Need ideas on how to stop telemarketing calls

[Rosemary2205]

I am on the do not call list. Both federal and state. I no longer get sales calls. Slowly it has increased. I am now getting an average of 30 calls a day for "research" "charity" "we just want to inform you" etc.

What is the chance of getting ALL telemarketers required to check the do not call list. Including charities and other "non sales" calls. We've gotten to the point where I swear the telemarketing firms are actually MAKING UP charities (with 95% admin cost) so they can keep calling.

My Georgia state reps don't seem to want to want to touch this with a 10 foot pole.

[bluestateguy]

1. Pretentd to not know how to speak English

nt

[AlCzervik]

2. do you have caller id? I dont but i do keep a can of this by my phone

I almost never get called back from the same company twice.

[madokie]

23. I like that idea.

:rofl:

[central scrutinizer]

3. I always say, "Can you hang on for just a second?"

then put the phone down, go back to what I was doing and wait for the phone to make that beeping noise, then hang it back it up.

[im10ashus]

6. Purrfect!

:-)

Love that idea. Thank GAWD I don't get them anymore. *touch wood*

[tulsakatz]

19. that's a good idea!

Hold time negatively impacts their performance. I would guess if you ask them to hold, they would probably not hold longer than a minute before they hang up.

[TahitiNut]

21. Yep. That's exactly what I do - suck 'em in.

Consume their time and call overhead. Fuck 'em.

[PWRinNY]

4. Just start phone blogging

Go on and on to them about politics, tell truth, who knows, you might just get someone to vote democrat.

[blm]

5. I love them. I say, "We don't have a spare dime thanks to George Bush

and his anti-working class policies. So we expect to not have anything to spend until he is out of office."

The callers usually LOVE it, and the ones who don't give me the opportunity to educate them about Bush's anti-worker policies.

[Ian David]

7. I predicted from DAY ONE how the charity loophole would be exploited...

"Hi, I'm calling from Save the Plankton. We're a non-proffit... Donate $100, and we'll send you a free America OnLine trial disk."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Here's what I tell them:

"On advice from my attorney, I do not respond in any manner to telephone solicitation," and hang up. I think the "attorney" part gives them pause. I don't bother to tell them the "attorney" was the Attorney General of Illinois, who, back in the '80s, warned folks about telephone scams and suggested you don't respond and just hang up. Anyway, after telling people that, I don't get repeat calls.

[anarch]

9. what I did was, I stopped paying my phone bill. They cut off my phone,

and now I am no longer troubled by those annoying telemarketing calls.

[wryter2000]

11. Sometimes I think I'll just get rid of my phone

Seriously. I get several calls a day, and none of them are anyone I know. It's as if I pay a bill to get something to annoy me.

[anarch]

16. I didn't have a phone for years. Couldn't afford it.

Actually, I don't have one now for the same reason...but my girlfriend has a cell phone so people can still get hold of us eventually. Before, when I had no phone at all, there were still at least pay phones to be found. Now they all seem to be missing the handsets, or they've been removed completely since everybody has cell phones. It'd be a lot harder now to live with no personal phone at all....

[Totallybushed]

10. hang up on them.

Do not say "sorry", or anything else.. Just hang up.

I only get about 3 such calls a month now, I used to get 1 or 2 a night.

[SmokingJacket]

12. Thirty a DAY??

I get none, almost. Maybe one a month. Wow!

We used to get more. My husband always said, "Take me off your list and never call here again." I usually hang up the moment I hear the delay and know that someone's calling from a phone bank. Eventually all calls have petered out.

[bananas]

13. The Tele-Zapper

I used this method several years ago - downloaded the tones from a website, and recorded them on my answering machine message (so that the answering machine plays the tones when it plays your "hello" message). It worked great. Don't know if it still works or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telezapper

[wryter2000]

24. I had a telezapper

It worked great for a while. Then, we got a new answering machine and I never got the telezapper working again. I haven't seen them advertised for ages.

[frylock]

14. i bought one of those phone zappers..

worked like a charm, too. I've gotten rid of my land line since then.

http://www.telezapper.com/

[bananas]

17. There are reviews on amazon.com from 2006

apparently it has an "advanced" mode that works even better.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006881R/sr=1-2/qid=1152744212/ref=sr_1_2/104-8684634-8322367?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

[frylock]

22. yeah -- i see from your wiki link that mine's now obsolete..

guess I can't resell the thing. But, it was worth every penny spent.

