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Suing Telemarketers Made Simple
Lord of the Distinctive Rings writes "Telemarketer calls victim in wee hours. Victim is lawyer. Victim sues telemarketer. Hilarity ensues, as recounted in narrative replete with links and information on how you too can sue up the wazoo." Well, one's certainly not ever going to get rich or anything going after telemarketers on a one-off basis, but every bit helps, I think.
I can't wait for the National Do Not Call List to take effect.
HURRY UP!!
I've had friends who have had to do this to make ends meet. The key to this business is speed, so if you really want to make it ineffective, keep them on the phone as long as possible. Doesn't matter to me, I haven't had a land line since the last millenium. =P
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Ring....Please Ring..
When harrased by telemarketers, I just make up the weirdest stories ever (I just bought that penis enlargement gizmo!! - or - I'm sorry, my religion regards it as infidel, unless I get a free massage), and if they really piss me off, I just make up a credit card number and expiration date, and give them the white house's address for mailing me that penis-enlargement thingie. Perhaps someone in there will put it to use?
It's about time people do something. Let me recall two funny incidents: Brother in-law: "Yes, Oh? I get something free? What's that? Oh that sounds great... What else can you guys offer me?"... (Ten minutes later)... "Well, can I talk to your supervisor? Thank you. .... Yes, I hear you have some great offers, but you see, Colorado has a no-call list and if you don't honor that ..."
The hilarity of the situation was the fact that i'm sure they thought they had another sale, then it turns into another 20 minute lecture.
The best transaction was from my stepfather, while my friends and I were watching a movie in the living room.
"Hello? Umm... let me check. IS MR. HIND-ER-LITER HERE (pronounced incorrectly of course)?" (In another yelling voice, somewhat feminized this time, he replies to himself) "NO, HE'S NOT BACK FROM HIS PAROLE MEETING FOR KILLING THAT SALESMAN." (back to his voice) "OH, THAT'S RIGHT. No, I'm sorry, he can't come to the phone right now. Bye."
Makes me wonder how much of these funny things do go on...
This gives a nice HOWTO on suing people who abuse the system. Here in the UK there is a opt-out system in the form of the TPS (Telecomunication Protection System) to stop people doing this sort of thing. Failure to comply get at £10,000 fine. Haven't had one call since signing up :)
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
I, like the person who wrote the article, live in DC, and have been bothered by a pre-recorded telemarketer...in this case, a "non profit" that seems not to exist except as a front to accept donations. I'd elaborate more, but I'm off to the courthouse now...:)
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Three Little Words That Work !! (1)The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..." Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting. (2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Since doing this, my phone calls have decreased dramatically. (3) Another Good Idea: When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before! the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes. One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas. Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting their own junk back in the mail. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea ! If enough people follow these tips, it will work---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.
I never got laid back in gradeschool, but now that my plates full, these ladies ain't actin' so hatefull..
I get like 2 of these calls a week, none of which announce the business name, some of which arrive after 9 p.m. However, these scumbag telemarketers have their numbers show up as 'Out of Area' on my caller id. How do you identify the offending company then?
Did you leave out the 'E' at the end?
What if it's a guy with a high-pitched voice and you just can't be sure? Is that okay too?
Too bad he couldn't just extort the name of the phone number list seller out of the guy, and go after "the dealer."
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
At this point most people use their cell for everything. Especially with the competing providers offering more and more free minutes, you may actually find it's a lot cheaper to go cell only. I'm personally saving $15 a month.
But here's the sweet bit... You never get telemarketed at! (Obviously you shouldn't be doing stupid stuff like giving it out to businesses.) And you don't have to worry about annoying late-night calls, as most providers give you free voice mail, so you can just turn off the phone or put it in silent mode.
Every time one of these telemarketer articles comes up, I wonder "what are they talking about?". Here in Australia there is VERY little telemarketer calls. Anyone know why this is? Is it just me, or do other Australians receive a lot of telemarketer calls? I don't think my phone home has received one in a few years. What's Australia doing right, or telemarketer companies doing wrong? Is our population too small?
Spamming already exists on the gray fringes of legality/ethicality (is that a word?) I can't imagine that charging a penny a letter would slow down a dedicated spammer at all. They'd simply send them without paying and continue to spoof / hide / relocate as required.
