<p>The most relentless calls I get are not after my money–they’re after my blood.</p>
<p>Agree Hunt. I finally told the red cross that they were making me less likely to donate blood because I knew I would be harassed by phone calls subsequently. They stopped calling. </p>
<p>For telemarketers I now interrupt them and say “We do no business on the phone.” Then I hang up. The telemarketers now call and will not speak to me but ask for DH who is a softer touch.</p>
<p>For the Red Cross, I found that it’s effective to tell them to call back in a month (or whenever I think I might be ready to donate again).</p>
<p>Interestingly, the Red Cross has never asked me for a dime.</p>
<p>When I say put us on the do not call list they usually say OK and we hang up. The other day however the guy swore at me and called back 3 times - we did not answer. I reported him to the FCC. There is an on line form you can fill out to lodge a complaint. Our caller id had the phone number.</p>
<p>My favorite:</p>
<p>At the time, one of the telephone companies was running an ad showing a wealthy man throwing stacks of money on the fire and laughing manically. Sort of ‘unless you have this much money, you need our saving plan’ message. So for a while whenever a telemarketer would call to offer ‘tremendous savings’, my DH would say, ‘no thanks, I have way too much money already’ and hang up.</p>
<p>Hunt: I never realized that the Red Cross would hound me for blood by calling every other week or so. I had done my good deed and donated blood after a terrible train accident here a few years ago. But when they kept bothering me by phone, I finally just told them that instead of getting me motivated to donate more blood, they were turning me off to the entire organization they stopped. </p>
<p>I get the recorded phone messages also. I also get calls from local contractors begging for work. I am on the DNC register but it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference in the amount of calls I get. </p>
<p>In this world of e-mail, I am to the point where any phone call even from people I know is rude. The phone is for emergencies, planned calls with family members and for those few who still don’t have computers.</p>
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<p>I think that’s the only way to deal with it, and frankly I think that’s actually the most polite / considerate of them as people who are trying to make a living, since they don’t have to waste their time with you a non-prospect and they can move on.<br>
I find the ideas of sticking the phone next to a radio and walking away, or playing games with them, really passive-aggressive and not very nice.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t hanging up on them, it’s having to stop what I’m doing and answer the phone. </p>
<p>If anyone has figured out how to stop the calls completely, short of paying extra for an unlisted number, let me know.</p>
<p>I have no patience with those who are trying to distract me.</p>
<p>We don’t have a landline anymore, but when we did it seemed that most of the robo-calls were from telemarketers.
If I actually got a person, I would just say I wasn’t interested, immediately. I would sometimes answer surveys if it was local- but I didn’t want to waste my time or theirs letting them go through their spiel.</p>
<p>What was * most * annoying was that when we had a landline, most of the calls were from the phone company trying to get us to sign up for more services.
( the do not call list didn’t apply to them- since we were customers :rolleyes: )</p>
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They were calling me <em>every</em> <em>single</em> <em>day</em>. I appreciate the fact that I have a rare blood type and there are chronic shortages, but every single day??? I had other family members answering the phone and saying I wasn’t there. Finally, I had them put me on their do-not-call list, and they have respected that.</p>
<p>I have found the Fed’s do-not-call registry to be pretty effective, I get very few telemarketer calls now.</p>
<p>You can also opt out of credit card offers in the mail: <a href=“OptOutPrescreen.com”>OptOutPrescreen.com;
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I sometimes feel this way about the phone, but I especially feel this way about the doorbell. The only time I answer the door now is if I am expecting a guest. Just because a telephone or doorbell rings, I am under no obligation to answer.</p>
<p>We’ve had this topic discussed before. Someone posted one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever watched/read, similar to BillyMcs post. Here it is. Enjoy! <a href=“http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/[/url]”>http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/</a></p>
<p>I usually tell them no thanks, and to take me off their call list. I know some poeple who blow a whistle (thats mean, IMO). My late mother used to tell them we were in the middle of a funeral. Then, when we were sitting shiva for her, I got one of those calls!! I got to use her line, for real. I kinda think she planned that…</p>
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<p>We used to get these. My standard reply was “Well, I’m illiterate.”</p>
<p>Always worked like a charm. They were so flustered that I could say “thanks anyway!” and hang up. </p>
<p>There’s generally a lag of a couple of seconds while the auto-dialer connects the line to a real human telemarketer, so if I don’t hear a reply to my “hello? hello?” within the first second, I just hang up. If I’ve accidentally hung up on a “real” call, they always call back. If the human telemarketer comes on line quickly enough, as soon as I hear them start their spiel, I talk over them and say “thanks, but I’m not interested, and please put me on your no-call list” and then hang up without waiting for acknowledgement.</p>
<p>Sometimes I speak to them in Russian. I had four years in high school so I sound pretty fluent if I am just reciting a pre-set dialogue. And if they are really lucky, my brain will morph it to Spanish and back. It does make them go away.</p>
<p>At the shop I get telemarketers all the time. And we <em>have</em> to answer the phone, we’re a business. I’m really quick with the “Not for us. Thanks for calling. Bye. Click.”</p>
<p>Russkiy Yazyk? Da.</p>
<p>I just interrupt and tell them we’re not interested because we’ve sold our house and are moving.</p>
<p>Splashmom: I still feel like I should answer the phone when it rings, because it could be one of those emergencies, it could be my children. So I answer. </p>
<p>But for routine things from my friends like invitations, planning get togethers or just news, I really, really prefer e-mail. I open it at my convenience. When I have time.</p>
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<p>That is similar to what I do but I like to say that I don’t accept phone solicitations of any kind. That can sometimes work better than saying you are not interested, because some are aggressive and take that as a challenge. Of course, some say it’s not a solicitation, it’s a “survey.” I just repeat, I don’t accept any of these calls, like it’s my official policy or something(I think I originally got that tip here on CC, and it does work). Then, would you please take our name off your lists, thanks. So I’m not on more than ten seconds, but don’t hang up immediately on them, either. That’s more than just a courtesy, I’m also concerned that someone will get annoyed and NOT take my name off for spite!</p>
<p>Just hang up. I was a phone canvasser for a political campaign for a few months and I sat each day white-knuckle-gripping my desk in horror because I had no choice but to read the script and keep pestering people no matter how they were reacting-- it was my job and I had to feed myself. Do both of you a favor and just hang up. I just say, "Sorry, not interested,"talking over them if need be, and hang up.</p>
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Don’t bother to pay extra for this in an attempt to stop them - it doesn’t work. My number’s unlisted but I still get the calls.</p>