<p>WHen I get a live call seeking political support, I tell them I have decided to vote and contribute to their opponent because I’ve had so many annoying calls from this candidate. Then I add, -so thanks to you, I decided to vote for the other guy!</p>
<p>I usually give that answer even if I really do intend to vote for the candidate.</p>
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I don’t excuse them. I just don’t see any reason to be rude to them beyond a polite “Sorry, not interested” and a hang up. Why should I yell and scream when it won’t change anything except make the (likely) minimum wage employee feel bad?</p>
<p>I have come to recognize the number of the person calling for clothing donations. I usually answer with “yes, and I will have it outside the front door labelled xxxx. And my address is xxxx. Please call me the night before to remind me” . It startles them for a second but then they laugh and thank me.</p>
<p>I’m with NJRes. I just say “Sorry, no thanks, not interested, goodbye” and hang up. I don’t feel bad. I’m doing them a favor by getting off the phone so they can turn to people who might be interested in their spiel.</p>
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But they DO know that they are working for a company that disregards the list, because they are frequently informed by the people they call that they are on the list. Sorry, lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.</p>
<p>I would have to be living in a van down by the river before I’d take a job that consisted of bothering people in their homes, even if the employer was DNC compliant.</p>
<p>People have been “bothering people in their homes” for decades. I used to enjoy our fuller brush man (he was the father if a classmate) and the encyclopedia salesman. There are still the magazine sales and school or scouts fundraisers that have kids ringing the doorbell. And those vector knives - don’t like them either. Not do I like vendors coming to the office to push their copier or what have you when there is a clear " no soliciting" sign. But rather than be rude we politely tell them no thanks and them call the building management and let them deal with it. </p>
<p>If I had a family member who couldn’t find other work and took a telemarketing job, I’d commend them for having the gumption to take on a difficult job and have to deal with people who needed a serious attitude adjustment and who couldn’t have the courtesy to just say no thank you and hang up. I agree with Chedva. No reason to be rude. There are plenty worse offenses than some poor person interrupting your watching Judge Judy or something. For all you know the person calling could be working 3 jobs to take care of an ill family member. Regardless of how scummy you think the marketing company is, if its not a robocall there is a real person with real feelings at the other end. Go tell them to live in a van by the river. Seriously, have some compassion.</p>
<p>This stuff is not hypothetical. I know someone with a B.A. from an Ivy League, friend of my kids, who took a FOURTH job in a call center at 3 a.m. He got that shift because he was newest. He didn’t phone people at that hour, but did some of the administrative work behind them.He was nearly homeless and battling the complete mental breakdown which came a few weeks later. </p>
<p>Picture him, or someone like him, next time you want to yell at somebody on the other end of the phone. He was doing all the other options he could imagine as a B.A. – tutoring, enterpreneuring, copywriting online. He had to make rent or get kicked into his van to take down to the river. Yes, have some compassion and human kindness for working people in a recession economy.</p>
<p>If having to support a family or being down on one’s luck justifies taking a job that involves breaking the law on a regular basis, then heck, why not just rob a bank and be done with it? Being unable to find a legit job is not a rationale for participating in a violation of the law. Does a sense of personal integrity have no place here? And apart from the legal issue, it’s exceedingly rude to bother people at home when they have specifically asked to be left alone. No courtesy is owed back where none is provided. I don’t yell at anyone; there’s no point, and no reason to get myself all agitated. But I don’t offer a polite response either. I hang up without saying anything or, if I have the time, remind the caller that they are working for an employer that violates the law, just in case they didn’t realize it. And then go back to watching Judge Judy, because of course that’s the only thing a telemarketing call could possibly be interrupting.</p>
<p>Hyperbole does not help. Telemarketing is not illegal. Would guess only a small number of people fill out the " do not call" form, and IIRC they expire and have to be renewed. And in this day and age, with so many people dropping their land lines, phone numbers probably get recirculated frequently. So those lists, such as they are, are probably out of date. So make any excuse you feel justifies rude behavior. Honestly, it’s not that hard to say " please take me off your list" and hang up. Or just don’t answer the call. It’s not the massive imposition you make it out to be.</p>
<p>Ah, you edited your response. Why do you bother to answer the phone if its such an imposition? And surely temarketers are the only companies that might ever do anything that could be considered a violation of the law. Hope the lawn service you use or the restaurants you dine at don’t hire illegals. Wait. Maybe anyone who has ever run a red light or not stopped long enough at a stop sign should not be permitted to occupy the same road as you since they have violated the law and should not be permitted to impose on your rights.</p>
<p>And the next time the Red Cross calls for a donation because they need your blood type, I guess we won’t answer the call because it could be one of those nasty , heartless telemarketers. Oh and BTW we are on the do not call list, FWIW.</p>
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^this. Also, if they get into their spiel: “Sorry, I’m not interested.” “click” My wife, however, sits through the whole thing and then asks them to put us on a “do not call” list. I tell her that that just lets them know we’re people that answer the phone, but she persists.