[Synnical]

20. My brother used that, too

Said it worked great.

[porphyrian]

15. I worked for years in telephone survey research, so here:

1) The do-not-call list ONLY applies to telephone solicitation. People can call you to try to get you to do surveys, vote for their candidate or tell you stories about their trip to Bermuda as much as they want as long as they aren't selling you something, and the list doesn't apply. Calls that don't try to sell you something are not solicitations, and those making said calls are not "telemarketers." As long as politicians use telephone polling in their campaigns, it will NEVER be illegal to make these calls.

2) The only way to stop the people who are currently calling you is to clearly and firmly refuse to participate. When you are sure they've understood you, hang up. Any other form of response will likely get you called back again. Also, depending on the survey/whatever, they may require more than one refusal (though usually not more than two) before they stop calling.

3) Don't think that having an unlisted number prevents people from calling you. Telephone numbers can be randomly generated quite easily, and are for various kinds of sample available to both telemarketers and survey people.

4) Read the small print on EVERYTHING which you fill out that includes your contact information. Because of the do-not-call list, a number of telemarketers use other ploys, such as raffles and contests, to collect contact information along with permission to call (often hidden in the small print no one reads), despite being on the list. In this case, you can simply refuse and request that they put you back on the do-not-call list.

[yy4me]

18. One quick suggestion:

Since we all answer our phones, we are subject to all kinds of garbage. When you answer with your "hello", if there is a pause on the line, the system is connecting you with a telemarketer(or whatever) or a computerized pitch of some sort. Do not say anything more than your initial "hello" If it is a real person and not a computer generated call, someone will initiate additional conversation. If you say nothing, the computer thinks you are a non-entity and goes on to the next number on the endless list. Its hard to train yourself not to say hello more than once but this works. Stick to it.

[nealmhughes]

25. That is exactly what I do, usually.

At times, though I feel froggy and begin to "witness" to them... I especially like to do this to soliciters from India...

[JerseygirlCT]

31. Yup. You can usually hear their predictive dailer -- the delay is

the giveaway.

I used to just hang up when I heard the pause, but now the hubbie's phone seems to delay like that too, so I have to wait!

[Arkansas Granny]

26. I'm on the do not call lists too and get several calls a day. I use

my caller ID to screen them. Anyone I want to talk to will show up on the screen by their name and/or phone number. If it says no data, blocked, or unknown with no phone number, I just don't answer the phone.

[MazeRat7]

27. How is this still a problem in this day and age?

all you need is caller id and an answering machine. Bottom line, when the phone rings look at your caller id... do you recognize the number ? If not, dont answer it and let it roll over to the answering machine. If its someone with something important, they will leave you a message and you can call them back. I've been doing this for years and have not spoken to a "telemarketer" directly since at least the late 90's

It's kind of like the tv... if you don't like what is on... don't watch it. In this case... if you don't know who is calling dont answer.

Problem solved.

MZr7

[Pugee]

28. Check with your state laws.

In Missouri, ANY company/agency that calls you MUST remove your name for at least 5-10 years from their "do not call" list IF you tell them when they call. Write it down if they call again and take a name to give to the prosecutor in your state. Missouri prosecutes and fines telemarketers often and I have never known one to call back me or my family after being told "take my number off your list". Even credit companies may not call and hassle you unless they are taking you to court.

[Sherman A1]

29. Yes they do prosecute

I think I helped cause the Post-Dispatch about 5K.

[JerseygirlCT]

30. Just tell the charities you do not respond to phone calls. Ask

them to put you on their "do not call" list.

No charity WANTS to call people they know will not respond. They're looking for the people who will respond.

The surveys, research, etc? Haven't a clue.

[Ino]

32. Ask for a supervisor

My repeated requests not to call me again never worked until I started asking to speak to a supervisor. I don't tell the caller WHY I want a supervisor, and they get all nervous (heh!). Then tell the supervisor to put you on the Do Not Call list. That worked like a charm!

Now I'm on the Missouri Do Not Call list, and boy does it work great! Bless Jay Nixon, who put it into effect & really goes after the violators. He's going to run for governor, and I hope he wins.

[Rosemary2205]

33. Thanks people

My caller ID nearly always just says "out of area". Since my personal family always shows up as "out of area" and my Dad is in a major health crisis then I HAVE to answer the phone.

I'll see if the telezapper thing works with my cable phone service. Thanks.