The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon!
Today’s question:
Even though there’s a “do not call list”, do you still get calls from telemarketers?
If so, how often and what time of day do they usually call?
Talk about it….
The Water Cooler: Telemarketers
{ 46 comments }
I follow up each Telemarketer call with a report to:
http://www.donotcall.gov
I get about three calls a day.
I always hang up on the telemarketers
and they can be nasty as well. Caller ID can filter a lot of those calls. An answering machine works well too. I am getting ghost calls from telemarketers on my cell phone now. I block those numbers. But still, I use my cell phone for business, its just not right to use my company time for someone else’s sales pitch.
When someone does get through, and I polity tell them no thank you, and they sometimes respond as the obnoxious immature nerdowells they are. Which only strengthens my resolve not to take any more calls from these scum bags.
I get calls on the house line every day. The CCTimes is the worst locally. Cells to the phone line are about once a week.
Haven’t had a telemarketer call in a couple of years now. I started using the ‘Do Not Call’ list as soon as it was created. Never did get too many calls, though. The one guaranteed way to shut down a sales pitch is to refuse to participate. Do NOT let them engage you in conversation, and give them an opening to engage you in “persuasion negotiation”. Hang up, close the door in their face, whatever it takes; simply do not engage, refuse to participate. It’s *your* life, therefore it is *your* choice, and yours alone. You owe them *nothing* and this includes politeness, especially since so many are willing to exploit that too.
I’m also big and ugly, so people tend not to pursue the matter when I tell them “no”. Fine by me.
Yes!! And now, when I point out that I’m on the do not call list, they often just hang right up without a word, and the calls keep coming! Infuriating!
If you tell them your on the DNC list they just hang up on you and call again another time also I heard if the call is from or just routed through another country that the law doesn’t apply.
I pretend to listen for about 1 minute, and then set the phone on the counter and walk away.
Always enjoyable to take bets amongst your friends and family to see how long they stay on the phone before they hang up….
Contra Costa Times is THE ABSOLUTE WORSE! I am so fed up with them that I have threatened (and will follow through the next time they call) to cancel my subscription. They call in the morning and in the evening to tell me my delivery will be interrupted unless I pay them, via telephone, NOW. I ask them how much I owe – sometimes it is $15 other times it is $24 – it varies each time. My answer to them is I just paid for this month, so I know I don’t owe them a thing and I don’t do financial transactions over the phone so just keep sending me that monthly billing and when I receive I’ll pay it just as I’ve done for the past 20 years! The times I have just hung up on them, they phone back immediately.
P.S. They never tell me I owe the amount of my subscription. Hmmm??? Fishy.
Have been on the Do Not Call list (both phones) since the begining, and up to this point, not on the land line, but NOW they have been calling repeatedly on my CELL line! I really HATE them using up my minutes! Have listed some of the phone numbers on my phone list as DO NOT ANSWER…and they don’t leave messages (YAY). Something HAS to be done about this!!!
I just hang up.
I just ignore the call. My son likes to answer and screw with them. He cracks me up.
All of our numbers are on the do not call list. We still get calls but I never pick up if Caller ID says “unknown” or it’s a name I don’t recognize. I do get calls from Alzheimers a lot (it says that on the Caller ID); I’ve told them to quit calling, but I think they forgot, because they continue to call.
Even though we are on a do not call list we occasionally do get calls. It’s a pain. They usually call when we are having dinner, which is annoying.
If my son-in-law is there he will take the call and put the caller through the ringer!! He wil come up with all kinds of stuff to tell them. It’s pretty amusing! He one time asked an alarm company if their alarm would work if his house had a tarp covering the opening where a wall fell out. LOL! They actually didn’t hang up on him at that point!
However, being on the do not call list does help to some extent.
I don’t get too many telemarketers anymore but I do get a lot of charities and political groups that want me to do a survey. We’ve stopped answering our phone and let the answering machine screen our calls. If someone we know is calling we’ll pick up otherwise; talk to the machine.
Some of the robo-calls have an option to push a number (like 3) if you don’t want to be called by them again. Using this tool seems to have helped. Calls are about once a day. Discover Magazine was the worst offender. I finally was tricked into renewing by a nice telemarketer who was SO HAPPY that I wasn’t yelling at him and who sympathized with the crazy number of calls that I had gotten. I do love the magazine and am off the list even though they won. I had previously vowed to only renew with the name “Dont Callme.”
I like to play ‘confused oldster’ with them. I have a good ‘old’ voice and I can often get them to repeat their entire spiel four or five times. I can also get them totally confused (the windows sellers are easiest for that…”oh I have windows…I think it’s called vista…am I getting a free computer?”) but they stay on the line because they feel certain they’re gonna score on this poor befuddled oldster. In fact, they never hang up on me when I’m doing the old person voice…even if I tell them flat out I’m not interested. I can say the exact same words in my regular voice and they hang up before I finish the sentence.
I have an unpublished number and, therefore, rarely get telemarketing calls. Only once in a blue moon and it appears to be the random number-dial method. I don’t believe in wasting their time, nor mine, and so I interrupt immediately by informing the caller they have called an “unpublished” number and to remove it from their calling list. Works very well.
