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Is the Do Not Call System Working?
BrentRJones writes "I signed up for the Do Not Call registry the first day I heard of it, and I have to say that I have gotten very few telemarketers calling over the past couple of years. However, there now seems to be more calls that start, 'This is a survey...' or some other such excuse. I do not mind getting a few charity appeals or calls from those I have done business with in the past, but I do wish that I could avoid the political phone calls. I am curious what other Slashdot folks are experiencing, and I am also wondering if I say, 'Please remove from any list that you have.' when I am called, will this do any good?"
I worked for the telemarketing department at MBNA for a while. They're a good company, and while it wasn't my favorite job ever, MBNA is a good business, and they follow the telemarketing rules. (If it's any testament, I carry an MBNA credit card.)
Anyhow, in answer to the second part of your question: If you say "take me off your list" or "don't call here again," if the telemarketers are following the rules - and they're subject to MASSIVE fines if they're not (like $1000+ per phone call in violation), your phone number will be removed from the marketing programs you mentioned for two years (or if you say "all" your lists, all their marketing programs).
The magic words are "do not call list" or "ever." The better choice is "do not call list." If you say "Don't call here," it's still two years. However, if you say "Do not call here ever again," or if you say the magic phrase "Add me to your do not call list," your phone number will be added to their federally mandated do not call list for a period of ten years. Also note that once you say one of those two phrases, they are required to give the three pieces of information they need for every call if they have not yet mentioned them, and then terminate the call immediately. (These include their full company name, a telephone number at which they can be reached, and....the third I don't remember. Oops. But! I do remember MBNA being so paranoid about it that we were even required to say the phone number to dead air if someone hung up on us - it was always the last thing you gave them, and we were recorded every second we were on the clock, even while not on a call.)
Again, this is if they're following the rules. No one likes a telemarketing call at dinnertime, but the bad guys do a hell of a lot worse than that.
Oh, and I can't comment on surveys or political calls. This is just commercial stuff - the guys who aren't out to make $ have looser rules.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
Sadly, the BASTARDS that passed the law left a loop-hole for themselves to call you at will. It's what you wanted them to do, right!??!?! F**king "lawmakers", they don't know how to make fair and balanced laws.
Yes, the Do Not Call system works. I'm on the national and state registries, and haven't gotten any telemarketing calls.
e mptOrg
I wouldn't say that any of these other calls are "excuses"; they're classes of calls that are exempt.
It's pretty clear what's exempt:
https://www.donotcall.gov/FAQ/FAQBusiness.aspx#Ex
Surveys, among other things, are one of the things that's exempt. "Telemarketing" is "telemarketing". Not someone calling you that you don't want to.
You should mind or at least realize that these exceptions are enough to drive a truck through.
In fact, I have a well-formed set of thoughts on this subject. I think you'll agree that ... um, hold on....
...
Sorry, I was interrupted by someone asking my opinion about how well I'm being isolated from people I don't know asking my opinion about things. And, who are you, again?
Actually, I think that political and charity-type stuff is pretty much completely fitting through the holes left in that legislation. I will say though, that the normal unsolicited commercial stuff more or less came to a screeching halt after I put my listed home number on the do not call list. It actually worked.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
When the do not call lists started it worked for some time. Now a days I get blatant sales calls from (India mainly) and they spoof the caller ID system. I yell at them for violating the law, but they know they cant be caught. One option would be to listen to the pitch patiently and agree to buy whatever they are selling. Then they transfer you to some one in US for verification. When the actual vendor (usually it is DishNetwork or DirecTV in my case) comes on line, lodge a protest and threaten to call FCC. But so far I have not had the patience. So I just yell at them, call them names and hang up.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
http://suntasiasucks.icarusindie.com/
I recently sued Suntasia for violating the TCPA and settled in my favor. The whole story is posted on the site. I got less than I requested but they hired a very expensive lawyer which they have to pay for so I got what I wanted: money out of their pockets.
The hard part is figuring out who they are since all you have, if you're lucky, is the phone number. After that you have to do your homework on the law and try not to be intimidated by their lawyer if they hire one. Suntasia is rather infamous around the states so information was pretty easy to find. A phone number was all we needed to get started.
If they're not doing anything illegal then all you can do is not answer your phone or request they stop calling you. They don't have to honor the national list but I'd be very surprised if any organization could get away will calling you after you specifically told them not to. And those requests go into effect immediately.
Work Safe Porn
All I do is say " OK I charge $25.00 for answering surveys.. Who do I bill." It's interesting the answers I get
Semper ubi sub ubi
i only seem to get phone calls from the police department asking for money. now that's scary...
Somehow I can't see your friendly representative voting to ban political solicitations...
a ll.htm. Seems like most states do the same. Here's florida http://www.800helpfla.com/nosales.html and Tennessee http://www2.state.tn.us/tra/nocall.htm, for example.
They are exempted from the federal rule http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/tmarkg/donotc
I don't quite understand why your think the Do Not Call list will stop you from getting calls from political groups. They have an exception and do not abide by the Do Not Call registry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_call
Did anyone seriously think the writers of that law would harm their own cash flow?
Personally, it's been very successful for me. I can't remember the last telemarketer I had to hang up on. Unfortunately, my kids have aged and can actually speak now. It was much more fun when they were still babies and I passed the receiver off to them. "Goo-goo-ga-ga" pretty much ends any solicitation.
It totally works for me. I signed up within the first week of the list opening. And to this day I barely get any unsolicited calls except for political surveys and such (not many). The difference is very noticable.
However, after about 1 year of relief, I moved to a new apartment but kept the same phone number and the calls started coming back in a big way. Apparently, if there is any change in your phone service you get taken off the list again. Even if your number didnt' change.My suggestion to anyone who is still getting sales calls and such is to reregister. Your number may have been delisted because of some change in your phone service.
Overall I am pleasantly surprised by how effective the do not call list has been for me. I was not expecting much. I only wish do-not-spam lists could be this effective.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
The approaches they take to do-not-call requests is highly varied.
We are told (accurately, I believe) that political groups are exempt from do-not-call rules and restrictions.
Political speech is vital free speech, and always legal.
Some campaigns will honor do-not-call requests for the duration of that campaign only.
(you'll still get calls from other affiliated campaigns, or the same group on other topics, etc).
Your number will still stay on their list, and you will get calls from that campaign in the next election cycle.
Other campaigns use the political exemption to its fullest, and don't honor do-not-call requests at all.
Of course, many people consider this counter-productive; we're likely to just annoy a voter into voting against the candidate/issue rather than persuade them. But its generally a decision of the campaign manager / field organizer.
I don't get the marketing calls since signing up. The political calls are mostly robo-called (automated system calling, wait for a pickup, wait 10 seconds, play the message). We got that in Maryland, and I'm half tempted to bill for time.
I did get one from the Martin O'Malley campaign, being a democrat in Maryland, from an actual human. She asked "Are you going to support O'Malley for govenor?"(sp?) I told her "In the primaries because I have no choice, but forget it in the general. He's still got work to do in Baltimore (he's mayor there currently), cleaning up the mess that it is, and currently voters are thinking he's trying to escape the problems. So he's not going to get it from me come the elections."
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Then I moved, and forgot to put my number in the DNC. Several calls per day. Put number on list, calls slowed and stopped ~1 month later.
From my experience. I am deluged with satelitte sales pitches, home loan offers, and more. Most have gone to an automated system that rarely offers an opt out feature, at any rate you have to listen to their pitch to get to a human. Grrrrrrrrrrrr...
Rick B.
There are several operations right now that claim to represent a local police or fire department, but have no affiliation at all. They take your donation, give the minimum amount required to qualify as a charity to the police somewhere else in the country, and pocket the profit.
I somehow doubt these "charities" would respect a do-not-call list even if they legally had to.
A few summers ago I worked for a market research firm where I learned the answer to your problem. Basically, the reason why you always get calls now with surveys is that they are actually surveys--they are not selling anything and are prohibited by law from doing so.
The "Do Not Call" law, as established, only prohibits unsolicited telephone solicitations, i.e. cold calling from businesses asking you to buy something. It does not prohibit calls from companies that you are currently doing business with, including credit card and mortgage firms, as well as phone companies. Furthermore, it also allows market research via survey, which is why you are routinely getting called by the survey folks. Since it's a growth industry, it's quite understandable that you're getting more surveys than you were a few years ago. These calls are allowed because "Do Not Call" was designed to prevent telemarketers from calling and often misleading individuals. It is in no way intended to prevent companies from finding out what products you like or what your consumer preferences are. While it kind of sucks for the average person, it does allow companies to more effectively design and field their products.
From the submission: I am curious what other Slashdot folks are experiencing, and I am also wondering if I say, 'Please remove from any list that you have.' when I am called, will this do any good?"
From the parent post: Also note that once you say one of those two phrases, they are required to give the three pieces of information they need for every call if they have not yet mentioned them, and then terminate the call immediately...Again, this is if they're following the rules.
That phrase right there sums it all up. I heard this exact same explanation from a student of mine at school who worked for a legit telemarketer. If you say the magic words, "Add me to your do not call list," they are required to follow the rules and do follow the rules. If they do not follow the rules, they will be fined big time by the FCC. However, the US is powerless against some calling agency operating out of Costa Rica, who doesn't give a rip about telecommunication laws. These people will war-dial phone numbers at unscrupulous hours of the evening, varying their tactics anywhere from constant nagging to actually demanding that you buy from them, even sometimes claiming that you've already established an "oral agreement" to make a purchase that you cannot back down from without penalty. (I've heard stories of telemarketers saying anything from, "We already have your name and address, and we will file suit if you break your oral agreement," to, "We have your banking account information, have this conversation recorded for proof of transaction, and we will proceed with making an electronic withdrawl from your checking account whether you like it or not.")
The national do-not-call list will help keep the legit soliciters at bay. But the bad guys...well...international law is a bitch.
My landline is also on the donotcall list, and gets very few calls. But everyone here is well-trained: if the caller ID is not recognized nobody picks up the phone.
I ran some of the numbers through Google -- and the hits do indicate that the number is usually associated with some "survey" or "charity" type of a call.
Occasionally the frequency that the same caller ID rings picks up a bit. When that happens I hook up the fax machine to autoanswer after two rings. That usually solves the problem.
A particularly interesting recurring caller was some robo-dialer that kept leaving a recorded message from some outfit with an unpronouncable name asking for a callback regarding "important financial information" which is "not a sales call". A Google search traced the number to some outfit called "Ocwen Federal Savings Bank" (which sounded phonetically close enough to the message on the answering machine) whose modus operandi appears to be some shady real state loans and deals. The Google hits were from people claiming that these folks used high pressure tactics to try to get them to pay up for alleged loans or credit card bills that they knew absolutely nothing about. The Ocwen calls started within a couple of months after my landline was turned up; and they were much more persistent than the average sales call or a bill collector -- the calls kept coming for at least a year, even after long spells of the fax machine treatment. Not quite sure what was up with that. The most likely explanation is that I got the phone number that used to belong to someone else who had dealings with this shady outfit. I also know that the chap I bought the house from skipped out owing money to a lot of people; I got a new phone number but the Ocwen types sound just like the ones who could find a new number that goes with the same street address.
I have problems don't I?
Politicians were careful to ensure that they could still pander over the phone. Among the other exceptions, the basic rules are that any business you have had contact with for X amount of time can still call you penalty-free. Most not-for-profits can call as well. I should hope that many file complaints on truly irritating or repetative solicitations that don't meet the requirements of the program. You need the company name, phone number, and the date of the offending call.
I have found that rudeness can be pretty effective in stopping future calls, but these are my two favorite methods:
1:
Telemarketer: "Well hello Mr. sporkme, how are you this evening?"
