Telemarketers ...please read

Finally someone who understands why I started this thread to start with!

THANK YOU Missymonkey

I tried something over the past few days, while I was trying to sleep mind you. As of this writing I have answered every call to my house and logged them.

I have received 17 calls to my home number total this is in a period of 48 hours. Of the 17 calls all showed on the caller ID as out of area. Of the 17 I was available to answer 14. Of the 14, 14 were people trying to sell me something. The other 3 were answered by the answering machine and no one left a message.

And you wonder why people have a short fuse.

Of the calls I answered, I asked a couple of questions.

1) What company do you represent?
2) What company is your employer?

I also made the statement that I would like to be removed from the call list and any further violation of this request would be reported to the authorities.

Just as humor point of the 14, 4 of the telemarketers hung up on me when I started in on the questions!!!!!

Oh and by the way, a telezapper is a wonderful idea. I have to pay more to get some respect of my privacy!

I wonder if I can get a telemarketer to call and sell me one. LOL

Oh and for those of you who are thinking it. I also realized I have no life maybe I can get a telemarketer to sell me one of those too.

I'm curious about this telezapper thing, wonder if it'll work or not. Also I'm thinking how ridiculous it is that I have to pay more money to keep these people from harrassing me, it's ridiculous. I'm paying about $30 a month for telephone services that still can't keep all of them out, mind you without the service I get twice as many calling, so now paying more for this telezapper thing, is it worth it, will they find a way around it???? I think the telemarketers should pay us for the telezapper, any thoughts.

I pay for a unlisted number, I pay for a custom package. And now someone thinks that I should pay for a telezapper all so that I can keep people from calling MY number and bugging me. In my honest opinion telemarketers should be banned.

I agree with your most honest opinion!!! I homeschool 3 of my 5 kids and amongst everything else that goes on in my house, the last thing I enjoy occurring is the 15 telemarketers that call EVERYDAY!!!

Tell you what, with all of the advances in cell phone technology and payment plans these days, I am beginning to wonder why I even need a regular phone line anymore, except for a basic line for my modem (I live in the sticks and have dial up service only!). I have never received a telemarketer call on my cell phone!

I lived without a ground line for three years using my cell phone. I never had a telemarketer call. This may change soon as the powers that be want to make cell phone numbers publicly listed.

As for the telezapper, telemarketing companies have already come up with a way to circumvent that. It would seem to me that somehow messing with information on another's computer is hacking, and as such, illegal. Since the Telezapper is supposed to remove your number from their machine, thereby deleting something against their will from their machine, could that be considered hacking? If it went to court, would using the Telezapper be ruled as illegal?

Anyway, the companies, as I said, have already come up with a way around it, but not all companies are using that method yet.

Since the Telezapper is supposed to remove your number from their machine, thereby deleting something against their will from their machine, could that be considered hacking? If it went to court, would using the Telezapper be ruled as illegal?

The Telezapper actually doesn't do anything to their computers. It merely fakes the tones of a disconnected number, fooling the software into believing that it has dialed an inavlid number.

However, a relatively new piece of software available to telesharks can circumvent this issue.

These are just some of the ways I've dealt with telemarketers.

1. Kept one siding salesman on the line for about 15 minutes asking all kinds of questions. He hung up when I asked him if I would have to forward the bill to my landlord or if they would bill him directly. The ones that work on commision really hat this sort of thing.

2. Since they are only doing their job, I try to do mine. I ask them If they are interested in buying a snake or an aquarium.

3. The one I use most since 9 out of 10 of them butcher the pronunciation of my last name "there no one here by that name"

4. I tell them I never make purchases or descisions like this over the phone.

5. Many times a call will need to be verified or confirmed by a third party. Sometimes I'll let the telemarketer think they made the sale only to tell the third party confirmation no. This happens a lot when companies hire telemarkieting firms to make their calls and the callers are not directly employed by the company whose product they are selling.

6. Simply tell them no and hang up. It saves time but if I'm not too busy and I feel with jacking them around a bit I might get more creative.


On a related note, I was listening to Howard Stern one morning and they played a clip from the guy who created Crank Yankers. Basically it was about a guy who was called by a telemarketer trying to sell him a subscription to a magazine. He told him he only had 6 months to live and asked if they had a discounted rate for half a year subscription. Then he went on to ask the caller if he needed any houshold items as he was trying to sell his stuff before he died. It was one of the funniest things I have ever heard.

Any way, bottom line. If my job was to punch you in the face, would that be OK, because I would only be doing my job.

Steve Schindler

The Telezapper is a neat invention, however it wouldn't have zapped anything at the company that I worked for. We had a hard copy of the numbers, printed on paper, which we penciled notes onto. There were no computers attatched to the phone lines at all, they were simple land lines like anyone has.

oh well, back to the drawing board