My boss does not like to speak with telemarketers. How do I "politely" get them off the phone?

Question

We are constantly getting sales calls from telemarketers at my job. My boss told me he does not accept these kinds of calls. The problem is that most of the people who call are really rude when they cannot speak with someone and I end up hanging up on them. That only makes it worse. They keep calling back, and it makes me furious!! How can I get them off the phone without making a complete fool of myself in the process? I am sick of being angry the rest of the day because of one rude person! I understand this is their job, but do they have to be rude as well? Don't they know when to quit?

Sorry, I forgot to say that I did register our number on the Do Not Call Registry. And we are a small company, so we do not have voicemail. Everyone who calls seems to think we are just a huge corporation!! Thanks for all of the answers! I will put all of them to good use!

Answer 1

First, enroll all your office phone #s on www.donotcall.gov.
Then, thicken your skin. When they call, tell them you're sorry, nobody is available to speak to them, and hang up politely. Just push the off button - it doesn't matter if they're still talking, hang up.
You cannot get rid of them, as long as you're responding they're in the driver's seat. If you hang up after saying No Thank You, they recognize they're dealing with somebody competent and they don't call back.

Answer 2

There was a report on the news this morning that stated 81% of the companies on the Do Not Call list were complying with the national agency. I find that hard to believe. Record the phone numbers of all of the telemarketers who call the office and enter them in the list. If they persist in calling, tell them you want the office phone number put on their do not call list and let them know there's a big fine if they continue to call. The man on the news this morning suggested telling them politely that you're not interested and hang up. This never worked for me, but, so far, I've cut way down on these calls and it's a start. Good luck with this.

Answer 3

Politely inform them that you are on the Federal Do Not Call Registry, and that you will be filing a report on this call with the FTC. Then hang up and file a report. It takes about two minutes, and you will feel much better. :-) Calling back after you have told them not to is a big no-no, and the FTC has been hitting companies with fines left and right.

Don't take it so personally -- they are just trying to meet a quota and you're in the way. You can ALWAYS hang up and you won't look like a fool if you do. But it's a lot more fun to file a complaint!

Answer 4

When you answer the phone and know that it is going to be a sales call, say, "Hello, __Business name______ this is _____speaking." When they go into the speech about credit cards or something just say politely, " I appreciate your offer but we are not interested. Can you please put me on your Do Not Call List? Thank you, Have a nice day!" And hang up. Usually once you say that you want the DNCL they will simply say, "that will take approximately 1-30 days to put you on that list. Thank you." and then they usually hang up themselves. Simple yet affective. If you get nasty with them they get nasty back. Just like any job, either you hate it or love it and no matter what, you still get paid for doing the job. These people are just trying to work their way into this world and pay for their bills. They don't need screaming people on the other line!

Answer 5

I refuse to take sales calls either. Our receptionist sometimes had problems determining what was legitimate and what wasn't, so I'd receive them anyway, usually at the worst possible time. I came up with something like this:

"All sales materials or promotions must be sent to me in the mail or by UPS/Fedex/DHL/whatever."

You could do the same, just say he doesn't accept any phone calls, but he would be happy to review any materials sent to him at his leisure, as he is on a very tight schedule and may not be interrupted with unscheduled phone calls.

That's it, no exceptions, no discussion. Give them the address, and make sure you tell them that he does not accept direct calls (in case they ask).

If you get a really bad, persistent one, just put them on hold indefinitely, and if they call back, do it again. They'll get the hint.

Answer 6

Fyi.... You can't politely tell telemarketers to not call anymore. If you do figure a way out, they'll start calling again next week. The best thing that you can do is make light of it and go on about your day. If you coworkers start saying something about the way your handleing the calls, well tell them you've tried everything else. They should understand.

Answer 7

The first clue it's a sales call is when they cannot pronounce the last name. Or they just say "mr. so-and-so" because I work for 2 brothers, both of which are Mr. So-and-so. If they don't know which one, I usually ask what this is regarding. Sometimes it is a sales call and they ask to speak with boss regarding blah, blah, blah. I tell them we have 3 year contract with company xyz, and this usually ends it. Othewise, I tell them he will consider the information if sent by fax or mail. If they don't have printed material, they are out of luck. Then hang up. Eventually, they will get the clue.

Answer 8

Start by registering your phone number with the do not call registry .. that should stop the calls all together. Other than that - hang up. Telemarketers just won't take NO for an answer!

Answer 9

You can try registering the number with the do not call list; however, businesses are often exempt from being placed on the list - meaning they have to accept calls.

You have a couple choices:

Number One: I'm sorry. We don't accept phone soliciation of any sort. If you would like to set an appointment to visit with I would be happy to schedule a meeting time. Otherwise, please take us off your list. Thank you.

Number Two: No thank you. We're not interested. Please remove us from your calling list.

Number three: The second they get rude, I very calmly ask - "so, does intimidation work for gaining new business? Do you have a supervisor I can speak with?" And I report them. And ask the supervisor to remove from their list.

While you can't necessarily be placed on the DNC list because you're a business, they have to respect your request if you ask.

Answer 10

"I'm sorry; we do not accept phone solicitations. Please remove us from your list."

By law, they must remove you from their list if you request it.

If it makes you feel better, chances are that the person who is calling you does not know that someone from their telemarketing office has called before, or if they do, they are not responsible for it. They have computers that do the dialing and keep track of the phone calls, and the people who do the calls are just doing their job and just saying what they are supposed to say. So please don't get mad at the individual telemarketer. It's really not worth ruining your day over it.