Me: "I am soooo glad you asked. First, I was late for work because my kids made off with the car keys and I had to spend ten minutes digging through a toybox full of legos. Then I got a speeding ticket on my way in. My back has hurt all day, and I'm honestly hoping that you're selling a hemorroid cream of some kind. How is your day going?"
2:
Telemarketer: "Now what would it take to get an order from you today?"
Me: Well, honestly, sales have been down at work. Are you aware that our BXK-31-R is capable of tolerating well over sixty rads per cycle and still produces results within tolerance? This is well in excess of industry standard and we offer free support and service for the first sixty seconds of your contract. How many can I sign you up for?
To the point, It seems to be difficult to find statistical information about the success of the registry. Indiana was one of the first states to implement such a program, and several other states have separate registries (many have merged with the federal one). All I really could find without making a job of it was information on Indiana's success with the state program, and registration numbers for the federal one. Also, here is a summary chart of nationwide complaint volume.
FairTax baby!
I stoped approximately 95% of the unsolicited calls I used to receive. If only there was as an effictive "Do Not Mass Email" list.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
My experience pretty much mirrors yours. What I've been wondering, and this may be straying a bit off topic so please forgive me, what with caller ID that I pay for, are there any handsets around that I can setup an ACL on? In other words, if the number gets ID'd and it's allowed then the ring can pass through, else, I want it to hang up without so much as a peep. Well, maybe a flashing led and some sort of simple log.
I looked around a bit in Asterisk when I thought for awhile that I'd try getting the whole family onto a private VOIP network and call myself the "Telco Cornholing Free Telephony Company" or some such nonsense. Oh, to the point, yes sorry - I think I saw some sort of access control like what I stated above in the PTSN gateway stuff. Something to think about but really, I'd just like to know of some consumer level product where I could do all of that from the handset. But I digress.
I use a combination of the Do-not-Call list AND not picking up if I do not recognize caller id or expect a call; that's what the machine is for.
I guess it's more of the "no...I'll call you " thing.
heck....just the other day, I got a call from a number I didn't recognize and they left a message...it turned out to be from the Republican Party...something about a rally with the governator....don't know why they called....especially when I'm no longer registered as one (the Republican Party I use to belong to no longer exists).
Sorry about invoking Admiral Ackbar here, but I heard about this recently, I think it was on digg. The trick is that by participating in a survey, you suddenly have a "business relationship" with them, which means they can hit you with a regular telemarketing call.
I personally prefer to use the magic words "Please put me on your do not call list", especially when I hear that telltale lag between picking up the phone and the outbound dialer connecting me with a sub-human.
It also doesn't hurt that I have one of those Telezapper thingies (only set to "stun", meaning just the first of the three tones), which works against anybody with older dialer equipment who can't be bothered to buy new equipment.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I had a roommate once who gave some money to the Fraternal Order of Police or something. They would call and i would tell them to put the number on their do not call list, but it would only work for about 3 months then the calls would start again. I believe they had other companies doing the calls and switched them periodically to avoid the 10 year do not call requirement.
My biggest problem is that recently I've been getting a ton of calls from various political groups in regards to some candidate or ballot measure they want to pass. Oddly enough, they all start out with a "Would you like to take a short survey" pitch, (anyone know why?). While they technically ask questions, they're always something like this:
Them: If I said that Proposition #4352B would provide money which would stop baby rape, would you say that this information is Very Useful, Useful, or Not Useful?
Me: Hmm... I'm no fan of baby rape, so I'll have to say WHY THE %$#@ ARE YOU CALLING ME!?!?
After getting tons of *nobody there* calls at my office, the phone company told us they couldn't block persistent marketers on business lines, only residential. As an aternative verizon said press # * at the same time, and *most* automated calling systems may remove you.
Any thruth to using # and * start at the same time to remove you?
I saw a segment on the local news about telemarketer's thoughts on the do not call list. The head of one telemarketing company said that they have no reason to call anyone on the do not call list simply because no one on the do not call list will buy anything you are trying to sell.
The best case scenario is that someone hangs up on you, worst case is they report you to the authorities and you get fined for violating the list. In both cases you gain nothing and only loose time spent calling the person and quite possibly a lot of money too.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
I used to work for Promark, which has a few offices in Texas, and one in Ohio, but we called all over the country. As previously stated, surveys are exempt from the Do Not Call list, but more often than not, when you say "please add me to your do not call list" and they do, that survey's do not call list will not transfer from survey to survey, and surveys come and go from day to day. And an unlisted number doesn't do any good either.. the local area numbers are recorded, and numbers are generated randomly, from 555-0000 to 555-9999, and put on a list to call. All in all, the best thing you can do is tell them to put you on their Do Not Call list, because something like a simple hang up will more often than not result in them calling you back.
I posted this to my blog a while ago. Just check out the comments! This company is PISSING people off like crazy!
http://www.sugapablo.net/story.php?id=212
Sugapablo
Get an answering machine, set it to ring eight times - then have a three to five minute message stating "Place me on the "do not call" list - and remind friends and family at the same time to call you on your cellphone.
Remove all the phones from that line - and never be bothered. My phone and dsl account - which for some reason I am required to maintain both - rings to 32 bucks a month.
If you are asked for your home number - give it freely. Use the cell for only friends and family.
Voila - telemarkiting calls forever banished. It's been 14 months since my last call/answering machine telemarketing message.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
is to use the counterscript (assuming I don't hang up).
The list mostly works, for those few calls that do manage to get through I answer the with an accented Herro?, all my friends are used to this. So after that if caller starts talking about donating to the police or fire dept, I just take off in chinese and they quickly get off the line.
I once had a telemarketer call me up and when i informed them that this was a "Do Not Call" number, they insisted that they were tele-researchers and thus excempt under the law. A very fine line since they were essentially doing a push-survey about travel spots & vacations.
I still reported them.... Its not like it was some grad student doing a thesis, someone was paying their phone bill.
I have to say that it helps, but it doesn't solve the problem. I still get calls from mortgage companies almost a year after requesting some quotes from lending tree, and I had promptly notified all parties that I was no longer interested after refinancing, but that doesn't matter. I would get 4-5 calls per week from politicians around election time, and usually that many per day in the last few days. All of those are known loop holes.
The bad ones are the companies "conducting a survey to see if you are interested in being called later." I would also get a call about once a week by a mexican recording from a spoofed number that constantly changed. None of this would bother me if it wasn't for (a) my home number being my business number (self employed) and (b) forwarding all my home calls to my cell phone when I'm on the road.
The proper fix is to require all companies to:
1. Call from a working caller-id number
2. From any recording, make any key press stop the recording and allow the person to be placed on the do not call list
3. Require phone companies to maintain accurate records of the source of any call, even if blocked, so that all you need is the receiving phone number and time of the call to file a complaint with the do-not-call registry.
Also, I'll gladly migrate to any voip vendor with features similar to vonage (voice mail, automatic call forwarding, management by web page, good call quality) that can get anonymous call rejection, call blocking, and maybe even caller white list to either drop or send all non-approved calls to voice mail or an "identify yourself" menu.
There is also a Markus from some mortgage company doing the same thing.
In each case the outbound calls are from a robo-dialer that only starts if it gets a voice mail. When I called up the telephone number they gave I got a real person which was something of a suprise. They hung up when I pointed out that their operation was facing huge civil and criminal penalties.
What I should have done but haven't got round to yet was to dial up the number several times to work out how many people are working for them.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
The latest scam is machine calling you and saying you need to call Mrs x about some urgent thing or other. This gets them around the list, because you called them. And forget the list. An unlisted number works better and only costs .50$ a month. No surveys, no politicos, and only the occasional one asking me to call them. And the only actual sales calls I get are from the dammed local phone company wanting me to take THEIR long distance. I mean how many times do you have to say NO?
Oh, and I can always SAY I am on the list and put the fear of god in the honest ones.
When the telemarketers call in - political, charity, whatever - we have a 'do not contribute' policy in our house. We signed up for the Do Not Call list, but there are exceptions to the policy. I've found it easiest to tell them we understand they can call our house, even though we signed up on the DNC list, and make it a point to *not* contribute any money to people who exercise this loophole. Seems to be working...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
i've found that using short burst is 100% effective at terminating the call
and, althouh i can't quantitatively prove it, i'm fairly certain that those same folks haven't called back >:^S
I'm not sure how much this has increased since the Do Not Call registry was put in place, but what I notice is that companies that have customer service lines will often use calls by customers or potential customers to make VERY aggressive sales pitches. I've experienced this in most recent memory with Earthlink and Citi Credit Cards. They seem to have exactly the same sort of telemarketing script in front of them, and they'll keep repeating their sales pitch until you blow up at them or hang up. The Earthlink one was the worst. It was clearly some guy in India and he didn't know at all how to relate to a customer outside his script, which made for a horrible customer service experience. With Citi, the customer service agent cursorily answered my question and then proceded to pitch some added service, and then when I declined, made the same pitch a second time. On the positive, side when I emailed their customer service line asking to not be sold anything when I'm calling for help, they granted my request. I haven't tested this to see if they've really done it though.
All I want is for an intelligent customer service rep to answer my specific question and then let me get on with my day.
Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon. -Orson Scott Card
...itwillonlytake63secondsandonebreathformetoblurt outayesornoquestion...
I just got one of these last week asking for my opinion about the film and tv ratings systems. When I started to actually say what I thought about the system ( three digit body count = PG13 while a nipple = NC17 ) she hung up without even bothering to cut me off. I may have spent as much as 40 seconds discussing the issue with dead air and I was very disappointed that I wasn't really given a chance to string her along for as long as I'd have liked.
The police and fire department charities are a bit more pleasant to work with. My best for a police call was when I asked if they'd found my car yet. My best fire call, I had a friend nearby to help me with this, I set off the smoke detector with a cigarette, dropped the phone on the counter and yelled at my friend for not watching the stove while I got the phone. That one went through some cursing, clanking and the sound of me unloading a bottle of shaving cream next to the phone (to simulate a fire extinguisher) before I picked up the phone asked "who are you again?" and then following their response with "Oh.. thank you for calling but I think we have it handled."
My God! It's full of eval()'s.
I'm sure the "don't ever call here again" line will work at some of the bigger companies, but at the smaller pen-and-paper companies (the ones NOT using automated/predictive dialers) like where I work, that'll get you crossed off of that months list until we buy a new one (scrubbed to be free of those on the DNC list). Then we toss the old ones (i.e. the one you aren't on) and we proceed to call the new one (which you very well may be on again). If you don't want me calling you, your best bet is to sign onto the do-not-call registry and leave it at that.
As far as the people doing the 'clever' things to the telemarketers (keeping us on the line), that's a GREAT way to get yourself signed onto all kinds of spam mailing lists. A guy I worked with got angry because a potential customer took about 20 minutes and then didn't finish the app, so he took the guys info (name, address, phone number) and googled 'free brochure' and 'free information' and proceeded to sign the guy up for all manner of spam mail while opening the door to solicited telemarketing because he 'asked' for it online.
Moral of the story- sign up on the DNC if you don't want the services of telemarketers and don't be rude to us.
Here's an article explaining a simple way to eliminate the calls placed by a predictive dialer (ie - 99% of bulk calls), and it's as simple as recording a short WAV file into your answering machine. http://www.suckfreesites.com/cool/100-gone-telemar keter-bill-collector-and-money-begging-calls/
Webmaster
www.JakesJokes.com
It's interesting that many of the rules we have to limit commercial entities do not apply to political entities.
While I feel that the Do Not Call list was a success, it's sad that it does not apply to those with political interests. Now that it is approaching election time, I'm getting 2-3 automated calls per week of a political nature.