This, like many laws aimed at criminals, would make things marginally more inconvenient for honest people while ignoring the criminals.
I believe that telemarketers are prohibited by law from blocking their phone number, so add that to the list of infractions.
(IANAL etc)
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
I was having a problem with calls at all hours of the day. I finally added the 'disconnected' tones to the first part of my answering machine message, which you can find from a google.com search, and since then I get maybe 2 calls a week rather then the 10 a day I used to get.
For anyone who wants to cut down on calls, without trying the approach of using the courts, I would higly suggest this method.
g
Ok... This might be a bit trollish, but...
Someone needs to explain to me why "hilarity ensues" when an attorney sues a telemarketer, but it doesn't ensue when an attorney sends a cease and desist order?
Shouldn't the attorney have just called this poor landscaper up and asked him to stop making calls first?
...or maybe an ICQ handle with a chick's name. Is it OK to cyber then?
"Greetings friend. Do you wish to look as happy as me? Well, you've got the power inside you right now. So use it. And send one dollar to Happy Dude, 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield. Don't delay! Eternal happiness is just a dollar away."
The neutrality of this sig is disputed.
Back in college, we were on the A-list for credit card bills. Hardly a day would go by when I wouldn't get a fat envelope of "You've Been Pre-Approved" nonsense, or a phone call at around 7 in the evening. Anyway, eventually, a simple "I'm not interested" *click* wouldn't do. So, we got creative, and decided to have some fun.
Eventually, one of my roomates, Matt, discovered the best solution. Once, a telemarketer called, and asked, "Are you Matthew *****"? His reply: "I don't know". Yes, that's right. "I don't know". As in, "I don't even know my own name, I'm definitely not responsible enough to own my own credit card. You must have dialed into a Home by mistake. Try this number again and Big Nurse will open up a can of tele-whoopass on you". Needless to say, he wasn't bothered for another three months. Before that, it was about twice a week. And that, my fellow readers, is how to get rid of telemarketers.
Allthough an individual might not get rich out of these practices, the power of the mass counts. By sharing this information with the rest of the world more people can sue. Maybe $500 won't hurt the telemarketeer but I bet 1 million people all suing for the $500 will...
/(bb|[^b]{2})/
Exactly where was the "hilarity?" This is just a short article on how he tracked down the guy with some simple online tools and then sued him under a law he was familiar with. There isn't even any wackiness or insanity here. It's just, well, kinda boring.
mr.nobody
--Don't you wanna go where nobody knows your name?
I don't know about getting the list. With an autodialer, the list might be simply "The Telephone Directory." After all, simply stomping through the numbers is a lot cheaper than buying a fully qualified list of customers. Some legit direct mail companies pay in excess of one or two million dollars for a list of a thousand names. (Eg, 1000 Rich professionals who have just gotten married. 1000 Rich professionals who have just bought a house etc...)
A landscaper who is too clueless to know that an autodialer is illegal in his area would probably NOT be able to afford a list.
I say sue the telemarketer. That way you have low court costs and better chance of winning.
Keeping them on the phone is a good idea!
While reading these comments (at 9:15am), I got a call from an obvious telemarketer (couldn't pronounce my dad's name right...) so I decided to keep them on the phone, just to see how long they would actually wait (I'm unemployed, and living at home, so I've got nothing but time on my hands). I told her to hold on while I got my dad, and proceeded to just sit there listening. I didn't say another word for the entire 13 minutes and 42 seconds that the telemarketer actually waited for me to come back! I almost burst out laughing several times when I heard her sigh or start humming a little tune.
It brought a smile to my face on an otherwise boring, unemployed day of my life...
I am pretty sure that many - if not most- small claims judgements are never paid off. It's usually recommended that you not even bother if you're going to need to pay for a lawyer or collection agency. It might be worth $20 if you could spare it - just to hassle the telemarketing folks, but I certainly wouldn't count on a pay off of even $500. Sure you'd probably win your judgement but would they ever actually pay you?
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
As a crusader for freedom on the internet, I believe strongly that unwanted calls are an avoidable nuisance. To help my fellow freedom fighters, I offer these links:
Suing Telemarketers without those sneaky lawyers taking your money!
Suing Telemarketers by Ben Livingston - they say he's crazy, but I say he's a hero!
Remove.org - you can add yourself to the global do not contact list to opt out of all advertisements!
