If you tell them to never call you again, they are no longer exempt (same as political calls). Unfortunately, that usually gets ignored.

 

Lady F, I understand you're being upset at the intrusion. We have been on a DNC list since they came out. I used to pick the phone up, answer and then be upset when they totally disregarded it. I even had 1 young lady who had no idea what a DNC list was and wouldn't get off the phone even when I told her it carries a heavy fine for violation. My mind works in problem solving ways and I realized my approach wasn't working, hence the "wordless hang-up method". I have never had a single person call back and say we got cut off. My blood pressure stays low, I stay happy and only about 10 seconds of my life have been stolen. I look at the phone window and if I don't recognize the #, I don't even press the button. When I do answer, I very pleasantly ask who's calling and when it a TM, they only hear a click, neither the 1st or the last they will hear. Our daughter-in-law would shut the ringer off when the kids were young and let the AM catch the call. More than one way to skin a cat, if you want your cat skinned. I found a way to be happy, in spite of the TM and unwanted calls. I truly trust you'll be able to also.

 

I am on the Do Not Call list and I NEVER get telemarketer calls. And even if one or two came through, it's not something I would get extremely angry over. Yes, maybe like code58 said, for maybe 10 seconds. But it's a very minuscule in this thing we call life. Don't sweat the small stuff.

 

You're lucky. I started out just hanging up. When I would keep getting calls, I tried politely telling them to never call my number again. When I continued to get called, that's when I started giving them an ear full. I wouldn't scream or curse, but I do raise my voice somewhat and read them the riot act. If it's a repeat call, I'll ask to speak to a supervisor. I also find how who the company is and try to contact them directly. I directly inform politicians they have lost my vote because of the call. I also file complaints with the Feds (although I doubt that will do any good). Doing all that has had far better results than being nice.

I suggest you all read a book called "I See Rude" by Amy Alkon if you think I'm bad. At least I don't go to the lengths she does.

 

Again, you are lucky.

You people who are willing to just blow off the calls actually are contributing to the problem. If more people would grow a backbone and sound off to the rude people in their lives (and telemarketing, etc. is rude; again, I refer you to Amy Alkon's "I See Rude"), people who walk all over other people's rights wouldn't do it.

 

Sounding off to the poor employee does not solve it as you have proven. You still get the calls and have now stressed yourself out over it. Just hang up and take a deep breath.

Do you get mad at the McDonald's cashier because the burgers and fries are bad for you? The cashier did not make them.

 

This thread is funny.

I am a Professional Telemarketer, been doing phone sales for the last 13 years since college. I refuse to do Business to Consumer sales, I am strictly Business to Business, and there is a ton of money to be had at it. Why? Because it is much easier to convince someone to spend someone else's money (department budgets, grants, use it or lose it budgets, etc...) than it is to spend their own money.

Society as a whole may frown upon telemarketers, but fact of the matter is it's a way for a company to increase their sales volume and get their name out there. We live in a Capitalistic society, get use to it. Sales makes the world go round and is more than likely the sole reason the majority of the posters on here that are employed, have a job.

I personally would rather see someone take a Telemarketing job as a last resort than to sponge off the hard working tax payers. 90% of my sales come from cold calling, and 70% of my annual income is commission based. It's my chosen profession and I do rather well at it. There are usually 1 or 2 reasons why telemarketers take the jobs they do:

1. They either couldn't find any other position (especially in this economy) or
2. They are in it for the money

My reason is #2. To all the telemarketing bashers out there, look at it from this perspective. If you owned your own business and had an opportunity to increase your annual income 33% or higher just by hiring a telemarketer(s) to get your name and services out there, would you do it?

The people on the other end are doing the job they were hired to do. You may not like it, but if your employer's sales dried up, where would you be? Telemarketing is just one of many ways companies use to gain revenue, that's all, and it is a way of life. The person on the end of the phone isn't taking your rejection personally, so why should you take their attempt to make money for themselves personally? People get so offended when they get a call they weren't expecting, and automatically go on the defensive. If you don't want what they are selling, tell them no thanks and hang up, it's really pretty simple if you think about it. Do Not Call lists, Caller ID, Blocking phone #s or just simply not answering or ignoring the call are some of the tools everyone has available to them, use them. But don't blame the Telemarketer for trying to provide for themselves or their family, or the company for wanting to increase their revenue.