-David
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/93q1/tortelemkt. html
"...but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology..." - FZ
I get surveys, but infrequently, and they honedtly don't try to sell me anything. One is a nearby radio station asking what I listen to. Most of the unwanted calls I get are non-profits begging for money, and the occasional mortgage offer. The non-profits at least have the excuse that they are exempt from the list, but they still annoy me, as I'm not going to donate to every single beggar that calls, especially when they give me a hard time about being too greedy to give away $10. One solicitor for some veterans group actualy called me a dumbass because I didn't buy a T-shirt from him. But the mortgage people have no excuse at all. At least it's not as often as it used to be. I'll never do business with my original mortgage agent again as I still 5 years and a couple refinances later get junk mail referenging my original loan through them, and assume they sold me to the phone solicitors too.
But overal I get significantly less phone spam than I did before the list.
"Well, it's legal in this case, but it has nothing to do with our constitutional notion of free speech or the intellectual foundations of liberal democracy. Free speech does not establish an obligation for anyone to listen."
Recently I had one of the many direct tv companies call, even though we're on the DNC list. The very first thing she said when I picked up the phone was "Hello, and just in case we get disconnected, what is your name and phone number?" I had to laugh! It showed that they were simply autodialing, and had no idea who they were calling. Then if they got me to give up that information, it established a "prior" business relationship, and then they would be free to call anytime. I just laughed at her and hung up. I have the same policy as one of the previous posters, our family buys NOTHING from telemarketers. If for some reason a pitch sounds interesting, I'll investigate it on my own time and call THEM back at my convenience. Even with the DNC list, the charities and political calls were getting out of hand, so I sprung for the $25 and changed out phone number. Stopped that cold.
He who laughs last is at 300 baud.
A few months ago, I went out and actively solicited calls from telemarketers. How? By signing up to a mortgage website, giving a false name (Jack B. Morocco), a false address, but a valid phone number. Why? Because those running the mortgage website spammed me, and I was interested to follow the money back to the bona fide mortgage companies that were financing the spammers.
A few days after I signed up, the phone calls began. Usually, when the caller asked to speak to Jack, I would tell them that I would fetch him to the phone. I would then set the handset down next to the phone, and get back to work. They would typically stay on the line for around 10 minutes, before they hung up.
However, on some occasions I used the cheese method. Basically, to whatever question I was asked, I replied cheese. A sample conversation:
Him Hi, may I speak to Jack?
Me Cheese.
Him I beg your pardon?
Me Cheese.
Him Did you just say cheese?
Me Cheese.
Him I'm trying to speak to Jack.
Me Cheese?
Him Look, I don't have any time to waste
Me Cheese.
(The last remark was particularly funny, in light of the huge amounts of others' time this company had wasted by funding spammers).
On one special occasion, I was called by someone in an overseas call center. They stuck religiously to the script, despite the fact that I was cheesing them at every turn. Slowly, it became clear to them that something was not quite right -- but it took them a while, because I don't think their grasp of English was perfect. Eventually, they ended the call with "OK, Jack, you really sound good, I'm sorry to bother you, goodbye."
To which I replied cheese.
If you want a slice of the action, why not reply to the next mortgage spammer yourself? Make sure you give a fake address but a real number, so that they can get through to you. Oh, and it would be fun if you signed up as Jack/Jane B. Morocco. And don't forget the cheese!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
When I get a call from a telemarketer I tell them that I will listen to their entire pitch but *only* after they fulfull my "needs" through a round of phone sex. Its priceless to listen to their reactions!!
I ask them if they are interested in hearing about my church. It is suprising how many telemarketers are interested.
I received at least 2 calls a day for 2 weeks straight from people running for office. Well, recordings from all of them. So it wasn't even a person, just a message from them for me to immediately erase.
Do those things really work?
My "Do Not Call" system is working; I don't have a phone. :-)
Didn't notice any change when I joined the federal DNC list....because the Colorado list had already gotten rid of all my telemarketing calls :-)
Twenties Retirement
Sure, the do not call list might be easy, but not nearly as funny or rewarding as the Telecrapper 2000.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
This is direct notice to cease and desist. This is legally binding. Further calls consitute harassment and willful disregard of the cease and desist. Typically, C&D is served in writing, but telemarketers don't take it that far. It has been an effective method for me. DO NOT HANG UP because that only means you're still in their database and will get another call. Tell them to remove you. Threaten legal action if it makes you feel big.
Haven't gotten a telemarketer call in several years. Haven't gotten any of these surveys people complain about either.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
As others have pointed out, the do not call lists work, but there are many exceptions. And politics happens to be one.
I have found simple ways to deal with surveys and political calls.
I really don't mind doing surveys, its just sometimes when they call its very inconvenient. When its not convenient, I have simply asked "I'd be happy to answer your survey, but not right now...could you call me back in an hour or so?" I have never had a survey company not honor my request. They WANT your opinion.
As for political candidates, I merely do this. When they call and identify, I politely state "If you EVER want me to consider your candidate, or any candidate of their party, for any political office, you will never call this number again." And then I hang up. I haven't gotten a political call now in at least 5 years. I will point out also, though, that in my state (Indiana) I have an advantage...it is illegal to use a sequential autodialer for political calls here...all calls must be initially dialed by a human. Our attorney general recently reminded candidates of this.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I just don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. I got rid of my home phone several years ago and just use a cell phone. If I don't know a number, that's what voice mail is for. The people who know me know that I'll return a call when I have the time, so they leave messages if they need me.
:-)
So I'm not on the "do not call list." Instead, everybody else is on my "do not answer list."
David
My favorite line for police type charities (usually selling tickets to charity events or raffle tickets or what not) is, "Thanks, but I get enough tickets from cops without buying more of them."
Telemarketer: Would you be interested in (yada)?
Jerry: Why sure. I'm a bit busy now though, so how about you give me your home phone number so I can call you later.
Telemarketer: I'm sorry, we're not allowed to do that.
Jerry: So I guess you don't want people calling you at home.
Telemarketer: Um...yeah.
Jerry: Well then you know how I feel.
And there, my friends, is political slant in action. Nice try at viral marketing.
Luke, help me take this mask off
The do not call registry is limited in time. 5 years max.
This is to prevent all numbers from eventually being on the list. You have a number, move and get a new number, and eventually your old number falls off the list.
Yeah, I feel your pain. I did the No Call thing a long time ago. The house phone won't stop ringing anymore. It started out with about 5 a day... then up to 6... 7... now 8 calls daily from these dirty monkey's. I answered one call just to see what the heck they wanted... She sounded hot so I suffered through the stupid survey for several minutes. It had mostly been insurance questions and finally at the end she revealed what she was really trying to promote. It was some website that helps you get deals or what not on insurance. She asked me if I'd ever heard of the company and I told her: "Actually I have! They caused an error on my girlfriends computer just last week!" Which was completely true. I don't remember the companies name now, but they had put some adware on my now ex-gf's PC and it ended up not working and caused an error amoung other problems. The telemarketer was shocked. Not only was I the first person she had ever talked to that had heard of the company, but I had heard of the company in such an F'd up way. On another call I answered, I happened to answer it kind of hateful and it was some police officer asking for donations. He got hateful back and I was thinking FU!! Just send me something in the mail and I'll consider donating, but don't join the dirty monkey club and disturb my damn sleep. They where calling me at like 8:30 at night! I don't care if you're Jesus himself asking for donations, you don't call my damn phone. Regardless, I never answer my house phone anymore. I protect my cell number with my life.
i only seem to get phone calls from the police department asking for money. now that's scary...
I've been getting these at work lately as well. I'm an administrative assistant for a business that operates out of my employers' home, so they get personal calls there sometimes as well (remarkably though, most of the calls coming into the house are actual business). The inappropriately high pushiness of these people just astounds me. The typical call will go something like this:
Me: "Castellino Training and BEBA, this is Forrest, can I help you?"
Guy: "Raymond?" (one of my bosses)
Me: "No, this is Forrest. Is there something I can help you with?"
Guy: "I'm collecting donations for $RANDOM_POLICE_CHARITY. Is Raymond available?"
Me: "Not at the moment, sorry." (stock response, they don't like solicitation calls)
Guy: "Is.... Sandra there?" (other boss, Ray's wife)
Me: "No, she's not here either." (most often this and my previous comment are actually true)
Guy: "Well, I'm collecting donations for $RANDOM_POLICE_CHARITY. How much can I put you down for?"
Me: "Uh, this is a business, I just work here. Sorry."
Guy: "Oh it's no problem. We take donation amounts of $100, $50, $20, $10..."
Me: "Sir, I'm just an administrative assistant here."
Guy: "I'll just put you down for our minimum contribution of..."
Me: "Sorry, I can't afford it." (not exactly true, I've got a few thou saved up, but that's very hard earned savings).
Guy: "But it's only..."
Me: "Sir I'm just a student working here part time, I really can't afford it." (I don't like cops anyway)
Guy: "Oh come on..."
Me: *click*
I could understand them *maybe* pushing my employers if they had gotten them on the phone, but hassling an employee at work to make a donation to some charity, much less the very concept of a "minimum contribution" (what, if I don't contribute they're gonna arrest me?)... and then continuing to hassle a poor college student working part-time (I'm not exactly poor, but I come from a poor family and everything I have I earned myself by being very frugal, and I am going to need it to fund the last bit of my education)... I've never seen such aggressive solicitation outside of a used car lot. I guess being police, they're used to telling someone "do this" and having them comply, but fuck 'em. This has happened more than once and it's just not appropriate.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
It sounds like you got personal problems, pal.
I personally have expirience zero starting several months after but then it pick up a little bit maybe one a month that would be in the middle of the day on a weekend nothing crazy. My friend would recieve telemarketers almost on a daily basis, so one day I signed her up. Several weeks later it was down significantly. It works, it works well enough. Add a caller id and maybe something that makes sounds that make it sound like you are interested and you should recieve none. Or at least get a good laugh out of them.
I signed up the first day it was possible (before the list actually took effect.)
:-D
Then, the first day the list was in effect, I got a telemarketing call. Oh, did I have fun ripping that guy a new one.
Haven't gotten a call since. (I did get one that said he was calling for someone else, and when I said that person wasn't at this number, I immediately hung up, so I didn't see if he was trying to pull the "oh, then let me tell you..." trick.) I haven't gotten any of the sales-call-posting-as-a-"survey" calls, but I have heard about them. (I have gotten 'legitimate' surveys, and said not to bother calling me about them any more.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
True story that happened to me a few months ago: I was applying for a new MBNA card for my wife (first mistake) when I asked them if they could send me some information about their credit protection plan against online fraud or identity theft. It was *VERY* clear I wanted them to mail me their information on the program, and the rep happily obliged and told me I'd get information in a week or two.
A week later I got a letter saying I'd been enrolled in the credit protection plan, and that I would be billed for the service on my next statement. I called the company, and they said that it was their policy that anyone who inquired about the service would be enrolled automatically if they were already an MBNA member. LET ME REPEAT, THE FUCKERS HAVE A POLICY TO AUTOMATICALLY ENROLL PEOPLE FOR INQUIRING FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SERVICES. I didn't beleive it, so I asked to talk to a manager and they stated the same thing. They said they'd refund my money if I would wait on hold to be connected to a different department who would take my service cancellation and process it for the next cycle. We're saving up for about 200 more points, then we're spending them and cancelling all of our MBNA cards. I'm not sure who's better out there, but I'm willing to roll the dice at this point.
Being as the politicians passed the law that bans calling people, you would have to know they exempted themselves. Charities and political organizations are exempt from the do not call list. I ran a robocall system for several local politicians this summer and my system called 20,000 people per day. My recommendation to the politicians was to basically say their name twice within 10 seconds (average adult attention span) and thank them for voting. We only had a handful of complaints.