SueTelemarketers.com - because they take away minutes of my free time when I'm trying to eat food, I invest hours of my free time trying to track down and sue telemarketers one by one.
That's all. Good night, and good luck!
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
I mean, sure $500 is a reasonable amount for a single violation. Most businesses could afford that. But if a lot of people decide to sue, then it strikes me that this would be like the RIAA's recent claim of the GDP of several countries.
This is irritating, but do we really thin kthe crime is bad enough to charge an individual a potential $5 000 000 (assuming 10 000 irate victims)?
I live in Rockville, and I constantly get calls from that handyman service.
Guess who I DON'T call when I need my gutters cleaned?!
Just because you run a business doesn't mean you are gauranteed to make money and not have honest efforts to plug your business backfire in your face. And if you ignore the laws governing your conduct don't be surprised when you get slapped.
Now I know your retort will be "well! The law code is so hard that the average person can't understand it and can't afford a lawyer to double check the legality of every action! WAAAAAAAA!"
My response? He just got a lesson in the law. And it only cost him $500.
Life isn't fair. Get a helmet and an unlisted number.
P.S.- The Washington Post had a great article on all the scam handymen in the region. So while you say actually works hard for that $500 I say he ripped off some old lady while cleaning her gutters and "reshingled" her roof. Both of our conjectures have one thing in common: there is no proof of either of them.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
At first I was all for this attorney, but then I read his comment about filing in small claims court being "addictive". You know what? Instead of enacting revenge, and passing on all of the bad feelings that you accumulate, why not try to change things by starting with yourself?
Ironically, people who are angry all the time piss me off! Hey, the marketer had it coming, but do you think the $500 the lawyer got really did anything? If the guy is cold calling people, he doesn't have many scruples, and will get that $500 back somehow. He didn't learn any lesson. Now you might think that the solution is that EVERYONE should sue him, but it isn't. We've created this money driven society ourselves, so who can blame the people who try to capitalize on it. What, you think you are above it? Have you ever cheated on your tax returns, tried to screw some company because of a pricing error, voided a warranty on a product and tried to return it? Even if you have never been taken in by greed, now is not the time to start. Hey, it's tough, I know. But I have finally just become so sick of it that I am trying not to be like that. But in the U.S. it is very hard, because we are all about money money money, consume consume consume.
We are ALL part of this society, and the only way to change it is by starting with yourself. I am not about to cheer a lawyer for suing a telemarketer, any more than I would cheer Hilary Rosen for kicking Bill Gates in the nuts.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
The bad thing is that "non-profits" do not have the same restrictions as a business.
Do not need to use do not call lists, can call you over and over, can use pre recoreded messages.
I think 75% of the Tele calls I receive to day from from such "non-profit organizations".
-- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
Sorry, but I don't buy the "but he was just an honest businessman who made a mistake" line.
He bought an autodialer with the expressed intent of telemarketing his business. He knew that what he was doing is held in very low regard by the general population, and he did it anyway.
The arguement you often hear of "but I was just trying to make a living" applies equally well to crack dealers as to telemarketers.
In fact:
Wowbagger's top 5 reasons why crack dealers are better than telemarketers
5) Some people actually WANT what the crack dealer sells.
4) Crack dealers don't knock on my door while I'm having dinner and say "You want to buy some crack?"
3) When you tell them you aren't interested, crack dealers leave you alone.
2) Crack dealers don't give your name and number to other people (except, perhaps, to law enforcement).
1) Crack dealers AREN'T TELEMARKETERS!
www.eFax.com are spammers
Well, maybe not a sledgehammer, but perhaps a 16 ounce framing hammer. But, in the end, he got a idiot telemerketer to cough up his due.
That's what counts, don't it?
Let's end this thread and get on with bigger fish, like RIAA and their stunting that they are trying to implement here shortly.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Just report them to the police as a nuisance callers. To be fair only do this with persistent callers, you don't want to be annoying the police.
I once had one company call me on a regular basis trying to get me to join some weird racehorse owning syndicate. They certainly did not have my permission to call, I made it very clear they were not to call me again and they kept making repeat calls. In my book that classified them as a nusiance caller. I went to the police and reported them as such and the calls stopped soon after.
