.I said he didn't live here and she said it doesn't matter I want offer you ....this and that..there was no way to interupt her, but also i didn't understand her one word for her accent(or my bad english, i don't know)So I tell her I am not interested and hung up.That woman call again the same day for maybe 2 or 3 times.I just didn't pick up.But now you give me some inspiration.It was really funny, i am still laughing.You are great, my friend.
@BlueStarMom1 (931)
• United States
25 Oct 07
Thanks to all of you for responding. And while I do usually hang up it seems the amount of calls has gotten really heavy. Like I said this is a pet peeve of mine. If I were interested in there product or service I would have called them. It seems to be the same people calling time afte time. If you ask them not to call you they ignore it. They will sometimes call again later in the day or the next day. What part of please don't call me again do they not understand.
Again, thanks to all who took the time to respond.
@shadowing (308)
• Malaysia
25 Oct 07
Hi BlueStarMom.
If I encounter telemarketer, first I will identify which language is using by them. If they speak English, I will answer in Chinese by saying I don't understand English. If they speak Chinese, I will speak Malays by saying wrong number. Haha. This is my strategy so far.
1 person likes this
@brandy78 (159)
• Canada
24 Oct 07
I have taken to just hanging up I don't want to say something mean I think it would be a really tough job and everyone has to make a living and really its not them plugging the product its the company they work for.. its kinda like being rude to a waitress cause your foods not cooked properly..but I get annoyed too so I figure not talking at all is my best bet.. lol
1 person likes this
@WiseReptiles (854)
• United States
24 Oct 07
I try to sell them stuff back. I interrupt them every chance I can get and offer them more stuff for sale. After about 2 minutes of this they hang up on me and I don't hear from them ever again
1 person likes this
@dreambiggg (33)
• United States
26 Oct 07
I have done things very similiar to what you have done BSM....lol I used a whistle a few times when they have called..... lately people I have been getting calls from do not speak our language very well in the first place, and I can not for the life of me understand them..... So, I either hang up after telling they need to learn how to speak our language before they use our phones in the US to call us. Or else, I just hang up, depending on my mood of course...
@reinydawn (11643)
• United States
25 Oct 07
I just tell them "sorry, not interested" and hang up. If they call back, I tell them not to call me any more. I rarely get calls any more, so it's not that big a problem for me.
@venshida (4836)
• United States
25 Oct 07
You can sign up on the no call list, and by law they should not call you. The calls I get are from companies that I have a business relationship with and they are always trying to sell me crap. They are exempt from the no all list. I just don't answer the phone if it's a toll free number, unknown number or long distance number I do not recognize. I just let the answering machine pick it up.
@copperkitten (3473)
• United States
25 Oct 07
LOL. Thats a good one!! I bet they dont call back. I usually answer and say Im the maid and that there out of town for a while..no I dont know when they will be back. OR...I tell them they have the wrong number and I have never heard of that person. LOL. I wouldnt want to be a telemarketer. One of my friends is and he says he makes 1000$ to 1500$ a week!!!
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
26 Oct 07
The last one that called was on a Sunday calling in behalf of a presidential candidate. I was angry because I was expecting it to be one of the kids..I kinda lost my cool....But sometimes I ask them if I can get their number and call them back at a later time when I am not busy. They ususally don't call back again.
@princessa200145 (616)
• United States
25 Oct 07
hang up on them blow a whistle in their ears listen to their spiel if u want to and at the end say thank u so much for your time but i am not interested or i will tell them i am already have my own bizness which is better than theirs and when they press for details i hang up i think u have cornered the market on this us my lotters should follow your lead
@Feona1962 (7526)
• United States
25 Oct 07
I have caller ID..If I don't recognize the number I don't answer it..That way I don't have to worry about it...
@lavenderbloom (1057)
• United Arab Emirates
25 Oct 07
I am polite with whoever calls me. If I am really busy, I tell them straightaway. If not busy, I will see what information they need and act accordingly. Once a lady called me for a survey, I told that my baby is sleeping so I cannot participate in the survey. she told me she will take just a few minutes. I told yes but if my baby wakes up in between then i will discontinue. She said ok and then I did as I said. But, if i find the other person on the phone does not deserve my time I say sorry, not interested. Thats it. But, I see to that I never hurt them because we should know that it is part of their job.
@violeta_va (4831)
• Australia
25 Oct 07
Oh man what peeves me is that I am on the "DO NOT CALL LIST" so legaly no one is allowed to call me. I do not want to be mean to them as I know that they are just doing their job but I always ask how they got my number and tell them that I am on the list. Some are ok about it say sorry and hang up. Some keep talking and say this will only take 5 min well I am sorry but thats the point of the do not call list.
@Skittlez352 (216)
• United States
24 Oct 07
Well, I used to be one, and for the people that are rude to them, you are the reason I lost my job and it paid really good too - for Bank of America. I started off getting good commission plus $8/hr. The best way to handle telemarketers, is politely say no thanks and just hangup or just dont answer in the first place, depending if you have caller ID or not! i almost cried lol but i was 16
@swetha2rani (341)
• India
24 Oct 07
Worst thing to ever happen with this telemarketers is the SUNDAY calls that I get. It is the worst thing that can ever happen. I did work like a telemarketer and even used to get some of such answers like the way you respond but I could not help but continue the work saying, Thank You for Your Patience. But by the time I could finish the line the phone is hanged up. Now receiving such calls make me feel even more worse coz' they just dont try to listen n understand that we are not interested in their market but they just go on and on. I stopped listening but just receive the call and without saying a hello just hang it up. they try n try but atlast they are tired of making anymore calls.
@LCecelia (1124)
• United States
25 Oct 07
I finally subscribed again to the caller ID service so I don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number.
Before I got it back I didn't answer until the person started leaving a message and if it was someone I wanted to talk to I'd pick up. And if I happpen to pick up I would tell them I wasn't interested and hang up without giving them a chance to respond.
@raychill (6525)
• United States
24 Oct 07
I only have a cell phone and I don't normally answer it if I don't know the number that is calling. so that's pretty much how I deal. if I do happen to answer I pretty much say "Yeah that's great I'm not interested please don't call me anymore".
Sometimes I'll say that they have the wrong number and other times I'll just hang up. Sometimes I even pick up and hang up. So I don't have to hear the phone ring anymore. and they think i answered.
stupid telemarketers.