I get calls not only from charities (usually a police charity) and political organizations (usually taped calls), but ever since the DNC registry went into effect, I've been getting double the calls from newspapers I almost-but-never-completely subscribed to, my cable company (trying repeatedly to use their phone service), my phone company (asking me to switch plans), my credit card company (trying to get me to pay for credit protection or credit check services that I already pay for), and my bank (trying to sell me the same things my credit card company is trying to sell me). I think the net number of calls I receive is the same now (OK, maybe nominally less) than before I put my name on the DNC registry.
..with the landline, I just never answer it,that's it. I don't give that number out, so I know any incoming is bogus. It is used for outgoing calls or for backup internet access only. Friends and family get the cell number.
Yep just for inquiring about a service legally defines that as having a prior business relationship and can then call you for a period of time. I think the last time I looked it was something like 18 months. Such bullshit. Makes you not even want to research a company.
I kept getting mortgage point-men looking for referrals so they could turn me over to local mortgage brokers. I played along one time to see where it got me, and I wish I hadn't.
I immediately got many calls from local mortgage lenders, whom I chewed out and reported, but I now get constant VOIP calls from more mortgage point-men (from the same several phone numbers, using fake business names) using the same bogus info I gave that first one.
I have the anonymous blocking, which blocks the forged Caller ID numbers, but the VOIP calls still some through, so I tell them I'm reporting them and never to call me back, then file a complaint to donotcall.gov every time hoping they'll get a spanking.
If you're getting 'survey' calls, just say you work for a marketing department and any reply you would make would skew their results. End of story.
Personally, IAAMP (I am a marketing professional) and normally they strike your number from the list.
the few unwanted calls were from people i'd previously done business with or charities. every "add me to your do-not-call list" request has been obeyed. i'm satisfied. now if only i could get a similar filter on the post ...
REPORT ALL OBSCENE MESSAGES TO YOUR POTSMASTER
We are on the Do Not Call list; its effectiveness has diminished somewhat. We also have Call Intercept to block the no-number telemarketers.
The ones who do get through are immediately bombarded with questions:
Hi, this is Cindy calling on behalf of ATA...
"Cindy, is it? Could I have your last name?"
We're not permitted to give that information, sir...
"You're required to by federal law, but we'll come back to that. You say you're calling on behalf of ATA. Do you work for ATA?"
Um, no, sir, we are an independent survey company collecting information for ATA...
"What is the name of your company?"
It's, uh, Persistent Marketing Services...
"Where are you located, and what's your phone number?"
[city & state, number...]
"And what does ATA stand for? Where are they, and what is their phone number?"
[full name, city & state, number...]
"Well, Cindy, the reason I ask these questions is that both ATA and Persistent Marketing Services need to place this number on their permanent Do Not Call lists, effective immediately, so you will take care of that for me?"
Um, sir, we are a survey organization, so we don't maintain a Do Not Call list...
"Well, Cindy, this means that you -- personally -- must make sure that neither you, nor anyone else in your company, or anyone from ATA, ever calls this number again, or both companies -- and you personally -- will face charges of criminal harrassment and defiant tresspass here in Delaware. Have you ever been to Delaware?"
um, sir, if you would like to speak to my supervisor...
(loudly) "Cindy, under Federal law, I don't have to speak to anyone but you. By calling my house, you have assumed personal responsibility for this matter. I assure you that, if anyone from your companies calls this number again, swift and severe legal action will follow... Oh, Cindy, did I mention that my wife is a lawyer, so we can haul you into court here in Delaware for free?"
Um, yes, sir, we will take care of this immediately..."
I get very few repeat calls.
This is not a relevant post. Get rid of it.
I keep getting calls from TrendWest. I have told them a billion times to take me off the list. Many times I have signed up for whatever seminar they invited me to, gave them the names of 5 false people that will be attending and put them on speaker phone while I asked them heaps of questions while working at my desk, just to tie them up for hours.
I am still on their list. I got a call not an hour ago.
TeleMarketers are a very small notch above spammers. In the pond food chain, they're somewhere between the dead algae slime on the bottom (spammers) and the amoebas that feed on it (spyware vendors).
Every so often some guy breaks into a school and starts shooting and then kills himself. If you've already decided to go ballistic because your wife/girlfriend/donkey left you, why not do it at TrendWest and earn some brownie points while you're at it?
I hate printers.
I am on Do Not Call list but some automated dialers with no caller ID and waiting for me to press 1 are hard to stop. In fact, I don't know how to stop them. Mortgage, satellite dish installation or 'important buisness matter' are the typical topics. After I come home from work I usually find a few of these on my answering machine. A year or more of not ever finding anybody home doesn't seem a bad deal to them but I do get tired of erasing their messages every day.
The problem is, I pay for the service, that is, the last mile of the connection. Its for personal use. Telephone marketers are attempting to use resources I pay for as if it was a free advertising medium. Its not free, they are stealing. I tell them all, they need to pay me $1. (by giving me a credit card number) before Ill let them deliver their advertising message. When they dont give me a credit card number, I hang up. I shouldnt even have to ask though. The phone company needs to change their billing programs to track telemarketer calls. If a telemarketer calls my number and its answered, $1. from the telemarketer should be credited toward my phone bill. This is a capitalism, since when do telemarketers, politicians, or pollsters get to use resources for free advertising? If they want to pay for my phone, they can advertise on it. Otherwise I view the whole thing as just stealing from the consumer.
It's funny: I don't get telemarketers calling for me anymore. Instead, out of every 100 calls I get on my home phone, 99 are marketing calls asking for someone who doesn't live here.
~Ben
Method Two:
"Take me off your call list" and "Don't call me ever again" might work just as well, but they're not nearly as much fun.
Don't put advice in your sig.
Unfortunately, she didn't get the name of the company calling, because if she had, you can be sure that it would have made the front pages of the press. Because that's unprovoked harrassment, any way you look at it!
Will those of you who think that you know what you are doing, get out of the way of those of us who know what we are doi
(And yes, I do know the T stands for tones. And YES, I know the title says Standard Interrupt Tones Tones. So what?)
You could always put SIT (Standard Interrupt Tones) as the first thing on your voicemail. Any kind of decent predictive dialer will register you as not-in-service.
A quick Google turns up this site: http://privatecitizen.com/sit.html
Sometimes it seems that the telemarketers are getting too efficient for their own good. Like when the phone rings, it's dead air, and they apparently expect me to wait until some human catches up to their phone dialling robot.
If I'm in a good mood I hang up.
If I'm not, I don't.
I have told a few persistent callers the answer is NO, the answer was NO the last six times they called, the answer will always be NO, and just what part of NO do they not understand? Do not call me again. Ever.
They haven't.
...laura, possibly on to something
Please have a look at the The EGBG Counterscript.
Unselfish actions pay back better
A financial consolidation services company called my house and told my wife that I had spoken to them about consolidation of my student loans. That was a bald face lie and I was not around to deal with it so my wife told them that she would just like the package of crap sent to the house... du-da-da.... welcome new business relationship and calls every day.
This isn't that useful with me being in a different country (Australia), but when I did market research and social research surveys (for companies as well as universities) the call lists often came with the job so while we could ensure someone wasn't called again in relation to that particular survey there was no system in place (as far as I was aware, I was only a lowly phone peon) to ensure we never called them again for any survey.
But many of the jobs we did (particularly the government jobs for the university) involved issues relating to specific areas (e.g. surveys of the community before gaming licenses could be approved, local water recycling plans) so we only called within the areas affected and I'd imagine our overlap was relatively low.
Most people are pretty nice about it too, even if telemarketers have made them paranoid as hell.
go to cell only. ive gotten very few calls since ive done that.
As a New Jersey-an, I too have been getting increased survey calls as of late. Worst part is when my mom gets the phone and the guy asks for a male in the household, then my mom yells up that it's for me. :( Then I get stuck on the phone for five minutes. (I'm too polite to hang up.)
Tell them the number they called you on is your mobile, whether it's true or not. They're not allowed to telemarket you on your mobile. Last time I tried this, which was a call I actually did receive on my mobile, the woman sounded like she was sincerely sorry, maybe even a little worried, and ended the call in about 2 seconds.
I usually put my phone on hands-free, crank up my speakers and pull up a soundboard from a particularly stupid movie, usually Napolean Dynamite.
Some of the lines in that one are perfect for keeping a flowing conversation, but I haven't yet had the guts to click anything on the right side...
There is the Robinsonlist. Also look at the Anti-Telemarketing Script and then there is: The counterscript available in several languages and also in PDF.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I do the logistics and statistics for a telemarketing company, I manage the lists, crunch the numbers and provide software which our pool of TM's use to call. They have an auto-dialler which does all the numbers for them, they just do their nails while waiting for a live pick up.
The magic words are "can you please place me on your do not call list". It's important to say it like that because these people are drones. They have a scripts and because they do 1000's of these calls a day they are generally listening for key phrases from people in order for them to react. If they hear that phrase, they click the checkbox, save it and hang up.
Now, believe it or not, this company isn't in the business to annoy people. They sell a product which they get people to come along to seminars and we give them a free meal and tell them about the stuff we import and flog to them.
For us to stay alive, we have to make some form of profit. It's a tight ship, so lower costs raises that margin. Flagfall on 800,000 calls a month is expensive, even at a bulk rate from our provider. We buy a massive list of people, including a DNC list which we integrate into our system so we make sure we never call these people. To our management team, each DNC record represents a saving in flagfall trying to contact the person. They are saying that they are categorically not interested in buying from us.
If we lost our DNC list, we would be wasting thousands re-calling people who have already told us they are not interested.
Task Mangler
I signed up for electric and gas service here in Colorado and the person that took my information misunderstood me when I set up my account. I said "Jeff" (gasp, my first name revealed on /.) and she heard "Jess" and lo and behold, in my mailbox shortly thereafter arrived TONS of junk addressed to "Jess." Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I got any phonecalls for "Jess" but I did receive more than my fair share of junkmail, which is equally offensive to me.
The no call list has been pretty effective for my wife and I over the last few years and I can say that I have not been solicited by any companies that I did not have a previous association with.
It's better than it was...where is the national no SPAM list? Oh that's right, I have to opt-out...
Ocean is land, covered with water.
I don't give out any personal information over the phone.
Works every time.
Sometimes, if call display shows an anonymous number, I tell them flat out that I don't believe them and I suspect that it's a scam.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Have any of you ever had a telemarketer/surveyor call you on your cell phone? Because I don't think I ever have... Not that I wouldn't just hang up on them to save the minutes.. but still. Seems odd.
Air Horn $5. Smile that it brings to my face, priceless.
Dunno. I've played with Chase, CapOne, and a couple others. The "Payment Protector" racket is being *heavily* pushed. My guess is that it (a) generates free money for them and (b) makes it harder for you to declare bankruptcy, thereby (see a). Since this "service" is generally offerred by a third party, I'm guessing they plan to fold up shop if too many people start claiming protection.
We cancelled one credit card (airline visa) after it got infected by Payment Protector after they lied to me over the phone about how it worked. I explicitely asked if I would be charged for all purchases, and they said "only for carrying a balance" -- deceitfully implying that I would not be charged for all purchases. Oh well, counting the sign-up check, it was mostly a wash monetarily - though they lost a customer with prejudice.
Here's hoping someone passes a law requiring credit applications to be signed (a) in person in front of a company representative or (b) in the presence of a notary public. Identity theft would take a sharp downturn if it wasn't so easy to wield "your information".
Except some companies make it harder to trace their calls by spoofing their caller ID numbers. I've received calls with obviously bogus numbers on my caller ID, so I wouldn't be surprised if companies are also spoofing legitimate-looking numbers, more and more now since the do-not-call list went into effect.
