How do you treat telemarketers?

Question

What do you do when they interrupt your dinner?

Answer 1

Lots of fun can be had with telemarketers:
1. Ask them to hold on a second. Then just leave the phone off the hook.
2. Have somebody scream at me in the background.
3. Every time they ask me a question, repeat the question to somebody in the background, and start an argument about each question.
4. Pretend to be old and hard of hearing so they have to keep repeating themselves.
5. Pretend I have no life and try to keep them on the phone a long time just chatting.
6. Ask them if I can buy something but pay with a stolen credit card.
7. Tell them that I just got divorced and am having my car repossessed.
8. Pretend to cry, and try to whine to them about made-up problems with a fictitious girlfriend. Ask them if they think I'm really that bad a guy.
9. Act like I'm about to buy something, but pretend like other things are interrupting me in the background.
10. Pretend like I don't speak English.
11. Pretend I'm old and have Alzheimer's, and that I think they are my long-lost children and that I'm all emotional about hearing from them.

Answer 2

Sorry this answer is a bit long but I've been on both sides of this situation. I'm currently working as a telemarketer. Please don't tell me to get a "real" job. If there was no money to be made selling things over the phone, companies wouldn't be doing it. Also, in my area, it's one of the few places that has decent pay and benefits. Here are some tips I've found from being on both sides:

Telemarketers have no control over the times they are calling. The calls are placed by an automatic dialing system. We don't intentionally call at dinnertime. Dinnertimes vary widely across the country & I don't mean because of time zones. People eat at different times even within the same time zone.

We're being paid to do a job and our bosses expect certain things to be done throughout the call. So, if I seem a little pushy, it's because my boss wants me to keep you on the phone as long as possible. People do buy things just to get off the phone. Plus I'm docked points on my work review if I don't do certain things. Nothing personal, but I need a roof over my head just like you.

Remember, it's your phone. You don't have to be rude. Just politely ask the telemarketer to remove your name from the list and we will stop calling. And when I tell you it will take up to 30 days to process the request, it's because your number may be on other files besides the one I'm calling on. We do have processing times for these requests but they will be honored.

If you really don't want to talk to a telemarketer, just hang up. It's much easier on your blood pressure than to get angry and try to pick a fight over the phone with a stranger. I've been in this situation as a customer and frankly I have better things to do than to argue with a stranger.

And finally, to the people who do what Happy1 does, I hope it makes you feel a lot better. But as an adult, don't you feel a bit childish? Grow up and try acting like a respectable adult.

Answer 3

I understand how irritating it can be to receive calls at odd hours of the day or when you are engaged in some very important activity as compared to talking to a telemarketer, but the point is that just like everyone else, they are also doing their job. A mundane one, but its a job. At times a call from a telemarketer can really help you. I deal with mortgages and I am a loan co-ordinator, there was one Doctor who had 2 huge properties and his credit history was in mess. It was absolutely necessary for him to re-finance his house and the loan amount was so huge for a credit history of his that no body could probably help him. One day he received a call from a telemarketer, he answered the call, filled up the questionare and right now one of my associate is doing his loan only because our partner has some excellent relations with a president of the bank. So sometimes telemaketers can really be of huge help.

Answer 4

Save yourself the anxiety and don't answer the phone during dinner... or when you are watching a movie... or when you are taking a bath, etc. Invest in an answering machine and screen your calls when you are busy doing more important things.

If you MUST answer the phone, be firm but polite and hang up the phone. Remember the poor schleps on the other end are just call center employees trying to make a living. It's the COMPANY THEY WORK FOR that you should be angry at.

Then get yourself on the National Do Not Call List and, just for good measure, your state's Do Not Call List.

Answer 5

Well, first off, I don't answer the phone if I'm eating dinner. The phone is there for MY convenience, not anyone else's - that's what the answering machine is for.

If I do answer and it's a telemarketer, as soon as they say they're selling something I politely say, "I'm not interested, thank you" and hang up, even if they're in the middle of their next sentence.

To me, anything else takes too much effort and energy that I could be expending elsewhere, and doesn't accomplish anything. If I'm polite, I can at least feel at peace with myself that I wasn't an a$$hole to them.

Answer 6

I have many tactics.

1. Pretend not to know English
2. Act interested then hang up when about to give them your credit card
3. Start raving about a competing product
4. Try to sell /them/ something
5. Tell them about your pet Gerbil that just died
6. Act interested then in the middle, have someone pop a baloon in the backround, scream and then toss the phone down the stairs (to make it sound like you dropped it
7. Pretend to be shcizophrenic and talk to yourself in different voices and accents while the telemarketer is talking
8. Ask him about his social life.
9. Tell him that his mother called and wanted you to tell him that she'll pick him up after work to go out for icecream
10. Pretend to be buying something from a competing company (by saying "hold on" every once in a while and pretending to talk to another telemarketer)
11. Ask him if he's ever thought about how much annoyance he brings to others.

Telemarketers often think I'm a kid because of my voice, so one conversation actually went like this:

Me: Hello?
TM: Hello this is --- may I please speak to an adult over the age of eighteen
Me: Oh, well my mother isn't home
TM: What about your Daddy?
Me: He's blind
TM: Well, he doesn't need to see
Me: Yes, but he's deaf
TM: I thought you said he was blind
Me: My father's not deaf
TM: You mean blind
Me: No I don't
TM: So he's blind not deaf?
Me: No, he likes Peanut Butter
TM: May I speak wiht him please?
Me: No
TM: Why not?
Me: He's illiterate
TM: He doesn't need to read anything
Me: DON'T DEFY ME!
Then the telemarketer hung up. Probably to call his employer and quit. :D

Answer 7

most generally I start out with "I'm not interested, but thank you." if that doesn't work, I start talking to them about anything and everything on my mind. it annoys the hell out of them. I got into it with a phone company once because the man said "We're gonna give you 10 cents a minute for long distance!" I said, "Sign me up! woo hoo I'm going to get paid to talk on the phone!" he was not pleased... we argued for about 10 minutes. I had to speak to his manager, and I explained that had this gentleman believed me when I said "I'm not interested but thank you for calling." the confrontation would have never happened. sometimes I start talking about problems. The longest I've ever kept someone on the line is 75 minutes but one day I plan to break my own record. As for them calling at dinner, either I don't answer the phone, or I pick up and say "You're interrupting a family dinner right now. Don't you feel rude?" and hang up before they have a chance to talk.

Answer 8

I have an answering machine, and all my friends know if they want to talk with me...they need to talk to the machine first.

If by some off chance, I pick up the phone and it's a telemarketer, I am polite and tell them I'm not interested...when they insist, and they always do, I politely hang up on them.

Answer 9

I have the missouri no call list, also the national one too, I am not bothered with telemarketers, but before I got this, I gave many of them a piece of my mind, several times, it was always at dinner time when they would call.

Answer 10

I don't have a problem when they interupt my dinner, i do have a problem with them when they treat me like a little kid!! it has happened three times to me in the past year alone, the most memrobale conversation went like this:
Me: Hello
T.M: Is Mummy or Daddy home?
Me: No
T.M: Are you sure?
Me: Yes
T.M: I bet they are, put Mummy or Daddy on the phone for me, theres a good girl
(by now i am really annoyed)
Me: I don't live my parents
T.M: I bet you do!
Me: I bet i don't as i am nearly 20 years old, now if you don't mind i have a lecture to attend!
T.M: Oh sorry,, do you have a credit card
Me: {put down the phone and go to uni}