I am seeing a lot of complaints about Contra Costa Times. Years ago I used to subscribe to their paper. Each morning the paper was delivered (or shall I saw thrown) underneath our vehicles in the driveway. Personally, I don’t feel I should crawl underneath anything on my property to retrieve my paper especially since my entire front yard is available for a convenient “toss of the paper”. After three times of contacting the Times and hearing them plead with me for a “second chance” to “get it right”, I made a final call to cancel my subscription. For a while after that, I did get the occasional calling asking to come back. I finally got tired of saying no and telling them not to call, I wrote a letter to the Times with my request to end the phone calls. Only after this did the phone calls stop. It’s been years since I’ve received any marketing calls.
This is a little off the subject, but still about the Contra Costa Times…. What I also don’t like about them is their delivering a “freebie” paper once in a while on the weekends. My gripe is if I wanted the paper I would ask for it and purchase it. I really don’t want papers being delivered to me without my permission because if I am out of town on vacation…. the paper sets in my driveway and says that I am out of town. They don’t get it.
I signed up for ‘do not call’ as soon as there was such a thing.
CC Times still calls…I tell them to put me on their do not call list, they say I have to call some other number because the person calling doesn’t work for CC Times, or some such thing…they called around 12 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday.
Political organizations, Firefighter and Police and Sheriff support organizations (supposedly); Charitable Organizations of various kinds call.
Also, people call who say they are not telemarketers, say they’re not selling anything, but in a roundabout way, they are. They sometimes are ‘taking a survey’ but the survey ends up with something like ‘would you be willing to support’ such-and-such cause? Or sometimes they say we have ‘won’ something – but it really is an opportunity to pay a discounted cost for a trip or a free dinner to hear some presentation, at which they expect you to buy something.
We are usually not home before 8 p.m. during the week, so are not home most of the time to get calls, but once or twice a week we might be home before 8 p.m., and usually get 1 or 2 calls. On weekends, we usually get a few calls.
I always push 3 or whatever to learn how to reduce my home mortgage or whatever then when they come on the line I tell them to go **** themselves.
The do not call list does not apply to all ‘telemarketers’. Specifically, political groups, charities and surveyors can call all they want. If you give money to a business, they can call for 18 months. If you make contact with a companym they can call you for 3 months – and will often check in with you at 3 months and will then consider that a ‘renewal’ to give them 3 more months.
If I recall correctly, there has been more and more buzz about reducing protections that prevent telemarketing to cell phones. The people wanting to remove the protections are being lobbied by the companies that want to target cell phones, but claim to be doing it to make sure people can take advantage of the convenience of being notified by cell phone of things that improvement in technology now allow, such as automated notification of a package delivery.
I sometimes screw with telemarketers. My favorite game – if the voice was cute – was to try to get them to give me their name and private phone number. I never did it while dating someone seriously (and I’m now married), and my success rate was pretty low … but it was a fun challenge.
We got rid of our home phone – we still pay for service because it is less expensive with our plan so we still see the caller ID flash up on our tv sometimes, but fortunately we don’t have to take those phone calls anymore
What drives me nuts are the telemarketers who some how got a hold of my cell phone number………
” ::foghorn noise sounds:: CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve won free tickets for a cruise to blahblahblah!”
click.
I play a game of “20 questions” to all the solictors who constantly call at work. Not only is it fun, but after you ask them about 20 questions as to getting more details about who they are, what company, what they are calling about, etc., etc., they start getting very annoyed and hang up.
I do find the morning hours at work is when most of the marketing calls come in and this would make sense to cover the East Coast calls, too. I’ve also noticed on Fridays there are less telemarketing calls. And, I’m also noticing a lot of the telemarketing calls are by people with an Indian type accent, so I guess telemarketing is being outsourced to other countries just like other US jobs. These are the most interesting!
I had a second line with an unlisted number and still received an occasional call. Newspapers have everybody’s number due to the freedom of information act (I think). Public service agencys like police and fire also have your number. They all exploit that privelage, papers to sell you something and police and fire to raise money for charity. My other line went to the machine, I screen calls and only pick up when I want to. The ringer stays off.
I don’t get too many but CC times is the worst and I now just hang up on them. They actually just called a minute ago. I hate CC times.
The one I get most starts “There is nothing wrong with your credit card but please press 1 to speak to an agent…” Never identifies the person or the company or even the number to report or request to stop. I hang up as soon as it starts.
I just mess with them most days, some days I just let the phone ring sense i have comcast it tells me who is calling on my tv so if i am watching my show and it says 1 800 blah blah blah i just ignore it
its fun messing with them as well 
Yep. Still get calls. I just hang up, so no big deal. I also screen calls.
I do. On my cell phone. I just use the caller ID to screen. If I don’t know your number, I ignore you.
Yes. Way too often. Many of them are robocalls, some hide the number (which makes it appear to be my aging parents). If I could reach through the phone and choke the person responsible for disturbing us…I might get 6 months home detention like the woman got today for killing her boy friend.