 

So you think greed is justification for being a leech of people's time? Even though you only call businesses, the business has to pay the employee who has to field your call. The business then has to come up with the money to pay that employee whose time you wasted. Usually, that is done by raising the cost of the services and/or products the company provides.

Just because a business can increase income by stealing people's time is not justification for doing it. It is still stealing! Advertising can be done in other ways. Commercials on radios or TV at least justify themselves by paying for the programming we are receiving (and may inform us of new products/services we may be interested in). Ads in magazines, newspapers, etc. are not intrusive and pay for the content we are reading. Even ads on internet sites (as long as they aren't intrusive such as the ones that blare sound that has to be silenced or popups that get in the way) pay for the content we read there. At least we have the choice of of looking at the ad if interested and when we look at it.

Telemarketing, on the other hand, is very intrusive. Telemarketers (and this includes politicians and surveyors) intrude on people's time, demanding that people pay attention to them right then. Even if the recipient of the call immediately hangs up or ignores the call, the recipient has had that much time stolen from them. Beside wasting time, it also is very annoying.

Basically, the definition of a parasite is an organism that steals support from another organism without benefit to the host organism and/or to the detriment of the host organism. Telemarketers fit that definition perfectly. They use the phone services of the people they call without paying a cent for the unauthorized use of that service. They not only steal time from the people they call, they interrupt whatever that person was doing.

I loved this comment of yours: "I personally would rather see someone take a Telemarketing job as a last resort than to sponge off the hard working tax payers." And you don't consider stealing the phone services and time of the people whose lives you interrupt for your selfish purposes sponging? That is hilarious.

Frankly, I consider all telemarketers (and the companies that utilize them) to be inconsiderate, greedy, intrusive, thieving parasites and that includes you! Even your first paragraph demonstrates what a parasite you are ("...it is much easier to convince someone to spend someone else's money...than it is to spend their own money.").

 

They are not stealing your phone service and it is not an unauthorized use. They pay for their phone service to call you. They do not have to pay for both parties. You don't pay when your family calls you.
The do not call list does not cover everything and as you know does not actually work anyway. You should block all calls and give only your friends and family a code to get through. I can do this with Vonage but not sure who you have for a phone service provider or if it is an option for you.

I agree with you that the calls are intrusive and they suck but I do not agree with your opinion that you are being robbed in the process. Yes, your time is valuable but if you just hang up on them only a minimum of your time is lost or "stolen"

 

What is it going to convince you that using a service without authorization is still stealing even if it doesn't cost the owner of the service? Your arguments sound like the lame arguments I've seen attempting to justify pirating e-books, saying it's not stealing because the owner of the original book still has the book.

Are you serious? I should throttle myself because of uninvited intrusions? I should inconvenience anyone I do want calling me by requiring them to keep track of a code? All because a bunch of misbegotten parasites feel entitled to use MY phone and MY time for their selfish use? Puh-leeze!

Why don't you give me your phone number so I can call you and see how you like getting called while you are sleeping?

 

Have you tried calling the reps of the companies that are calling you? A calm, polite, professional, persuasive conversation with people has gotten me off of about a dozen call lists. That was before I realized there was a no call list for cell phones.

 

Yes. I have gotten rid of a few that way. I started getting better results when I started getting ugly with them. Many make themselves very inaccessable, especially the survey companies and the politicians. I've had to do a lot of research to find out who they were and how to contact them. Still, why should I have to opt out from sales, survey, and campaign calls? They should be required to get permission from me. About the only calls I get now are from the random dialers but it's taken a lot of work and research on my part to get the number of calls cut down.

I got a bunch of calls from airconditioning/heating companies last year wanting to do a spring tune up on my airconditioner. This happened right after I had one done by my regular mechanic. I called them and, after playing twenty questions, got them to admit that they had sold my number. I will use a new mechanic next year and inform them they had better not sell my number.

When I bought my screw, the dealer gave or sold my number to Sirius. I got a call from them (while I was sleeping). Since I had not done any direct business with them, it was an illegal call. I informed them of that and that if they called me again, I would report them to the Feds. That stopped the calls but I still lost sleep because of it. I would like to say I would never do business with that dealer again but I had already decided that since I had had other problems with them.

 

Geesh, you must make your family sign an authorization form so they can call you too.



I am hanging up now.

 

And still you don't get it. Giving friends and family my number is tacit authorization. I don't give my number to the parasites; the bastards steal it.

 

Sorry M'am You have the wrong number and no clue.

Click.