Think about it, unsolicited telemarketing calls do fit in to the definition of being a nuisance call. They are unwanted, they don't have permission to call you, they can cause distress (especially when they call when you are doing something important) and most importantly they have a nasty habit of keeping making repeat calls despite being told not to. If you are really being bothered by such calls, just report them to the police as nusiance callers its cheaper than taking them to court. Plus police action takes the form of a crminal complaint, as opposed to court action which is a civil action, criminal action is more likely to scare the telemarketers.
I used to work for a telemarketing firm (yes, I'm still filled with self-loathing over it, thank you very much--you know, the scent never leaves?) and routinely we would record our calls (for verification)--standard procedure. If we ever called anyone and they said that they were going to record the conversation, we were under orders to terminate the call immediately and remove them from the calling list.
Worth a try, I've never used it because I only get calls that are just dead air...must be the Illuminati or something.
TPS, for the UK, is the Telephone Preference Service.
Oh, good. There aren't enough lawsuits.
Telemarketers vs. Lawyers in an epic Battle to the Death!
I know a lot of people who would consider that a win-win situation.
When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
LoL "Hilarity ensues"
I signed my parents Pub up on this list and the Fax Preference System (and the Mail P S), and within two months the amount of sales calls and reams of wasted fax paper went down to zero... a customer of ours was lamenting to us about the same problems with his phone and fax line, and he wouldn't believe us that it worked (one month later though he was most impressed).
Ever since signing up to this opt out scheme, we've only ever had ONE sales phone call, and fortunately I was there to 'casually' inform them that if we were not removed from their (and any company shared) contact list, that they were liable for a very big fine, and that they were in violation of the opt-out list to which they are meant to adhere to and risked criminal prosecution for violation of (not sure if it was true, but it added significant weight to our argument)... it's a call that left me feeling very empowered for a change!
TPS Online - with links to the sister sites for FaxPS, MailPS and even e-mailPS... although I never bothered with the latter, considering the amount of e-mail sources that is way out of their control.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
IS MR. HIND-ER-LITER HERE (pronounced incorrectly of course)?"
Considering your screen name of jonJOHNSON I'd say that is QUITE a mis-pronounciation!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
So now I answer my home phone as if I were at work. Mwahaha!
irb(main):001:0>
Ironically, people who are angry all the time piss me off!
That was PRICELESS. D00d, the funniest thing I've seen all day. Thanks.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Greetings sir! Please send $1 to Happy Dude!
Evergreen Terrace, Springfield
Although he passed away six years ago, my home phone is still in my grandfather's name.
I frequently get marketing calls for my grandfather, and I've found that the BEST response is:
"I'm sorry, he's dead. Can I take a message?"
They very rarely leave messages, although one or two have asked when would be a better time call back.
When I've gotten telemarketing calls, instead of saying the typical "I'm not interested" I'll say the first ridiculous excuse that comes off the top of my head and it seems to work. I used to be called at least 2 to 3 times a week (and no I did not buy their products) and now I rarely get a call during a given month.
For example:
1) Lawn care companies? Tell them you have a turf lawn or similar. Or tell them the overspray from the company spraying your neighbors lawn is taking care of your lawn as well. Its worked quite well.
2) Newpapers? I tell them I'm illiterate.
3) Alarm Systems? This is the best of all! I acutally convinced the guy I live on a military base in a nuclear bunker and he bought it! Funny thing was, he tried selling me fire and theft insurance. Of course, I explaied these are theft and fire proof as they housed nuclear weapons.
Who needs lawsuits? I have fun with them and I get rid of their calls. I've had to threaten the repeat callers w/ small claims court suits and it works. However, we need stronger/clearer laws against telemarketing and spammers.
Please don't mod this as funny. I'm quite serious even with the Alarm system thing. The idiot bought it but they also stopped calling.
The only thing worse than a person who calls me up and harasses me - is a person who ACCEPTS MONEY to call me up and harass me.
I know most of them don't like their jobs, but that doesn't change the fact that they are ABUSING PEOPLE FOR HIRE, which is despicable. At all times they have the opportunity to quit and find a job which doesn't involve abusing people, and which might even be more rewarding. But instead they have weighed the ethics of harassing people against the allure of money, and they have come down on the side of evil. I don't feel sorry for them at all. I'll make them pay.
What Would Jesus Do
(for a Klondike bar)?