Seems to me like it's a pretty major design flaw in the whole telephone system that needs to be fixed.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
The UK DNC list appears to be working well for me but I do get occasional calls that I suspect originate from outside the UK. I have two ways of dealing with them and I tend to choose based on whether or not I'm in a hurry :
Fight fire with Napalm.
I usually start by saying I absolutely never buy anything on a phone call I didn't initiate and follow that with a request to put me on their Do Not Call list. I like to add the 'never buy anything' part just to drive home the futility and hopelessness of working in phone sales. I used to tell the callers to find a "real job" but started feeling a little bad about direct attacks on their character.
If there is any scripted response aside from a quick ack that I will be added to the list then I advise I am hanging up now and I hang up if they try any other weasely replies. Usually they respond quickly to the magic Do Not Call words.
The ones that really annoy me are the recorded auto dialers. If I have the patience I get the phone number and call them just to complain to a person and to drive home that this ensures I will never do business with their company. The last one I called I also asked for the name of the president of the company and got it then asked if I could speak with him. They refused but gave me his email address so I sent him an email letting him know how much I despise that method of advertising and suggesting that it probably wasn't worth it for them to alienate 99% of the people they call so they can get one sale.
Telemarketer (T): Hello Mr Spoilsport may I call you Ralph?
RS: I own you...
T: Sorry?
RS: I own your soul...
T: You own what?
RS: I am Sataaan... I know you to the Soooooul... You are mine....
T: May I interest you in (product)?
RS: Come to Sataaaaan... Come to me.... You are mine... I own your soul...
T: (Agitated) Does this sound like something you might be interested in?
RS: Come to Sataaaan... I own your soul... You will rot in hell with me.... Come to me...
etc.
Once this black woman called and I did the Satan routine and she FREAKED OUT. She started crying and hung up. I scored 30 points for that.
Another favourite tack on these creatures:
RS: WHAT?
T: Hello? Is this Mr Spoilsport?
RS: FUCK YOU!
T: What?
RS: FUCK YOU AND YOUR WHORE OF A MOTHER WHO IS SUCKING MY COCK RIGHT NOW YOU SCUM SUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!
(click)
I get 20 points for that - It's a brute force approach. It's not that creative and it's kind of mean, so you only get 20 points for it.
Also: there's the classic:
RS: Bobo!
T: Hello? Is this Mr Spoilsport?
RS: Yabba! Tengo bleck nock! Curby flipwitters!
T: Do you speak English?
RS: Me me me speak English!
T: Would you be interested in (product pitch)?
RS: Ama watamela eatie foo!
T: What?
RS: yumma cunt swabber! Peenie drip bubby! Yumma buttlicker!
T: What?
RS: shibby shops! Peeface! Yabba Peeface!
etc. If yo ucan get them to hang up, you get 40 points, because talking like an idiot with a straight face long enough to get them to hang up is pretty hard.
Then there's always:
RS: Yes...
T: hi is this mr Spoilsport?
RS: What's it to you, motherfucker?
T: Sorry?
RS: I'm coming to your house, and I'm going to kill all your pets.
etc. whatever tey say, just march over it and make weid fucked up pseudo threats, like "I'll steal all your garbage" or "I'll pee in your garden" or "I'll get your dog knocked up" etc.
Telemarketers were put on this earth to be abused.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Political surveys and other legitimate research are explicitly exempted from all do-not-call laws. Why? Because what politician would vote to ban political surveys? They rely on these results for their lifeblood. I can't believe that I don't see any mention of this in earlier posts. If you don't like being called for surveys, complain to your elected officials. (But don't count on getting much attention.)
This being said, legitimate surveys are totally different from telemarketing. The results actually a) ARE NOT used to maintain a list of who you are and what you say and b) ARE used to guide the decisions of bozos who can't make decisions on their own. Political pollsters are actually, by and large, pretty straight shooters. That's because there's a whole science of opinion research, and if they break the rules their results aren't valid. Politicians are very tuned in to the need for valid results, because they make their campaign decisions based on what they learn through polls. Polling firms are very high in the food chain. For example, telemarketing firms NEVER do political polling, and vice versa. Telemarketers are bottom feeders; legitimate researchers are -- well, legitimate. (This how the politicos view the matter. It's basically an accurate view.)
Moreover, opinion polls are having a very hard time these days, because of the low cooperation rates they get when calling folks like us on the phone. We don't want to take their polls; or perhaps we only have cell phones, which are generally excluded from polling samples. So the pollsters are casting their nets wider and wider.
If you DO respond to a poll, you actually DO influence the outcome. Most polls target a small number of respondents -- e.g. 600, a common goal. 600 respondents, if selected via a proper random sample, provide a statistically significant result (which is basic science, even if it seems hard to believe). So...if you answer the poll, your responses probably represent 1/600th of the conclusion reached by the politician asking the questions. One-in-six hundred odds of affecting your politicos are a helluvalot better odds than buying a ticket for your state lottery. So think about participating. Don't leave it all to the folks who have no opinion.
JMO...but I've been in the biz for a long time.
-- We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of other people. La Rochefoucauld
Even after the do-not call list thing I was getting a few calls a month from charities and "Other." Haven't had a problem since I installed asterisk though. I've got a voice menu system in place and tell telemarketers to dial 1. If they do, I tell them not to call again and disconnect them. Since I added the voice menu system I haven't had one unwanted phone call get through. So far I haven't even had to resort to playing the phone system tones that tell the remote caller the number's disconnected. Asterisk is capable, but I haven't had to turn that on.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I don't know about the USA, but in Australia we have the problem that the list requires you to give your name and address as well as your phone number (what idiot made this decision, I do not know).
So, if you have an unlisted number for a good reason (ie: you are being stalked), you can't use the do not call register.
A similar thing happened with the junk e-mail system - all it did was create a giant list of valid e-mail addresses to be leaked.
Here, we also have a problem with automatic diallers not being banned. It is hard to get someone to see why this is a problem, even when you explain that the phone cannot be used (for example, to dial 000 (='911')) until the robot decides to hang up which can be some time depending on the length of the sales pitch (only the caller can terminate a call - if you hang up, they are still there when you pick up again).
I have found that the public DNC registry works well. The problem I used to run into was that companies I was already doing business with would call to market other products. I used to have a car loan with Bank of America. BOA would call me and try to get me to take out a credit card with them. It is my understanding that this practice is legal, although I considered it very irritating. I did however, ask that they add me to their DNC list, after which I stopped receiving calls. I noticed this pattern with a couple of other financial institutions. These days the first thing I do if I establish an account with a financial institution is call them and opt-out of all their marketing. I have always been able to find a dedicated phone number for this purpose included with the documentation for the credit card, loan, etc... Since I started doing this, I receive 1 or 2 unwanted marketing calls per year.
The Telecrapper sounds amazing. I want one.
Call centers are subject to regulations. "This is a survey" is something that those people must say to adhere to these regulations.
The same regulations state when they have to hang up. When the call is at an inconvenient time and you tell them so; or when they get an answering machine. So all you need to do after hearing "This is a survey" is counter "This is an answering machine. Please leave a message *beep*" and they'll have to hang up. Also, supposedly, if you tell them not to call again, they should respect that. Of course that last one is about as effective as unsubscribing from spam.
Another option I've thought of is to use a linux box in combination with caller ID to block these calls. Without fail, *all* tele-surveys have caller ID disabled. If you want to talk to me, either enable caller ID or leave a message. Which tele surveys won't do due to regulations.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
We can opt out of both junkmail and cold calls. I've had 2 cold calls in 5 years and get maybe one item of junkmail every 2 weeks. Works well.
The two calls I did get were both from the same mobile phone company who were big and ugly enough to know better but were using offshore people to do their dirty work and when I told them I was on the telephone preference register and they were about to incur a 5K fine they were completely confused as to what I was talking about.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
When I lived in NC it worked quite well and all telemarketers stopped calling within 2 weeks of signing up. Occasionally, I would get a call and politely tell them to put me on the list. I moved to NY two years ago, immediately signed my number up on the list, but my phone never stops ringing. Seriously, the calls start at 902am every day and go right up to 9pm, with the occasional call after 9pm. On an average day I get about 12 calls. I work from home so imagine how much time is wasted if I actually pick up the phone to deal with these people. My answering machine does all the work, with some amusing messages when people don't realize they've connected to a machine. I don't have the time to explain to people every day and waste my valuable time that they're violating the do not call list. Friends and family members know this so all they do is speak into the answering machine with things like, "Dammit I'm not selling you stuff so pick up the damned phone." Now that we're into election season I get 15-20 calls a day. Yeah, I know the little politicians are exempt but it doesn't make it any less annoying. I suppose I get more of those calls now because I'm registered independent so I get democrats and republicans trying to get my vote.
at the end of the call. In a past life, like afew others I have read here, I did the phone work (telesales/telemarketing/survery for political/abortion/ministeries........everything people hate of course). Both companies I worked for, followed the end call pharses to the T, any person who didnt was auto let go since the company did not wish to recieve that up to 11k fine. However, in the past year I have noticed many companies that call here (and yes we are on the DNC, and yes you do need to re-register every so few years as another posted), end up spoofing their #, being rude with a loud click end, etc. From this week:
:)
Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:42:33 -0400. Call 1, a woman @ 5:28pm Hello this is . from NSR We are on DNC list, please remove. *loud click from her end*
Call 2, a man @ 5:30pm Hello this is . from NSR We are on the DNC list, I just asked a co-worker of yours to remove me two minutes ago. *louder rude click on his end*
So if you reverse the # it brings you to: Cc NSR 3000 Riverchase Galleria Birmingham AL 35244-2315
But if you reverse the address it gives you: Motherhood Maternity, same addy, same #.
If you try and call the # back you get *Beep* That announcement is not defined. *Beep* Kinda weird, you know had either rep being abit nicer rather than demand I speak with them, and they were legit, sitting here being about ready to give birth anytime now, maybe I would have spoken with them. And I will never know the real people that called, unless they do call back and I actually sit thru the speel.
" worst case is they report you to the authorities and you get fined for violating the list. In both cases you gain nothing and only loose time spent calling the person and quite possibly a lot of money too."
As a person who worked as a Support Engineer as well as a programmer I can say that one call every 15-20 minutes can effectively destroy my ability to get any real work done (programmer.)
I worked for a small company and 'filled in' for the owner who was getting to many technical calls to get anything else done. Guess what - It wasn't long before I was not making progress on my serious work. It takes me a good 10 minutes after an interuption to get my head back around a problem - at least the problems I like to solve.
Small companys can be a pain - it wasn't long before the owner was inquiring as to why things were going so slowly. He stopped asking as often when I repeatedly asked him to remember what he told me in my interview - "I can't seem to get anything done while getting all these calls." He - as many managers - seem to live in some kind of fantisy world where they can ignore they're own personal experiences and reality in general.
I went back to working in a University medical lab where I could finish solving problems, but only after endoring that company for 6 plus years.
When I left I got the best complamnet - they hire 3 full time people to take my place, and a 4th a few months later. And all I really wanted was a decent raise and my new (ass-hole) manager off my back. After working most weekends for years to stay on top this manager always agreed with the owner that a person should be able to do technical programming, answer and fix technical problems for the 8 technical product spin offs and manage a company wide (30+ computers, servers, internet access, and FTP site) lan at the same time.
The new manager didn't last much longer. I worked as a consultant for them at $50+ and hour for almost a year after he left. I told him I outlasted the last 4 managers and I'ld outlast him, it turned out to be true. I Had a son and lived happily ever-after. The End.
