Telemarketers are becoming a plague. The used to call only at supper time. Now they call as early as 9:00 AM. I always say "no thanks" and hang-up immediately without letting them start their pitch. Our State Attorney General Office has a procedure that supposedly will block these calls. I registered last week. They say it won't kick in til October. I'll believe it when I see it.

Why would anyone want to bew a telemarketer? I know, there aren't that many jobs available but still there must be a potential for decent earnings. Otherwise why put up with the rejection? I'll bet the rejection can get pretty crude.

-- (lars@indy.net), June 21, 2002

Answers

Telemar keter manages to punch-in without first contemplating suicide

-- (lars@indy.net), June 21, 2002.

I've been getting calls from one company that uses a computer program which constantly calls me from 9am until 8pm. I don't want to pay the phone company however much they want for all the extra blocking and ID features because they're already a ripoff just to have a phone, so I screen my calls. Just don't answer it unless they speak first and you know who it is. If they aren't willing to leave a message I won't answer it, simple as that.

-- (no@answer.here), June 21, 2002.

Lars, our state also has the same for blocking calls. However the telemarketers (if there is such a body) have demanded that the state do away with this. They plan to take it to court claiming freedom of speech. The state claims it a privacy issue. Let the games begin.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), June 24, 2002.

The absolute worst part about telemarketers is that they use devices to dial several numbers simultaneously, then route the first one that answers to the telemarketer, and hang up on the rest. I get calls like that all the time. Pisses me off because I can't even tell them to leave me alone, and then they just call me AGAIN. It's like automated prank phone calls. That should DEFINITELY be illegal.

My favorite are the idiots who still don't know what they're doing. You know, the ones where you answer the phone and THEY say "Hello?" Morons.

-- (what@i.think), June 24, 2002.

what, I know that *my* company doesn't do that. It's to the telemarketers' advantage to keep everyone on the line and not hang up. Bad business practice.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), June 24, 2002.

She knows what to say to a telemarketer that will make the calls stop by law...but how to explain HOW she knows...? She crumples her resume into a tiny ball and shoves it under the bed with her foot...

-- helen (handling@live.rats.was.easier), June 24, 2002.

"what I think"--

Couldn't agree more. What is the sound of cursing into a dead telephone line?

-- (lars@indy.net), June 24, 2002.

Gee Helen, what ELSE can you fit under that bed? First the clown paraphernalia and now the trash...perhaps the next door to door salesman?

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), June 24, 2002.

I'd once heard that the magic phrase was, "Put me on your non-call list." Or maybe it was, "Take me off your call list." But it wasn't, "Put me on your call list."

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), June 24, 2002.

I believe it was "Call me again and I'll track you down and kill you and your entire family. I know who you are and where you live, fucker."

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, though, what with their hanging up on me and all. That "call list" thing might work too.

-- (what@i.think), June 25, 2002.

You must use the word "list" -- "Take me off of your calling list." "Put me on your do-not-call list." You must specifically use the word list to meet the legal requirement for making the company stop calling.

-- helen (shoving@resume.deeper.under.bed), June 25, 2002.

Now I've got it: "Call me again and I'll track you down and kill you and your entire family. I have a complete list of your names."

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), June 25, 2002.

Or perhaps "Call me again and I'll shove your fucking call list up your fat ass." You probably don't have to use the word "ass" to meet the legal requirement, but it will probably make you feel better.

-- (what@i.think), June 26, 2002.

I say take the opposite approach. Talk to them briefly, pleasantly. Then say, "excuse me someone is at the door. Please hang on". Then put the phone down and never pick-up again. The jerks sit on the line for several minutes waiting for you to return. Time is money. They hang up and kill themselves.

-- (lars@indy.net), June 26, 2002.

I was once plagued by the telemarketers, but, by law, they REALLY must adhere to the words Helen mentioned: "Take me off of your calling list." I get only one call maybe every two months now.

SO had been more gracious. HE listened to their message and then said he wasn't interested. I don't usually answer his phone when it rings, and I'd spent many years making it clear that I was NOT the Mrs. if I did...until he started spending so much time out of town on contract with his answering machine not turned on, expecting me to take messages from pimps with a new job offering. I've now told many on his phone line that, "Yes...this is the MRS., and we would like you to remove us from your calling list."

Sometimes it takes up to 60 days to be removed, but it DOES get removed, and it's almost boring to have all my calls from Lucky and my kids these days.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), June 26, 2002.