I hate to deliver the bad news to you guys, but with the advent of cheap international telephone calls, the next logical step is for telemarketing calls to move overseas. Companies that make this move will no longer have to worry about TCPA and can literally call anytime. Perhaps the check to this lies in the companies that telemarketers promote; if they are big and international, they might be subject to TCPA, but it's doubtful whether Bangalore telemarketers for ATT put ATT at any risk of liability. I have been gathering evidence for some small claim TCPA actions. If you want to cost these companies money, demand that they send a written copy of this policy. (Although most telemarketers don't know this, TCPA requires it! If they don't, they are subject to a $500 penalty). And even if they do send it, it imposes a cost on telemarketing calls. More info at junkbusters .
Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
There is some way around the blockage.
Some telcos have a system that blocks all calls without caller ID info, PERIOD, with no way around it.
Problem is that some PBX systems don't provide caller ID info to the outside world. This is the case at Cornell University - Caller ID info is not present for calls originating inside their system and going outside. This was a problem for someone who special-ordered from the Campus Store and only left a phone number as a contact. But his number blocked our "Your item is in!" (human, not automatic) calls, resulting in an irate customer coming in two weeks later.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
This is the gutter guy?!? I hate him. Fucker leaves me a message about onece every two weeks. PLus, i get all these call with dead air that ill bet are him also.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Since you gave that number as the contact info for their service, I believe that they were legally within their rights to call you there.
But that is an exception. Most telemarketers are people you have had no prior business dealings with.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Having worked on the phones way too much in a college infested town, I realize that even though these techniques may hurt the company and cause the telemarketer to hate his job even more it doesn't usually reduce the calls you get. In fact the ruder that you are the more likely that a telemarketer will get his only form of revenge on you by dispositioning the call as a no answer or not avaliable. This can cause the dialer to call you back within minutes with an unsuspecting new telemarketer on the line ready to give his pitch and annoy you again. Sure this makes the telemarketing company lose money, but you will not beat the odds in the end.
Besides suing the company that calls you, the only way to gaurantee that you don't get called again is to ask to be put on the do not call list. This actually blocks the number on the dialer, and telemarketers would be much more likely to do this to a sensible and nice person who asks for them to please not call them. The average telemarketer hates his job and understands that people hate their calls. They hate getting calls too, so they will empathize with the one person that is actually decent and nice.
As long as there are broke college students that will do anything to pay for their pizza, tuition, and books these marketing companies will always have cheap labor.
I believe that back in the day when WP and MSOffice were approximately even, WP had some formatting features that made it slightly better for legal documents.
Apparently, over the years, MS has made Word more and more generic and LESS suited to legal use than it was in the past. Meanwhile, Corel realized that they have a good hold on the niche market of law firms, and began specifically catering to law firms.
As a result, WP evolved into a vastly superior application for law firms. It's a niche market for Corel, but a VERY solid niche.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The telco is not blocking the caller ID information. Caller ID is not guaranteed to work out of what is called your 'LATA' (Local Access Transport Area) If you live in NY, your LATA number is 132 which covers all 5 boros of NYC, Westchester County(?), Long Island and a little piece of Greenwich CT. The caller ID information is stored in a database that's part of a separate packet network called SS7. Your telco provider makes a 'dip' or databse query into a CNAM database to get caller ID info based on the number that is calling/called. This SS7 network is used in setting up calls and tearing them down as well as a myriad of other features it can provide. If Caller ID was guaranteed to work across the country between every carrier in the US, the length of time it would take to setup a phone call would be prohibitively long...That's just the basic jist of it. You don't realize how much goes on from the time you pick up your handset, dial some digits and get audible ringing.. Hope that clarifies the situation for you. Please don't mod me down as GEEK
Like others, I have used otherwise unproductive time to play with these people.
Instead of asking them to hold on or following a script I enjoy the opportunity of letting my imagination run wild. I find the funniest exchanges take place with plain old phone sex. If you're good you can keep them on the line for more than 15 minutes. The object is to keep them on the line until YOU decide to end the call.
Start with-
Are you wearing underwear? What color?
Ask if they're touching themself during the call. Tell them you are.
Ask if they are over 18. If they say yes, ask if they would like to meet in person. Tell them you will send them a plane ticket. Or tell them you'll meet them at the side door at the end of their shift.
They either won't know what to say or will tell you the call is being recorded. Say "I know... I listen to my tapes late at night..."