Whay the fuck do they care if you declare bankruptcy? Last year, the Republifuck congress gave the CC companies the Holy Grail -- they made CC debt non-dischargeable in bankruptcy proceedings.
The mealy-mouthed fucking bastards argued that too many people were leaving them in the poorhouse by maxing out CC debt, then filing for bankruptcy and that very few filed for medical debt reasons -- only about 5%, according to them. In fact, most filers started with medical debt, but used a CC to pay it off because they were grateful to their doctors/hospitals. Therefore more than 50% was initially medical debt.
After getting fund raiser calls from various "State Troopers", "Widows of Firefighters", etc charities, I hunted around on google and found out that these are from companies who go around calling charities, and offering to donate somewhat large (on the scale of the organization, which can be small) constant sums of money in exchange for permission to use their name. The "charity" involved can be something as lame as the union for police officers of a particular county. In other words, they might not be in your area, or even be worth donating money to.
The companies then sell this permission to other companies who do the actual calling.
End result is that the charity gets some relatively small cash, and some company gets the ability to farm up mass sums of money in their name.
DO NOT GIVE TO THEM EVER!
... or give them fake donation information... I wonder if that would be legal or not...
Mark of the Coder fades from you. You perform Opening on World of Warcraft. Warcraft crits GPA for 4. GPA dies.
whoa! these wanks are around the corner from me... i'm gonna go swing by to see if they are still in the same location (and will report back here)...
there are a *LOT* of telemarketing shops in this area... pretty disgusting...
I worked (very, very briefly) at a telephone survey company. Do Not Call lists are completely ignored, as they specifically cover only telemarketing calls. At the company that I worked at, calls were dialed randomly. In most cases, a refusal would simply merit being placed on a list to receive a call back at some later date. The only way someone would not receive a call back would be to make a sufficiently negative impression on the surveyor that they would mark it as a "Hard Refusal". In training, we were told to do this only if they became noticably angry. Some surveyors (myself included) would typically mark someone shouting about a Do Not Call list as a hard refusal, but this certainly isn't universal. Further, it's possible that the same survey company will still call you back, simply about a different survey. Unfortunately, this means that there is absolutely no way to totally prevent unsolicited calls about surveys. If you want to take the effort, I would recommend politely telling the surveyor that you aren't interested at all and ask them to indicate that you don't want to receive a callback. It's still not a guarantee, but it's probably your best bet.
I think you should really invert your ratings..
it seems only in america (north) are we so accepeting of a 3 digit body count, but can't STAND to show a nipple to someone under 18..
how screwed up is that...
you are ok with a 13 year old seeing multiple people gunned down? but not a naked chick? (chick is presumed on my part)
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Just ask the phone company to be "unpublished". Then your phone number will not be public information. Why do people complain about unsolicited calls when they willingly publish their number on the phone book? Friends and family can still find your number by calling informantion and giving your name.
I am not in the "do not call list" and do not need to be, for years my phone number has been unpublished and I get no solicitations.
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
The Do Not Call list is so successful that it's time for a Do Not Survey list, a Do Not Beg Me For Money list, a Do Not Try To Sell Me More Services Because I'm A Customer list, a Do Not Auto-Dial And "Click" Hang Up When I Pick Up The Phone List, a Do Not Call If You Can't Pronounce My Name list, etc. I don't think there's any way to express to companies that some people simply don't want unsolicited, unnecessary calls and will never buy/give over the telephone.
2-3 times a week some police organization or another calls. I tell them to stop arresting so many people & they wouldn't need more money. Screw them.
I have successfully eliminated all telemarketing calls from my life and I can't imagine going back. Two steps:
1) Acquire cell phone
2) Cancel home phone
The wired phone system is not worth the money. Why should I burn my time battling calls I don't want just so I can get the calls I do when I could just as easily get those calls on a cell which doesn't have any marketers?
Remember, the phone company has to route your 911 call from any wired line regardless of whether you have service.
I simply make myself as financially toxic to all telemarketers as possible. I waste their time. I try and get the caller to quit their job, or at least break them to the point where they are less efficient. I've dreamed up assorted CTI/hardware nationally-networked tarpits for the sole purpose of making telemarketing unviable. Telemarketing, along with spamming and door-to-door religion, has a business model which involves exploiting and damaging the normal social interaction model for profit at the expense of the general public. I have no qualms whatsoever about exploiting them right back for maximum damage.
If you've had enough of telemarketers, there is a light at the end of the tunnel as can be seen and heard in this real-life situation:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/22995489/
Before this month's primary elections in FL my cell phone has
rang several times with JUNK political calls. Yet my Cell is on
a do not call list. Political junk calls should be have to pay
my air time for me to listen to their shit.
80% of the phone calls I use to get are now said and done. I found out though there is at least one agency that does not following federal laws. I had to find their website and be place on their do not call list. They were based in minsota I think.
If you get a call asking for a donation to a charity, beware!
I am a fairly generous person, and I made donations in response to several of these calls. The problem is that I started getting calls from many more charities than I donated to that began with "thank you for your donatin in the past." When I say many more, I mean at least an order of magnitude more.
Next, I happened to have two of the return envelopes in my hand at the same time and noticed that the addresses were extremely similar, so rather than send them in, I sat on them for a while and started to notice that all of these charities had only two or three addresses.
Next, I started researching this. I found a report from the NY attourney general about the scandalously small portions of the donations that make their way to the named charity. Typically, the charity gets 25%, give or take 15%. In some very rare cases, it is even worse.
This has lead me to a ritual whenever I get such a request.
Understand that you are dealing with salespeople here. There are honest salespeople, and there are dishonest salespeople. The dishonest ones do not believe that the truth has anything to do with achieving their objectives, so you may have to perform a sort of impromptu cross-examination here.
I generally try to be polite, but this doesn't always work.
First, interrupt the spiel. Ask the operator if he/she is a professional fundraiser. Most will reply "yes", some will try to dance around the subject. If they dance around it, define professional for them, and ask the question again. On one occasion, an operator told me that he was not, so I clarified it by asking, "Are you telling me that you are a volunteer, that you receive no payment except for the warmth in your heart of doing a good deed?" That got the answer I was expecting, that he did, indeed, draw a wage, to which I said, "then you are a professional fundraiser."
Now ask the operator what percentage goes to the charity. You will get a non-response response, something like "It's a 75/25 split." The only exception I have encountered to this has been on the handful of occasions when I have been told that I need to call a different number (which, BTW, doesn't get answered) if I want to know that.
In the case where they tell me the split, I press for an answer to which part of the split goes to the charity. This will inevitably get a spiel back about how it would be nice to be able to give 100%, but because of staffing, postage, telecom costs, blah blah blah, only 25% can go to the charity. This is where I tell them that that is too little, and that I have no intentions of paying them $7.50 (or whatever) to give $charity $2.50 on my behalf. Sometimes they will continue to try to convince me, but at this point, I stand firm.
The other case is easier. When I am told the other phone number that I must call to get an answer to this question that really should be in the hands of the operators already, my response is that if they can't answer a basic question like that, then I won't donate through them.
Last, but not least, let me suggest that you pick a charity or two, of your own accord, and donate to it.
www.wavefront-av.com
I think my laptop needs a thorough cleaning to get rid of the Mountain Dew I just spewed all over it.
:)
Funniest thing I've read today!
"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - Major Mike Shearer, UK
understood about the DNC list is that it does not effect Political calls or Charity Calls. If the call is from one of those 2 lists your fair game. I know at my work customers can ask to be put on our do not call list and the only time we can call is if they call us first. If there is something wrong with their account we have to send them a letter. I would imagine that if you ask them to remove you from whatever list they are getting your information from they would probably do it tho as Charities and Politicians don't want to tick people off who will never donate again.
I have learned from people in the know (a pbx vendor) that there is a push for outsourcing (read: off-shoring) solicitation-type call centers, since they do not have to comply with the US laws... Nice, of them :)
A few days ago I got a pre-recorded sales call to my cell phone. In a noisy environment all I got was something about mortgage loan refinancing. I hung up on 'em. The caller ID said: 949-519-1007. I later searched [googled] for the phone number and found this number 800-606-1470. When I called the number, the gorilla that answered said, "Assured Lenders". I told 'em they made a telemarketing call to a cell phone, the gorilla insulted me and hung up on me.
I don't have the ooomph to persue these a**holes to ground, so, I'll leave this as a caution.
I say yes I will take yor survey.
Then I set the phone down next to somthing noisy like an air horn
or my fav next to my speakers and walk away.
I have had only one person there after 10 minutes.
When I asked him why he was still there, he said he needed a break and liked the music.
I took his 3 minute survey.
-- I am the NRA, enough said...
http://whocalled.us/
Cool site
Maybe it's just me, but I say "Heck yes, it's working."
When the Do Not Call list was first opened up, I immediately added my home phone, cell phone, and 3 business numbers. Within a few months, the combined telemarketing calls dropped from 15-20 per day down to 1-2 per week (not including the "legal calls from political groups, etc.).
Now when a telemarketer calls, I simply say, "Are you aware that you have called a number on the Federal Do Not Call list?". Every single one of the telemarketers that I have asked that question has apologized, and (with one exception), I have not heard from the same company again.
The down-side of this is that the amount of junk faxes I receive has tripled in the same time frame.
We've been on the Do Not Call list for about 3 years (or however long DNC has been in effect) on our current phone line. The telemarketing calls dropped for awhile, but only those with a human on the other end. I immediately go into my own script when they call, asking for their company name, contact information and town/state where the company is located. In 90% of the cases, they do not tell me this information "because they do not have to." they say. Eventually they hang up when I ask to be removed from their call list.
But now we're getting 3-5 calls PER DAY from automated machines with pre-recorded messages that kick in ~4 seconds after I say "Hello?". I've listened to them all the way through, and they do not provide any company name, chance to talk to a human, nothing.
What they DO provide, is some long-distance toll number to call back, presumably to "learn more" or to "enter the sweepstakes" or some other drivel. Does my calling the number back imply that I agree with their unstated terms? Does it charge me $50.00/minute to listen to a 5 minute message that STILL has no human on the other end? I don't know.
What I do know is.. the Do Not Call list DOES NOT WORK.
It's being bypassed all the time now by these damn automated machines, tying up our phone at all hours. They call at 7:00am, they call at 9:00pm, they call at all hours, and its annoying. We have elderly parents and a young daughter. When the phone rings at 10:00pm, 11:00pm and so on, we immediately go into "Ut oh! Who is hurt?" mode, raising our stress level, and we usually can't get back to sleep easily.
DNC is a waste of time. Soon, I'll be ripping out the phone and using mobile phones only, though I still get 1-2 calls a month on my cell from "surveys". Blarg!
The do not call list works well for me. Before it was around I would mess with the poor salesmen.
.... would you like to refinance your loan?
.... I bet you dont know how ineffecent your current windows are? ..
Some of the more memorable conversations:
telemarketer: Hello
me: No
telemarketer: Why not you could save alot of money?
me: I'm into big time money laundering, I'm rolling in dough
telemarketer: (laughs) can I join your crew?
me: yeah, but you'll have to kill your family first.
telemarketer: oh,...
I got bored and hung up.
telemarketer: Hello
me: (in my best vamprie voice) Vindows?
telemarketer: we can sell you replacment windows...
me: Ve dont have any vindows!
telemarketer: everyone has windows, and we can sell you much better
me: Vhat Blood type are you?
telemarketer: (catching on, laughing now) thank you for your time (hang up)
I also used to drunk dial Madam Cleo and demand free readings from the poor lady who answers to get you cc number. They had nothing better to do, some of thoes conversations lasted a good half hour.