Again - the person on the phone isn’t the bad guy. It wasn’t their idea to call you, and if they didn’t do it, the next desperate and unemployed person willing to take an unpleasant but in fact legal job would do it. So don’t yell at the poor people, please? </p>
<p>If you want to actually strike back, do so in a way that will hurt the real bad guys. If it’s a product or service which requires an appointment (carpet cleaning, solar panels and other home improvement items are big around here) make an appointment. When the local carpet guy (or whatever) shows up, tell him you don’t really want the service, you were just deliberately wasting his time. I did this once, and the guy told me that they didn’t do the calling, it was a “service” which sold them the leads. I told him I wanted the system to be unprofitable, and that I would never use a company which contracted with a robo-call service. I figure if enough people do that the robo-callers won’t be able to sell their leads to the companies in question. I figure the carpet cleaner, unlike the person on the phone, actually was responsible. Even if he didn’t make the calls himself, he chose to do business generated through those means.</p>
<p>My landline is free with my DSL internet service and includes free long distance, so I keep it and keep a less $$$ cell plan. I am on do not call and do not get many sales calls, but the credit card services and ADT security are repeat offenders. I finally figured out that my phone company has an easy to use call blocking service - if I get a telemarketing call I dial *77 or whatever and it blocks the last number that called. In addition, if I don’t know the number, I let my machine - yes actual answering machine - get it and pick up if I want to during the message, if they leave one. Anyone who really needs to reach me can call my cell but I never, ever give out that number to companies or charities.</p>
<p>“Honestly, it’s not that hard to say " please take me off your list” </p>
<p>I have done this and it doesn’t work; they still keep calling. </p>
<p>As for the do-not-call list, it is actually very easy to get on the list. The problem is every telemarketing company totally ignores it. It’s a joke.</p>
<p>Since we’ve gotten caller ID, we rarely answer the phone if we don’t recognize the number unless we get tired of the ringing. If we do, sometimes, I will pick up the phone and gently hang it up without speaking or listening at all. Generally, they don’t call back again for awhile afterwards.</p>
<p>My dad just got a call from a bank wanting him to do a survey. He told them they probably didn’t want him completing a survey right now… They are in the process of closing the only particular bank branch which my parents have multiple accounts they have to move…</p>
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<p>According to the 2009 Economic Report of the President, prepared by the Council of Economic Advisors, as of 2007, according to one survey, 72 percent of Americans had registered on the list (a tremendous ratings coup for Judge Judy).</p>
<p>The registrations do not expire (though they did until the law changed in 2008), and, more important, the law requires telemarketing companies to check the Do Not Call List every 31 days to ensure that they are not calling registered phone numbers. </p>
<p>My landline has been on the list for years. Every commercial telemarketing call I get is illegal, and the calling company knows it. I like my landline (at my age, I find cell phone transmission more difficult to hear), and because of my paid work and volunteer work, I frequently get calls from people whose numbers I don’t know (calls that need to be answered promptly, not allowed to go to my answering machine), so I can’t screen calls. So yes, telemarketing calls are an imposition, one that gets worse week by week.</p>
<p>As kluge said, the person calling isnt the bad guy. This is not much more than a victimless crime. Sure it’s annoying, but no need to react with such outrage. There are bigger problems in the world.</p>
<p>If you read further down the wiki article about the implementation of the do not call list, it said that most people saw a drop in calls from 30 calls a month to less than 6. So for many, the list is working. You could be getting more calls. Really there are bigger problems in the world than to rage against robocall annoyances. Wish there was a way to register email addresses to get less spam. That would be nice. But again it’s annoying, not a national crisis.</p>
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A lot of it is illegal–which is why the marketers use various techniques to hide who they really are, like a recording that requires you to press a button, or the use of offshore call centers. This is how they avoid enforcement of the do not call list. Personally, I almost never get commercial calls any more unless they are this kind of sneaky and clearly illegal sort, and I do sometimes tell the people involved that they are working for criminals.</p>
<p>This is not the case for the people calling for charities, who annoy me, but aren’t doing anything illegal.</p>
<p>Don’t agree with the “victimless crime” characterization. I know it is to be taken figuratively, but here’s how I think:
prostitution is often thought of as victimless crime because it is usually believed both parties enter willingly. Not so with many telemarketing calls. Those calls often occur despite legal efforts from those with phones to stop receiving calls from unwanted solicitation. Both parties are not entering willingly.</p>
<p>I’m also not fond of post 62 that takes a partial quote of mine out of context, then claims he(she) thinks it wrong to scream at telemarketers. This partial quote and subsequent wording gives the impression that I said it was ok to do so, and I did not say so.</p>