You get the idea.
Service vs harrassment.
If my ??? agent comes across a real "great deal" he should call me and tell me about it. Particularly if I opted in, this telemarketing should be permitted.
Unsolicited, or great deals that aren't bother me.
I have saved money from offers from existing business contacts.
*too* much. Your version requires "to much" to be the infinitive of a verb and even then you'd need hows to make it strictly correct.
Wait until Friday afternoon:
1] If the return fax is an 800 # great!
2] If not make sure your fax # is on an unlimited long distance plan
3] Tape 3-4... 8.5 by 11 sheets together
4] Write on them "UNSOLICITED FAXING IS AGAINST FEDRAL LAW!!!!"
5] Feed into fax machine and tape the first sheet to the last sheet.
6] Program the return fax # into your fax.
7] Hit send key !!!
8] If you feel like it stop the call on Monday, unless you have already run the junk faxer out of paper and the call is already stopped!
"Science is like sex: sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it" Richard Feynman
We finally got a do not call list here in Mass. It went into effect April 1st and I have had ZERO telemarketing calls since then. That's right, over one full month without any telemarketing calls! Non-profit groups and politicians can still call because they are not affected by the law, but I very rarely got any calls from them in the past. If I get any calls from them in the future, I will inform them that I will NEVER donate to any charity or group that uses telemarketing, and I mean FOREVER. I will also refuse to vote for any politician POS who calls me trying to get my vote.
I will be keeping a list of all the non profit groups and politicians who call me, so that they never receive any money or any votes from me.
I had been telling every single telemarketer who called me to put me on their do not call list for the last 10 years and it never did shit. I still got at least two to three telemarketing calls almost every single day. Most of the companies would add me to their do not call list, but of course there are thousands of companies who call, so the number of calls always averaged about the same amount per day no matter how many times I said "Please add this number to your do not call list". I'm really happy so far with the results of the new Mass do not call list. I just hope we don't get some weaker National do not call list that overrides the Mass do not call list.
I'd be interested to see what the laws are in Canada.
Visit us at http://www.iblist.com!
My point is that this guy made the decision, he bears responsiblity for it.
Trying to excuse this by blaming the scum that sold him the equipment is wrong - Mr. HandyMoron wrote the check, Mr. HandyMoron caused the equipment to be set up, Mr. HandyMoron is to blame.
I am SO damn tired of this "It's not my fault!" society we found ourselves in - and I am trying, in my own way, to DO something about it. So every time I see somebody saying "It's not my fault - blame somebody else" I point out the STUPIDITY of that position.
www.eFax.com are spammers
... I've ever read.
the worst telemarketer fraud is from companies operating in canada, in order to avoid US law. canadianus telco rates are low enough that its economical enough for them to operate like this.
Gotta remember: the telemarketing folks are usually poorly paid, and worked hard.
If it's good for them, don't begrudge them of it.
Your grudge is against the company that hires junk mass marketing.
I was all set to start sending junk mail back to the senders, as heavy as possible. I had a whole stack ready for the mailbox. But then I stopped and thought about it: of all the kinds of advertising, telemarketing, commercial email, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, flyers, billboards, etc. Magaines, newspapers and junk mail bother me the least.
I bought a shredder and shred any junk mail with my name on it, then all the shredded and unshredded mail go into curbside recycling. It probably costs me a couple minutes a month. Sure, some trees were harmed in the making of these ads, but if I minimize that by recycling, there isn't much of a downside to junk mail. So I don't really want to make junk mail more expensive for businesses and drive them to some other form of more annoying advertising.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Kewl, I've been getting phone calls from someone claiming to be calling from the Police Benevolence Association, which started off with a prerecorded message telling me all their representatives were busy and that I should wait for one of them to talk to me. Next time that happens, I'm gonna follow the lawyer's procedure and make me some bling bling! Woot!
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Considering your screen name of jonJOHNSON I'd say that is QUITE a mis-pronounciation!
No, it's spelt "Raymond Luxury-Yacht", but it's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove"...
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
Your local ILEC telco is required by law to provide you with a dialtone for 911 usage, so if you cancelled your landline, you should still have a dialtone on the line, which can only be used to call 911.
A good friend's father got a call from a chimney sweeper, it went something like this:
father: Hello
Telemarker: Hello, Mr.X this is Acme chimney cleaning, we cleaned your chimney last year and we're calling you to....
father: Did you do a good job?