I recently called to confirm that the "service" was still being provided, as more calls have been coming in lately. I was assured that my number is listed. Hmmmmm ... There is obviously a way to circumvent the list. Worse, there are fewer humans at the other end of these unsolicited calls. Upon answering, one is asked by a recording to "Please wait for our next available {agent, or whatever}" - that's where I hang up. Does anyone actually wait!? I'll watch this thread for a possible "cure." -- Pappy
Yes, I'm on the do not call list, but I still get calls. And how can I deal with recordings? I answer the phone and it is not a human, it's a recorded spiel, and maybe if I listen to all of it there will be a human at the end whom I can inform not to call me again. Or maybe not. There is no clue how long I might have to listen before I can respond. It's very frustrating.
Even worse, the faxes. I am not set up to receive faxes most of the time, occasionally I connect a fax machine to send one. But somehow I'm on their lists. They call in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. If you try to ignore them they call twice more. There is no way to identify them without being set up to receive a fax, and then you are helping them confirm they have a valid number. The only thing I have thought of is to leave the phone off the hook when I pick it up and hear a fax machine. I leave it off hook until I get the phone company's off-hook warning sound. This might have two effects: it just might slow the caller down, depending upon how long it takes the sending machine to realize there is nothing there, and the phone might still be off hook when they try to resend.
For voice calls there ought to be a law requiring a caller to inform you who he or she represents at the start of a call and to have a human or a recorder ready to acknowledge your wish not to be called within a very short time after you pick up. For faxes there ought to be a way to program a modem or some other gadget to respond to an incoming fax in some way that disables the calling machine for a significant time. Does anybody know if this can be done?
The real short end of the stick is businesses -- they can still be called by any marketer, shill, and general garbage dealer.
So, if you've got a home-based business, you'll get called by credit cards, insurance, registrars, SEO-ers, office supplies, etc. etc.
Telling them you're on the DNC does no good, they say you're on a list of businesses, you get called.
Design for Use, not Construction!
Best phone purchase I ever made. Sends an "out-of-service" tone every time you pick up the phone or the answering machine does. Takes a month or so, and then most of them stop calling. After all, it's not like they all call you, they pay a few companies to call you. The few companies want to cut costs, so they drop your number -- it's out of service, anyhow, right?
Buy it at radioshack. It's cheap.
http://www.telezapper.com/
I have always had an unlisted, unpublished phone number, and never give my number to stores, websites, etc. Additionally, whenever it is required that I provide a real phone number (such as credit card companies), I always insist on written confirmation that the number will not be sold (a habit that is quite common in the credit card industry especially). I receive no more than 1-2 unsolicited phone calls per year, that (according to the clown on the other end of the line) was randomly generated by a computer (as opposed to having been on a list). I was very skeptical of providing my name and number to a government-controlled list in order to not be called, so chose to not sign up for that. I know a few others who have similar habits (unlisted, unpublished phone numbers and never give their number out) who did sign up for Do Not Call. Their results have been mixed - some have received a few non-profit solicitations (which hadn't been occurring before), others have not. The ones who are receiving new calls are convinced that Do Not Call is the source. I haven't researched who has access to the list, but if non-profits are exempt and they have access to the list, then this could be the case. For now, if you are receiving calls and wish not to, I recommend changing your phone number and requesting that it be both unlisted and unpublished, practice strict control of to whom you give it, and stay off of Do Not Call (it is both unnecessary and risky given the unknowns of which exempt organizations have access to the list).
Political calling is protected under the First Amendment and is, therfore, not subject to the Do Not Call Registry laws. This information is readily available from the FCC's website.
Wow, you guys are SOOOO funny. I worked as a telemarketer when I was SIXTEEN years old. Believe me, we did not care if you were funny. You were the 5,000th person that day that asked me what I was wearing. It was such a mind-numbing job that even the most vile profanities did not even cause me pause. I don't understand why people think it's such an offensive and gross invasion of their "privacy" when someone makes a sales call. If you don't want to talk to someone don't answer the damn phone. Besides, who doesn't have caller ID nowadays? If it's a blocked call or strange number, DON'T ANSWER! It's also not funny to ask for my phone number so you can bother me at home, nor is it funny to talk like Beavis and or Butthead and or Cartman, nor are you actually going to speak to my supervisor if you ask, you are in fact going to speak to my buddy sitting next to me who's going to tell you you're a self-important jackass who needs to shut the hell up. But moreso, don't start being a jackass to some poor fifteen or sixteen year old kid working the best paying job he could find in his crappy hometown to save up for his own car. Oh yeah, and I don't know if the place I was working at operated illegally or not (this was about six years ago), but when people asked us to be put on our do not call list, we had to get out a do not call list form (physical piece of paper) and ask to confirm their name and address. Most people would just scream at us "NO FUCK YOU NEVER CALL HERE AGAIN BLEEEARRRGHHH!" so they never got put on the list. If someone was especially rude we'd hit the "call back in five minutes" button and it would get shunted to someone else on the floor. That was always good for a few laughs.
The reason I ask is for the last 6 months a fax company has been cold-dialing people, many of whom like myself claim to be on the DNC list, often at ungodly hours of the morning. Full details:
c o-818-638-8049.html
http://enemiesblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/hot-lead-
tidokoro
what turns a man's karma neutral? lust for gold? power? or just a heart born full of neutrality?
Folks, just get an answering machine and never pick up the phone when it rings. If you want to catch friends and family then also get caller id and only pick up numbers you know. I usually turn the ringer off and the machine vol to low unless one of the family is out of the house or I'm expecting a call. This way I'm not disturbed by telemarketers. Once a day I play the machine to see if there is anything interesting on it. Other than some rug cleaning guy who keeps saying "I'm just going to call you this one time" there usually isn't. You don't need this silly do not call list.
I'm on the DNC but I've been getting robot calls.
They state "this call is for telemarketing purposes"
I live in Massachusetts which I think has always outlawed the robots, but...
Mostly I get calls in the early evening; which is really annoying.
rt
There is a sweet program called Asterisk. It is basically a PBX system for your home phone line. It is compatible with standard POTS lines as well as VoIP.
;)
You can set it up to allow only certain numbers, or to create a menu from which people must now select to talk to you.
You can also set it up with a listing of known 800 numbers that call you to give them a busy or no service tone.
Or you can disable the phone for a period of time each day where all calls go to voicemail.
It is free for the software, and you can run it on a lightweight linux box...but it is the hardware that gets you...however, it is a good investment...I should have mine running shortly.
I will use it to avoid talking to my inlaws...they will get a busy signal...
--E--
When I'm calling you for your opinion politically I'm attempting to do three things:
Get your opinion on issues to better shape our knowledge of likely voters.
Find out if you've responded to our platform and past performance in a positive way by asking you to rate the canidate relative to other canidates and other races.
Enhance your awareness that an election is coming, and you'll need to make a decision on who you support.
You can, at any time, refuse to speak to me, I'll ask you to have a good evening, and in our case we'll even not call you again if you let us know that you don't want to be called from our paticular office.
However, the ability for me to call you and ask you questions shouldn't be any different than the ability to walk up to your door and ask you questions. Both methods are regulated for commercial use, but if it were that I was restricted from coming to your door by a state/federal law to ask you questions as a political canidate or campaign worker it would be unthinkable. How do we discern the difference between your phone and the door?
Now, yes, people pay for cell phone minutes, but if you didn't want calls to your cell phone, don't give your number out to anyone involved with a commercial interest or anything that becomes public record. Don't have a home phone (even voip?) well, perhaps its time to rethink the cell-phone-as-the-only-phone policy. I keep a voip line just for this reason.
I've been getting flooded the last week or so by politicians calling me up with their messages, and I'm sure it's just going to get worse until November. In 2006 I actually turned my phone off until after the election. It wouldn't bother me too much if they had built themselves an exemption into the laws regarding telemarketing calls, and if there was a real person on the phone that I could speak to about the issues.
Never argue with a man carrying a water buffalo
I'm unlisted and on the Do Not Call list. I get phone calls from these jerks and they always start off by telling me that their credit consolidation service is a non-profit service now. Well, non-profit just means they pay someone a bunch of money and don't turn a profit near as I can tell. They are offering me services I don't want and what used to be normal SPAM calls. GRR! My level of phone calls really hasn't changed which just means it was never super bad before I guess. I've never once ever been listed and I like it that way. Can't look me up? Tough! :-P
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
I signed on the DNC list day one as well and have seen sales call taper off, however I do get a barrage of "surveys" and political spam from scumbags running for office. I'm a registered voter, however I never include my landline to any entity for any reason. Funny, but the political spammers must have accessed the Do Not Call lists to get harvest everyone's phone number so they can harrass the shit out of us with their bullshit campaign messages.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -Aristotle
...they were asking for social security number and credit card information. I forgot what they were trying to sell. I talked to someone and told them I wanted to go ahead and give them a photocopy of my social security card, and that I had to leave and couldn't do it on the phone. I also told them that I wanted to give them imprints of my credit cards to make the process easier on them. I told them I'd also give them a copy of my drivers license. At first they insisted that I just give them this information right now, but I finally got an address out of them. They were operating out of an apartment in Florida. One call to the local FBI Field Office with the information I obtained from them took care of the problem forever.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Political calls should be easy to deal with - if the caller says they don't have a Don't Call List, talk to their manager (they've got one, no matter what they say) about the fact that they need to have a Don't Call List, and that you're already on their "People who won't give you money" list and are rapidly heading for the "Will vote for your opponent because you don't have a fscking clue" list, and potentially the "Will start calling other people to get them to do the same" list.
Real charities usually get the hint quickly. Bogus charities are usually businesses, and often the calls come from telemarketer companies which have to follow the rules even if the "charity" itself doesn't.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
That's right, lie and tell them they've called your cell phone and they are costing you minutes, which would be illegal for them. "Why are you calling me on my cell phone?!? You can't do that! Get my cell phone number out of your database right now!"
Works better than the Do Not Call list.
I clicked on one of those "You've just won an iMac!" banners, which I'd heard were legitimate if you can jump through hoops for an hour, and foolishly gave away my name, address, mailto url and even phone number on the VERY FIRST flytrap screen that came up. I rationalized this by telling myself I knew what I was getting myself into. Heh heh. Hoo hoo. Haw haw haw, what a maroon! I bailed after 20 minutes of hoop jumping, leaving a few "Mark all options NO if you DON'T want someone to call" bullets untouched.
Within 48 hours I received about eight or nine calls, all from earnest young telemarketers who'd obviously been told "THESE numbers are HOT numbers from pre-screened folks who WANT your phone call!" I told each of them politely and firmly that our number is on the Do Not Call list -- and the calls stopped. I haven't had a sales call in weeks, now.
Only the self-appointed exceptions, political party callers and alleged non-profits, still call. I do get an occasional rogue caller who been trained in the old hard-sell school and knows enough to keep the mark talking and on the line, but those get a hangup, not a civil "No thanks."
I still remember listening to the news the day before DNC was passed by Congress. An "industry spokesman" hepped up on Libertarian vitamins and me-first definitions of the First Amendment harangued a meek-looking Congresswoman about how Congress was stupid and dead wrong and the Congresslady was being an obstructionist idiot against free enterprise and perfectly law-abiding business. Ah, democracy in action. Within 24 hours, she handed that clown his industry's head on a platter. I've never been prouder of politicians.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
I signed up for the payment protector once when I knew layoffs were going around. 6 months later, I was laid off.
I couldn't believe what a racket it was. First, they won't do anything until you give them 2 unemployment stubs. It takes 3 months for that to happen. Then, they "processed" my application for 6 weeks and agreed to make the minimum payment on my next bill. So, I spent 5 months with nothing and they paid one minimum payment. I got a job then and never got payment protection again.
Man, you really need that seminar!
the real trick is to make your comments related to what they're selling. It's difficult and you have to think on your feet.
