November 25, 2006
Annoying unwanted calls
Among the unwanted calls I find most annoying are those from telemarketers trying to sell me a subscription to the P-I.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 25, 2006
11:44 AM | Email This
1. My elderly mother, who has health challenges on several fronts, has the perfect solution. The telemarketer invariably opens with the first question: How are you? My mom then proceeds to tell them EXACTLY how she is, in detail and at length. They don't call back.
2. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the Pierce County Fire-Fighters and the Pierce County Sheriff's Office always calling and begging for money?
The always sound like professional fundraiser-telemarketers, too, rather than Pierce County cops and fire-fighters. Do you suppose they're really NOT cops and firemen!!
3. The WSP
UNION called today... I held my tongue and didn't give in to the temptation of a union thug tirade and instead just said all our donations are made through our church... I forgot to tell him to put us on the
DO NOT CALL list.
4. Of course the classic radical approach is the timely use of a police whistle. It's a little harsh for my taste. I generally opt for the "Well then, give me your home phone number and what time do you normally eat dinner?"
Once in a while you get some poor slob in dire financial straits, "just trying to earn some money." To which I respond "My scarce time off with family does not include you."
Well...hmmm...actually it never gets that far anymore. Now I just say "I'm never going to have time for this" and simply hang up.
5. I just tell them I just nad all my spare donation funds taken by the Democrats in Olympia, and advise them to call them for access to your money.
6. The best for me was when I was at a Mariner's game earlier this year. There was a woman on the main concourse level giving away some pretty nice stuff, backpacks, clothing, etc. I was surprised to see such nice stuff being given away, so I asked what the requirements were. Turned out that she was selling subscriptions to the Seattle Times. I laughed and said, that it take something a lot nicer than a backpack to get me to subscribe to a Seattle newspaper.
I could tell by her reaction that she'd had a lot of trouble trying to sell subscriptions, even with the accompanying nice free stuff.
It would probably take something worth at least $200 to $300 before I subscribed to either Seattle paper. And if I did sign up just for a freebie, I would cancel as soon as the terms of the free stuff allowed.
Seems like a better approach would be for the Seattle papers to simply improve their product. But the left leaning journalists and editors are too arrogant to consider changing their schtick of openly shilling for Democrats, Progressives, etc. while pretending to be objective.
7. I just tell them that I wouldn't line my bird cage with it. I am afraid my bird would become sickened by the yellow journalism.
8. Here was my latest "silence on the other end" maker:
"I used to deliver the Times and PI as a kid. Subscribed to them at one time, then they became mouthpieces for the Dems. That annual cost is about what National Review costs, plus some change left over and I really learn something"
Works every time.
9. I tell the newspaper hawking telemarkers in my area that if they came to my house with a gun and gave me the choice of reading their biased and inaccurate piece of crap paper and death,, I would choose death. That usually gives them the idea that I won't be talked into subscribing.
10. Jeff...yeah, most other companies marketing a product would take your advice and improve their product as the best method to improve sales, but this is Mainstream Media and they figure we all need and deserve their opinion...because it sure isn't news.
PI hasn't called me in years. 6 or 8 times they were informed we wouldn't allow that communist rag in our house, and wow, we don't get called anymore.
The rest (and the annoying number grows weekly) hear some variation of: No thank you, good by; No thank you, take me off your calling list please; or, this is family time call me during the day I'm usually home (they never do), goodby.
My pet peeve are the recordings I listen all the way through, hoping for an option to have my number removed from their call list...just to find there is no such option, and no way to contact the originator of the calls (is this even legal?).
11. When telemarketers ask me how I am doing, I reply that I was just laid off. The call ends within seconds.
12. We put our number on the National do-not-call list and to our surprise it actually worked! It's not often government does something that actually does what it is supposed to, but this is one of them.
13. Oh, Lordy.
I will defend the Pee Eye, but only this way.
I need something to wake me up, and get the blood boiling in the morning. There is always something in the Pee Eye Fishwrapper that accomplishes that task, even when ol' Joel doesn't have his column running. Paynter--yeah, she will do it 99 out of 100 times.
If we don't buy the Pee Eye, then we only will have the Times.
Support competition, support free enterprise, cut your coffee consumption. Read the Pee Eye, for that early morning jolt.
The Geezer
14. Strangly enough, I still use Andy Rooney's 'leave 'em hangin' approach.
It's their nickel. If you don't need the phone ringing during dinner, just set the hand set where you can't here the tele-marketer yelling![;-P
15. The SP contributors have some very astute approaches to telemarketers.
I'm with "right wing wacko"....I put our phone 3"s on the National Do Not Call list. We get very, very few solicitor phone calls.
But on the few that do get thru....my approach depends upon what kind of mood I'm in.
Many times I just tell the caller to "hang on" and put the phone in an isolated area. One KLOWN was still "hanging on" 5 minutes later!!
Can you imagine the misery of telemarketing for the P-I???? Nothing you could say or do would make that callers life more miserable than it already is.
16. I haven't had a telemarketing, fundraising, or survey call in years. Just drop your land line, they do not call cell phones. I don't miss our land line one bit - phone still works during power outages, and if it's out for an extended period of time, we can just charge it in the car.
17. I don't get those call since I put my number on the national do not call list. If they continue to call you ask them to put you on your do not call list. If they call a third time, they owe you $300 as per the telecommunications act of 1986.
18. Just turn off the ringer on your phone :-).
Someone wants to talk to me, email me and I'll call you back.
This phone is my PERSONAL phone not a business contact device. Yes, I do resent those calls a LOT.
When I did have the ringer on it was a good way to figure out who to NOT vote for. The do not call list only applies to businesses and not politicians, "companies who you have a business relationship with (and their subsidaries)" and charities.
Talk about abuse, especially the pols once again not subject to the laws they write up. Sigh...
19. We also are on the No-Call List. The few times calls get through are pretty easy to handle. The person on the other hand is being paid virtually nothing, and they're more than happy to remove you if you make it damn clear.
For the persistent ones, or the bill collectors with wrong numbers (this is VERY annoying), you'd be surprised how quickly mentioning lawsuits and the FCC works.
20. What a bunch of whiners. lol Oh no, heaven forbid I get a telemarketing call, the horor of it. Strange though I never seem to have a problem hitting that end call button myself. But it is humorous seeing all these so called conservatives touting government intervention and the use of the courts for something so frivolous. You are always amusing with your blanket hypocrisy, oh and I was curious Arky how do you, "here the tele-marketer yelling"?
21. I liked RobK1967's suggestion so much I used it everytime I got a call from Darcy Burner's Campaign and American Family Voices robo calls and the King County Democratic Party, it wasn't a problem, it was a pleasure to hang up on that bunch.
22. This may be crude but is the absolute funniest way to end a call:
TM: Hello?
TM: Can I speak to xxxx?
ME: This xxxx?
TM: Hi sir this is ...
ME: Is this really important? Because I was right in the middle of something.
TM: Well we think it is?
ME: Ok if it is really important,,, and it better be because I had to run from the toilet to get this call and had to pinch in mid loaf. Now really,,, is it that important?
Needless to say I have TM's rolling on the other end before I hang up on them.
23. right at 12--
me too--a noticable difference for me after Do Not Call list--same for DMA mailing lists--big drop for me in mailbox. thank goodness.
honestly, i can't think of a single time i EVER bought anything over the phone. especially when at home on my time with family--talk about the worst time to get my sympathy & attention!
guess that .005 percent of folks still make it worthwhile for callers. i fear it's mostly a function of preying on the elderly & lonely or the financially uninformed.