How Do You Handle Tele-Marketers?

[speckles]

The answering machine/voicemail apparatus is a wonderful invention and if it's important people will leave a message.)

news flash....they leave messages now...

ie: "Hi!!! long time no chat.... this is sandy!!! call me back at ....etc etc"

Er, none of the companies I worked for did. However, if I don't know the name, I don't call back anyway.

[mikado5001]

I heard that of all the people who signed up for the DO NOT CALL list. A whole bunch of the people were folks who either run or work directly with telemarketing firms.

[LadyRaven]

The answering machine/voicemail apparatus is a wonderful invention and if it's important people will leave a message.)

news flash....they leave messages now...

ie: "Hi!!! long time no chat.... this is sandy!!! call me back at ....etc etc"

Er, none of the companies I worked for did. However, if I don't know the name, I don't call back anyway.

Mine either, not telemarketing...I did lead gathering and I left messages, but I was very honest about who I was, stated the company name, the phone number and my personal ext code for them to call....

[Laura]

Pretty simple

75% of the Tele-Marketer calls are nothing but recordings - if you answer at all, just hang up.

If a real person is there, I usually say - Not interested, have a nice day, and hang up.

There really is no problem

[ladypeartree]

I'm glad the list works for you folk, here in Britain it doesnt work mainly because most of the tellemarkeing jobs have been farmed out to India they ignor exdirectory numbers, refuse to take a polite no thank you for an answer and call at all times of the day or night, I have even had them call at 2 am and I cant turn my ringer off because my parents are elderly and I am the one living nearest to them and have to be available at any time...my mum has had a few strokes and my dad a heart attack so cant risk not getting a call from them if they need me .

They also phone several people at the same time in order to get at least one answer so you dont even get to speak to a person but a machine and that doesnt disconnect till it has gone right through the message leaving me unable to use my own phone ...so come on answers please ????

[LadyRaven]

I'm glad the list works for you folk, here in Britain it doesnt work mainly because most of the tellemarkeing jobs have been farmed out to India they ignor exdirectory numbers, refuse to take a polite no thank you for an answer and call at all times of the day or night, I have even had them call at 2 am and I cant turn my ringer off because my parents are elderly and I am the one living nearest to them and have to be available at any time...my mum has had a few strokes and my dad a heart attack so cant risk not getting a call from them if they need me .

They also phone several people at the same time in order to get at least one answer so you dont even get to speak to a person but a machine and that doesnt disconnect till it has gone right through the message leaving me unable to use my own phone ...so come on answers please ????

Alot of our telemarketing is farmed out to india also, but the company is still subject to your laws if it does business in your country. If they call and invade your privacy at two am, I can bet I'd be finding out who owns that company and suing...

In the US we have unlisted unpublished numbers, which nobody is allowed to have but the phone company. Do you have anything like this?

You can also block calls from anyone you don't know or send all those calls directly to voice mail, if your phone company has that capability.

You can also get a cell phone. You can give your parents a distinctive ring, as with everyone else, and at night put all other numbers on vibrate or silent and only your parents number on, this way if they call in, you will hear it, if anyone else does you won't.

How far do your parents live from You? (ie could you use a walkie talkie?)

[Iryssa]

Caller ID...it's a beautiful thing. If it says "1-800-###-####" or "1-888-###-####" or "Unknown Name, Unknown Number" I don't pick it up. If it's "Unknown Name" but shows a number, I only pick it up if I know the number (usually it's someone's cellphone). If it's someone important with a message I really need, they'll leave a message.

If I accidentally pick up and it's a telemarketer, I'll usually catch it before they talk (there's a long pause, since their machines take time to feed them the call), and if they're quick, I just say "NOTHANKYOU" while my hand is on the way to hang the phone up.