We have an unlisted number, and we have all our phones (cell phones, too) registered with Do Not Call. We still get calls anyway. I now file a complaint with Do Not Call after each of the unwanted calls.
Since I have ATT, I can block numbers to my landline, so I just blocked the two worst offenders and now it is absolute bliss!! Both of them called up to three times a day. One never talked and I understand it is a scam to “sell” you virus protection. The other is recorded “Attention PUC…”.
Since I registered my Cell with Do Not Call, I’m not getting unwanted pitches any longer.
About CCTimes – I agree, they are the absolute worst. I finally threatened to report them and then they quit calling.
I’m on Do Not Call and get between two and four a day. I keep reporting the numbers but I doubt anything will ever come of it. I also get tons of mail and calls for people with Mexican surnames. Seems like my address was very popular for illegals to use when they were getting fake IDs.
We’re on the Do Not Call list but still receive calls, sometimes starting at 8:45 a.m. and go until 9 p.m. Since we have caller ID and know they are telemarketers, we generally don’t answer. If we do, simply say “not interested, goodbye” and hang up. Engaging them any further is pointless. Occasionally if they keep calling, we’ll remind them of the Do Not Call list; sometimes helps, sometimes doesn’t.
Other plus is having the ability to block certain numbers. Unfortunately it only goes to 20 numbers so we have to delete old ones as new ones repeatedly crop up.
I get a few Robo-calls and they are usually around dinner time through 8 PM. I never answer my land line and let the machine pick it up.
Cell phone? I provide that number only to family and friends… I don’t even provide my cell numbe to my office . If they want to be able to contact me at a whim, then they will have to pay for my cell service. The cell phone is for my convenience – not theirs. Otherwise, they can suck it and leave a message on the land line.
2X with CC Times… they are clamoring for subscribers since newspapers are a dying medium.. as are true journalists with critical thinking skills.
We still have a landline as well as cells, we probably get two calls a day on the landline, always in the evenings. My husband will pick up but if I don’t know who it is or see the number as a toll free I don’t even bother to answer. Why should I have to spend my time talking to nuisances, had enough of that when I was working.
I get calls daily. I usually let the machine answer, but if I answer and there’s any delay in time before they speak or I hear voices in the background, like a boiler room, I hang up.
The worst are the robo-calls. Even if you do pick-up to tell them to quit calling, there is no one there to tell off or to screw with. I’ve also picked up and been hung up on. Sigh ~ they are all annoying.
TEST TEST
I even told one guy that I was going to Sue him and he said rather smugly with those, as we like to call them phone co-hones that Mr. Jones was not his real name and I did not know how he was…. And he also stated that I could not sue him! BOY WAS HE WRONG!!!!!
Wrong thing to say….
I informed Mr. Jones AKA Mr. stupid that I know who he worked for and it would not take to much trouble to find out who he was because and I asked him do think that your company would disclose how he was to protect there ass?????? And also that in California you can sue anybody for anything and it will cost him a minimum of get this $10,000 to prove I do not have a case! WATCH OUT IF I DO BECAUSE I MOST LIKELY WILL GET A SYMPATHETIC JUDGE WHO HAS ANSWERED A PHONE TO ONE OF THESE….. WELL YOU KNOW!!!
And the silence began….after a few seconds of thinking and probably soiling himself he said and i QUOTE ” I AM VERY SORRY FOR BOTHERING YOU I AM TAKING YOU OFF OF OUR LIST AS OF RIGHT NOW!)
So why get mad,
Let them know that if you are not going to fallow the rules than it is going to cost them!!!!!
I get them at home and on my cell and both are on the National Do Not Call List.
What can be done? I’m tired of them taking up my cell phone minutes and my time.
When I tell them that I’m on the NDNCall List they just hang up on my and don’t take me off of their list. They’ve gotten more rude as time goes on.
I’ve also told them that I was going to report them and they still call back. I’ve reported but still get the calls.
Got rid of the land line eight years ago and they stopped.
What really screws them up is you are talking and in mid-sentence you hang up. Miss the robo calls, would go thru the whole call giving bogus info.
I have caller ID and only pick up if I know who is calling. If it is someone legit they can leave a voicemail. The days of being bothered by phone calls are over.
Charles-the-Cat at #17 ~ ~ ~ Never mind the usual “lol”…….I mean, you REALLY had me laughing out loud!
Over here in our homestead, usually when a robo-call is coming in, it clicks off immediately when our answering machine engages electronically (ie….even before my outgoing message begins). Even so, just the ringing itself is annoying when we are eating or watching TV. But friends and family know just to start leaving a message; if I’m home, I’m on my way to the phone and will pick up mid-message.
I’ve gotten some rippin deals from telemarketers. Hired some great talent too. Careful you dont fall off your high horse, Sparky.
I’m on the DNC list but still get two or three a day. I usually let them just talk to my voicemail. If I feel like messing with them I act interested but keep telling them I’m sorry I can barely hear you, what did you say. Can you speak up. See how loud you can get them to yell before you hang up.
they call and say: “We are here to help you save your mortgage…” I don’t own my house! Then I just hang up. I am on the do not call list, but still get the calls several times a day.
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