The best I ever heard was a guy who received a call from a rug cleaning company.
T: Hello Sir, can we interest your in our Rug Cleaning Services? We have a speci
Guy: Oh wow! Um. Damn. Um...can you guys like get blood out of carpet?
T: Sure... We deep clea...
Guy: Great! When can you guys get here? Do I have to pay you right away?
T: No, we take paymen...
Guy: Great...hey, do you know if like someone tries to sneak in your house and you um...like kill them, that's self defense, right?
T: Well, I
Guy: When can you get here?
T: Well, I'm just scheduling appointments..
Guy: Appointments! No I need you guys now! Damn...I've got to run.
OR rather, it has consistently failed to work since we listed our home phone number as our business number. We get calls from companies we have absolutely no business relationship with, and I personally think that the DNC list shoudl be extended to those home businesses that have no business relations with any other business.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Or just do what I do. Take the polls that sound like you might be able to influence policy in a way that you'd like. Tell the others 'no.' Don't waste your time saying "don't call me again" because there's no mechanism for the polling house to do anything with that request. In fact, a cornerstone of proper research is that each respondent must be kept anonymous. Ranting won't and can't get passed on to the Senator who commissioned the survey.
And no matter how mean and rude you are to the caller, remember this is just a low-paid wage slave earning money to buy peanut butter for the kids.
-- We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of other people. La Rochefoucauld
When I first got employed, I still lived with my parents. HR requested my home phone number which I provided. When I did end up getting a place of my own, there was so much other stuff also going on that I didn't think about the fact HR had my old phone number.
So, MBNA worked out a deal where employees could get a card with my employer's logo on the card and my employer got a cut back. They end up calling my parents and at first they tried just explaining that I no longer live there and gave them my new phone number and MBNA would thank them. But MBNA kept calling my parents and never called my place. So, my parents then started asking to have their number put on a do not call list since I no longer take calls at that number. And the person from MBNA would acknowledge the request. But MBNA KEPT CALLING!!
Eventually, I am there for a family get together and guess who calls who had been asked over 10 times before not to call... oh... yeah... MBNA. So my parents let me know that they gave my phone number to them but they won't stop calling them and would I talk to them. So, I let them know I already have a Mastercard and Visa card and I don't think it is worth the trouble switching to MBNA just for a small kick back. The person continues talking over me to explain how great deal MBNA is. I end up saying that I understood MBNA had already been requested to not call the number and I was now demanding my parent's phone number be removed. The person acknowledged I requested they not call the future and then continued trying to sell me on the card. So, I hung up. MBNA called right back. The agent explained that via my employer that they automatically had a pre-existing relationship and MBNA had a right to call my parents as much as they wanted.
After explaining the situation to the head of HR. He later got back to me and said he was prepaired to terminate the deal with MBNA unless they promised to honor all do not call requests and remove both my parents and my phone number from any future calls. At that point the calls from MBNA stopped.
So while Southpaw018 (793465) may actually believe that MBNA is a "good" company. My bottom line is that MBNA was notified multiple times they where performing harassment of my family and continued to do so in the hopes of making a buck. In my book, that is a crappy thing for a company to do.
I've noticed an uptick in "plausible cover" calls to my residence despite being on the Do Not Call list.
Voicemail messages for "Tina" about a new job on cruise ship that is available and they're just letting her know about it on the number that "she left at our web site".
Because "Tina" has "requested further information" and "left her phone number" they have a get out of jail free card.
Right. Never mind that their web site operator is a fly-by-night outfit in a country with a weak legal system.
I'm afraid this annoying porosity of the law won't be adequately addressed for some time given all the other more pressing issues that haven't been resolved.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/dncal rt.htm
Our callers are all charities, opinion polls, or political; so in a sense, the DNC list has worked.
However, the existence of the list has worked in a wider sense, in that I now feel no guilt about ripping into people who still interrupt me with cold calls asking for money.
e.g.
"Hi, I'm calling on behalf of..."
"We're on the Do Not Call list."
"This isn't a sales call, so it's not covered by..."
"I don't care. The fact that I'm on the do not call list indicates that I don't want to receive unsolicited phone calls from you, yet you chose to ignore the list. That's damn rude and inconsiderate, and the fact that you are legally allowed to be rude and inconsiderate doesn't excuse it." [Hang up]
Or:
"Hello. I'm wondering if you would like to support..."
"I'm on the Do Not Call list, so you know I don't want to receive this call. I have a policy of not giving money to anyone who's rude enough to ignore my stated preferences and call me anyway." [Hang up]
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
With the company I work with, the DNC List does not apply to us because we are not selling anything, we are only seeking your opinion, or someone elses in the household. For the most part, we don't have any information on you unless its a company survey or you asked to be called back for subsequent surveys, or you are a panelist who signed up to be called. We call in Canada and the USA, and we try to have our latest calls at 9:00pm in the US, and 9:30-10:00pm in Canada, although we are not legally obligated to to stop calling by a certain time. Saying "Take me off your calling list" to us kind of dumb because we don't have a calling list, we just have randomly generated numbers for a certain area(we call fax machines, disconnected #'s, businesses). We maintain though our own do not call list as a courtesy, again we are not legally required to have one. When you tell us "take me off your calling list" or "put me on your do not call list" or something similar, you're number will be put on our Do Not Call list within 30 days, so you may be contacted again by us in the same month, although its unlikely.
If you ever get a call from "Audience Studies", be forewarned that it will be about consumer products or commercials. Anything with "IPSOS" in the title will most likely be a survey, and they are not all boring. So knowing this, when every call we make someone yells at you, its a bit of a downer, so at the very least politely decline or ask to be put on our do not call list. Or, if you have a bit of free time, do the survey, or ask them to call back on a certain date and time, and who to ask for if that would be better for you. As well, dont say "I'm not interested" half-way through the intro, be cause we might not want to talk with you, you may not be in our target demographic. If you do agree to a survey and you feel it is too long, try to bear through it, or ask for a call back date to finish it, but that option is not available for all studies.
There are probably other things I should put it, but I can't think of any right now.
After signing up for the DNC, I went from 4-5 telemarketing calls a week to maybe 1 a month. A win, right?
Unfortunately, no..
In place of those 4-5 calls a week, I'm now getting 5+ calls a day from charities, surveys, and political groups. And the political ones are the worst. I've had days where they call 30 times and leave messages on my answering machine every time. I'd gladly go back to not being on the list, but it's too late now. My number has already been gathered from the DNC for all these exempt groups, so I will still have to deal with their calls. (And no, asking to be taken off their list doesn't work, they keep calling.)
End of line..
I'm anxiously and happily awaiting the DNC registry in Canada (coming, I understand) but in the meantime, forget fines and registries and whatever else - if I see a number I don't know, or worse, a "private name/num" on my caller ID, it's a VERY simple case of my personal "Do Not Answer" registry. If it is somebody with a legitimate message to deliver to me, personally, they'll leave a voice mail, and I can respond, act, or call back. If not, I'll have to live with the fact that they were in *MY* neighbourhood cleaning windows, and I missed out on the mass-local-market deal. C'est la vie!!!
Not getting so much in the way of commercial calls, but I do get a fair number more calls for "donating to the fireman's fund", or the "policeman softball league", and such. I'm also getting more "political announcements" -- especially around election time -- multiple/day at that time. Then there is a small uptick in people wanting to do surveys.
One area where I've gotten alot more junk calls: calls that ring once or twice, then stop, or calls that drop the line as soon as I pickup. It's gotten so bad that more often than not, I'll let my answering machine pick it up first, then if it doesn't hang up, I'll pick up an extension.
I think I get more junk calls now than before -- just different parties. I presume that all the non-profits, poll centers, politico's, etc, can pick up the list and get a pre-validated list of valid phone numbers.
As someone else pointed out, the telemarketers have to get a copy of your number -- otherwise how would they know not to call it? All they need to do is compare new list to old list and pile on the phone numbers that dropped off the list (5 year time limit expired)....Ug.
Yes, it's working famously, at least for me. I can almost count the number of unsolicited calls of any sort (even the remaining allowable ones) I've received in the last year on the fingers of both hands; once upon a time I couldn't have tallied them that way even if I had been the Goddess Shiva. Like the OP, I was an early adopter of the DNC Registry, having registered my phone number well before the Registry even took effect. I credit that pre-live registration for the promptness of the decline in my case, but it's certainly working well in any case.
Much to the frustration and protest of Libertarians everywhere, it's a clear instance of government doing something extremely well that business couldn't accomplish at all.
Well, I do not know if it will help or not. I am an american, though I no longer live there. I remember getting slammed all the time, but I left the US before the "Do Not Call" list came about. Norway has had a similar list for about the same amount of time. This is the kicker of it. No instead of directly marketing, they obtain lists with addesses as well as telephone numbers. Then they call up, ask you a few questions, and when you hang up with them, they've collected enough data to postal spam you. I mean FULL MAILBOX. In fact, I understand from a friend that companies are in fact cross referencing their dialing list with the do not call list. If the name appears on the do not call list, then a "Survey" call is made. If the name is not on the list, then a sales call is made.
Here's the thing about the good business sense side of things.
The lists the marketers use to make the calls are purchased from other companies. I would often ask to speak with the sales manager to request information regarding who they purchased my name from so I may call them and request financial retribution. In many cases, they would provide it, and I would inform them that I'll be calling them as well if I find out they have sold my name to another firm.
Now, the value of these lists increase with their accuracy. Telemarketers should in fact be removing names from the list anyway if the call receiver is abusive or highly annoyed by receiving a call. By removing the name, it makes the list more accurate. It allows the next person to use the list to skip over the "why bother calling this one" members and allows them to move on to the "This sucker bought a robotic toaster for $89 in 4 easy payments from us" kind of people. Often these lists sell of $0.05-$0.10 per name. For a well filtered list, a company would easily pay five times as much. I mean a list consisting of people that have actually purchased something from a telemarketter in the past 12 months.
But, sadly, the telemarketing business is completely full of people that fell for the "Make up to $5000 a week!" advertisements themselves. When I was a teenager, I worked for a firm like this. We targetted businesses and I still felt dirty. The people I worked for had worked their way up from "Hi, can I talk to you about you photocopy paper needs?" to then "You need to make a minimum of 100 calls per day and you need to use the script!" management thing. It's an awful business, but on the brighter side, if they weren't making calls like this, they'd be selling Kirby instead.
I use my cell phone for my primary telephone. My home phone is unlisted and on the do not call list. Once in awhile I pick it up. I have got a number of recorded messages from mortgage brokers and politicians. The local paper calls once in awhile soliciting subscriptions. Seems there isn't much interest in my area for that.
Some have resorted to the to the tape recorded sur vey that the victim must lister to the end to get identifying information. The only defense is to hang-up the phone. After awhile you don't get these calls because your number will be gin to show up as sale resistant and unproductive. Murhahahaha. Those turkey still need an enema though. Make sure it's a republican one.
> Telemarketers were put on this earth to be abused.
I don't understand why so many of you feel you even have to respond to "mystery callers". Have you not yet found out that not everyone is honest and out for your good? Why get into pissing contests about who can be more creative in embarrassing telemarketers? It is cheap drama.
We seem to have been brainwashed somewhere that these folk deserve a response. You are not going to shame them into responsible behavior with all these games.
So, when you recognize the person on the other end of the line is not playing by normal phone ettiquette, tell them to add you to their do not call list -- if you want, ask them to hold on and then set the phone down and walk away -- if you like, or just hang up . . . But don't let them get a rise out of you. They're not worth it. Play games with someone else -- your friends, business partners/competitiors, the girl at the water cooler . . . Engage people who matter, not nameless telelmarketers.