Telemarker: Yes of course we always.....
father: Well then i guess i don't need it done this year. *click*
He never had the chimney cleaned which makes it even better.
see, whatchoo gotta do is, like, just baffle them. and tie up as much of their time as possible.
for example, several months ago, while a friend and i were in the middle of a drunken jam, this telemarketer kept calling. i refused to answer, until finally i had had enough.
we had a minidisc recorder going at the time, to capture the drunken jam session LIVE! you know, to offer bootlegs to all 2 of our fans. and i had a small little intercom/speakerphone button on my cordless phone. spiffy, no?
so click here if you wanna hear what happens when a telemarketer calls a couple of drunks trying to make crappy music.
if you listen closely, you can hear the telemarketer try to do her job without laughing. you can hear me, toyotally blitzed, trying to answer her questions but getting them wrong ("NO!" she says! POW!) anyway, i have no idea why i said shoney's, as i've never eaten in a shoney's.
anyway, i think we defeated her by the end. i hope you enjoy.
A couple times I've heard the person on the other end make comments to someone else that it sounds like I'm using a script like he/she has.
I've also experimented with moving off this script and trying to get personal information about the person at the other end (name, home address....). They get seriously disturbed for some odd reason.
Screen your calls. Do you really HAVE to pick up the phone on the second ring? No. If someone can't wait until your machine picks up then you probably don't want to talk to them anyhow. If I recognize the number on callerID then I'll pick it up early. If it's unlisted I walk away and forget about the call. If it's a number I don't recognize, I'll let the machine get it. I clearly state in my message that I don't pick up unlisted calls or numbers I don't recognize and that they should leave a message or talk to my machine to see if I'm there. That works well enough for me. My folks and I use Sam's Club calling cards *about 3 cents a minute) for our long distance. Usually our calls appear to come from 770 and callerID won't see a name for the call (just the number). This method works very well for me. If I do for some reason accidentally pick up the phone, as soon as I realize it's a sales call I place the computer on the TV and flip on a porno I have queued up for just such an occasion. I don't really know how long the average person listens. I just walk away. :)
What hell kinda lawyer puts a link to a goat on his webpage? ...
Oh, I just answered my own question.
When you get a call from a telemarketer, just tell them "Oh, this sounds intriguing, but I have to go right now. I could call back in the evening tough, what's your home number?" They will of course reply that they don't want to get calls at home, to which you reply "Gee, that's funny, neither do I" and hang up.
My favorite part is the page generating fake e-mail addresses for the spam bots to consume. If you missed it, you can go straight there.
I was a telemarketer to avoid sleeping in the streets, and when I placed calls to people WHO HAD PREVIOUSLY DONATED TO THE LOCAL POLICE UNION one said the person had died, I told them what the paper slip in front of me said about what they had donated previously and asked if if they cared to donate a similar amout IN THE NAME OF THE DECEASED. They doubled the amount.
True story. By the way, I'm now on disability due to health problems incurred when I WAS homeless due to being illegally evicted by police by a landowner's son who forged papers to steal his eccentric grandmother's property. My lawsuit is proceding unbelievably slowly.
if you use a soundboard like one of these:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/soundboards.shtml
I wait for them to call every night so they can talk to Arnold.
The last I heard, the laws governing not for profit telephone calls are different in that the free speach ammendment applies.
No U.S. government may make a law preventing me from calling you to donate to a religion, political cause, not for profit group, etc.
Police Benevolent groups are definitly not for profit as defined by law.
Since I put my list on Wisconsin's no call list - i have had almost no telemarketing calls.
I still get a call from a 614 area code saying "Please return this call regarding a business matter." They give no name of the company or a name of a person.
I got a call once from some company Pizaa Hut hired to ask customers about their visit. Calls like this are still legal.
A national no call list will really help. Some telemarketers may try to still call - but the penalities in Wisconsin are actually pretty stiff - so most telemarketers make sure they don't call someone who doesn't want to be bothered.
Perhaps if you asked 'Whom are you calling,' they would understand the question? That is what you were trying to say, no?
jji14fbk02@sneakemail.com
But think: She was actually being paid for these 13:42 minutes.
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
This is Slashdot, fer crisakes. If you're not a geek, you don't belong here!