How to Deal with Telemarketers

1. If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed
for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money. Ask, "How long can I keep it? Do I have to ever pay it back, or is it like the other money I borrowed before my bankruptcy?"

2. If they start out with, "How are you today?" say, "Why do you want to know?" Or you can say, "I'm so glad you asked, because no one seems
to care these days and I have all these problems, my
sciatica is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just
died . . ." When they try to get back to the sales process, just continue on with telling about your problems.

3. If the person says he's Joe Doe from the XYZ Company, ask him to spell his name, then ask him to spell the company name, then ask where it is located. Continue asking personal questions or questions about the company for as long as necessary.

4. This one works better if you are male: Telemarketer: "Hi,
my name is Judy and I'm with Canter and Siegel services....
You: "Hang on a second." (few seconds pause) "Okay, (in a really husky voice) what are
you wearing?"

 

Nice one... especially the last one would have come in handy just last week, when a young (female) telemarketer called me three times in three days because of me adding my URL's to her directorie
I managed to get the time consumed down from around 2 minutes to around 20 seconds, but I didn't manage to get any fun out of it - damn...

PS: She tried to convince me that their directory was the only, not the main but the only reason my site was listed high for a keyword I never even used on my site. I never bothered to check it out as I knew right away that, I never even had one single visitor landing on my site due to that keyword. But hey, it was worth a try I guess Poor girl's got a tough job

 

• Use the HOLD feature... and just don't come back
• Talk in circles
• Let them know you're on the Do-Not-Call-Registry (if in US) and scare them (huge fines for offenses)
• Continually change accents and/or voices
• Set the phone down in front of your radio/TV

 

lol Great will trye these when the opportunity comes

 

I ask 'em for their home telephone number, so I can CALL THEM BACK DURING THEIR SUPPER!

 

I tell them what a great deal it sounds like and ask if they mind if I get a paper and pencil for jotting down information.

I put down the phone and walk away.

Really sucks that I get the hopes up for a person probly barely making min-wage.

tom

 

I almost feel bad for those people. I think a lot of them are just summer students. But that doesn't matter to my husband. He just tells them to f*** off.

Did I mention my husband can be a jerk?

I just tell them I'm not interested. Nothing funny about that, but I'm a pretty boring non-humorous person.

 

My mother told one she had someone at the door and put the phone down. She had a determined telemarketer that time... the girl held for more than 15 minutes before giving up.

 

start talking in a foreign language - if you do not know one, make one up!

They end up hanging up first

 

• I just put the speakerphone on and have a nice meal listening them go "Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Mr xxxx?" Then they go
• Have a long conversation about where they are, what they are doing and hows life?
• If they ask for you just say "I'll put him/her on" But just leave the phone and wait for them to hang up
• Try sell one of your products

I also love this one I found at a site

 

I di telemarketing for 18 months and that 'You've won X' prank is waht we left on answering machine messages if they weren't in adding 'sorry, you didn't answer so we'll have to pass this on...'.

 

That's just mean Tops...

 

Being a telemarketer myself for while (no I didn't enjoy calling people and bothering them) I can tell you the best solution and they can never call you back ever again.

As soon as you hear that it's a telemarketer dont let them finish the conversation interupt it loudly by saying take me off your list, then hang up.

That is very affective because they know the company can be sued if they call you again. So for every call you get from different companies use the same thing and eventually you wont get anymore calls

 

I was a telemarketer once. Awesome commissions on the sales that were made but the number of calls in between successful calls with rude people wasn't worth it. I called this one guy who said he would love to purchase the product but he was currently between jobs, I told him of a job opening I knew of-mine-right before I quit. He asked for the address and who he would speak with and everything, lol.

But if it's a thankless job for the telemarketer, it's also very annoying to the person who receives the call ( especially when they won't let you get a word in enough to let them know up front you're not interested, or the ones who disregard that once you tell them and they keep going on about it). So, I saw this on a Seinfeild episode, and it works - tell them you might be interested, however at the moment you're in the middle of something and really can't take the call at that time, and ask if you can have their home number so you can call when it's more convenient for you. When they say no, ask them if it's because they don't want to be bothered at home. When they say, exactly, then you tell them well, now you know how I feel, and hang up.

 

The best solution remains to answer the phone in a foreign language. They almost never have the verbatim in more than 1 language, so even of the prerson making the call speaks your language, they can't talk to you. Your number ends up in the "does not speak language" category for this time. This is what we had to do when I was doing surveys over the phone, and it works everytime they call me.

 

I used to have a sound that I started my answering message with. It basically signalled that it was an out of service number.

After a few days the calls tapered off and then it was rare to get one.

I don't really have this problem in Ireland

 

The best thing to do with telemarketers is transfer the to the 'telemarket menu' extension.
Google for 'asterisk telemarket hell' if you don't know what I'm on about

It's basically a menu system that will keep them going to about 30 minutes if they bother to work their way through it all.

I realise that people have to make money somehow, but it is damn annoying.
People who ring me with CLI hidden automatically get dumped into a queue and I answer if and when I can be bothered.

 

here is my take on telemarketers.

In most cases telemarketers are dudes or chics that just moved to wherever they are calling from and are pressed for cash. I mean do kids with trust funds and harvard degree's call ya probably not. lol so sometimes you gotta let them down easy. hell we all gotta pay are bills somehow right.